I'm not really one to order prints (for a variety of reasons that include knowing Jenna already has a tonne, not knowing how/when/where I will display them and the fact that I have a tonne of showposters around [would it be inappropriate to put my own work up on my own walls?]), but Jenna sent me the one above, and after staring at it over and over again, I just had to have it.

You know what did it? Values • Integrity • Pickles. I don't even like pickles and I have to say that's a killer platform to run on. I mean, I love the mayor, but that part killed it for me. Must have. (honestly though, it came the other day, and I was a little disappointed to find that it's printed on glossy paper. Not a big fan of glossy.)

Another quick etsy gem for you: Kern ring set. Pretty great.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I've recently gotten into a new webcomic whose characters, I think, would be the perfect companions for my absolute favourite webcomic characters of Glasses and Suspenders from Patches.

Meet Reginald and Beartato. That one just killed me. Even the title is perfect. Think about that.

So tragi-dorable. (I think I just made that up, and I think it's a pretty good description of many things I love, like the Patches guys and, obviously, Grumpy bear). Like tragi-comic, but, you know, tragic and adorable. Killer combination.

Adorable little Beartato poem. I love his commentary. That's the way tragi-dorable animals talk in my head too.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
BACK TO THE FUTURE SECTION.

Welcome to the Back to the Future section of this post.
Here you will find:
An awesome model of the DeLorean. Awesome.
A skateboard whose graphics are based on the hoverboard graphics. Pretty awesome.

Thus concludes the Back to the Future section of this post.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Teddy bear natural history.

I am loving these imagined teddy bear skulls. So cute, and macabre. I love this concept so much. Her sketches in which she takes the bear and then imagines what the bone structure of that given bear would be like before she crafts the skull were enlightening.

Seriously, I would love to own one of those. Probably this one, or this one.

Did you notice that they are needle felted?

(Did I find those while looking for a bear skull shape to use while drawing bear skull and crossbones to go on teddy bear pirate hats? Maybe. Will you see the adorable pictures I took after crafting them? Probably not.)
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Did you know that there are about 8 million Ukulele song covers on YouTube? I found that out recently, and will now share some with you:
Sleepwalk - really great version.
Sleepwalk - pretty good version. (I absolutely love Sleepwalk these days, and as a result, Sleepwalking has also become my favourite Modest Mouse song of late)
I Will Follow You Into the Dark - One of the only newer Death Cab songs that I really like. Nice cover.
Such Great Heights - Found this while looking for a cover of the Iron and Wine version to learn. This one was pretty impressive. I still would rather learn the I&W version though, I think.
Baby Got Back - Just for some ridiculousness (okay, it's also a song I love...)

Jenna and I went to Collingwood last weekend, and we got to drive through the Melancthon EcoPower Centre. Exciting. According to this list on Wikipedia, it seems to be the biggest wind farm in Canada. I do love me a wind turbine. Someday I really want to see one of those tightly packed desert ones.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ever since I first saw one of their ads in the paper (I cut it out, and I think I still have it...) I have been in love with the Porter Airlines identity. Turns out other people are too! I was super excited to see one of the primary people behind creating that identity got interviewed on Design Sponge. Turns out the guy is only a year older than me! But at least he seems to love the raccoon in the ads, and the things he gets up to as much or more than I do. Seems to really appreciate what he's involved in, you know? Anyway, interesting interview, with lots of great ads I haven't seen before. What a treat!
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Mario Bros. on the theremin!

Which reminds me, we also saw Video Games Live! last weekend, which was pretty cool. What wasn't cool were the kids behind us who WOULD NOT SHUT UP THE WHOLE TIME. Seriously. And it's not like they were saying anything interesting, just "I have that game," and descriptions of what happens in said game. Their loud, shrill voices just cut through everything and really took away from my enjoyment of the night. Grrr.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Speaking of Armin Vit earlier, here's something great off of his site, Brand New: the new Hudson's Bay Co. logo. I love it. The revamped coat, bringing back the boldness of the lines that are so prominent in thier history, and became so lost in the old logo, the typface, the return to the full name vs. HBC. All of it, great.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Aside from my obvious love for the staplers, one of the things I love about Stapler of the Week is the writing/mentality of blogger Chad Lemke . Here's a nice little gem from this week's post: '"It may be foolish to wonder at who or what vocation this design was aimed, but it's what I think about in my spare moments. I'm always asking the question, "What would you fasten with this stapler?"' I just love the way he looks at these things. One of the best blogs around.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The evolution of the Batman logo. Nice.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A new site to be pumped about: The Art of Manliness. Lookin' good. Excited to get more into it.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Saw Coraline in 3d last night. Awesome.
Seeing Watchmen in IMAX on Sunday. Excited.

It is Layer tennis day!!!! Armin Vit runs one of my favourite blogs, Brand New.
Two years ago he played Marian Bantjes in an awesome match which I totally forgot about, but which was great: http://layertennis.com/071102/
Even the opening commentary for today is great, here's a snippet: "Prior to today's competition, we flipped a coin, not for any particular reason. Then, about an hour later, we flipped a coin to determine who would go first in today's match, and Mr. Vit won."
Exciting.

(If you don't know, Layer Tennis pits two graphic designers against one another, volleying images back and forth every 15 minutes. It is officially recommended viewing every Friday. Get a season pass and they'll even remind you about it every week.)
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
More stuff about other things to come later today, which I was already planning to do, but I got real excited about this one, so I thought I'd say something.

Had a real Canadian media heavy day yesterday, and am left with some strong feelings of pride as a result. Drove Jenna and her mom into Toronto and had nearly 3 hours to myself. Aside from visiting MEC and buying my favourite hoodie in gray (I already own 2 black ones), I also visited the CBC and the NFB.

The CBC had a little museum, which really had a stuff related to their kids shows, which was awesome. Lots of Mr Dressup, including the tickle trunk, Casey and Finnigan's house, and the stool he always sat on to draw! Also saw stuff from The Friendly Giant, Sesame Park (remember Sesame Park, Sesame Street with Canadian bits?), and a lot of microphones (including the one I have in my room, which turns out to be a Shure from like 1955). Finally got myself one of these shirts, which I've been coveting for awhile.

The most pride-filling part though was spending some time in the NFB mediatheque, where you can sit and watch any of the amazing films the NFB has produced over the years. Truthfully, you can do that online too, but it was a nice thing to be able to go there and do. The NFB has documented, and created culture in Canada for a long time, and I'm so happy they're making it so readily available back to us. I grew up watching their shorts, and it's been so long since I've seen some of them, but now I can watch them all again. Yesterday I watched Neighbours, the Oscar winning classic, and Carts of Darkness, which I've been meaning to watch and would definitely would recommend.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Thought I had a bunch of things to post, but then I started working, and realized that a lot of them probably don't matter. Maybe they do, but right now, it's just time for bed.

Best.Stapleroftheweekpost.Ever. Yes, I do have a favourite stapler, and yes, that stapler is the Swingline Cub Plier. So good. The saddest thing about that post? The plier up above was apparently for sale on ebay (picture stolen from stapler of the week, stolen from the seller). But now it is sold. And I didn't buy it.

Do you see how perfect/beautiful/amazing/ahhhhh! that stapler is? I would have loved to own it. At least it finally prompted me to set it up so ebay sends me notifications anytime the keywords "swingline cub" come up.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Newsboy bot? Another adorable, adorable bot!
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dime bag quilt... An interesting re-use of garbage. Love the little story that goes along with it.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Dieline has been posting some great stuff lately (often I skim packaging blogs, cause a lot of it deals with wine labels and the like, which I mostly could not care for), so here's a taste of what they're bringing.

- Foxglo lightbulb packaging. So amazing! If these beautiful packages can't get people to switch to eco-friendly bulbs, I don't know what will (okay, aside from not selling any other options...). Wish I was in Europe, so I could pick up one of these boxes, just to ogle it for a couple hours.

- Pepsi (and Mountain Dew) Throwback. On the heels of the whole big crazy (ugly) Pepsi redesign, comes Pepsi throwback, using an older logo, and being a special formulation with real sugar instead of high fructose corn syrup. There's another logo that's popped up for it around, with a real classic logo, but I hope this more 80's version is the one that's really coming out. I hope this makes it to Canada...

- Retro-styled Cereal Boxes. Bringing 'em back! Good point that these aren't really being put out for the kids in the cereal ailse, but for the parents, but still, I'll be happy if I get to see them. Check out this Kix box! Beautiful (except that "retro t-shirt" bit tagged on there). Beautifully photographed too, looks real nice with that background colour...
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sorry for that wicked long last post. I just kept letting things pile up that I wanted to mention. And piling. And piling. If I could just get myself to post more, you'd hopefully get more stuff like this...

That up above is a little of the extra work I've put in recently. It's a little logo for my friend Dana's metal dj project Sludge King. He's got a couple metal mixes he's putting out there, so if you like heavy stuff, you should check them out. More stuff should be coming for Dana soon. (This will have links to Sludge King stuff eventually, I seem to have lost them, so check back if yer interested...)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
On a personal note, things are a little slow around here due to some serious back pain I've been suffering. Midday Monday I got a lower back pang that has turned into me getting stabbing pains when I make certain movements. Not so pleasant. I actually went to a doctor (and found out I no longer have a family doctor, since I haven't been there in forever), which, for me, is a sign that it's pretty damn bad. Got some pills, and got to bring my work computer home and work on the film guide from home today though, which was pretty nice. It's going to mean that I won't be able to do something pretty important involving Jenna's family though, which has got me pretty down.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I think I may have a new favourite website: The Book Cover Archive

When I'm really honest with myself, I have to say that that would be my dream, designing book covers. I like posters, and I'm sure cd booklets would be great too, but book covers have to be my holy grail. Maybe it's just because that's what my hero Chip Kidd does, but the fact that he, and so many others, have impressed me so much with their covers, it's hard not to want to take a crack at that kind of canvas. So, if any of you have a book you need a cover designed for, hit me up.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
More Chip Kidd!
I'm pretty sure I started drunkenly writing a post I never posted about how Lindsay gave me this book, and how I had just been reading it, and how I'd never wanted to climb into/hug a book more, and then I realized how ridiculous that sounded and decided not to post it. But then I thought about it and decided that, ridiculous as it may sound, I did feel that way, so I thought I'd mention it. So much work, and insight into the work. Such a good book!

And more!
Chip Kidd takes you on a tour of the New York Comic Con. Scroll down, there's a video down there.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Squirrel bot!! He's one of my favourite bots yet! The acorn for a heart totally makes it! He'd go real nice with my woodgrain bot, don't you think???
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Foldable shoes? What!? What will they think of next???
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Since subscribing to their feed, this is the best post I have seen on Inspiration Resource. Seriously, look at that first pic. When was that made? Are the Modern Woodmen the originators of the fist bump? This sounds like a group I need to look into.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Steve Zissou: Anne-Marie, do all the interns get Glocks?
Anne-Marie Sakowitz: No, they all share one.

If I were to carry a Glock, it would be this one, for sure.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This Swink promo piece is making the blog rounds, and I have to say, I would love to have one. Apparently you can order one from Swink for $12, but I'm afraid it will just sit around like the Hatch bird mobile I got for Jenna awhile back. Really really cool letterpress stuff, but do I need it? Will I use it? I guess I'll have to decide...
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
That sweet Swink piece was printed by Studio on Fire, who seem pretty freakin' awesome. They've got a pretty sweet blog showcasing their work (like this cute/clever baby announcement) called Beast Pieces that you should check out.

When the time comes I'd love to have do up our wedding invitations on a letterpress. I've heard a little rumour that maybe by that time my favourite local print shop might be able to help me in that regard. I'm not sure of that will be the case, but I will love it if it is.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Bigfoot vs. Bunyan. Awesome concept. Not positive if I love the final product or not though. I bet if Timber had come up with this idea and produced his own version, I'd have already bought it. As is, I'm still thinking about this one here.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Oh, and if you're not reading Meagan's new blog yet, then you should be. Lots of funny people on there. Lots and lots. Funny in that good, awkward, awesome way. Her article on Mondo about SF Comedy Fest was definitely jealousy inducing.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
La Bamba's on the tv (as it often is) and Ritchie's just about to get on that fateful plane... 17 years old. 17. What a crash. Taking out Ritchie, the Big Bopper, and Buddy Holly. Crazy to think about.
This movie always makes me think about a few things:
a) Why do I remember seeing a movie with this much sex, violence, drinking, etc. at such a young age?
b) How many times did I see this movie as a kid? I feel like it was at least more than 6.
c) I think this movie and Back to the Future both play key roles in my current love of 50's and 60's hits (which I'll be dj'ing a full night of again at the Bond on March 7th, btw...)

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?)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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?)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Star Wars: Retold (by someone who hasn't seen it). Jenna sent me this one. Pretty great.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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!).