Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!

December 24, 2018

...le version of William Morris’ fantasy novel, The Story of the Glittering Plain illustrated by Walter Crane and suitable for your tablet thingy or online reading. The book, published in 1894, influenced a young J.R.R. Tolkien. May you all have a productive and happy 2019....

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Who Would You Like to Hear on the Podcast?

Mr. Homegrown

January 9, 2019

Podcasts

28 Comments

...ss If I had to assign a letter grade for my ability to email, schedule and book guests for the podcast I’d have give myself a big “F.” Which is why, dear readers and listeners, you have not had a Root Simple podcast in a few months. I’m hoping to have some more time to address this problem which is why I’m asking for your input. Who would you like me to have on the podcast? What subjects would you like me to tackle? Would you like to be on the pod...

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Saturday Tweets: RIP Mary Oliver

Mr. Homegrown

January 19, 2019

Saturday Linkages

1 Comment

...rpt has been published on Medium! https://t.co/B3fA5JR7uo And yes: get the book! — douglas rushkoff (@rushkoff) January 14, 2019 These LA teachers striking against privatization + demanding smaller classrooms/more support for their students is a whole 2019 mood 💃🏿💃🏼💃🏽 pic.twitter.com/iMska5whpH — Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) January 14, 2019 "How do we want to live among technology and each other? Why are cities treated like app platforms?"http...

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Cybernetics: A Fatal Flaw

Mr. Homegrown

February 12, 2019

Thoughtstylings

7 Comments

...s also healthy to look at what went wrong. A provocative and controversial book I just finished, Surveillance Valley: The Secret Military History of the Internet makes note of what may have been the fatal flaw in the movement: cybernetics, the dream of self organizing systems as an alternative to the messiness of politics. As the author of Surveillance Valley, Yasha Levine, puts it, Back in the 1960s, many of [Stewart] Brand’s New Communalists bui...

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Wallpaper: Like a Tattoo for Your Walls

Mr. Homegrown

March 15, 2019

Design

3 Comments

...paper that Morris manufactured and it’s inspired by the illustrations in a book in his parent’s library that he thumbed through as a kid, Gerard’s Herbal. Morris discovered a talent for patterns by way of failing miserably as a painter. While he couldn’t paint a human figure or animal well, he had a talent for patterns that grew out of a lifelong obsession with illuminated manuscripts. While working on the house last summer we discovered a fragmen...

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