Finally had the day I really needed during this 5 day weekend. I know everyone seems to find the holidays stressful, and mine was no exception. Sunday night we actually celebrated New Years early, so we could party with the same 'ol crew we party with every year, even though some of us won't be around on the real night. Today all I did was recover from that with about 4 ep.s of the first season of Gilmore Girls on the new tv, some Mario brothers, both new and old, and a little back splash tiling with Ron. A good day for sure.

Hopefully I'll get back to sharing neat stuff with you soon, you know, now that all the craziness is somewhat done.

Today is the Friday of my 5 day Christmas weekend, which I NEED.
Still a few presents to buy tomorrow. Gonna be a hectic day.
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The picture above is from Neato Coolville. It was toss up between that one and this one. Also, I always remember really wanting one of these. Just because of the way it looked. So cute.
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Wow, I would love to go to The World's Largest Toy Museum in Branson! Sounds like a good time to me!
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This is pretty impressive, both design/production wise, and for the fact that I had no idea that facebook makes donations in their advertisers' names for Christmas. That's pretty cool. It's also cool that you get to decide which public school gets the donation with this one. Good stuff facebook.

If I were to give out awards for favourite movie poster of the year, you can be pretty sure that the poster for A Serious Man would be right up there near number one. The tones are really, really nice. It's just a nice, subtle poster. I hope the movie is good. I'm going to try to get out to see it here at the Twin. Opens tomorrow!
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Blog worlds collide today! A Continuous Lean gets featured on High Snobiety!? I guess this is pretty much the most street wear-ish item I've seen featured on or come from ACL, but it still struck me as pretty crazy. Do I want the ACL hat? Yes I do. Do I want to pay $60 for it? No I don't.

You gotta love ACL though. I haven't had time to fully browse his shop, but things seem to keep popping up on there. Not that I can afford any of it, but you know. Also, if you do love ACL, I recently started reading Kaufman Mercantile, which I would say share's some of ACL's ideologies. Here's their tagline: Many products move from factory to garbage dump with little time in between. Poor design, low quality materials and bad food infiltrate our lives. Let's enjoy the good things instead.

Being discussed over there today? Kitchen towels. Good stuff. From our cute Orla Kiely for Target ones, to this classic that I'm always tempted by at Ikea, I do love a good dishtowel.
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Speaking of things featured on High Snobiety, this shirt is a bit of a burn. I appreciate the message, and the execution, but definitely not a message I could get behind wearing.
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Speaking of wearing, I don't wear any manly scents, but every once in a while I think maybe I should, or I see a product that makes me say 'hey, if I were going to wear a scent, that sounds like the one for me'. Vintage Black from Kenneth Cole is a case of the latter. The name alone is great, and the vaguely ink bottle look and the simple, bold label pull me in further. The scent description "top notes of fresh green lime with a dry oakwood to create an icy tequila accord" minus the tequila reference, sounds pretty okay too.
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HA!

I keep going back to this Audi image. Stark and simple, but stunning. The confidence it exudes is amazing. So much different from so many car ads. (Thanks to Grain Edit for linking to that one)
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Film guide is done. We're never done this early in the month, and it's going to make this Christmas a lot more relaxed. It was a stressful time to lock it down so early, but totally worth it.

Our living room is finally painted, and the Christmas tree is up. It feels so much more like home now in there. And it only took like 6 months! Dining room is painted, but will be painted again this weekend. The colour we picked was just not quite right...
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Here are some tabs I've had open for awhile, either to look at again (and again), or to share:

Ampersandwich tee - Pretty funny. Not quite totally doing it for me, but enjoyable.

French Paper Company and Charles S. Anderson Design - Nice promotions!

Cabin and Cub desk calendar - I love the idea and look of calendars, but I've never been big on using them. This one almost got me to buy it. It's pretty great, and bears!

Swingline staple gun & box - Jenna sent me this one, and I would LOVE to own it. Once you add in shipping though, that cost is just totally impractical. The label on the side in picture 3 is pretty great.

Baby Kermit Glass - Another one from Jenna. SO CUTE.

Lotta Nieminen Birds - Love so much about this image. Grain Edit featured a couple of her pieces. All are good. This one's the best though.
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Few, my Firefox is way slimmer now! Hope you enjoy some of that stuff.

Hard at work on the Jan/Feb film guide. It prints Wednesday and still lots to do! I stopped by one of my secret spots for grabbing high res. movie images and spotted the poster above. I can't decide if this poster nailed the concept it was going for, or totally failed. I think the perspective on the key vs. the perspective of the door lock just keeps knocking my brain a little. I think the idea was kind of doomed from the start if they really wanted to feature that much of the key, you know? Perspective. I think the motif works a little better without the pictures mucking it up.

The thing is, I still really quite like the picture version though.

Okay, okay, this poster is even better! Why is Shirley MacClaine's head so BIG?

Wow, and things get even weirder here.

11.5 hours at work today. Film guide almost done. More finishing up going on in the house. Pictures maybe to come soon. Tiring times. Looking forward to Christmas for sure.
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Speaking of work, the back side of this coin makes me think of 'work'. Not bad, tiring, annoying modern work, but solid, honest, work, good strong handshakes, that kind of work, you know? Anyway, I keep going back to look at that coin. It's a fine piece of work. Proud, Canadian work.
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Regardless of my own beliefs, any story about a church being defaced or destroyed always gets to me. Just the thought of doing that is repulsive to me. The destruction of something with such age, history, and meaning is just terrible in so many ways. I was listening to an interview with the minister at that church on my way home from work tonight, and I just keep thinking about it, and how that whole community must feel right now. Appalling to think that someone may have done that. What a shame.

Damn, I just googled my Dad's name and found out he's been blowing up the news since September! I guess he's started a monthly service that people are encouraged to bring their dogs to. Sounds like cool stuff. Here's a couple articles if you want to check it out:

Filling the Pews ... with Paws from the Montreal Gazette (this one seemed to get circulated on the wire)
Pet Value: Quebec church launches 'paws and pray' from the Anglican Journal
Montreal hot for jet-set pets from Canoe.ca (not just about his church, but mostly, and some good quotes, one of which contradicts one in another article! shocking!)

Things like this, and quotes like “I always like to push boundaries a little bit,’’ definitely make me proud of the guy, so I just had to share.

(Image from here)
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Nancy Grows Up. Audio recordings of a girl growing up, reduced to just a little over 2 minutes. Heard this one on RadioLab, and had to find a version I could share. Very neat, and cute, and touching, and kind of sad in it's own way.
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More people I know in the media: Ben Ong on Jimmy Fallon. When I saw Ben mention this on Facebook, I totally thought it was a joke. Turns out it's true! And awesome! Yay Ben!
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Speaking of friends, Marc sent me this one, Bear Sleeping Bag. Crazy.

Apparently blogging fell apart on me last week as we found ourselves shopping for house stuff every evening.

This weekend, as the image above indicates (which was an awesome project to get to do, by the way), was Marc & Celene's wedding, which was a great time. Good people to hang out with all over the place. And now that it's over I can finally wear my groomsman shoes out and about. Got 'em on right now.

Hopefully I'll get back to posting more now, but we'll see, it's film guide time at the Princess right now...
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Jenna sent me this one and my only response was 'DAMN.' Nice stuff.
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Sometimes I just don't know what to make of Richard Linklater. I really want to love him. He made one of my favourite movies, employed some great sounding practices while doing so, and has also made a number of other interesting films. But then he's also made some crap.

I guess I didn't realize that Me and Orson Welles is one of his, but when I saw this poster for it, it just made me think that he's out to make some money, you know? I do think that the movie could be good, but the marketing is just so lacklustre and pandering feeling, you know? Citing School of Rock (mainstream, fun movie) and Before Sunset (romance!) is obviously toeing the mainstream line, versus the possible tag of 'From the Director of Dazed and Confused, Waking Life, and A Scanner Darkly,' which would definitely get ME to watch the movie. It's just hard to know what to make of such fluctuations.
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Speaking of artists fluctuating back and forth from mainstream to underground, Shepard Fairey designed the program for the Grammy's? Seriously? It's like, the worst award show.
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Somewhat entertaining, definitely tragic: Tacos exploding in slow motion

Put the finishing touches on this one last night. Excited to see it up, especially if it gets printed on the paper Jenna suggested.
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Speaking of Jenna, her and I tend to send each other a lot of links. Lately she's been killing it, sending me some great stuff that I just have to share.

When Polar Bears Attack - Extremely adorable. The first picture just kills me. Have I ever mentioned to you that I wish the technology existed to keep a baby bear a baby so that I could own one? I know the moral implications of that would be iffy, but how great would that be?

Wood Meets Metal - Faux Bois and Real Bois together! This buckle is awesome! Way out of my price range though, well, more even than I would spend on a buckle ever (probably). Still, nice.

Brass Boxing Bear - THIS IS AMAZING. I got so excited when I opened this link. Also, note that it appears to be a bookend, so there has to be at least one more of them out there. How great would that be to own?
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Cowches? Cowches. The picture they use in the first link is great and makes me want one (not that I would ever get one, but you know...). Some of the pictures on the actual site make them look a little less awesome. Cute idea though, and the name is obviously genius.
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One more Muppet video...
This one is a real tear jerker. I've always thought about looking for it , but never have until now, because I knew it would make me cry. Big Bird at Jim Henson's memorial service. So sad. The way his voice breaks slightly at times and the ending just kill me.

The Canadian Design Resource posted about this awesome pattern today, which led me to check out the Curse of the Multiples website, and spot that image above. They're both pretty great, and there appears to be lots more where they came from.
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Gotta go door handle shopping soon for our new closets. Even if this one actually existed, I don't think Jenna would go for it. Truth be told, neither would I, since it definitely would not go with our house, but it's just easier to blame her and keep my cool factor high.
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More hand stuff - This leash here is creepy, but also kind of cute, if you ask me at least. Not that the hand itself is cute, more that it gives you an instant significant other to stroll with.
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Muppets all over the place today!

Muppets Bohemian Rhapsody - This is being linked all over the place! It takes almost 2 minutes to get good (and then of course sucks briefly when Miss Piggy shows up), but it is pretty entertaining. Lots of good characters in there.

Dr. Doozer video #1 - A little teaser leading up to the release of the collaboration between Dr. Romanelli and Fraggle Rock. I still have no idea what to make of this, or what's coming, but I am keeping an eye out for mention of it on highsnobiety. I don't think I've ever seen the instrument the human guy is playing with in this video, it looks awesome though!
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Keeping on the streetwear/highsnobiety kick, here's another collab. that I'm interested to see what happens with: The Hundreds X Delorean Motor Company. Yes, that Delorean Motor Company. I'm a fan of The Hundreds' Adam Bomb logo, and a bit of their actual product, so something good could come of this...

I guess they've been hanging out with the DMC people lately, so there's some interesting posts on their blog here and here.
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One more from highsnobiety: Porter x Star Wars luggage collection. Have you ever seen a classier looking take on the Star Wars franchise?
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Back to videos and muppets... I just found this one, and I desperately want to see more of it! I love how a lot of the time Kermit is just sort of there, like a person. Nodding along, etc. Great video.

These pictures are from this great NY Times post Marc mentioned the other day. (Though I actually ended up finding it on my own, and realising it was what he was talking about...)
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Skipped taco's this week for various reasons, but got some work done on the Starlight's New Year's poster. Sending an early vers. to Shane now to see what he thinks, since he is DJ'ing the night and all. Want to get it done by Dec. 1, which is surprisingly close!

If all goes to plan, next week we'll have a main floor bathroom and 2 new closets! So close to getting to take 'after' pictures to go with the 'before's.
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Penny Farthings! Somehow the possibility of this never occurred to me before, but here's a company that makes classic Penny Farthings (and some awesome other stuff). And here's a modern Penny Farthing. I'm sure there are more companies that make each, but I was just excited to realize that these exist. Old timey. Neat stuff.
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Speaking of old timey neat stuff, I may have mentioned this before but, I love the fixtures and shades made by Schoolhouse Electric. So nice. But too expensive! I'm not sure if I like the new 'artist series' ones, but the classic looking painted ones are a nice touch.
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McSweeney's Internet Tendency started running a feature recently called Flip: A Column About Skateboarding. Not surprisingly from a literary based website, it features more grown up discussions about skateboarding. I just started reading this article, and before I even finished it, decided I should share: Ed Templeton: Professional Skateboarder/Atheist.

While I'm not necessarily an atheist, he did hit part of my beliefs right on the nose here:
"My belief system is that I believe you can do good things, and reach out to people and have morals and God can have nothing to do with that."

I also like how he says that he feels atheism shouldn't be in the closet, and that he's being more outgoing about it, which is something I've been struggling with some lately. I keep wondering why I feel bad about putting my beliefs out there when someone who has strong religious beliefs likely would not, and being annoyed by my fear of offending people by publicly not believing. I accept that both believing and not believing are entirely valid opinions, and even if I didn't, I feel most believers would have no fear of offending me by publicly declaring belief, I'm afraid of their backlash to my own non-beliefs.

How's that for a topic that came out of my reading a discussion about skateboarders/skateboarding? Only from McSweeny's.

(Speaking of Templeton, if my aforementioned attempt to get Objectified to show at the Princess works out, we may also feature this awesome looking doc. that Templeton is a part of, and which I've been dying to see.)
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Finally, if you loved that bear shirt I posted about as much as I did, there's a reprint coming, so keep an eye out here. (I emailed them before and it turned out they had one extra XL, so mine's already on its way!) No wearing it at the same time as me though!

This post here reminded me that I still needed to post a pic of this sweet plate from the '68 Olympics in Mexico that I found not too long ago. Love it. I especially love the way the Olympic rings line up with the bottom halves of the 6 and the 8. Nice touch.
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While looking up some info at work I ran across this article about ATM's in London using Cockney rhyming slang. I find Cockney rhyming slang fascinating, in as much as I know very little about it and it barely makes sense to me, and the fact that these machines are using it is very amusing to me. I'm still not sure if I like it or not, but it is amusing. Have you ever had an ATM that said "I am processing your request"? That sort of personification I know I don't like.
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Anyone want to take me on a trip to MoMA? This exhibit would be pretty awesome to see.

There's a pretty cool little behind the scenes/interview video with Tim Burton here.
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Speaking of museums, on an impromptu emergency trip to Hamilton/Burlington this weekend (we had to buy a vanity that apparently none of the Home Depot's in town had...) we drove past The Hamilton Museum of Steam and Technology. That's a place I'd like to make a visit to. Jenna didn't seem too keen on the idea though. It's the steam part that really interests me, of course. The building alone, and the old train station beside it, already piqued my interest before I knew what was inside. Hopefully I remember to go back sometime...
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I guess I'm losing all of my street cred by being so behind that Saddle Creek already signed them, but lately I've been really into The Rural Alberta Advantage. I'm pretty sure I saw them at least once a few years ago (had to mention this to try to retain some cred...), but I finally got around to getting a copy of Hometowns recently, and I love it. It's one that Jenna likes too, so it's actually good for listening to in the car, which a good chunk of stuff that I like is not, so that's awesome.

Though I really like the whole thing, I'm loving this: Don't Haunt This Place
(Wow, and I'm losing even more cred as I just realized that this is the song you can get for free off of the Saddle Creek site. Did I just fall for the single?? Who am I!?)

Anyway, regardless of if I'm ahead of the game anymore or not, this song is good, and you should listen to it. Solid and earnest. As I said to Jenna the other day, when they say that they need something, it really feels like they need it. So good.

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.)

Hot off the (quarkx)presses. Just finished this poster and I had to share it. It's been kicking around in my head (and in my Field Notes) since last week, but I finally got it done. At least I think it might be. I'm not even sure of how it will print. Who knows, maybe this won't make it up like this, but right now I'm pretty happy with it, so here you go. Hope you like it! Actually, I really hope the Cons like it.
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Here's one I figured out pretty quick when I started doing film related layout: Trajan is the Movie Font. Fer realz.
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I've been watching a lot of CNBC lately. I figured out a few years ago that I get pretty interested in business related stories. Not the money related parts, but the human related parts. For example, while I do enjoy flipping through the newpaper's business section, I never read an entire article, because the ends always just seem to devolve into numbers.

Anyway, I recently watched a nice little special on Coca-Cola (did you know they were down to almost a 1/4 of the market when they released "New Coke," and then, after the furor that ensued, when they re-introduced Coca Cola Classic, they went back to dominating the market?). There was definitely some talk about the bottle design, so it was nice to come online and see its evolution presented here.
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This book looks creepy and awesome. Nicely done.
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Tumbleweed Tiny Houses. These things look awesome. I would love to go inside one. Could I ever live in one? Size-wise, at 6'6" 220+lbs, it might be a bit of a comedy of errors, but doable I think. Love of things and possessions and collections and stuff-wise, no.
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The Museum of Brands, Packaging and Advertising. Wow. Lots of amazing looking stuff there.

Also, I feel like Turtle, and Mock Turtle, Soup has come up a number of times recently. All I can say about that is, if there's one type of soup you will definitely never catch me trying, it's probably Turtle Soup. I don't know, I just don't think I could do it.

Just a quick one before bed to let you know I had a great little weekend. Put the appliances back in the kitchen (equaling chicken soft tacos for dinner today!), saw Racoon Wedding (equaling getting to hang out with Tim and the guys, and get a copy of their album), and took a trip to Ikea and to St. Catherines to see Seth's Dominion City again.

Pictures of Dominion, and the Wine King float are up here, if you'd like to see them.

Badass. Seriously, that's all I can think when I see this poster, designed by Thirst. Check out their site for more awesome work.

I guess this piece is in that Lubalin Now exhibit I mentioned yesterday, as I saw it in this post about it on the H&FJ blog here. H&FJ, by the way, not only release many great typefaces, but they also maintain a great blog that you would not be remiss in adding to your regular reading.

Back to the poster: BADASS. Click it to see it bigger. Do it.
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The other day I was itching for more podcasts like This American Life, when I discovered that pretty much every show on CBC radio is available as a podcast. So far I have subscribed to Q, Spark, and Wiretap. I've always caught pieces of each of these and wanted to hear more, and now I can! I've heard some great stuff already, particularly a bit of an interview with Gary Hustwit on Spark. They've got the whole interview available too, which I'm very exited to hear, but I'm waiting to have time to give it my undivided attention.
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Still dying to see Objectified. Got a plan in line that might make that happen on the big screen here. I'll keep you posted.
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I am definitely coveting both of these bikes:

Grace - The World's First e-motorbike

Worksman Bike

Two obviously very different bikes, that I like for two obviously different reasons. Both pretty awesome looking though.

Some sad news while reading the blogs this morning: Tonka has redesigned their logo.

As Marc said when I showed it to him 'it looks so hockey'. Agreed. It totally looks like it should be printed on hockey sticks and bags. Armin points out in the post that it looks more 'truck,' which is also true. It makes me think of a Chevy Ridgeline or something. He also points out that this may be an effort to make up for the fact that the trucks themselves have gotten less rugged, so they had to rugged up the logo, and really, that's just sad to me.

To me the old logo was like a solid, hard working blue collar guy. Nothing special, but nothing to scoff at. It could still kick your ass anytime it wanted. It was strong and muscular without trying to be, just naturally strong. This new one is like a bodybuilder. Muscle for the sake of looking muscled.

Sad.
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There's been a lot of buzz lately about the Lubalin Now exhibit at The Cooper Union. Here's a nice little piece of coverage on it. Definitely jealous of anyone who makes it out to that one. Lubalin was a king among men for sure.
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So glad this version of the Charley Harper book is finally available. We saw it pop up as a pre sale on Amazon a while ago, but had no idea what the difference was, or when it was going to come out. Couldn't really justify the $150+ price tag of the o.g. version, but the $36 of this one is totally a deal!
Put that on the 'to get asap' list for sure. Maybe I should wait till after Christmas though, in case someone wants to buy it for me...
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Speaking of Christmas, if you do happen to be someone who might need to know some things that I might like for that upcoming event, my amazon wishlist is here.
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Interesting poster/project here. Great concept. Great message.

Two new posters out this week. Feeling the silhouette lately for sure.
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To get back to Halloween for a moment, I just came across this interesting little article on the whole Smarties-Rockets-Smarties thing. I find this topic interesting because I like candy, and branding, and names, but mostly because Jenna is a Rockets fiend. We definitely bought a big bag of Smarties last fall when we were in New England. It's really too bad for the kids of the USA that they miss out on Nestle Smarties though, as they are far superior to M&M's. I can't imagine living in a world where I think Hershey's makes the best chocolate out there (though I do enjoy their Kisses).

This article also reminded me that I forgot to hunt down some molasses candies this fall! What will I do? (Also, I didn't realize that these are a pretty Canadian item also. Interesting.)
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What!? Rice Crispies are Rice Bubbles in Australia and New Zealand!? I'm loving this blog's parallels series, I can't wait to see what they cover next.
I wasn't looking for yet another blog to add to my crowded reader, but I think I found one!
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Smoking Smarties!? What is with the kids these days???
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I'm not usually one to share quizzes I found online, but this one is great: So you think you can tell Arial from Helvetica?
I do think I can, and my 18/20 almost proves that to be correct. There's a few key spots to check to tell the difference, do you know what they are? Try it!
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Okay, one more quiz, but only because it's from Mental Floss, and only because I got 100% percent on it, and this gives me the chance to boast: The Sandlot movie quiz
(kind of a sad thing to boast about, I know, but you gotta love The Sandlot)

What a nice fall poster. I haven't had a look at the Doublenaut site in awhile, but they're doing some nice work over there in Toronto. (thanks to Drawn for reminding me of that.)
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When I first heard about Monsters of Folk I was pretty excited. Mostly 'cause I just like the prospect of anything new from M. Ward. When it came down to listening to the album, I have to say there was a little too much Jim James going on in there for me. I haven't given up on them completely, I'll give it a few more listens, but I've gotten less interested.

Two of the contributing factors in my remaining interest are:
- This poster from Doublenaut
- This poster from The Small Stakes

Now I know the band likely had no involvement at all in the style of those, and thus they aren't necessarily indicative of anything about the band, but just knowing that this is what people are creating to promote the band keeps my mind open a little.
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Have you heard of The Small Stakes before? Jason Munn makes some pretty sweet posters. Definitely someone to keep an eye out for, and to try to learn a thing or two from.
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This superhero image is cute and awesome. A great combo.

These hand-stitched versions of classic book covers are pretty awesome.
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I feel like I'm behind on posting. We've been busy with kitchen things and work things though. I keep being tempted to share an 'in progress' kitchen shot with you, but I'm trying real hard to wait for the end. We finally have a floor, and now we just have to pick a back splash and a paint colour. Spent a few hours last night cleaning dust off the cupboards, and anything that was in an uncovered box in the dining room. Still more work to go!
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One of the things I always enjoy about Overcompensating is the way God acts when he shows up: today's comic was a prime example.

Jeffrey's blog posts are usually interesting/entertaining/good too. For example, with this comic he says some things about religion that I definitely agree with. Such as: "I've had the opinion that 'worship whatever you want, as long as it doesn't hurt anybody'" and "It's a good thing there isn't a commandment in the Decalogue that simply says 'Don't Be an Asshole,' because a lot of American Christians would be in trouble right about now."

My apologies for talking religious on you, but I always like it when someone sums things up nicely. On to lighter things...
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I found this picture exciting. Not that I have ever been able to justify buying House merchandise, but I do like a lot of it, and of course I love wooden crates, so this is a good combination for me...
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I forgot how awesome it is to search 'peanut' in vintage on etsy. It yields both Mr. Peanut, and Peanuts the comic strip results. Two things I definitely enjoy.
Here are some nice items I found this time:
Peanuts musical ferris wheel bank. This thing is awesome. Too bad it's rare and wicked expensive!
Linus rag doll. This is pretty much one of the cutest things I have seen. So cute.
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When I first saw images of this Kracken Rum bottle, I thought 'hey, if I drank rum, that's definitely the rum I would buy!' Now that I've seen this media kit, I totally want that too. Nice packaging, and what looks like clever marketing. I've mentioned before that I get sick of how often packaging blogs cover alcohol labels, but then sometimes, you get a gem like this one. Nice stuff.

Have I mentioned that I quite like Halloween? I do! I meant to post on Halloween, but then I kind of took the weekend off from the computer, so this is my Halloween post.
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Those are my pumpkins up above. I was pretty pleased with them in the end. My detail work on sustaining thin lines is not so good, so Ms. Pac-Man's bow doesn't look quite right, and I lost the line that was supposed to go between the two cherries. I got some great comments from some parents

Here's a Ms. Pac-Man screen shot for reference. I went round Ms. Pac-Man, pixellated ghost because we decided it would look better.

You can see more shots (and Jenna's pumpkin) on my flickr page.
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Speaking of Ms. Pac-Man, this tattoo is ridiculous, but these rings are kind of cute.
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More pumpkin stuff:
CBC pumpkin! Nerdy/awesome!
Deathstar pumpkin! Nerdy/badass! (Also seen there are someone else's pacman pumpkins.
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Centaur skeleton. Wow. Creepy and gross and awesome. It's made out of real skeletons! What!? Impressed, and scared, by these people. Too bad their website doesn't seem to work for me.
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I guess that's it for Halloween this year. The first at our new house. We only had 27 kids, which was kind of disappointing; I thought we'd get more. I went with the last second costume of Scrabble tile, which was Jenna's suggestion. Luckily my initial is worth 8 points, otherwise it would be a much more disappointing costume. A lot of drunk people didn't understand it. Racoon Wedding didn't play, but I did get to see BA Johnston, which is always a pleasure. Overall, a pretty good night. How was yours?

Since I linked to videos of one of my other heroes the other day, I thought I'd pass along this picture and this video of Jim Henson that We Love You So linked to. I love Jim Henson. I think he was a great person who did great things. Pictures like the one above always make me both happy and sad. Such a tender looking moment between a man and his puppet. Such a talented, special individual. I wonder what he would have gotten up to if he hadn't died when he did?
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To jump gears completely, how awesome does this antique lighting store look? I'd love to shop there! Except I bet I wouldn't be able to afford anything.
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Here's another video for you; a featurette on Studio on Fire.
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I keep going back to look at these business cards. Clever work there for sure.
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I've often thought about this classic hat style, and wondered why someone wasn't putting a version of it out. I guess now New Era is, but of course, like many awesome things, you can only get it in Japan. Not that I think I'd be able to pull it off, but still, nice to know it's out there.
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At home for kitchen related reasons. Cleaning out the ol' google reader, some work, and some house work. It's Halloween tomorrow, lots of prep to do. Why do I always leave costume details to the last minute?

We finally went out and bought pumpkins yesterday. 6 of them. Yes, 6. I have plans for 4 of them; one big themed pumpkin set. Let's hope it works out. The thing I'm not looking forward to? Cleaning them all out. Definitely the worst part of pumpkin carving.

Gotta do some costume shopping tonight. I do love me some Halloween.
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Spotted the new version of the Youth in Revolt poster today. Blah.
Original version.
New version.
On the surface, they don't really look that much different, I know, but they really are. With it's more painterly style, the original version had so much more character. The new version is clearly a little more mainstream. The painting style is pretty much totally gone, in favour of just a softening of the image, and the girl, of course, highlights the love story aspect. Small changes, but big. You know?
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Jenna showed me these salt & paper shakers, and they are awesome. If they weren't so dang expensive, I would totally buy them. I've see a couple shaker sets lately that stick together to form a larger whole. Smart thinking for sure.
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Jessica Hagy hit 'good design' right on the nose with this one. Her blog, Indexed is frequently clever and entertaining (and sometimes confusing if you don't always understand graphs...).
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Here's another one Jenna sent me today. I saw the video on MTV this morning, but am very glad to know the woman got charged. Bad driving really bugs me. I get irritated if someone in front of me turns without signaling. Ever since my accident last year, I am also very aware of when people's headlights aren't on, which really bothers me too. Particularly if it is grey out at all. If your car doesn't have daytime running lights, you should be aware of that, and turn your lights on!

Safety people!

(Now, I'm not saying I'm a perfect driver, but I like to think I'm better than some people.)

Believe me, poster, I wish...

It seems like my favourite two months are just slipping past my eyes. With one stress after another, time just keeps trucking past me. Lots of good things are happening though, so I can't really complain. I just love fall, but keep feeling too tired or busy to appreciate it. Oh well, there are many more autumn's to come (and still November too!) (image from Absolute Sellout)
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This past weekend, thanks to Sue and Ron's friends, I got to drive an Olympia Ice Resurfacer. Pretty awesome.

We had a tour of the factory in Elmira, where most of each machine is hand built from the frame up. Impressive stuff. It's unfortunate that the name Zamboni is so prominent, as Olympia probably does bigger business, and is a home-grown Canadian product. Their machines are used all around the world. Definitely something to be proud of.

Resurfice is actually providing all of the ice resurfacers that will be used at the Vancouver olympics. The machine I drove is one of the ones being sent out there, one of their new electric powered machines (it was so quiet!).
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Loving these skateboard decks. Just the right amount of dark/creepy-ness. And nice patterns to boot.
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The grey version of these shoes look pretty nice! I'm not sure how they'd look in person, or on (especially on big feet like mine), but I'm loving the concept. Like a pea coat for your feet.
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This guy doesn't go by the name Andy Awesome for nothing. Such cute art!
Charlie Brown and Linus!
Batman and Robin!
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Bacon jam! My favourite Top Chef chef, ever, Kevin made Bacon jam to go with something else he made and I freaked out. I had no idea I might be able to buy bacon jam...
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Did I mention that Kevin is my favourite Top Chef chef ever? Look at him! Isn't it obvious that I would like him? And he gets so excited and happy when he wins! He seems to just cook for the love of cooking, not like those Voltaggio brothers, who may be awesome chefs, but are way too serious about it. Oh right, that's the other thing, Kevin also makes amazing looking food that I would love to eat.

Top 4 prediction for this season's Top Chef: KEVIN, Jennifer, Voltaggio brothers.

(sorry for the tv tangent. I do it surprisingly little considering how much I love tv. Top Chef is a great show, and you should totally watch it if you don't.)
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The colours in these photographs of Russia in the early 1900's is pretty great. It gives such an added 'realness' to the images. Though I love black & white, the colour makes these feel more like these places still exist. Though at the same time I don't have that desire to walk into them like I do with old black & white images...
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More Chip Kidd:
Chip Kidd's Halloween Memories. Short and cute. If you didn't watch the other ones, try this one.

Film guide = uploaded to the printer. There'll probably be some changes, but for all intents and purposes, done. As John said on the phone "Another 2 years of our lives. I mean 2 months." Not that it takes us 2 months, but that's what it covers. Living life 2 months at a time.
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My hero.
Chip Kidd & Elmore Leonard: A mutual appreciation.
Chip Kidd Dwell designers video.
Chip Kidd insights lecture. At an hour and a half I bet this is amazing, but I don't know if I'll ever get through it!
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You know how my blog is always all over the place, because I am all over the place? Here's a blog that is amazingly curated: A Continuous Lean. Maybe his tastes are just amazingly curated, I don't know, but everything he posts just goes together so well. His style is nice to look around in.

Classic (CLASSIC.) IBM ThinkPad.
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The good thing about the convergence of film guide production and hundreds of kids in the building daily? It gives me an excuse to listen to my ipod all day. One of the bands I keep going back to this week are The Evens. I only got Get Evens at the beginning of summer, but really liked it right away, and keep liking it more. The song that got me hooked was 'Cut From the Cloth', but today I woke up with 'Get Even' stuck in my head, and realized that it may now be my favourite. Check it out: Get Even

Finally got around to uploading some newer posters onto gigposters. You can see them here. I'm definitely happy with some of what I've done lately, some in a different style than I'm used to.
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Speaking of gigposters, browsing around today helped me put two and two together and realize that I really love the work of Jay Ryan. I've seen it before, even posted a link to one of his posters before, but never really realized it was all the same person. I loved his illustrations in the Chabon book. His lettering style and colour choices are great. I love that he leaves in bits and pieces of his workflow in places, like his scratchy lines and things like the little box in this poster that he used to figure out the flow of the banner. Nice stuff. Check out his gigposters page here.

Cute.
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Here's something fashion-wise that's got my interest piqued: Levi's x Obey. Looking forward to seeing what comes out of that. Definite possibilities for good or bad.
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Not looking forward to work tomorrow. The stress of film guide production deadline at the end of the week meets the craziness/business of the Quantum to Cosmos festival taking over the theatres with stuff for kids all day = not fun. I love the idea of the festival, I just wish it wasn't this week...

Another new Timber shirt! This one is on it's way to me now, along with this one that I finally ordered. That puts my Timber shirt count at 7. Did I mention that I really like his shirts? Now I'm just waiting for this one to come out in a colour I like more...
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Here's a new ad to the want list from Penguin. Love the classic covers, as a lot of people do, so I think it's a great idea for them to basically just give you 100 of them. It would make it a lot easier to display the ones you really love rather than having to prop a few books up on the shelf.
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Back when I mentioned this picture that I love, I mentioned Boler trailers. This little Scamp trailer reminds me of a Boler, and has been beautifully re-done inside! I would love to own something like that. Not that we camp, but I can always dream (both about camping, and about owning a camper...)
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A quick trip to the Globe & Mail.com today to find a review yielded some interesting news:
A-Ha are still together (but not for long). Who knew??
Seriously, they have 9 albums, 4 of them released in the 2000's? Wow. I really had no idea.
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Since I got on the topic of music I like in my last post, I thought I'd let you know that lately I cannot stop listening to The Acorn. Since I first heard them on a sleepy morning at track & field a few years back I've been a fan, but lately it's like I don't want to listen to anything else. Sometimes I force myself to, but really, my first instinct lately is always to go for The Acorn. They are perfect for this time of year. I wish their current tour had come the the Starlight and I had gotten to make them a poster (though that also would have been somewhat scary to do...)

Been thinking a lot about Halloween lately. Still no idea for a costume, but every time we're out shopping, I always get lured in by the decorations. I've kind of always wanted to be the people on the street who go over the top for Halloween... We definitely won't be this year, but maybe once all the decorations go on sale after the fact, we might have to stock up...
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I spotted those Goodwill face variations up there in a banner ad the other day, and I have to say I love it. I'm already a fan of the original logo, and these variations are cute and fun, and the whole thing looks pretty well executed. The colour, the lines, cute, weird. I like it. There's a short commercial too apparently. Love that they got Jason in there.
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Just saw this optical illusion yesterday. Pretty weird. Hard to trust them ol' eyes sometimes, eh?
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Back on the Muppets train, here's one I sent myself awhile ago but I don't think I've posted. With last night's premiere, I guess now the timing is more apt anyway: 30 Rock is a rip-off of The Muppet Show. Well played Brian Lynch. Fitting that Jenna Maroney is Miss Piggy? Well, I do hate them both, so yes.
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Stairporn? Okay. (It's really not at all dirty, trust me) Seriously, there's some pretty neat stuff.
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Racoon Wedding. (yes, that is how they spell Raccoon, one 'c'.) I love this band. They finally have an album out. Wavering on ordering it from them over the internets, or impatiently waiting for their Halloween show at 130 King. I think I can make it that long...

It's taco day! It's a good thing I'm not religious because apparently some religions ONLY let you eat tacos on Tuesday. My personal beliefs are that while you can eat tacos any day, you really should eat tacos on Tuesday. (Thank you Jeffrey Rowland for another great taco related laugh)
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I've always liked this logo. Sad to see it go. While Armin laments it's loss, identifying that "it’s crystal clear that the world in which Rand created identities is not the same world they exist in now and most are reaching their expiry date," what makes me the most sad is that that world is gone. Also, with this one, I don't think the updated logo is really much of an update. I mean, it ties in with the University now, but it's not like the simple "Yale" is really all that much, considering the current world of logos, you know?
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Toronto: The New World Capitol For Homos, Draft Dodgers and Degenerates. Nice.
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How much do you want to bet that this was the UK cover? (A continued complaint from here)
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Disc golf Thursday was great. It's tiring going up and down those hills though! Missed out going this weekend though due to sickness...

Kitchen is moving along. Can't wait for it to be done!!

Yay!

After a number of tentative plans cancelled due to weather, Shane and I are finally (hopefully) heading back out to the Chicopee Disc Golf course. Not a lot of time to fit it in before sundown, but still totally happy.

Still have tentative plans to hit it up on Saturday too. Here's hoping!

(pic from great course Jenna and I played in Maine last year.)

Street View!

So the big news of today is that google street view for Canadian cities (including K-W) went live today. I was always disappointed that we didn't have street view in Canada, and it's exciting that now we do!

What's the first thing you looked up?

Mine was our house, of course. Too bad it wasn't our house yet... Then work, then I found our car in the parking lot, and then checked out which posters were up. Hard to see at the Starlight, but two of my favourites, NOMEANSNO and C'Mon/Pride Tiger were both up in the window at the Jane Bond.

Fun!

That right there is what our kitchen looked like when we went to bed on Sunday. It's a little different now, but more or less the same. Actually, the opening the picture is looking through is now smaller, and arched on top. This is all moving towards new cabinets going in on Friday. Can't wait.
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It seems to me that whenever I see the American version of a book cover, and the UK version, I always prefer the UK edition. What's with that? Why do they get better, punchier covers?

A prime example is the book that I generally refer to as my favourite, Fortress of Solitude by Jonathan Lethem.
Here's the North American cover.
And here's the UK. (the circle is actually a cut out hole, by the way)

Thankfully I own the UK version, and actually, if I had never seen it, I might not have ever read the book. The cover totally drew me in. Why wasn't this the NA cover as well though? It could have reached more readers perhaps, although maybe it also would have turned more away...

I'd love to own this orange version of it too (did I mention I do own both of the other covers? The NA version is my reading/loaning copy now, saving the UK version from any more wear). Oh, there's also this cover, which I kind of want at some point to complete the collection.

I'm thinking about this today because I just saw the covers for Lethem's latest, Chronic City:
North American. Boring.
UK. Awesome. The colours are even fluorescent! (which won't display on a computer, sadly)

Seriously! What's up with this?
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Sometimes, when a new comic from A Softer World shows up in my reader, I wonder 'Why do I keep reading A Softer World?' This was not one of those times. Sometimes, they hit it right on, and that is why I keep reading it.
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Jenna sent me this one: Sesame Street does Mad Men. I do love my muppets.
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Along those lines, and more from the WTWTA blog, here's a magazine I wish was still being made. Those covers are pretty amazing. Actually, it looks like every cover can be found here. Definitely something to keep an eye out for back issues of. Or even this.

Have I mentioned before how I love google? Right now I am loving google for google reader, and the ability it gives my friends to share things. My friends have good tastes, and read blogs that I don't. (that's not to say that the blogs I read are bad, please read those clauses as two seperate things.

Thanks to the wonder of sharing via google reader I now know about 2 things I may not have known about (I think both thanks to Josh Chong, so thanks Josh Chong!):

1. Seth has designed a float, and it, and the City of Dominion, will be on display at a gallery in St. Catherines. I've seen Dominion before, but Jenna hasn't, and I just finally made the time to read George Sprott (The cumbersome dimensions of the book have had me putting off reading it. Which is sad, really, because I do love the look and feel of the size of the book...), and would enjoy seeing the landmarks of the book in person again, as much as that can be accomplished by seeing carboard models of a fictional city. We kind of need to go to an Ikea anyway (so I can finally get some stuff on some walls, including some promotional materials from when I saw Dominion here), so maybe we'll combine the two and go. Kind of a long drive to see it, but if Jenna's up for it, I'm in!

2. Miranda July impersonates extras in classic movies. Now I'm not really a Miranda July fan, but the idea behind these pictures is hilarious, and the execution is really quite good too. The Grease one is probably my favourite.

So thank you google, and thank you Josh!
And sorry for all of the brackets in that first point. I just had a lot to say!

One stress in our life is done, now we just need to get the kitchen worked out. Which, actually, I think might happen. Even if the manufacturer still has to make the floor we want...

I've been hoping to come back with something unique and exciting, but instead it's more purging of my reader. Which does yield some exciting stuff, but somehow feels less than exciting, you know? Hopefully it's just me.
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Department of Eagles video designed and co-directed by Marcel Dzama. I started listening to Department of Eagles this summer, and definitely enjoy it. This track is a stand out for sure. And I've loved what I've seen by Dzama in the past.

Truth be told, I only watched about a minute of this and then had to share it. I suck at watching videos that other people post. I will leave this one unread and then take forever to go back and fully watch it. The funny part of that is, I have a bunch of videos I've seen that I'll be sharing with you soon, and expecting you to not do what I always do, and actually watch them.
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Cutest headphone jack splitter ever? I think so.
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Periodic Table of Typefaces? I'll take one! (okay, really, I'll think about taking one... do I really want to pay $22+ for it, and do I have anywhere to put a largish poster? I think I might, and I think I do. So maybe I will take one... We'll see.)

Lino-cut printing with a steamroller? Yes! (Seriously, watch the video. It's pretty impressive!)

(These were both from FPO [For Print Only] which is a pretty awesome blog about, not surprisingly, printed materials. I love it because they break down the cost, materials, etc. Quite interesting.)
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Cool bird prints. These are probably making the rounds pretty good. I saw them on Grain Edit and LOVE them. There's a whole lot of Charley Harper influence in there it looks like. Some highlights for me: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4. A few of them together would make a nice little collection of prints somewhere. Where's the red-winged black bird though? Give me one of those, and I'm in.
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The classic CBC logo gets ripped off! Not once, but twice!
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Beautiful abstract tattoos. I can't believe how much they look like actual paint. Interesting idea, bridging the "real art" vs. body art gap. I'm also the birds in the chest piece in the "modern" section of the artist's website. (Sorry, I'd link direct, but it's flash...) Really nice stuff.
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So, I have to admit, I never was a massive fan of Where the Wild Things are. That's not to say that I didn't like it, just that I wasn't huge into it. I never owned it. I bet if I had I would have loved it, but I never did. I did love the Little Monster books, and other weird stuff by Mercer Meyer.

So anyway, I had to admit that, in order to say that I am really excited about the upcoming movie version of Where The Wild Things Are. Everything about it looks awesome, exciting, and magical. I've been reading the blog connected to the film, and that's become a part my excitement too. It really highlights the tastes and ideas of the filmmakers and what has influenced them and their movie.

As an example, here's what they think of people tagging their billboard: "A better shot of our new favourite billboard" & "Billboard". I love the text in the second one (which was actually the first one), posted by Spike: "Finally! I’ve been waiting to see one customized. We should have a contest for the best altered billboard…" They really appreciate that that is someone else's art and work interacting with their own.

Anyway, great blog, great seeming filmmakers, hopefully great movie.
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I guess that's it for now. Still 36 unread items in my reader, but better...

I'm loving this weather lately. Though it's making me wish we were back in New England, since we were there this time last year, and it was super grey and rainy the whole time (as you can see it was when we visited the top of Mt. Washington in the picture above). I miss it for sure.

The bad part about the weather? We were hoping to get in a game of disc golf today...