Sun - August 30, 2009
Graph-Paper Shirts
Geek-wear shirts with button-down
collars?
Peg likes to tease me about what she calls my "graph-paper" shirts, which she regards as a kind of geek wear (though the one on the right above, with the green grid, is actually hers).
I like stripes about as well, especially with the texture of Oxford fabrics, but the graph-paper design I'd really like to see would be logarithmic. Something based on the image below would be a fine thing, with some attractive selection of colors. There are design-your-own-fabric web sites, but they all seem aimed at producing prints, while I'd like a custom-woven design (and I'd need someone to sew the shirt for me as well).
Example of a log-log pattern, derived from a public-domain Wikimedia image.
Posted at 01:38 PM Read More
Sun - February 10, 2008
Type Cast
A great feature-length movie about the
Helvetica typeface
I guess I'm rather detail oriented. I more often
read poetry than novels. I'm obsessively meticulous when I paint a room. I'm
rather sensitive to errors in spelling and grammar (but not enough to reliably
avoid making them). As a computer programmer, I'm more interested in algorithms
and the design of programming languages than in software architecture. I do
more macro photography than
landscapes.
Maybe this concern with detail is why I was intrigued by the idea of an 80-minute documentary about a typeface.
Helvetica, directed by Gary Hustwit, is, fortunately, not just about the form and features of the Helvetica fonts. It's about the origins of this ubiquitous typeface, about the graphic-design milieu from which it emerged, and about its use over its 50-year history. It consists largely of interviews with graphic designers and typographers having widely varying opinions about Helvetica. The beautiful photography shows how pervasive the typeface and its variants have become in the publications, logos and signage of our urban environments.
If I had any real talent in graphic design, I'm sure this website would look very different. But I do have an interest in good design, so I really enjoyed this film. I'd recommend it to anyone who cares about visual style.
Maybe this concern with detail is why I was intrigued by the idea of an 80-minute documentary about a typeface.
Helvetica, directed by Gary Hustwit, is, fortunately, not just about the form and features of the Helvetica fonts. It's about the origins of this ubiquitous typeface, about the graphic-design milieu from which it emerged, and about its use over its 50-year history. It consists largely of interviews with graphic designers and typographers having widely varying opinions about Helvetica. The beautiful photography shows how pervasive the typeface and its variants have become in the publications, logos and signage of our urban environments.
If I had any real talent in graphic design, I'm sure this website would look very different. But I do have an interest in good design, so I really enjoyed this film. I'd recommend it to anyone who cares about visual style.
Posted at 01:24 PM Read More
Sun - February 25, 2007
Winter Storm, Dinner and a Show
As a storm gets off to a slow start, life
goes on...
On Friday evening, I wrote about the winter
storm moving through Minnesota. At the time, there was snow
falling here, but it stopped by about 10:00 p.m., with only a fraction of an
inch on the ground. While we were expecting four to six inches overnight, we
got nothing. Peg headed off to work at the library Saturday morning, and light
snow started around 9:30 a.m., turning to freezing rain and sleet for a while
around noon. I cleared the remarkably dense inch-deep sleety mix from the
driveway in the middle of the afternoon, and Peg got home around 4:00. By that
time, only light snow was falling, and she reported that driving wasn't too bad,
so we decided to attempt our evening plans for dinner out, and a concert in
downtown St. Paul, a dozen miles
away.
At first we were going to go to our favorite local Mexican restaurant, El Loro, but once on the road, we decided it might be best to get into downtown early, while it was still light, and before much more snow fell. We drove--actually, Peg drove--rather slowly, in light traffic, and without incident, and parked in a ramp near the concert venue, the Fitzgerald Theater. We walked a few snowy blocks to Babani's Kurdish Restaurant, our downtown favorite. It was nearly empty when we arrived--around 5:00--but filled up quickly while we had a fine dinner.
We had quite a bit of time to spare after dinner, so we walked down St. Peter street and over to Rice Park. The trees along the way and in the park are still decorated with lights, and the effect of the lights and falling snow was beautiful. But as we got close to the river, the wind started blasting snow in our faces, so we continued our walk through the tunnels and skyways, wending our way back toward the theater. We arrived nearly an hour before the show, but we were soon comfortably seated, had a glass of wine, and waited for the concert to begin.
Oh, yes, the concert! It was Pat Donohue's Roots and Blues Review, with a half dozen other fine musicians joining Donohue in a program of mostly blues, with some jazz and folk included in the mix. Donohue plays guitar, and is a regular in the Guys All-Star Shoe Band on the Prairie Home Companion show. The other performers were Cindy Cashdollar (steel guitar and dobro), Peter Johnson (drums and percussion), Howard Levy (an amazing harmonica player), Willie Murphy (piano), Gary Raynor (double bass) and Randy Sabien (jazz violin). We were only somewhat familiar with Donohue before the show, but came away quite impressed with him and the whole group.
Of course, while we were enjoying the show, the snow was gradually accumulating, with about four inches on the ground as we started the drive home. It was snowing pretty heavily, and we had to go at about half normal speeds due to slippery conditions, limited visibility, and a tendency for the wipers to ice up. It was a bit tense, but we got home just before midnight, and thought it was a great time to take advantage of our adrenaline by shoveling the driveway. Half an hour later, the job was done, and we could relax--a good time for blogging!
At first we were going to go to our favorite local Mexican restaurant, El Loro, but once on the road, we decided it might be best to get into downtown early, while it was still light, and before much more snow fell. We drove--actually, Peg drove--rather slowly, in light traffic, and without incident, and parked in a ramp near the concert venue, the Fitzgerald Theater. We walked a few snowy blocks to Babani's Kurdish Restaurant, our downtown favorite. It was nearly empty when we arrived--around 5:00--but filled up quickly while we had a fine dinner.
We had quite a bit of time to spare after dinner, so we walked down St. Peter street and over to Rice Park. The trees along the way and in the park are still decorated with lights, and the effect of the lights and falling snow was beautiful. But as we got close to the river, the wind started blasting snow in our faces, so we continued our walk through the tunnels and skyways, wending our way back toward the theater. We arrived nearly an hour before the show, but we were soon comfortably seated, had a glass of wine, and waited for the concert to begin.
Oh, yes, the concert! It was Pat Donohue's Roots and Blues Review, with a half dozen other fine musicians joining Donohue in a program of mostly blues, with some jazz and folk included in the mix. Donohue plays guitar, and is a regular in the Guys All-Star Shoe Band on the Prairie Home Companion show. The other performers were Cindy Cashdollar (steel guitar and dobro), Peter Johnson (drums and percussion), Howard Levy (an amazing harmonica player), Willie Murphy (piano), Gary Raynor (double bass) and Randy Sabien (jazz violin). We were only somewhat familiar with Donohue before the show, but came away quite impressed with him and the whole group.
Of course, while we were enjoying the show, the snow was gradually accumulating, with about four inches on the ground as we started the drive home. It was snowing pretty heavily, and we had to go at about half normal speeds due to slippery conditions, limited visibility, and a tendency for the wipers to ice up. It was a bit tense, but we got home just before midnight, and thought it was a great time to take advantage of our adrenaline by shoveling the driveway. Half an hour later, the job was done, and we could relax--a good time for blogging!
Posted at 01:47 AM Read More
Fri - February 9, 2007
Poetry by Podcast
The Poetry Foundation does fine and
diverse podcasts.
I've lately been enjoying podcasts from the
Poetry Foundation (also available
through the iTunes Store). Their weekly episodes include readings
and interviews, and range over poets living and dead, famed and obscure. They
are typically about five or ten minutes long. Listening to spoken poetry can
obviously be a very different experience from reading, and both can be
important. A good reader can bring a personal, interpretive aspect to the
presentation. On the other hand, reading a poem yourself allows you time to
pause, reread and react. For me, these podcasts provide interesting
introductions to poets I might not otherwise encounter, so I can better choose
among the insurmountable
opportunities (both written and spoken) offered by this intense
art.
Posted at 08:48 PM Read More
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Published On: Aug 30, 2009 01:48 PM
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Published On: Aug 30, 2009 01:48 PM