At Villa Lontana in Rome, 'Bar Far' is a functional bar and an art installation in one. Do stories and artists like this matter to you? Become a Colossal Member today and support independent arts publishing for as little as $7 per month. The article Clementine Keith-Roach and
I must confess something: I’m a grinch. The holiday season makes me morose. I dislike the pressures of gift-buying and the ever-present din of Christmas music, and I find red and green to be a regrettable color combination. But I adore the New Year. Like a true Aries,
"The main trouble with 1587 Prime isn’t its child-like idea of luxury. It’s that it’s a steakhouse that doesn’t nail the steaks."
Bless hindsight for how it clarifies the confusions of time, for how precisely it plots the true highs and lows on the terrain map of life once the quakes of the moment have died down, for how dispassionately it reveals what was a fleeting enthusiasm and what a lifelong gift.
Perhaps this has happened to you: You’re at the reference desk of the library, with the answer to any question available–and you can’t think of anything to ask. And there’s the vegetable blindness that occurs at a really good farmer’s market. After a few stalls, it’s hard to
One can easily imagine a reader enjoying both The Lord of the Rings and Dune. Both of those works of epic fantasy were published in the form of a series of long novels beginning in the mid-twentieth century; both create elaborate worlds of their own, right down to details of
If you’re a regular listener, you know that Ezra Klein wraps up his podcast interviews with a familiar question: what three books would you recommend to the audience? When Klein interviewed Brian Eno in October, the producer had these three books to offer. First up was Printing
A rare Jacob Lawrence painting, the Louvre’s first video artwork, a trove of Indigenous art, and a Frank Lloyd Wright house are on this year’s list.
Shel Silverstein’s Homework Machine was one of my kids’ favorite poems of his when they were little. First published in 1981, the short poem turned out to be rather prescient about AI, especially the earlier LLMs, which couldn’t math their way out of a wet paper bag. Your
Conservatives are trying to roll the Constitution back to the pre-Civil War version . “It will be a society of the dominators and the dominated. But it will not be a democracy worthy of the name.”
One of America’s Most Successful Experiments Is Coming to a Shuddering Halt . “‘It’s not the same. Why am I here? I question that to myself.’ Amid an astonishing wave of anti-Indian animus, it’s a question many Indian Americans are asking.” 💬 Join the discussion on kottke.org →
A great paradox of being alive in this civilization is that we have come to dread and devalue the triumph of having lived, forgetting that to grow old is not a punishment but a privilege — that of having survived the loneliness of childhood, the brash insecurity of youth, the
Ultracold atoms observed climbing a quantum staircase . (Relatable: the upstairs of my house is warmer than the ground floor too.) 💬 Join the discussion on kottke.org →
I pushed a key change to the Underscore music player over the weekend. Members can now click on any song in their collection to play it (previously there was only a randomize button). I added this because I often wanted to listen to a particular song/album/playlist, genre, or
Thin Desires Are Eating Your Life . “A thick desire is one that changes you in the process of pursuing it. A thin desire is one that doesn’t.” 💬 Join the discussion on kottke.org →
A look back at the best of creativity, science, and culture throughout 2025. Do stories and artists like this matter to you? Become a Colossal Member today and support independent arts publishing for as little as $7 per month. The article Our Favorite Stories of 2025 appeared
The Internet Archive has a playable version of the NY Times Crossword Puzzle app from 1992 . It ran on Windows 3.1 and included a few hundred puzzles. (Click on Game/Open to select a puzzle.) 💬 Join the discussion on kottke.org →