I make maps to understand what it means to be blind, and a flaneur . Those ideas are elusive destinations. Think of them as streets you can wander along with me. Start with the first post, ![Fog at Isle Royale [Source: wildmengoneborneo.com]](../wp-content/uploads/2008/04/isle_royale_fog.jpg "Fog at Isle Royale [Source: wildmengoneborneo.com]")
"Brendan, this is what the world looks like all the time to me. Just a little fog. It’s a fine day for boating on the Great Lakes.” Without missing a stroke he turned to dart a skeptical glance at me. Brendan the Navigator. When we named him I didn’t tell his mother everything the legendary Irish name implied. But I imagined him taking on the role of navigator for me. Growing up with Coastal Survey charts and tales of Great Lakes shipwrecks, he came to know Superior as another home. He never doubted the wisdom of canoeing there with a father who was half blind. 
If there is an emerging genetic underclass, I could run for class president or class clown. Read more in 
![Charlotte Casiraghi in a red dress. [Source: Stylophile]](../wp-content/uploads/2008/02/charlotte_casiraghi_red_dress.jpg "Charlotte Casiraghi in a red dress. [Source: Stylophile]")
When I figured out who Charlotte Casiraghi was, I realized that I once sent a poem to her mother. 
Poet and street artist Miss Tic isn't exactly a kid in a hoodie with a can of spray paint. Maybe she can still run like hell when the police show up, but can she sprint in high heels? Well-known in international avant-garde circles, her work is exhibited now at the Venice Biennale as well as the alleys of Paris. I must confess, as did On The Media’s Bob Garfield, that until last week “I’d never read a single word of David Foster Wallace’s work because he’s reputed as a novelist to be very dense and difficult, along Thomas Pynchon/James Joyce lines, and I didn’t even know he did journalism. But …, I’ve been […]
Entries Tagged as 'writing'
David Foster Wallace’s Long-form Journalism
0
September 23, 2023 at 6:00am
by Mark Willis
media · writing Add Your Comment
Writing Post-Gutenberg Narratives for the Web
0
June 10, 2023 at 12:01pm
by Mark Willis
Jakob Nielsen’s Alertbox is geared to web usability for business intra-nets and e-commerce. It isn’t the final word on usability, but I’ve long appreciated his advocacy of web accessibility for computer users with disabilities. Nielsen’s latest column raises some provocative questions about web-based reading and writing:
Web content must be brief and get to […]
attention · writing · accessibility · reading Add Your Comment
Playing By Ear: Diablo Cody & the Ritz Cracker
0
February 8, 2023 at 12:05am
by Mark Willis
Diablo Cody is everywhere these days. And why not? She has a charmed back-story any screenwriter would strike for: ex-stripper, blogger, and now, Oscar nominee. Callers to NPR’s Talk of the Nation, nascent novelists one and all, clamored for how-to tips. Her advice? Give it away on a Ritz cracker.
No, she didn’t say it that […]