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Somebody got a new camera...

I've been thinking about replacing my medium-format camera for awhile, and while I was on the road a few weeks ago I stopped off in central Ohio to do some antique hunting and found an old Yashica TLR that I scooped up. I was already planning on stopping in St. Louis to see my dear friend Lara and meet her new baby boy, so I took the opportunity to try out the camera on her daughter Charlotte, who is one of my favorite subjects. Though it's not easy to capture a super active 2-year-old with a camera meant for more, shall we say, cerebral subjects, I was really happy with the shots. Being able to capture one of my oldest friends in 'mom' mode has been something I've really enjoyed as her family has grown and these are a nice little addition to the collection.

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From the Blank on Blank blog: The Union of Jazz and the Civil Rights Movement

A companion piece for Blank on Blank's episode featuring John Coltrane that premiered last week. Click-through to read the post, and watch the Coltrane episode here: http://blankonblank.org/interviews/john-coltrane-rare-interview-jazz-saxophone-spirituality/

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Late Night Conversation with Rachel Hadas

A new episode of Late Night Conversation dropped today. Kristin talks with poet Rachel Hadas about life, love, and reading the Classics.

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You Need to Know About These Amazing Ladies of Science

I recently put together this blog post for Blank on Blank celebrating some of the more unknown women in science to tie-in with our episode on Jane Goodall. Enjoy!

Clicking on the image will take you to the Blank on Blank blog.

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Jacob's wonderful project.

I just published a piece on Jacobia Dahm's photographs of women and children from New York City who, on the weekends, ride overnight buses to Upstate prisons in order to see their incarcerated loved ones.

Dahm says:

The first one or two times I took the trip, I did not take many pictures on the bus and I photographed the towns instead. I could quickly tell there was a sense of shame involved in having family in prison, and people where uncomfortable being photographed, which I understand. People had to get used to me first an understand what I was doing. So I did what you do when you are in that situation: I introduced myself to people, I took some pictures and brought them a print next time. Once they had seen me on the bus more than once they were starting to be intrigued. I also told them that I too was a parent and could not imagine having to bring my children on such a long and difficult journey, and that I was sorry this was the case for them. I think it was rare for many of these women to encounter any kind of compassion from others, and it might have helped them to open up to me.

Read in full on Medium or on Prison Photography.

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Sadie Stein on things to do to cure your loneliness.

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KEY BACKLIST  A readers’ advisory challenge to myself for Women’s History Month (March): “Dear H-Dude, can you turn up at least ten highly readable works of criticism, memoir, and/or biography about women in popular music by women writers? These titles must be available in ebook format, or no deal.”

The answer is yes, I can, and, yes, I did, as the jackets above and my shelf in our buying tool attest. Your lucky readers can start with Sonic Youth co-founder Kim Gordon’s new memoir, Girl in a Band, as well as two notable fall 2014 releases, Viv Albertine’s Clothes, Clothes, Clothes, Music, Music, Music, Boys, Boys, Boys; and Lisa Robinson’s There Goes Gravity: A Life in Rock and Roll.

The reason for the uptick in women writing about their lives in the music business is Patti Smith’s new classic, Just Kids, in case you didn’t know. Read it! Ahem, Courtney Love, we’re still waiting on you to deliver your “disaster.”

Confession: I was hamstrung by not having a contract in place to access a writer of gargantuan import (e.g., former New Yorker critic Ellen Willis, whose The Essential Ellen Willis from the University of Minnesota Press is a must) or books not having been digitized (Willis’s first superb posthumous collection, Out of the Vinyl Deeps; Twitter rock nerd favorite, Jen Trynin’s Everything I’m Cracked Up To Be: A Rock & Roll Fairy Tale; and two personal bibles, Debbie Harry’s Making Tracks: The Rise of Blondie and Rock She Wrote: Women Write About Rock, Pop, and Rap, edited by Evelyn McDonnell and Ann Powers).

Still, many colorful lives and intelligent ideas to celebrate. Go forth and collect!

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GIF of a photo project shot on large format at Grand Central Station.

©Jessie Wright-Mendoza

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A savage beating, a culture “beyond repair.”

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The new episode of Late Night Conversations, a podcast I edit for Late Night Library, was just posted!

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Fleetwood Mac encore with the slide was something special last night

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Trying something new...Creepy white rabbit gifs!

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© Lynsey Addario

The portrait of Khalid, 7, with shrapnel wounds or wounds from an explosion in Kunar Province, Afghanistan, receiving treatment from U.S. army medics.

From: It’s What I Do: Powerful Lynsey Addario Memoir Excerpt on Censorship

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© Alec Soth—Courtesy MACK

St. Alphonsus Church, Brooklun Center, Minnesota

From: Interview: Alec Soth’s Tragicomic American Songbook

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Listening over and over right now.