“Virginia Oliver, a feisty, salty-tongued lobster boat skipper who fished off the New England coast wearing earrings, hot-pink lipstick and an occasional scowl for more than 80 years, until she was 103, died on Jan. 21 in Rockport, Maine. She was 105. ” 💬 Join the discussion on
Residents of Sebastia in the Occupied West Bank say that Israel’s plan to redevelop the area for tourism will cut them off from their history and livelihood.
This week, we honor an Irish colorist, a Senegalese sculptor, and the steward of a family art dynasty, as well as two Florida Highwaymen.
Shared Claude is a website anyone can change via LLM chat. “Text the number below to shape this website in real-time.” (Does anyone remember Metababy ?) 💬 Join the discussion on kottke.org →
The 2026 grant cycle opens February 16. Submit a letter of intent by March 6.
Wow, these paper flowers from 11th-century China are amazingly well-preserved. 💬 Join the discussion on kottke.org →
Cast your vote for your favorite photo until March 18. 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 Vote for the 2025 Wildlife Photographer of the Year’s
"Apollo 8 saved 1968. Artemis II may work similar magic today."
I was poking around on YouTube for “how to” videos (one of my favorite video genres) the other day when I hit a small jackpot: a bunch of How Do They…? videos from the National Film Board of Canada. A favorite shows how chain link fences are made: You can view all the videos at
The artist critiques the legitimacy of cartography, empire, and ecological adaptation.
An almost 2-hour mashup mix by dk darkly of music from France’s two most well-known electronic duos, Daft Punk and Justice . Also available on Bandcamp . 💬 Join the discussion on kottke.org →
"A photograph is only a small piece in the jigsaw that makes up the big picture, but sometimes it is these small pieces that open our eyes to the broader reality." Do stories and artists like this matter to you? Become a Colossal Member today and support independent arts
The question of what it takes to create — to make something of beauty and substance that touches other lives across space and time — is one of the deepest, oldest questions, perhaps because the answer to it is so unbearably simple: everything. We bring everything we are and
From the collection of the Met, an Egyptian artist’s sketch of a sparrow circa 1479–1458 BCE. Much of the art that filters down to us from ancient civilizations was used for official purposes (state, religion, commerce); it’s nice to see something simpler like this drawing.
The Evolutionary Brilliance of the Baby Giggle . “Laughter and humor are fundamental to how babies learn about and participate in the world.” *Highly recommend* watching the laughing baby videos to brighten up your day. 💬 Join the discussion on kottke.org →
Only 7 gasoline cars were sold in Norway last month . Seven! 98 diesel cars & 29 hybrids were also sold, but the rest were EVs. And this comes after Norway cut EV incentives. 💬 Join the discussion on kottke.org →
"It may be that in REM, this gloaming between waking consciousness and the unconscious, we practice the possible into the real... It may be that we evolved to dream ourselves into reality — a laboratory of consciousness that began in the bird brain."
Roxane Gay : “Humanity is, always, enough. We have a right to protest, legally carry a firearm, drive while Black, walk in a neighborhood at night, play in a park, sleep in a bed or do anything else whether we are wonderful people, and beloved or not.” 💬 Join the discussion on
Good god, this story: Mother Says Asking 13-Year-Old Son to Swim Four Hours to Save Family ‘One of the Hardest Decisions’ . “I knew he was the strongest and he could do it.” Australia: a nation of athletes. 💬 Join the discussion on kottke.org →
To master our own lives, we must venture beyond the rules and embrace risk – Heidegger’s philosophy grounded in real life - by Aeon Video Watch on Aeon
David A. Ross resigns for his ties with the convicted pedophile, shows to see in LA this spring, the role of plastic in contemporary art, and our monthly opportunities listings.
"Using chemistry, archival records and AI, scientists are reviving the aromas of old libraries, mummies and battlefields."
A surprising amount of our time is spent sorting things to create value. They sort the rotten cranberries from the good ones to ensure that the bag at the market is worth buying. And we sort the movies worth watching, the bargains worth pursuing and the news worth reading.
More than a few of us can claim, with some confidence, to know every Beatles song. And indeed it may be true, in that we’ve heard every track of all their studio albums. But as decade after decade of Beatles scholarship has demonstrated, there’s knowing their songs, and then
Image via Wikimedia Commons On the off chance Lin-Manuel Miranda is casting around for source material for his next American history-based blockbuster musical, may we suggest American Cookery by “poor solitary orphan” Amelia Simmons? First published in 1796, at 47 pages (nearly
This Github project from Ankur Gupta allows you to “generate beautiful, minimalist map posters for any city in the world”. There are a variety of different themes you can choose from and the resulting images are big enough to print out actual posters (20-inch height maximum).
In January 2015, years after Epstein’s conviction, the former museum leader told him that he was “still proud” to call him a friend.
An Old Master as a young man, Richard Wright’s influence on John Wilson, Tribeca galleries vs. street vendors, other things to know about NYC this week.
The full trailer for The Devil Wears Prada 2 . The pitch perfection of Miranda completely forgetting Andy gives me hope that this will be a worthy sequel. 💬 Join the discussion on kottke.org →
"Losing home and rebuilding, reluctantly, in the year after Los Angeles’s Eaton Fire."
The artist, educator, and co-founder of local arts publication Artblog is remembered as a warm and energetic force in the community.
The artist, educator, and co-founder of local arts publication Artblog is remembered as a warm and energetic force in the community
Been thinking a lot about this Ted Chiang quote recently: “I tend to think that most fears about A.I. are best understood as fears about capitalism. And I think that this is actually true of most fears of technology, too.” 💬 Join the discussion on kottke.org →