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| This photo was taken a few days before the cartoon was published. |
Monday, January 31, 2011
Seven Squared
Some links and ramblings on forty-nine:Interpreting The I Ching - Hexagram 49 Ko
Keyphrase: Revolution.
Formed By The Trigrams: Lake over Fire.
verview: Ko appears at a time of potential radical transformation. Although fast, decisive, action is often the best way this is not necessarily so when Ko appears. Timing is crucial. Any action needs to be thoroughly thought out and based on very solid foundations. Action should only be taken if absolutely necessary. Resist the temptation to act impetuously as that will undermine your efforts and quite possibly have a negative affect.
. . .
Shakespeare’s Sonnet 49 (Addressed to the Unidentified Young Man)
Against that time, if ever that time come,
When I shall see thee frown on my defects,
When as thy love hath cast his utmost sum,
Call'd to that audit by advised respects;
Against that time when thou shalt strangely pass
And scarcely greet me with that sun thine eye,
When love, converted from the thing it was,
Shall reasons find of settled gravity,--
Against that time do I ensconce me here
Within the knowledge of mine own desert,
And this my hand against myself uprear,
To guard the lawful reasons on thy part:
To leave poor me thou hast the strength of laws,
Since why to love I can allege no cause.
Here is what Shakespeare says, on the surface, to the young man: Suppose a time comes when my flaws become annoying to you and, as a result, you evaluate our friendship–weighing the pluses and minuses as a bookkeeper does. Suppose a time comes when you walk by, hardly even noticing me, because your regard for me is no longer what it was and you have settled upon reasons to break off our relationship. Well, if such a time does come and our relationship ends, I will still hold you in fond memory and, like a soldier, defend your reputation against anyone who criticizes you for your action. I will defend you by pointing out my faults, noting that they are good reasons for you to go your own way. With all my defects, I will not be able to make a good case for you to stay.
. . .
Atomic Number 49: Indium; InA rare soft silvery metallic element; occurs in small quantities in sphalerite. Its major uses are in low-melting-point alloys that replace mercury in thermometers, and in flat screen televisions. Indium was discovered in 1863 and named for the indigo blue line in its spectrum that was the first indication of its existence in zinc ores, as a new and unknown element.
. . .
True indigo in its spectrum, I like that.
Official Green Hornet Agent
Morgans Hotel Inspiration
via notcotMorgans Hotel Penthouse in NYC leaves The School Of Life quote postcards on your pillow. Fun, inspiring, and nice clean typography. Makes me smile.
See them here.
Matches
via Design Observer, John Foster’s Accidental Mysteries, 01.30.11“Accidental Mysteries is an online curiosity shop of extraordinary things, mined from the depths of the online world and brought to you each week by John Foster, a writer, designer and longtime collector of self-taught art and vernacular photography. “I enjoy the search for incredible, obscure objects that challenge, delight and amuse my eye. More so, I enjoy sharing these discoveries with the diverse and informed readers of Design Observer. All images link to their original source and are copyright their original owners.”
See the rest of John Foster’s Accidental Mysteries here, link to original image here.
TED: Jake Shimabukuro
This is a follow-up to an earlier post of mine;Jake Shimabukuro was recorded at TED2010, February 2010, in Long Beach, CA playing his cover of Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody.”
Watch it here, duration: 7:08
Sunday, January 30, 2011
Bluebirds!
On our travels today, we saw at least two male bluebirds. Pretty exciting that we saw some of the earliest arrivals of the annual spring pilgrimage to the Northeast.
Business Cards: Page II
It was an early morning in 1979, probably around 7:15 a.m. I was walking across the newly completed Dorcas Street bridge in Lewistown on my way to high school. Lightly masking taped to the bridge was this card. I stopped in my tracks and looked around me. It felt like I was being watched as a removed the card. I quickly tucked the card in my pocket and continued to school, still feeling that I was being watched all day long.
Though not specifically listed on The Southern Poverty Law Center’s site, Mifflin and her neighboring counties have their share of hate groups.
. . .
Center card: “Bettie the Bookie”—Would anyone really go to have their legitimate bookkeeping done by someone who refers to themselves as a bookie? I like that it lists among her skills, Girl Friday. There is a term you do not hear anymore. Below her card, is “The Killers Inc” which I assume is an extermination service. The guy with the gun seems just a little too happy.
Click on the image for a larger view of the cards.
Saturday, January 29, 2011
Image of the Day: Pterodactyl Ice
In our travels today we came across several of these ice-covered grape vines; they reminded me of mini-pterodactyls in flight.
First Editions of Peter Rabbit
via The Cataloguer's Desk“One of the most popular children’s books of all time, The Tale of Peter Rabbit has sold more than 45 million copies over the past century. As well as being a beloved children’s story, the book’s publication history is very interesting, with two private printings appearing before the first commercial edition. ”
Read the rest, and see more images from the private printings, here. Perhaps it is just the angled view of the pictured spread, but the expressions on the rabbits faces reminds me very much of Rosemary Wells’ series of books featuring Max the rabbit.
BBC’s Dimensions
via veryshortlist“According to its creators at the London-based BERG firm, Dimensions is a Google Map–based ‘experimental prototype’ designed for the BBC’s always-expanding, ever-impressive website. ‘We want to bring home the human scale of events and places in history,’ the designers write. ‘How far would the Titanic stretch down your street?’ You can pick dozens of structures, or other space-based things or phenomena, which are split into nine categories—Space, Ancient Worlds, Cities in History, WWII, and so forth—and lay them over your own address, or any other. Some, like the area affected by the Chernobyl cloud, are unfathomably large—much bigger than we imagined them to be before plugging our hometowns into BERG’s prototype.”
Visit the Very Short List here; the BBC’s Dimensions site here.
Topps Nutty Initial Stickers, 1967
via we love typography
Norman Saunders’ original paintings for the stickers, high resolution version here.
I remember having a few of these stickers as a child. I think that they were only like about an inch tall, came on a sheet with several others, and were in a pack of trading cards.
Cire Trudon Stink Bombs
via notcotRead all about Cire Trudon, the oldest candle company in the world, and their stink bombs here; lovely photography at the site.
Friday, January 28, 2011
Business Cards: Page I
What strikes my fancy? Font use, color choice, kitschy clip art, poor design, etc. I do not think business cards will ever go away from the landscape of America, but it certainly is a dying breed of communication.
My partner in life scanned these in for me a while back, and I’m glad they were not lost in RGBisMe’s Great Self-Created Blog Disaster.
Of note, middle card, third column: Rick Williams was the District Justice that married us in December 1984. The magenta cow above it just makes me smile. Click on the image for a larger view of the cards.
*P.S. I try not to use the “F” word nowadays, it leads to far too many tangled issues with complications beyond belief.
The Adventures of the Muddle-headed Wombat
via BibliOdyssey“[S]ome delightful scratchy illustrations from the 1962 book by Ruth Park, The Adventures of the Muddle-headed Wombat. The illustrator for this book was Noela Young.”
See more of illustrations from the book here. Nothing beats wombat illustrations from 1962. Nothing.
All The World’s A Page
via ministry of type“Once upon a time we asked ourselves a peculiar question: could you fit an entire literary work onto a single poster? Would it still be legible? What would it reveal about the hidden structures and rhythms of the text? . . .”
Visit the site, here, to see all four posters in the series so far. Image is Homer’s The Iliad two-color offset print (thunderous black / Aegean blue), printed on 120g Alster Werkdruck, typeset in 3.25pt Malaga.
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