I’m coming to Boston this week—well, Cambridge, actually—and would love to see you all there. Two events are scheduled:
• On Wednesday, October 17, I’ll be speaking at the Cambridge Historical Society about the history of Polaroid and the town that made it. Tickets are (I hear) selling well, but there are some seats left. Details at cambridgehistory.org.
• The next night, Thursday the 18th, we’re having a launch party at the MIT Museum, 265 Massachusetts Avenue. It’s open to the public, and a number of Polaroid alumni tell me that they’ll be there. The museum’s curators are pulling a few special artifacts out of storage for the evening—and I don’t know what they’re going to be, so there should be some surprises even for me.
At the West 14th Street location of Urban Outfitters last week. Between Tavi and a book about bacon!
Slate expands its coverage to include a podcast.
Complex’s culture arts section joins in.
So does Seattle’s alt-weekly, The Stranger, in a nicely written story featuring the gallery run by Cory Verellen, of www.landcameras.com.
And our book trailer was posted on The Freshness, and Laughing Squid, and Urban Outfitters (which is also carrying the book) and Scout.
I have nothing bad to say about any of this.
Possibly the oddest press clip I’ll ever get, in Arab Emirates TopNews. But hey, who’s to argue? And they spelled my name right, which is not to be taken for granted.
Anyone know anything about this? Reportedly, this vacation house in Jamaica, called Hummingbird Hill, was built for Edwin Land. The house’s Website doesn’t confirm it, and neither does anything Google pulls up.
If it’s true, I have to assume that the house was mostly used by Terre and the girls, because Land had to be coaxed to take vacations—many, many stories revolve around his workaholism. But it does look mighty nice, particularly that corrugated zingy mid-century roofline. I’d stay there—and in fact I can, apparently, because it’s rentable. Not terribly expensive, either: $1,000 per week for couples, with services of caretaker, housekeeper, and cook included. If the book hits the best-seller list, I just might.
We had quite a week in the publicity division of Polaroidland: The list of media hits keeps on growing. (Once again: All hail Diane Levinson, admiral-class book publicist.) Quick rundown of the past three days’ clips:
A long, really nicely executed Q&A with me, done by Ira Boudway at Bloomberg Businessweek.
A straight-up review, quite positive, from Fortune.com.
A Q&A focusing on the Steve Jobs–Edwin Land parallel, at Wired.com.
A slideshow at Time.com.
There’s a profile of book and author at the Independent (UK).
A post from the XX blog at Slate, and a slideshow drawn from the book in the Slate Book Review.
A teaser in Popular Photography (review to come in a few days, according to the post).
Cult of Mac has a little to say about the Apple connection.
Petapixel, the photography site, runs with the story of Polaroid v. Kodak, from the Wired story linked above.
And two from Gizmodo: picking up the post that The Atlantic ran earlier in the week, and adding a substantial book excerpt.
Sample ID issued by Polaroid, circa 1974. Anyone know who that gal is? Enlighten us!
Lots to report!
Elissa Schappell has warm things to say about INSTANT in the November issue of Vanity Fair, forthcoming in a couple of weeks and now online.
Elle.com’s Fiona Byrne (who also runs The Byrne Notice) did a nice long Q&A with me, up today.
Mark Lamster did an even longer and more in-depth one, at Design Observer.
The Atlantic’s excellent Website has an excerpt, devoted to Polaroid and dirty pictures (always a good selling point).
Core77, a big design blog with a lot of reach, threw us some thoughtful attention.
And Andrew Sullivan—whose blog I read twice a day, at least—shared a post as well, based off Friday’s endlessly linked post on Brain Pickings.
Thanks to all. Grateful for the publicity; pleased with everyone’s coverage; and a little dizzy from all the attention. More to come, later in the week.
BUY THE BOOK
Available in many bookstores, online and off-. Click the photo to order from my local, the Strand Book Store.
BUY THE OTHER BOOK
WATCH THE TRAILER
On Vimeo: click the image to view.
