City of Imagination: Kowloon Walled City 20 Years Later
Just finished re-watching this short documentary from The Wall Street Journal on Kowloon Walled City. The documentary is directed by Diana Jou and is one of the best english-language video pieces on Kowloon Walled City that I've ever seen. They even interview the photographer behind City of Darkness (one of my all-time favorite books).
When the video was first published, it came along with an interactive WSJ minisite on the Kowloon Walled City.
But seriously, what a crazy place. If this were around today, I'd definitely venture in just to have a look. It's a rabbit hole of danger and surprise that is now replaced by a public park. If you want to know more, City Of Darkness is really your best resource for photos and stories from the people who lived there.
The Lams of Ludlow Street is now just $32
Thomas Holton's book, The Lams of Ludlow Street, has gotten some really good press lately. The book is currently on sale on Amazon for less than $33! That's a good amount below the suggest retail price of $50 for the book!
So lock in your pre-order price now and save!
Wim Wenders: Places, Strange and Quiet
I can probably recommend photo books for you all day. I look at a lot of them and every once in a while one stands out so much that I have to stop and make a little post about it. This is Wim Wenders' "Places, Strange and Quiet", a book of photos so familiar to me that I often felt like I had been in these places before. These images are everything I love about the way photography can freeze a time and place to preserve it when memory often fails (at least for me).
If you like ordinary, weird places, this book is going to be a keeper. Check out some images below and purchase the book using the link below.
Things Organized Neatly by Austin Radcliffe
Surely you haven't been living under a rock which means that at some point in your online excursions, you've probably come across Austin Radcliffe's Tumblr Things Organized Neatly. The site speaks deeply to all of us -- those with OCD (real or not) and those of us who wish we could be so utterly color-coordinated and perfect.
Well, as it happens, Radcliffe's immensely popular Tumblr has been turned into a book published by Universe/Rizzoli. If you want a fun and colorful coffee table book to show off (or slober over), this might be a good place to start. The book is just under $20 which leaves a lot of money leftover to actually buy stuff to organize. Get going!
Here are a couple of more books worth considering.
Artist makes book of illustrations of fictional locations in pop culture
It's the first time I'm hearing about artist Tim Doyle's work. He's released several prints and posters of the years of his own illustrations of popular locations in fictional TV shows and movies. These are places many of us know by heart and sight but that don't necessarily exist in the way we remember them (often with name changes or fake facades, etc.).
Tim is compiling the last 3 years of his work in this series into a wonderful book called UnReal Estate which you can now support on Kickstarter. The book is $35.
Bob's Burgers is getting its own burger recipe cookbook
Bob's Burgers is gettings its own official cookbook! The recipes are based on Cole Bowden's very popular Tumblr, The Bob's Burgers Experiment (where he creates the Burger Of The Day chalkboard gag in the TV show), and is produced in conjunction with the show's creator, Loren Bouchard. The book is published by Rizzoli and will be available later this month. If you love weird burgers from a great show, this is the perfect thing to get!
And just for fun, here's a Bob's Burgers Choking First Aid poster.