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Steve Martin, 1972

When I was a kid, my dad bought me a huge stack of comedy albums at a garage sale.

Bill Cosby. Bob Newhart. Bill Dana. Old radio shows with Abbot & Costello, Jack Benny, Fred Allen, Stan Freberg. Alan Sherman. George Carlin. Redd Foxx. Stiller and Meara. Jonathan Winters. Richard Pryor. Robert Klein. The Smothers Brothers.

Steve Martin changed the game when he arrived on the scene.

He threw out all the rules. In school, a bunch of us recreated his 1978 single, King Tut, as a dance number.

Here’s Martin in headdress, in concert with Henry Winkler:

Steve Martin, 1979

This was the album to own:

A few years ago, Martin finally wrote an autobiography of his standup career – which had gotten so big, he was selling out stadiums. Then one night, he quit. Jumped into acting and was mum on the whole standup thing. Only referred to it once, on a episode of Saturday Night Live, stating, ‘that was the old me.’

It was wild and crazy.

Steve Martin, 1979

Tags: cool finds, thoughts // 4 comments  . . .   

Sacramento’s Town House Lounge, photo by Tom Spaulding

In the shadow of the California State Assembly is Sacramento’s Fuck Fridays at the TownHouse Lounge.

Tonite: DJs Shaun Slaughter/Jon Droll, Short Circuit, a Cops and Robbers theme and one of the best fucking signs anywhere (above).

More info via Twitter, MySpace or Facebook.

And
Check out Tom Spaulding’s incredible Sacramento Signs Flickr set here.

Tags: cool finds, design, music, typography // Comments Off on Tonite: Slaughter, mayhem and lasers

‘Canada’s home grown electro kings Holy FUCK lend their funk to this incredible snippet of the digital graffiti out of the olympic village. A huge backlit projection was set up in conjunction with photoshop and given to a group of anti-athletes’

Presented by Chairman Ting and Tangible interaction.

Snag Holy Fuck’s tracks here. MySpace here.

Found via YRB Magazine

Tags: art, cool finds, events, exhibitions, illustration, music // 2 comments  . . .   

‘This challenging and provocative documentary takes a look on all sides of the infamous F-word. Its taboo, obscene and controversial, yet somehow seems to permeate every single aspect of our culture – from Hollywood  . . .  to the schoolyard to the Senate floor in Washington D.C.’

More about Steve Anderson’s 2006 FUCK film here. MySpace here. Grab it on Amazon here.

Tags: cool finds // Comments Off on Four letter film

Justin Timberlake’s Rock Your Body, feat. Janet Jackson  . . . 
Costumes designed by Alexander McQueen (no one mentions that)

Like ripples in a pond.

The legal battle resulting from the 2004 Superbowl Wardrobe Malfunction (above) – which led to rampant censorship across the United States, Howard Stern leaving his radio show and pixelated faces on late night tee vee – is STILL going on.

Read more here.

Tags: exhibitions, music // Comments Off on Janet Jackson’s breast: STILL tying up the legal system

‘And no matter what the locals tell you, don’t take the pink line to the yellow line.’ –Gizmodo

Speaking of the Underground, here’s Sam Lomen’s Underskin.

Found via Justin Nelson

Tags: cool finds, design, design history, education, illustration // 1 comment  . . .   

Above, a compilation of BBC News Countdown music and graphics from 1999 thru 2007.

And, if you want to totally rock out – a cool downloadable MP3 compilation of the news music (used in the video above) – composed by David Lowe – can be snagged here. Facebook fanpage here.

Plus, here’s some funky remixes:

BBC News 24 Countdown Steve Beck Remix

BBC News 24 Countdown by kLemon

BBC News 24 Countdown SamUK Mix 2008

BBC News 24 Countdown TOTH Remix 2

Tags: cool finds, design history, music // 1 comment  . . .   

Reanimating and recreating BBC graphics.

Here’s a few more (in addition to the work I posted on Wednesday); above a recreation of the classic BBC globe. And some other odd stuff I found while browsing around  . . .

‘A weird BBC World twister ident’

‘BBC 1 in a retro style’

‘BBC 2 tangled’

Plus
Some real BBC idents from over the years:

BBC 1

BBC 2

Tags: cool finds, design, design history // 1 comment  . . .   

‘This set of opening title sequences for the BBCs regional news bulletins was unveiled in 2008 as part of the Corporations attempt to create a unified brand for BBC News across all platforms (television, radio and new media).’

This is the real thing, though I prefer Michael Wood’s interpretations. Designed by Lambie-Nairn. I like the subtle nod to the Underground. More below:

Tags: cool finds, design // Comments Off on BBC News title design 2

I look at swirling American television news graphics – which include CNN’s uncanny ability to use the wrong apostrophe – with Trajan, voice overs from Michael Douglas, James Earl Jones and Morgan Freeman. Music by legendary movie composers John Williams, James Horner. Dramatic excess.

Amongst all this, the graphics for BBC News are a breath of fresh air.

Here’s a bunch of constructs by designer Michael Wood. Simple, cool intros  . . .  not quite the real thing (I’ll feature those in part 2), but smoooth.

Tags: cool finds, design // 1 comment  . . .   

In honor of Fuck Week, here’s a Helveticake. And how it was made.

Found via LAWeekly

Tags: culinary, fonts, typography // Comments Off on Have some cake