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I discovered my first moleskine pocket diary in 2000; after that I used it everey year. I use it as a visual journal - every year a little bit more. You can see it in the picture: The latest moleskines are fatter than the early Moleskines. The pictures shows my moleskines from 2000 to 2006.
"Moleskine Kreisel"
By Kathrin Jebsen-Marwedel
View at Moleskinerie/FLICKR
© All rights reserved
[via Bibliophile Bullpen]
I just joined this group to obtain some ideas about how others use their Moleskine Notebooks. I had no idea what a Moleskine was until I saw one on Flickr. As someone who loves to write, it immediately captured my attention. I was very surprised that I had not heard of these before, especially since there were so many images of them on Flickr.
After viewing many of the photos, I then did a search and found where I could obtain them. I decided to buy direct and purchased six, as I have some OCD issues around my notebooks being "just so". Anyway I would enjoy hearing from others that may be in that same or similar position as I am where I've decided to give up the BlackBerry (or some other smart phone) , at least for now.
Interestingly, I loved the BlackBerry and it suited me perfectly. No complaints, except for my personal tendency to be addicted to it and in turn having a hard time putting it down. Another side effect, was that my handwriting was going away as I spend the majority of my work time on my ThinkPad laptop. I was only using a pen and paper for signatures on contracts and other documents. And even that is on the wane as more and more is being done electronically.
As a lover of fine mechanical devices like luxury perpetual hand made swiss watches, and fine pens, the analog way began to become a renewed attraction to me. And so it was only two days ago, that I put aside my beloved BlackBerry and brought out my newly acquired Moleskine. In turn I had also done quite a bit of research for "just the right pen". After reading many blogs and various other articles online I decided to try a pen called: Pilot G-TEC-C4. This comes in just one size: O.4. I ordered these from an pen shop in New York, the only place in the US where I could find them. I purchased a 12 pack of my two favorite colors, Black & Red. These perform quite nicely and as I had read they do indeed write very smoothly, without any bleeding through to the following page.
I look forward to this adventure and recovering my penmanship through daily writing once again.
"Mobile Leonard"
Image: ABF
Join the discussion at Moleskinerie/GoogleGroups
"As if the weather wasn't hot enough, there was Marsha Masha Tsukanova, the editor of Kommersant Weekly in Ukraine."
The Jaeger-LeCoultre Hawaii Trip Day 3 (13th June 2007) Report - The Real Live Test of Master Compressor Diving.
[Thanks Chris!]
Greetings to our friends in Aiea, HI, Cali, Enskede, Gifu, Heredia, Ratana, Las Maicas, Maldives, Tbilisi, Arequipa, Kathmandu, Morocco, Kirkintilloch, Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Yigo, Staten Island, NY, Punjab, Antigua and Barbuda, Terrugem, Sinaloa, Khabarovsk, Squamish and Tegucigalpa.
I am a huge fan of Moleskines, and don’t want to journal in anything else. Most other journals that I run across have wide, fat lines, cheap binding, or are the wrong size and thickness. The problem is that there are quite a few journals with covers that I like.
While the classic black Moleskine cover is usually exactly what I need and want, lately I’ve been feeling like I haven’t been using my voice. I’ve felt stifled and silenced; many of my self-defeating behaviors stem from the reality that I feel unheard.
I didn’t want to settle, though. Buying a journal with a cover I liked wasn’t worth settling for the lines I couldn’t write in or the spiral bound that would eventually unwind.
So I decorated my first Moleskine. I am immensely pleased with it--almost giddy in fact--and I think I could do this forever. The possibilities give me freedom.
Renee Altson
Visit her blog.
Thanks to the thousand plus (and growing) entries from around the world. Our winners for last week are:
Linde Fidorra
Green Slopes
Delgany
Ireland
Hannah Kook
Dededo, Guam
XUTAO ZHOU
Beijing
People's Republic of China
Please check your email and reply to the notification so we can send your prizes soonest.
Good luck to the rest of the entrants. To those who haven't joined yet, the complete rules are here.
The next raffle draw will be held on August 4..
Tatiana Musi was born in Mexico City in 1982. Musi received her BFA in painting from San Francisco Art Institute, and has also studied at Sokei Academy of Art and Design in Tokyo, the National School of Painting Sculpture and Printing ENPEG La Esmeralda in Mexico City, and Central Saint Martins College of Art & Design in London. Her exhibitions include an animation screening at ICAF Tokyo and a group drawing show at La Esmeralda in New Mexico. Her first show in New York is Detour at ADC, curated by Raffaella Guidobono.
Dealer List (.pdf)
Discover and join our Moleskine communities on LiveJournal, MySpace, Moleskinerie FLICKR, FACEBOOK and Meal Moles. Get out - have a life and write about it. See you on Monday.
My apologies for the disruption this week. It was purely a technical matter not involving any notebook terrorists and other conspiracies:) Thanks to all those who called or emailed. I appreciate your concern and enjoyed your wild theories. - ABF
As near as I can tell, my writing habit began more than a hundred years ago on a cattle ranch in northern Mexico. That was when my grandmother, at seven years of age, wrote three words in a little notebook her mother, Cristina Terrazas, had given her: hoy murio mama. No capital H, no accent marks, no other details--little Julia Terrazas simply wanted to record that her mother had just died.
Many years later, Julia gave her own daughter, my mother Emma, a notebook in which to jot down everyday happenings, thoughts, prayers and poems. Eventually, when I was nine, my mother also presented me with a notebook. I was confined to a hospital bed after having my tonsils out, was restless, and my mother wanted to keep me out of mischief. "Here," she said, "write what you see, write some stories." I did as she told me, and that's how three generations of Terrazas women passed onto me the itch to write.
I still write in notebooks-my latest one is a lined, pocket-size Moleskine--when I have time and mental space. But like most everyone these days, I've succumbed to the lures of the digital, electronic world. However, I've discovered the ease of e-mail comes with a catch. I can reply, copy, forward, print or save, but ultimately I might as well delete everything because it's all virtual, not tangible the way notebooks, diaries and journals are, especially old ones written by people no longer with us. Such written relics are filled with intimate thoughts, quirky handwriting, odd spelling, smudges, crossed-out words, even doodles and sketches. My mother and grandmother may have died decades ago, but when I hold their creations in my hands and read page after page, I see the world as they did--I touch their lives.
Several
years ago, while trying to unravel some disturbing family mysteries, I
regularly touched the past in this way. For me, the personal,
confessional writing of my relatives had more than sentimental value.
The hundreds of entries allowed me to pinpoint dates, names and events,
led me to other sources, documents, letters, often to people I could
interview. Eventually, my hunt for the truth evolved into a book, a
memoir, about my family. Yet the project would never have started if I
hadn't wandered into the tool shed behind my grandmother's house in Los
Angeles the day we buried her.
Well
into her eighties when she died, Mama Julia--as we called her--liked to
watch Mexican lucha libre on television. Every week the sequined capes,
scary masks and flying leaps off the ropes captivate her for a few
hours. The frail old lady I saw whenever I visited her place had always
been a quaint, slightly raunchy figure who just happened to like short,
tubby men in tights. She'd call me Manos de bragueta, not because I
fidgeted with my fly but because in her mind men's hands were vile and
had no place in her kitchen. "Fuera, manos de bragueta," she would
mutter. "Fuchi, fuchi,"--as if to say, "Yuck! Outta here, boy."
But after her funeral, everyone gathered at her one-bedroom house in a central Los Angeles neighborhood, officially named Elysian Valley but on the street called Frog Town because it runs alongside the L.A. River. We all poked around and took keepsakes of her presence. From the kitchen I came away with the comal--the griddle on which she had made me hundreds of flour tortillas over the years. Then in her bedroom I claimed a photo album no one seemed to want. Finally, I stepped outside and went around back to the tool shed. Inside, behind a rake, hoe and shovel, she had stored a small cardboard box on a shelf. I brought the box out into daylight, opened it and fished out a stack of her notebooks and some index cards covered with her invented prayers and poems. I glanced at a few pages but only remember that the rhymed verses in Spanish spoke about things like love and faith. For a long time after that I kept all her writing stored away and unread.
When
my mother died I did the same thing--after the funeral I came away with
a bundle of her notebooks and diaries that I found in a bedroom drawer.
Yet rather than store them away, eventually I began to read them to
look for answers to the lingering questions about the odd circumstances
surrounding her death. She died at home at the age of 48 from
drug-related heart problems. Months later my father, a secretive,
enigmatic U.S. army officer, disappeared from me and my two brothers,
never to return.
I
read and re-read everything--notebooks, diaries, journals, letters,
postcards, store receipts with scribbled notes on the back. For the
most part they gave me the answers to my questions. But the truth
wasn't always in facts. Often it was in the touch of words. As a
writer, in trying to create whole lives, of real people who lived and
had minds and dreams and desires of their own, I was blessed by having
all this in their own words. When Julia Terrazas writes that her mother
died, or when Emma Arias writes on July 19, 1952 that she longs for her
husband--who was then a prisoner of war in North Korea--I know I'm
touching the truth.
[Ron Arias is a staff correspondent for People magazine and the author of "Moving Target: A Memoir of Pursuit"]
[Originally posted 7.1.05]
I am grateful for the chance
to witness a moment
when the universe stops
to take a breath
and admire
itself.
"Green Tea After 6pm..."
By Pumpkinoodle @ Moleskinerie/FLICKR
© All rights reserved. Used with permission.
More jaw-dropping Moleskine art by Neil Dixon
View his works at FLICKR
Visit his blog
© All rights reserved.ND
Greetings to our friends in The Palestinian Territory, Occupied, Wailuku, HI, Besigheim, lesund, Kaohsiung, Fox And Geese, Caracas, Pathum Thani, Courcouronnes, Ypsilanti, MI, Bahrain, Paraguay, Saipan, Punta Arenas, Magallanes y de la Antartica, Cairo, Seoul-t'ukpyolsi, Zacatecas, Bhopal, Subashiri and San Feliu De Guixols.
In the last weeks of a long Oregon winter, everybody must be imagining last year’s summertime. I am remembering fondly a particular day. It was the end of that long Oregon summer, when the evenings just dabbled with early darkness.
Jane and I were walking down a dirt road between Douglas firs. We passed a whale made of aluminum, and a small room, of earth. Bonsai trees, small succulents and ferns in tiny pots; then into a garden of tall corn stalks and rows of lettuce, chickens and goats, and an occasional wanderer, enjoying the flowers. The garden edges off into fields, and then the forest, rising everywhere around it.
So much has changed here at Tryon Farm, since a small group convinced Portland to let them build a learning center for sustainable living in place of a sprawling condominium development, which would have hung awkwardly over the city’s second largest urban wilderness park.
Brenna invited us to dinner, so that we could tap into their vast Oregon network of people who know people who might be able to help me find answers.
Foraging Nehalem Valley
By Erik Gauger
More at his website, "Notes from the Road"
Thanks to the thousand plus (and growing) entries from around the world. Our winners for last week are:
Steve O'Brien
WMGQ Radio
Atlantic Highlands, NJ
Kerry-Anne Gilowey
Brackenfell
South Africa
Maltsev Stanislav
Saint-Petersburg
Russian Federation
Please check your email and reply to the notification so we can send your prizes soonest.
Good luck to the rest of the entrants. To those who haven't joined yet, the complete rules are here.
The next raffle draw will be held on July 28..
Paula Scher. For over three decades Paula Scher has been at the forefront of graphic design. Iconic, smart and unabashedly populist, her images have entered into the American vernacular. Scher has been a principal in the New York office of the distinguished international design consultancy Pentagram since 1991. She began her career as an art director in the 1970s and early 80s, when her eclectic approach to typography became highly influential. In the mid-1990s her landmark identity for The Public Theater fused high and low into a wholly new symbology for cultural institutions, and her recent architectural collaborations have re-imagined the urban landscape as a dynamic environment of dimensional graphic design. Her graphic identities for Citibank and Tiffany & Co. have become case studies for the contemporary regeneration of classic American brands. Scher has developed identities, packaging for a broad range of clients that includes, among others, The New York Times Magazine, Perry Ellis, Bloomberg, Target, the New 42nd Street. In 1996 Scher’s widely imitated identity for the Public Theater won the coveted Beacon Award for integrated corporate design strategy. She serves on the board of The Public Theater, and is a frequent design contributor to The New York Times, GQ and other publications.
In 1998 Scher was named to the Art Directors Club Hall of Fame, and in 2000 she received the prestigious Chrysler Award for Innovation in Design. She has served on the national board of the American Institute of Graphic Arts (AIGA) and was president of its New York chapter from 1998 to 2000. In 2001 she received the profession’s highest honour, the AIGA Medal, in recognition of her distinguished achievements and contributions to the field. She is a member of the Alliance Graphique Internationale. Her work is represented in the permanent collections of the Museum of Modern Art and the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum, New York; the Museum für Gestaltung Zürich and the Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris. Scher holds a BFA from the Tyler School of Art and a Doctor of Fine Arts Honoris Causa from the Corcoran College of Art and Design. She has lectured and exhibited all over the world, and her teaching career includes over two decades at the School of Visual Arts, along with positions at the Cooper Union, Yale University and the Tyler School of Art. She has authored numerous articles on design-related subjects for the AIGA Journal of Graphic Design, PRINT, Graphis and other publications, and in 2002 Princeton Architectural Press published her career monograph Make It Bigger.
Learn more about the new Moleskine City Notebook.
Learn more about Detour Exhibitions.
Dealer List (.pdf)
Discover and join our Moleskine communities on LiveJournal, MySpace, Moleskinerie FLICKR, FACEBOOK and Meal Moles. Get out - have a life and write about it. See you on Monday.
Have Booksling. Will (help Moleskine) travel. Michael August Pusateri's shows us how
"Recently, I saw that they now make something called a Booksling. As someone that uses a Moleskine notebook at the office daily, I was intrigued. I like to write with a pencil and always have a hard time carrying it with the Moleskine. The Booksling looked to solve that problem. Some people may find other uses, like students or others that take notes or highlight while they read, for the Booksling...
Learn more at Cruft
"We aren't sure if this design is clever or crazy: Bookinist, a combination chair/bookcase with a reading light, cup holder, and a more few surprises that combine to give new meaning to the term "bookmobile." The arms and backrest can hold 80 paperbacks, and the chair hides secret compartments for reading glasses, bookmarks, pencils, a pencil sharpener and a notebook (all included with the chair)..."
Guess which notebook that might be!
[Thanks Jane, Joyce and Benjamin for the multiple alerts!]
More at Treehugger
Brought to you by Kikkerland Design Inc, NY
Last night's storms wrought havoc on my modem/cable box. Connection is slower than dialup.
We'll be back to our regular posting schedule as soon as this issue is resolved. In the meantime you are invited to visit our communities at FLICKR, FACEBOOK and GOOGLEGROUPS.
You can also email us.
Thank you for your patience.
Mike Rohde just got back from beautiful Belize with a sketchbook filled with scenes from his trip.
Sketchtoons from my mission trip to Belize, Central America, July 2007.
This was a way to capture our visit to Belize in a more
impressionistic, personal way, complete with my notes.
Visit Mike's website, Rohdesign
I have been using a 2006-2007 18 month model -- which, despite dire predictions has held up perfectly well, and I am now retiring it full of ink and pasted items, a bit thicker, and dark around the edges where it has
picked up a bit of lifegrime. Last Thursday I switched to the 2007-2008 18 month model. Here, in very excruciating detail, are the differences.
Keep in mind that it is perfectly fair to say these are "the same". The difference below are very very nitpicky. All of the metrics are the same (line spacing, print on the pages), and all my overlays and templates that I place on the pages all still line up. The sections at the beginning and end are the same (I flipped though them side by side). So what changed?
* The ink is slightly more gray than tan. In the 2006 edition, the ink had a slightly tan color to it. In the 2007, the ink is slightly more gray.
* The print is slightly more sharp. At first I thought the font was tweaked, but the edges of the letters are just slightly more defined with a bit less feathering. The halftone of the overlapping months is also affected as a result. I'd place a guess that this is a result of the ink change.
* The elastic has changed (again) and is wider than the (already wide) 2006 edition, making it significantly more wide than the elastic on the hardcover Moleskines. Unless of course they've also changed the elastic on the hardcovers recently. I like the feel of the new elastic, and it doesn't "roll over" as easily as the thinner one.
* The logo is hot pressed into the back cover rather than cold stamped. It's a bit more defined as a result and has sharper lines.
The rest of it seems the same. The tight back envelope, the soft cover that allows you to toss in more things without damaging the spine, etc. I can't comment on the signatures and the block, as my 2006 edition has enough stuffed into it to have expanded the block. I would hazard a guess that there is even more give in the spine, with a larger loop of cover on the spine (allowing it to lay perfectly flat even when jammed full of extra papers). I can't be sure, as my 2006's cover has been deformed a bit by having a pen and binder clip of 3x5 cards attached for the last year, and a full folded map glued into the inside of the front cover. The sewing on the signatures themselves is tight and looks like the same thread. The block is
nice and solid.
With only a few days of use, I can't say much about the durability, but if it is as good as last year's volume, I'll be happy.
(Now having made this post, somebody will now point out there's a big obvious difference that I missed by focusing on the minutia. Ah, well).
--
Evan "JabberWokky" Edwards
http://www.cheshirehall.org/
Join the discussion at the Moleskinerie/GoogleGroup
"...why don't they offer a version
of the Cahier that opens like a Reporter? I remember when I was in the
military, most of us with any type of responsibility would carry around
these little green mil-spec memo notebooks
to keep everything organized with. I remember the notebooks were
offered in two variations, the memo type (top-bound) and the
traditional book type. I actually loved the memo type for field use,
and I used to get these free at the Marine battery supply office just
by asking. Unfortunately, the only supplier I know of for these is the
Federal Supply Service or other government contractors.
I'd love to have a similar notebook to those, preferably a Moleskine, which open up like the reporter does. The cool thing is that the covers being what they are, you can decorate them to your liking, even using camouflage tape or something. I love the cahier format, but this other variation would be awesome.
Does anyone out there agree, and does anyone even remember those little mil-spec notebooks?
Che Moleman
Join the discussion @ Moleskinerie/FLICKR
I was honored to be invited as one of the 4 judges for the Invitation Au Voyage Moleskine City Notebook competition last Saturday. The panel includes Mariko Jesse, an illustrator and teacher; Winnie So, publisher of Little Cream Book and Arnault Castel from Moleskineasia.com.
Entries were sent from all over the world and we got over a hundred of them. It took me the whole afternoon to flip through all the pages. The judging criteria are mainly about the originality and creativity of the concept presentation, as well as how the drawings capture the travel spirit.
More at Patrick's vox
Moleskinerie, Stacy Julian, scrapbooking maven and founder of Simple Scrapbook Magazine, is featured the video "Capturing Words." She proudly hold up her writer's notebook, pretty clearly a Moleskine, as evidenced by the strappy elastic band. Stacy has decorated the cover but the telltale black cover peeks through. Have a look:
[Thanks Sharon!]
From TVGuide.com:
House’s Jennifer Morrison has been tapped to star in The Murder of Princess Diana, a Lifetime movie based on the Noel Botham book that theorized that Di’s fatal car crash was the dirty work of a conspiracy. Morrison will play an American journalist who witnesses the tunnel crash and starts her own investigation after becoming suspicious of the “official” take on what happened.
In the photo, any Moleskine fan will quickly notice she’s jotting down important journalistic notes in a pocket Moleskine reporter notebook, complete with snappy elastic closure. Wonder if JMo prefers plain, squared, or ruled?
A.E. Baxter
Moleskinerie friend Dmitri Popov has a new book:
The book is aimed at writers and professionals that use OpenOffice.org Writer. The book focuses on the
tasks that are important for writers and professional users alike: designing a book template, getting to grips with Writer's advanced features, working with bibliographies, digitally signing documents, and mastering other useful applications. The book also provides an introduction to OOoBasic and guides users through the process of creating simple yet useful macros.
Visit Dmitri's blog.
I just moved to Salt Lake City, Utah this summer, and I try to go to as many of these free concerts as possible, located in Brigham Young Historic Park, every Tuesday and Friday. I'm not always a huge fan of the music, but I always bring my Moleskine, and it's always a good time.
"Another concert in the park"
By Concrete Waffer @ Moleskinerie/FLICKR
© All rights reserved
Greetings to our friends in Brentwood, TN., Caroline Hill, HK SAR, Villa Leloir, Takatsuki, El Salvador, Bacoor, Parrow, SA, Cambodia, Harare, Simferopol, Robledo De Chavela, Saint Petersburg, Kuwait, Triba, Gatwick, Provence-Alpes-Cote d'Azur, Santo Domingo, Salina, KS., Sonora, Odense, Uttar Pradesh, Antigua and Barbuda, Brunei Darussalam, Tbilisi, Amman and Nepal.
Thanks to the thousand plus (and growing) entries from around the world. Our winners for last week are:
Fabiana Boiman
Sao Paulo
Brazil
Monte Bennett
Otley, Iowa
Daphne Swakhoven
Berg en Terblijt
The Netherlands
Please check your email and reply to the notification so we can send your prizes soonest.
Good luck to the rest of the entrants. To those who haven't joined yet, the complete rules are here.
The next raffle draw will be held on July 21.
"Several months ago, I bought a Moleskine notebook as a scribble journal to
carry around town. Everyday, my brain gets filled with noise waiting to be
organized, structured, and fine-tuned. Everything I see has a perspective and
story to be told. I want to make sense of my nonsensical inner world and I want
to capture in writing the transient thoughts before they escape into the ether.
But it didn't really happen; I guess life just got in the way. So this notebook
has stayed in my desk for months, unused and unspoiled. Last week, I opened it
up to jot down some useless information and I found it came with a
quotation:
Words dazzle and deceive because they are mimed by the face. But black words on a white page are the soul laid bare.
— Guy de Maupassant
"Soul laid bare." The sense of vulnerability in those three words is beyond grasp. Perhaps this notion can feasibly apply to a secret diary that one takes to his grave. I just don't know if the concept can truly translate to a blog where everybody knows your score. Certainly not this blog, which has been more of a creative outlet for whimsical experiences than soul baring ones..."
Image: *n*o*o*r* @ moleskinerie/FLICKR
Some rights reserved.
[Originally posted 7.22.05]
Vedovamazzei a.k.a. Stella Scala and Simeone Crispino live and work in Milano. Since the early 90’s, Vedovamazzei have created installations, drawings and sculptures. In a really eccentric and unusual way, they explore the contradictions of comprehension and knowledge of the world and its systems.
Irony, distraction and sense of humour form together important paths to read their work. The ambiguity based on their name introduces us to their choices, where reality plays with fiction, and where objectivity is always blurred.
Learn more about the new Moleskine City Notebook.
Learn more about Detour Exhibitions.
Dealer List (.pdf)
Allow me to take off early to celebrate my birthday over the weekend but before I go, I would like to thank Jan Van Der Lande, Laura Kellner and Jeroen Kuiper of Kikkerland Design, Inc., Francesco Franceschi and Maria Sebregondi of Modo e Modo/ Moleskine Srl and the friends I've made at both companies and throughout the world; all because of a little black notebook.
Never in my wildest imagination did I think our tiny blog could have gone this far. It's been a fun ride.
- Armand
Discover and join our Moleskine communities on LiveJournal, MySpace, Moleskinerie FLICKR, FACEBOOK and Meal Moles. Get out - have a life and write about it. See you on Monday.
"He is a peripatetic elf in China enrolled in the University of the Street.
A Vietnam veteran and writer with a photographer's eye.
This
is a work-in-progress. Creative people make a mess, clean it up and
make another mess. There are no mistakes in art only happy little
accidents.
He explores ethnology, languages, storytelling.
Hunting, gathering material. Reporting back to the tribe. For example,
in the Bedouin culture the "sha'ir" is their most feared and respected
poet musician possessing supernatural powers."
Timothy Leonard
Writer, photographer, English teacher in China and longtime Moleskine aficionado
Visit his blog, "Journeys"
[Originally posted 4.28.06]
Our friend Jeffrey Yamaguchi of 52 Projects has come up with a list to help you write the next great novel...or start that journal:
"Stop talking about your novel or short story ideas and start writing.
Get in the habit of writing for at least an hour every day, no matter
what. One strategy is to get up an hour earlier than you have to, make
yourself a cup of coffee and completely focus on your writing. Not only
will your mind be fresh, but you won't be distracted by phone calls,
prime time television or a visit from a friend. The main idea here is
to make writing part of your daily regimen...
Join or form a writing group. This gives you an
opportunity to get your work critiqued, an incentive to complete and
improve your writing, an outlet to commiserate and celebrate with
fellow writers...
Always carry a pen and a journal around with you, to
capture thoes fleeting "brilliant" ideas coursing through your mind, as
well as to note down funny bits of dialogue, real or imagined. Chances
are that if you don't write it down right then and there, you'll forget
it completely, or not be able to recall exactly what was so perfect
about it in the moment..."
Image: "my moleskin"
By Fishlamp @ Moleskinerie/FLICKR
© All rights reserved. Used with permission
[Originally posted 5.31.06]
Brought to you by Kikkerland Design Inc, NY
"It's changing out there. There's a storm coming, Harry, just like the last time. "
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
Image: © ABF
......................................
Elsewhere in the world of the muggles, specifically New York:
WEDNESDAY, JULY 11: Min Jin Lee, author of the acclaimed debut novel, Free Food for Millionaires, reads from and discusses
the book with David Henry Hwang, the Tony-award winning playwright of
M. BUTTERFLY and the OBIE-award winner for GOLDEN CHILD. At Barnes
& Noble, Lincoln Center. 7:30PM, FREE. More: minjinlee.com
THURSDAY, JULY 12: Barnes & Noble’s “Upstairs at the Square” final edition until the fall features featuring Permanent Midnight author Jerry Stahl, whose new book is Love Without (Open City Books, July 12), and Teddy Thompson,
a young British singer-songwriter (and Rufus Wainwright BFF) raised in
a Sufi commune whose raw-boned, big-hearted country covers mine
classics with fresh depth. 7PM, FREE. More: bn.com/upstairs
[via Lauren Cerand]
Our friend Patrick Ng went to Japan and...
"... found so many types of clips. Each is so unique you'd wonder how many clips are there in this world of stationery. This very set of Moleskine is composed of a soft cover 18 months diary, a blank Moleskine, a penclip from Authentics and 17 CLIPS!"
So I just bought my first city notebook. I'm loving it so far. But I had two questions.
First of all, with the transparent pages, what utensil can you use that will wipe off or erase easily? I want to be able to reuse them since there are only 12 included. Will any old pencil do?
Secondly, what did you put on the remaining six tabs towards the back? I'm at a loss of what other sections I should have. Just curious as to what your ideas were.
Westing
Join the discussion at Moleskinerie/FLICKR
I like various kinds and sizes - the paper often has a yellowish/cream colored hue, which at first I was unsure about, but which I have grown to really enjoy.
I can particularly recommend the small pocket-sized books. They are ideal to carry in the inside suit-jacket pocket or even the hip pocket of your jeans and they have a convenient rubber band to hold them shut.
One would not ever want to be caught without a notepad or sketchbook when that inspiration hits on the Tube in London or that amazing character goes strolling by while one is sitting on the terrace of a café in Budapest, now would one?
Ian D. Marsden
Visit his blog
I'm a blue ink guy; I'm that boring. From what I see most people use black ink for drawing, but I'm not sure about what's your favourite color for writing.
I use:
- Waterman blueblack in my fountain pens (a early 50s parker 51 and a parker sonnet are the common suspects)
- Blue medium jotter refills
- Blue or blueblack uniball signo 207
- Blue comfortmate papermate
What about you?
Juan
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[Photo: ABF Copyright © 2005]
Thanks to the thousand plus (and growing) entries from around the world. Our winners for last week are:
Aurelie Moulin
Paris, France
Selim Kocaaydın
Istanbul, Turkey
Jacqueline Azzopardi
Victoria, Australia
Please check your email and reply to the notification so we can send your prizes soonest.
Good luck to the rest of the entrants. To those who haven't joined yet, the complete rules are here.
The next raffle draw will be held on July 14.
David Malkie of Wondermark writes briefly about his Moleskine use
"I carry around a Moleskine notebook to jot ideas and sketches down in, and once in a while I get the crazy idea that I should just make a whole notebook into a single, long comic..."
[Thanks Erik]
Greetings to our friends in Marrakech, Indianapolis, IN, Ethiopia, Hemel Hempstead, Dalfsen, Xalapa, Badajoz, Sault Sainte Marie, Sam Cheung, Tegucigalpa. Stefanos, Al Iskandariyah, Curtea De Arges. Cabimas. Hanno, Petapa, Bignay, Bahia, Sammamish, WA., Minsk, Managua, Maputo and Lusaka.
Massimiliano Fuksas starts his practice in Rome and begins working with Anna Maria Sacconi after a Degree in Architecture from “La Sapienza” University in Rome, he participates in the 12th and the 13th Paris Biennial. He took part in the 1987 “The new Rome school” exhibition, Deutsches Architekturmuseum, Frankfurt am Main and he had a solo show at Architecture Art Galerie, Genéve. He is a Member of the Berlin and Salzburg town planning commissions, in 97 became a director of Institut Français d’Architecture, 1998/2000 Director of VII Biennale Internazionale di Architettura di Venezia 2000 “Less Aesthetics, More Ethics”, in 2000 - Appointed Commandeur de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres de la République Française, and Accademico Nazionale di San Luca. He has been Visiting Professor in a number of universities including Staatliche Akademie der Bildenden Künste in Stuttgardt, Ecole Spéciale d’Architecture in Paris, Institut für Entwerfen und Architektur in Hanover, Akademie der Bildenden Künste in Vienna and Columbia University in New York. He now lives and works in Rome and Paris.
Learn more about the new Moleskine City Notebook.
Learn more about Detour Exhibitions.
Dealer List (.pdf)
Brought to you by Kikkerland Design Inc, NY
Maria Sebregondi,
Brand Equity and Communication VP of Moleskine notebooks, enjoys the courtyard view
from the balcony of her casa di ringheria, a type of apartment
building, in Milan, Italy. [Photo: Bill Hogan]
"Neighbors are not anonymous. You see them. You hear them. Your potted plants touch theirs. Life is about the din — the sounds, the smells, the people who share your di ringhiera world.
“We have our family house in Rome and another house in the mountains,” says Sebregondi, who has lived here for nine years and now is sitting at her large kitchen table, basking in the cool morning breeze and a concert of chirping birds and children playing below.
“So this is just a little cozy house for staying in, for working in Milan. . . . It’s very personal.”
It’s also historical. And tactile and sensory — all words she lives and breathes as brand manager of Moleskine."
The Beauty of the Small and Simple
By Karen Klages
Read the full post at the Chicago Tribune
I lost my journal a couple of weeks ago. It was catastrophic. I’m not kidding. Apart from the fact that I bought that journal when I was in Australia, it holds more than a year’s worth of memories. It was heartbreak. Believe me, I was so close to tears. One thing that should be said about me is that I’m an avid journal writer. I know I already have a blog to act as a journal but I’m old-school. I prefer a pen and a paper to capture my thoughts. My dreams. My anguish. My bliss. That journal is a written “me” at my barest, naked self. Which was the main reason why I was extremely frantic when I realised that I went home (yes, I was already at home when I realised that I had lost it) without my precious journal....
However, with every loss, the next is twice better. Perhaps this time, the journal will be filled with happier thoughts, dreams fulfilled and creation of new dreams, and yea, I wouldn’t part with it. It’s always better to think happy thoughts and look at the brighter side of things instead of dwelling on what’s lost. It’ll just bring your spirit into a state of despair. You really wouldn’t want that, now, would you?
Open that journal and look at that blank page. It’s new and open to endless possibilities. It simply means you are now entitled to a fresh start. A clean slate. Isn’t it wonderful? In life, we sometimes fail to notice all the second chances that God gives us. It’s a clear manifestation of his awesome love, don’t you think? At the cost of losing a year’s worth of memories is a opportunity to make new ones.
Sasha Manuel
Read the full post at "The Parodist"
Photo courtesy of the author
© 2007 SM All rights Reserved
Discover and join our Moleskine communities on LiveJournal, MySpace, Moleskinerie FLICKR, FACEBOOK and Meal Moles. Get out - have a life and write about it. See you on Monday.
Born in France in 1974. Loved drawing, cars, and my cat, Nora. Then grew up, studied English, insisted on not going to art school, and became a public school teacher. Moved to the US in 1995. Took myself seriously. Fell in love. Moved back to Europe in 2003, taught English and French in Brussels, Belgium. Moved back to the US in late 2004. Still teaching, and now attending the School of Visual Arts in NYC.
What happens when you can’t stop drawing? Sometimes you can’t even start, but stopping is not a possibility. What happens when the little girl you were, who locked herself in her room to draw for hours finally catches up with you? You open the door, you let her in and promise her you won’t let her down ever again.
France Belleville
Visit her blog
"We recently spent an wonderful break in Tuscany, staying a short distanceoutside Pienza. The countryside in that area is sublime. I've recently started the long training to become a Psychotherapist and part of that process is keeping a personal journal. My choice after a false start with the recommended A4 notebook was to turn to my faithful stock of Moleskines.In this case a large unlined. I write on the right hand page and draw, annotate and doodle on the left. Showing extraoridary (!) diligence as you can see I took my journal on holiday to catch up with my latest reflections.It was hard work but I guess somebody had to do it. The picture shows atable and benches in a small grove of trees, there was also a hammock nearby, where it was possible to read write in some shade and feel a refreshing breeze to alleviate the summer heat.
I find the colour of the pages is comforting on the eye and the blue ink I use in my Rotring ArtPen takes to the pages wonderfully, enabling me to write fluently and quickly. The tools don't get in the way of the process. What more could I ask.
Whilst we were there I managed to score some Molekines at the equivalent of £8 each, when my local supplier prices at £14. Hurrah."
Paul Lanham
[Originally posted 7.11.06]
Today I bought a new sketchbook. I’m using it to implement an idea of mine. The idea is to sell a filled sketchbook to the highest bidder.
I have been thinking about some ways to gather money to fund some more ideas of mine. Ultimately to fund the build out of the Art Buy the Inch gallery.
Selling art can be difficult and I know that most of my friends cannot afford to spend a large amount of money on one piece. However, I do hope to reach the right people and get some exposure on this project. When the book is done, I’m hoping that the winning bid will be for a reasonable amount.
Drew
More at his blog.
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Here's to "Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness".
Happy Fourth of July
From Moleskinerie.com
© 2006 ABF
The round stamp of Shakespeare & Company on the inside cover of my journal is one of a dozen things that
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