moleskinerie

Happy Halloween!

What horrible Edward Gorey Death will you die? Learn your fate @ Quizilla [Thanks Lori. Originally posted 2.23.04] ... Have a fun Halloween y'all. Enjoy the weekend. Carve your own virtual pumpkin @ Newgrounds Greetings to Ben Turley on his birthday, October 30th

Sketchbook #1

A series of drawings by Kevin Cornell [via inaminuteago]

The art of drawing spirits into crystals

The

Magic and Philosophy of

TRITHEMIUS OF SPANHEIM;

containing his book of

SECRET THINGS,

and

DOCTRINE OF SPIRITS

with many curious and rare secrets (hitherto not generally known;)

Johannes Trithemius: The art of drawing spirits into crystals [via Plep]

Blood Money

Claim: Blood from KISS band members was mixed with the red ink used to print the first KISS comic book. Find out the truth @ Urban Legends

Does a Moleskine notebook tell the truth?

"When Francesco Piccolo jots down a thought or a cleverly turned phrase into his black Moleskine notebook, the Italian novelist feels steeped in a literary tradition built by such celebrated scribes as Ernest Hemingway and Bruce Chatwin.
.
"There is a sense of pleasure knowing they used the notebook," Piccolo said. "It's like a thread that ties you to those writers."

But some critics wonder if the fashionable and financially successful notebooks are trafficking more in legend than legacy.

While both artists and the artsy have sought notebooks with covers made from moleskin for more than a century, the brand Moleskine was officially registered only in 1996, long after the ink stopped flowing from the pens of its unsuspecting pitchmen.

Yet Modo & Modo, the Milan-based company that has reissued the unassuming black agendas, diaries and journals, has no qualms claiming that it is "The Legendary Notebook of Hemingway, Picasso and Chatwin."

"It's an exaggeration," conceded Francesco Franceschi, who runs Modo & Modo's marketing department. "It's marketing, not science. It's not the absolute truth."

Though more figurative than literal, that marketing campaign, which Piccolo dubbed "the commercialization of the Moleskine myth," has nevertheless proved effective. Modo & Modo produced nearly three million Moleskine notebooks last year, up from 30,000 made in the first edition in 1998.

Despite increasingly saturated markets in the United States, Germany, Italy and Great Britain, sales are still climbing. Moleskine generated about €30 million, or $37 million, in revenue in 2003, of which Modo & Modo grossed about €7 million.

Still, some critics wonder if that success has in part been fueled by a fib, and they ask if it is fair to imply that famous writers and artists scribbled and sketched in Moleskine pages long before the brand was ever registered.

"It's subtle - after all, it is an advertisement," said Erminia Cozza, a legal consultant to the Italian consumer advocacy group Codacons. "But if they are trying to lead the consumer astray, that seems like false advertising."

By Jason Horowitz
Read the full article @ International Herald Tribune

[Thanks Joy]

What is in your Moleskine Today?

Slogrl Moleskinerie Group @ FLICKR

Lunar Eclipse Tonight!

"The best astronomical events usually seem to happen at the worst times and places — at 3 a.m. low above your most obstructed horizon, or maybe only in East Antarctica. But not this time, not for observers anywhere in the Americas. On October 27, 2004, the full Moon will undergo a deep total eclipse lasting for 1 hour 22 minutes, when it will be high in the eastern sky after dark but while most people are still awake and about."

October's Ideal Lunar Eclipse
By Alan M. MacRobert
SKY & TELESCOPE

Image: Swedish astrophotographer Bengt Ask, 1.09.01

Moleskinerie @ FLICKR

I opened an account there a few months back and forgot all about it. I was pleasantly shocked to find out that there are now 11 members! Welcome the Moleskinerie Group @ FLICKR !!

Phobias

Cool screensaver @ FABRICA

Travels to Irian

"Irian is the Easternmost province of Indonesia, and is half of the island of New Guinea.

After a long flight via Jakarta to Yajapura, we found a hotel near Sentani where we had to wait for our travel permits (travel to the inland of Irian is strictly regulated, with many locations closed for foreigners). During the wait we took a small trip to Angkasa. There it should be easy to find n. neoguinensis, they stand even close to the road we have been told. We find nothing at the said location, but locals point to a small hill, and confirm that we will find plants there. One of them comes along to show the way, and it helps as the pad quickly becomes a small trail. Immediately we find n. ampullaria, but without pitchers. They stay with us all along the path. However, it takes steep climbing before we find the first n. neoguinensis at an altitude of 430 meter. Then they disappear again, and we find a second group at 475 m. Turning back to go down via another path we find a cluster with large pitchers. The soil here at the hill is red and must contain a lot of iron.

We finally get our permits for the highlands, and fly to Wamena. Wamena is true Papua country, and we see the people walking around in traditional dress. Despite their pride, the Papua are a poor people in the highlands, condemned to beg for a living, having their picture taken by tourists for 10 cents (this was before the economical crisis). The shops and businesses in Wamena are in the hands of immigrated Javanese or Balinese, and the old owners of the land can only watch. I will say no more, but the Papua (which is one of the gentlest people I have ever met) deserves better, and people interested in more than carnivorous plants should do some reading."

The Carnivorous Plants and Travels of Jean Dewitte

Images: © JdW