Media Nugget

Pixel Art

Pixel Art

Think back to before computer-based illustration was hyper-real. Remember the 16-color palette? The cartoon outlines? The static viewing angle? Well, they're back. And they're better than ever. Not only will you find practical examples of pixel art all over the place, from online games to magazine illustrations. You've also got consumer products like t-shirts and building blocks aimed at quenching the cultural thirst for this retro style. One of my favorite incarnations of pixel art is Craig Robinson's minipops collection -- tiny little portraits of people like Sonic Youth and the characters from Big Lebowski and hundreds and hundreds more. If you want to explore the world of the pixel art, some decent starting places include eBoy, pixelfreak, Electriconland, and Craig Robinson's Flip Flop Flyin'. If you want to learn how to create your own pixelated masterpiece, then bookmark this tutorial.

Decoration Day

Drive-By Truckers
Decoration Day
2003

It would be a shame to pigeonhole the Truckers as "Southern rock," despite the fact that they are Southern, do rock, and even have a double-length concept album about Lynyrd Skynyrd. Their latest release, The Dirty South, is about to drop, but do yourself a favor and get Decoration Day first. For immediate gratification, you can (legally) download a live version of the title track or hop over to KEXP's live music archive and check out performances from both Decoration Day and the upcoming release.

The Believer

Heidi Julavits, Ed Park, Vendela Vida, et. al.
The Believer
monthly

I went hunting for a single word to describe The Believer, in order to impart its fundamental nature as, um, indescribable. A self-assigned game of word association and I was thumbing to "freak" in the thesaurus. It's not that The Believer strays far from the beaten path of literature, music, art, and intriguing ephemera. It doesn't. But oh how it travels! The interviews are deep and often both sides of the exchange have very smart things to say. The articles are varied, and the regular features are unlike any you've ever seen (my favorite is Underway, where writers share what they're working on). The website has some exclusive content, but for the full experience, which offers the most beautiful magazine design I've ever seen, you'll need to scoop an actual copy. Back to the thesaurus: I didn't find any one word to describe the magazine, but after perusing the freak-related entries -- oddity, folly, non-conformist, enthusiast, and, yes, believer -- I knew I was in the right neighborhood.

Home Cooking

Laurie Colwin
Home Cooking
1988

This is my wife's favorite cookbook and so I'm going out on a limb by attempting to do it justice in a nugget. That said, I can vouch for these things: First, as a novelist and story writer, Laurie Colwin makes these essays a true pleasure to inhabit. The author herself is a compelling main character -- observant, opinionated, and wickedly funny. Second, the recipes are delicious. There aren't all that many, just one or two are featured within each short essay (most appeared as columns in Gourmet). Yam Cakes with Hot Pepper and Fermented Black Beans are a particular favorite. Finally, Colwin's own favorite cookbooks are a great foundation for any kitchen library. She frequently mentions the cooks that she admires: Jane Grigson, Edna Lewis, Margaret Costa, Elizabeth David, and others. Even if your cookbook shelf is full, make some room for Laurie Colwin, who sadly only produced two collections of food writing before her death.

Symphony no. 4

Peter Illyitch Tchaikovsky
Symphony no. 4
1878

I saw this symphony last year and was duly impressed with the fourth movement and its overwhelming energy. However, it wasn't until I watched a recent broadcast of Great Performances that I began to appreciate the entire piece. A few weeks later, I spotted a recommendation from Alex Ross, pointing the way to PBS's multimedia presentation of the symphony. He describes the experience wonderfully: "...the true audience is that vast population of otherwise well-informed people for whom the rituals and codes of classical music are a closed book. This site, more than anything I've seen, opens it all up." Well, as a member of that true audience, I can fully attest to Ross's assessment. The page-by-page view of the musical score is a feature I would desperately love to have whenever I listen to classical music.

World Poker Tour

Steve Lipscomb
World Poker Tour
Travel Channel

Okay, everyone knows it: Poker is hot. What was once just an innocent pastime between friends has blossomed into a multibillion dollar Internet phenomenon and broadcast entertainment juggernaut. And while escalating celebrity involvement usually signals the imminent decline of any interesting cultural trend, there is still a fair chance (AK vs. pocket 4s) that poker on television will still be around when Ben Affleck decides to go back to his day job. If it does, it will be thanks to the players on the World Poker Tour. Notice, I said the players. Not the seizure-inducing lights. Not the witless commentary by Mike Sexton and Vince Van Patten. (Of course, no one's complaining about Shana Hiatt.) Yes, the players that reach the final tables of the WPT are a rag-tag crew of grizzled poker pros, online wunderkind, and home-game heroes. You couldn't cast it better if you tried.... which is why WPT's Hollywood Home Game should immediately be put out to pasture.

del.icio.us

Joshua Schacter
del.icio.us

There have been online bookmark sites before, with the value proposition usually being access to your important sites from any machine -- home, work, on the road. If that's what you want to use del.icio.us for, feel free, but the site's other features are far more enticing. With del.icio.us, you are entering the world of "social bookmarks" -- where your selections are added to the set of public bookmarks that is accessible to anyone who visits the site. If you tag your marks ("music" or "politics" or "design" or any other word you choose) then they show up in the appropriate category pages, again accessible to everyone. So not only do we have a place for our stuff, but we have a place to discover other people's stuff. If a lot of people bookmark a site within 24 hours, it shows up in the "popular" set. Plus you can subscribe to any of these sets via RSS or within your own personalized del.icio.us subscription page. If that weren't enough, you can also browse or subscribe to individual's bookmarks, say Kevan Davis or Clay Shirky. If that weren't enough, you can integrate del.icio.us boomarks into your own site. If that weren't enough, people are always coming up with cool extensions to the del.icio.us universe. When people join together, powerful things can happen.

Cast Puzzles

Hanayama
Cast Puzzles

Hanayama's metal puzzles are mostly classic "tanglement" affairs, where you attempt to separate the component pieces (and hopefully reassemble them). Once you learn how to solve each puzzle, they aren't really all that much fun to repeat, unlike a Rubik's Cube. However, these puzzles are a lot more beautiful than a multicolored plastic cube, and once they're solved, they transition gracefully to paperweights, conversation pieces, and something to just fiddle around with unconciously. The puzzles are divided into six levels of difficulty. Skip the lower half, unless you're buying for a child. But don't think you'll start at the top, either. Several of the toughest puzzles are "unranked." Take on the Enigma at your peril.

Let America Laugh

David Cross
Let America Laugh
2003

Comedian David Cross was one of the creators of the brilliant Mr. Show and now appears on the Fox series Arrested Development, which is hands-down the best thing on network television. Let America Laugh is ostensibly a comedy tour movie, but unlike most of that genre, the focus is off-stage, not on. And there's plenty of hilarity out there: Cross antagonizing club owners, Cross being interviewed by a clueless college journalist, Cross and his tourmates buying fireworks. If you appreciate Cross's sarcastic wit, this one's definitely worth renting.

Schott's Original Miscellany

Ben Schott
Schott's Original Miscellany
2002

British photographer Ben Schott came out with this slim volume of factual floatsam a couple years back. It's already well on its way to becoming a franchise, which will probably overshadow the charm of the first installment, much like the Worst Case Scenario juggernaut did. That said, this collection is worth a look before the plague of desk calendars descends. Variety is the key here. Sections include: medical shorthand, cockney rhyming slang, pencil hardness, cattle branding, etc. etc. etc. Also notable is the book design, which is, um, "strongly reminiscent" of the McSweeney's aesthetic.