moleskinerie

Drawing John Malkovich

Uncle Kimono
John Malkovich

Moleskine sketchbooks and watercolors

"It is no secret that Moleskine sketchbooks are not very friendly to watercolor. First it beads up, then if you rub it a bit it settles down, but it's still very unpredictable and hard to control. Since this paper was apparently intended for dry media such as pencil, I decided to try watercolor pencils. First I had to borrow back my watercolor pencils from my 7 year old daughter Izumi (I gave them to her when I thought I'd never use them again)."

Russell Stutler
Visit his site.

Previous related discussion

Thank you Mr. Bickers

Thanks to James Bickers for the notebooks!

Visit his site.

Cheap Girl Draws

"OK all, here are my current findings. While the Moleskine is cool, expensive and oh, so spylike - which is good for the quick idea, the sad truth is I'm addicted to my Uniball Microfine Inkpen..."

Cheap Girl Draws

You gotta love her style!

We All Have a Life. Must We All Write About It?

In 1884, Ulysses S. Grant, desperate for money and terminally ill with cancer, did what countless statesmen and military leaders had done before him: he sat down to write his memoirs. Racing against the clock, he turned out two substantial volumes on his early life and his military experiences in the Mexican and Civil Wars.

By any measure, he had a lot to write about and a lot to tell. He produced a classic memoir, as the genre was then understood: important events related by a great man who shaped them.

But that was then.

Today, Grant's memoirs fall into the same sprawling category as "Callgirl: Confessions of an Ivy League Lady of Pleasure," "Bat Boy: My True Life Adventures Coming of Age With the New York Yankees" and "Rolling Away: My Agony With Ecstasy," to pluck just three titles from the memoir mountain looming in the next month or two."

"We All Have a Life. Must We All Write About It?"
William Grimes
The New York Times [Reg. required]

Image: Joan Chiverton/NYT

New Arrivals

Cool notebook pouches and totes
@ International Arrivals

[via 43/Folders/Google Groups]
...

And for those volumes of accumulated Moleskine:

The SwissAir-boy Storage

[via Treehugger]
.............................................................................................................................................

""Yes, I'm a pen freak. I'm that guy at the pen section, mumbling about pen tip sizes, gel inks and barrel design. It's been an addiction of mine since grade school days, when Parker Jotter retractable ball pens were all the rage.

In high school, I became a fan of Flair pens for drawing and writing. I used to eat through those pens, drawing, writing reports and for everyday use. I read somewhere that Quentin Tarantino uses Flairs to write his scripts.."                                           

Today on Journalisimo

The Fountain Pen Forum

Vintage Fountain Pen Ad

"I have recently launched a Fountain Pen site that has in depth articles and reviews on fountain pens and things related to fountain pens such as ink and stationary.  I am working on a couple of articles about journals and think folks who view your site might be somewhat interested in my site."

Ed Svoboda
www.fountainpenforum.com

Write Place

You. Moleskine. Here.

Imagine.
The Provence Gallery

[via Plep]

moleskine-blogged

"the new team blog for former starbucks employees will be up by the end of the week.  it will be amazing.

D.C. trip cancelled.  we had faux meat instead.  i moleskine-blogged the night.

Lauren wanted us to play a game on the road, and she started telling me about it, and stopped. the only words she mentioned were 'Michael' and 'regret.' this is what i had to say. "so all i know so far is 'Michael' & 'regret.' that'll be interesting."

Michael
all is fair in love, and we're in love
...
Remember: moleskine-blogged

[via LS]
...
Update 4.5.05

"While preparing this entry, which by the way was originally written longhand in a Moleskine, I found two earlier references to the term "moleskine-blogging" online. The first entry is found at Hacks, Blogs, Rock 'n' Roll in the entry Moleskine-Blogging (non-english) dated January 14, 2005. The term was also found in ...pickhits... post Blogging with Moleskine dated January 25, 2005".

Professional Lurker

Amicus Consuasor

"I have a pathalogical fear of being sued. As a consultant I kept hearing stories of how a client would end up hating what the consulting firm had done and decide to sue them for damages. Ever since I heard these stories, I decided to keep detailed written records of every client meeting I ever had and keep them carefully in the event I got dragged to some courthouse some where.

The problem with keeping notes is that you need a book that's sturdy enough to last for say, five to ten years. The floppy little Mead notebooks won't really cut it. Lab books are better, but the hardboard is hardly hard and the ink just seeps through the pages if you use a felt tip or rollerball pen.

On a trip to Belgium I found some really nice notebook by a company called Claire Fontaine. I bought about a dozen of those and went through them in about a year.

Then I read about the Moleskine books..."

Zinodog Beacons

[Image: foutugraphe @ Moleskinerie/FLICKR]

[via LS]

Tonight on PBS

WAVE that shook the world.
Experts reconstruct the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami
in an effort to prepare for the next big one.

NOVA
Airs on PBS Tuesday, March 29.
LINK

Tiempos de Reflexión

"Si no fuera por los apuntes que vamos haciendo en una servilleta, un cuaderno o una libreta, las ideas se irían sin volver jamás. Porque, como escribía Pascal, hay pensamientos que se van y retornan, pero también los hay que vienen y se van para nunca más volver. Por eso es prudente fijarlos en una libreta, tanto como el orden de las palabras en que se manifestaron.

A un escritor siciliano (Leonardo Sciascia) le gustaba comentar, de paseo por Roma, que siempre que pasaba frente a una papelería sentía lo mismo que un alcohólico frente a una cantina. No podía resistirse a entrar. Se metía sin pensarlo a comprar lápices, borradores, plumillas, tarjetitas de colores, tachuelas, y libretitas que realmente no necesitaba pero que le encantaban como objetos tangibles y también por su olor, y hasta un mono de madera para modelar.

Yo, en lo personal, cada vez que voy a Tijuana me compro diez o veinte de esas pequeñas libretas de bolsillo que desde los años 50 fabrica Industrial Papelera de Baja California, S.A. Son una reproducción en miniatura del famoso cuaderno negro con manchitas blancas tratado con un barniz especial que lo protege contra la humedad y el uso y que eran los mejores de la República porque, gracias a la zona libre, su estupendo papel se podía importar de Estados Unidos y no se usaba en el resto de México.

Las libretas son una salvaguarda de la memoria. Gabriel Ferrater, el poeta catalán, contaba que para las matemáticas se requiere de una extraordinaria memoria juvenil, muy temprana, muy precoz, y que cuando Carlos Federico Gauss (1777-1855), llamado el princeps mathematicorum, murió a los 75 años, se le encontró una libreta de cuando tenía 17 años y prácticamente todas sus ideas matemáticas (que desarrollaría en su vida adulta) ya estaban allí apuntadas.

Entre los escritores suele darse una suerte de fetichismo respecto a las libretas. La conocida con el nombre de Moleskine (piel de topo) era la favorita de los artistas e intelectuales europeos de los últimos dos siglos: de Van Gogh a Henri Matisse, de las vanguardias históricas a Ernest Hemingway. Muchos de los sketches, apuntes, dibujos, ideas y emociones, que se preservaron en las libretas de esta marca se convirtieron después en imágenes famosas o en páginas enteras de libros leidísimos..."

"Piel de topo"
Federico Campbell
Tiempos de Reflexión

[via Iván Thays]

Image: ellikelli @ Moleskinerie/FLICKR

2005/03/28 16:09 M 8.2 NORTHERN SUMATRA, INDONESIA Z= 30km 2.09N 97.02E

A magnitude 8.2 earthquake IN NORTHERN SUMATRA, INDONESIA has occurred at:
2.09N  97.02E  Depth  30km  Mon Mar 28 16:09:37 2005 UTC

USGS

Lost and Found

"The very nice people at Forbes Mill Steakhouse sent my book back to me after I thoughtlessly left it behind."

BJohnson @ Moleskinerie/FLICKR

Brownie points to Forbes Mill, Los Gatos!

DIAGRAM

SOME INSECT WINGS
H. E. Jacques, How to Know the Insects, 2nd ed., Wm. C. Brown, 1947
In several orders of insects wing structures play an important part in identification. Typical wings of four of these orders are here pictured. The usual abbreviations have been employed in designating the veins as follows:—C, Costa; Sc, Subcosta; R, Radius; M, Medius; Cu, Cubitus; A, Anal.

DIAGRAM
(One of the coolest sites, evar!)

Image link

[via Professional Lurker, definitely worth a separate visit!]

I have a fetish

"Here's a little-known fact about me: I have a fetish for office supplies. When I am near a Staples or an Office Depot, I feel a palpable urge to go in and paw notebooks, calendars, pens, and the like. I particularly enjoy going to the pen department and reviewing the latest selection of Uniballs, gel-ink pens, disposable fountain pens, mechanical pencils, blister packs of pens in assorted colors (I love green pens!), pocket-size pens, pressurized space pens, Sharpies, and other devices for delivering pigment to paper.

Notebooks, too, have always been fascinating to me. For a while, I started carrying a spiral notebook in my shoulder bag that was supposed to be my "do-everything" notebook. I took pleasure in yanking it out and writing down phone numbers, sketches, and drunken epiphanies. The idea that the notebook could serve as a running record of my life, haphazard but all-inclusive, was really attractive to me. I like the idea of its corners getting battered by time and usage. But it was too big to carry around except in my bag, so it was necessarily incomplete. Drunken epiphanies that occurred to me at times when I was bagless went unrecorded. The notebook fell into disuse, and my mind again became a junkyard into which ideas stumbled, spent a few days lollygagging around, and then departed unnoticed."

Spiral Stairs
Banality Fair

Easter Greetings!

Image: Ed Flores

Image: Heather @ Moleskinerie/FLICKR

Image: R.bean @ Moleskinerie/FLICKR

Moleskine Easter basket by Ray L.Dicasali
View a larger image @ The Moleskinerie Gallery

Sebastião Salgado

"The destiny of men and women is to create a new world, to reveal a new life, to remember that there exists a frontier for everything except dreams... In history there are no solitary dreams; one dreamer breaths life into the next." 

Sebastião Salgado

Image: A body being prepared for burial according to traditional Coptic rites in the Korem camp. Ethiopia, 1984. Sebastião Salgado

LINK

[Parenthesis]

"Good Friday is a very important holiday in Catholic Ecuador. In Quito takes place the Jesus del Gran Poder procession in the old colonial center, starting from the San Francisco Church. A statue of Jesus is carried through the streets, accommpanied by hooded men and others doing penitence on this day."

Equador-Images.net

© Erich Lehenbauer
Originally posted 4.09.04

"The Form of the Book"

"Two constants reign over the proportions of a well made book: the hand and the eye. A healthy eye is always about two spans away from the book page, and all people hold a book in the same manner.

    The format of a book is determined by its purpose. It relates to the average size and the hands of an adult. Children's books should not be produced in folio size because for a child this format is not handy. A high degree or at least a sufficient degree of handiness has to be expected: a book the size of a table is an absurdity, books the size of postage stamps are trivialities. Likewise, books that are very heavy are not welcome; older people may not be able to move them around without help. Giants should have books and newspapers that are larger; many of our books would be too large for dwarfs. 

    There are two major categories of books: those we place on a table for serious study, and those we read while leaning back in a chair, in an easy chair, or while travelling by train. The books we study should rest at a slant in front of us. Few, however, will go to such length. To bend over a book is just as unhealthy as the usual writing position enforced by a flat table. The scribe of the middle ages used a desk; we hardly dare call it that any more because the slope was so steep (up to 65°). The parchment was held in place by a string across it and could be pushed upward little by little. The active line, always horizontal was the height-of-eye, and the scribe sat perfectly upright. Even at the turn of the century, clergymen and government officials used to do their writing standing up behind a small desk: a healthy and reasonable position for writing and reading that has, alas, become rare..."

Consistent Correlation Between Book Page and Type Area
by Jan Tschichold; selection from "The Form of the Book", essays by Jan Tschichold pub. by Lund Humphries 1991

LINK

[via Mike Shea]

Young Enough to Enjoy It

" There I was minding my own business, running through the latest updates from the Good Blogs when LifeHacker throws me down the long and painful stairs of addiction. I had lived a good life to this point devoid of any knowledge of the fabled Moleskina notebook. Decades of self-control gone in the flash of a pixel.

Before I knew what I was doing, I had discovered moleskinerie where I learned of the right pens to use. Mike's review saved me the error of overspending for a good instrument (still resisting the fountain pen obsession).

Then it was on to finding notebooks. I couldn't stop myself. What was this power gripping me? I'd never experienced the like of it before. Two bookstores later, there they were, the little black notebooks with the bright-colored bands. Thank goodness for that bit of marketing acumen, otherwise how would I, a mere novice, distinguish these distinguished books from the sea of imitators on the shelves?..."

Gregory Miskin
Visit his blog.

Giovedì Santo

"Il sagrestano ha l’obbligio di non chiudere presto la chiesa il giovedì santo. I peccatori si aggirano misteriosamente per la chiesa, e colgono il momento che non li vede nessuno, neanche il sagrestano, per introdursi nella stanza oscura dove scendono le funi delle campane. Là trovano due grosse croci di quercia e due canapi; e, accanto a ciascuno di questi oggetti, c’è un cámice di confraternità. Beati quelli che possono impossessarsi dei quattro cámici e svignarsela alla spicciolata."

It is the sacristan’s duty not to close the church early on Holy Thursday. The sinners walk mysteriously about the church and seize the moment when nobody, not even the sacristan, sees them, to enter the dark room where the bell–ropes hang down. There they find two huge oaken crosses and two hempen ropes; and beside each of these objects there is a brother’s surplice. Happy are they who can get possession of the four surplices and slip away one by one."

Ena Makin, M. A., Introduction to Italian, "XIV. Giovedì Santo | Holy Thursday" page 46. London: George G. Harrap & Co., Ltd., 182 High Holborn W. C. Circa 1920?

[via Sprezzatura]

The Last Supper

Turkeyhead @ Moleskinerie/FLICKR
...
Note:
Moleskinerie will be on auto-pilot for the rest of the week. Emails won't be opened until we get back on Easter Monday but the comment box troll patrol is on duty. Have fun everyone!

Creative Writing Workshop in Paris

Here's an email from our friend, travel writer Rolf Potts:

For all of you who are interested in studying creative writing in France this summer, I'll be co-teaching an intensive writing workshop at the Paris American Academy from July 2nd through the 28th.  The school is located in the Latin Quarter, classes are in English, and college credit is available.  Tuition includes shared housing in Paris for the duration of the course.

My classes will include travel writing, fiction, and creative nonfiction. HBO alum Stewart Lindh will teach screenwriting, performance and short form. Harvard teaching fellow Gail Gardner will teach journal writing.

For full course information, surf to:

http://www.rolfpotts.com/paris/

To receive an application, send an email to paris@rolfpotts.com

I hope to see you in France this summer!

Best,

Rolf
http://rolfpotts.com
http://vagablogging.net

4 Days in Malta

4 Days in Malta is a diary of a Creative Thinking seminar i did in Malta a year ago. I did edit the Moleskine pages, though.

Luis Marin Mendo
View the notebook.
Visit his blog.

3 Color Pencil with USB Memory Key function

"If you ever wanted to have, a 3 color pencil AND a USB memory key, well the new USB Memory Pen from I-O Data is made for YOU! The most amazing stuff... well for a pen is that we can use it as well as to "stamp" documents. In Japan "stamps" are the legal and/or official way to sign documents".

3 Color Pencil with USB Memory Key function
Akihabara News

[via LS]

Fenwick Rysen

"The Phoenix Rising"

" This is the finished sketch (or a version of it) on the inside cover of one of my Moleskine journals (Meme Journal Volume II), the one that lives perpetually in the hip pocket of my fatigues. I've been doing these sketches for years; they evolve over days or weeks or, in this case, months. They go in fits and spurts is inspiration or idle moments dictate. They're a style of abstract art that I do in odd moments to give my mind a break from its overly rational left-brained operation. The sketch just flows. It grows and evolves. It may yet grow into something more, but this is a snapshot of at least one finished version; someone commented it looked like a phoenix but I didn't see it until I looked at it weeks later and agreed. I normally draw these just for my own amusement (often on scrap paper) but I've decided I should start capturing some of these."

Fenwick Rysen
Visit his blog.

[via Leslie Russell]

"Mocha, Dude"

"I watched this guy enjoy the sun and a mocha outside a Starbucks yesterday. Somehow he didn't look the type, but then I guess all types do enjoy an occasional Starbucks these days. I was caught without my pen and watercolors, so it's graphite and it's in my trusty moleskine notebook."

Jim Bumgarner
Visit his blog.

[via LS]

 

A Deaf Guy’s Take

"It feels good to write at all. Writers love writing; they’re drawn to the empty page like moths to a flickering flame. However, nothing makes a writer feel as good as when they finally find their pen and their paper.  With the right pen and paper, the joy in writing becomes much more than the sum of the component parts.

I’ve been looking for years for the right pen and the right paper for me.  It was seeming like a fruitless and expensive task.

So I ordered a Moleskine notebook and while I can appreciate why some people like these, it just was not right for me. It’s a decently put together notebook for sure, but the pages seemed just a little too thin and the binding just a little too insubstantial. It was better than the standard higher-than-school-quality loose leaf sheet paper I was using, but it wasn’t quite perfect.

So I continued to search, while using the Moleskine, and stumbled across a site that sold Journals. These ones looked substantial. They offered more pages than the Moleskine (I tend to write in a single location, so portability was not a huge deciding factor for me) and they just looked better."

A Deaf Guy's Take

[via LS]

'Mitation Mutation

"I am not shocked to see, with the current popularity of the Moleskine, that someone has finally gotten the idea of producing a knock off. The faux-skine is a dead ringer for the trusty black books except that the cover is sort of slick like wallpaper, and the elastic band is attached on the inside of the back cover rather than the outside. Apart from that...well I thought it was one of the new Moleskines--it even has an expanding pocket in the back."

Leslie Russell
Link: PaperBlanks Back Pocket Mini
...

"I was shopping in TJ Max today when I saw a brightly colored journal that resembled a pocket Moleskine. Upon picking it up, I noticed that it had the elastic band, page marker, and back pocket that are all trademarks of Moleskines. Unfortunately, I could instantly tell that the quality of these notebooks was nowhere near the quality of the Moleskine in my jacket pocket; in fact, I took mine out to compare. The knockoffs were from a brand called Kolo (kolo.com). I took a picture with my phone because they looked so similar. Also, the paper wasn't that good, and the binding didn't lay flat. And at $5.99, it wasn't nearly worth it.  Have you seen or heard of these before?"

Sam Dodge
Original image

 

Roy Blumenthal

"He looks at the other security guard. His name tag identifies him as Doctor. He's also a total pro. Doctor enters my row. "May I get past you?" he asks. I move my legs, and he passes. 

I pick up a book I've been carrying with me, my jersey, and the contraband, and I raise my arms so they can get a grip under my armpits. "Is that cool?" I ask. They nod. And lift me out of my seat.

I don't help them. I let my legs drag on  the carpet as they carry me up the stairs.

Some guy says, "Throw this  fucker down the stairs! I wanna watch the fuckin' movie! Throw him!"

Some  girl says, "Jeez. Save your protests for something worthwhile, like saving  the whales or something."

Lofty says, "Take him out!"

Once outside, I write down everyone's name in my little black Moleskine. Lofty refuses to give me the phone number of the cinema. Another assistant manager arrives, and I ask him for the number. He gives it to me. It's (011) 8.. 4..... Write this number down. If you ever find that the movie's out of focus or the aircon is set wrong, or the sound is messed, phone this number. Tell Lofty Roy gave it to you. And tell him that if he doesn't rectify the problem, you'll be glad to get your money back, or a voucher for another movie. And he's compelled by distribution agreements to give you that voucher."

Roy Blumenthal
Johannesburg, South Africa
Visit his blog.

[Via LS]

Normand Corbeil

" i have been lusting after the elusive moleskine journal for quite a while, but it has been very hard to actually get my hands on one.  i was going to put a link to the US distributor but there website is offline again.  it seems to be a real small niche market, but there are more and more people who are posting about their moleskine's.... 

...i picked up the one that this image is from in detroit, but we did purchase a small cache of them in s'pore [so no worries].  i thought that i would share my first "successful" page out the m'skine.  i am quite happy with it.   it is really rewarding to work in a format that can be completed so quickly.  most of my works are so large and take so much time, that i often get frustrated with the process before the piece is completed.  but it is really great to have an outlet that isn't so time consuming and frustrating.  plus, there is a certain personal caché that the moleskine brrings to the process.  i am hoping to use my journal as a testing ground for new a series or style.  maybe it will remain a little side project, but it is great to have something that people can handle. the direct sensory experience of the work.  it really changes the way the auidence interacts with piece.  i would love to hear your comments."

Normand Corbeil
Outside the Lines

[Thanks LS]

Women Working, 1870 - 1930

"Women Working, 1870 - 1930 provides access to digitized historical, manuscript, and image resources selected from Harvard's library and museum collections. This collection explores women's roles in the US economy between the Civil War and the Great Depression. Working conditions, conditions in the home, costs of living, recreation, health and hygiene, conduct of life, policies and regulations governing the workplace, and social issues are all well documented. The collection currently contains 2,396 books and pamphlets, 1,075 photographs, and 5,000 pages from manuscript collections."

"Women Working, 1870-1930"
Harvard University Library

[Thanks Christine!}

WMP #12 Erika Bennet

WMP #12
Erika Bennet
Melbourne, Australia

Special thanks to our donors.

For updates and donations, visit the WMP page.
View the scans at " Journey", the WMP Gallery hosted by  Joachim du Beleg.
Update: 2.20.05 The List is closed at the moment. Please wait for further announcements.
...
AN IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT

We need to temporarily recall WMP notebooks #1, 2 and 3 for an upcoming exhibit. Current recipients of these journals are requested to contact us for mailing instructions as soon as possible.

We also need to update the location of the rest of the notebooks. Kindly send us a note if you are in possession of any of the WMP Moleskine
...

MoleskineArt.com Proj:exhibition Launched! 
Check out Patrick's pictures here. Or here.

Finally, here's a deep Moleskine thought from Randy Taylor:

"I've been writing in my new Moleskine for about a week.  And I've realized something.  All the words have been written.  All the notes have been played.  I just need to find a new order to arrange them in." 

Enjoy the weekend everyone!

Mike's Rollerball and Fountain Pen Review

"According to Sakura's history, Sakura invented gel-based ink. The Sakura Gelly Roll is another $1 gel-based ink pen that is fade proof, water proof, and acid free. It is an archival quality pen. Unfortunately it is not as easily found as the Pilot G2s, one of the reasons I do not rate it as highly as the G2. Many writers prefer the Sakura to the G2, however, and for the low price tag, it is worth trying out if one finds it in an art supply store.

The Sakura has a soft plastic barrel and a small rounded cap. The ink is not meant to be refilled but at $1 each, it wouldn't be worth selling separate ink refills anyway. The ink inside the Sakura cannot be used inside other roller ball pens.

On the web, Sakura Gelly Rolls can be purchased at Dick Blick for just over a dollar each plus shipping which gets quite costly for a pen. If you are really not happy with a G2 and want to try another cheap pen, the Sakura is worth looking into."

Mike Shea's Rollerball and Fountain Pen Review

The new model Moleskine reporter

Photo by Stompy at Moleskinerie/FLICKR.

[Thanks Abizer!]

M is for Medieval: or How the Irish Invented the Moleskine.

A great deal of my creative inspiration originates with the manuscripts of early medieval Ireland. Perhaps the best known example is the Book of Kells, which reigns supreme among the elaborately illuminated manuscripts from that era. These decorated books are typified by mind-boggling details, swirling spirals, elaborately complex knotwork patterns, and undecipherable letterforms. These images burst off the vellum pages and stand apart from other illuminated manuscripts of that time period as a unique creative expression reflecting many of the cultural complexities of the early history of Ireland.

 

Strangely though, my imagination has been completely captivated by a comparatively small, unadorned assemblage of odd sheets of vellum called The St. Paul Irish Codex (or more formally: MS: Unterdrauberg, Carinthia, Kloster St. Paul 25.2.31). This manuscript was the personal notebook of an Irish scribe working in the early ninth century, most likely in the scriptorium at Reichenau, an island monastery on Lake Constance located between Germany and Switzerland. It contains no color other than the deep brown of the ink, and no illumination of any kind, yet it seems to me to reveal more about at least this one personality behind the long labor of creating illuminated manuscripts.

 

This un-named monk assembled what discarded pieces of vellum he could gather together and used his notebook to jot down interesting text he came across in his daily work (incidentally, the size of this notebook is very close to a large size Moleskine). Written in a very tight script you will find bits of grammar, animal lore, an incantation, and an endearing poem in Old Irish about a monk and his cat named Pangur Bán, all on the same page. Throughout the other pages of the notebook are excerpts written in Greek, an astrological table, and notes on logic, metaphysics and etymology, among other topics.

The Notebook of Brian Manning

Brian Manning is a student of Greek philosophy and philosophy teacher in Maryland. This scan is part his work on translating Plato's MENO.

View a larger image at the Moleskinerie Gallery

[Thanks John]

Moleskine Ruler

"One day I found myself needing a ruler and I'm not in the habit of carrying such an item.  I do carry my Moleskine.  So with a ruler at home, a pen and a blank page I created both a standard and metric ruler."

Sean Gerety

Lead Story

A desperate husband needs assistance:

"I'm trying desperately to find a nice, compact set of colored pencils for my wife's birthday. They need to draw nicely on a Moleskine sketch book (the one with thicker paper). They need to be small and easy to bundle up and throw into a bag or purse. Any clues?"

"Jesse"
Hysteria Lane

Four centuries of printing in the Irish character

A sample page, in the half-uncial hand, from the Book of Kells.

"Although the existing roman letter was officially sanctioned as the standard medium for the printing of Irish language documents in the early 1960s, the four preceding centuries had witnessed a rich tradition of printing in the Irish character.

The origins of Irish character typography regress to the high standard of calligraphy achieved by the monastic scribes of the fifth century, and to the two discrete styles - the half-uncial and the minuscule- that emerged from the scriptorium to subsequently exert a defining influence on the design of Irish printing types.

The full, rotund form of the half-uncial was typically used in the transcription of Latin tracts  notably, in the earliest known Irish manuscript, the Cathach, and, magisterially, in the Book of Kells."

Four centuries of printing in the Irish character
Brendan Leen
Cregan Library

Moleskine Moments

As My Grandfather Would Say...    

 

      My muse is on vacation.
In the words of my grandfather....

My inspiration is running .."..as dry as a popcorn fart!"

Yeah, well - what can I say?  He was an engineer, so I guess he would know how to calculate that.    

 

 

The Meaning of Unhappiness    

 

      Not knowing what you want...

And killing yourself to get it.    

 

The Meaning of Patience    

 

      Being an artist, living in a corporate world.

Visit Moleskine Moments

[via Leslie Russell]   

   

The Folded Book

" First fold the strip in half right down the middle. Unfold and then fold the two sections you just made up to the middle crease. Make all 3 creases into mountain folds (crease up). Now fold those sections in half again until you have 8 even sections. You will have 7 creases in which to make into mountains again. Fold the eight sections in half again, starting with one end and fold all the way through the accordion. Now you will have 16 even sections. With this technique you will have an even accordion no matter how long the paper is!"

The Folded Book
by Yasutomo

[Thanks zephyr!]

Calling WMP #1, 2 and 3

We need to temporarily recall WMP notebooks #1, 2 and 3 for an upcoming exhibit. Current recipients of these journals are requested to contact us for mailing instructions as soon as possible.

We also need to update the location of the rest of the notebooks. Kindly give us an update if you are in possession of any of the WMP Moleskine.

"Good things" are happening.:) Please stay tuned.

-Armand
...

Update 3.15.05 2.35p CST:

Cindy BeMent in Indiana is suggesting WMP for KIDS. Hmmm. ^_^

Your Fortune Here

"Where I work we love to eat Chinese food, hence we end up with lots of fortune cookies.  I like to save them and my Moleskine gives me a great way to group and save them.  I've dedicated a page in the back of my trusty Moleskine to these words."

Sean Gerety

Alone in the Wilderness

"Alone in the Wilderness is the documentry of Richard Proenneke, the subject of the book One Man's Wilderness: an Alaskan Odyssey. Richard Proenneke built his own cabin in the wilderness near Twin Lakes, in what is now Lake Clark National Park & Preserve.

To live in a pristine land unchanged by man...

Be a self-sufficient craftsman, making what is needed from materials available...

To roam a wilderness through which few other humans have passed...

To be not at odds with the world, but content with one's own thoughts and company...

Richard Proenneke lived the dream of building a cabin in the Alaskan wilderness, and stayed to become a part of the country. This video is a simple account of the day-to-day explorations and activities he carried out alone, and the constant chain of nature's events that kept him company. "
Alone in the Wilderness
Bob Swerer Productions

The Geography Olympics

We all know that  Moleskinners are inveterate travellers, but do they know where they are, or have been, or will be? My kids and I have had much fun with this - you can play for your country, and view which
country knows the World the best.

Join THE GEOGRAPHY OLYMPICS!

Choose which country you are playing for, and take the quiz. No registration needed!

Thanks Stephen!

Paperweight - Synchronicity

" When creativity flows, events follows with strong synchronicity, this is the story.

I was planning/mindmapping proj:ex on Moleskine, I wanted the exhibition to have something special coz the fixture they made is totally not what I expected (shhhhh...it). A month ago I went to Japan and saw a design shop called Cibone using thick acrylic blocks to display product info. I murmured about it to Monica our merchandiser, turned out she had a friend in acrylic advertising business and I could get some free blocks from him if I give him a spec. I gave her two sizes of square blocks. My proj:ex mindmap was in front of me when I was talking to her, I thought why not make some acrylic Moleskine Diary, add an elastic band and have fun since it was free? So I gave her a M daily diary under my reach and a week later the Acrylic Moleskine blocks came! I thought it was something fun to do for the exhibition but Monica said "I thought you wanted them for practical use, as paperweights for displaying Moleskine". Geee, what a great idea! Just when I needed them!"

Patrick Ng
MoleskineArt...

"Keeping a diary is bad for your health, say UK psychologists. They found that regular diarists were more likely than non-diarists to suffer from headaches, sleeplessness, digestive problems and social awkwardness."                                           

Today on Journalisimo

A Blog on Paper

"F.Y.I. This notebook is officially 1/8 full. Yeah, I know it's a small notebook. But still, the amount of writing that I've done over the past week is pretty damn unprecedented. It's pretty amazing how much of a difference carrying this thing around has made. I've felt a lot more comfortable writing. I think that's partly due to the fact that I don't expect anyone to read my thoughts as jotted down here.

When I was talking with some of my friends the other day, they called it a 'blog on paper' or a 'blog without readers' (funny, I have one of those already). Either way, I thought it was pretty funny that some people referred to what is essentially a journal done the old-fashioned way in reverse-digital terms. It goes to show how far we've come, technologically speaking.

Regardless, it's true. Some of the things I write in this notebook I wouldn't want to share with the world. Some of it I wouldn't want to share with my wife. And some of it I don't even think I want to re-read myself. You don't get that kind of comfort out of a blog, or even a fictionalized telling of events in your life. As someone who in the past has tended to fictionalize a lot (and I say 'in the past' only because I haven't written so much lately), I can tell you that even if part of the truth is hidden, it still sometimes feels like my whole life is laid bare for the world to see. Such is the sensibility of a 'writer' who can't escape his past, no matter how hard he tries."

Life and Times of a New Yorker

[Thanks LS]

Image: Babsi Jones @ Moleskinerie/FLICKR

The Notebooks of Ed Flores

"Over the last 8 years I have written and published short articles for Footprints Magazine and bLink Magazine.  I have written stories about hiking with dogs, information articles about portions of the Pacific Coast Trail and technical articles about getting connected to the internet."

Ed Flores

View larger images at the Moleskinerie Gallery

MOLESKINE REPORTERS ARE HERE!

 The Moleskine Notebook has been reinvented! Who would have imagined that a simple shift of perspective could make such a significant change in a notebook? The Classic style Moleskine that you know and love has had a make-over: The binding has migrated to the short end of the notebook, the elastic now goes in the opposite direction, and the inside back pocket has shifted directions as well. The result is a highly functional notebook in a flip-top reporter style. Designed for the special needs of journalists, this notebook is endlessly useful for notetaking whatever your profession.

As with the original Moleskines, the Reporter notebooks have classic styling, great funtional design, and endless aesthetic appeal. The built-in elastic closure keeps the notebook closed, and the expandable accordion pocket built into the back cover is perfect for keeping track of your ticket stubs, airmail stamps, and other small loose papers. The unique flip-top design makes this a great notebook for active notetaking on the go.

• Notebook measures 3 ½" wide by 5 ½" high, and ½" thick.
• Is bound in a rigid, oilcloth 'moleskine' cover.
• Is thread bound making this book very durable.
• Notebook has 192 ruled pages (96 leaves) made from fine Italian acid free paper.
• The last 24 sheets are detatchable via microperforation.
• Has a built-in elastic closure that holds the sturdy cover closed.
• Has an expandable accordion pocket inside the back cover.
• This style of Moleskine comes without the ribbon placeholder.
• Moleskine journals are made in Italy.

This small notebook is the perfect size for carrying in your pocket or purse, for recording thoughts and taking notes on the go. Once you start using one of these you will settle for nothing but a Moleskine!

Visit Lisa @ Ninth Wave Designs on eBay

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Bon Voyage!

My best friends, Jaime and Sherwin are leaving on Monday for an an extended visit back home to the Philippines.  I wish them a safe and happy journey of rediscovery. Fill those Moleskines with iZone pics and  sketches of your  most excellent adventure. Bon voyage!

Here's something to start off your notebooks:

"A child on a farm sees a plane fly by overhead and dreams of a faraway place A traveler on the plane sees the farmhouse and dreams of home."
--Carl Burns

"The Gentle Reader will never, never know what a consummate ass he can become, until he goes abroad. I speak now, of course, in the supposition that the Gentle Reader has not been abroad, and therefore is not already a consummate ass. "
--Mark Twain, part of travelog from his trip to Egypt.

Image: PCVC

Moleskinerie @ NAMTA 2005

I received an invitation today from  Kikkerland Design Inc. (Moleskine's U.S. Distributor)  to join them at the National Art Materials Trade Association (NAMTA) Convention and Trade Show in Chicago, IL. on April 13th.  There will be a presentation on Moleskine and I've been asked to talk about our blog. Kikkerland has also shown particular interest in our Wandering Moleskine Project so that's another exciting possibilty.  Will keep everyone posted with a series of reports on product updates and some projects on the drawing boards. 

For updates and donations, visit the WMP page.
View the scans at " Journey", the WMP Gallery hosted by  Joachim du Beleg.
Update: 2.20.05 The List is closed at the moment. Please wait for further announcements.

Special thanks to our donors.
...
Finally, our best wishes to Alan Oleski @ Moleskinerie/ORKUT on his birthday today, March 11. 
Have a nice weekend Internet people!