Madam Mayo: Clay Shirky

Wang Rong Rollin does the chicken thing

Whatever has befallen you, you will feel better when you read Naomi Shihab Nye's "Gate A-4"

Soup or silly: Chinese Chicken Pop (does anyone remember the days of Mao pajamas? I visited in 1982 and now it seems like a surrealistic dream.)

From south of the border, pues si, amigos y amigas, dear readers, and all cockerspaniels gathered 'round, Nixon's Checkers speech has been Fukushimaed. https://youtube.com/watch?v=tdJ06CLjjxE

Speaking of Mexico, and how very weird things can get, Heribert von Feilitzsch blogs about the Hindu-German conspiracy.

No need to drink coffee, just watch Jason Silva.

An anti-zombie-shuffle fix, aka "cool tool" for creating "timewealth": my guest-blog for Kevin Kelly's Cool Tool blog on the Filofax Personal organizer.

Frank Chimero on What Screens Want.

The brilliantly insightful Clay Shirky on Publishing and Reading.

(Note to self: first shovel snow for 12 hours) Susan J. Tweit's lavender rosemary scones.

A gorgeous sample of four: Guarding the Air: poems by Gunnar Harding, translated by Roger Greenwald.

Cyberflanerie: Bug-a-salt, etc.

Cyberflanerie: Mexico City, Patzuaro, Tijuana and Tulum

Cyberflanerie: Fun in Mexico, Literary Edition

Cyberflanerie: Harry Ransom, Michael K. Schuessler, Tina Larkin, Sophy Burnham, Clay Shirky & more

Researchers and translators take note: The Harry Ransom Center in Austin, Texas has just made available a magnificent collection, with data base, of Spanish Theater and "Comedias Sueltas." Read more in English or in Spanish.

My amigo Michael K. Schuessler has just published a gorgeous and important book with University of Arizona Press: Foundational Arts: Mural Painting and Missionary Theater in New Spain. From the catalog:

In Foundational Arts Michael K. Schuessler asserts that the literature of New Spain begins with missionary theater and its intimate relationship to mural painting. In particular, he examines the relationships between texts and visual images that emerged in Mexico at two Augustinian monasteries in Hidalgo, Mexico, during the century following the Spanish Conquest. The forced combination of the ideographical tradition of Nahuatl with Latin-based language alphabets led to a fascinating array of new cultural expressions.
Missionary theater was organized by ingenious friars with the intent to convert and catechize indigenous populations. Often performed in Nahuatl or other local languages, the actors combined Latin-based language texts with visual contexts that corresponded to indigenous ways of knowing: murals, architectural ornamentation, statuary, altars, and other modes of visual representation. By concentrating on the interrelationship between mural painting and missionary theater, Foundational Arts explores the artistic and ideological origins of Mexican plastic arts and literature.

Listen in to my interview with Michael Schuessler about his previous books about Mexico and Mexican writers, for Conversations with Other Writers.

Paper Crown from Art We Heart
www.artweheart.com

Love-love-love these paper crowns from Art We Heart. Must, must, must have.

Oh, she seems so happy: Artist Tina Larkin and Purple HarpMobile.

Sophy Burnham's 10 Rules of the Universe.

Clay Shirky rants about women. (Having just nudged a couple of girlfriends with their unnecessarily modest CVs, I'd say he's right on. Anyway, a very interesting perspective, well worth reading and pondering.)

Big Data blog by Igor Carron with a snow-cool title: Nuit Blanche.

Georgia O'Keeffe's hands: a brief and very unusual podcast by hand analyst Janet Savage.

Homicide Watch for Washington DC: a much needed and well-done blog. (So many murders, so little press.)

Speaking of DC, Wilson Quarterly has launched as a digital.

Greg Borzo interviews me for the University of Chicago Social Sciences Division newsletter, about my new book, Metaphysical Odyssey into the Mexican Revolution.

COMMENTS always welcome.