Korine is best known for writing Kids (1995) and writing/directing Gummo (1997). His non-linear, fragmented style of storytelling and dark subject matter tends not to be for everyone, however, it’s hard to argue with his boundry-pushing experimentation of film. Read more here.
Richard Nickel - Architectural Photographer 1928-1972
Nickel spent much of his adult life, in Chicago, photographing buildings slated for demo. He was particularly obsessed with capturing Louis Sullivan works and would remove artifacts/details before complete destruction. He would ultimately meet his untimely death when Sullivan’s doomed Stock Exchange Building would collapse while Nickel was inside. See/read more about him here.
Elmore Leonard (1925-2013) Writer
Leonard wrote dozens of crime and underbelly fiction, but was truly a master of dialogue. Novels include: Out of Sight, Rum Punch, Get Shorty, Kill Shot and on and on. See more here.
Magda Boreysza - Artist
Found these drawings in New Orleans of these dilapidated houses. Love the linework and detail. See more at Fox & Comet.
Seattle Public Library - by OMA + LMN architects
Architecturally, one of the more stand-out new libraries in the country. It seems to represent the modern house of information. Read more here.
Amy Hempel - Writer
Amy Hempel is one of those writers that understands how to structure her writing sparingly but with great power. Here’s a 3min. video of her reading two of her short stories.
Oliver Sacks - Author, Neurologist
I like these photos of the younger Oliver Sacks, as most of us only became familiar with him as an older soft spoken scientist. His book, The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat, excellently captures his curiosity, humor and compassion. Easily find more about him online.
Middlesex - Jeffrey Eugenides (Writer)
This is one of those books that everyone should be required to read. Loved it. Eugenides also wrote The Virgin Suicides and The Marriage Plot.
Humans of New York - Social Experiment
Photographer, Brandon Stanton, started taking photos of people in New York and captioning each picture with a story an individual or group shared with him at the time. Needless to say, his experiment has grown, see more here.
Fight Club - Chuck Palahniuk (writer)
This is one of those little books with lots of big ideas and unexpected observations and wisdoms buried within it. Here are more books by Palahniuk, but this is my favorite.
Neil Gaiman - Writer
Gaiman is excellent at telling transformational journey stories. Of the several that I’ve read, this stands out as a favorite, more of his books here.
Michael Chabon - Writer
If I were a filmmaker, this is the book I’d make into a movie. See more novels by Michael Chabon here.
POST SECRETS - SOCIAL EXPERIMENT
Anonymous personal secrets mailed-in to a guy named Frank, sometimes funny, sometimes tragic. I can’t help but check in here from time to time.
SHELTER
This is one of those books I refer to a couple times a year. It looks at how humans create dwellings and more, through an anthropological lens - studying early hut techniques to community water and sanitation. It’s just a good reminder that people have been doing this for a long time and there are no right answer but lots of great shared ideas.
Joel Sternfeld - Photographer
He takes large format photographs (which typ. requires a great deal of setup) - I have no idea how he gets these masterfully composed images.
Ta-nehisi coates - Between the world and me
POW-ER-FUL!
