On Margins

W. David Marx and I talk about his book Ametora, Japanese culture, and books in translation.

Full transcript is available online:

https://craigmod.com/onmargins/s02e03/

Noted:

• Ametora: How Japan Saved American Fashion
• AMETORA(アメトラ) 日本がアメリカンスタイルを救った物語
• Néojaponisme
• @wdavidmarx on Twitter
• A Bathing Ape Takes a Final Bath
• Brift H shoe shine master
• David’s recent writing about obscurity in the Internet Age
• Scarcity Makes the Heart Grow Fonder - early nytimes piece on BAPE, David quoted
• American Truck Simulator

Sam Anderson is back, 10 months later, discussing his 2020 pandemic writing life. We cover his Weird Al essay, his NBA bubble excursion, how closely observing something makes for a wonderful writing exercise, and! we reveal our extremely obvious One Wild Trick to getting everything done in life.

Show notes:

• Sam Anderson on Twitter
• Boom Town, Sam Anderson
• Descript, visual podcast editing
• “The Weirdly Enduring Appeal of Weird Al Yankovic”, Sam Anderson
• “What I Learned Inside the N.B.A. Bubble”, Sam Anderson
• The Last Two Northern White Rhinos On Earth, Sam Anderson
• “Watch This Snowball Fight From 1897 for a Jolt of Pure Joy”, Sam Anderson
• “I Recommend Eating Chips”, Sam Anderson
• Ursula K. Le Guin (Author)
• A Wizard of Earthsea, Ursula K. Le Guin
• Ursula K. Le Guin illustrated by t-shirt
• Audrey Lorde, “Anger is loaded with information and energy."

As always, a full transcript is available at: https://craigmod.com/onmargins/s02e02/

Sam Anderson is a New York Times Magazine staff writer and the author of Boom Town, a book about the "great minor city of America" — Oklahoma City. This is part one of a two part interview. We recorded this conversation in March, 2020, just as the first lockdown of the pandemic had gone into effect.

• Sam Anderson on Twitter
• Boom Town, Sam Anderson
• New Sentences
• Annie Dillard (Author)
• The Writing Life, Annie Dillard
• The Abundance, Annie Dillard
• John McPhee (Author)
• “The Fierce Imagination of Haruki Murakami”

Full transcript online at: https://craigmod.com/onmargins/s02e01/

An extended interview with Jon Gray, aka Gray318, the award winning, London based, book designer. Gray318 has designed covers for William Gibson, Zadie Smith, Salman Rushdie, David Foster Wallace, Robin Sloan, and perhaps most famously, for Jonathan Safran Foer.

Show links:

• Gray318
• Gray318 Instagram
• Corrie Baldauf's Gravity's Rainbow Project
• Gravity's Rainbow
• Sally Mann documentary
• Jonathan Safran Foer
• Tree of Codes
• The Yellow World
• Zadie Smith
• Karl Lagerfeld
• Rodrigo Corral
• MCD Books
• Infinite Jest
• A Death by Stephen King
• America is Not the Heart
• House of Leaves
• Only Revolutions
• Art Space Tokyo

Full transcript online at: https://craigmod.com/onmargins/010

An interview with novelist, essayist, and cultural critic, Lynne Tillman.

Craig Mod sits down with Lynne Tillman at her apartment in Manhattan and they go through the covers of her novels, essay collections, and non-fiction books. 

Show Links:

• Lynne on Twitter
• Lynne's Books
• Lynne's Wikipedia
• Artist Babara Kruger
• Artist Nan Goldin
• Artist Peter Drerer
• Artist Sadie Benning
• Artist Barbara Ess
• Charles Orr, designer
• Soft Skull Press
• Publisher / Editor Richard Nash
• What Would Lynne Tillman Do, the website
• 3am Magazine interview with Lynne
• “On Lynne Tillman” by Colm Toibin for The New Yorker
• An Interview With Lynne Tillman, Believer Mag

In this episode we're talking with designer and letterer, Jessica Hische, author of the New York Times best-selling children's book: Tomorrow I'll Be Brave. 

You've almost certainly seen Jessica's work. She refreshed logos for MailChimp, Southern Living, Eventbrite. She did a logo for the incredible "California Sunday Magazine." She did titles for Wes Anderson's "Moonlight Kingdom." She designed covers for books like Dave Eggers' "The Circle" and "Hologram for the King," and for Elizabeth Gilbert's, "Committed" among many, many more books.

We discuss her unique production and marketing strategy for the book, how she chose her publisher, and how to respect the heck out of contacts you've built up over the years. 

An interview with Lisa Brennan-Jobs, author of the best selling memoir, Small Fry. Lisa and Craig Mod discuss the design, production, and writing of this fascinating book about family, identity, and growing up in Palo Alto as the daughter of Steve Jobs.

• Lisa on Twitter
• Small Fry the book
• Hera Big font
• Book designer, Alison Forner
• The Subtle Genius of Elena Ferrante’s Bad Book Covers

Full transcript and audio online at: https://craigmod.com/onmargins/007/

Craig Mod has been walking the historical mountains and paths of Japan for the last five years. In April of 2018 he went on a solo Kumano Kodo walk and made this recording discussing the economics and production of his 2016 book, Koya Bound: Eight days on the Kumano Kodo. The book was made in collaboration with Dan Rubin and was sponsored by Leica Cameras. 

• Koya Bound
• walkkumano.com — data and maps of the walk
• craigmod.com
• The Kumano Kodo pilgrimage walk's main website

Full transcript and audio online at: https://craigmod.com/onmargins/006/

Kottke.org is a website. It is not an app. It is not a product. It is simply a static website, updated daily, running some rickety old blogging software.

As of March of 2018 it's been consistently updated for twenty years. It is largely the product of a single mind: Jason Kottke. Kottke.org has shaped the way many of us have thought about news, blogging, and linking.

On Margins talks with Jason about his two decades of blogging, influences in his life that shaped how he works today, and what kottke.org would look like were it a book. 

Show Links:

• kottke.org
• kottke.org — 10 years old
• kottke.org — 20 years of gratitude and acknowledgements
• kottke.org — twenty
• Nieman Labs: How Jason Kottke is thinking about kottke.org at 20
• Noticing — the kottke.org newsletter written by Tim Carmondy
• kottke.org memberships

Full transcript and audio online at: https://craigmod.com/onmargins/005/

An extended interview with Goodnight Stories for Rebel girls co-creator, Elena Favilli. 

Co-founder of Timbuktu Labs, Elena Favilli, delves into how the company went from an award winning but ultimately unprofitable children's magazine app company, to an international bestselling publisher of physical books around the world.

We dig into why the iPad is perhaps not the best platform for publishers. How everything seemed so rosy back in 2011 for digital publishing. And how, ultimately, to build a strong and engaged community, they had to print a physical book. 

Show links:

• Goodnight Stories for Rebel Girls homepage
• Goodnight Stories for Rebel Girls podcast
• Original Rebel Girls Kickstarter (2016)
• Rebel Girls Indiegogo page
• Goodnight Stories for Rebel Girls 2

Full transcript and audio online at: https://craigmod.com/onmargins/004/