I made the right decision by not sleeping in

Landspeed Record

Hiphopopotamus

Crock You

Rhinox

Bair Guitar

Every seven years, designer Stefan Sagmeister closes his New York studio for a yearlong sabbatical to rejuvenate and refresh their creative outlook. He explains the often overlooked value of time off and shows the innovative projects inspired by his time in Bali.

A brief video on the importance of cutting out every once in a while. Via Kottke.

The idea is to compare shots of New York City in movies with shots of the city today. Here’s Part 1 of Taxi Driver.

Part 2, published yesterday, here.

This time, it’s spending in America. Check out The Billion Dollar Gram.

Tip o’ the hat to The Morning News.

The condensed version, for those of you who don’t have time: 38-year old Swiss psychologist Carl Jung has a sort of psychotic existential breakdown sometime in 1914 and, consequently, begins cataloguing and exploring the debilitating hallucinations he experiences. What results over the next 16 years is 205 pages of meticulous illustration and writing, which is all eventually bound together in a gigantic eponymous red leather tome.

The magazine article describes it thusly:

The book tells the story of Jung trying to face down his own demons as they emerged from the shadows. The results are humiliating, sometimes unsavory. In it, Jung travels the land of the dead, falls in love with a woman he later realizes is his sister, gets squeezed by a giant serpent and, in one terrifying moment, eats the liver of a little child. (“I swallow with desperate efforts — it is impossible — once again and once again — I almost faint — it is done.”) At one point, even the devil criticizes Jung as hateful.

Jung dies in 1961, before he can complete his book. His son, who inherits the estate, decides to leave this book of disjointed writings and mindbending mandalas where it lies, locked in a cupboard. Twenty years later the family has it transferred to the Union Bank of Switzerland’s vault—where it’s been ever since, existing in a sort of ethereal, self-mythologizing state.

At most, just two dozen people have ever gotten a substantial look inside. But those long odds haven’t deterred many of Jung’s followers, who have apparently spent the 48 years since Jung’s death trying to get through to Jung’s family – the book’s stalwart protectors. Every inquiry, even the ones delivered from the family’s literal doorstep, has been turned down – sometimes viciously.

Until now. Someone – somewhere, somehow – must have been successful, because The Red Book comes out October 7.¹

With an apparent list price of $195², but Amazon’s selling it for $105.30. Barnes and Noble is doing the same. Borders, predictably, is not.

That’s just a little blue for my blood. This sort of thing practically begs to be read during a long afternoon spent in a chair at Barnes and Noble.

1. Note: link to Amazon
2. Hope you didn’t just spit that coffee all over your computer screen – I know how those repair bills can be

Today, I found out that Google is actually sharing Fast Flip ad revenue with participating publishers – the first time they’ve formed such a direct partnership with the publishing industry.

This is great news!

From Things.

Once you get past how much you wouldn’t want to hang out with this guy, though, you’ll find that he’s actually got some great advice to give. So read his fucking piece.

Yesterday, Jason Kottke posted an excellent roundup of all the pieces that are to be included, complete with links to the original articles.