Fraktured Fairytales plus Discount Jellyroll

by John Holbo on May 24, 2008

Man, if ever there were a time I regretted not saving up the pun in the title of my “I Sought the Serif” post – this would be that time. The time I bought The Serif Fairy for the kids, that is. “The Serif Fairy has lost her wing, keeping her from performing magic. This book follows her through an airy, immaculately designed typographic landscape as she tries to recover her wing. Along the way, she makes friends and has adventures as she wanders through the Garamond Forest, visits Futura City and eventually ends her quest at Shelley Lake …”

It’s cute. Honestly, I was hoping it would be even cuter. But it’ll do. Plus it confirms Belle’s suspicions that I will indoctrinate the kids in my repetitive ways.

And I just finished Letter By Letter, by Laurent Pflughaupt. A history of each letter of the alphabet, plus soapbox from which to broadcast the author’s stern views about the morally improving qualities of calligraphy. “Revealing the fundamental characteristics of writing (rhythm, relation to the body, readability, meaning), the study and practice of calligraphy constitutes an essential basis for this new direction since it encourages the integration of skills and gestures that are indispensable to all future forms of creativity.”

The book is interesting, whether it will do all that for you or not.

I have one significant, non-typographic bargain to report. Amazon has a download of Jelly Roll Morton: The Complete Library of Congress Recordings for only $19.95. It’s out of print and the cheapest used copy I can find is $150. So I consider that a good deal.

{ 19 comments }

1

Matt Weiner 05.24.08 at 3:01 pm

Amazon has a download of Jelly Roll Morton: The Complete Library of Congress Recordings for only $19.95.

Had you never blogged another word, dayenu.

2

Jamie Dreier 05.24.08 at 3:11 pm

Someone named Pflughaupt becomes excessively interested in letters. Who could have guessed that?

3

ben wolfson 05.24.08 at 7:40 pm

“linguistics”?

4

harold 05.24.08 at 9:00 pm

I don’t think the new Rounder box set version is out of print. It has been reissued in a new, less flimsy box and costs $99. Has remastered sound and a book by John Szved, distinguished professor at Yale and Columbia and author of Jazz 101 and bios of Miles Davis and others. The 8 CD Rounder set also includes previously unreleased interviews by Alan Lomax of early jazz greats Johnny St. Cyr and the Bechet brothers, among others (I believe). Disc 8 is an audio/data CD with over 200 pages of written material, including a complete transcript of the Library of Congress interviews and other documents. Try ordering directly from Rounder (their service is not very speedy, but …). It’s a pretty full package for the price.

5

jholbo 05.25.08 at 2:29 am

OK, the Rounder sounds like maybe a better deal.

Ben, why did you type the word ‘linguistics’? In quotes, no less.

6

Delicious Pundit 05.25.08 at 4:35 am

Didn’t Jelly Roll learn his trade in the sans-serif whorehouses of Futura City?

7

jholbo 05.25.08 at 7:47 am

“the sans-serif whorehouses of Futura City?”

Show us your descender!

8

Matt Weiner 05.25.08 at 11:09 am

Ben, why did you type the word ‘linguistics’? In quotes, no less.

He is questioning your tag.

Rounder has a pretty sweet-looking package (and a nice animation of it), though I suspect that that piano keyboard thingy would prevent it from being stored on LP shelves. It seems to be $128, though.

9

The Modesto Kid 05.25.08 at 11:29 am

I have always understood the Serif Fairy’s role to be leaving quarters and dollars under the bedclothes of young letters when they lose their baby serifs.

A friend loaned me a disk of Jelly Roll Morton recently, with whom I was previously unfamiliar. It seems like great stuff.

Are there any contemporary artists who play ragtime or Dixieland-type jazz that sounds fresh and beautiful rather than boring and lazy? Or does jazz only go forward, never back?

10

jholbo 05.25.08 at 12:35 pm

“He is questioning your tag.”

Well, at least he didn’t ask to see my descender.

I think that the history of the alphabet counts as linguistics. Orthography recapitulates philology and all that.

11

The Modesto Kid 05.25.08 at 1:03 pm

Rounder has a pretty sweet-looking package

But he still can’t make as much money as his female co-stars!

12

KCinDC 05.25.08 at 5:13 pm

Letter by Letter discusses chakras?

13

DB 05.25.08 at 8:04 pm

“Didn’t Jelly Roll learn his trade in the sans-serif whorehouses of Futura City?”

Actually it was in Tahoma.

14

harold 05.25.08 at 11:13 pm

Amazon claims they can get it to you by Wednesday for $99.00.

15

Xboy 05.25.08 at 11:36 pm

“Are there any contemporary artists who play ragtime or Dixieland-type jazz that sounds fresh and beautiful rather than boring and lazy?”

Modesto: Check out Dr. Michael White, a clarinetist in the traditional New Orleans style. “Dancing in the Sky” is a fine album, and I’ve heard good things about his new one, “Blue Crescent.”
Also Kermit Ruffins, a trumpeter in the Louis Armstrong mode, though he has yet to make an album that is consistently great. “Swing This!” is the one I’d recommend but even there he indulges himself with dumb novelties like a version of “This Little Light of Mine” sung by his six-year-old dsughter. Then again, Armstrong had a corny streak, too.

16

The Modesto Kid 05.26.08 at 2:13 am

Thanks, xboy!

17

The Modesto Kid 05.26.08 at 2:23 am

Yep, Michael White is fantastic. Here is a videotape of his band.

18

Matt Weiner 05.27.08 at 10:53 am

Jelly Roll’s words are transcribed here.

19

harold 05.27.08 at 6:07 pm

Matt, that is not as accurate a transcription as the Rounder one.

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