The above poster by Richard Perez is pretty much my favourite thing I've seen on the internet in a while. It's called Things I Like, and I agree with so much of it.
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Another awesome image I just saw: Morning Commute by Timber. Pretty much awesome. If it weren't on a white shirt, I might have to buy it...
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This diagram of the ignition system on a motorcycle is pretty damn amazing as well.
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Signifier and Signified by Brandon Bird. Ridiculously amazing. "If you like linguistics and vans, then boy, is this the print for you." I do like both of those things!

Brandon's got some other pretty ridiculous things for sale on TopatoCo, like:
No One Wants to Play Sega With Harrison Ford - the awesome thing about this print? it looks like a really well detailed original Sega.
In Heaven - Bob Ross + Surfing + Dog = ridiculous.
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Speaking of TopatoCo, Jeffery Rowland and other folks whom he seems to chum around with are going to be at Toronto Comic Arts Fest on May 9-10. Which is free and sounds awesome. I will hopefully be going.
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I will definitely be going to the big CFUW Book Sale today. Always a good time. Tonnes of books. Can't wait to hunt through the kids book room for some gems. Gotta love old kids books. I seem to more and more all the time. Amazing illustrations.

Local Historian

So I just finished reading Cometbus #51, The Loneliness of the Electric Menorah, and it was quite good. For someone who loves their town, and who has oft imagined one day appearing on the news as a "Local Historian" it was great to read a sort of people's history of the businesses on Telegraph Ave. in Berkeley, told by someone who really seems to love, and hate, the place. I think I'm going to have to read I Wish There Was Something I Could Quit.

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'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.
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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.
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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.
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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.)
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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.
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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!
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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.
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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.
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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.
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The evolution of the Batman logo. Nice.
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A new site to be pumped about: The Art of Manliness. Lookin' good. Excited to get more into it.
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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.)
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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.
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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.