Wednesday, July 30, 2008

Turn To Stone

Great Gift Ideas

While searching through some LPs last week this flyer slipped out of an Electric Light Orchestra double LP-- which also came with a punch-out and build 3D space ship.. yes! This is some 1970's direct marketing for you, slipped into the LP sleeve- man, that Jeff Lyne was on top of things. This ad is for ELO t-shirts in 4 styles (CHOICES GALORE!) priced between $4.50 and $7.00. Check or money order- people hardly used credit cards in the seventies..? "Please allow 4-6 weeks for delivery"... the wait must have excruciating!

The model in the photo is sporting a real nice Three's Company feather hairdo, tight jeans and a really cool ELO spaceship (french cut) tee. Young men (in the '70s) probably loved getting this flyer with their record, better that the underwear section of the JC Penny catalog... almost!

The flyer features a variety of typefaces including American Typewriter, good old Helvetica and a headline set in Rudolf Koch's 1927 Kabel (though this is probably the ITC remade version from 1976).

I wonder if I filled this out and sent it in who would get it?- the shirts would be a steal at $5.00! Also note, on the order form, you could join the ELO Fan Club for five bucks as well!

Tuesday, July 29, 2008

Things

I like the design of things, how things are designed and I just plain like things!....

Gary Hustwit of Helvetica: The Movie fame has announced his new project which is currently in post production. He was kept with his leaning toward design flicks with the new one. The new film: OBJECTIFIED is a documentary feature about industrial design-- manufactured objects that surround us everyday and the people who make them. It's about the creativity, the design and development and it's about gadgets in general- tech and simple.

Design stars this time around include: Chris Bangle of BMW Group in Munich, Apple's Jonathan Ive, the famous bespectacled Karim Rashid who was at the Albright Knox a few years back, and one of my favorites all around design teams IDEO- I am always going on and on about these guys.

More info can be found here as the movie is moving towards a early 2009 release. Gary's movie blog is: http://www.objectifiedfilm.com

BONUS BEATS: Starting With The Universe- speaking about things that are designed,
read a review of the Buckminster Fuller show at the Whitney online at Core 77...


Merry Go Round

Well I thought after all the hub-bub with the Typecon last week, that I would be ready for some R & R, but I am not sure I was ready to actual slow it down and relax... I think I was a bit antsy all weekend especially driving in a car for 4 and 1/2 hours (the Typecon week featured a lot of short drives back and forth to the Hyatt)....

Albany was slow and relaxing, with not much to report. I never saw much of the city, mostly the suburbs of Delmar- which were nice. Apparently they have no crime and don't worry about locking doors, which is weird coming from crime-ridden Buffalo. The weather was nice.

I think the highlights of the trip include drinking european beer, looking at baby Dermot (he is a happy baby), hanging out with his parents (Brad & Brenda), seeing an ex-Buffalonian Heather and riding inside a giant bear's stomach with one of my daughters at a fireman's carnival/fund raiser.

My friend Paul would have liked this, he likes giant bears.

Saturday, July 26, 2008

Good Day Sunshine

It's good to get out of the city... into another city. Spending the weekend in Albany visiting some friends and the weather is nice.

I haven't spent much time in our state's capitol in the past, so I will give my impressions upon returning. I haven't seen any lawmakers yet... though it is a Saturday. I don't think they make any laws on the weekends....

Thursday, July 24, 2008

The Otherside of Daybreak

Highway to the Sun aka
Lessons Learned From Rocky 1-3


As the fam' and I prepare to hit the road for a weekend in our state's capitol, I had to repack the CD sleeve for the road. It has been raining everyday since last Sunday, and after playing ambassador to the Queen City all last week, it will be good to get the F out of dodge for a few days.

For anyone that is interested, and I know someone out there in internet land is, these are the CDs I just packed into the sleeve for the car ride.... a little sumptin' for everyone!

  • Queen Greatest Hits - the kid's favorite. 'Need Someone to Love', we'll probably hear this 20 times or so...
  • The Replacements Tim - coolest CD in the bunch
  • Julian Cope - Peggy Suicide and Better To Light a Candle Than To Curse The Darkness- a double shot of weirdness for j.
  • Yer Favorites - double CD of T Hip classics, essential road music
  • Yankee Hotel Foxtrot - Wilco
  • Scotty's Town Ballroom Sessions - a great mix he made to commemorate opening at the TB for Sharon Jones & Dap Kings a few years back.
  • Scion CD Sampler c. 16 mixed by DJ Cutler - local boy mixes good
  • Sugar Minott- 20 Greatest Super Hits - sun-splash reggae for a sunny ride! Thanks Stricker!
  • Ani D - Out of Range
  • The Headhunters- First Things First- Terry's band, my out-of-town friend Mike made me think of this one last night.
  • Blue Sky Blue - Wilco
  • Bash & Pop - Friday Night is Killing Me
  • Beth Orton - The Other Side of Daybreak- really good
  • Bebel Gilberto
  • a Brad Mix: Pumpkin Flavors by DJ Brant, aka 'sounds good 10/16/07'
  • Daft Punk - Discovery
  • M.I.A.- Kala
  • Lenny Kravitz - Love Revolution- this CD smokes
  • Room on Fire - Strokes
  • Arcade Fire - Funeral
  • Global a Go-Go - Joe Strummer and Mescaleros
  • Roland Kirk - Domino masters edition
  • Sharpshooters - Twice As Nice
  • GURU - Jazzmatazz
  • Modest Mouse - We Were Dead Before...
  • The Cure - Kiss Me (3x)
  • Kind of Soul - various artists, 70s funk mix on a French label
  • Purple Rain - some guy in the eighties....

Da Da Da

"Trebu-fucking-chet?" he said. "Who put that on here?"

Canada's National Post sent a reporter to Buffalo to cover Typecon2008 and her story is posted online, click here (http://www.nationalpost.com/life/story.html?id=675149).

A yearn to kern: ‘Fonts are the clothes that words wear’
by Vanessa Farquharson, National Post

Here is an excerpt. It is fun to read 'outsiders' thought on this 'to them' slightly bizarre conference.

But just then, Erik Spiekermann - a renowned German typographer who founded FontShop and has created typefaces for Audi and Volkswagen - walked by and scanned through the list.

"Trebu-f---ing-chet?" he said. "Who put that on here?"

Although he wasn't impressed with this decision, the outspoken Spiekermann did reveal a smile upon seeing Meta on the list; after all, he created it.

And yet, while the man is passionate about fonts and takes pride in his work, he doesn't believe a typeface is a reflection only of its designer.

"Creative genius is about 5 to 10% of typography," he said. "I mean, an A has to look like an A, and a B like a B, and if it looks much different, it won't be read in the mainstream."

BONUS BEATS: To read about the real typo-folks impressions on the festival and Buffalo, check out this thread on the Typophile website.

BONUS BEATS TOO: Definitive proof that I was there... and part of j. (here and here)!!

Heart Cooks Brain

Picture this!
The precursor to the familiar Dingbat set

Typesetting on the old MacII was groundbreaking at the time (1985), yet seems really rudimentary. The computer came loaded with seven font types including:

  • Chicago
  • Geneva
  • New York
  • Monaco
  • Venice
  • London
  • Athens
Like real typesetting, your were limited to a few actual point sizes. There was a separate size for each font, in other words Athens came in Athens 9, Athens 10, Athens 12, Athens 14, Athens 18 and Athens 24 and a couple text effects including outline and shadow. What is interesting is that the MacArtist book's Appendix shows 2 sets of alternate keys which are picture fonts. You needed to get these from your "Mac Dealer" and they didn't come pre-loaded.

The two extra set of picture fonts include Cairo- which were Egyptian symbols, objects, some of the Dingbats we know and love and buidings. The second set was called Fallingwater and it included more symbols, plants, trees and more buildings (black versions of the Cairo buildings). It is like they were encouraging planners, or even architects to use the mac- it was the 'computer for everyone.'


Click to enlarge fore details!

Tuesday, July 22, 2008

OK Computer

The Apple Ripens: The Computer For Everyone

Becoming a Mac Artist

I am a fan of the vintage Macs, actually using them in their prime. When I got hold of an old MAC II a few years back it came with the manual and this fine book from 1985 called Becoming a Mac Artist by Vahe Guzelimian (out of print, duh...).

The purpose of this book was to demonstrate that with a fancy new MAC computer and a copy of MacDraw, MacPaint and MacWrite, that you too could become a fine computer artist. These new fangled computers could display "both graphics and text on the screen at the same time!" This was a breakthrough in technology back in '85. And with the aid of that powerful software-- that ran off floppy disks-- you could create graphic arts, business graphics, even 'print' and 'publish'.

1985 was in the pre-scanner days mind you, but the MacArtist book shows how you can hook up a special camera called the Micro Eye ($400) and capture images-- get this-- that appear right on your computer screen. Working on a 9" black and white, high resolution video screen with a resolution of 512 x 342 pixels-- one was "immediately struck by the clarity and crispness" as the book tells us.

"MacPaint is the most powerful and versatile drawing programs available for microcomputers," author Guzelimian tells us, "with over 32 brush shapes, and 38 patterns- using MacPaint is like having an infinite set of rub-on letters, pictures, and patterns."
Whoa, stop right there! Fat Bits, fancy borders, inverted text, custom grids, heck.. you could even drawing in 3D (kinda)-- it's all in here.

Looking back at this manual of 1985 simple computer graphic design, it is unbelievable how far things had advanced in just 5 years to 1990 (when you could get 256 levels of gray and photos), and even further in 10 years to 1995 (millions of colors on the displays), and then even further to 20 years in 2005 (high def, baby!).

The examples in the book look like children's crayon drawings and the tools archaic-- and to think we actually ran programs off the single floppy you could put in one at a time only- there was no room for programs on your Mac's tiny memories.

I have attached some great images from the book, enjoy the trip back in computer time!


Creating business card art was a breeze in MacDraw!


Alternate book cover, notice the 3D effects!


Who's the beard!?



Space the final frontier....

Sunday, July 20, 2008

Disco Inferno

Shut Up and Eat Your Helvetica!

Typecon Day 3-5-- Wrap Up!

The OW team had a whirlwind Typecon experience. There has not been a lot of time to post but I am trying to catch up.

Following the Sagmeister talk with the weird story about the Manatee, we moved up to UB Thursday night to see a presentation from Dutch design team NLXL. They mixed some examples of their work with things that inspired them. Following the presentation they played some techno and dance MP3s and NLXL's Oscar mixed some video clips. Pretty cool.

After a full day of presentations highlighted by Doyald Young discussing his book Dangerous Curves and Dard Hunter III discussing the family legacy, the evening at the Albright-Knox Art Gallery starred Erik Spiekermann. Eric, who earlier in the day had patted me on the chest as he flipped my name tag around for me, was funny, foul and took quite a few swipes at Helvetica's bastard child, Arial! Very entertaining. The late night Friday night moved to the 'Hawk with some punk rock DJed by Mixwell Einstein and myself, Odiorne (they rocked Morning Star) and a weird band from Toronto, the Serrifics. Big Black, Primal Scream, Iggy-- we had it all for the people.

Saturday featured another full day of speakers starting with Ken Barber from the famous House Industries and old timer Mike Parker who remarked that he "has probably forgotten more about Times Roman that most people in the room know..." I am not so sure about that, there were some serious type-geeks in the audience. J. and I took some new friends to a great lunch at Betty's and then more speakers. There was alos a great type-themed poster show put together by You Work For Them (see some poster photos on Julian Montague's blog).

Saturday night was the grand ball where I basically DJ'ed cool wedding music. Now I never play songs I don't like, but I play all the alt. 80s' songs and 70's funk, disco songs I had. I had a little fun playing some Underworld, Chemical Brothers, and Daft Punk, but I expected more from a crowd of creatives. I had a whole bin full of house, groove and really great music I never touched. Kinda of disappointing.

All in all, the Typecon was a bit too much type, even for me. Because of the event I met a lot of great new friends and met a lot of cool people. But 7 days of type-themed events have burned me out. I haven't gone this long without a good night sleep in quite a while. And while I was at the Allen Street Hardware at 3:15 AM, I know I had had enough.

j. and spend Sunday wrapping things up, picking up the DJ gear and leftover W2R apparel from the Hyatt and sneaking out to see the new Batman movie (and it is really good!). I got a lot of stickers and buttons, a cool shirt screened from my new buddy from Colorado and some inspiration to be more creative in general, but I am typed-out for a while.

Having this international conference in town was super. I did hear some German designers complaining about the desolate downtown, but a lot of other out-of-town folks enjoyed our architecture, our food, the hospitality of the warm buffalonians, great music and nightlife and lot of type-geek camaraderie. Next year, Typecon will be in Atlanta- ho hum.

Thursday, July 17, 2008

Such Great Heights

Typecon Day 2

Things I Have Learned (or was reminded of) Last Night During the Stefan Sagmeister Presentation

> large, hollow, echoey rooms make it hard to hear the speaker

> Even though BBQ chicken wings are sacrilegious around these parts, they are sure good from La Nova

> The old Pink is still a great place to hang out

> Flying Bison sure brews some tasty Buffalo beer

> Sagmeister did some album art for the band HP Zinker (which included local drummer David Waz)

> Posters that are hand screen printed rule (way better that any offset printing)

> SS is not a god, even though the presentation had some churchy things happening-- he is just a man, a pretty good designer, but just a man...

> Type people and graphic artists are great people to hang out with

> Letterpress feels good to the touch

> The deadheads are going to invade downtown this afternoon

> When ever you see a seat, you should sit instead of stand

> Some people use Arial and just don't know any better

> It is not the heat, it's the humidity

Wednesday, July 16, 2008

Pretty Hate Machine

Typecon Day 1

I met this great artist from Colorado who presented at the Pecha Kucha. His name is Rick Griffith and he is a professor and owner of a really cool design shop. His presentation was a real hoot and I am glad to have made his acquaintance.

I saw him today and he handed me this envelope which contained this awesome letterpress note, click on the graphic to read it larger.

... & he has seen my work....

Sand and Vasaline

Typecon Day 1

TONIGHT! SOLD OUT!
An Evening with Stefan Sagmeister
Wednesday, July 16
Doors open at 8:00 PM
Karpeles Manuscript Library Museum

I hope you got your tiks for a rare evening with one of our greatest contemporary designers, Stefan Sagmeister. He will be speaking on his cool new book "Twenty Things I Have Learned in My Life So Far." Controversial, enlightening, entertaining - should be a BLAST!

There will be a reception, book signing, La Nova wings, and local brew courtesy of Flying Bison Brewing Company. Mmmmmmm...

View his hypnotic website here (click me)

HERO's poster for the event (no, click me...)

Peaches & Creme

Pecha Kucha Review- Typecon Day 0

The TypeCon2008 edition of Pecha Kucha kicked of the conference with a bang! Though the actual Typecon begins today, last nights PK pre-opening event was great. J. and I presented (in slot number 4) following book cover designer Shasti O'Leary Soudant (who is a Photoshop master) and preceding Mark Brickey of Hero Design Studio-- who wrote his speech while us 1st four presenters were on!

The evening started with type guy Stephen Coles. Next was my friend, local artist Julian Montague, who reviewed a lot of his work , talked shopping carts and spiders and discussed type used throughout.

J. and I discussed our background in the pre-computer days of design and presented some behind the scenes looks at 4 different logo projects. We discussed our reasoning for using certain typefaces and went back and forth about our design process. J. and I have very different ways of designing- she is a meticulous planner and she equates my style as "driving with your eyes shut"- which isn't entirely true, but close.

Other presenters included Rick Griffith from Colorado who was crazy/fun and the AmpersandAmpersand kids from Hamilton, Mark Byk and Kristine Tortora who played a weird, old song (my friend Paul K would have loved this) and let their slideshow speak for itself. I also enjoyed local designer Greg Meadows who talked about his love of type and how it all began. I missed the last two presenters, Toronto's Brian Maloney, and Emily Luce, as I had to run to DJ the Book Arts after event party.

it is great to meet a lot of out-of-town designers that came to our fair city for this great event. What a way to get the creative juices flowing-- talking about design! The other thing that j. mentioned this AM was there is a lot of hands-on artists involved, screen printers especially. It is great to see a lot non-computer design.

I am really looking forward to seeing Sagmeister tonight at the Manuscript Museum in the heart of Allentown. FREE tickets still available. You all better be there!

Monday, July 14, 2008

Holiday in the Sun

weather prediction for typecon this week: sunny & humid

We designed some swag for the Typecon 'swag bag' given to all attendees. They have officially hit the streets tonight at the grand opening, sneak peak of the The WNY Book Arts Collaborative (I like to call it the Bookmaking Clubhouse)!

This rounded corner sticker is a limited edition Where to Roam, Got Punkt., punkt rock sticker in pink and black with a classic ransom note punk stylee. That's a lot of punk, oi!

Here it is, get them free all week at the conference (or send me an email and I'll mail you a few). Get 'em while they last, stick them on a lot of things...

Tpecon kicks off tomorrow with the Pecha Kucha!

Sunday, July 13, 2008

Bat Dance

Why? It's Christmas dammit!

While preparing slides for our Pecha Kucha (during Typecon) presentation on Tuesday, I ran across some early artwork and old designs. I went waaaaaay back into the archives to unearth quite a view vintage, old school graphics. This flyer was made before I became Wizard Graphics and is just attributed to "M.W."

This flyer was designed for a party thrown at my 1st apartment after I moved out of my parents house. Constructed by hand in 1987 (3 years into college at this point), this flyer was passed out to friends. With hand lettering and photos sliced out of a book I bought at the discount book store about TV in the 60s, the flyer is probably one of the earliest examples of my work- true cut and paste. I can't remember if these were run at Kinkos or the Buff State Library copy machines?

Squeezing as much text into small spaces, I am surprised there was any white space on this thing, but I had to get that Frank Gorshin Riddler in as big as possible for full effect! This flyer came in red and green.

If I ever wanted to make a typeface from my handwriting, this would b a good example. In 20+ years my handwriting hasn't gotten much better, probably worse actually.

Merry Christmas, Batdork.... enjoy this flyer (click on it for a larger view)...

Friday, July 11, 2008

All The Young Dudes (and some old ones...)

To help with your Typecon planning, I have chose to highlight a few choice events that are must sees... there a lot other workshops, events and presentation, but I picked out a few of my favorites that I am looking forward too. Here ya go...

Be sure to check out the onsite Typecon store (at the Hyatt) with Where to Roam Tees for sale and free stickers!


TypeCon2008 Schedule Highlight

Tuesday, July 15
8:00 pm: Type-themed Pecha Kucha Night
An Evening of Mini Presentations From Design Legends
and Rising Stars at the Hallwalls Cinema (at Babeville)
OtherWisz will be presenting... I am not sure if we are the "design legends" or the "rising stars" or the guys in the middle!

Wednesday, July 16
9:00 pm: An Evening with
Stefan Sagmeister: Things I Have Learned in My Life So Far
Karpeles Manuscript Library Museum, North Hall
Stefan is very entertaining if you saw the Helvetica movie


Thursday, July 17
8:00 pm: Opening Night Extravaganza @ University at Buffalo
featuring Dutch Design Innovators NLXL
These guys are very cool, check out their work here.
The only thing that sucks is that it is out in Amherst, ugh.


Friday, July 18
10:00 am (Hyatt) : Doyald Young - Dangerous Curves
Another awesome designer, in his 80's

3:15 pm: Indie Font Marketing Panel (Hyatt)
John Collins (MyFonts), Patrick Griffin (Canada Type), Stephen Coles (FontShop/Typographica), Mike Cina (YouWorkForThem), Alejandro Paul (Sudtipos), and Jan Middendorp (moderator)

5:15 pm: Kim Elam (Ringling College of Art and Design)
Typographic Systems, Beyond the Grid (Hyatt)
But I love the grid....

8:00 pm: Erik Spiekermann at the Albright-Knox Art Gallery Another awesome designer (again, see Helvetica, the movie...)

10:00 P22 presents Type:Con 2008 (Mohawk Place)
featuring Odiorne, Etaoin Shrdlu, The Sarrifics, and Deja Blu
Dr Wisz (me!) and special guest Mixwell Einstein- DJing classic alt. rock and weird rock, kraut rock and space rock!


Saturday, July 19
9:15 am: Ken Barber (House Industries)
Learning from Lettering
Another really cool company

10:00 am: Jakob Trollbäck (Trollbäck + Company)
Choreography for Type

8:30 pm: Alpha Crazy, a Celebration (Hyatt Ballroom)
buffet dinner, drinks, Type Quiz, music, dancing, and surprises
DJs deja blu spin house, neo-soul, funk, nu-jazz, old school hip hop, retro grooves and 'sounds of fonts'


Sunday, July 20
5:30 pm: Jan Middendorp - Type as Image, Image as Type

6:45 pm: Closing Night Gathering at the Roycroft

Hope to see you around next week during the festival...

Psycho Killer

Oh my God, it even has a watermark.

Typecon is only 4 days away... more Typecon fun later on, check back. Here is a great YouTube clip from the movie American Psycho when the boys are comparing business cards. Hilarious.... subtle off white color...

Wednesday, July 9, 2008

Harder, Better, Stronger, Faster

Of Sagmeister and Cleaning
(or Things I Have Learned So Far In My Life include 'a clean office is a good thing'...):


Today is unprecedented in the history of this office. Today is the Clean Sweep. Today we will clean this office like no other office cleaning! Since we moved upstairs last June little actual office cleaning has taken place. Sure I have vacuumed every month or so, but this is for real! I betcha I will find some cool stuff... I'll show you what I find. I will take some snapshots...

Typecon is only one week away, are you ready? And, just announced, Public Tickets Available For Stefan Sagmeister in Buffalo- click here.

From the Typecon site:

"SOTA is proud to present Stefan Sagmeister: Things I Have Learned in My Life So Far. Sagmeister's first Buffalo appearance is slated for Wednesday evening, July 16, at the Karpeles Manuscript Library Museum, North Hall, 220 North Street, Buffalo, New York.

Doors open at 8:00 pm, with the presentation kicking off at 9:00 pm. His new book, Things I Have Learned in My Life So Far, will be available for purchase, and Stefan will sign copies on the spot. This evening is presented by The Society of Typographic Aficionados (SOTA) in association with Veer and the Type Directors Club (TDC)."

Monday, July 7, 2008

The Seeker

Paint brush graffiti.


When I was a kid, I spent a few years growing up on the East Side of Buffalo on Kuchuska (sp?) Street living with my folks in my Dad's Dad's house prior to packing up (at the age of 3) and moving to Tonawanda. We still went to my Mom's parents home on Beck Street every Sunday afternoon, until we took up the family camping trend in the mid Seventies and we split town every weekend for such faraway lands as Darien and Niagara Falls.

My grandparents home was across the street from the back parking lot of some department stores. The back wall of the store had this awesome paint-brush rendered graffiti that was there until the knocked the building down to build a (big K) K-mart. Not out-of-a-can sprayed, but authored with a brush. I could always picture this rockin' long haired East Side Pole-- a braver, more vandal-happy version of myself-- with a bucket of white paint and a fat 'ol brush scrawling this Who-based sentiment: Keith Moon Lives.

In the world of Krylon-applied tags, this brush scrawl stood out in my mind. Hey, I was a teenager and I loved the Who! You could tell the artist started to speed things up when they got to the end, the 'es' in 'lives'... maybe the cops were coming! It is harder to run with a gallon of house paint than a can of spray-paint! But the artist did take the time to add the 'eyes' or 'boobs' or whatever is in the O's in 'MOON.' What a skilled craftsman!

I found this picture in the flat-file cleaning mentioned earlier. I had used this as an submission to a college photography class where we were all given 5-6 phrases and were instructed to go out and photograph images that we felt represented the words. This one was for "scholarly communication."

Thursday, July 3, 2008

Ham n' Eggs

OtherWisz designed a nifty, little restaurant guide for the out-of-town designers coming in a few weeks for Typecon. This was a fun project where we got to do pretty much what we wanted- all we started with was some text and a list of restaurants written and compiled by Richard Kegler of P22.

The design is a 16-panel accordion fold that ends up being 8-1/2" x 2-1/4" to fit in a back pocket. The design was inspired by NYC subway guides (great bunch of them online here) and the font we used, P22 Underground. The font has these great extras that link together to make subway map lines. I wanted the cover to be type-a-riffic sensation with a balance of letter-forms and white (black) space. Sounds good, right? Those P22 Underground characters fit so well together, I could not resist fitting them into each other.

We divided the list of eateries into 'sections of town' and J. put them in order - starting from the Hyatt (base-camp for Typecon) and moving outwards including: Waterfront, Downtown, Theatre District, Chippewa, Allentown Elmwood Village and the must visit 'Off The Beaten Path.'

The printing was supplied by United Graphics (thanks Scott!), who has donated a bunch for the Typecon planning team. We were glad to do this project, and I was pretty pleased with the result. The PDF is up on the Typecon site and the printed guides will be available upon registration.

Here is a bit from Rich's introduction:

"Buffalo is food town. Like the many fine establishments to be found in the largest city in New York State, Buffalo restaurants abide by Darwinian principles: only the fittest eateries survive—there is little room for bad food."
You can check out the PDF (click here) but you best pick up a folded, printed version to really enjoy it's compactness.

Tuesday, July 1, 2008

Hey Now

... little paintings, little works of art.

So they always say don't do it, but I always did.

I would pop up with my Polaroid One-Step and snap goes the flash! The click and the whirl of gears and out it comes, a little off-white square. Then I would shake it! They told you not to, but I always still did. The professional photographer next to me with the real camera once said, "You know, you don't have to do that." What?" "Shake it like that....."

But I would always do it- if you shake it hard enough the bottom seam would bleed cracks of other colors. It looked cool, then I would scratch them with the but end of a Sharpie cap and it would turn colors.... cool. I would deface and write on them. They became little paintings, little works of art. Cool.

News that Polaroid would discontinue manufacturing film was met with fear, anger and sadness by many. The Polaroid Camera would soon be extinct. I read a great article on the AIGA website that tells the story of Polaroid (Gone in Sixty Seconds June 10, 2008) and their inevitable demise. There is quite a movement to Save the Polaroid and it's lifestyle!

So when I was going through the very messy flat files I kept coming across lots of Polaroids. The are from various times in the past and events to be remembered. They include snapshots from the last night Ray Flynn's Golden Dollar Bar was open on April 3, 1999, and some from an Xmas in our Main Street loft that same year. There are a few from the rubble that was Flynn's the day they flattened a classic Buffalo drinking hole on my Birthday the Summer of '99. I have bits of the ceramic 'Golden Dollar' from the front sign in my garden.

I thought these snapshots were great, so I scanned a bunch of these little paintings and put up this gallery for you to view. I love my Nikon digital camera- I shoot many shots, delete the crappy ones on the spot, download them onto the laptop, organize them in iPhoto, and print them to already cut 4 x 6 photos sheets, full bleed. Easy... but so was pushing a button and watching the photo come out before your eyes..... Goodbye Polaroid.

POLAROID GALLERY- Found Snapshots (June 30, 2008)- click me!