News You Can Bruise for 2014 December 30

Welcome back, let's check out some cool stuff I can't afford.

Providence

In March, before starting my job at NYPL, I took a trip to Providence to hang out with Jake (still an awesome guy after nearly twenty years of friendship). Jake introduced me to the Retro-Computing Society of Rhode Island, who have an amazing museum. I say "museum", it's just one big room, and it looks like this:

I believe that all museums have a room that looks like this; it's just that at RCSRI that room is coextant with the display portion of the museum.

RCSRI has an open house once a month, but we got a private tour because Jake is a close personal friend of the proprietor.

I took several detailed photos of the famous "space cadet" keyboard for the Symbolics LISP machine, because although this computer is famous in hacker lore, at the time there were no good close-ups online. (I dunno about now. Well, there are now, because I'm putting these up, but as I'm writing this draft, I don't know.)

Los Angeles

London

Along with my uncle Leonard I visited the Worshipful Company of Clockmakers, who have a museum of clockmaking in the back of the London Guild Hall. The Guild Hall is still an active government building, so make sure you go all the way round the back for the museum, though I'm not sure why I'm even giving this advice because apparently the Clockmakers' Museum has all been packed up to be moved to the Science Museum. Anyway, I'm really glad I got to see this little museum because it was full of tons of amazing old clocks (many of which still run), and equipment for building and repairing them.

Another new favorite: the Tring tiles from the British Museum. Two-panel comic strips show Jesus as a little kid getting into trouble. "Left: A boy playfully leaps onto Jesus's back and then falls dead. Right: Two women complain to Joseph... while Jesus restores the boy to life."

And the parents don't take this lying down! On another tile, "Parents shut their children in an oven, to prevent them playing with Jesus." A well-thought-out plan.

New York

From the Sidewalk Museum of Discarded Art, a picture of the New York skyline made of Cheetos.

The Met had a fabulous exhibit with a lot of Xu Bing. I got my chance to get some good photos of An Introduction to Square Word Calligraphy, a set of rules for writing English words like they're Chinese characters.

And of course there was his masterpiece of eaten meaning, Book From The Sky.

I also saw these assembly instructions for an Alexander Calder mobile.

And Paul Klee's Carcasonne set.

Portland

Finally, on a trip to Portland I indulged in some Mondrian candy.