Found via HethreBeth Woodford

A few picks from Tracy O’Connor’s Museum of Snack Foods. More here.

Found via Explosm.net

By the way, this is our parrot, Cluck Cluck.

She named herself. We’ve had her for ten years at this point. She sings, dances and if I have a client on the phone, makes tons of LOUD, goofy noises.

Found via La Vie Bohème

‘Exclamation points are great for things that are exciting and fun, but I’ve always felt they fell a little short when I wanted to express real anger, frustration, or panic.’

Jessica Hische’s proposal for a slight addition to the English Language. Read here.

¡Egads! set in Jeanne Moderno Ultra Italic

Any current drawing of the type work of Nicholas Jenson (1420-80) that includes an Italic is doing a little fudging. Since (like Trajan and lowercase), Italic wasn’t quite around yet when Jenson was making type.

Typically the work of Ludovico Arrighi (1475–1527) is adapted as the companion font to Jenson – as the Italic.

Monotype did this with its Jenson-influenced Centaur – and Adobe Jenson sports an Arrighi-influenced italic.

mr. abrams
Back in 1994, I got to see the incredible hand-drawn, Jenson-influenced Venetian types of George Abrams. He worked large, 2 or 3 foot tall letters drawn in pencil, no drafting instruments. He called himself, ‘Mr. Analog.’

His influence is one of the reasons I believe in hand skills in my typography classes. It’s the only way to really learn about type.

At the time, his Jenson-inspired types were only available to private presses. They were digitized by current TDC president, Charles Nix.

George Abrams was very selective about who used his types. At one point he refused to license his fonts to a corporation I worked for.

That also impressed me.

We exchanged holiday cards over the years, his were always fantastic. Elegant and graceful are words I think of regarding his art. His types, extensions of his personality.

legacy
Mr. Abrams passed away in 2001.

His types live on as the Abrams Legacy Collection, purchasable thru MyFonts. Available are his Venetians (with Arrighi italics, of course) and his Garamond interpretation, Augereau, named for Claude Garamond’s mentor Antone Augereau. Would love to see, someday, a digital version of his often rumored to exist Caslon.

Today, we use Abrams Augereau for the logotype for the Art New Media program at American River College – one of the schools where I teach.

Because, frankly, no other font will do.

Art New Media brochure

Whoa.

Found via Front

Stu Phillips: Knight Rider Theme

This week there’s a feature article on me in the American River College Current. It’s about my typographic activities, teaching and stuff like that.

Huge thanks to Kelsey (and Terran, Bobbie and Don) for following me around, sneaking into my classes and sleeping on my porch. The article is posted online here.

‘Your daily introduction to a citizen’

Last week I was cornered by Brad. He took my photo and put me on his blog. Whole thing sort of made me look creepy. But I’m not that creepy. Just a little.

Blog’s called Citizens 2010. Read more here. Maybe Brad will corner you too.

Don’t worry. They’re just some animated GIFs.

Found via GIF Anime

Memorable, local commercial spots from long ago.

Dubious video/sound quality. But that’s how I remember them. Denevi’s locations (above), as jingle, just stuck in one’s head like  . . .  paste.
 

The story of Maurice “Ed” Barbara (above) actually ended up on NBC’s Unsolved Mysteries, fall 1989.
 

No matter what one would buy at Steven Matthew David’s ‘Top-of-the-Hill-Daily-City’ electronics store, one would get a free bike. Not sure why, but hell, it was a FREE BIKE.
 

Paul was The Master of the Shit-Eating Grin.
 

Pete Ellis knew van conversions had something to do with sex. He also knew one would remember his address if children sang it. This video is the So Cal version of the commercial, the Nor Cal jingle simply had a different sing-along address (which we all knew): ‘1095 West El Camino Real, Sunny-Vale.’
 

We have two dogs. We rescued them from situations that weren’t so good. Kira is the light brown one, Biene is the poodle.

This week they’re not getting along. Biene has been pooping in Kira’s bed. And the emotional response from Kira – she’s really upset about it – is overwhelming.

They’re both quite crazy.

Thanks for giving.

Found via Bad Spock Drawings

More radioactive products here. And a few here.

Something weird happened between now and the 1970s. Vanilla turned brown. Or beige. Or something like that.

I remember Shasta Creme Soda used to come in a metallic blue can. A lot like their cola can, but more of a turquoise blue. To find something vanilla, all one had to do was look for the blue packaging. It was a design standard.

Joyva Halvah (above) still gets it. They still use their old can design.

Vanilla was blue. Something happened and it isn’t anymore.

Art by Albrecht Dürer (1471-1528). Sorta. From The Brand New Monty Python Papperbok (1974).

Halloween, 1959

Plus
Here’s another.

All of em feature Trajan! (Trajan – ?)

This spoon has been sitting in a classroom at the Art Institute. For weeks. Not bothering anyone.

If you don’t see the humor, you’re far too busy playing the game.

Could not find an ‘F’ in the whole bloody box.

My old store clock is noisy and uses big batteries. But it looks neat.

For as long as I could remember, San Francisco’s KFOG would play The Toyes’ Smoke Two Joints at quitting time on a Friday afternoon. Here’s three versions, including takes by Bob Marley and Sublime  . . .
 

get the playlist or create your own at mixpod.com
please support the musicians on my player by legally purchasing their music

Wasting time online? Check out The Ultimate Productivity Blog.

Found via Twitter.com/Mirkohumbert

Click the image for larger size/jump.

Found via Justin Nelson

‘Their accent is virtually undetectable.’

Typically later in the show, SNL does the odd stuff. I like the odd stuff.

Tonite’s show also featured some really great stuff from Lady Gaga (love those rings!)

Kick back, have a Martini at Joe’s.

get the playlist or watch video or create your own at mixpod.com
please support the musicians on my player by legally purchasing their music

This is dedicated to my students, who’ve been working their asses off all weekend.

A few hours ago, I saw the online complaints about Kinko’s now legendary horrible customer service (was it always like this, or just after the FedEx buyout?). Typography 4 final crit is at 9 a.m. today.

Found via Utrecht Sacramento on Facebook

Recipe here.

crazy tasty
is an actual Registered Trademark owned by Hormel Foods, LLC and is used exclusively with their SPAM (all caps) product.

No stealin.

The glass wasn’t very happy, but I used it anyway.

‘I was warned, ‘Once you go Mac, you won’t go back’  . . .  
They were right, whoever it was.’ – Natasha Newton, visual artist

Enjoying my new iMac. Heaps faster than my old machine.

Fill out this survey about your senior year of high school!

1. Did you date someone from your school?
No one would date me.

2. Did you marry someone from your high school?
Nope. Married someone whose father went to my high school. Suzanne Somers went to my high school. We all talked about that. Her father was my father’s drinking buddy. She married a guy named Allen. He didn’t go to our school. He was Canadian.

3. Did you car pool to school?
Was one of the first kids to get a car, so suddenly I had a lot of friends, then when they got cars, the friends went away.

4. What kind of car did you have?
74 Ford Maverick, orange with brown roof.

5. What kind of car do you have now?
Prius.

6. It’s Friday night  . . .  where are you in HS?
Watching the Dukes of Hazzard and Dallas – or – rolled up in a ball on the floor crying like a baby.

7. It is Friday night  . . .  where are you now?
Teaching a typography class and begging for baked goods from the culinary class next door.

UA Millbrae 3 staff portrait by mehallo, 1985

8. What kind of job did you have in high school?
All night answering service at a place called The Beehive. Usher at the now bulldozed Millbrae Theatre.

9. What kind of job do you do now?
All night graphic design in one of the rooms in my house. I’m also sort of a ‘bulldozer’ at two schools in the area.

10. Were you a party animal?
No. But looked great in a little cone hat. (joke stolen from high school friend Bob Gray)

11. Were you a flirt?
I was an incredible flirt. Except for that part where I’d have to talk to other people. Then, no.

12. Were you in band, orchestra, or choir?
No, no and no. Our band was one of the best in the nation, or universe or something like that. If I were in it, I’d have a higher sense of self.

Was in other creative on-campus, extra curricular things, which our principal would eventually shut down – one after another – because he hated anything that involved students thinking for themselves.

13. Were you a nerd?
No. Was a geek. Nerds are smarter than geeks. I had low grades.

14. Did you get suspended or expelled?
Nope. Did one hour detention once for being late 15 seconds to class. Still don’t think the sentence fit the crime. Being on the inside changed my world.

15. Can you sing the fight song?
They had a song to sing when fighting?? Wait, there was this taunting thing they used to sing  . . .  Really stupid sounding, not well thought out.

16. Who was your favorite teacher(s)?
Marty Smith. He let us call him Marty. School fired him because he was actually a good teacher. They did that a lot.

Mrs. Frasier was sooo HOT.

. . .  Did I just say that? She gave me an F and I loved every minute of it.

17. Where did you sit during lunch?
In the journalism classroom; or we’d try to drive to South City to get sandwiches at Little Lucca’s. Ended up missing 5th, sometimes 6th period. But used whatever pull we had to keep out of detention. Learned how that worked. Campus narcs really just want to think they’re cool. You could use that.

18. What was your school’s full name?
Capuchino High School Fascist State with Pool and Ample Parking

20. What was your school mascot?
Drunk cheerleader?
It was a horse. I learned to draw horses in art class.

21. If you could go back and do it again, would you?
No, that would change things in the time line, and I would have never happened upon what I do now by taking a journalism class. And I wouldn’t have this whole jaded thing going regarding high school that allows me a convenient place to store pent up hatred and anger.

22. Did you have fun at Prom?
Yes, I did. Didn’t think I’d go to the prom.

23. Do you talk to the person you went to Prom with?
Nope. Don’t know what happened to her. I think I drove her home though.

24. Are you planning on going to your next reunion?
There’s not going to be a reunion. There’s many reasons for this, but my money is actually on the former principal figuring out a way to cancel it.

25. Do you still talk to people from school?
One person, occasionally. A couple of old friends found me on Facebook. Some people I would like to contact, but twenty bucks on Classmates? Naaaah. I’ll take my chances with Google searches.

Trying to track down Marty Smith after all these years has led to some really interesting situations.

This survey was originally posted on Facebook, February 17th, 2009