Russian Sledges

1900-10s Butterfly Wing Pendant, 10K Gold, $265

adokal:

Ottoman set of damascened calligrapher’s tools, 19th c. CE.

source

119 Fashion And Beauty Lessons From Josephine Baker That We Still Live By Today

TodayTuesday would have marked Josephine Baker’s 108th birthday. And although the world renowned singer/dancer/actress has been gone for almost three decades her spirit and style still live on.

In fact, Rihanna was clearly channeling Josephine’s singular style at lastMonday night’s CFDA Awards in a bespoke Adam Selman see-through gown made from over 230,000 Swarovski crystals and a sleek pixie covered in a dazzling head wrap.

The perfectly timed homage got us thinking about all the other fashion and beauty cues Miss Baker has left us with. So in celebration of her birthday, here are 119 lessons from the “Bronze Venus” that we still live by today.

An anonymous reader writes The U.S. National Archives has revealed to Wikipedia newspaper The Signpost that it will be uploading all of its holdings to the Wikimedia Commons. Dominic McDevitt-Parks told the Signpost that "The records we have uploaded so far contain some of the most high-value holdings ... However, we are not limiting ourselves ... Our approach has always been simply to upload as much as possible ... to make them as widely accessible to the public as possible."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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What’s worse than the well-meaning-but-meaningless “Coexist” bumper stickers that have been around for two decades? The “Coexist Gun Bumper Sticker” where the letters in COEXIST are made up of gun logos, of course.

*Ginsburg, I know, my rage blinded my usual propensity to spellcheck. My bad RBG!!

For years the prospect of a new Islamic caliphate has entranced the minds of jihadi crazies around the globe and their polar opposite western islamophobes. Now ISIS has officially declared a reborn Caliphate with its leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, as the new Caliph. They've even conjured up a purported genealogy for al-Baghdadi, making him a descendent of Muhammad. In an ancillary rebranding they've also dropped the IS or IL from their four letter abbreviation, now going simply by IS for "Islamic State", as in, the Islamic state, the only legitimate one.

Saint Amand is the patron saint of all who produce beer: brewers, innkeepers and bartenders (and presumably[citation needed] also hopgrowers). He is also the patron of vine growers, vintners and merchants, and of Boy Scouts.

rowlingandmoffat:

Question: What’s the weirdest thing a fan has ever given you

Peter/Sylvester: *mumbling* oh i dont know….

Audience member: “A GRANDDAUGHTER”

jaded-mandarin:

George Gower. Portrait of Elizabeth Knollys, 1577.

Free antique parlor table to give away. See picture

memoriastoica:

Mexico City Brutalism in Total Recall (1990)

“It was the kinkiest secret in the Soviet Union: Across from the Kremlin, the country’s main library held a pornographic treasure trove. Founded by the Bolsheviks as a repository for aristocrats’ erotica, the collection eventually grew to house 12,000 items from around the world, ranging from 18th-century Japanese engravings to Nixon-era romance novels.”

Alex Ross suggests that the opera’s ongoing role as a controversy magnet is rooted in “its pensive, ambivalent attitude toward present-day issues about which a great many people feel no ambivalence whatsoever.”

Eric DeFriez, Google technical lead for Gmail APIs:

For a while now, many of you have been asking for a better way to access data to build apps that integrate with Gmail. While IMAP is great at what it was designed for (connecting email clients to email servers in a standard way), it wasn’t really designed to do all of the cool things that you have been working on, which is why this week at Google I/O, we’re launching the beta of the new Gmail API.

Designed to let you easily deliver Gmail-enabled features, this new API is a standard Google API, which gives RESTful access to a user’s mailbox under OAuth 2.0 authorization. It supports CRUD operations on true Gmail datatypes such as messages, threads, labels and drafts.

Is this the beginning of the end for IMAP and SMTP access to Gmail?

See the glove in this video? It's made of conductive yarn that's 80 percent polyester and 20 percent stainless steel, which gives it the power to control electronic components. In fact, its creator, Royal College of Art student Yen Chen Chang, wired...

Do you like food? Do you like movies? Do you like movies about food? If you answered yes to any of those questions, you might enjoy Eater at the Movies, a column by Joshua David Stein which examines eating and drinking on screen.

Chef, there's no there there. [Photo: Cohen Media]

Sometimes I wonder what Travis Bickle would think of Jack Byrnes or how the Terminator T-800 model would gaze upon the Terminator T-850. Probably much the same way I do at the naked old men in the locker room of my gym: both dismissively and a bit sadly because soon my flesh will soon droop, my stomach will eclipse my penis, and I'll have to endure the judge-y looks of some taut young punk. But in the case of Jean Reno, the tragically faced French actor, I'm pretty sure Léon from The Professional — his first and best role — would murder immediately Alexandre Lagarde, the character Reno plays in the absolutely foul new film, Le Chef.

This review is obviously a pan, but it is also an attempt to understand how these particularly odious 84 minutes of film ever passed through the security checks which, by and large, prevent shit from reaching fruition. Le Chef is the General Motors of food movies.

Is the problem the plot? Partially. The plot is at once formulaic and far-fetched, obvious, and obviously awful. Jacky Bonnot (puppy-faced Michaël Youn) is an autodidact line cook and recipe savant. Though his impossibly and unrealistically gorgeous girlfriend Beatrice (Raphaele Agogue) is nine months pregnant, he simply can't bear to cook french fries when TKFANCYASSDISHTK would do. He is often fired.

Alexandre Lagarde (Reno), meanwhile, is a three-star Michelin chef whose Parisian restaurant, Cargo Lagarde, is about to be taken from him by a ruthless restaurateur, Stanislas Matter (Julien Boissilier). The Michelin critics are coming and Matter is hell-bent on sabotaging Lagarde's cuisine, using the loss of a star or two to justify removing Lagarde and installing a more "modernist" chef in his place.

Three ethnic stereotypes: Chang, Titi, and Moussa. [Photo: Cohen Media]

Meanwhile, to please his preggo GF, Jacky gets a gig painting window frames at a nursing home. But one day, enraged by the sloppy technique he sees through the window he's painting — see what they did there? — he climbs into the kitchen and organizes the three ethnic stereotypes who work therein into a crack pot kitchen brigade. Their names are literally Chang, Titi, and Moussa. One day whilst visiting the father of said rapacious restaurateur, Lagarde is tempted to try Jacky's TKSOUPTK which, it turns out, was actually made from a recipe of Lagarde's circa TKYEAR. Guess what happens?!?!??! No, really, guess.

[Oh, and if you're wondering why there are so many TKs in this piece, it is because I simply can't bear to go back to rewatch the movie to fill them in. TK is, by the way, journalistic shorthand for "to come." There are various theories as to its origin but the one I like best is that there are no words with TK so all you need to do is a quick search for TK to find all the facts you need to fill in. That sounds great, unless you are writing about latkes.]

Of course Jacky ends up working as Lagarde's second-in-command, despite never having managed a kitchen before. But his palate is so attuned and skill so virtuosic, he immediately knows how to expedite. This is just one of the many sloppy shorthand moves that render the movie unwatchable to anyone with even a passing familiarity with food. And since we all eat food, that means all of us.

The closest thing to cooking is sniffing. [Photo: Cohen Media]

Perhaps it is unfair but a movie like Le Chef, originally called Comme Un Chef when it was released in France in 2012, begs comparison with Jon Favreau's movie Chef. After seeing how much richer and more satisfying a culinary film can be if the actor puts in the time to learn at least the rudimentary chef skills and the screenwriter puts in the time to get some of the kitchen fundamentals correct, a half-assed movie like Le Chef is really galling. Does Jean Reno have to trail Alain Ducasse for weeks on end? No, though it couldn't hurt. But the extent of either Reno's or Youn's actual cheffing is just tasting a spoonful of some mysterious soup and then developing a wistful faraway look. This is a food movie which doesn't give a shit about food.

That's a pretty venial sin. But say the rest of the movie didn't feel like watching styrofoam floating in a bay, it wouldn't be deadly. Sadly, literally every aspect of this movie falls flat. It's an ugly stupid film. It's racist and atavistic. In one scene, TKTK, a modernist chef from Spain, arrives to remake Lagarde's food with "duck cubes" and the like. Of course this proves disastrous and he leaves in a Iberian modernist huff. It's hilarious, see, because modernist cuisine is for assholes.

It's not racist if it's about Asians. [Photo: Cohen Media]

Later, in an extended scene which is really shameful — and not because it's bad but because it is wrong — Youn dresses as a geisha and Reno as a samurai in order to spy on another chef's restaurant. There's a lot of giggling and ugly racial stereotypes. Jacky puts things into his kimono sleeves. The scene lasts for over five minutes and it is incredibly unfunny. It is not funny on any level and offensive on every level.

As the movie grinds to its inevitable unlikely conclusion — Matter bars merchants from selling product to Lagarde so Jacky goes to the corner grocer (run by another racial stereotype) and buys the entire inventory and cooks an amazing meal and the critics are wowed and Lagarde retires and Jacky takes over — there's plenty more to which to object: sexism, shoddy action, shitty camera work, a general desultory attitude. But honestly, the film doesn't deserve any more attention.

Recently I wasted a few minutes reading BuzzFeed's The 35 Dumbest Things That Have Ever Happened. It was hilarious but by the end of it, I felt more stupid, as if the stupidity was so potent I had caught it. But at least it was fun getting dumber. Le Chef, on the other hand, is just 84 minutes of brain-starving misery.

Rating: 0 out of 5 stars

Video: Le Chef Trailer

· All Eater at the Movies [-E-]

Little is known about the prices that universities pay for bundled access to the journals published by large commercial publishers. Publishers have insisted that libraries sign confidentiality clauses that keep these prices secret. We used Freedom of Information Act requests to obtain copies of the contracts signed by a large number of institutions. We report the results of this investigation and compare the bundled subscription prices charged by for-profit and nonprofit publishers.

Josh Harris and Scott Baird, owners of Trick Dog in the Mission, are announcing that opening chef Chester Watson has left the bar and restaurant, to be replaced by Michael Logan.

Logan is currently working at tech-centric private club The Battery, but Baird and Harris met him when he was cooking at Locanda. “We had a totally personal relationship for a long time, but he was top of mind when it came time to explore other options,” Harris says.

Harris and Baird are emphatic that Trick Dog’s M.O. — a cocktail bar with good food — isn’t going to change with the new chef. They’re giving Logan time to adapt to the tiny kitchen before he introduces new dishes, and favorites like the burger, the fries and the kale salad are going to stick around.

There’s a small gap before Logan starts, so Chris Kronner (the dearly departed Kronnerburger, Bistro Ordinaire) is going to fill in with a pop-up running from Sunday, June 29, through Tuesday, July 1.

They’re calling the three-day series “Ordinary Trick,” and Kronner will be serving French bistro fare. Kronner’s dinners will be served from 6 p.m. until 1 a.m. all four nights, and there will be no reservations — so no way to jump the line.

Trick Dog: 3010 20th St., S.F. 415-471-2999. 

Previous coverage of Trick Dog

Industrial Arts is a series in which we talk to some of our favorite hospitality professionals who’ve been involved in non-culinary, non-mixological arts.

Kate Holowchik went to school for illustration, not pastry, but her creative powers are out in full force on JM Curley‘s dessert menu. We got drinks with her at Drink.

Christine Fernsebner Eslao: I have never actually had any of your desserts, because I haven’t been to JM Curley for a few months. You started in April—

Kate Holowchik: April 1st.

CFE: April Fool’s Day. So next time I go to JM Curley, what dessert should I start with?

KH: One of the things we’re featuring, that I’m known for in this town—which I think is hilarious—is Fernet ice cream bonbons. I found a way through “science”—quote unquote—to incorporate more alcohol into ice cream.

CFE: How do do you do that?

KH: We stabilize the liquid first. We stabilize it with xanthan gum. And you have to be careful how much you use, because if you don’t you get a really gummy, weird texture.

CFE: So, how drunk—

KH: There is actually quite a high alcohol content. I can’t remember what the percentage came out to, but, traditionally, you put two tablespoons per quart. I can put a cup.

Brayden C. Burroughs: A scoop of ice cream would be how many shots?

KH: It would probably be a solid shot.

CFE: So we could do shots of Fernet ice cream.

KH: I was like, you can get drunk off ice cream. I’m done here.

They let me explore my whole gamut of what I can do, so the [desserts on] the actual JM Curley’s menu [are] fun, playful, simple. The specials board is saved for experimenting, seeing what we can do, showing my peers what we’re working on. And Bogie’s Place is kind of more fine-dining.
I’m never bored.

BCB: On your specials board, do you coordinate with folks about what they’re working on—

KH: Yup. It’s one of the first kitchens I’ve worked in where I have an active dialogue going on every day with my peers, especially my sous chef and my executive chef.

We throw out crazy ideas and then we backtrack. We go, “Well what if we did it this way? We could actually make this happen.”

CFE: What’s the starting point for that process? Is it that you need to pair a dish with a particular thing, or you need to start with a seasonal ingredient? Or do you just brainstorm?

KH: I’m definitely into brainstorming, big time. I definitely try to focus, especially this time of year now, on a lot of fruit.

My main thing with pastry I’ve always done is getting back to my roots. So many people have so many memories tied to pastry. I have a lot of memories of making candy with my grandmother, and making pies, cornbread, biscuits. I like bringing out the inner child in people, because I feel like food—I know we’re moving away from that, but [food] went in kind of a pretentious direction, to almost where it wasn’t tangible.

You’d go to a fine dining restaurant and have this amazing experience, but you would not be able to describe it after. What did you have for dessert? Oh, there was, like, chocolate, and some other stuff, and like, powder and foam. And it’s like, no, what did you have?

I want to get people excited again for dessert. Get them acting like kids again, being interactive and having fun with it.

CFE: Most people associate pastry and dessert with sweet things, but you seem to have a really active interest in—

KH: Savory?

CFE: Savory, and bitter, and Fernet. How did that come about?

KH: Because—the number one complaint from people, as soon as I open my mouth and say my profession. “I’m a pastry chef.” “Oh, that’s really cool, but I don’t like sweets.” And I feel like that’s such a broad umbrella term to use.

Pastry’s not just sweets. It can be so much more. I want to push that balance.

I came from a bartending background. I bartended and served for years; I’ve been front of the house for years. I like to try to think that I build my pastries as I would cocktails. So you have a bitter element, you have acid involved, and sweetness—just having everything kind of play together.

With pastry I get to play with texture as well.

It should be exciting; every bite should be different. You’re noticing different nuances. It should be interactive.

I think it’s important to have a bitter element. Definitely savory as well.

As a society, our palates have become more sophisticated. People are ready for it. They want something exciting. They’re done with the molten chocolate cake and vanilla ice cream. We’re ready for other things.

CFE: [I recently read an essay concerning Negroni Week that posited that] a predilection for bitter things is somehow a pretentious thing that isn’t a genuine desire on the part of consumers.

KH: You’re always going to have that one person. People have their opinions.

“You don’t like negronis. Nobody likes negronis.”

“You don’t like Fernet. Nobody likes Fernet.”

I’m like, I don’t know why I drink it, then. I must be a glutton for punishment, at this point.

I definitely crave bitter things.

I, over the years, have tasted so many sweet things, and I get tired of it. I want something that’s gonna challenge me and get me off the track for a little while.

I always love when a bartender forewarns me: “This is going to be extremely bitter.” I’m like, “Awesome. Totally ready for it.”

Daren Swisher, who I work with at JM Curley—he’s a phenomenal bartender—he did this thing where he took an entire bottle of Campari, dehydrated the entire thing and put it in another bottle of Campari and made Super Campari.

BCB: I heard of that, but I haven’t had it.

CFE: That’s amazing.

KH: He makes dreams come true.

CFE: Does your visual art background influence the visual or aesthetic aspects of your—

KH:  I’m really focused on color combinations. I don’t like a whole plate of brown. Really utilizing the entire plate—you kind of look at it as a composition. You want to keep the person’s eye moving. Oh, look at this and look at this and oh my god I can’t wait to eat this. Once again, it has a whole interactive aspect.

BCB: Has pastry-making in turn influenced any of your illustration?

KH: I mean, definitely. My main goal—and I’ve had it on the backburner for so long, but I’m in the process this next month—is going full swing with this. I’m starting my own blog. I know everybody shudders at the idea of blogs but mine’s different—

CFE: We have a blog. It’s okay. [Editor's Note: It's awesome.]

KH: But I’m [going to be] doing something called The Not So Starving Artist. I want to illustrate it entirely comic book style. I’m just telling anecdotes and stories and [talking] about the industry.

Because I think it’s so interesting and, you know, it has pulled me away—and I’m not saying it’s a bad thing—from pursuing a full time art career.

Because it’s so intoxicating. It’s awesome. I love the people I work with, the people I meet. There are nights where I go out for dinner and I run into other people and—it’s stuff you can’t make up, the shenanigans, the awesome nights you have. It’s just incredible.

And just, in times of need, especially when I was transitioning from Les Zygomates to Curley’s, the amount of love from the industry that came to my side: “we’ll help you find a job”, “we’ll get you back on track”, “I know a person.” This, that, and the other thing. It’s just incredible to see. I really want to highlight that.

BCB: Tell us about your art background.

KH: I’ve been drawing since about the age of three or four. [My mom will] tell you the first time that she knew I was an artist, I drew a tea cup, and she could see the ellipse and [you could] look into the cup. I had a concept of space and whatnot.

I [ended up] on two different career paths. I was initially going to school to become a doctor, of all things. My mom’s a nurse, a lot of people in my family are doctors and nurses.

I realized after a year of schooling that wasn’t really what I wanted to do. I was taking elective classes that were art classes. I loved them. That was my escape.

[My father] was never really encouraging of the fact that I was going to school for medical, because, at the end of the day, he knew I wasn’t happy. He knew that I had to be creating. He knew I had to be doing something that was about a way to emote.

I went to art school full time in New Hampshire, and graduated in 2011 with a degree in illustration. Main focus on fashion. I do love really graphic stuff. I grew up reading comic books because of my brother, so I always love very graphic lines, bright colors.

BCB: In art you have a leeway, and my understanding of baking and pastry-making is that it’s more rigid and scientific…

KH: Definitely with the bases and stuff. You have freedom with the flavors and combinations, but as far as the bases for what you’re using as a vehicle for your flavor, yes, it’s very exact.

BCB: Is there any tension there…?

KH: I definitely have moments where I get frustrated. I am never one to play by the rules, but I know when I have to and what I can get away with. Those aspects of baking that I can actually have a lot of freedom in, I expose that to the nth degree.

CFE: If you thought about an art career, and you’re in this other industry—how do you perceive the differences between these industries besides the edibility of their products?

KH: At the end of the day, people are always going to go out to eat. They’re not always necessarily going to order dessert, but there are always going to be people in restaurants. It’s just a fact of nature. We all like going out, having a good time.

With art, it would be a little harder. Because I saw a lot of my peers doing it, especially fresh out of college, almost heckling people with their art.

“Do you like this print? I’ll sell it to your for fifty dollars.” I was like, I don’t want to be that person. If my art does sell, it sells on its own, and I don’t need to push it on people. I’m not forcing it so I can pay rent or, you know, put food in my mouth.

So I knew I had to have a job that was stable.

CFE: There are stereotypes about chefs, and about bartenders, and about artists. But I don’t have a mental image of what a typical pastry chef is like.

Do you want to make up some stereotypes about pastry chefs now, so that we can disseminate them? They don’t have to be true.

KH: Everybody asks about my hours. They always ask if I am up at the crack of dawn, which is not true. I’m in at twelve and I function like a normal person.

I do admit that there’s a couple tendencies that I am known for, and other pastry chefs are known for, to be territorial when it comes to space, when it comes to my tools. We have specific tools that us pastry chefs use, but I’ve had other chefs take them and use them for other purposes.

Our stuff is more detail-oriented, smaller. All this stuff that people don’t consider carrying on their person, I carry on a daily basis. My nice peelers, stuff like that. It’s not communal, it’s mine.

I volunteered for the Star Chefs Congress in New York City, and I was hanging out with a group of pastry chefs that were in the pastry competition. We had this ongoing joke that in order to be a pastry chef you had to have awesome hair.

All of us had ridiculous hair cuts. I was like, this true. We’re a different breed of human.

CFE: How’s [your job at JM Curley] been different from previous positions? It sounds like there’s probably a different emphasis to it.

KH: Definitely. It was one of those places—I used to go there all the time. It was kind of like my sanctuary from my last job. I’m not saying it was an awful job, it just wasn’t a good fit. I was trying to put myself in a role that I couldn’t—it was very strict French food and they wanted the simple, they wanted the creème brûlée, they wanted the apple tarte tatin. But I’m like, I want to do something different! And they were just not into it. So, it’s like, that’s fine.

There’s someone who will fit in that spot perfectly.

Whereas Curley’s, they want to showcase anybody who works there, from the bartenders to the serving staff to us chefs. We’re allowed to do pretty much whatever we want. It just keeps me really happy. I just can’t explain the fact that I go into work happy, I leave work happy, the people I work with are amazing—I just can’t get over it. I’m so thankful to be working for them.

CFE: What’s the most ridiculous thing you’ve gotten away with so far?

KH: I’ve been working closely with Nick Korn, from Offsite, and he approached me one night, when I was sitting at his bar, at Silvertone, and he was talking about the May the Fourth Be With You event. Star Wars, all that. He was like, would you be willing to come up with a dessert for Star Wars?

I’m a huge dork, so yes, please.

So I came up with a Seven Leia Bar—classic seven layer bar, and on top I did a chocolate Han Solo in carbonite.

I put a negroni [carrot cake] on this last menu, and it sold really well. I just had a lot of fun with it, trying to incorporate all the elements to make it taste like a negroni and not overshadowing stuff.

I’m looking at other negroni desserts when I’m doing my research, and no one emphasizes the gin. They’re so afraid of the gin in desserts. It has so much character, so I did a gin dreamsicle ice cream, because it plays so well with orange.

CFE: [I saw your tweet about that and] I considered, briefly, changing my name to Gin Dreamsicle.

KH: It was one of my favorite things I executed. I did gin-pickled oranges, and they really just accentuate the fact that there’s gin in it. No one complained. No one was like [“ew” noise]. If you’re getting a negroni dessert, I think you know what you’re walking into.

[We pause to order additional drinks. Christine looks around the room for Drink manager Palmer Matthews.]

CFE: Palmer’s going to miss his window for a hug break [as mandated by the official Opus Affair Blog style guide]. If you see him before me, flag him down.

KH: I will flap my arms with all my might.

CFE: Thank you.

You did a Pastry Pairings [event] with Opus Affair. I’m curious how you came up with the pairings, and what it’s like to serve food in an art gallery.

KH: For me it’s like the perfect marriage of the two things that I love. When they told me it was going to be in an art gallery, I was absolutely thrilled. Getting people excited about art [...] and also eating delicious pastries.

I was very lucky to work with Jonathan [Fenelon] from Clio, who did all the wine pairings. He and I had not met before we did the event, and all he had to work off of was the actual description that I wrote. That’s it.

And he did the most perfect pairings. I was jumping up and down. “You did this, I was thinking of doing a wine that’s similar to a lambic.” Just very matter-of-fact.

I’m always trying to do stuff on the side—that includes Opus Affair, and SoonSpoon. They’re just such awesome people. I’ve met so many incredible people through the events. It’s truly humbling.

CFE : Palmer, you’re missing your window for interrupting the interview with a hug break.

KH: He saunters over.

CFE: It’s in the Opus Affair style guide.

[Obligatory hugs. Some excuse about killing crabs to order. Palmer saunters away.]

CFE: Any upcoming events?

KH: I’m doing another event with Opus Affair. July 16th? 17th [Editor's Note: It's July 18. Details to be released soon.]?

CFE: I don’t even know about this yet. Dang.

KH: We’re reinventing the movie experience. I am in charge of sodas. I’ll be doing three different sodas.

We have Josh Lewin doing, I think, popcorn. Taza’s doing chocolate. Someone’s doing nachos. Graham’s going to pick a movie. It’ll be awesome.

CFE: What’s the venue?

KH: I think it’s Workbar, in Cambridge. We’re still ironing out the details.

I definitely want to do something with shrub. I know all the bartenders are doing shrubs. Carbonating it is really awesome. Especially with all the seasonal vegetation we have right now.

CFE: What’s up with your soda explorations?

KH: That’s kind of like the end game. Most chefs have a goal to own their own restaurant. I want to bring back the soda jerk.

I would like to incorporate booze, but I don’t want that to be my main focus. I’d like to have sodas on draft lines. Lots of crazy flavor combinations. Two of my favorite things are soda and ice cream.

I’ve been working closely with the JM Curley staff on soda syrups. We’re cracking the code for Moxie, so we can make our own Moxie.

CFE: That’s magic.

KH: Whether it’s my illustration, or my fascination with fashion, I love the fifties. That’s such a romantic era. Nothing is more romantic to me than sharing a soda or an ice cream float with someone. I want to bring that back.

I want to have a place people can come, that I want to open late night, where you don’t feel an obligation to get drunk to get to know someone. Giggle and get excited about sharing ice cream and just see people for who they really are.

Some time after we shut off our digital voice recorder, we had to write down something she said: “If you let me go to my car, I have toffee Legos in there. Because that’s normal.” But the context was lost among the juleps.

Editor’s Note: We’re looking for people doing cool work at the intersection of arts and hospitality to profile on our blog—and to recognize with our first ever Big Party Awards. Three people will get $500 to advance their careers in the arts and/or hospitality. Nominations are open until July 1st—so get nominating!

The public domain is supposed to be what we receive in return for, and after the expiry of, time-limited, government-backed intellectual monopolies that are granted to creators. As Mike noted recently, that neat equation does not reflect today's reality for copyright, where the situation is so complicated that it requires a 52-page handbook to determine whether or not something is in the public domain.

But the situation is actually far worse than that, because the public is being denied access to many works that are unambiguously in the public domain because of new restrictions being placed on them when they are digitized. That's something that Techdirt has discussed before, but such stories have been largely anecdotal. Research from New Zealand provides us with more detailed information of what's going on:

In order to establish the extent to which digitized public domain books are being restricted, a sample of 100 pre-1890 books was selected from the New Zealand National Bibliography (NZNB). This sample was chosen on the assumption that these works had entered the public domain under New Zealand copyright law. Each book in the sample was searched for within six online repositories: Google Books, Hathi Trust, Internet Archive, Early New Zealand Books (ENZB), New Zealand Electronic Text Collection (NZETC) and Project Gutenberg. In addition, Google and Bing searches were conducted for all sample books that could not be located within these repositories.

Here's what the researchers discovered:

The findings of this research suggest that a high proportion of digitized public domain books are being restricted by online repositories. Out of a sample of 100 public domain books, only three are hosted by repositories that do not impose any form of usage restriction. Furthermore, 48 percent (24) of all digitized books [50 out of the 100 public domain sample] are hosted by a repository that restricts or blocks access, with the most restrictive repository limiting or blocking access to 91 percent (21) of sample books within its collection.

They also managed to pinpoint the key problem:

Almost all access restrictions applied to public domain books within the sample were the result of repositories using a process of estimation to assess copyright status. Within the sample, a one-minute search located accurate biographical information about authors two-thirds of the time. This task takes a fraction of the time required to digitize a book, which involves 30 minutes to scan 500 pages (Kelly, 2006).

A solution is the following:

Digitizers should incorporate the sourcing of copyright information within the overall process of digitization, and copyright estimation should only be used as an option of last resort. Furthermore, copyright estimation periods should better reflect statistical norms regarding the actual duration of copyright protection. The current estimation period of 140 years, used by Google Books and Hathi Trust, is far too conservative. If hosted under this policy, 47 percent of sample books would be restricted. This is despite the fact that all books with locatable biographical information were confirmed as being in the public domain for between 30 and 132 years.

This goes back to the problem of determining whether a work is in the public domain or not. Because that can be complex, those carrying out the digitization of works simply assume the worst, just to be on the safe side. That's something that needs to change, otherwise we risk losing not just the benefits of digitized public domain works, but also our undoubted rights to access them freely.

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~William Morris

1937.

W. H. Auden and Christopher Isherwood.

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