Go Figure!

Bored of my own last few self-indulgent posts, I am today happy to recommend to you, via Maria Popova's Brain Pickings, literary action figures, including Edgar Allan Poe (whose birthday was last week):

Other figures include: Austen, Dickens, Wilde, and Shakespeare.

Popova also showcases a line of non-pose-able collectibles in three categories: artists (Dali, Picasso, van Gogh, and Warhol), scientists (Newton, Darwin, Einstein, and Tesla), and writers (Twain, Joyce, Shakespeare, and again the inimitable Poe). Check out this link to see them all.

The Periodic Table in Song

My new manuscript, which I began sending around last November, is called Mendeleev's Mandala. Mendeleev is the guy who discovered (or created, depending on your POV) the periodic table of elements.

So I have a thing for the periodic table (of course I do, what a list: every known thing!). Anyway, I just discovered this video from AsapScience (via Maria Popova's Explore website).

 

Enjoy!

 

 

(And here's the title poem from my manuscript (scroll down) at Thrush Poetry Journal.)

Happy Birthday, Agnes Martin!

This week was artist Agnes Martin's Birthday. She would have been 101 years old. Celebrate over at Maria Popova's Brain Pickings with quotes and an interview with Martin.

On a side note, I've been trying to get a copy of Martin's Writings, but it's priced at $75 used and $150 and up new....I found it on Scribd, but am not sure how I feel about the ethics of downloading form Scribd. If anybody has an opinion on that they want to share, please do....

What's Neat on the Net: Visual Edition

Combinations of poetry and the visual have been showing up on my screen all week. Here are a few of them:

1. The first is the release of this year's National Poetry Month poster. See below. Check out past year's posters here.

2. The second is a series of guest blog posts about mathematical poetry in Scientific American online. They are all written by mathematical poet Bob Grumman, and feature his work as well as that of many others. Pieces tend to include some kind(s) of mathematical element, as well as words and visual imagery. Here's an example below (and if Mr. Grumman or Scientific American is unhappy about my reproducing this here, please let me know and I'll take it down):

Grumman's own "Long Division of Poetry, Frame 7"

Here are the articles in the series, displaying a wide array of styles while still using the elements mentioned above:

M@h*(pOet)?ica (link to this misbehaves; go to last blog post on list, scroll down and link from there)
M@h*(pOet)ica: Summerthings
M@h*(pOet)ica: Louis Zukofsky's Interval
M@h*(pOet)ica: Scott Helmes (link to this misbehaves; go to last blog post on list, scroll down and link from there)
M@h*(pOet)ica--of Pi and the Circle, Part I
M@h*(pOet)ica - Happy Holidays! (Check out Gary Barwin's "Circle of Ifs") (link to this misbehaves; go to last blog post on list, scroll down and link from there)
M@h*(pOet)ica - Circles, Part 3 (This is the last post. You can link to all posts from this one. Scroll to end.)

3. Lastly, at Maria Popova's Explore blog, a video explanation of why yellow in the room without you isn't yellow on your computer screen.

Random Stuff

Here's an animated etymology of the word doubt, explaining its silent b, by TedEd and made available by Maria Popova's Explore website. Fascinating and charming--check it out.

Also, Galleycat has an extensive list of sites to market your ebooks for free. And I don't mean the list is free (though it is); I mean the promotion sites are free. Get on it, epublishers.

Two for Today

Two fun things from two of my favorite websites.

First, from  Maria Popova's Brain Pickings, the first print ads for some classic books, including this one for Joyce's Ulysses:

These print ads come from Dwight Garner's book Read Me: A Century of Classic American Book Advertisements. See more such ads at Brain Pickings,  including some from books by Didion, Hemingway, Plath, Delillo, and more. Enjoy!


Second, Flavorwire has literary quote tattoos.

And that's it for today.