This week in Gweek we review Adam Parfrey and Cletus Nelson's biography of famous kitsch artists, the Keanes. Plus: Plex media server, play putties, and much more. Brought to you by Random House Audio (click here for free downloads!) and by Stamps.com (click here for a special $110 offer!)

In each episode of Gweek, Dean Putney and I discuss recommended media, apps, and gadgets. This time we talked about the Plex media server, Crazy Aaron’s Putty World and the history of Silly Putty, Baggu's eco-friendly shopping bags, the Instacart grocery delivery service. We also recommended three books:

The Dinner - Over the course of a dinner in a restaurant in Amsterdam, we learn a secret shared by two brothers and their wives. The story is told by an unreliable narrator, and it’s hard to tell what he is making up. Reminiscent of Roald Dahl's stories for grown ups.

The Blighted Eye - Samples from the world’s greatest comic book art collector.

Citizen Keane: The Big Lies Behind the Big Eyes - A juicy biography of Walter and Margaret Keane, famous for the “big eye waif” paintings of the 1960s. Walter Keane was a sociopathic liar who couldn’t paint. Margaret did all the paintings herself. Tim Burton has a movie coming out about the Keanes.

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Douglas Rushkoff: Join "Team Human!"

Boing Boing pal Douglas Rushkoff’s new book, Team Human, is a fiery, inspiring, and ultimately optimistic call for us to fight against the divisive, commodifying agenda built into our technology, reassert what it really means to be human, and then, as Timothy Leary urged, “find the others.” Above, watch Doug lay it all out in […]

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Best book covers of 2018

A roundup from Lithub of the best cover art on books from this year, with commentary. There’s a strong trend toward in-camera or handmade graphics and natural media, with computers only showing up to do things that you don’t need computers to do. I think this is a good thing, but it inspires me to […]

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Paper Girls 5: fate and free will (and dinosaurs and monsters)

For two years now, Brian K Vaughan and Cliff Chiang have been knocking my socks off with their Paper Girls graphic novel, a mysterious, all-girl, Stranger-Things-esque romp through 1980s pop culture, time travel, conspiracies, clones, paradoxes, and you know, all that amazing coming-of-age/friendship-is-magic jazz. Now, the pair have released the fifth collection, and it's a […]

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Make an audiophile's holiday with these wireless headphones

For the true audio enthusiast, there’s a lot of difference between putting on some songs “for background music” and a true listening experience. For the latter, there’s nothing like a pair of sturdy headphones and the powerful speakers that come with them. And the wireless variety doesn’t get much more powerful than the TREBLAB Z2 […]

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Land a job in project management with this comprehensive course

Digital or analog, there’s a path of least resistance for any project. Finding that path is what the Agile methodology is all about, which is why proficiency in it is a must for any project management position – and the paycheck that comes with it. And the quickest path to learning Agile? The Agile Project […]

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This next-gen paper airplane combines drone and video tech

Everybody’s flown a paper airplane. But what if you could fly on a paper airplane? Until we invent shrink-ray technology, the PowerUp X FPV Video Paper Airplane Kit will have to do – but it’s as fun as that sounds and more. The original version of this creative toy added drone tech to the old, […]

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