Brian Griffin

Lloyd Reynolds Italic Calligraphy

Brian Griffin — Thu, 27 Jun 2013 22:53:53 +0000

I have been watching & enjoying Lloyd Reynolds’s excellent series Italic Calligraphy & Handwriting¹ that originally aired back in the late 1960s on Oregon Public Broadcasting. His philosophical introduction to the workshop resonates with some of the ideas I have become familiar with via Innis, Havelock & McLuhan (Toronto School of Communication Theory²). Reynolds explains how the written word vanishes, while the written word stays. Verba volant, scripta manent.

And by the way, we’re all designers. –LJR

I appreciate his understanding of writing as a derivative of drawing. He describes the importance of whitespace in writing, noting that what we actually do when writing is divide the paper into recognizable shapes & that good writing does a better job of this than poor writing does, providing the contrasting examples of italic writing & “commercial cursive designs”. Later he says that letter forms are not to be found in bottles of ink but instead on sheets of paper, noting that there is very little ink involved in writing.

At the end of the first episode he presents an exercise that is a favourite of my former violin teacher – watching someone execute a skill and imagining the feelings, sensations and experience of the person performing the skill. Books on calligraphy offer much description of angles, pressure, speed & so on, but there is no substitute for observing the ease of a master calligrapher at work.

Throughout the series, the ink, anecdotes and aphorisms flow, accompanied by LJR’s airy voice and steady hand.

The Guild

Brian Griffin — Tue, 04 Jun 2013 11:51:18 +0000

Guildwood Park is located up on the Scarborough Bluffs along Lake Ontario. The grounds were once home to an artists’ colony & now host some of Toronto’s architectural relics including columns, sculptures & partial façades.

Architectural Feature at Guildwood Park

Amphitheatre at Guildwood Park

Doors Open

Brian Griffin — Sun, 26 May 2013 22:26:20 +0000

I spent part of the weekend getting to know TO a little better during Doors Open. But this was not the epic DO experience of years past. Instead I visited places within walking distance of home, notably the Coach House Press, the Gardiner Museum and several U of T buildings.

Hart House Pianist

I think DO is a great way for people who are new to TO to try some of the fun things the city has to offer in a short amount of time and with little investment. And for people like me who have been here a while, it is a nice opportunity to get inside many of the places where fellow Torontonians live and work.

Hanami High Park

Brian Griffin — Mon, 06 May 2013 23:14:44 +0000

Since I’ve been living in Toronto, I’ve come to think of the annual blooming of the cherry blossom trees in High Park as marking the beginning of spring. I still can not decide which I enjoy more: taking photos of the blossoms or spotting other people’s rare cameras and gear.

The Magical and the Neutral

Brian Griffin — Thu, 07 Mar 2013 04:09:55 +0000

I had the unique opportunity to browse selections from MM‘s personal library this evening at the FRBL courtesy of CJY. This was not an experience I am likely to forget anytime soon – the thrills were many. The books included annotated Havelock, Joyce (Ulysses stuffed full of ephemera) & Ong. I am very much looking forward to visiting this collection again.

Alan Lomax Archive

Brian Griffin — Sun, 27 Jan 2013 23:21:40 +0000

I will refrain, for now, from providing any syrupy endorsements of the Lomaxes, our spiritual kinship, or discussing the gradual disappearance of the Austinite accent & way of speaking. I only suggest that it is worthwhile to spend a little time here.

Install Zotero 64-bit Ubuntu

Brian Griffin — Sun, 07 Oct 2012 23:03:29 +0000

sudo mv ~/Downloads/Zotero_linux-i686/ /opt

zotero.desktop
#!/usr/bin/env xdg-open [Desktop Entry] Type=Application Name=Zotero GenericName=Bibliography Manager Icon=/opt/Zotero_linux-x86_64/chrome/icons/default/default48.png Exec= /opt/Zotero_linux-x86_64/zotero %f Categories=Office Terminal=false

sudo mv zotero.desktop /usr/share/applications

To uninstall: sudo rm -r /opt/Zotero_linux-x86_64 and sudo rm /usr/share/applications/zotero.desktop. User files are in ~/.zotero.

Fix Slow Chromium

Brian Griffin — Tue, 28 Aug 2012 18:23:08 +0000

sudo gedit /etc/nsswitch.conf hosts: files mdns4_minimal [NOTFOUND=return] wins dns mdns4 hosts: files dns

2634-guad

Brian Griffin — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 16:26:40 +0000

HH

Brian Griffin — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 17:30:21 +0000

Continuing Trends

Brian Griffin — Fri, 21 Oct 2011 16:55:02 +0000

time-space distanciation, nostalgiascapes – mind, the ideal time machine ?:-)

Scravenge

Brian Griffin — Fri, 24 Jun 2011 11:49:07 +0000

(verb) creating a meal from whatever is in the fridge/pantry

D: What are you making for supper?
B: IDK, I’m just going to scravenge something. Steamed veggies, maybe a piece of frozen fish.

Cro-Magnon

Brian Griffin — Mon, 28 Jun 2010 22:18:14 +0000

I just finished reading Brian Fagan‘s fascinating book Cro-Magnon. I particularly enjoyed the brief descriptions of the music and body adornment of the period. I have often wondered: how would Cro-Mag tunes sound, and although some jewelery survives, how did they accessorize? There are numerous examples of CM art, but what role did it play in daily life? Here are some supplementary links related to CM art and music:

Christian Jegou – illustrator known for his beautiful portrayals of early humans. See: Libellés:Origines de l’homme
Picture Gallery of the Paleolithic – Illustrations and text Libor Balák. Nice illustrations/recreations of Cro-Mag clothing and adornment. See esp. The Gravettian.
Lascaux – a visit to the cave
Music in the Paleolithic
Paleolithic Flutes – These flutes represent the earliest known musical instruments and provide valuable evidence of prehistoric music. The presence of these flutes demonstrates that a developed musical tradition existed from the earliest period of modern human presence in Europe.
Bullroarer – The bullroarer, rhombus, or turndun, is an ancient ritual musical instrument and means of communicating over extended distances. It dates back to the Paleolithic period, being found in Ukraine dating from 17,000 B.C.
Venus Figurines
Ice Age Art – gallery of paleolithic sculpture

Liferea Custom Stylesheet

Brian Griffin — Thu, 24 Jun 2010 19:11:26 +0000

I wanted a simpler reading pane for Liferea that displayed less metadata and without the horizontal bars that separate the feed items. To use, just copy the file into ~/.liferea_1.4/.

Download liferea.css

Doors Open Toronto

Brian Griffin — Sun, 30 May 2010 18:31:41 +0000

Doors Open Toronto was a lot of fun. We roamed all over the city and got to see some interesting places. Highlights: West Toronto Masonic Temple, Shamrock Lanes, Birbeck Building, and the observation decks of Town Hall and Canada Life. See more photos here.