Baum-kuchen, a local and online stationery store, inspiration studio, and community space 🖋️📓

Over the weekend I had the good fortune to hear about a little stationery shop 10 minutes from my house. Baum-kuchen is a spectacular little space hiding over on Lincoln in Altadena with a warm, wabi-sabi (わびさび) charm. The business began in 2010, but opened up their physical location in 2019. Obviously not the most fortuitous time to have opened a brick and mortar location, they’re primarily still online, but have regular open hours usually from 12-5pm on Sundays. 

The space, while modest, is rich and well-appointed, as one would expect a fine stationery store to be. I spent almost as much time appreciating the small touches of hardware for merchandising purposes as I did lusting after the stationery, pens, pencils, cases, bags, washi tape, stamps, paper twine, and miscellanea. I think the first three things I asked for prices on were store fixtures. (But with a lush, rare Wabash Cabinet on display, who wouldn’t?)

If you’re looking for the corporate, completist, and cramped feel of something like Kinokuniya, this is assuredly not that. This is a place to luxuriate in stationery and spark some creativity away from the madding crowd.

A sturdy wooden four drawer 3 x 5" card index from The Wabash Cabinet Co. One drawer has been removed.

Of particular note, they’ve got one of the most beautiful, well-appointed, and fully stocked pigeonhole displays I’ve ever seen for Traveler’s Notebooks. They also offer a nice selection of The Superior Labor products to which they also offer customization touches you can easily add on to make your notebook “Truly Yours”

They seem to have a full selection of MIDORI paper products, lots of Stalogy, and  PERPANEP. Also on offer were analog planners like Jibun Techos, Roterfaden, and Nolty along with brands like Classiky, Kokuyo, Kuretake, Mizushima, Postalco, and ateliers PENELOPE among others.

I’ll take a moment to note that this was the first time I’ve ever seen Roterfaden for sale in a physical shop. They truly are lovely analog items with a high level of  tactile joy. I find myself needing more thick felt in my life beyond the large grey mat I use for shodo.

This also reminds me that the shop does a fantastic job of providing physical samples of nearly almost every product that you can open, play with, and try out (including samples of most of the notebook paper!) It’s small touches like this that will keep the stationery afficionados coming back every time.

Community

In addition to all the spectacular things I saw, I would be remiss not to mention one of the kindest touches in the whole shop. Front and center in the main room is a fantastic wooden and metal table with several fine chairs. They invite the community to come in with their journals to sit and write with each other. 

I arrived on the early side of their store hours, but just after, two people showed up who browsed for a bit, but then sat down to write and try out some of the available stamps on the table in their own journals. Wakako even invited me to feel free to bring my typewriter to sit and write for a bit in the future. Anyone up to join me? With such a nice space, why not use it on a Sunday afternoon to plan out your week or reflect on the week past?

Beyond the warm and inviting space, they keep things in stock in the store which seem to be marked as sold out in their online storefront. On first blush this could be written down as a potential accounting error or maybe delays in updating the website, but I suspect that they’re carefully holding onto stock for their local community to be able to see items and purchase things in person. 

As rare as it is to see a shop revel in the idea of analog, it’s even more refreshing and heartening to see one doing its best to strive towards kindness within its own community the way that Baum-kuchen does. 

Next time, with money in my pocket

I usually make a habit of leaving my wallet at home on first visits to nearby stationery stores. (Those inflicted with the gentle madness like me will know why.) But I’ve started a list on my pocket notebook with a few things I must have on my next visit…

A Kaweko brass Liliput fountain pen with a "sample" sticker sitting on a pen pricing sheet in the Baum-Kuchen Studio Shop

Buried Lede: Hobonichi in the United States

There are too many things to like about Baum-kuchen, and I haven’t even mentioned the pastry origins of the German-named shop. Some will scream that I’ve buried the lede in this whole story when I mention the following exciting revelation: This fall, Baum-kuchen will be carrying a wide variety of Hobonichi products!!! I’m only aware of a tiny handful of US-based stores which carry or ship Hobonichi (JetPens anyone?), but Baum-kuchen will be one of them. I’ve generally ordered these directly from Japan in the past, but it will be ever so nice to be able to place an order to a physical shop that’s just a few minutes away. I’m hoping they’ll open up the store on announcement day and have a little party to celebrate. If they do, I’m definitely baking them a homemade tree cake!

Several wood and rubber stamps, featuring one which reads Wabi-sabi, though it's written in Japanese katakana. 

Review of King Jim A6 size horizontal Flatty Works case #5460 🗃️

Back on April 7th on a visit to the Kinokuniya bookstore/Maido stationery shop in the Santa Anita Mall, I picked up an A6 size horizontal Flatty Works case (forest green, H4.8×W6.8×D1.4in) made by King Jim. It was listed at US$20.50+tax. The case is also available in mustard yellow, beige, teal, and a dark blue.

It’s a nice little minimalist case made with a very lightly parafin-waxed cotton canvas material and a clear plastic front so that one can see the internal contents. The sides of the flexible case fold in accordion-style when not full so it collapses to fit the space it needs. In addition to the primary internal space, the case has a thin internal pocket that would accommodate some credit cards, a handful of 4 x 6 index cards, or perhaps a Field Notes pocket notebook. Similarly on the outside back, there’s an angularly cut external pocket for a few slips of paper, or to place the cover of your A6 notebook while writing. The front has an envelope-style closure flap with a reasonably strong magnetic snap. 

I purchased the case primarily to carry my 4 x 6 inch index card “notebooks” as well as a variety of loose index cards and dividers I carry regularly. It has the benefit of going reasonably well with my collection of Lochby waxed canvas holders and covers as well. I usually keep a copy of today’s schedule and priority to do list on top of the interior pocket so they’re easily visible during the day through the clear plastic front of the case.

For the curious, I’ve tried them variously and can verify that the case also comfortably fits the following (separately):

  • A Samsung S22 cell phone and a few Field Note notebooks
  • An Amazon Kindle Paperwhite and a pack of 100 4 x 6 index cards
  • A reasonably thick A6 sized notebook along with some additional pens or simple office supplies. A small Hobonichi would easily fit with space to spare.

The case is small enough to comfortably fit into the back pocket of my blue jeans, for walking around, but it’s not super comfortable for sitting on that way, particularly for long periods. I like its portability and the ability to take out a few cards and work on them using the reverse side as a mini-desk while moving around throughout the day. In some sense it acts like a custom made folder for filing my index cards on the go as a everyday carry. It made for a reasonably comfortable mini-office while on an airplane last week.

The inside top left corner of the case has a small loop that would allow one to attach a string, key chain, carrying handle or other loop to attach the case to a purse or other bag if necessary. This might also be convenient for those who might want to use this case as a bag in a bag, though I’ve not personally had the need for it yet.

Even with only a few index cards inside, the case is easily capable of standing upright in front of my card index/zettelkasten on my desk to take up less space than lying flat. Doing this also keeps all my immediate cards easily accessible while also being ready to travel if necessary.

Thus far, after a few weeks of use and even some airplane travel, it’s shown itself to be sturdy, convenient, useful, and a lovely addition to my daily zettelkasten workflow.

Iona Fyfe with Countercurrent in Saturday 10, 2022 Matinee at Coffee Gallery Backstage

A while back I started to learn some Welsh and along the way, my linguistic leanings led me across the paths of Aran Jones and then Dr. Michael Dempster.

Later, to expand beyond the mountain music of my Appalachian youth, I started searching for traditional Celtic influenced music, I quickly ran into the name Iona Fyfe via some of Dempster’s network. I added her to various music lists and gave a quick Twitter follow. I absorbed some of her music  over several months until I noticed that she had a new single dropping on September 3rd. That’s when I saw through her Twitter account that she was doing a tour through part of the U.S. 

I figured, surely she’ll play L.A. at some point and it would definitely be worth the trip over to the city.  I started searching only to discover that she’d be playing five minutes from my house! Double-Win!! I called immediately and made reservations for the whole family.

For those new to her and her music, Iona is an Aberdeenshire folksinger/songwriter rooted in the musical traditions of the North East of Scotland. In 2021, she became the first singer to win the Musician of the Year at the MG ALBA Scots Trad Music Awards. She’s incredibly knowledgeable about the folk tradition in both Scotland as well as in the United States. Her music crosses folk, traditional Scottish music, country and bluegrass, with some pop and rock thrown in (most of it translated into Scots, of course.)

Set list

Doors opened at 1:30 PM. Show started at 2:00 PM and finished at about 4:15 PM.

1. Scotland Yet (single, 2021)
2. Take Me Out Drinking (from Away from My Window)
3. The Wild Geese
4. Lady Finella
– written on 2021-01-06; released on 2022-09-03
5. Love Story (Scots translation of Taylor Swift song)
6. Kenmure
– Inspired by Woody Guthrie and Deportee (Plane Wreck at Los Gatos)
7. Banks of Inverurie (from Away from My Window)
– Craig Duncan Collection; about a girl walking by the river, a man makes a pass at her and it takes 6 verses to get to “no”
8. **Poor Ditching Boy**
– Richard Thompson (Fairport Convention) Sunset Song was the original, but this version has been translated (more appropriately) in Scots
9. Bonnie Lass of Fyvie
– Cecil Sharp / Doric Text; Versions by Dylan (changed city name), Gratful Dead, Joan Baez, and Simon and Garfunkle

(intermission)

10. Guise of Tough (from Away from My Window)
– Doric
11. The Northern Lights (of Old Aberdeen) by Mary Webb
– Webb apparently never visited Aberdeen
12. The Waters Meet
– written by Iona Fyfe
13. The Ship Song (Scots version)
– cover via Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
14. Dark Turn of Mind (from Dark Turn of Mind)
– via Gillian Welch; Fyfe’s first song in English and it got big play only in English and not in Scots, so she decide only to do Scots thereafter;
my comment: Eat it Patsy Kline!
15. Swing and Turn (from Dark Turn of Mind)
– via Jean Ritchie
– Kentucky based country song
16. **Hametoun
– cover of Sarah Jarosz’ Hometown
17. **Freedom Come All Ye**
cover via Hamish Henderson

(encore)

18. **Tak’ a Dram Afore Ye Go** (Scots)

Review

I don’t think Queen Elizabeth II had been dead for a full day, so I was quite taken that Fyfe chose to open her performance with Scotland Yet. The only way it may have been better was if we’d had a few drams to toast with while listening.

Sadly while Fyfe had intended to play as a trio on the tour with Alex Sturbaum and Brian Lindsay, the two members of Countercurrent, Bryan had come down with COVID-19 and thus had to miss this particular show. Alex did a spectacular job on acoustic guitar and bouzouki, but I definitely missed what I suspect would have been some excellent fiddle that would have helped round out the trio.

Despite this perceived handicap, the show was truly spectacular. I’ve heard most of Fyfe’s recordings and I have to say that as great as they are, she’s even more transcendent in person. She reminds me of a young Loreena McKennitt or Tori Amos.

I realized I don’t even own a CD player anymore, but to support Iona’s music and her tour, I purchased three of her albums on CD. Hopefully it will help in offsetting the abysmally low returns on streaming music platforms.

Sonia warns Fyfe to watch out for the “Torries” in Modesto which probably isn’t as progressive as a more “granola” Altadena crowd.

Iona Fyfe September 2022 US Tour Dates

If you haven’t seen Iona Fyfe in person yet, it’s definitely a fantastic experience. She’s got a long list of tour dates, primarily on the US West Coast through September.

Tour poster featuring Iona Fyfe in a black top and checked black and white pants sitting on a stool. A large list of dates and venues appears next to her which can be found at https://ionafyfe.com/tour/

Hall & Oates Concert October 2021 featuring Squeeze at the Hollywood Bowl

Background and the Pandemic

I originally bought tickets for this show at the Hollywood Bowl on January 25, 2020, but the pandemic obviously delayed the original show date of May 29th. In a fit of optimism on July 16, 2020, the show was rescheduled for October 1, 2021. I really didn’t expect the show to stick. It was my second major crowd outing since the start of the pandemic.

I drove to the Pasadena park and ride location which had just closed because the last bus had just left. They indicated the Zoo location was still open and would have buses until 7pm. So we drove to the LA Zoo bus stop and parked and rode from there. Doing this, even with crowds well masked, was certainly a lot less taxing than sitting in crazy traffic or worrying about parking. The two way fee was a much lower $6 whereas I expected it to be $12 per person.

We got to our seats a bit after the opening act started because of the COVID-19 check-in lines. The lines were miserably managed and social convention went out the window for people cutting in line and generally shifting around.

While vaccination cards or negative tests were required for entrance, they weren’t well organized about it. It would have been all-too-easy to sneak around the COVID check and get directly into the ticket/bag check area which was much more closely guarded and well executed.

Once past the checkpoint not many people were wearing masks. There was approximately 60% masking in public areas outside the Bowl itself, but once seated with a nearly capacity crowd at a sold out show, there was only about 20% masking. I kept a mask on the entire night. Knowing that this would be the case we didn’t take the traditional Hollywood Bowl picnic basket or food.

The weather for the evening was about as lovely as one could have hoped. Not to hot and not too cold which is notable when October evenings can be uncomfortably warm with temperatures in the high 80s to mid 90s.

Opening act: Squeeze

Purple lights illuminate the bandshell with the band name Squeeze projected behind the band

I think I enjoyed the opening act most this evening. They played a few of their hit songs certainly, but I enjoyed the more experimental late 70’s material they played that fell into the vein of Pink Floyd and The Alan Parsons Project as part of the New Wave movement. It was very much the sound of the late 70’s and they recreated it wonderfully in a way that took me back to that space and time. While there were some nice flourishes and musical improvisation sprinkled in, it was closer to their studio/album work in sound and flavor, particularly in comparison to Hall & Oates. Their material generally matched the mood of Hall & Oates’ She’s Gone.

I almost feel like this performance wasn’t as flashy as it may have been in the day. It would be quite something to see them in a more intimate setting like the Troubadour.

The day was one of the band member’s birthdays, so the entire crowd sang happy birthday to close out the performance.

There were a number of women in their 50s standing up and singing and dancing to every number which was interesting to see.

Setlist

I could only recall Mussels, Cool for Cats, Tempted, Annie, Black Coffee, and Happy Birthday from the top of my head as I didn’t keep a written setlist like I did for Hall and Oates. The list below is courtesy of setlist.fm, but all the big pieces appeared in the order that I remember.

  1. Take Me I’m Yours
  2. Up the Junction
  3. Hourglass
  4. Is That Love
  5. Departure Lounge
  6. Slap and Tickle
  7. Pulling Mussels (From the Shell)
  8. Please Be Upstanding
  9. Cool for Cats
  10. Tempted
  11. Annie Get Your Gun
  12. If I Didn’t Love You
  13. Black Coffee in Bed
  14. Happy Birthday to You (Mildred J. Hill & Patty Hill song)
    (Sung to bassist Owen Biddle; each band member took a solo spot)

Main Act: Hall and Oates

Starting at 8:50 PM and finishing out at about 10:30 PM

Setlist

  1. Maneater
  2. Out of Touch
  3. Method of Modern Love
  4. Say it Isn’t So
  5. You’ve Lost that Loving Feeling
  6. She’s Gone (High on Consolation)
  7. Sarah Smile
  8. Is it a Star (according to setlist.fm, I didn’t catch the title at the time)
  9. Back Together Again 
  10. I Can’t Go For That (No Can Do)
    —- Encore —
  11. Rich Girl
  12. Your Kiss is on My List (with a slick transition to)
  13. Private Eyes (10:10 PM)
    —- Band introductions —- 
  14. You Make my Dreams Come True (10:20 PM start)

Band

  • Shane Theriot (Guitar)
  • Eliot Lewis (keyboards)
  • Klyde Jones (Bass)
  • Brian Dunne (drums)
  • Porter Carroll Jr. (Percussion)
  • Charles “Charlie” DeChant (Saxophone)

Brief review

The concert was generally solidly produced. The opening was electric and the crowd gave them a lot of early energy in a nearly packed Bowl. Unfortunately the energy waned within a song and a half. Daryl Hall took about three songs to really warm up his voice. Prior to that I was worried about what I was in for. For someone in his mid-70’s it was a solid performance, but he’s definitely not got the energy of the early 80’s. Late in the program he moved to keyboards and did alright for his age, but there were some obvious rough spots in his solo play.

Given their spot in the Yacht Rock pantheon of highly produced music, I expected to hear more of the polish of their 80’s work, but there was a lot more Jazz and R&B influence on their performance. This was probably great for the Hollywood Bowl regulars where there’s often quite a bit of Jazz programmed, but it just wasn’t the 70s experimental material or the Rock/Pop I was either hoping for or expecting.

Hall’s patter was a bit stilted for me. The quote of the night came between Sarah Smile and the lead into Is it a Star with a drug culture reference:

“I think all the 70’s were experimental.”
—Daryl Hall

Panorama of the Hollywood Bowl at night

Read - Finished Reading: Blue Lightning (Shetland Island, #4) by Ann Cleeves (Minotaur Books)
Detective Inspector Jimmy Perez brings his fiancée home to Fair Isle, a birder's paradise, where strangers are viewed with suspicions and distrust. When a woman's body is discovered at the island's bird observatory, the investigation is hampered by a raging storm that renders the island totally isolated. Jimmy has to find clues the old-fashioned way, and he has to do it quickly. There's a killer on the island just waiting for the chance to strike again.
This didn’t have quite as slow a start as some of the others.
 
A painful but solid ending. Best of the series so far, though perhaps because of knowing the characters so well now.
 
The ending was a bit of a gut punch even though I’d seen much of the end of the tv series, though I don’t think that Fran figured in any of it and Cassie was played as a teenager rather than a 6 year old. The writing was solid enough to rush us through some action pieces that might not have otherwise played out as logically looking back at things in a more quiet manner. In particular several characters could have blurted out some facts in the final minutes to prevent additional deaths.
 
Again Cleeves leaves us in just an interesting spot in the closing paragraphs to push us to read the next book.
 
Rating:
Read - Finished Reading: White Nights by Ann Cleeves (Minotaur Books)
The electrifying follow-up to the Dagger Award-winning Raven Black. In this second thriller of the highly acclaimed Shetland Island series featuring Inspector Jimmy Perez, the launch of an exhibition at The Herring House art gallery is disturbed by a stranger who bursts into tears, then claims not to remember who he is or where he comes from. The next day he's found dead. Set in midsummer, the book captures the unsettling nature of a landscape where the sun never quite sets and where people are not as they first seem.

Brief Review

rating: 4 of 5 stars

Well tied up after l after laying things out so beautifully. Bigger on character than actual plot though, so it moved pretty slowly until about 60% of the way through.

I think I actually liked this better than the first one, though it does help to have some more background on the characters for having read both now. Definitely very carefully and well structured little mystery.

Read - Finished Reading: Go Jump in the Pool! (Macdonald Hall, #2) by Gordon Korman (Scholastic)
When Bruno and Boots learn that Macdonald Hall is about to lose some of its best students to its arch-rival, York Academy, because the Hall doesn't have a swimming pool, they go on the warpath, determined to save the school. But their fundraising schemes turn to hilarious chaos!

Brief Review

rating: 4 of 5 stars

Somehow classic that after going through all the trouble to raise money for a swimming pool that one of our heroes can’t even swim.

Read for pure entertainment.

Read - Finished Reading: Raven Black (Shetland Island #1) by Ann Cleeves (Minotaur Books)
Raven Black begins on New Year’s Eve with a lonely outcast named Magnus Tait, who stays home waiting for visitors who never come. But the next morning the body of a murdered teenage girl is discovered nearby, and suspicion falls on Magnus. Inspector Jimmy Perez enters an investigative maze that leads deeper into the past of the Shetland Islands than anyone wants to go.
Rating: 3 of 5 stars

Brief review

Entertaining enough. I may have ruined it by watching the series first (though I missed this episode somehow.)

There’s a pace here almost as slow as that of the television show and perhaps one that may mirror the pace of life on a small island separated away from the general business of the world.

A generally well crafted mystery here, though there were bits that were guessable. Seemed an odd plot feature to have one person discovering all the bodies though I’m not sure if it added to the mystery of the story in any way, at least for me.

Read - Finished Reading: The History of the English Language by Seth Lerer (The Great Courses)
Sixteen centuries ago a wave of settlers from northern Europe came to the British Isles speaking a mix of Germanic dialects thick with consonants and complex grammatical forms. Today we call that dialect Old English, the ancestor of the language nearly one in five people in the world speaks every day.

How did this ancient tongue evolve into the elegant idiom of Chaucer, Shakespeare, Twain, Melville, and other great writers? What features of modern English spelling and vocabulary link it to its Old English roots? How did English grammar become so streamlined? Why did its pronunciation undergo such drastic changes? How do we even know what English sounded like in the distant past? And how does English continue to develop to the present day?
rating:
Definitely worth multiple listens. There’s a lot of depth and nuance here and Lerer does a great job of not only relaying the history and events, but ties it together in broader themes while still showing the art of the multiple subjects he’s covering.
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This is a fantastic reader app, almost with more options than one could potentially use. I specifically upgraded to the pro version in hopes for better highlights and annotation export. Sadly the HTML export version doesn’t seem to work with any of the multiple apps I tried to share it to. I would have expected a simple file with a .html extension with html based markup including the date and timestamps of the content, however the best I seem to be able to do is basic text export. Perhaps a future update will fix this?
 
Read - Finished Reading: The Celtic World by Jennifer Paxton (The Great Courses)
When you hear the word “Celtic,” which images come to mind? These days it could easily be Braveheart, kilts, leprechauns, and St. Patrick’s Day. However, since the surge of interest and pride in Celtic identity since the 19th century, much of what we thought we knew about the Celts has been radically transformed. From the warriors who nearly defeated Julius Caesar to Irish saints who took on the traits of Celtic deities, get to know the real Celts.

In The Celtic World, discover the incredible story of the Celtic-speaking peoples, whose art, language, and culture once spread from Ireland to Austria. This series of 24 enlightening lectures explains the traditional historical view of who the Celts were, then contrasts it with brand-new evidence from DNA analysis and archeology that totally changes our perspective on where the Celts came from. European history and culture have been profoundly affected by the Celts, from the myth of King Arthur to the very map of the United Kingdom, where the English confronted the peoples of the “Celtic Fringe.”

With a wealth of historical expertise, Professor Jennifer Paxton, Director of the University Honors Program and Clinical Assistant Professor of History at The Catholic University of America, guides you through each topic related to Celtic history with approachability and ease as you unearth what we once thought it meant—and what it may actually mean—to be Celtic. Professor Paxton’s engaging, often humorous delivery blends perfectly with the facts about the Celts to uncover surprising historical revelations. The ancient Celts are very much alive in the literary and artistic traditions that their descendants have both preserved and very deliberately revived. All facets of Celtic life, past and present, are addressed by Professor Paxton, who demonstrates a masterful knowledge and carefully separates fact from myth at every turn.

Brief review

I loved the first 3/4ths the most for their density and my lack of general familiarity. The end was a bit less dense and went to quickly. Overall this was a great introduction with a lot of cultural sensitivity and nuance. I really appreciate some of the modern coverage and overview which is sometimes difficult to find without a lot of additional political baggage.

Perhaps I missed it in the introduction, but it would have been nice to have a bit more of Dr. Paxton’s personal background. It wasn’t until late in the series that she mentioned growing up in Ireland and being “forced” to learn Irish in school. A bit more on her background and biases would have been nice to have, though generally her love for the subject and her general objective balance seems to shine through.

She did a particularly good job of highlighting some of the cultural highlights rooted in falsehoods or popularized writing which isn’t historically correct. She seems to give a lot of balance to prior historical research and broad views versus more current scholarship.

Read - Finished Reading: Lost Christianities: Christian Scriptures and the Battles Over Authentication by Bart D. Ehrman (Great Courses)
In the first centuries after Christ, there was no "official" New Testament. Instead, early Christians read and fervently followed a wide variety of Scriptures—many more than we have today.
Relying on these writings, Christians held beliefs that today would be considered bizarre. Some believed that there were two, 12, or as many as 30 gods. Some thought that a malicious deity, rather than the true God, created the world. Some maintained that Christ's death and resurrection had nothing to do with salvation while others insisted that Christ never really died at all.
What did these "other" Scriptures say? Do they exist today? How could such outlandish ideas ever be considered Christian? If such beliefs were once common, why do they no longer exist?
Rating: 4
Listened to audiobook version primarily via Libby

Brief review:

Clear concise story with some excellent history and comparison of early Christianities. Unstated, but there are lots of parallels to the diversity of beliefs in Christianity today. There are lots of interesting things within the “lost” sects which still lived on through cultural spread despite the disappearance of the original groups.

Review of Typlog as a turnkey platform for IndieWeb as a Service

Yesterday I ran across a tweet in the IndieWeb chat announcing that Typlog, a hosted website/blogging platform, now supports Webmention.

I looked at their website, and it also looks like they support a few other IndieWeb building blocks including WebSub and RelMeAuth by leveraging Twitter and GitHub. (The developer indicated they supported IndieAuth, but I highly suspect it’s just RelMeAuth, which is still a solid option for many IndieWeb tools.) 

Having just put together a Quick Start IndieWeb chart that includes services like micro.blog, i.haza.website, and pine.blog, I was immediately intrigued. This new platform (proprietary and not self-hostable, but very similar to the others) looks like a solid looking little platform for hosting one’s personal website (or podcast) that includes some IndieWeb building-blocks.

It’s got a 7 day free trial, so naturally I spun up a quick website. With just a few simple defaults, I had something pretty solid looking in only a few minutes with a pleasant on-boarding experience.

I’ll note that some functionality like importing content from WordPress, Tumblr, Ghost, or a podcast feed requires an actual subscription. Once you’ve finally subscribed, there are instructions to set it up to use your own domain name. However, most of the basic functionality is available in the trial. Another important indie feature is that it has a built-in export using JSON format, so that one can take their domain and content to another service provider if they wish.

It looks like it’s got a ton of common useful features! This includes support for podcasting, password protected posts, scheduling posts, membership posts, and integrations for Stripe, CloudFlare, Google Analytics, and MailChimp among many others. The platform is built with some basic and beautiful page templates and prefers to have markdown in the editor, but seems to work well with raw HTML.

They also allow adding custom code into <header> and <footer> so it should be straightforward to add support Microsub to one’s site using a service like Aperture so that you can have (feed) reader support.

Unfortunately it looks like there’s no Micropub support yet. I suspect that Typlog would be quite pleased to have a number of posting applications for both desktop and mobile available to it by adding this sort of support.

Also on testing, it looks like while the platform supports incoming Webmention, it doesn’t seem to be sending webmentions to links within posts. (Perhaps they’re batch processed asynchronously, but I haven’t seen anything yet.)

The platform seems to do really well for posting articles and podcasts and even has a custom template for reviews, but all of the user interface I’ve seen requires one to add a title on all posts, so it doesn’t lend itself to adding notes (status updates) or other indie-like posts like bookmarks, likes, or simple replies. It has a minimal built in h-card, but it could be expanded a bit for sending webmentions.

The pricing for the service starts at a very reasonable $4/month and goes up to $12/month with some additional discounts for annual payments.

In sum, I love this as another very indy-flavored web hosting service and platform for those looking to make a quick and easy move into a more IndieWeb way of hosting their website and content. While services like micro.blog and i.haza.website may be ahead of it on some technical fronts, like pine.blog, Typlog has a variety of different and unique features that many are likely to really appreciate or wish that other services might have. I imagine that over time, all of them will have relative technical parity, but will differentiate themselves on user interface, flexibility, and other services. I could definitely recommend it to friends and family who don’t want to be responsible for building and managing their websites.

One of my favorite parts of Typlog is that the company building it is based in Japan, where I’ve seen a little bit of development work for IndieWeb, but not as much as in portions of Europe, America, or Australia. It’s been great seeing some growth and spread of IndieWeb philosophy and platforms in Asia, Africa, and India recently.

And of course, who couldn’t love the fact that the developer is obviously eating their own cooking by using the platform to publish their own website! I can’t wait to see where Typlog goes next.

★★★★☆ Brief review of Ungifted by Gordon Korman

I think Amazon had a review that said if you’re a fan of Louis Sachar, you’ll love this book by Gordon Korman. I think that Korman has been writing great stuff for so long that it’s really more appropriate to say that if you love Gordon Korman, you’ll probably like a lot of Louis Sachar.

Like all Korman’s books, this one has a lot of heart. It wasn’t quite as laugh out loud funny as some of his other efforts, but it’s definitely got some great humor.

Typically I don’t like narratives that are told from multiple viewpoints, but Korman manages to pull it off incredibly well by starting each chapter with a title that uses an “Un-word” followed by the narrator and their IQ score. As a result we also get a much more nuanced picture of all of the characters which are incredibly well done.

As one of the “smart” kids growing up, I wish this book had been around to have read then, but it’s still great now and everyone is sure to appreciate it. While the protagonist is a boy, I really appreciated that there was lots of great female representation here.

Brief review of This Can’t Be Happening at MacDonald Hall! by Gordon Korman

Brief review of This Can’t Be Happening at MacDonald Hall! by Gordon Korman (Scholastic, November 25, 2014)

Rating:

** spoiler alert **

Knowing that this was his first book and written when he was still a very young teenager, I didn’t expect a whole lot from Korman. Given that I’ve enjoyed so many of his other books, I should have held him to much higher standards as he always seems to be able to deliver!

The balloon arriving at the school was a bit deus-ex-machina, but it played out so well both plot-wise and even comedic-ly–even tying in the flag incident at the start of the story–that who could fault him?