The Children’s Book Illustrators Gallery has over 2000 images from first or limited edition children’s books.
They are amazing prints. Here are two, one from A Christmas Carol, the other from Alice in Wonderland:
Via cartoonist ; Tags: books, illustrations, art, limited editions, children’s books, fairy tales
elBulli is a restaurant owned and operated by world-renowned chef Ferran Adria. Over the years he has put together a series of amazing cooking guides that are, to date, some of the most expensive cooking reference books out there.
Most people read these books as Coffee Table books. To learn about cooking or appreciate its art. Amazing photography is included in each book.
Tags: elbulli, el bulli, cookbooks, expensive cookbooks, books, coffee table books, art, art books, photography, food
Fairly bang on, hey?
I do admit to actually checking my recommendations page and updating what I have in there so they can provide better results – it has often resulted in purchases, so whatever they are doing in their search & match algorithms is working.
I’m almost done reading The System of the World
But now, thanks to Neil Hobbs we can get a better idea of where all the action was taking place. On a recent trip to London he went to the Tower and took some pictures of the places that the book talks about. He has put them all in a Flickr set, with notes and descriptions that really help you get a better idea of what was going on in the book.
Thanks Neil!
Session: I’m Too Sexy for My Blog: Blog Design for Everyone
by Susannah Gardner
Overview: Blogs are, by nature, a personal expression, as well as a creative one. As well, they go a long way to meeting the initial promise of the Web: everyone can be a publisher. But while anyone can start up a blog in minutes, customizing its look and feel is still the realm of the technically savvy few. This session will take a close look what blog design really means – both for personal and business bloggers – and how it can be obtained. In this session, explore what your budget will buy you, no matter how small it may be.
Some subjects to be covered:
* What should blog design cost?
* How to tell if you’ve found a good blog designer
* Where to invest your dollars (Or, getting the most design for your dollar)
* What do you need to tell your designer to get what you want
* Blog design no-nos
* What can you do on your own
* What customization is possible within the most poplar blog software tools (without learning HTML, CSS and Photoshop)
* How hard is to switch from one blog “skin†to another
Your blog is you. And it should reflect you in content and visuals. Agreed – which is why this blog, in particular, reflects our love of Vancouver and photography, and expression (the original idea behind the post it). Problem is – blog design is not always easy, and even outright disgusting for some blog platforms. It’s all about the coding – even on Blogger.
I think, like Susie, that blog software makes it easy to post, but not design. I can personally envision a great interface for design that would make sense in the blogosphere (and the simplification of tools) – a CSS editing page that lets you change colors of text, URLS, backgrounds by showing you the colors in a palette, not code. A series of steps to determine the setting of your design – number of columns, whether or not to have a sidebar topper, placement of blocks and text. Plugins. Etc. If some of you are blogware users, it’s kind of like simplifying the component system, and adding on more design customization. Anyway, that’s my rant for what I want. Giving professional tools to everyday users in everyday understandable ways.
Update: Typepad Pro has many of these features. If I liked TypePad I’d know this – but still, that rocks.
Back to Susie. Blogs are about content, functionality and design. The balance of these depends on your preferences and your audience. To illustrate this, Susie is going to show us 10 blogs and ask us if the design works for us – to show that preferences will vary per person. Luckily, most people like Darren’s site ;) Whether it was a corporate or personal blog, the design that won everyone over was personal. Corporate sites that have a personal feel are well accepted – I think it’s a reflection of the relationship or community building we can expect in the writing when the design goes this way (at least, so far).
There are many areas of the blog just predetermined by the function of the blog. Others are open to design: from colors to quotes to backgrounds to ads to just about whatever else you can think of.
One key thing: don’t just assume design is over when you have a new template. It needs to come into your everyday writing – in how you write and whether you add bullets or pictures.
Where do you get your biggest bang for your buck in terms of design? Color! Not just pictures, but the coded color. You choose the colors then change them yourself, or get someone to do so at a very reasonable price (since it’s an easy change).
Graphics and logos go next. These are easy changes because a header is easy to get into a blog. Most templates have a predetermined header that you can just swap out. It doesn’t need to require completely writing a new template.
Tags: northern voice, northernvoice, nv2006, blog design, design, web design
“El Bulli : 1998-2002″ by Ferran Adrià of El Bulli Restaurant is the most expensive cookbook. Period. It’s $350 at Amazon (on sale now for $220).
Why is it so expensive? Well, some consider that the El Bulli Restaurant is the best – in the world. So, with that, why wouldn’t the cookbook be the most expensive in the world?
“El Bulli : 1998-2002″ (Ferran Adria, Juli Soler)
Ferran Adria is widely considered to be the most innovative, most influential, and indeed the greatest chef in the world today. Culinary giants like Thomas Keller venerate him. El Bulli, the restaurant where he creates his masterpieces, has become a pilgrimage site of sorts; food connoisseurs from around the world journey down a dizzying coastal road to Roses, Spain to experience his unconventional tasting menu — often consisting of 25 or more courses. But if you want a reservation, get in line.
In El Bulli 1998-2002, Adria and his collaborators have created a completely unique guide to cooking which raises the profession to an art form never captured before. This volume, filled with full color photographs, presents not only El Bulli’s unparalleled recipes, but also an analysis of their development, philosophy, and technique. Visually stunning, El Bulli 1998-2002 is presented as a boxed set that includes the main volume, along with a detailed Users Guide and an interactive CD that contains each recipe, numbered and catalogued by year. El Bulli 1998-2002 is truly as awe-inspiring as the meals served at its namesake.
Update: Another overly expensive cookbook is this Culinary Encyclopedia: Grand Livre De Cuisine
World-renowned French chef Alain Ducasse believes that food arouses all the senses. In this sumptuous book, he takes us on a culinary journey for both eye and palate. Here he shares the culinary experience, knowledge, and love of ingredients he has refined over the past 25 years.
Today, Ducasse feeds his passion for cooking through restaurants all over the world and a professional-level cooking school. He is now ready to bring his know-how and enthusiasm to American professional chefs and experienced home cooks, providing 700 recipes from French and Mediterranean cuisine that incorporate 100 basic ingredients and use 10 major cooking styles. Each dish is described in full, with recipes for accompaniments included; complete instructions for plating the entire dish are given as well. An appendix offers an encyclopedia of ingredients as well as basic recipes (sauces, stocks, and so on). Illustrated with more than 1,000 photographs and original drawings, Grand Livre de Cuisine will be an indispensable reference-and inspiration-for years to come. AUTHOR BIO: Alain Ducasse is regarded throughout the world as one of the most prominent French chefs. Along with three gourmet restaurants, Restaurant Plaza Athénée in Paris, Le Louis XV in Monaco, and Alain Ducasse at the Essex House in New York, he has also created more than 15 new concept restaurants worldwide and a professional-level cooking school.
Via bookofjoe
Technorati Tags: cookbook, el bulli, recipes, ferran adria, Alain Ducasse
So, we went to see Goblet of Fire on Sunday. Despite it being a Sunday night, and being downtown, the theatre was sold out. I got there early to buy the 7:45 show – sold out. I go to buy the 8:30 from the machine and miss it by seconds with the announcement that “Harry Potter 8:30 is sold out” – arg! The next was not until 10:30, but we’d already paid for parking. So, we stayed. Went to a Starbucks for a bit – we did think ahead and bring books.
I have to say I was happy with the result of the movie. I went into it expecting it to really piss me off, like the last one did. But some of the annoying things from the last movie were no longer there. The students were back in their robes (so happy I wasn’t the only one annoyed to have them in “muggle” clothes all last movie). There was no weird obsessiveness with an artistic portrayal of a tree. Really, if I had to say anything, it was rather rushed. Despite all the cuts.
Now, I think there were unfortunate choices in what was cut and what stayed. In some cases choices that, to me, seem odd. But, likely, to JK, who is the only one knowing the ending, they are not vital things. Maybe vital to the books at the time, but not something that continues in importance. For example, the whole thing about Harry’s visions and which perspective he’s in while seeing them… something we see again in the next book, but that was not explored here. No Dobby. Most of the serious emotional battles, and battles of evil in subtle ways, were overshadowed by the need to explain the complexity of the Triwizard tournament, and in going through the tasks.
So, I think I’m satisfied. I am sad some things were not acted out. And I think it misses many of the meaningful things, not just to the story but to the growth and morals and all that, which is very Hollywood. The actors are older – which is what they get for their parents demanding the movies slow down from 1 per year to 1 per 1.5 years (which makes Daniel 1 year older than Harry now, etc). It shows, but it’s better than most!
So, my review. Good. A significant upturn from the last. And satisfying in its own little ways. Nothing like the magical dreamworld of the first two, which is unfortunate but somewhat valid, but good.
One thing I definitely didn’t like: Dumbledore was totally off character. Even more than the last movie.
Has anyone else seen it? What do you think?
Technorati Tags: harry+potter, goblet+of+fire, jk+rowling, movies
