Oh, just frittering away some time on Sheaff Ephemera. Not hard to do. And certainly not unpleasant.

The good folks over at Flavorwire put up a post today about Fulton Ryder’s tumblr collection of unusual and intriguing photographs consisting mostly of book covers, with additional images of cultural ephemera. This Robert Frank volume, whose genesis was an ad campaign in 1959 for the New York Times, brought back memories of art school photography class. Back then, The Americans, Frank’s most famous body of work, made a big impression on me. For more on Robert Frank, go here to his Artsy page.

Physog is slang for Physiognomy which is the evaluation of a person’s character or nature based on their appearance, particularly the face. The notion that there is a strong correlation between someone’s outer expression and their actual character has a very ancient historic precedent, as well as making loads of sense. Of late, there has been a bit of resurgence of interest in this field of study. This 1930’s board game is a cartoonish example of the practice. I’m totally keen on the disembodied images, much more than if these were all assembled into full faces. These photos are from the absolutely astonishing collection assembled by Agence Eureka. Be forewarned: Set aside at least an hour, and up to a full day, to look through her trove of paper ephemera.

I never did that well at physics in school. But, in hindsight, I think I want to blame the teacher for making a subject that is so fascinating and poetic into something utterly prosaic. These videos are super cool. From the folks over at Wanken.

A feel-good photo, with just enough plaid. From the fabulous folks over at Old Chum.