Since I've Been Loving You

Postcards From Our Past (part 2)- this space for message

Here are some more really great old Buffalo postcards (1st batch posted here) which are very graphically pleasing. This collection of six images represent some of Buffalo's lost treasures including the Chippewa Market (dated 1910) and the D.S. Morgan Building which has two businesses located in its lower level, one being a turkish bath, baby!

The aerial view of downtown features a great view of the waterfront with the Aud in the center and the Statler Hotel postcard includes the hotel and it's garage and notes it has "1100 rooms with bath and radio reception." Handy.

Last note, the Ruins of the Seneca Building is dated 1909 and seems like a strange image for a postcard, a building being destroyed? Very Buffalo though, if you think about it.


Seneca Building ruins- please explain...?


Rand Building shooting death rays to fight nazis, apparently.


Hotel Statler with a really nice parking facility.


Chippewa (meat) Market without 3rd Room


Cool Downtown (must be 30s with Aud).


DS Morgan Building- anyone know where this was (is)?

Train Kept a Rollin'

Even a year ago, there were more places to play...
the South Loft.. The Icon was still open.
That sucked- The Icon closing sucked.
Justin Chapman, guitarist and vocalist for milf
who never predicted his bands name would become a pornographic phenomenon 15 year later

The best thing about reading the Slash book was it got me listening to some old Aerosmith and I have been thoroughly enjoying Rocks and Get Your Wings which I duped off scratchy vinyl. Those Boston boys were good back in the heyday of substance abuse and 1973! Hootchy Koo! Last Child, man what a song... and Lord of The Thighs, Women of the World, Train Kept a Rollin'..... man, oh man, it just keep going. I have to keep getting up to turn the music louder and then turn it down a few minutes later 'cause it is too loud.

Oh that rock and roll sure is a tortuous mistress.

Speaking of rock music... here's one for ya:
Slack issue #15- The Local Music Issue Jan. 1995
(published 01.12.95)

This issue of Slack, is by far, my favorite with the perspective of time. Published in Jan 1995, the Slack Local Music issue features details on over 75 Buffalo bands and is labeled a "Collector's Edition." That was a good prediction, I was right! The Slack team gathered info on bands by leaving piles of questionnaire postcards around town, record stores, bars, music venues, etc. and did a lot of research. Over the next few months the postcards started to roll in and I personally interviewed a few dozen bands as did our writers. I think it was (and is) a really good snapshot of the music scene in Buffalo circa January 1995. And the Dan (Young Jeezy) Cappellazzo cover shot of the Steam Donkeys in front of the Mohawk place is priceless! Great cover.

Highlights (too many to mention) include:

• 1994's Slacker of the Year- Buffalo News music writer Tony Violanti by Tony Billoni
  
• Being in a Buffalo Band by Steam Donkey Charlie Quill
• Great Records Form Local Music History by Elmer Ploetz which includes: Headhunters "1st Things 1st", Splat Cats "5 Big Ones," and Goo Goo Dolls "Jed"... oh the Goo old days....
• Strick's Advice on Audio Purchases From a Guy From The Inside

Of all the bands profiled, I think I counted 8 still in service? I may be wrong and I am sure someone else will review this and correct me. Kevin?

• Fibs
• Goo Goo Dolls
• Ani SunnyD Franco
• Lance Diamond (the Energizer Bunny of Buffalo)
• Steam Donkeys
• Wolf Tickets
• Glenn Colton

Man, what ever happened to Economy Sexless Torso, Maunder Butterfly, The Razzels, Spawn, Splaterpunkx and Snufflufugus? Other cool band asides include "Several Seconds With Spawn" where they members act confused when asked about Eddie Vedder, a few questions with Justin Chapman of milf and Mark Norris on Girlpope and locally owned (and new at the time) P22 Records.

Another interesting note is the inclusion of Big Happy Family who didn't have a record listed yet. That soon to be CD by BHF was recorded in the barn that I sit in as I type this post. Our design studio (252 Lex) used to be the band practice/recording studio of Bob James and BHF was his band. Time zones are a colliding as I write this.

Print this out for yourself and read it thoroughly. Sit back, crack a Blue and throw in that old cassette by Dick's Hatband or Crawlspace or even Kama Sutra (I am just name dropping now).

Download PDF here:
Slack Magazine n. 15, the Local Music Issue (4.8 mg)

Don't forget these issues already up (5 more to go)!:
Slack Magazine n. 18, The Two-Year Anniversary! issue
Slack Magazine n. 14, The Cartoon Issue
Slack Magazine n. 13, The Food & Beverage Issue
Slack Magazine n. 12, The One-Year Anniversary Issue
Slack Magazine n. 11, The True Crime Issue
Slack Magazine n. 10, Summer Fun Issue
Slack Magazine n. 9, The Dead Rock Stars Issue
Slack Magazine n. 8, The Beer Issue
Slack Magazine n. 7, Slack Goes to The Movies Issue
Slack Magazine n. 6, The Buffalo Issue
Slack Magazine n.5, The Slack TV Issue
Slack Magazine n. 4, SEX in the '90s Issue
Slack Magazine n. 3, The Politico Issue
Slack Magazine n. 2, The Travel Issue
Slack Magazine n. 1, The Debut Issue

BONUS BEATS- Big hair Guns n' Roses- Welcome to the Jungle early MTV video, weird. Why such a big hat? Why such big hair?

Paradise City

Event posters and rock posters are some of my favorite things to design. Now I don't get to create and print cool silk screen posters (which is awfully popular these days), but I have spend over 20 years designing posters for various fund raising events, to raise awareness for causes and to advertise rock shows, CD release events and DJ nights. These of course are for little, and often no money at all, which lends a sort of creative freedom to the designer.

When you are not getting paid, this means you can often do what ever the heck you want. Dealing with bands is often the 'battle of the egos' though, musicians and graphic folks are both artists- often head strong, knowing what they want. Many bands will give some direction and let you go nuts, some will pick and pick and make you redesign and redesign which can suck. I try to put forth the proposition (little Doors for ya there) that, "Hey, if I am not getting paid, you are going to get something cool that I like." Works every time. Well, mostly.....

When dealing with a not-for-profit, like Literacy Volunteers, they just love whatever we do for them unconditionally. We have created the poster and accompanying graphics for the last seven Coffee and Chocolate fund raising events for LV and they let us do what we want and they like it... they truly like it! Now if only I could get paid for working like this, eh?

There are a few design companies (i.e. Modern Dog in Seattle) who do just that- they do whatever they want, sometimes crazy ass projects and the client knows what they are getting, they take the chance and they love it. Mostly. That would be Paradise City, baby! It seems they can actually make money doing this? Have I not been taking enough chances in my designs? I don't know.... maybe I have to work harder...

I took some photos of our new hallway poster gallery that includes the first 7 Coffee and Chocolate posters, some Variety Rocks event posters from the nineties and 3 Americanarama posters which have been great to do for local alt-country rockers the Steam Donkeys.

It is cool to see all these posters on permanent display.

Monkey Man

Submitted for your review, the lyrics to the Rolling Stones Monkey Man.

"I'm a cold Italian pizza..." What?

I was just listening to the lyrics and I was rendered baffled, to say the least. I guess drugs (this is about drug, right?) make you say silly thing... Awesome Nicky Hopkins piano playing though.

Monkey Man
( jagger/richards)

Im a flea bit peanut monkey
All my friends are junkies
That's not really true

I'm a cold italian pizza
I could use a lemon squeezer
What you do?

But Ive been bit and Ive been tossed around
By every she-rat in this town
Have you, babe?

Well, I am just a monkey man
I'm glad you are a monkey woman too

I was bitten by a boar
I was gouged and I was gored
But I pulled on through

Yes, I'm a sack of broken eggs
I always have an unmade bed
Don't you?

Well, I hope were not too messianic
Or a trifle too satanic
We love to play the blues

Well I am just a monkey man
I'm glad you are a monkey, monkey woman too, babe

I'm a monkey
I'm a monkey
I'm a monkey man
I'm a monkey man
I'm a monkey...

Love In Vain

I just got turned onto this company in Estonia called Hand Made Fonts. They have a unique font collection like no other. Fonts made from things- dirt, rocks, paint, foam, etc. I think you are talking about a very specialized use for these collections, but they are pretty cool.

I remember when Sagmeister was in town and he was showing images from his book where he spelled words out of objects. So I gotta wonder what are the practical applications for these, beyond art projects?

Check them out online: www.handmadefont.com I like the hairy ones and ones made of food, like chili peppers.

Right now we are listening to some live Dead (is there any other kind?!?!) and it is making me dizzy... maybe I better eat some lunch.

My, My, Hey Hey (Out of the Blue)

You pay for this, but they give you that
Once you're gone, you can't come back.
-- Mr. Young

My friends are nice. They happen to also be music-o-philes, like myself... most of them anyway. So when I go to their homes, I am always drawn to the the LPs or the CD collections, scanning what they got. They usually put up with my rude behavior, as well as the fact that I always assume they are going to let me borrow whatever I want from their collections. It's like being at the record store and not having to pay. Or the library, but less alphabetized. You can't go to the shelf of a digital music collection and scan the shelves, flip through the 45s or LPs, or pull them out and look at the artwork. It is a lot harder to scan for borrowing on the computer.

Anyway, here is what I borrowed from my neighbor Nate (see list below) and I will have to return them soon since a lot of them belong to his wife. It's a mixed bag of CDs-- since I am getting ready for upcoming holidays, I would say it's a cornucopia of tunes!

This is our NEW office listening list for Thursday and Friday (click on graphic to see our 'CD borrowing-promise to return contract'). I can put all the over-listened CDs away for now, we got fresh (old) CDs to listen to today. I have many of these titles on either cassette or vinyl record. Some are new to me (at least the Ritchie Havens). We got old rock (Neil), Prince, more rock, and more rock, Let it Bleed Stones! and Sugarhill Gang... Yeah!

If you call us, listen closely, you will definitely hear one of the above CDs in the background.
I'll turn it down.



BONUS BEATS: r.i.p. to the late, great Rudy Ray Moore, Mr. Dolomite who passed away a few days ago. Goodbye Petey Wheatstraw, keep rhyming!

Fill Your Heart

..and the walls come tumblin' down...

I just took a tour of the once great Buffalo Memorial Auditorium. It is under deconstruction for tear-down. It was quite an experience- this is how it looks right now on a cold, October 21, 2008 morning.

Click here to see thirteen of my snapshots- Bleed For The Blue and Gold.





The last days of the AUD, October 22, 2008.

Reckless Life

Keep in touch with mama kin
Tell her where you gone and been

12:20 AM- This is Post #200.
I just finished the last of the cleaning- the top off, the floor mopping. Now we are spic-n-span in the downstairs part of the office space, tomorrow the upstairs. Hang some art! Yeah! So I am reviewing some paperwork while the floor dries. Such is the life- pretty glamorous, this graphic design world- we all least tonight, it ain't!....

I have been listening to a lot of G-n-R lately, as I am on the tail end of the Slash bio and kinda wish I was done with it already. The story goes: everyone hates you when you're a junkie but loves you when you are a hard partying drunk except Axl's an asshole most of the time to most people, often his audiences. Booooo. I passed up the Ron Wood bio for this? What was I thinking. Wrong turn in the bio section of the 'ol Crane Library. Shoot.

Time to crash. Rock on. Live?!*@ Like a Suicide.

Little Bones

4 and 0, baby!

I enjoyed the Sabres 5-2 victory from a front row seat-- I was very fortunate to watch the action rinkside. A unique spot to watch from, you can't see down the ice to the other net, but then you are eye level for the action where the Sabres shoot 2X. You are IN the action, you can see shots from a players view, you can yell so loud you're sure they can hear you, you can feel the hits....

While I was there I got to see a 'hockey moment' only viewable from the front few rows. A Canuck gets slammed face 1st into the boards, the plexiglass shakes violently and he groggily skates back up the ice. There is a whistle in the action and the same Vancouver player comes skating over with a linesman and start looking down at the ice in the spot he got slammed. I look down and see a little tooth on the ice, no blood, just a tooth. He bends down, picks it up with un-gloved hand and skates to the bench. Only in hockey! Ouch.

BONUS BEATS: today I am taking the kids to a Sports Cards & Collectibles Show at the Hamburg Fairgrounds. My buddy, the Buffalo Hockey Experience & Museum guy is going to have a display, so we are going to check it out. I haven't been to a card show ever, though I have been to both beer can collector and comic book conventions when I was a kid.

Life On Mars

It's on Amerikas tortured brow
That Mickey Mouse has grown up a cow
unintelligable, yet somehow deep, Bowie lyric

I have been trying to walk a few footsteps in the evening over the past couple weeks. The weather is just right for walking, the fresh air, the exercise, the view of the Elmwood Strip (lots of action for a Thursday night in November, I thought...), and my i-Probe giving me a good soundtrack to move to. The past couple days, I have been waging this David Bowie battle, a sort of Hunky Dory vs. Ziggy Stardust thing. Both great LPs, mind you- the Ziggy is more rocking, but the HD has a lot of super great pop-songs.

Hunky Dory (HD), which is Dave's 4th LP from 1971 and it features the mega-hit Changes (which incidentally only peaked at #66 on the Billboard charts) and two songs named after pop stars, Andy Warhol and Song For Bob Dylan. But could it be better than the album he followed with, 1972's lengthy titled The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars? We must ask ourselves this. The crazy bowie-as-alien thing that born a living, breathing character come to life- it was pretty cool. Mick Ronson really plays a mean rock guitar on this LP- there are lots of great videos from this records and then there is the movie, too...

Let them battle:

Cover:

• HD- Bowie kinda looks like a long hair girl and the photo is all fey and fuzzy
• Ziggy- Rockin' weird space boy alien outside of city buildings with rock guitar

Additional Personnel:

• HD- Rick Wakeman from Yes
• ZIGGY- Rick Wakeman from Yes

Plot Exert (from Wikepedia):

• HD: Oh! You Pretty Things, whose pop tune hid lyrics, inspired by Nietzsche, predicting the imminent replacement of modern man by "the Homo Superior". Whoa.
• Ziggy: they tear him to pieces on stage during the song Rock 'n' roll Suicide. As soon as Ziggy dies on stage, the 'infinites' take his elements and make themselves visible. Whoa 2X.

Rockinest Rocker:

• HD: Queen Bitch
• Ziggy: Suffragette City

Good Songs:

• HD: Oh! You Pretty Things (a song with a "!" in the title), Life On Mars (#3 in the UK in 1972), Kooks (dedicated to his son named Zowie Bowie) and Queen Bitch (which is one on my all-time Dave favs!)
• Ziggy: All of them...from the opening track of 5 Years all the way to Rock and Roll Suicide- it is really all good.... and in end--  Ziggy's followers kill him.

I think I might have to pick Ziggy in round one.

BONUS BEATS: Videos!
Oh! You Pretty Things from BBC Televison 1972- click me.
Five Years- 1972- clicker.
Life on Mars- 1973 directed by Mick Rock
Starman- Ziggy Stardust & the Spiders Form Mars- see my fuzzy orange hair
Queen Bitch- live on the Old Gray Whistle- a bizarre, self-constructed freak...

BONUSIER BEAT:
Bauhaus doing Ziggy Stardust- oh yeahhhhhhhhh......

Everyday I Write The Book

Local designers can be famous!

Two of my fellow designers and friends are featured in a new book by graphic design guru and NY Times Book Review art director Steven Heller. The Books is called Design Entrepreneur: Turning Graphic Design Into Goods That Sell. The Buffalo guys in the book are Rich Kegler from P22 and Julian Montague, artist and created of the The Stray Shopping Carts of Eastern North America: A Guide to Field Identification- which he has gotten quite a lot of mileage out of.

From what I can gather, the book is about graphic folks that have married their creative 'paying the bills' talent with their entrepreneurial spirit to create something to market, often a product. We do that with our T-shirts line- WheretoRoam.com. It isn't a unique situation, but I think it has become more prevalent- us designers often get more pleasure out of doing design for ourselves than logos or projects for clients. Unfortunately doing things for yourself doesn't amount to much money-- unless you can sell it. But most of the time it is more fun- without a client looking over your shoulder, you have more freedom to push yourself creatively.

Anyway- congrats to Rich and Julian- both awesome dudes and smart designer. I have always been a fan of Heller's writings (I get his Daily Heller email newsletter), the guy has written over 90 books on design and popular culture and is a well-known design critic. I like to see local folk done good.

Sign of the (New York) Times

Can you make my logo bigger?
Aaaarrrggghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!
This is probably the least popular question us graphic artists hear all time... it is a running joke amongst many.

Well sometimes bigger is better. How about a logo set in 10,116 point type! Is that big enough for ya, huh? Pentagram designed signage for the the New York Times office on Eighth Avenue and the logo is big, not just big, but freakin' huge! 110 foot long and yes I did say, the point size is listed as 10,116 point Fraktur type. Man, I will I could get a giant logo job!

The logo is actually broken up into over 900 smaller pieces. Each letter in the Times logo was rasterized then cut into narrow horizontal strips that range in numbers from 26 (the i in “Times”) to 161 (the Y in “York”). The signage won a segd (Society for Environmental Graphic Design) award. Check it out here on the awards site. Read about it in great detail at the Pentagram website- here!

But... can they make it bigger....if the client asked them?

BONUS BEATS: The Make the Logo Bigger Rock Song. Thanks, Paul.