Edition Announcement #237 - Austin Kleon

Bonus-Thursday greetings collectors! It's Sara, writing from somewhat somber JBP headquarters. In spite of exclamation points and the fact that the mercury's risen above 32 degrees this morning, it's hard to muster enthusiasm knowing how much devastation is unfolding in the aftermath of the earthquake in Haiti.

I don't know about the rest of you but there's nothing like news like this to put minor discomforts into perspective and make me feel small and powerless. Glimmers of goodness? The Red Cross' brilliant relief campaign, which so far, has raised nearly $3 million in support. You can text "Haiti" to 90999 to instantly make a $10 donation to Red Cross relief efforts. It's super easy—the amount will be added to your next phone bill. Chris Sacca has also put together a list of six ways you can help in Haiti. Over the web, on Twitter and Facebook, all of us little people, making small efforts together, can do something bigger.

The sentiment of today's edition from Austin Kleon is strangely appropriate. Agoraphobia is about feeling overwhelmed but, I think, in a good way, by the infinite number of possibilities out there. Anything can happen. If you're young or old—age is just a state of mind, right?—anytime is as good as another for a new beginning. It's bewildering and inspiring all at once!

In case you missed his first two editions, we introduced Austin and his work last September. In talking about Austin's prints yesterday, Jen laughed, thinking about his and her divergent but similar methods of madness. An omnivorous consumer of information on- and offline, she's always looking for the bite-sized quotable segments. Her Tumblr account proves it, though these were habits formed well before the site existed—I've known Jen long enough to confirm this! Austin disrupts this concept, foregoing snippets for crumbs, pulling individual words and sometimes just letters, and coaxing them into a minimalist's feast. As she put it: "It's a whole other layer of obsession!"

Noting obsessions, she also crowed proud at having introduced Austin to, who else, but Frank O'Hara. The pocket-sized Lunch Poems is a perfect companion to Austin's soon-to-be-released Newspaper Blackout.

Previous Newsletter : Edition Announcement #236 - Lacey Terrell