davextreme

(Metafilter’s article on this link says a lot and is nicely researched, and I’d prefer not to summarize, so forgive me for just quoting the post here.)

As Dieter Zimmers online exhibit “Covering Lolita” shows, it started with a plain green jacket.

Cover art for Vladimir Nabokov’s controversial work Lolita then falls into two primary categories: non-representational or abstract, and titillating sexual imagery (here, and others), including now-familiar enduring film images.

This presentation of Nabokov’s work, and the implication of Lolita-as-temptress, incurred the ire of architect, photographer and blogger John Bertram. Bertram issued a challenge for a redesign of covers for Lolita. The entries are in, and a winner of the $350 first prize has been chosen. In reviewing the results and talking about the judging process, Bertram explained that he received but avoided the “lingerie, lollipops, roses, hearts, lipstick prints, butterflies, heart shaped sunglasses, and overtly sexual poses” that have become culturally linked with our conception of this book. Winner Lyuba Haleva, a freelance graphic designer from Bulgaria, has explained her inspiration.

According to a study by the Cleantech Group, you need to download 23 books for the Kindle before it breaks even in CO2 use.

Also, as pointed out in the comments, Kindle versions are $9.99 compared to maybe $15 for a new book, but you need to add $299 to the price of the device. At that rate, you have to buy a Kindle and 60 books ($900) before the Kindle’s prices win out.

(I’ve deleted and started this post over five times now. For some reason I can’t put words together about this topic I’m happy with.)

The Kindle 2 doesn’t appeal to much more than the Kindle did. Though I can see some uses for e-readers, and there are good arguments for their advantages, especially in saving printing and distributions costs for publishers, I really like reading novels.

What I’d like is not a book reader but a magazine reader. I actually feel guilty reading newspapers and magazines because I’ll often only read a few articles. I look at all that paper that was printed for my to read just a small percentage of the words. Sure, most of the articles are online, but the Web isn’t a great place to read newspapers or magazines. You get a column of text with maybe some embedded photos. None of the nice layout you get on the real deal. You often don’t get the sidebars or inset graphs, or if you do, they’re squeezed into what the Web can do.

I’d like to see a device with some size to it, maybe 7″×10″ or so with a color screen that can display a full page of magazine text. Give it pinch-to-zoom like the iPhone has for smaller text, and a sensor to let it flip to landscape for double-page spreads. Then you just need a subscription service (I think the Kindle already has this) where you can pull down each new edition of a publication when it comes out. Ditto for comic books. Lots of time is being spent trying to replicate comics on the Web, but reading tiny lettered text on a computer monitor feels unnatural. On a handheld device I think it’d work very nicely.

In other words, someone please invent this.

In last night’s Barack Obama Variety Half-Hour, Michelle Obama mentioned that her husband read all seven Harry Potter books with their daughter.

Has John McCain read Harry Potter?

Whom do you trust to protect America from dark wizards?

We need to know the full extent of the relationship between John McCain and Tom Riddle. Frankly I just don’t think he has the experience to lead us through any sort of dementor- or inferius-based terrorist attacks.

I’ve started to write a few posts over the past few weeks and have lost interest in all of them before coming to a version I wanted to publish. When Twitter lets me say it in 140 characters, why write a whole post?

So here are a few seeds that never grew to full posts, in no order whatsoever.

Politics: Sarah Pailin really worries me. I fear she’s like George Bush in not understanding the nuances and constitutional effects of various positions, like that it’s okay to go aggressively after criminals but still offer them trials. John McCain is making me like him less than I used to, especially with the dirty campaign he’s running. Lies I can understand, all politicians lie, but voter suppression is unconscionable.

Toys: my favorite Batman action figure is from the Hush series that came out a few years ago based on Jim Lee’s art. This week I bought the All Star Superman toy based on Frank Quitely’s art, and I love it. It’s not the definitive Superman, but I like having one of Quitely’s drawings come to life on my desk. (The definitive Superman is, I think, the 1984 Hasbro one that looks like Christopher Reeve. I have that, too, but the cape has faded to magenta.) I’d like a definitive Tim Drake Robin in his most recent red and black costume, but none of them come out just right, and depending on how RIP comes out he might not be Robin anymore.

Star Wars: I rewatched all six movies recently. I’ve been wrestling with a post about the prequel trilogy that I can’t seem to turn into prose that’s worth reading. Summary: I think Episodes II and III would be pretty much fine if a better actor had been cast as Anakin. I think Episode I looks like they filmed Lucas’s rough draft before he took out all the obviously unworkable brainstormed ideas like midichlorians. The overall framework of the film is fine, but you need to fix a few things like make Anakin older, make Jar-Jar a real character, and make the story fit into the trilogy instead of just being the one where Obi-Wan meets Anakin and nothing else important happens.

Comics: All Star Superman makes my heart pitter patter and fills me with hope for mankind, similar to the Juno afterglow. That and Casanova are the two best things to come out in the past year.

Books: I finished George R.R. Martin’s Song of Ice and Fire and am eagerly awaiting the next one. I finished ‘salem’s Lot and am reading The Stand. After that I have a ton of things I want to read and have to keep reminding myself to just enjoy the thing I have in my hand right now.

Movies: Pretty excited about Quantum of Solace.

TV: The shows I’m most pining for to return are Pushing Daisies and 30 Rock. Lots of others of course but those are the standouts. I’m not watching Heroes, Smallville, or Terminator anymore. Fringe hasn’t wowed me but I’m willing to give it a few more episodes.

Apple: I’d really like the AppleTV/iTunes to be a viable competitor to broadcast cable, but the money doesn’t add up. I’d like to see them allow rentals of TV on a full season basis for a sharp discount.