the mehallo blog. beta.

It’s always cool when a show you’re attending is being recorded.

Video (above) is from a 1989 concert at the Shoreline Amphitheatre in Mountain View, CA. I was in the audience.

Jumping around in front of us was a deadhead who kept shouting ‘Jerry’s God!’ over and over and over. We were pretty sure he didn’t realize he wasn’t at a Grateful Dead show.

Wakeman was touring with some of the members of Yes. I was surprised years later when I found the show on CD – then DVD. The solo (above) features Wakeman tracks Gone But Not Forgotten, Catherine Parr, Merlin The Magician.

Catherine Parr, of course, was from his Henry VIII album. Always loved the cover, the inside had a cool foldout too.

Tags: cool finds, music by steve
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Part one

‘Found Rick Wakeman’s Journey to the Centre of the Earth on Itunes. Renfair geekrock at its finest. Oh yeah! I need a cape & winged boots.’ –CraigyFerg

Progressive Rock pioneer, Minimoog, mellotron, biotron, synth and Yes keyboardist Rick Wakeman goes to excess. But that’s what Progressive Rock is all about anyway. [Read more →]

Tags: music by steve
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‘2000 people from around the UK were filmed singing The Fear for this promo for Lily Allen which was part of an Xbox Sing it with Lips game campaign.’

Found via exspiro

Tags: design, music by steve
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Laurie Anderson‘s spoken word performance on Letterman. From last Thursday.

Tags: music, thoughts by steve
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‘Famous sequence from Merchant Ivory’s film Bombay Talkie (1970)’

Found via Aaron Bell

Tags: music, typography by steve
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‘Momento repetido, Intersticio impalpable, Formas sinuosas, Insignias a tus aventuras, Momento contemplativo.’

The work of Alexander Cano.

Flickr here, website here.

Depeche Mode: Precious

Found via beauty comma

Tags: art, cool finds, design, illustration, music, typography by steve
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Unofficial video by Ori Toor for Animal Collective’s Lion in a Coma.

Found via Zachariah Moreno

Tags: art, cool finds, design, illustration, music by steve
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‘Tho all the maps of blood and flesh are posted on the door, theres no one who has told us yet what Boogie Street is for.’

Animation by cronogeo, featuring late 1920s woodcuts by ‘image novelist’ Franz Masareel (1889-1972).

Was recently reading about Masareel in David Berona’s beautiful edition, Wordless Books: The Original Graphic Novels.

Found via Oded Ezer, Belkind Scheps Osnat

Tags: art, cool finds, design history, exhibitions, music by steve
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‘Do it for Frank’ -set in Cooper Black

The Black Keys’ Tighten Up, from the album Brothers.

Found via David Rosales

Tags: fonts, music, typography by steve
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‘Baskerville, a bad asskerville’

This spring, my Digital Typography students set out to make a short film about type history.

The class – held at The Art Institute of California Sacramento – was set up like a working design studio – with myself as ‘hands off creative director.’ All students had a role, from art direction to project management, web design, editing and production.

At one point, songsmith John Slingerland threw a party at his home – and invited a few unwitting guests – just to record the background vocals for the film’s gets stuck in your head musical number.

And, featured in the credits, a very early beta version of Jeanne Texte – which I had to prep for them as my homework assignment.

It was a fun quarter; this was a great team to work with, their enthusiasm snagged everyone in their handmade typographic web.

Tags: design history, education, fonts, illustration, music, typography by steve
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Lorne Michaels wasn’t always at the helm of Saturday Night Live.

In the early 1980s, NBC was doing other things with his program (he left in 1980, returned in 85). In the meantime, Michaels was making a foray into Prime Time. In 1984, The New Show was to be his sequel, though it only lasted a few months.

SNL-related alumni were part of the sketch comedy program – including SCTV’s Dave Thomas, who is probably the only person on the planet who does a spot on Max von Sydow impersonation. (Max was most recently seen in The Tudors and was iconic as Ming in Flash Gordon)

Why do I know that? Max always had an incredible voice. First saw him as JC in The Greatest Story Ever Told (1965).

But I digress.

The first sketch of The New Show (above) parodied Michael Jackson’s Billie Jean video, which was released a year earlier. The show had some really great moments – and featured the Guggenheim and a Reitveld Chair in its credits (also part of the above video).

Tags: cool finds, design history, music by steve
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