Books

When I changed high schools after the ninth grade, there was some confusion about how each school handled its history curriculum, and in the shuffle, I lamentably never got a formal education in 20th century world history. I assume this is why I was never required to read this book. Reading it now, decades late to the, uh, party, it’s hard not to wonder how it would have affected me as a teen.

Would it… See more →

I was hopeful, if not naive enough to be confident, that enough people were sufficiently fed up with That Fucking Guy to keep him from returning to the White House. But he will, of course, be returning, and while this time his victory isn’t the shock to the system it was in 2016, his popular vote win, a hair shy of a mandate, still stings plenty. The Democratic Party’s subsequent soul-searching might be morbidly comical… See more →

In a revival of an old-school blogging pyramid scheme, my friend Dan Mall wrote about his typical day and tagged me and others to do the same. What follows is a mix of both the aspirational and the factual, and the distance between the two suggests that if life is time management, I’m not especially skilled at life. If you’re not either, read on for sweet, sweet validation.

My alarm goes off at 7:00. These… See more →

Hello, dear reader!

April is gone, but its links remain.

I’ve been obsessed with my current personal project lately (more on that soon), so apart from a handful of very brief movie reviews, I didn’t do much writing in April, though the web designers in the audience might want to take a look at my notes from last week’s Generate conference.

The links this go-round include some gems for Prince fans on the second anniversary of… See more →

Fear of a Female President

To understand this reaction, start with what social psychologists call “precarious manhood” theory. The theory posits that while womanhood is typically viewed as natural and permanent, manhood must be “earned and maintained.” Because it is won, it can also be lost. Scholars at the University of South Florida and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign reported that when asked how someone might lose his manhood, college students rattled off social… See more →

Somehow, this idea is even sillier than fan fiction.

No need to click through. Just check out the abstract.

I became a fan of Mike Birbiglia after hearing a handful of his stories on This American Life and The Moth. But before I could get around to checking out one of his albums or seeing one of his performances, Sleepwalk With Me was published, so I picked it up expecting great things. And in some ways, it is great. Just not quite as great as I expected.

In the AV Club interview that persuaded… See more →

One of our rules of thumb or guiding principles is that the writing has to be about—I don’t know if this makes sense when I describe it in words, but the writing has to be about the audience. The writing can’t be about me. It has to be about everyone.

And it’s not even my birthday yet.

!!!

In the Stereo

• Opeth: Watershed
• TV on the Radio: Dear Science
• Metallica: Death Magnetic
• Radiohead: OK Computer

On the Silver Screen

• Waltz with Bashir
• Burn After Reading

In Print

• Watchmen by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons

I never really got into superhero comics, and while Watchmen is quite a bit more sophisticated than most of the ones I've been exposed to, it indulges in enough of the genre's brash fantasy to keep me from being as excited about it as a lot of people are. That said, I did really enjoy it. Alan Moore's alternate 20th century is more interested in its (mostly) mortal heros' politics and relationships than their powers… See more →

On the Web

• Dear Lulu: A downloadable book of print samples you can use to test the capabilities of print-on-demand services. Such a great idea.

In the Stereo

• Faraquet: Anthology 1997–98
• Don Caballero: Punkgasm

On the Silver Screen

• Man on Wire

In Print

• The Book of Other People edited by Zadie Smith
• The Curious Case of Benjamin Button: A Graphic Novel by F. Scott Fitzgerald, Nunzio DeFillippis, and Kevin Cornell
• How Life Imitates Chess by… See more →

Zadie Smith commissioned twenty-three reputable writers (including herself) to each "make someone up." Their stories were named after their characters and compiled into this book, published and sold for the benefit of 826NYC, a non-profit that gets kids into writing. It's a good enough idea, but unfortunately, most of these stories are instantly forgettable.

Some of the authors I've found to excel at short-form character studies before (like Dan Clowes and Miranda July) don't disappoint,… See more →

Preferable to the story's original form, this graphic adaptation is well-paced and beautifully illustrated (full disclosure: the illustrator is a good friend of mine), both preserving and enhancing Fitzgerald's winking, flowery prose. Kevin Cornell's loose lines and sepia watercolors strike a flexible tone that deftly manages the story's mood swings and evokes the era magnificently. The portraits marking Benjamin's progress in backward aging at the beginning of each chapter are an especially nice touch.

Part motivational pep talk, part memoir, and part chess instruction, How Life Imitates Chess shares insights accumulated through a lifetime on professional chess's world stage by the most accomplished player the game has ever known. Self-awareness is the main message, and Kasparov has a gift for making the steps to achieving it plain, if not easy. His points are well-illustrated by anecdotes from his chess and political careers as well as historic examples from the… See more →

On the Web

• Beard Revue: Rob Weychert: My beard has been rated 9.5/10.

In the Stereo

• DAT Politics: Are Oui Phony??
• Richard Hell & The Voidoids: Blank Generation
• Mission of Burma: OnOffOn
• Devo: Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are Devo!
• The Hold Steady: Stay Positive
• Mercyful Fate: Melissa / The Beginning
• ZZ Top: Tres Hombres

On the Silver Screen

• The Dark Knight
• Derek
• Gonzo: The Life and Work of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson… See more →

On the Web

• Camp Naked Terror 7: Photos from this year’s Summer Camp Slasher Birthday Bash.
• Touring to Alaska on Vegetable Oil!: My friend Matt and his tour mate Kyle demonstrate how they the prep the environmentally-friendly fuel that’s taking them across North America.

In the Stereo

• Bad Brains: Rock for Light
• Mose Giganticus: Commander!
• Dr. Dre: The Chronic
• Danzig: Danzig II: Lucifuge
• South: South
• Mission of Burma: Vs.
• Kanye West: The College Dropout
• The… See more →

On the Web

• Siggi Eggertsson: Eye-popping geometric impressionism.
• Isaac Tobin: An outstanding graphic design portfolio. I’m particularly fond of his book covers.
• I Love Typography: A new blog whose title says it all.
• Everyone’s a Design Critic: Stan and I are cooking up a presentation for next year’s SXSW, and we’d love to have your vote.
• Turkey: Kevin Cornell’s submission for a comics contest in Philadelphia’s City Paper. I am of the strong opinion that you… See more →

On the Web

• Thomas Allen: This photographer’s Pulp Fiction series adds an ingenious third dimension to book cover illustrations.
• The Digit: Photos of an amputee with an inspiring sense of humor.
• Fear(s) of the Dark: This French animated anthology looks very promising.
• Band to Band: Trace the musical family tree of your favorite band.
• Spinal Tap to Reunite for Live Earth Concert: Behind the scenes with Nigel, David, and Derek.
• Moustache May: You owe it… See more →

On the Web

• “The Conqueror Worm” Letterpress Print: Coudal Partners’ Swap Meat is selling (or trading) a print Stan and I did late last year. If the walls of your study are looking a bit too cheery, here’s your chance to do something about it!
• R.I.P. Kurt Vonnegut: You opened my eyes in ways no other writer could. Thank you for sharing your thoughts. You will be missed.
• Why the Overwhelming Numbers of Design Flops?… See more →

A brief history of type

Like all the arts, [typography] is basically immune to progress, though it is not immune to change. —Robert Bringhurst, The Elements of Typographic Style

The art of typography has a rich and storied tradition, and like most art forms, its production processes have moved at a snail’s pace. After Gutenberg’s landmark invention of movable type (a printing method consisting of individual letters carved out of metal) in the fifteenth century, the… See more →

On the Web

• The Jerry Springer Episode Debacle: The Lost Film Fest’s Scott Beibin tells the full, outrageous story of faking his way onto the Springer show, complete with clips from the episode.
• swfIR: A new standards-friendly, whiz-bang image replacement technique that harnesses the power of Flash.
• Great (Chalk) Album Covers: Coudal Partners’ and 37 Signals’ bathroom chalkboard is put to very good use.
• Looking to Cash in on a Punk Rock Youth: Apparently there… See more →

I’ve done a bad thing. And I didn’t act alone.

Nine esteemed colleagues and I collaborated with Friends of ED editor Chris Mills to create a book called Web Standards Creativity, which will be released early in March. It is poised to infect the minds of innumerable readers with several creative approaches to standards-based web design and development. These progressive ideas in XHTML, CSS, and DOM scripting could single-handedly set back the cause of mediocrity… See more →

This could be a great book if it bothered to go into any actual detail or offer any really compelling arguments for or against abiding by typographic principles. Instead, it offers two equally under-developed halves. The first half gives us the ten “commandments,” several of which are typographically context-specific, and each of which has barely a sentence of explanation or justification for why it should be followed. The second half of the book supposedly describes… See more →

On the Web

• The Fall Guy: An action shot of one of my several failed attempts to mount a tallbike. (Eventually, I succeeded.)
• FreeJack: All of the Flash source files from the current season of the animated Canadian series “Odd Job Jack” are being made available to the public. Wow!
• A Way to Set the Limit of Font Scaling in One Dimension: An excellent demonstration of why non-uniform type scaling is a bad idea.
• Transformers =… See more →

On the Web

• Microsoft Designs the iPod Package: This amusing little video demonstrates perfectly why designers typically prefer Apple.
• Metal: A Headbanger’s Journey: An insider’s anthropological documentary examination of the much-maligned musical subculture.
• Dev2.0: Band-sanctioned, kid-friendly versions of Devo classics on Walt Disney Records. I don’t know whether to laugh or cry.
• Lotte Klaver: A beautiful watercolor sketch blog from Amsterdam.
• Netdisaster: Wreak harmless havoc on the web site of your choice. A neat idea,… See more →

On the Web

• My Week as a Waiter: A New York food critic tries out the other side of the table.
• “Walker: Texas Ranger” Clips on “Late Night with Conan O’Brien”: Almost makes me wish I still watched TV.
• Kung Fu Fuck You: The martial art of flipping the bird.
• Burninating Three Candles: Happy Birthday, Trogdor!
• Speak Up: Recommended Reading: A large collection of quality books on graphic design.
• Buddy Rich, the Person: Expletive-rich (no… See more →

On the Web

• Titles Designed by Saul Bass: Complete list of the films Bass worked on, with lots of information and images.
• Lazy Sunday: SNL rap video extolling the decadent joys of cupcakes and Narnia.
• Art Chantry: Pearls Are a Nuisance: Video from this fall’s massive exhibition at the Philip Slein Gallery in St. Louis.
• Superdickery: Absurd and hilarious comic book covers of yesteryear.
• The Elements of Typographic Style Applied to the Web: Robert Bringhurst’s indispensible… See more →

On the Web

• Talking with Jason Santa Maria: An Event Apart, #04: AIGA interrogates Stan.
• Find 74 Bands: And say goodbye to the rest of your day.
• Pixelworthy Is Looking for an Account Executive: Your chance to work with a great team in Philadelphia.
• AT&T Says Bye-Bye to Saul Bass: Another classic logo bites the dust. And how.
• Design Online: Every issue of Design Magazine, from 1965 through 1974, transcribed and scanned for your reading… See more →

On the Web

• Weychert Gone Wild: Sometimes, you just need to dance. Well, I do, anyway.
• Stan & Rob: Champions of Multimedia Design: Bandy provides an intimate glimpse into the lives of Stan and me.
• Occupied: A Jeffrey Stockbridge photo series documenting interiors of dilapidated Philadelphia residences. Some of these are right around the corner from me.
• Dawn of the Knitted Dead: George Romero’s classic characters rendered in yarn.
• Fire Destroys Wallace and Gromit Warehouse… See more →

On the Web

• Download My Store: Is e-commerce moving backwards?
• Shining: A trailer for The Shining, if it were a warm-hearted family comedy.
• Egg Song: A superbly animated Flash cartoon with a catchy little tune about eggs.
• MST3K Movie Poster Index: A collection of posters from every single movie featured on “Mystery Science Theater 3000.”
• A Not-To-Do-List: A big ol’ list of things not to do.
• Pentagram: Hillman Curtis profiles one of the world’s most… See more →

On the Web

• Guitar Shred Show: Learn the way of the exploding solo and become the shredder you have always dreamed of being!
• Picnic Mtn. Book 1: Thirty-two pages of perplexingly hilarious comics for $5.00.
• Live: Shellac: I have passed up a few opportunities to see Shellac. I am stupid.
• The Bearskinrug Store: Kevin Cornell is now selling prints and posters. Buy now—this stuff is gonna go fast!
• Glyphs: Dave Shea examines the awesome power… See more →

On the Web

• Chris Harding Animation Concern: Wonderfully designed cartoons reminiscent of Gene Deitch-era Terrytoons.
• A Whole New Internet?: Jason Kottke assesses the State of the Web Union
• Guess the Google: A fun Flash quiz game using Google Image Search
• 54 Optical Illusions & Visual Phenomena
• Amusement Park in Decay: Three pages of lovely photos (1, 2, 3)
• Five Simple Steps to Better Typography: Sound advice from Mark Boulton.
• Singles Night at Wal*Mart: I think I… See more →

On the Web

• Writing, Briefly: Excellent writing tips from Paul Graham.
• Typecasting: The Use (and Misuse) of Period Typography in Movies.
• Frusion Breakfast Brawl: Addictive Punch Out-style Flash game.
• “The Most Expensive Album Never Made”: Detailed history of Guns ’N’ Roses’ doomed Chinese Democracy.
• Pimp My Safari: New online hub for Safari browser customization from Jon Hicks.
• Guess the Dictator and/or Television Sit-Com Character: This online game of 20 (or more) questions is actually quite difficult to… See more →

The summer technically ends on September 22 (as anyone eagerly anticipating the redesign of this site should note), but most people pack up their lawn sprinklers and sun dresses after Labor Day, moribundly lumping the whole of September into the Autumn category. Apparently Mother Nature’s embitterment toward this trend compelled her to adjust the calendar herself; it was 65º and raining in Philadelphia this afternoon. The crap weather seems to have followed me back here… See more →

History is merely a list of surprises. It can only prepare us to be surprised yet again.
—Dr. Wilbur Daffodil-11 Swain, aka Kurt D. Vonnegut, Jr.