Wednesday, September 22, 2010

Random Thoughts: September 22nd, 2010

Curtained!
Thanks to my wife, I have curtains in the workspace.

  • Paper Champion! mcenroe's The Paper Champion EP is now available via the Peanuts & Corn site, iTunes, and eMusic. It's great to have him doing rap shit again, and that's no disrespect to his Edge of Town album (which I enjoyed quite a bit). I'm telling you right now...I can't listen to "Gearing Up For Getting Down" without wincing a little, as it's about being an aging hip-hopper. I'm happy to say that Rod is far more positive about getting older than I am, so while it hits home, it's also a fine example of acceptance. You'd best cop this. Do something good with your life for once!

  • The best Who tribute by an emcee goes to... Another EP of note is Blueprint's Who. I wrote a lil' something about it at my other blog. Favorite track? "Pain". He used the same beat on the equally ill "Cold Out Here" and married it with the "Won't Get Fooled Again" organ break. 'Print writes shit that I can relate to, and his verse on that joint is proof positive.

    On a related note, can I say how much I like Bandcamp and how I wish more folks would use it? The design is slick, the sound is top notch, and I can properly preview an album before I buy it. Take Ghettosocks' Treat of the Day: I've been meaning to cop this for ages. Holding out hope, I've been looking for the album at various local outlets to no avail. Yeah, I could order it from one of them, but I have to admit that I'm a little burnt out on the special order thing, as it doesn't feel special anymore (yeah, I went there. Stop groaning!). And this is from a guy that still favors the physical product over a (legal) download. Amazon kinda took the fun out of that by getting it to me faster than they would.
    But I digress...I can get both the digital download and CD of 'Socks TOTD right from his Bandcamp spot, and preview/download tracks from his Teenburger and Twin Peaks projects. Snazzy.

  • Patton Oswalt Talks About This Age We Live In. Here's his quote in GQ, as posted by comic dude Dean Trippe. I agree. I reblogged it and added an observation here (where else?). With that said, I do miss the '90s...just a little bit.

  • Tough Design Love (NSFW). Good Fucking Design Advice. I downloaded the "Stop fucking procrastinating" desktops for my Mac and iPhone. They're effective shame tools.
    Props to Aaron Draplin for the heads up on the link.

  • Massimo Vignelli Ain't Boastin', He's Truthin'. While working last night, I heard a terrific interview with design legend Massimo Vignelli via the Design Matters podcast (conducted by the lovely Debbie Millman). Through school, I was aware of his work, but I don't think I was really aware of the man until I saw Helvetica. I can't really recall the last time I heard a man so sure of his skill, and it comes through in this interview. He can back it all up though, unlike a million people I could mention. Watch him expand on his belief that we use too many typefaces. He uses no more than three or four, while I'm often looking to use something other than Trade Gothic Bold Condensed No. 20. Is it bad that I downloaded The Vignelli Canon (grab it here) a year ago and merely flipped through it? I should cop the print version when it drops.

Thursday, September 16, 2010

Random Thoughts: September 16th, 2010

Pathetic Library
Done!

Inspiration station, before and after. Photos taken July 11/14, 2010.
  • A Synopsis. Been busy. Work has been a mix of frustration and tiny victories. I'd elaborate, but that'd be really fucking boring (and the last thing I want to do is incriminate myself). Baby room-wise, things are coming together, in addition to making the rest of the house comfy. I've posted progress pics of my workspace's transformation here. I have to admit...I've really been pissed at myself ever since I discovered my drawing desk is actually backward. Seems I need to spend more time at it! Fuck. On a related note, Veronica Hebard has a dope workspace. Natural light, cool trinkets, stuff on the walls...I've got everything except that last one.

  • Afflicted with Tumblritis. Currently, a lot of my writing takes place at my other blog, Mr. Lorde Should Be Drawing – that is if you can call it writing. Via the power of reblogging, I often find myself making sure folks know who certain artists and models are, because I'm all about attribution, and a lot of folks using Tumblr are not. Being older than your average Tumblr user, I feel like an iconoclast swimming against a wave of entitlement. As maddening as that sounds, I really do enjoy it. It's the immediacy of it all, I guess. In the three or so hours it takes me to write a simple Blogger-based post, I can say a whole more with a video or photo and a few explanatory lines in Tumblrland. I'm not ready to drop The Place Where Al Dwells yet, but some things might have to change. I think I'm one of those things.

  • Speaking of blogs... Did I mention my wife started one? She's off to a great start. For the record, she feels the same way I do about some of the parenthood advice we received a while ago. My missive wasn't unilateral.

  • An End to the Whingeing. In an earlier draft of this entry, I was going to continue bitching in the style of the aforementioned blog post, but I think it's time to dead that. Instead, I'd like to shout-out the folks who gave me solid, real, down-to-earth advice when Sarah and I announced that we were expecting. I'm eternally grateful.

  • John Smith's "I'm Rollerblading!" I was just re-listening to Blunderbus, or "In Transit" and got to the controversial "I'm Rollerblading!" (apparently, skating diehards weren't too fond of this joint), and I wondered when ESPN decided to drop inline skating from the X Games. According to Wikipedia and other sources, 2005 was the year. I was wondering why I hadn't heard Arlo Eisenberg's name for a while.
    This Kids In The Hall sketch was inspiration for that track, by the way.

  • All Things Garage-y. About a week ago, I finished reading Eric Davidson's We Never Learn, and it was truly a joy to flip through. Even though I had only reached the 33rd page, I decided to give the book a healthy nod via Tumblr reblog last month.

  • Masticators! I started a food blog with my homies Evan and Mark last month. I don't think I'll ever run out of things to write. I think I'm gonna whip up a couple of post drafts as soon as I'm done with this. They've been stewin' in the noggin a little too long. In the meantime, holler at us via Twitter.