Midget Farrelly Surfing Shore Break, Makaha, 1968, by Leroy Grannis

L.A. Times on Leroy Grannis: “There’s surfing royalty, and he was one of the kings,” his son said. “He inspired so many big-name photographers that consider him their mentor.”

The Replacements via: If Charlie Parker Was a Gunslinger, There’d Be a Whole Lot of Dead Copycats

Inspired by Pythagoras’s belief in four-fold transmigration — by which the soul is passed from human to animal to vegetable to mineral — Michelangelo Frammartino’s wondrous movie traces the cycle of life through the daily rituals of life in the southern Italian region of Calabria.

NYT: Eternal Complexities of the Very Simple Life

If you pay attention, you see what is going on and grasp the connections between the different things you see, none of which are terribly unfamiliar. But there is something startling, even shocking, about the angle of vision Mr. Frammartino imposes by juxtaposing apparently disparate elements and lingering on what seem at first to be insignificant details. You have never seen anything like this movie, even though what it shows you has been there all along.

Daniel Burnham (1846-1912)

“Make no little plans. They have no magic to stir men’s blood and probably themselves will not be realized. Make big plans; aim high in hope and work, remembering that a noble, logical diagram once recorded will never die, but long after we are gone will be a living thing, asserting itself with ever-growing insistency. Remember that our sons and grandsons are going to do things that would stagger us. Let your watchword be order and your beacon beauty. Think big.”

— Daniel Burnham

PBS: Make No Little Plans: Daniel Burnham and the American City
The story of Daniel Burnham, a dreamer, who shaped some of America’s best-known places and spaces.

Few individuals have had more impact on the American city than architect and planner Daniel Hudson Burnham. In the midst of late 19th century urban disorder, Burnham offered a powerful vision of what a civilized American city could look like. He built some of the first skyscrapers in the world; directed construction of the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition that inspired the City Beautiful Movement; and created urban plans for Washington DC, Chicago, Cleveland, San Francisco and Manila—all before the profession of urban planning existed. In fact, some say that he invented it.

The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair that Changed America by Erik Larson

Larson tells the stories of two men: Daniel H. Burnham, the architect responsible for the fair’s construction, and H.H. Holmes, a serial killer masquerading as a charming doctor. Burnham’s challenge was immense. In a short period of time, he was forced to overcome the death of his partner and numerous other obstacles to construct the famous “White City” around which the fair was built. His efforts to complete the project, and the fair’s incredible success, are skillfully related along with entertaining appearances by such notables as Buffalo Bill Cody, Susan B. Anthony, and Thomas Edison.

Miles Davis via: If Charlie Parker Was a Gunslinger, There’d Be a Whole Lot of Dead Copycats

Reflection (Self Portrait) 1985

Lucian Freud, Adept Portraiture Artist, Dies at 88

“It is an attempt at a record,” Mr. Freud said, describing his work on the occasion of his retrospective at the Hayward Gallery in London in 1974. “I work from the people that interest me and that I care about, in rooms that I live in and know.”

Kurt Vonnegut via: If Charlie Parker Was a Gunslinger, There’d Be a Whole Lot of Dead Copycats