Alphabattle

Posted on | August 18, 2010 | No Comments

For the last month or so, I’ve been contributing to Lettercult’s Alphabattle. What’s an Alphabattle you ask? Well, this is my first one, so I’m not sure how they all go down, but it’s more like an AlphaShowAndTell, where we all make the same letter (we’re currently on M) and then post them online and look at each other’s work.

As I’m writing this, I’m thinking, Wow, this sounds really nerdy and dull, but the reality is that for those of us who are into creating letters, this is a super-fun opportunity that provides an ample dose of motivation and inspiration.

From the current round, I really like this one by Brett Stiles

and this one by Vera Wong

and this one by Nicole Hamam

and this one by DTM Inc

and a bunch more. You should head over to the Alphabattle page and check out all the cool, creative designs. Here’s my contribution to this round:

Category: Art, Culture, Design, Typography, Wordage
Tags: Alphabattle > Lettercult > letters > type design > Typography

The Street Art of Kislow

Posted on | August 16, 2010 | No Comments

Welcome to the world of Ukrainian artist Kislow. I’m not sure what’s going on in his images, but I’d love to know the stories behind them. The characters look like they escaped from a 19th century book of fairy tales, went through some kind of anthropomorphic transformation, and repositioned themselves on modern-day walls; brilliantly connecting the old and the new.

See more on Kislow’s Flickr Page

Category: Art, Culture, Design, Painting, Street Art
Tags: Kislow > mural > street art > Ukraine

How to be Alone

Posted on | August 11, 2010 | No Comments

I had something else in mind for this week’s Wordage post, but this video—created by by filmmaker Andrea Dorfman and poet/singer/songwriter Tanya Davis—was floating around my social media circle this morning and I loved it. Hope you do too.

Category: Animation, Art, Culture, Music, Typography, Video, Wordage
Tags: alone > Andrea Dorfman > How to be Alone > short film > Tanya Davis > Video

A Brief Autobiography in Mixtapes

Posted on | August 9, 2010 | No Comments

by Veronica Lake

Sugar Water – 1994
Side A – Chartreuse
Side B – Cerulean
18th Dye, Galaxie 500, Portishead, Tricky, Esquivel, Tom Waits, Camper Van Beethoven, Queen, Nirvana, Man or Astroman, Slint

This is the first tape I made since I was just a kid, taping stuff from the radio. I hadn’t yet mastered the art of mix-tapes, though it works well enough. I don’t remember being conscious of a particular theme in its creation, but now every song conjures a different person, like an audible scrapbook of my friends from the time.

Premium Malt Liquor – 1995
40 oz. of Love
Blur, G. Love, Yo La Tengo, Sly & the Family Stone, Beastie Boys, Beck, Kool & the Gang, Iggy Pop, REM, Modern Lovers, Lou Reed

An eclectic tape that hangs together surprisingly well. I lived near a gas station, smoked a lot of cigarettes, and drank 40 ouncers. I don’t really miss those days.

Salt – 1996
Side A – Egg
Side B – Chicken
Sarah Vaughan, Dinah Washington, Nina Simone, Chet
Baker, John Coltrane, Oscar Peterson, Zoot Sims, Billie Holiday

I love this tape, but I have no recollection of its genesis. It remains endlessly appealing, whereas many of the others are now a little hard to listen to.

Strong Tonic – 1997
Blondie, Prince, Eurythmics, Cake, Jesus & Mary Chain, Sonic
Youth, Nirvana, Joy Division, 18th Dye

I was working at a video store at the time and every night I vacuumed the store blasting a collection of Blondie videos on the TV. That obsession turned into this tape: a manifesto of self-empowerment and self-control with its poppy eighties tunes sparkling over a threatening undertone of darkness.

Pirate Eye Patch – 1997
Side A -Toxic
Side B – Blindness
Luscious Jackson, Cardigans, Breeders, Fiona Apple, Hole, 18th Dye, Rodan, Fugazi

I made this tape while I had a crush on the boy I would soon have a serious relationship with. It’s emotional state reflects lust, danger, dreaminess, flirtation, and ends decisively, with “You’re the One That I Want” from the Grease soundtrack.

Aquafresh– 1998
Side A – Sweet
Side B – Tart
Sunny Day Real Estate, Sonic Youth, Smashing Pumpkins, Lou Reed, Swirlies, Sam & Dave, Beastie Boys, Breeders

This tape fits into the happy blur of being in love. I made a few tapes that year, most of which were for my boyfriend at the time. We took lots of road trips, and these tapes were great on long drives.

Limpia – 1999
Uomo Nuovo
Pixies, Sunny Day Real Estate, Smashing Pumpkins, Radiohead, Slint

This label came from a trip I took to Italy the year before with my then boyfriend. The tape was made as an act of recovery from the end of our relationship.

Summer of 2000 trilogy:

Lemonhead
Citrus Crush
Bowie, Tom Waits, Yo La Tengo, Belle & Sebastian, Neil Young, Brian Eno, Built to Spill

Crunchy
Pinda Kaas
Weezer, Pixies, Sonic Youth, Rolling Stones, U2 (Zooropa), Bowie

Pacifico
Verano Claro
CCR, Black Sabbath, White Zombie, Ramones, Dead Kennedys, Sonic Youth, Cars, Weezer

These tapes were made all at once at the start of pretty much the best summer ever. I had a great household, a great group of friends, and we had an endless series of good times to which these tapes were the soundtrack.

Wishbone – 2000
The Who, Nuzzle, Cardigans, Belle & Sebastian, Pogues, Moby, Sloan, Air

I think the summer of 2000 was the year that church burned down just down the street from the Rio during the Nuzzle show. It was quite a spectacle. By the time I made this tape I had moved away to school and become obsessed with The Who, though I was clearly still thinking about home since there’s five Nuzzle songs. It’s kind of a lonely tape.

“a wicked good time!” – 2001
Side A – Heart
Side B – Soul
Rolling Stones, Black Sabbath, Cream, Weezer, Rentals, Hot Chocolate, Doors, Queens of the Stone Age, Beck, Modest Mouse

The label is made from a Newbury Comics bag, the record store I shopped at growing up back east, and the tape’s name is their slogan. This is kind of the best party tape ever. These were all the songs we’d play on the jukebox whenever we went out, compiled in anticipation of a summer back home from school.

Klondike Bar – 2001
Side A – Obsessive
Side B – Compulsive
Fleetwood Mac, Joan Jett, Steppenwolf, Foreigner, Guess Who, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Led Zeppelin, Doobie Brothers

I was spending the summer back in town crashing at a friend’s house after moving away to school. I made this tape from library CDs and raiding the neighbor’s collection, using the crappiest stereo ever. It still sounds so good though!

Roller Rink – 2001
John Mellancamp, Bruce Springsteen, Cars, T. Rex, Queen, Stevie Wonder, Steve Miller Band, Jimi Hendrix, Pat Benatar

This tape hits a mood that recalls my many visits to roller rinks as a kid. For a couple of years in the 80s, everybody just had to have roller skating birthday parties, and I remember skating to most of these songs then. I worked at the Cookie Company the summer I made this tape and we rocked it often.

Bottle of Bud – 2002
Wilco, Flaming Lips (Yoshimi…), U2 (All That You Can’t Leave Behind), Ryan Adams, Steve Earle

I made this tape for my long drives home from school, eight hour drives, that I remember taking nearly every other weekend. It also reminds me of the guy I had a crush on at the time. I was thinking of him as I made it, and I copied it for him after he heard it in my car and complimented it. I peeled the label from my beer while I watched his band play at some bar in Eureka.

Zagnut – 2005
Side A – Crunchy peanut butter
Side B – Toasted coconut
Snoop Dogg, Kylie Minogue, Phoenix, Cher, ELO, Outkast, Madonna

AKA the guilty pleasures tape. I made it the summer that Hey Ya! was retardedly huge. I could not get enough of that song. I saved the label from a candy bar I ate in 1990 or so from a bus station vending machine.

Category: Art, Culture, Design, Mixed Media, Music, Paper Art
Tags: mixtapes > Veronica Lake

MATHS: The Language of Numbers

Posted on | August 6, 2010 | No Comments

What are you doing for the next nine minutes? Want to revisit educational television? No?

What about a spoof that is so well-made that if you were spacing out, you could mistake it for an actual program? Welcome to the wonderful world of MATHS.

The series is called Look Around You and there are a bunch of videos you can find on YouTube.

Category: Art, Culture, Installation Art, Video
Tags: flashback > humor > Look Around You > MATHS > Video

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