archives / tags

praise of mediocrity

Date Tags quote

We call them hobbies, avocations, callings, passions. These are the noninstrumental activities that help to define us. They reward us with character because they involve an encounter with meaningful resistance — with nature’s laws, with the limits of our own bodies — as in carving wood, melding raw ingredients, fixing a …

more ...

two sides of photography

Who reads poetry anyway? Only other poets.

(Blake Andrews, during an interview with Bryan Formhals)

It is a strange place to be, this one where I am now. My passion and love for photographs (taking them, editing and discussing and commenting) is something in between two sides that I see …

more ...

Months ago I asked the OTP community about their online reading habits. I mentioned my favourite blogs and briefly discussed my main concern which is: is online reading just a filler, sort of reading your twitter feed when you’re bored1?

Anyway, my idea is that yes, books give …

more ...

branzino

In other words: good reasons to avoid using “Ph.D” and other titles appended to your email.

From an article on the New York Times about the latest Spider-Man movie (the one filmed by Marc Webb):

Gwen Stacy asks Peter Parker if he likes branzino: you know, “Like, the fish …

more ...

Si tratta probabilmente dell’unica mostra a cui vado volentieri. È a Milano fino al 18 dicembre, ed è scontato consigliarlo a tutti gli appassionati di fotografia.

Rispetto all’edizione del 2009 che vidi a Londra, le foto qui sono stampate e non visualizzate su pannelli LCD retroilluminati; all’epoca …

more ...

notes on parenting

Lately I’ve been reading quite a lof of articles about parenting. Most of them are book reviews but I did not read any of these books though1, which could mean: (A) I’m a bit shallow, (B) stressed out New Yorkers, overproductive Chinese immigrants, rich Californians are not …

more ...

reversed lens hood

Emphasis is mine:

Shoot from the hip and sort it out later in Photoshop; this is a slippery slope plunging inevitably towards the depths of despair and devastating loss of self-esteem that comes with shooting on program mode with a high ISO, no tripod and a reversed lens hood. The …

more ...

obree quotes

A comment on Italians’ ability to manage confusion:

the Italians broke the laws of physics and created instant order out of utter disorder and chaos. We were waved and whistled by the police, straight through to the start area.

About cyclists (especially roadies) shaving their legs:

In fact, it was …

more ...

flowchart of bike happiness

This is so good it’s a shame it lies forgotten in an old issue of DirtRag.

Source: DirtRag issue 145, october 2009.

more ...

how a bicycle is made

A 1945 video on Raleigh bicycles, worth watching for historical reasons but also for something that the speaker says towards the end of the movie (around the 16‘45” mark):

[…] There are bicycles for all purposes, suitable for men, women boys and girls. A bycicle is a comfortable and cheap …

more ...