Film and television

just opened up my very own deluxe limited edition Helvetica DVD, complete with a lead Helvetica Neue Bold Extended letter S!

watching The Commitments, realizing once again that I own far too few R&B and soul records.

Another morning with the dog: imdb.com/gallery/ss/0103644/S…

No Country for Old Men was outstanding; sort of a more mature Blood Simple. Ssoooo glad to see the Coens back in top form.

I hate to say it, but some Steve Reich pieces are the perfect soundtrack for a low-key A-Team-style montage. Just what I need right now.

On the Web

• Behind the Scenes of Layer Tennis: Chris Glass details his side of the Layer Tennis match he played with Naz Hamid.
• The Pothole: My first guest contribution to The Superest!
• The Superest: A wonderful new site from Kevin Cornell and Matt Sutter, determined to determine who is the superest of them all.
• Radio Orphan Annie’s Secret Decoder Badges: A brief history of the decoder pins used by Radio Orphan Annie’s Secret Society… See more →

trying to figure out why Apple doesn't offer a podcast (or even RSS feeds) of the movie trailers it hosts both on its site and in iTunes.

After 24 solid hours of quick zooms, day-for-night shots, 30-year-old teenagers, and maggots-a-million, I emerge victorious. Time for bed.

Movie 14: Gates of Hell. Status: Itchy. Tasty.

Movie 13: Alligator. Full of Count Chocula, Frankenberry, Booberry, and Mountain Dew. One film left!

Movie 12: Demons. Status: Gave up on body count. In the home stretch now!

Movie 11: Dracula Vs. Frankenstein. Body Count: ? Status: Not amused.

Movie 10: Teenage Mother. Body Count: 0. Status: Never giving birth.

Movie 9: Burial Ground. Body Count: 10. Status: May as well have just watched paint dry.

Movie 8: Blacula. Body Count: ? Status: Surprised by how straight-faced Blacula was. Juice is already wearing off.

Movie 7: An American Werewolf in London. Body Count: 16? Status: Jenny Agutter is stunning. Halfway through and getting tired. Taurine time.

Movie 6: Pieces. Body Count: 8. Status: The drunk loudmouth jackasses in front of us seem to be running out of steam. This is good.

Movie 5: Phantasm. Body Count: 4. Status: Havin' fun.

Movie 4: Hellraiser. Body Count: 7. Status: Getting some food during trailer hour.

Movie 3: Don't Be Afraid of the Dark. Body Count: 2. Status: First stinker of the day, but spirits remain high.

Movie 2: Godzilla Vs. The Cosmic Monster (aka MechaGodzilla). Body Count: n/a. Status: Less soggy, not quite comfortable.

Movie 1: Halloween. Body Count: 7. Status: Soggy.

embarking on an insane theatrical adventure: 24 straight hours of horror films. Watch this space for film-by-film updates.

re-watched the Hell House documentary and realized (somehow for the first time) the strategical origin of Bush's fear-mongering tactics.

Damn, The Departed was effing good.

Just shy of her 28th birthday, my lady has finally been introduced to the Star Wars universe.

On the Web

• Cassette MP3 Player: If I ever get around to installing Windows, I will so own one of these.
• My Team Vs. Your Team: Sutter Vs. Cornell Vs. Cornell in an epic, illustrated battle of superhero one-upmanship. See another match here.
• Photoshop Layer Tennis: The triumphant return of my favorite Friday afternoon design nerd diversion!
• Pitchfork Gives Music 6.8: An Onion article that is not so farfetched.
• A Brief Message: A new site dedicated… See more →

I killed my own summer. I took on more work than I should have, and hopefully I suffered the consequences more than my clients did. The summer is drawing to a close, though, and with its end, my schedule is finally becoming kind of manageable again. Today was the first day in ages that I was able to leave the house for something that didn’t resemble work.

In the early afternoon, I took in 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

• Back Porch Video: An impressively varied collection of both underground and mainstream music videos from a 1980s public access show hosted by Detroit teens.
• Paper Art Gadgets: Tiny, incredibly detailed replicas of consumer electronics (including packaging) made entirely of paper.
• Vintage Vanguard: Covers and liner notes scanned from hundreds of Blue Note records. Enviable, to say the least.
• Rob Weychert from Happy Cog Studios: Design Interviews puts me under the microscope.
• Living… See more →

On the Web

• My Favorite Font: Some writers of renown reveal the typefaces they use for composition. It pleased me to see that the abundance of Courier and Times owes as much to a reverence for the art of typesetting (“Although it’s a thrill to see my words printed in such elegant fonts, I’d never actually write in them.”) as it owes to the legacy of typewriters and word processors.
• Camp Naked Terror 6 Photos… 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 →

On the Web

• Refill 7: Fucking sick laser-engraved skate decks.
• Happy Cog Philadelphia Is Hiring: We’re looking for a standards-savvy front-end web developer that is nothing short of amazing.
• Letterhead Fonts Embraces DRM: The suggested alternative to embedding fonts in PDFs? Convert to outlines. Welcome back to the 20th century! I’m all for protecting your products from theft, but this ain’t the way to do it.
• The Super Stunt: The full story behind the biggest… See more →

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Whoever “they” are, they say you never forget your first time. And in 2005, my first SXSW was definitely unforgettable. They also say twice is nice, and as such, my second SXSW was all sugar and spice. As we all know, though, the third time is the charm, and this year’s SXSW charmed the hell out of me.

The people, panels, presentations, and parties were more plentiful than ever, but I still managed to absorb… See more →

On the Web

• Sanna Annukka: Very flat, very beautiful illustrations with a great sense of color and shape.
• Matt Hammill: Loose n’ dirty illustrations to make you smile. Don’t miss his awesome Psychedelish animation!
• Creating Inspired Design, Part 1: I Am the Walrus: Introduction to what promises to be a great series from Andy Clarke.
• The Design Disease: A handy guide to the inside of a designer’s head.
• Le Grande Content: Interesting ruminations on life… See more →

On the Web

• NRA’s Secret Graphic Novel Revealed!: Right-wing propaganda just got a serious face-lift.
• The Most Dangerous Roads in the World: Yowza! Just like the title says.

In the Stereo

• Crooked Fingers: Reservoir Songs
• Afghan Whigs: Going to Town
• The Hold Steady: Boys and Girls in America
• Deerhoof: +81
• Dmitri Shostakovich: The Symphonies
• Scott Walker: The Drift
• The Knife: Silent Shout
• The Simpsons: Songs in the Key of Springfield

On the Web

• A Rumsfeld Rememberance: Hilarious manipulation of Donald Rumsfeld press conference footage.
• Mr. City Men: Cute, mute CG characters seamlessly animated into handheld video footage. I defy anyone to watch Mr. Fortune without cracking a smile.
• FontBook: Now in its fourth edition, this massive tome compiles 32,000 type samples on 1,760 pages!

In the Stereo

• Philip Lynott: Solo in Soho
• Celtic Frost: Into the Pandemonium

On the Silver Screen

• The Hamiltons
• The Abandoned… See more →

On the Web

• Web Design Is 95% Typography: Hear, hear!
• When Animals Attack!: Just in time for Halloween, Posterwire unleashes a great collection of classic creature feature posters.
• Mark Gervais: Exemplary vector illustration with bold, rich colors, a polished line, and a keen design sense.
• The Origins of Letterforms: U&lc Magazine constructs hypotheses for the origins of the Roman alphabet“s letterforms, numerals, and punctuation.
• The David Zucker Albright Ad: An unused GOP propaganda video from… See more →

On the Web

• Cover Letters from Hell: Some amazing examples of how not to get a job.
• The White Stripes on “The Simpsons”: A really funny parody of Michel Gondry’s video for “The Hardest Button to Button.”
• George Washington: The true story of the first American hero.
• Peter Callesen: Extraordinary sculptures made with cut paper in two and three dimensions.
• Red, White, and Black: Roger Black’s fancy new web site.

In the Stereo

• TV on… 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

• World’s Largest Photo: Created using a decomissioned air hangar as a camera obscura!
• Moleskine Solvent Transfers: A gorgeous sketchbook on Flickr.
• Meat Is Murder. Tasty, Tasty Murder: With the vegetarian and vegan cults claiming record numbers of victims, this shirt is more imporant now than ever.
• Hands On: Possibly my favorite Savage Chickens cartoon.
• Our Futurist Past: Marian Bantjes’s review of the V&A’s “Modernism: Designing a New World 1914–1939” exhibition.

In the… See more →

I was born on 3 June 1976. Today, I am thirty years old.

I share 1976 with some important stuff. Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak formed Apple Computer, which would inadvertently revolutionize creative technology and desktop computing. Seminal releases from the Ramones and the Damned—and a legendary television appearance by the Sex Pistols—brought punk rock’s disaffected bite into the public consciousness. We said goodbye to luminaries like Alexander Calder, Max Ernst, and Howard… See more →

On the Web

• 2006 Yale GDMFA Show: A Flicker photo set of a breathtaking exhibition.
• Aesthetic Apparatus Presentation: Video of a talk given by the renowned poster designers from last September, courtesy of the Alberta North chapter of the Graphic Designers of Canada.
• Wikipedia Design Overhaul 2006: I usually thumb my nose at the whole “let’s get free design work for our company by holding a contest!” thing, but a donation-based community site with actual… See more →

On the Web

• The Worst President in History?: Even with two and a half years still left in his presidency, many historians agree that George W. Bush is well on his way.
• Finland Squirms as Its Latest Export Steps Into Spotlight: A whole lot of fuss over a heavy metal band in monster makeup.
• Randy Glass: Portfolio site of the incredible Wall Street Journal portrait artist.
• Illuminated Books: A collection of illuminated and illustrated books… See more →

On the Web

• Deadguy138’s YouTube Channel: A growing collection of rare live video footage from some great underground bands: noise, punk, metal, jazz, and more.
• Lawsuit Over Brokeback Mountain Reveals Unease Over Pay for “Arthouse” Films: Are major film studios’ “independent” divisions lowballing creative talent and then cashing in on awards buzz? Yes.
• Time to Redesign: Someone has finally taken notice of how much I “suCkSS.”
• Best Fight Scene of All Time: A truly inspiring… See more →

I have a disappointing capacity for insufferable snobbery. I won’t deny it. But I’m not beyond accepting my comeuppance, however quietly self-administered it may be.

Last night, I attended a free screening of Thank You for Smoking, a new comedy which satirizes the tobacco legislation debate. It’s a film designed to hook mainstream audiences with simple, recognizable caricatures of the players on both sides of the issue, and an unfaltering confidence in its own cleverness.… 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 →

It is a beautiful January morning in Philadelphia. The Pixelworthy office is incandescent, its twentieth story windows unable to find refuge from the sun. Shaded by a pillar, Stan glares at the iMac on his desk.

“Damn Zeldman. Fucking meme shit.”

A few feet away, Rob snickers into his cinnamon roll.

“Keep laughing. You’re getting tagged next.”

“Come now, Stan. I can’t break over three months of editorial silence by participating in some retarded meme.”

“Tough luck.”… See more →