Things have been pretty busy and exciting around here of late, but possibly the most exciting thing to happen for me this year (and I can say that safely because my wedding was last year) happens next week. Graphic designer, and the man behind Field Notes, Aaron Draplin, is coming to give his Tall Tales From a Large Man talk at the Princess Twin on Thursday April 26.

Way back in January or something I heard that he was going to a conference in Toronto that I had no reason to go to other than to see his talk. I got it in my head that maybe I could get him to come give a talk here in Waterloo while he was near by. I sent him a long-shot email, and he responded with an excited yes!

This is a guy whose body of work is awesome. A guy whose blog I've been reading for probably 8 years. A guy you want to come and see talk. It's going to be a great evening. Draplin's bringing a new all things Canada poster along with his other crazy merch, and a friend of mine is printing up some sweet letterpress Draplin-inspired swag for people who come out. Can't wait.

Words from the man himself: "Tall tales. Big words. Orange things. Big posters. Loose chatter. Laffs. Truth. DO NOT miss this!"

You can grab advance tickets here.

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Just to keep people on here informed, other busy/exciting things in my life as of late:
- Sold my wares at Stitch 'n' Kitsch last weekend
- Designed a new flyer for the S'n'K winter show
- Designed and installed a window display at Bon Mot with the amazing Andrew Frazer
- Designed a new Blueprint cover
- Got featured in the first issue of Fuss
- Working on a new Bearface.ca with Chris Collins
- Brewed and drank some beer
- Currently printing my first custom wedding favour order

Pretty exciting times.

It's Valentine's day, so it's time for a semi-romantic blog post I've been meaning to post for awhile...

I have been a fan of Field Notes ever since Draplin first asked if anyone wanted to be on his "Sheet Team." He sent out a 3 pack, and I don't think I've used another notebook since. Jenna gets the aesthetic, but has been mildly critical of my notebook budget since the colours editions started coming out (bigger than some peoples', much smaller than others'). But that didn't stop her from claiming my copy of the adorable blue cover version when the "Just Below Zero" series came out.

Sadly, that notebook sat mostly unused, until we started wedding planning. Then she had it everywhere, and I couldn't have been happier.

On the day of our wedding Jenna and I had our 'first look' together in her parents backyard. Just us, and our two photographers. She looked amazing. Then I stood back and noticed that her dress had pockets! I knew they were cute on bridesmaid's dresses, but they're even cuter on a bride!

And then she pulled her hands out of her pockets to proudly show me her little blue Field Notes.

That's my girl.

Labatt, will you please go back to the above label design for 50? The current one is pretty much the worst I've seen. It was pretty nice when it was printed on the bottle and had that massive 50, but this version, and this version were still better. This trippy, multi-lined one though, for sure my favourite.

Also, Labatt was making an India Pale Ale in '54? Interesting.

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I've been spending some time on the twitter lately. One of the best things I've seen yet is this picture of Questlove from The Roots. Even as a kid, big afro and drumsticks. Apparently he's always been awesome.

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If I didn't already really want to see it, this poster for Kick-Ass (and Doug Benson's tweets about it), would totally solidified that want. Check out this red-band trailer.
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New blog on the radar thanks to the DDC getting burned on it. Beardist. Beard wearer. Beard fan. Call me what you will, I do love love things beard related...

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In a slew of beard link clicking that followed getting to the previous blog, I came across this amazing shirt design: Beard River. Beards and bears, two things I very obviously love. The print on the shirt is actually a little big for my usual liking, but I would wear that shirt, based on its beardy-beary-ness alone.

Ack! The newest Field Notes colours dropped today for mailing list subscribers. Much like the letterpressed "Grass Stain Green" summer edition, I knew right away I needed them. The colours are pretty much exactly the colours I love, and look pretty in line with some of what we're doing in our house. Since previous editions of colours have sold out in less than 24 hours (ridiculous for a notebook? yes.) I bought these bad boys as soon as the email came in. Can't wait.
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Wow. While I love bears, and I love t-shirts, I find that most of the time when they meet it's more in the over the top, big nature, mystic bear vibe, and that style just ain't for me. But this shirt? This shirt I want. (though it would be better if it weren't red. I'm not big on red. Still, though, want.)

Seriously. Actually, in case you can't be bothered to click the link, here:
THAT is a good bear shirt. (thanks to Draplin for linking to that one.)

Damn! Just noticed: X-Large (sold out) DAMN.
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Still on the t-shirt tip, here's another one that's kind of tempting.
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Do you like the drums? Gene Krupa, Buddy Rich drum battle. Nice one. Impressive, the both of them. But, I think I've gotta with Buddy on that one. Killed it. (thanks to ACL for linking to that one.)

That right there is the front of our house. I love the flower box Jenna's dad built for us, and the plants Jenna's mom picked out to go in it. As soon as it went up, our house got a lot cuter.

This weekend I finally got around to painting the eaves around the porch, so we took some pictures of the front of our house. I uploaded them, as well as the pictures that were up on the realtor's website, to flickr so I could show them off. Two sets: Before & After

The kitchen has been pushed back to "earliest October," ie. as soon in October as they can have the cabinets built, and I can't wait for that. Obviously there will be more pictures to come then.
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At one point on our mini road trip, Jenna made a comment about a Holiday Inn Express sign. I believe it was about the colouring (H.I.Express being blue, vs. the typical H.I. green), and how the new logo just doesn't feel right. The whole Holiday Inn overhaul came at least a year ago, and it's still bothersome to me too. The old one wasn't perfect, but when you get to see it on this classic sign here, how could you ever want anything else? (via the DDC)
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The other day I looked at my feet and imagined what it would be like to have a pair of Jack Purcell's that were made of grey wool. I decided it would be awesome. Simple and classy, it would suit the shoe. These, shoes have confirmed that for me. Now if I just knew who to talk to at converse to get this done...
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I've often enjoyed the different ways Google plays with their logo for special events, achievements, birthdays and whatnot, and I've often wondered if they have archived copies of all of the different things they have done sitting around somewhere. If they haven't been archiving them, someone has, and you can see a bunch of them here. It's aways nice to see people taking the time to add that extra little touch. Even when by "people" you mean "giant company". What can I say though, I do love Google.
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While I am not much of a baseball fan at all, these here are some clever/witty infographics.
This one, in particular, is great. Something important for the kids to learn, for sure. (via the DDC)
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I really want to try these chips! I've been keeping an eye out for them, but have not stumbled across any yet, sadly...

I believe I've said it before, but I have to say it again, you really should check out the Studio On Fire blog Beast Pieces. They're consistently doing super nice letterpress pieces and sharing them with the world.

Here're two I've been keeping unread in my reader to share with you:
Birds of Sadness poster
Shine flashlight (yet more self promotion that I'm loving...)

And an example of how they're just straight up bad-ass: Vintage beer can wall. The image above comes from this one. That would pretty overwhelming to stand in front of, I think.
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So it's been awhile since I've posted. Not much time to relax and compile stuff lately, lots of other things to do...
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This one's from a little while back on Deputy Dog: weird church ceiling. Seriously, why would someone do that?
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Does anybody want to give me $6000(us) so I can buy this? I've been thinking for awhile that at some point I'll want to move up to the MacBook Pro, but the problem is, none of them are black. Good thing these people solved that problem! Matte black, soft touch, limited edition of 10. Ridiculous. Amazing.
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Amazing promotional material for a library. Seriously. Nice stuff. (via draplin)
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This clock clock looks pretty amazing. Gonna have to look into how it works a little more, 'cause that second picture just looks nuts.
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You may or may not know that I'm a fan of vintage office supplies, particularly staplers. As a result, this Museum of Forgotten Art Supplies particularly appealed to me. Going to have to keep an eye on this one for gems like this colour wheel, and this lead pointer and lead cleaner. Nice stuff.
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Watched the movie of the 2003 edition of the Gumball 3000 last night. Envious of those cross country racers, for sure. I kept thinking, there's gotta be people who do this in regular cars and close to the speed limit, don't there? The $44,000 entry fee ($120,000 last year because they flew the cars to numerous locations) would clearly be a hindrance too, but still, a guy can dream, can't he? Here's hoping we'll be able to get another road trip in this fall like last fall. Maybe around Michigan?
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The best party of the year is almost here. Disc Golf is on the 27th, and I am so looking forward to two days of not thinking about doing any work at all. Stressful times for sure being a new home owner, and having lots of stuff at work (and getting asked last second to design disc golf materials...).

Funny thing about the new house? I was so excited about getting away from the Erb St. construction, and what happens today? They start ripping up our street. Yay.

Today's the big day. Well, tomorrow's the big day, since I haven't gone to sleep yet. Can't wait to get the keys and get in there. Lots of things to do. Paint colours to choose. Appliances large and small to buy. Things to learn. Can't wait.

Pictures to come for sure. Stressed out times to come for sure too...

On to other things for now though...
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Loving this skateboard. Habitat's always done nice stuff, but putting Charley Harper on a deck? nice work. There's other ones too, check 'em out here.
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Recently I noticed that the building that housed Byma's Tire & Auto in the Bridgeport plaza was being torn down. This got me really worried about the beautiful large Firestone sign that has sat on the outskirts of the parking lot on Bridgeport for as long as I can remember.

Turns out my worries were warranted. Before I even got out to take some photographs to document its existence, the sign has been removed. What a shame. I just looked up Byma's online and it turns out they have simply moved, not folded, so now my only hope is that the sign is moving with them to their new home. I've emailed them to find out if that is the case. Failing that, maybe they can tell me where it has gone so I can go take pictures of it.

This is just one of those things that makes me sad. It's just a damn shame to see the nice things go, while crap keeps going up. Draplin sums this kind of thing all up very nicely here.
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Here's some real gorgeous business cards. Not surpisingly made by Studio on Fire, and not surprising made for Space 150.

Amazingly, Space 150 completely redesigns their design identity every 150 days. Completely. Like, letterheads, everything. Every 150 days. That's huge. Major commitment there. Just imagine the expenditure even...

Check out more of the stuff Studio on Fire has done for them here.
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In movie watching news. DO NOT watch S. Darko. Terrible.
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I feel like I had more to say, but I guess not. Too many other things to think about I think.

Unconditionally Guaranteed

That little feller above is either now, or will soon be, in the post, on it's way to join my merry little collection. I can't wait! New! In package! Unfortunately, I had to pay a little more than I normally would for a cub, and substantially more than the $1.49 on the package. Definitely worth it just for that "unconditionally guaranteed" line on label. So bold and confident. Strong. Like a good stapler should be.

(I should mention that Jenna found this. 'Cause she's awesome, and she did.)
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More bread! Those labels are pretty amazingly Charley Harper-esque if you ask me. Once again, I'd totally pick that shit up based on packaging alone.
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As you may be able to guess, I do love me some vintage light fixtures, and this company appears to make some beautiful reproductions. Not that I can imagine having the money to throw around on them, but it's nice to know they're out there. Some of their coloured shades are pretty damn nice.
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While at least one person I know has been geeking out over the Star Wars lego sets that are going around, there's a new development afoot that I think I can get behind: Lego Architecture. Starting with some Frank Lloyd Wright. Awesome. Can't wait to see what else comes out of that.
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Riding the rails. Killer logo. Nicely composed shot. One of the rare times when "buy framed image" is a link I might possibly consider... (via Draplin)
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Badass new Timber shirt. Will be putting my order in for that one soon. Mos. def.
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Finally, the best news for last: Chili's opens in Ontario. Hell yes. May have to hit that up this weekend... More locations to open by 2014 (which is a lot closer than it sounds like it should be, if you know what I mean...)

The above image is stolen from Draplin. Pretty amazing if you ask me.

Long time no post. No good reason why, except that sitting down to start a post keeps feeling daunting. Ridiculous, really.
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I've long been pretty into materials related to the Canadian centennial, particularly the logo for it. When we go to antique stores, it's definitely one of the things I have an eye out for, though I don't think I've ever actually bought any of it yet. There's actually a house near to us that is #100 on its street, that has the centennial logo on the front of it. Clever.

Anyway, all this is to say; look at these amazing coasters. If I ever found these, I would pick them up in a second.
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I think this is probably pretty obvious, but I have to say that I find axes to be a very appealing form.

This company has gone and made them even more appealing, but made them far too expensive. But still, pretty. Could probably do something comparable for much less...

The first image I saw for them was the one on this page, and it sells them pretty well and hard.
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Staying on the whole manly tool front, I am intrigued by this exercise idea. If I already owned a sledge hammer, I'd be starting on it already. As it is, going out to buy one just to throw it around for the sake of exercise that I might just give up on in no time anyway seems kind of ridiculous. We'll see though, we'll see. I really need to get on doing something...
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Handheld NES. For realz.
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The newest Tony Hawk game is going to be controlled using an actual board on the floor. I can't decide if this is cheesy/stupid/ridiculous or awesome. I guess I'll have to wait until it actually comes out and I get to try it. I am kind of looking forward to trying it, I can't lie.
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If I knew where to buy this bread, I would buy it on adorable packaging alone. Can't beat the fact that it is Canadian either...

Let me know if you know where I can get it.
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Speaking of Canadian: Canadian Barbie. How amazingly cliched!
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Went to see Star Trek last night, which is pretty amazingly awesome. Can't wait for more to come from this whole new timeline they've created.

Seeing Simon Pegg who took the nerdy funny in the film, and then made it broadly funny, made me want to watch Spaced again. I recently gave the box set to my sister, but didn't get a copy for myself, so I had to find streaming copies of the episodes. Luckily I found all of season 1 here, and all of season 2 here.

If you haven't seen Spaced, you should go watch it.
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As far as Beartato and Reginald go, I have to say this comic made my day, and more so. (literally, the day it first went up, I went back to it like 10 times, just because I think it's so adorably endearing.)

That right there is my second bear related poster in a row. I've got another one in mind coming up. Finally living up the the Bearface name. Maybe it's compensating for the fact that I shaved my beard 2 weeks ago. Shocking event to say the least. Regretted it right away, and am growing it back as we speak. Owen took some portraits of me sans beard to commemorate it before I never see it again. Ever. It had been at least 10 years since I had seen my chin...
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Here's a little article about one of my favourites, Aaron Draplin. Best line it? '"I just like stuff that's really straightforward and unapologetic," he says. "Futura Bold. Done. If they didn't need something else in the last 30 years, there's something to it."'
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I'm not so much liking the Alberta logo rebrand seen here. The old one was just so unique. It was obviously dated, yes, but it just felt right. The new one feels really generic, even though yes, the new 'A' clearly is trying to evoke the old 'A'. What's with the box intersecting the tail of the 's' though?

More branding: Baked Lays gets way classier. The old one was okay, but it was too, I don't know, fun looking? The new one feels a lot nicer, and more wholesome. It almost makes me want to buy them...
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Another piece of the Beartato/Reginald saga. Obviously the punchline is great, and how often do you see something posted with the tag "throne of blood". But really, what makes this comic for me are the small details. The look on Beartato's face, and the lines behind him as he runs, which kind of evoke a rocking back and forth run? How adorable Beartato looks as he settles into the couch, sighing contentedly? That's the good shit.
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Nudes on skateboards. The perfect counterpoint to those Hook-Ups decks that used to be around, with all their scantily clad, huge busted, ridiculous comic ladies dressed up in all manner of stupid costumes. I always hated those decks.

Good stuff.
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Child size Eames replica. Amazing. Can you imagine, sitting around with your kid in matching Eames loungers? I almost can, but then the price tags always pop into mind...

I don't know if I've ever mentioned it on here before, but I LOVE the International Harvester Scout (and Scout II). I will likely never ever own one, but I have spent plenty of time over the years looking at them on ebay.

It's been awhile since I went looking for them, but my interest was rekindled by this post about a 90-year old guy who, at least until recently, was/is still selling them. Amazing. (via Draplin) Not suprisingly, that poster also loves the Bronco II. I prefer the first generation Bronco (60's/70's), but anyway...

The Scout above is currently for sale on ebay here, and I think looks pretty awesome. Okay, so the interior needs work, but the paint job is nice! (wow, not to be too stereotypical, but how girly did I sound there?)
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I know I've talked about how awesome Saul Bass is on here before, but this here is a really nicely put together post documenting just how awesome he is. Like seriously awesome, if you didn't know that. Many, many, many examples of it there. (possibly via Draplin as well?)
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Star Wars: Retold (by someone who hasn't seen it). Jenna sent me this one. Pretty great.
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Finally, I added a new blog to my reader, High Snobiety. It's a little daunting for sheer volume of posts, however, I've already seen some pretty great stuff on there, so we'll see how it goes. Top two highlights that I've seen so far on there:
Shepard Fairey does work for Stereo Skateboards (started by Jason Lee, if you didn't know). I could go for either or both of the shirts there (or any of the decks too, you know, if I skated...)
Awesome Nike SB Dunk's. I would love to own these. The little touch of plaid is just perfect (I mean, I could go for more, but it's so nice here!).

Keepin' on.

The above picture comes from Vintagraph, a site (created by the same people as the seriously awesome Shorpy) that compiles old WPA posters. I love this one because the image at first struck me as incongruous to the message, yet at the same time, it does evoke the local through the image of the home, and the state through the image of the factory and tall buildings. Where syphilis comes in exactly I do not know, but the local and state, they're definitely there.
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I am loving this modular storage system. The colours not necessarily so much, it would be nice if they were more in line with those typical to the shipping containers they are based on, but still, they are pretty awesome. I don't know how much they cost, but you can be pretty sure that I would not be able to afford them.
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This here is a beautiful set of transistor radios on Flickr. This guy's collection must be amazing. I've only looked at a small fraction and am in awe. (from the DDC)

On a similar note, I just remembered that a friend told me this weekend that he picked up a part that should complete his repair of my vintage tube amplified suitcase record player. Looking forward to seeing that one again. He's been real awesome in fixing it for me.
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Some pretty great buildings pictured in here. I particularly like numbers 5, 6, 21 (which is actually a part of a complex that I've seen some pretty amazing pictures of), 22, 29 (shipping containers again! I love shipping container housing solutions), 30, 35 (yes, I fell in love like many others did I'm sure at the Olympics), 43, and 50 (Robot building!). That's a lot that I like, I know... There's a second page too, but I won't put you through a list of what I like of that one...
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Jenna tipped me off to this one out of an old issue of Jane yesterday. A couple of years ago, this would have been my ideal website, and I would have loved to be a writer for it. Now I'm trying to cut back on the snacks. I do have some pretty strong opinions about chips though. They even mention many of the same things that I evaluate my snacks for. Another one I've barely touched but would like to get deeper into.
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I'm loving the signs in this small flickr set. The impressive detail on the hot dog, the overload of flash and colour on the cleaners, the impressiveness of the city sign. Good stuff all of it. You really can't go wrong with anthropomorphic cannabalism in your signage, you know? (I think this is via the DDC as well...)
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A nice little vintage find on etsy. A beaufiful example of branding and sports if I've ever seen one. The style is just beautiful too.
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I've been seeing a lot of images created out of typography lately (there's a term for it, but I can't for the life of me think of it right now, maybe because I'm distracted by my need to pee...). Some are good, some not so much, but this book looks pretty great. Both the snail and the girl just look so cute, you know?

Speaking of books, we gotta get on ordering some Christmas stuff from amazon so's it gets here on time! It's almost December!
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Oh, and by the way, Seth and Chris Ware were pretty great. Chris was pretty hilarious, in his demure, self-depricating way. Seth was funny too, but a little more pretentious feeling to Chris' constant fear of sounding pretentious. I feel like the ways they said they thought about certain things are quite similar to the ways I do, which is nice to know. Chris had a presentation of a video he creatted with Ira Glass, so you know I was loving that.

TIMBER!

Our mail has been particularly boring lately, but now I've got something to look forward to! I just noticed the above design by my favourite t-shirt maker, and I absolutely had to have it! Of course, I grabbed one of his other shirts in the process as well, you know, just for good measure.

During an etsy conversation, I also sent him this little pic from our trip to Funspot, where I happened to wearing one of his shirts and spot a pretty special arcade machine:
(not the best picture of me, but you know...)
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Some beautiful work on here. (via Draplin, I think...)
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I am in love with this Philly post office via 1900. Amazing. I've said it before, but this is definitely one of those pictures that makes me wish I could travel through time. (thanks Shorpy!)
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This is a really cool little application that lets you search through millions of flickr images by colour, and combinations of colour. Select up to 10 colours on the side, and it will return images that use those colours. Pretty great to play around with. (via Jeff)
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Awesome early Star Wars storyboards. Pretty cool flickr set to flick through, if you ask me.
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"Wasted" a good chunk of time flipping through the images on Letter Cult last night. All hand drawn lettering. Great stuff to check out. Here're two favourites:


Time to get up and go to work! And then tacos!

Engaged, but not underage

So the above ad ran in the Princess film guide earlier this week, with positive results. I will hereafter refer to it as "the most important ad I will (likely) ever make". You may remember awhile back I mentioned making a big purchase, and well, the ring pictured up there is it. Pretty darn happy. Now there's just a ton of planning to do...
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Here's a bit more about that Pepsi redesign. I guess they mailed out examples (old, current, and new), and a video posted, on that site there to "digital and social media influencers," which I can only assume is a fancy-pants term for bloggers and the like. Makes sense to me, since certain sites were already abuzz with the news...
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An interesting project from NBC. They've gotten different recording artists to record "covers" of the NBC chime "jingle". There's a video on there of the Flaming Lips recording theirs. Of particular note is Mr. Coyne's double neck guitar that repurposes a guitar hero guitar neck into an actual way to make real noise. (via Draplin)
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Here's a neat little desk that I am currently smitten with. I just love the way it keeps itself up.
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Finally, I am madly in love with these bus passes from the 40's. They're just perfect. I really can't stop looking at them. Maybe a style to influence some wedding related paper ephemera? We'll see just what I'll get to get away with for that stuff. I particularly like 10, 1, 8, & 7. Wish there were some close ups...

The pic above is for my mom, if she stops by. Yet another grab from the Canadian Design Resource. Are you seeing now why it should be one of your daily reads too? Apparently I've already gotten at least one person hooked, a good feeling for sure.

I love this postcard for the fact that it would have been sent out blank, in order for the sellers to add their own place name to the card. A ridiculous idea, but efficient, and one of those older practices that I have a real spot in my heart for.
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The Pelican Collection. Tonnes of materials, real nice to see. Makes me wonder if there's something similar for Penguin paperbacks. Gotta love 'em. (via Draplin)
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If I was going to buy another laptop anytime soon, and for some reason it wasn't going to be a Mac, it'd be this one right here. It's a thing of beauty for sure, and trying to make the world better at the same time.
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Pretty much every year at Christmas I make a joke about buying someone inappropriate a flask. This is really because I have always wanted a flask. I am pretty sure that I would rarely, if ever, use one, which is why I never buy myself one, but the comment is always rooted in the fact that if someone ever bought me one for Christmas, that would be pretty great. This one here is pretty ideal. Not the traditional flask shape I love, but at the same time, I love this one for it's shape, you know (and finish, of course).
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This may be my longest awaited Criterion Collection dvd. I remember renting this as a new release when I was hunting through the Rogers video store near my house, and saw only one copy of it on the shelf. Pretty standard practice for me at the time. Renting all of my movies at a big movie store, I always looked for things they only bought one copy of, always more up my alley than the big blockbusters. Not that I haven't watched it again since then, but I've never bought it because I knew they eventually had to put this one out, so that at least the first 4 Anderson movies could be a matched set, even if his current contract means following ones won't be (from what I hear at least...
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Recently, Meet Your Printmaker featured a local artist, which was quite surprising! Seems like a real nice guy, who, thankfully, seems to do real nice work. Looking forward to maybe seeing him at the zine fair.
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Just a couple more days until we leave...

Go out the window, we all go out the window

So it looks like my hopes of keeping this thing as nearly daily as possible have been shot through with some kind of large bullet. Or maybe it's with eating tacos and drinking on Tuesday AND Monday this week, lots of work, and my allergies laying into me hard core.

Highlights of this week include the aforementioned tacos and the aforementioned work, but only 'cause some of the work was on Monday where I spent the day working for the Starlight from home, and got a small taste of what it would be like to get to do that everyday, as I would like to. Lowlight: Allergies. Mad frustrating.
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The image above is, of course, another beauty from Shorpy. The glow surrounding the building just takes me aback. So ethereal for lack of a better term. If you're not checking out Shorpy on a regular basis, what are you doing? Always makes me wish I could time travel (not like it's the only thing that does though...)
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On another Shorpy note, I notified the fine folks over at the Ampersand blog about a Shorpy image with some fine ampersands on some old signs, and it got up on their site. Go check it out.
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Draplin linked to this one referencing his hatred of graffiti. I'm linking to it referencing my love of graffiti. I think it's applicable to both. It's also just straight up awesome. Clever. Conscious. Crafty. Clean!
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This here is a great little video (c/o House Industries) about the stupidity of english spelling. I'd never heard of Ed Rondthaler before this, and I'm glad I have now. According to wikipedia he's now 103 years young and still going. He was a paltry 102 when they filmed that video. Definitely someone I need to learn some more about.
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And finally: a movie about Facebook? Whaaaa? (via Jeffrey Rowland, who is a comic (writing) genius)

The tabs I have open...

6 of 11 nights' stays are now booked. This trip is actually going to happen! Just nabbed a reservation at Sleepytown today, which Jenna found in tourism guide and we figured we had to go to based on name alone. Tomorrow I have to call Seven Dwarfs Motel & Lodge, and see about locking that down. Those are the two most ridiculous seeming planned hotels on the list. The rest are all mostly Super8's or Motel 6's. I kind of wanted to try to track down all kinds of independent/quirky places, but the chains just seem like they'd probably be a little more consistent. Not that I expect them all to be good, but just that I expect them to not be as bad as some of the others could be, you know?
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Chocolate covered bacon. Seems like genius to me.
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Cruise ship shopping center.
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Wood cars.
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1960 Heathkit Catalog. Beautiful (via Draplin.)
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Sorry for the terseness, that was just a little overview of some tabs I had open to show you, but it's getting late, and my back's been hurting all day, so I just took some muscle relaxants and am ready to relax.

"His memory's admissible as evidence"

Apparently they've printed a new 35mm copy of RoboCop. I tried to convince John that it would be a good idea to run it, but I'm pretty sure I'll get back to work down there and see that it is not on the calendar. I had no idea that there was a new one in the works, to be directed by Darren Aronofsky... Interesting
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We do have Wall•E on calendar at the Orig for a few days though, which is a great idea. I haven't really talked about it, but I think Wall•E, and it's subsequent, not beating you over the head, but being being very artistic and clever marketing and aftermarket campaigns is awesome. This review of it is pretty much bang on to how I feel about the film itself, and I used a pared down version of it in the quide, to try to attract the crowd I think we should try to attract. As to the marketing/aftermarket campaigns, check out these promo post cards, and this book. Oh, and this Little Golden Book, done, more or less, in Little Golden Book style too!
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Society in Decline - Awesome roadside signage on flickr (via Draplin)
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Katamari baby! (via Northern Nests)
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EA Sports responds to YouTube video about glitch in Tiger Woods game with: YouTube video with Tiger Woods? Awesome. (Via Mike Reed [whose Mailer came today, which I have to say, is awesome])
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Turntable watch.
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I should probably get down to work now...

What a fine set of wheels! That right there is circa 1920, via Shorpy, which , if you've never been heard of it, is "The 100 Year-Old Photo Blog." It's chock full of amazing pictures from days gone by. Some are user submitted, and some are from national archives. My favourite photographer on the site? Jack Delano. Hands down.
(Not sure where I first heard about Shorpy. I'm betting Draplin.)
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I can't ever find Readymade at the Zehrs near my house anymore, and I always forget to go elsewhere to pick it up, but I was pleased when I grabbed it this week and saw there was a feature about Somthing's Hiding in Here's super cute apartment.
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Some real nice things from Grain Edit today:
M is for Modern: Alphabet Flashcards - really nice stuff. Yes, yet another thing I wouldn't mind owning.
So Much Pileup - A new blog by one of the guys behind Burlesque of North America. Definitely immediately subscribed to that one and am eagerly awaiting future posts.
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Something I kind of forgot about until a conversation with Josh last night: In car turntables. And, a slot loading one. Genius, those.

Another Day...

Nardwuar and former PM Jean Chretien by the awesome Mitch Clem. Mitch rose to fame with "the world's first online punk comic," but also illustrates album covers, show posters, magazine articles, probably some other things, and My Stupid Life, which is his current (awesome) webcomic about his life. Been a fan for awhile. Highly recommended. Definitely going to have to buy this one when it comes out.
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Something you may know about me, or will come to know about me if you continue to read this, is that there are MANY things out there that I would like to own, and I will not hesitate to tell everyone and anyone who will listen that I would like to own it.
Like this shirt, that is apparently going to stop being made. Been wanting it for awhile. Might need to buy it.
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No need to buy this one, but it is awesome. So is the whole blog that posted it. Focusing on faux bois = creating pretty much one of the best blogs ever. So much good stuff.
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This here is a pretty sweet flickr set of old ephemera. It comes via Draplin, who I'm sure I'll mention a lot around here, as I've been a big fan of his work and blog for a long time now. I go so far as to buy magazines about a sport I've never participated in, just because he does the layout. Gross, no?
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Made a BIG purchase today, but you'll find out more about that later...