OkGo does it again! This is *better* than the treadmill video.

• The Oatmeal shows usHow a web design goes straight to hell.
• Maggie Taylor is my new favorite.
• The title says it all: Art manifestos and their applications in contemporary design (thanks, Nubby!)
• Empty Bellies Do Not Beget Genius by Gala Darling.
• I totally want one of these Nerd Merit Badges
• Meet the Secret Society for Creative Philanthropy.
• Just who is iammiwhoiam?
• Sailor Twain is surprising and excellent, so far.
• The best for last: I am in love with this Female Illustrators of the mid 20th century blog. Inspiring!

I saw this video many months ago and forgot about it until I found it in my Vimeo favorites. I still think it’s super rad. Thanks, Myrrh!

• Speaking of things I forgot about–I forgot entirely that Ze Frank did this young me, now me project. If you saw it when it launched, there’s a lot more content now.
• A list of 6 geographical facts you aren’t going to believe.
• Andy Gilmore is the king of the color wheel
• Action Comics #1 is officially the first comic book to sell for a million dollars.
• Clearly you all want to help Save San Francisco’s Defenestration Installation.
• OKCupid’s blog continues to tell us more horrifying things about our behavior patterns.
• This is a really exceptional I’m sorry card.
• It seems that my bandmates can’t stop playing Robot Unicorn Attack. Expect a cover song, kids.
• The unfortunately named I love hot dogs, is a super great vintage movie blog, featuring mostly posters and screenshots of title sequences. beautiful.
• It’s finally time for The funeral of IE6. I’ll throw one of these in SF on the same day if enough people are interested.

We record the last run-through of all the songs we did that night and archive it, so you can see all the songs without the banter, mistakes, and pizza-eating that typically occurs earlier in the practice. There’s also the added bonus that we are *far* more drunk by the time we get this far in.

Last night’s setlist was:

Amazing
Redacted
Five
I’ll Let You Watch

For those on my blog, see below. If you’re viewing this on facebook or in a reader, the embed may be missing, so click here.

& if you want to see us in all our mistake-filled pizza-eating glory, check out the stream on Tuesday nights, here:

Live Broadcast by Ustream.TV

The lovely folks at Deer Brains did an interview with me.

Please go read it, and also check out the rest of their totally sweet blog.

I’m sure many of you have already seen this, but this is a nearly 100% cgi film that has to be seen to be believed.
The only elements that aren’t cg here are: photographer (shot on greenscreen), pigeons, timelapsed growing flowers, flying airplane and sky backgrounds.
Serious kudos the Alex Roman, who created everything in this film, including the music.

This film just looks adorable.

• Scott McCloud shares 5 ways to prevent wrist strain while drawing.
• Here are 35 New Free Fonts for Designers
• I was seriously amused by the Devo Color Study.
• Compare PSD is a particularly useful app to compare 2 psd files for differences.
• Speaking of PSDs, tomorrow is the 20th anniversary of the release of Photoshop! Here’s a brief history of everyone’s favorite Adobe program.
• Duke University’s digital library of sheet music is full of amazing typography
• Every design sin known to man, in one place! (via LaughingSquid)
• Dresden Kodak does it again, with 42 essential 3rd act twists.
• This video is easily the weirdest thing I’ve seen today, and that’s saying something.

Gabrielle Bouliane was a videographer and poet, who I met nearly a decade ago, back when I was very much involved in Slam Poetry.
She recently lost her battle with cancer.
She was a visionary, a friend, and a force of nature.
I wish I had known her better.

I did this illustration of her because most of the pictures I’ve been seeing of her in other posts of this sort didn’t really capture her the way I knew her.
To me, Gabrielle will always be in bunny ears–or a cowboy hat.
She is peering at me from behind a camera, or through a LiveJournal icon.
She is capturing something–when everyone else is too busy watching.

I am posting this poem of hers, because I think all of you should read it, whether you knew her or not.

When you hear that I have died, think of this.

Think of cool nights breezes while you walk to meet your friends for a beer on a Thursday. Think of waking up in flannel sheets on a snowy morning and kissing someone you love. Think of hung-over diner breakfasts and the best cup of coffee in the world. Think of the sound of tires on seamed highways while you travel, think of French kissing and leather jackets and push-up bras and bourbon, think of the joy of hard work with friends. Then think of me.

Not sad, not the melancholy solitude of empty skies, but the full days and crowded bars and signed contracts, a smile too big for my face, remember I said I stay busy enough to fit three lives into one. When you hear that I have died, know that I want laughter, and dancing, real dancing, to music that makes you move without thinking, you’re wearing boots and jeans and a great t-shirt and wondering if the girl at the edge thinks you’re cute. And you motherfuckers had best DANCE, none of this bullshit rock-nod hands-in-the-pockets shoegazer nonsense, no, make an ass out of yourself, feel your hips, kick off the high heels and sway on the shoulder of a stranger, when I die, you’d better be laughing your ass off on sidewalks, eating deliciously unhealthy food, drinking shots and tipping your bartender well no matter how much money you make.

And Adam has to read the poem he wrote, and Laura, and June, and Scott Carpenter has to play “Don’t Go Away, Chloe”, no fuck that, every musician I’ve ever made out with or videotaped or road-tripped with has to play, so drink some coffee, baby, it’s gonna be a long night. When you hear that I have died, the best thing you can do is to get laid that night with a comfortable stranger, use my story to get their sympathy, and when you kiss them for the first time, think of me then.

When you hear that I have died, and you will, remember your best revenge is to live well, take risks, save up money and chase your perfect happiness. Beat the system and learn to make your art really support you, craft into something your audience can’t live without. Then make the world an even slightly better place — stop throwing your cigarettes on the ground, vote in the next election, graffiti your life on the eyes of the hungry.

Then just do me one last favor. Please. Love something. Anything. Start with yourself, but find passion in everything, from an apple pie to a novel, make a family, get a degree, walk whatever path is yours with your chin up and feet planted firmly. Have the best stories to tell in the old folk’s home, about lifelong friendships and epic love affairs, about the time you lost everything and yet found yourself happier than when you began.. and remember that time we got in SO much trouble…

Poets.. remember. This is the story that never ends. When one of us leaves, another walks through the door. The pages turn, the sun keeps rising. All you can do in the meanwhile.. is to speak for yourself. Raise your voice high, tell your story, join hands against the dark and sing our souls to the sky. Know the best in me comes from the best in you, that as you tell your story, you will be telling mine, and our lives will be linked together forever, and everyone who hears you will become a part of the change we make.

So when you hear that I have died..
just ….live.

–Gabrielle Bouliane

This is her last performance in public:

Please feel free to re-post any of the contents of this post anywhere on the internet, with attribution.
I feel like these last words of hers should be carried to as many people as possible.

Also, if anybody wants the high-res version of my drawing, drop me an e-mail.
If enough people are interested, I can maybe make some prints.

Rest in peace, Gabrielle.
And to the rest of you, bunny up!

Rethink Scholarship at Langara 2010 Call for Entries from Rory O’Sullivan and Simon Bruyn on Vimeo.

• Selleck. Waterfall. Sandwich. No more needs be said.
• Why Taylor Swift offends little monsters, feminists, and weirdos, an interesting read.
• This hits about a million soft spots for me, but I couldn’t tell you why; 100 years of movie title stills.
• Axe Cop is a web comic written by a 5 year old, and drawn by his much older, eisner winning brother.
• Clever branding on this candy shop here.
• A fun take on those list-of-ways-to-make-your-life-better-posts-which-would-be-better-suited-to-a-motivational-poster-with-a-guy-climbing-a-mountain.
• This post pretty much sums up all my feelings on css3 stuff.
• The Muppets make an internet joke that’s actually pretty funny.
• 25 artists weigh in on creative block, on ISO50.

Vanitas is a perplexing iPhone app with a soundtrack by Zoe Keating. I’m intrigued.

Some solid advice, via Lil Wayne and Diddy.

• 99% interview the lovely Coralie Bickford on her Penguin book covers.
• Lettercult brings us the best custom letters of 2009.
• For the other kind of letters–Letterheady has you covered.
• This anatomy art from France is really great.
• Three Frames is exactly what it sounds like; 3 frames of a movie, in animated gif form.
• Have I mentioned that I really like Deerlings? I just wish she would post more.
• My Wifey, Agent Lover, just celebrated her 300th post! Go give her some love, won’t you?
• This is an excellent very slow scan television.
• The evolution of type taste, on SwissMiss.

As you guys know, I’m a big fan of iPhone camera app, CameraBag — So it may come as a surprise to you that I should be reviewing another Camera App.

Let me tell you, Hipstamatic is rapidly becoming my new favorite.

This app uses a cute, lomo-like interface, which is demonstrated in this youtube video.

The user chooses a lens, film, and “flash” before taking the picture.
Each combination produces a different effect.

The app comes with a small selection of lenses, film, and flashes, and there are others available as in-app purchases.

Check out the Hipstamatic photo pool on flickr for more examples.

What’s your current favorite app?

I recently got a new pair of glasses from the excellent folks at Phoenix Optical.
They’re the only place I’ve ever been to that has a full selection of vintage deadstock frames on hand, as well as a bunch of newer styles to choose from.

There are tons of resources online with vintage frames, but nothing beats being able to see how something looks on you.
Since your specs live on your face, it’s clear that buying them is not a decision to be taken lightly.

The staff was super helpful and helped me find exactly what I was looking for.
They were a little pricey, but well worth it for the experience.
Do you guys have a fav place for frames? Online or in person?
Show me your specs!

This is the trailer for RIP: A remix manifesto. If you’d like to see the film, you can name your price and download here.

This video is just sort of happymaking. yay.

• omgholycrap Helvetica Cookie Cutters!
• I love Typography’s favorite fonts of 2009.
• The oatmeal shows us the proper way to use a semicolon.
• This is clearly the best laptop case to ever exist.
• Maxim gives us 9 celebrity comics that should not exist.
• I would totally buy a real life eyedropper & pen tool.
• FlowingData reminds us to save pens, use garamond!
• This yellow submarine tea ball is too cute for words!
• I’m really quite enjoying Red Light Properties, the new online comic from my friend Dan Goldman.
• I can’t stop listening to the Wallpaper Mixtape. Crystal Waters & Lady Gaga & Taylor Swift in one song? That sounds like a hot mess (& it is).

I recently had the pleasure of designing the personal site for performance artist, Sadie Lune.

Sadie Originally said she wanted something that was “Freak Show meets Art Nouveau”, and I immediately knew I had to make her an illustrated header.

I did a lot of design research on freak show and circus posters, as Art Nouveau was already a well-researched aesthetic for me.

I tried to combine the hand-lettered, banner laden, design of the freak show poster, with the heavy line weight and realism of the art nouveau poster. This was the result:

I was especially pleased with the integration of the header and the curtains.

I also used a transparent graphic for the header, allowing the moon in the background to show through on the page.
The moon remains stationary, as the picture of Sadie and all the content below, scrolls freely.

As for the left sidebar and post headers, I wanted to continue the retro theme and incorporate an old newspaper feel.
I mixed up a bunch of different fonts and graphics to try to achieve this.

There are some other nice details to the site, like the event calendar on the left; which Sadie can use to not only put new events into, but can also create new posts automatically without having to reenter all the event information.

I’m also particularly fond of the custom search bar, testimonials, and flickr galleries– which update automatically when Sadie updates her flickr.

I’m really happy with how the site came out!
What do you guys think?

Almost a month after the fact, I’m finally getting around to posting my holiday photos.
This year, I attended a number of gettogethers, and with the help of my new wig, I decided it would be fun to show up in the guise of a Who from Dr. Seuss’s Grinch Who Stole Christmas.

One of these parties was thrown by none other than Miss Mary Bee.

Melinda and I arrived with out best footwear forward. I love the bows she put on her shoes! They look like little presents!

The party was full of all sorts of curious creatures.

As we’ve previously established, at any good party, there are fake mustaches involved.
This party was no exception.

We watched Christmas horror classic, Jack Frost, and I couldn’t stop taking pictures of the screen as one totally absurd thing happened after another.
Check this bathtub/snowman/sex/murder scene out:

It was a very good night, all told.

I also hosted my own, low key, orphan xmess gettogether.

The night was mostly spent eating delicious food and playing Wii. I owned at bowling.

Jeremy and Zuey clearly liked the mittens Tim got her.

Hope your holidays were as festive as mine!

Dear sweet lord, I do not have the words for this.

• Some excellent photos of William S. Burroughs’ stuff.
• This is some mighty well placed advertising.
• I really like this YouTube doubler. I like this example even more.
• Mostly useless things I want is exactly what it sounds like. *drool*
• Ren & Stimpy’s John K on Letters of Note.
• Create digital music’s biggest music tech stories of 2009.
• A brief history of Comic Sans- a cautionary tale.
• Nerdy boyfriend is a good source for cute geek style– dudes only, though.
• This state of affairs makes me extremely sad.
• Not that there aren’t enough reasons already to want to live in paris, but the world’s largest disco ball just gave us one more.

This is amazing! Wait for it to load all the way before you play with it, okay?

• How much does that cocktail really cost?
• How does the design of a menu effect what you eat, and how you spend?
• The body in book design.
• NPR takes a look at why our music sounds worse than ever, in The Loudness War.
• An amazing Mario brothers and tetris mashup game.
• Things that save lives in movies, but kill in real life- defibrillator paddles anyone?
• The always fabulous Fafi on people painting over your public art.
• What’s in Mario’s closet?
• Another fashion layout drawing attention to plus size models.
• One designer’s take on successfull shirt design.
• Lastly, but not leastly, Dr. Sketchy’s has a tumblr. Reblog that lots, okay?

As you guys know, I am obsessed with anything and everything red.
As such, I needed a laptop case to be able to achieve optimal redness.

I bought a SeeThu case from Speck for my Macbook, and I liked it so much that I got one for my MacbookPro, as well.

My only complaint about this case is that, with it on, I can’t fit my Mac into my docking station at work.
This is a problem that I’d have with any case, really, so it’s not really a fair criticism.
Just know that if you use a docking station, you will have this problem–I just use the top half of the case on my work laptop.

Being basically thrilled with spek’s laptop cases, I went ahead and got one for my iphone, too.

However, I had a much different experience.
The rubber bumpers on the sides started coming looks within a month of purchase.
They sort of held on for a few weeks, only coming off halfway, resulting in the adhesive getting all over the sides of my phone & making everything sticky.
My hair would get caught in it, and I eventually just removed them entirely.
After that, the phone didn’t feel right in my hand anymore and I abandoned the case.

so, in conclusion–
for laptops: speck is awesome!
for your iphone: NO BUENO!

It’s been a minute since I’ve done a TumbleDryLow post, so here’s the jury dury edition coming at you straight from the courtroom wifi!
For the record, I didn’t wear this shirt to jury duty.

This most excellent “Sex, Drugs, Helvetica Bold” shirt is from Collapse.

You guys know by now that I’m a certified Helvetica FREAK, so when I saw this I immediately had to own it.

Even the packaging it came in was totally slick!

There are a couple things about the shirt that some folks might not like. First, the lowercase l in “bold” is tilted (which is a trademark of most collapse shirts, as well as their logo). I think it’s sort of neat, but it might offend some type purists out there. Also, they don’t make a girly fit version of their tees. All that said, I’m extremely happy with my purchase from them.

Next on my wishlist is their “Will Kern for Food” shirt!

I really like this project. The idea of using machinery to create text or symbols with fabric is pretty fascinating, and I’d like to see how this could be taken a step farther.

We’ve all seen this type of video before, but to do it for a Herculean ten years, and on Polaroid? Awesome.

• This is BROWSER PONG! It’s so. very. good. Turn off your pop up blocker and Get to it!
• i’m a bit late in posting this, and most of you have probably already seen it, but Teux Deux has become my sole to-do list app, and trust me, I’ve used them all.
• Every Day the Same Dream is a really beautiful thing.
• The Home Alone Twitter Project tweeted the entire home alone movie in real time using a twitter account for each character.
• OMGHOLYCRAP Crystal Brass knuckles.
• Is color itself the next limited resource?
• And speaking of color, the Pantone 2010 colors are already blowing up.
• Here’s a bunch of really awesome vintage tobacco ads.
• A simple way to pick a new years resolution.
• Lastly, what if Shakespeare wrote The Big Lebowski.

Every year, the ol’ day job throws a pretty happening holiday party. This year was no exception, and I came prepared to rage.
Just before the party, I decided to take a little trip down the block for some food–and low and behold, I returned with both pizza, and a wig. Not just any wig, mind you, but a wig of clearly epic proportions, from RetroFit.

Little did I know that my Tim & Melinda would do me one better, by arriving with several pairs of mustaches on a stick. Mustaches on a stick THAT THEY MADE! The red and white ones were inspired by the pringles guy, while the blue one was fashioned in the likeness of the dude from Amazing Horse. (click it, I dare you.)

Obviously, we spent the evening inviting people to pose with them on.

Later in the evening, there was an epic burlesque show, starring Lady Satan, Pin Key Lee, Bunny Pistol, Alotta Booty, Ruby White, and Sparkly Devil.

Afterward, there was a raffle thing & I ended up winning a gift certificate to a local fancy restaurant (the food was, incidentally, not very good…which is why I won’t bother mentioning who they are).

The end of the night came quickly in a flurry of blurred smiles and mustaches.

Until we rage again!

En route to brunch the other day, I happened upon this public wish list for Santa on someone’s garage door.
I’d seen wish lists of this sort before, but typically they are present in very family-centric places like shopping malls, and they’re covered in scribblings from various children.

This list, however, was right in the middle of San Francisco’s most fabulous neighborhood, the Castro. This allowed for a considerably more varied list, including some decidedly more adult wishes.

Wishes on this list ranged from the banal to the truly inspiring.

I sat with pen in hand for quite some time when I realized there wasn’t anything in particular that I was truly in need of.
This is what I wrote:

When we got to brunch at Samovar, my feelings of satisfaction were cemented with the sheer glory of a Moroccan tea service with friends.

We exchanged gifts, and enjoyed much tea and merriment.

Somewhere in the middle of everything, for the first time in my life, I actually cried because I was so happy.
I made Tim photograph the moment for posterity.

I am so grateful for my dear friends, for the wonderful city I reside in, for all the love I have the privilege of giving and receiving each day.

Thanks everybody, for making my life awesome.