Kevin Bacon is in a band with his brother. They're called The Bacon Brothers.
They're actually quite good.
And Kevin - he's fun to watch. He puts his whole self into performing. His brother has a better voice, but together - it works.
He has a pretty good life, I think.
I am so captivated by the work of Israeli typographer Oded Ezer that I keep going back to it:
Speaking of Helvetica: I'm watching the movie. Again.
Have you visited Bembo's Zoo yet? The Peacock and the Zebra are my favorites.
A different kind of type: Zhang Huan's Family Tree.
Thursdays are good for daydreaming about Type.
The farmhouse walls of my childhood were mostly bare, save for a garish painting made by my mother's cousin Robert that hung above the piano. Against a bright teal background, thick with brush strokes, Robert painted a simple vase, from which protruded the spindly stems of a dozen flowers. The flowers were modeled after a daisy, in colorful shades of red, white and yellow, each oblong petal distinct. At the center of each flower, Robert glued a shiny resin drop - gold, black, or clear - that caught the light and stared back at us, like unseeing eyes.
The painting was so hideous that it was compelling, so ugly that people who walked into the room could scarcely keep their eyes off of it.
It was lucky, I suppose, that we had the painting at all, as my father believed that art was a sign of vaingloriousness at best and the creation of false idols at worst, and thus we were encouraged to decorate the walls with dried flower wreaths instead.
Cousin Robert is no longer with us - bless his heart - and the painting has long since disappeared from the space above the piano. The edict on art at the farmhouse has changed, and now the walls are filled with botanical sketches and family photographs. I asked my mother about Robert's painting when I was home last month, and she vaguely recalled throwing it out at some point. I certainly don't blame her, but I feel an odd longing for another glimpse of its unabashed fugliness.
Which is a very long-winded way of getting to today, and my current obsession with art, and the ways I strive to collect beautiful pieces even though I don't have the cash to become a "real" collector in any sense of the word.
Ladies and gentlemen: 20x200, a Jen Bekman Project. Great art for hardly any money. Each week, the project reveals two original prints by an emerging artist: a run of 200 for $20 each, and a run of 20 for $200 each.
20 x 200 isn't news - it has been around since last September - but I wanted to write about it today, because, after following it for months, I love it more than ever. The whole experience - from viewing to purchasing to the pitch-perfect logo - is flawless.
The pieces are fabulous. I don't love them all, thank goodness, but they're always great fun to browse through. The Google Checkout experience is seamless - elegant and more intuitive than PayPal - and makes it easy (too easy?) to buy. Each piece comes packed inside a protective plastic sleeve, in a sturdy envelope, into which is nestled a certificate of authenticity and the edition number.
Every time I purchase one, I feel - well, giddy.
OTHER PLACES I FIND GREAT ART:
Kal Barteski's Tiny Art. I love the way she captures tender thoughts and feelings in these tiny pieces. I bought one a few weeks ago, and what can I say: I love it.
Ork Posters. My current favorite is the grey and yellow San Francisco screen print. Ooh, look - they're making one for Portland later this spring...
Inkdesigner. You never know what you're going to get when you purchase on Etsy - I've had both good experiences and "meh" ones, but that's part of the fun.
Where do you find art online?
There are so many metaphors for this crazy web space we all play in – Wild West, superhighway, collective brain.
Today I’m going with circus.
It fits, doesn't it? One wild and crazy act after the other, all competing for applause. Or maybe that only describes the blogosphere.
Whatever metaphor you like, a circus is definitely the best way to describe Guy Kawasaki’s newest venture, All Top. Displayed in deceptively simple fashion, the site feels like a giant circus tent, where the best blog acts come to ply their trade. Step right up: there are politicians and celebrities and mamas and just about every other act you can think of, all juggling words and ideas, peddling dreams and opinions. For what is a blogger if not a performer, flying on the trapeze and teasing lions in hopes of keeping the audience enthralled?
Guy is a shrewd circus master, deftly slotting diverse acts next to each other, always keeping one ear tuned to the crowd. One of his best moves was naming one of the categories “ego” – ooh, what does it mean? Insult or compliment? You decide.
A sleek, colorful stripe - the "anti-header" - floats at the bottom of each page: the perfect accessory for a virtual circus.
Suddenly, I'm craving popcorn.
Everything Guy does is heavily scrutinized by the peanut gallery, and All Top is no exception. Jeremiah Owyang dubbed it a "gimmick site". Michael at TechCrunch? Hated it! The commenters on his post weren’t much better: snark, snark, snark. So many haters, so little love.
But I'm a fan, and here's why:
Continue reading "Circus Master Guy Kawasaki under the Big (All) Top" »
Over the past few years, I’ve developed a hideous aversion to politics. I haven’t been able to watch a State of the Union address for more than two minutes without feeling the urge to vomit, or shout, or weep. I haven’t been able to read more than a sentence or two about the latest end-run around the Constitution, or yet another erosion of my civil liberties without flinging the paper aside with a muffled cry of despair.
I didn’t even vote in the last major election. I’m ashamed to admit it, but I didn’t feel like punching holes in a little white card could possibly make a difference. Bleh. Call me Jaded.
But Change has come to town, and even I have been intrigued by the idea that something different (possibly better?) is on the horizon. I’ve surprised myself by making it all the way through the last two televised debates without feeling the urge to carve my eyeballs out with a rusty melon baller.
If you've been reading my blog for a while, you know that I was at the ICEHOTEL in Jukkasjärvi, Sweden last year, where I met with Chef Richard Näslin. I've been intending to write about our chat ever since, but somehow I let a whole year slip away without doing it. You might also remember when I wrote that Richard reminded me of Matt Damon, and I'm finally posting the pictures to prove it.
See? Wasn't it worth the wait?
While I was twiddling my thumbs, the rooms that I walked through and slept in last year softened into slush and melted away; the ground was leveled, and blocks of ice from the Torne River were dragged to the site. A different group of artists arrived with hammers and picks and saws and created a new temple of ice filled with freshly imagined shapes and three-dimensional structures.
Daydreaming about what it might look like this year, I checked in with Richard via email to make sure that he was still at the ICEHOTEL and doing well - he is, and fabulously happy, it seems. The restaurant is packed, he reports, and they've built out a brand new kitchen and dining room.
But now - at long last - let's rewind to 2007. The night before I met with Richard, I had dinner at his restaurant, located across the street from the temporary ICEHOTEL. The restaurant is a permanent structure, warm and cozy, with a huge entryway full of parkas, coats and boots that people shrug off when they come inside from the -30°C air.
While the snow fell outside the dining room that night, we began the meal with a piece of arctic char alongside a quenelle of smoked arctic char ice cream in a pool of beetroot sorbet. The ice cream was creamy and smoky, enlivened by the salt-flecked fish and perfectly balanced by the tangy-sweet beetroot. Next came a terrine of foie gras with smoked reindeer, accented with gently dried grapes and drizzled with a honey-grape juice reduction. Served with lightly toasted brioche, it was a knockout.
But I might have been most in love with the reindeer joint that arrived on a simple white plate with a single morel mushroom to one side and a judicious drizzle of wild game gravy. An ice glass filled with bright red cranberries cooked in port wine was delivered alongside. Tender and rich and wild, the dish was like nothing I had ever eaten.
I was thrilled to find that the menu didn't have a single piece of lettuce on it; not one watery tomato; nary an option for pasta with cheese. I loved that it was so distinctly, vividly different, and very much at place in its surroundings.
Needless to say, by the time I met Richard the next day, I was over-the-moon impressed.
Continue reading "Chef Richard Näslin of the ICEHOTEL in Sweden" »
I did a very naughty thing last week: I was so captivated by the magazine I was reading at the hair salon that I slipped it into my bag and took it home with me. I don’t make a habit of pinching magazines, but this copy was 3 months old, and tattered around the corners. A few of the pages were stuck together with crusty brown dye.
I feel guilty, but not much.
The magazine is Esquire, one of those men’s glossies that appeals to urban gents who want to know which movies to see, which books to read, what pick-up lines to use, and which actresses are hot this week, and where to go on
their next vacation.
Not exactly my sort of rag, but then this particular edition had Johnny Depp on the cover, and how much do I love Johnny? Let me count the ways.
I flipped it open, and found myself in the middle of their 10-year anniversary edition, in which they published excerpts from interviews with artists over the last decade who answered the question: “What do you know?”
The section was titled "What I've Learned" and I found many of the answers compelling. Here are just a few select quotes - I thought you might find them intriguing as well.
Continue reading "I've Learned that Stealing isn't Always Bad" »
Whenever someone points a camera at me, my instinctive reaction is to duck. Most of the time I force myself to stay in place – trying to be a good sport while the person on the other side of the camera clicks the shiny button.
While I stand there, visibly uncomfortable, a whole monologue is going on inside my head: oh, please, not today, when I’m tired and puffy and rumpled; these jeans make my thighs look enormous; will the blotches on my forehead show up in the picture?
When I’m holding the camera, I often see the same panic reflected in the person on the other side of the lens – that uneasy moment, that flicker of self-loathing.
Which is why I was thrilled when I stumbled across Erin Vey’s blog a few days ago and read about her Believe project.
A few years ago, while shooting high school girls, Erin was surprised at how many of them were reluctant to pose for the camera. Not yet twenty, they were already dissatisfied with how they looked and unsure of their own beauty.
That experience set the stage for her most recent project, called Believe. Inspired by a quote by Sophia Loren - “Nothing makes a woman more beautiful than the belief that she is beautiful” - Erin shoots everyday women in black and white. The results are striking – fresh, sleek and honest, her subjects radiate a sense of confidence in their own beauty.
I had a chance to chat with Erin about her project via email, and she was gracious enough to answer a few of my questions.
About twice a week, an email arrives in my Inbox from this or that staffing agency, soliciting resumes for a creative position. They range from "Seeking comedy writer FOR TODAY ONLY" to "Marketing Copy Editor - East Bay!" I banish most of them to the Trash folder, but last week I got one that I've read no less than a dozen times.
This is way too yummy to keep to myself, so naturally I have to share it with you. Here it is, copied straight from the email, grammatical mistakes and omissions intact:
Fantastic opportunity with a leading entertainment + lifestyle publication is looking for a dynamic Editor-In-Chief to spearhead the editorial operations for this award winning publication.
This person must be incredibly well-read, well-informed, stylish, adventurous, a thinker and naturally - a writer. This person should also their own stable of brilliant freelance writers and produce provocative stories on demand while managing a team of editors and freelancers simultaneously. This person should have uncompromising originality and can regurgitate ideas by the minute. Understand fine arts, popular music, modern design and celebrity know-how is a must as well.
Oh, the wonder!
I don't know what image you got upon reading that, but I envisioned a composite of Anna Wintour and Meryl Streep playing
Anna Wintour, with a dash of adventure a la Sarah Jessica Parker playing Carrie Bradshaw. Wearing Jimmy Choos, of course, and sporting a sensational head of hair.
Did I mention that this Esteemed Publication is located in the South Bay?
As fabulous and uncompromising as she is, the first thing this Editrix-in-Chief will do is march into the office of the person who wrote this ad and deliver a well deserved smack upside the head. There are words missing! Prepositions switching places! All sorts of whatnot happening with the verb tenses! For shame!
Perhaps she'll whistle for one of the brilliant freelancers in her stable to make sure that this kind of sloppy missive never escapes the company walls again.
Henceforth, from her office (in San Jose? Mountain View?), this dynamic sophisticate will use her rare talents to write award-winning pieces sprinkled with shrewd insights and juicy bon mots. Between reading the latest Booker-nominated novel and confirming her reservation at Manresa, she'll regurgitate ideas by the minute - the skill is second nature for her, really - before getting the scoop on the latest Lindsay-Paris spat and chatting with her personal shopper at Barney's. On Sundays, she'll hike through the hills above the Lexington Reservoir near Los Gatos so that she can take in the fresh air while she thinks Deep Thoughts.
All for you, dear reader, all for you.
And what, you ask, can this extraordinary creature expect as compensation for her vast and sundry charms?
Between $38-50/hour.
What a fantastic opportunity!
I loved this song from the moment I heard the first few notes on the MacBook Air ad, and now that I've found this video, I love it even more.
There's something about this song/story that feels so familiar to me - watching her walk in to a new space, and size it up, and start turning it into a home... and the idea of a soul moving through the world "making every possible mistake..." and "learning what is true and what is fake..."
And when the walls fall down, and she finds herself outside, in this big gorgeous magical world, I can totally relate to that sense of wonder and surprise.
That Steve Jobs has some awesome talent scouts.
