Free Idea Factory

Websites and print publications that review books are uniformly about the new, always the new. In my readings I am continually surprised by books that are excellent today, that stand up to today, that are worth reading today and sharing with others, that weren’t ever reviewed when they came out and are thus somehow disqualified from being reviewed due to the fact that they’re no longer new. But if poetry (and by extension literature in general) is the news that stays new, then there should be a publication outlet that’s friendly to new discoveries of old news that’s still new. A blog devoted to reviews of not-recently-published books would be ideal.

A web-based anthology (so, a blog) that showcases the art of the mis-print. When the digital demons wriggle into files and play havoc, the results are often quite interesting. Two examples below (click to enlarge):

Does everyone share both the irrational fear that others will look in their medicine cabinets when visiting, and, the burning urge to peek inside the medicine cabinets of others when visiting them? How about a blog where users post cell phone camera photos of medicine cabinets anonymously. Visitors could both view others surreptitiously, and, perhaps, happen upon their own and wonder who snapped it.

With the ubiquitousness of camera phones these days the time is ripe for a photoblog that consists of documentation of bathroom graffiti. I know there’s blogs out there documenting street art (Wooster Collective is my favorite), but this more behind-closed-stall-doors work is in need of the same treatment.