Stop & Shop

they did change the Stop & Shop logo - and I really don't know why. Seems to me that the original identity makes more sense. The new one seems like a tropical something or other....although according to many seems that most like the new one. Also found some history on Stop & Shop, which only made it to Long Island 8 years ago when it bought out Grand Union. Weird thing is....Stop & Shop has a supermarket called "Big G" (Grand Union I think)....just keep our old name!

Anywho. Stop & Shop has seen it's fair share of logo treatments.

lynda.com

reminder to self 

teach self dreamweaver

SongKick

to continue my musical education, I recently found a website called SongKick - currently still in Beta - that you can link to your itunes to help locate local shows with bands you may like, and find new artists. 

I quite like their purple interface, and it seems to be very user friendly. Unfortunately, I realized that two bands I really want to see are touring to ever city around Atlanta....but not to Atlanta....why?

Seeqpod, Ourstage and Linguistic Experience

Another quarter, new projects.

First class - called Linguistic Experience. Seems that the focus will be on how to communicate ideas to a client. And as always, it begins with us making up a company to communicate about, both visually and verbally.

I decided to go the route of music this time. I haven't done that one in a while....I have bicycles, Bible, made up band, 9/11, magical realism, Marat/Sade....now it is time for internet and music.

Unfortunately, it seems that every company I try to make-up already exists!! I guess I am going to have to create a competitor instead!!!

In the meantime, I am discovering a lot about music filesharing online, and how new independent artists are using the web to DIY their way to success...and I got to find out a little about Sub Pop's History

The website that is closest to what I was proposing on creating is called ourstage.com. Though, a Wired Blog article  had a response about Ourstage back in 2007 that said:

OurStage.com is on the right direction, but at present, it lacks the necessary audience to become a site that reflects a general consensus on good music.Any band can tell members and members can tell friends to go judge and offset the balance between quality and poor quality music.
At merely 500K unique visitors per month, OurStage.com is nowhere near the almost 50 million unique visitors MySpace.com commands.But, it's precisely that number of audience that this site would need in order to become the relevant site and music source it aspires to be.
One need to check on each music category the song positions to discover that it makes no sense whatsoever.
Beautiful or great music can be found at the bottom of each chart while real garbage can be found on the top 40.
The reason again is not enough audience and too many musicians and band members and friends of band members, tampering with the judging process.
One possible solution to eliminate this, is to offer no money or prizes and thus, only people with real interest in the judging process would be interested in participating.Most songs after entered, move usually 9 positions at a time depending on a 3 level voting scheme: "I Like it (1) slightly, (2) more and (3) by far".Songs move also, by virtue that others are being judged and displaced from their previous positions.In the end, the computation is erratic at best and even chaotic, but one thing they got to quickly correct was, not allowing musicians to enter 2 songs on the same music category.
This presented the problem that the songs would occasionally show up competing one against the other.It maybe a great way to promote, but by far absolutely inaccurate at ranking good music.Let's hope this catches one because only millions of users could make judging a more balanced process.Otherwise, as a user, I really don't take offense in seeing my tunes ranking at 1000 on the OurStage.com site, so you shouldn't either.Don't upload anything here if you have a big ego.Thanks for reading.

I was also looking at Platform One Entertainment which led me to a filesharing site called SeeqPod which led me to the ability to embed songs here I think, like so:

 

it has been a fun internet day. Glory to web browsing

Palin and SNL

you need to look at this...

o wait... here it is...

How can you vote for that?

the best part is, they didn't even need a script. Taking her words verbatim was funny enough!!!

New Museums -NYC

I was just looking in an old copy of New York Magazine and was excited to see the New Museum in New York....and the newly designed Museum of Art and Design (MAD).

Didn't realize that Pentagram did MAD

wish I hadn't missed them when I was visiting home :(

David Butler in Business Week

Read this article about David Butler's success in mainstreaming Coca-Cola's design aesthetic. 

Thought it was interesting when they were talking about the language he uses in order to show the company the value of good design, by not using the word "design" but rather focus solely on the benefit to user, manufacturer and company.

You go David Butler

Radiohead mixes

spent all day listening to this

JUMP - SOHO

are these not the cutest shoes ever:

it's a shame that I cannot buy them in ATL, cause all I needed was a few more hours to figure out if I liked them or not, and then perhaps they would be mine.

Today I wandered around Manhattan with Mikaela and ran into Jump Shoes, where Mikaela proceeded to get a pair of real cute white leather "man" dress shoes. Me, I was looking at these puppies, the Muse Shoes, but was indecisive due to my fear of rubbing heels. Apparently my mother is wrong when she says that it is abnormal for shoes to have "break-in" time...all shoes need a little breaking in. I only wish that I had the patience for that. If shoes don't work the first time I wear them outside, I give up. 

Hopefully Mikaela taught me a lesson, cause now I am sad that these babies don't belong to me!!!

Pre Birthday shopping

Is it terrible that I am slowly amassing a list of things that I would like for my birthday...or not for my birthday, since some of them are a little pricey and some are just for fun

and I am a little embarrassed about some of them

nonetheless, here I go:

Ceramic Crinkle Cups

need I say more. How funny. I only wish that they were blue or red like the dixie cups. This and the "I am not a Paper Cup" cup are on the same exact level, but quirky and fun nonetheless

I am not a Paper Cup

I actually do not want this for myself...rather, I was going to get it for Ashley for her birthday cause I do think that it is fabulous. I don't really have use for something like this, and she is a crazy coffee drinker, and its witty...come on, plastic as ceramic (I only hope that people realize it is not actually plastic before it is accidentally flung unto the floor). This reminds me of the NY cups that were turned to ceramic not too long ago....but this is more generic, and better for someone who lives in...say...Eugene, Oregon ;)

Pantone espresso cups or coffee mugs

I think that theses are just the cutest, most design dorky things to want...so I want it!!! For those of you who are not designers, Pantone is a universal color system that enables designers 

to make sure that a color is consistent from printer to printer. They do this by using a Pantone spot color, instead of a CMYK breakdown...so basically Pantone is a paint bucket that is already pre-mixed.

These mugs are so cute cause they embody that design niche that I am trying to delve into...and cause Ken and I would like some espresso mugs and I want to be a little indulgent about them :)

 Alexander Girard Wooden dolls

Although these are absolutely absurd, they remind me of Picasso's Harlequins, which I have always loved. I thought that it would be another fun collectable for me to have, since I seem to be into collecting things to put into shadow boxes on my wall (although none are in shadow boxes yet). I am a particular fan of doll #6. Seems like they are rereleased in batches and you cannot always get some of them. I also think that Hank has one or two in his office!