27.2.09
“It’s important sometimes to be reminded that it’s okay to admire. To praise. To enjoy yourself. To admit to having a good time. To not care about what other, snarkier, people might say. I need to keep in mind the words of Robert Warshow I like to quote: A man goes to the movies. The critic must be honest enough to admit he is that man. I watched the Oscar program. I thought it was the best I’ve seen. So that’s what I think, and if you don’t agree, you can go snark yourself.”
—Roger Ebert, in a thoughtful response to snarky remarks over the recent Oscars telecast
Labels: quote
26.2.09
This alternate London 2012 logo by British designer Daniel Eatock is smart and elegant – and way, way better than the real thing.
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23.2.09
“Sometimes they’re coming so fast there’s not enough to catch them in. And other days you have to do a rain dance for it. You wait. I’ve got tape recorders all over the house. I can scribble notes on a napkin. But what I’ve really done is learn to exercise my memory. If I have a melody in my head, my challenge is to keep it in my head all day. And then try to sit down to dinner, forget it and then go back in the car and see if I can remember it again. I think if this is a really good melody it’ll never leave me. Some you lose. A lot of them get away. Those are the best songs, the ones that got away.”
—Tom Waits, in a New York Times profile from 2002
Labels: quote
22.2.09
“I’m a little nervous tonight. We started 16 years ago with Politically Incorrect in 1993, and moved over here to HBO with Real Time in 2003. In all those years, I’ve never done a monologue when the President is neither a horny hillbilly nor an illiterate dumbass. This is challenging.”
—Bill Maher, as heard on Real Time With Bill Maher
Labels: quote
20.2.09
Piece in the Washington Post on the noted typographer Matthew Carter. Via Design Observer.
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17.2.09
14.2.09
I can’t speak for the content, but the typography and art direction of Monocle – in both its print and web forms – is really quite something.
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12.2.09
“…when I first started telling people that I wanted to be a writer, I was met with this same kind of fear-based reaction. People would say, ‘Aren’t you afraid you’re never going to have any success? Aren’t you afraid the humiliation of rejection will kill you? Aren’t you afraid that you’re going to work your whole life at this craft and nothing ever’s going to come of it and you’re going to die on a scrap heap of broken dreams with your mouth filled with the bitter ash of failure?’ The short answer to all those questions is ‘Yes.’ – I am afraid of all those things.”
—Elizabeth Gilbert, as heard at TED
Labels: quote
7.2.09
Testify
Am only halfway through season one, but I can already say that The Wire kicks every other cop show’s ass, particularly in its writing.
Labels: note
6.2.09
Kate Micucci (who just had a memorable guest turn on Scrubs) makes folksy, whimsical music. I love it!
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Dude, what the hell? Append the showinfo=0 parameter to remove the unsightly video title and rating from your YouTube embeds.
Labels: link
2.2.09
“Unless you can begin with an interesting problem, it is unlikely that you will end up with an interesting solution.”
—Bob Gill, in Graphic Design as a Second Language
Labels: quote