Category: arts and letters

In honor of the passing of Elmore Leonard last week, we watched “Jackie Brown” last night, the only Leonard-associated film we could readily identify for Netflix streaming. Pretty entertaining; would have to be one of the best blaxploitation films of that era, IMHO.  Probably one of Quentin Tarantino’s more subdued efforts.

Equally as entertaining was Elmore’s 2009 conversation with Charlie Rose, snippets of which aired on PBS last Friday night. The transcript of the complete interview — featuring Leonard’s interesting tips for good writing — may be found at the Elmore Leonard website.

One of the cooler concepts I’ve seen for a while is the project of Peter Dunn’s StoneBrownDesign to rethink the map of the Los Angeles freeway system.  The idea is to present it in terms that use a  model of depicting relative times and sequencing derived from that customarily seen in subway maps.  While this may not mean a great deal to those who are not familiar with Los Angeles, you can get a flavor of the approach (along with special maps of Boston and Washington, DC, among others)  from the StoneBrown website, and also visit the KickStarter project initiated around the concept.

See a time-lapse video of how artist Seikou Yamaoka did it, and more samples of his work here.

And even more.

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