Now Reading: Bands On The Road: The Tour Sketchbook, Morrissey In Conversation - The Essential Interviews
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February 26th, 2009
I picked up both of these books a couple weeks ago and while Bands On The Road is more of a coffee table book, Morrissey In Conversation is something much more substantial. As a massive fan of The Smiths since I first ever heard them in the late 80s, this book is turning out to be an interesting reflection of not only their formative years, but of Morrissey’s relentless pursuit of being everything that the pop stars at the time were not. This book contains virtually ever major interview he gave from the beginning of The Smiths through 2007. While I imagine a great deal of the book to be somewhat repetitive - I’ve counted seven references to his choice of celibacy and I’m only 40 pages in - for me it is a remarkable lo0k at a giant inspiration of mine and someone who there is really no equal for. I highly suggest this book for any fans of The Smiths; if you’ve read Morrissey & Marr - The Severed Alliance, this book is a great companion.
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Now Listening: Lightspeed Champion
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February 16th, 2009
Lightspeed Champion are the current band of Devonte Hynes, formerly of Test-Icicles, and the contrast in style couldn’t be more noticeable. Test Icicles were a brash, explosive band of grating guitars and shouted lyrics, and they’d have been the perfect tourmates for Death From Above 1979 - another great band that closed up shop too soon.
From Wikipedia:
Lightspeed Champion is the name of the new musical venture by ex-Test Icicle Devonte Hynes. He is currently signed to Domino Records. Containing musical elements from a variety of genres, Lightspeed Champion has a radically different sound to Hynes’ previous band. The name ‘Lightspeed Champion’ comes from a series of comic strips Hynes did as a teenager in his school mathematics books. Hynes was born in Houston, Texas and raised in Essex, England.
In early 2007, Hynes went to Omaha, Nebraska to record Lightspeed Champion’s debut album with Saddle Creekproducer Mike Mogis, also a member of the band Bright Eyes. A number of Omaha-based musicians appear on the record including Mogis himself, trumpet player and pianist Nate Walcott (also of Bright Eyes), The Faint’s drummer Clark Baechle and guest vocalist Emmy The Great - along with moonlighting members of Cursive and Tilly And The Wall.
The result of those recording sessions is the album Falling Off the Lavender Bridge which was released on January 21, 2008. The first single from the album is “Galaxy of the Lost”, which was released on July 30, 2007. (Additional wikipedia entry here)
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I’ve been a huge fan of this album since a friend suggested it and I love seeing the diversity of a songwriter I previously knew only for what Test-Icicles had produced. There’s a great blend of instrumentation here - strings, horns, and acoustic guitars.
Read more about Lightspeed Champion at metacritic.com.
Listen: Lightspeed Champion - Tell Me What It’s Worth
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Wake n’ Bacon Alarm Clock is Meant for Me
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January 5th, 2009
While searching for a new alarm clock and trying to track down the completely cool Seth Thomas Baxter Retro clock (more on that in a future post), my fiance came across the alarm clock above. Yes, it’s an alarm clock that heats up and delivers hot bacon when the alarm goes off. I really don’t think there could be a better device anywhere.
I don’t know if it’s completely real, but it has been featured in the New York Times Style Magazine and on Good Morning America. Take a look at more information here.
I need this, badly…
Posted in Products, Wanted Items | 1 Comment »
NOPATTERN.COM - New Book and Blog
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January 3rd, 2009
Artist Chuck Anderson, better known as NoPattern has recently released a small book featuring a variety of his artwork from the past few years. Over at QBN Chuck was a regular long ago but it’s obvious he’s been spending his time on some great projects. Chuck has a style that’s instantly recognizable, and it’s been cool to see it pop up here and there - the Lupe Fiasco Food and Liquor album cover, a giant Reebok / Chicago Bears banner on a downtown Chicago building, for example.
I had not been to his site in a while and had possibly forgotten about his blog at formatmag.com. He’s got a post up there with some home office pictures, and I’m drooling.
Posted in Designers and Artists, Graphic Design | No Comments »
My New Favorite Photo
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January 2nd, 2009
I found this image via a great post at SmashingMagazine about street photography. It has since taken up residence as my desktop on work computers and my home computer. It reminds me of some collages I made once in Photoshop using different layers of photos to achieve something similar; the great thing about this photo is that it’s exactly that: just one photo. It is really stunning and looks like something you’d find in the intro for a Bond movie.
View this image and the photographer’s page on Flickr here.
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A Century of Olympic Posters
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December 29th, 2008
I came across this book while browsing the large list of links I’ve saved with the intent to post here. Any fan of Olympic poster artwork is bound to find this to be an impressive collection of some very timeless design work. I’m adding this to my list of books to buy.
Order the book here.
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New Site and Blog Design
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December 29th, 2008
I just completed a few weeks of work on my updated site design for everything you see here. I’d wanted to better integrate my portfolio, blog, and forthcoming music section for a while. I’m done with that and now just trying to decide if I want the portfolio (current home page) or the blog to have more emphasis.
I’m also glad to have updated to the most current Wordpress release, allowing me to type this post from my iPhone using the Wordpress app.
On the rest of the site, I’ve switched from Lightbox to Lightwindow, allowing for a wider range of files and media that can be opened. I was particularly excited that I can use it to open full web pages; all my photo galleries use SimpleViewer, and these flash/HTML pages can be opened with Lightwindow.
Lastly, all the headers you see throughout the site use the excellent typeface.is feature to render any font as an image. It’s much easier to use than sifr and I’m pleased with how it’s turned out and that it appears to work well in all browsers.
Expect much more activity on the blog as well as a new photo section soon.
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Typographic Posters
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December 27th, 2008
TypographicPosters.com is bound to keep growing full of new and impressive typographic based posters. The one above is a little light on the typography, but you’d notice it from a mile away and that’s why I think it grabbed me.
Visit the sit here.
Posted in Graphic Design | 1 Comment »
Alejandro Chavetta Collages
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December 27th, 2008
I found these somewhere around the web not long ago and wish there were prints available for purchase. They’ve got all my favorite ingredients: gray and red, space, and architecture.
Check them out here.
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