{ Monthly Archives }
August 2010
Dom Murphy
Really fantastic and simple design work from Dom Murphy. His web design has me itching to try out a couple of ideas. Maybe when I get through with the 30 other projects in line before it. I wouldn’t hold my breath if I were you, website. No, shh shh, it’s ok….you’re pretty, too. Who’s my special website?
Peter Diamond
I would’ve bet good money that Peter Diamond’s work was all digital (which doesn’t lessen how awesome it is one iota), but I would’ve lost that money. Apparently he is just masterful enough with his ink linework that it fools even my trained eyes. I stand corrected, and possibly humbled. No, humble isn’t really my thing. Also, what the fuck is an iota?
Videos
Julian Baker
Nothing ruins a great weekend like a Monday. You wake up with a mouth that tastes like old onions, the cat licks the mayonnaise on your sandwich when your back is turned, the hops that you’ve been drying (what?) in the food dehydrator are almost dust, and a guy riding the wrong way in the bike lane clips you as you ride past. He doesn’t apologize or even look back. Gearing up to be one of those days I try and hide under my desk. Thank you, Julian Baker, for being a nice little island of goodness for me to look at in what will likely be an otherwise shitty day. Now if you’ll all excuse me, I’ve got to go grab some fruit to hoard in my new desk-fort.
Juan Molinet
I’ve got to hand it to you, South America, you look like you’re having a great time. If I had half as much color and style, I would be king of The Castro by the end of the week. For an idea of what I’m blabbering about, check out Juan Molinet’s illustrations, or eat some acid at Carnival. Which is over this year. So do the first thing, then wait a while and do the second thing. You know what I mean.
Herman Leonard: Jazz
Something I don’t really talk about, digitally or in person, is my love of jazz. I actually love most genres of music, and my collection is as diverse as it is stolen, but there is no form of music that I love as much or as philosophically as jazz. Well, maybe J.S. Bach’s fugues, but that’s different.
Jazz was America’s first real musical creation (yes, I know all about the Blues), in that some folks took instruments that had been around for a long time and did something that no one in history had ever done with them. They created a form of music that spoke directly to, and was created from, the world around them. But it was bigger than just their lives, and blossomed into a language, a philosophy, a mathematical realm, and a binding agent for cultures that had been fighting for ages. Jazz was like a lightning bolt of pure emotional expression that these men and women had somehow managed to grab hold of and pour through their instruments.
And during that time there was a man who was there to capture the beauty and heartbreak of jazz learning how to be itself. His name was Herman Leonard, he was a magical photographer, and a master of contrast. On August 14 he died at the age of 87, leaving behind a collection of beautiful moments in the history of jazz and those who created it.
Videos
Time and time again, I try to be your friend.