Skateboarding

Anybody else notice that skateboarding has been picking up steam again? I'm seeing more and more people skating in the past few months. Personally, I never learned to do anything more than stand on a board and roll down a slight incline, but that hasn't done anything to hinder my appreciation for the sport/act of rebellion.



This morning, while holed up in one of the design studios at school, I looked out the window and saw a bunch of teenagers across the street doing their thing on their skateboards. They moved along pretty quickly and were gone as suddenly as they had arrived. 30 minutes later, I heard the sickening sounds of children frolicking, and I looked out the window. The area where the skaters had been hanging out only half an hour prior was now overrun with a small mob of thirty-something yuppie parents and their attendant brats. I was genuinely upset to see them there!

Thankfully, they moved on after a few minutes. Before they left, I had to laugh to myself as I realized that the way I reacted to the presence of those families (in comparison to the way I felt about the skateboarders) pretty much ran counter to the way that most normal people would have felt about the situation.

Wouldn't it be nice if there were signs like these everywhere?

Trash Talk

Last month, Trash Talk recorded a live performance to be aired on Fuel TV. I don't know anybody that subscribes to Fuel TV, so I tracked it down on the channel's website.



A lot of people love to talk shit on Trash Talk, and hey... I guess that's just the way it goes. Any time a band finds even limited success, there will be people who want to tear them down simply because they're popular. I see it differently. I remember them being a band that could barely get anybody to come see their shows. I also remember them being a band that didn't give a fuck that nobody really cared. They just hit the road, over and over again, and did their thing until people woke up and noticed that they were killing it!

Emigre Exhibition

The work of Emigre, the legendary type/design/publishing powerhouse, is currently on exhibit at San Francisco's Gallery 16. I completely missed the opening (which was over a month ago), but luckily I still have 10 days to catch the show before it closes on January 30th.



Gallery 16 San Francisco
Emigre News Archive

Poster Cabaret

Poster Cabaret showcases and sells the works of a number of talented designers. Poster art is usually pretty exciting, as that is its imperative; by their very nature, posters strive to entice and attract people to events, or to at least offer an enduring memento of the event. After only a few seconds of surfing through the site, it already looks like I may need to expand my collection.

Danzig by Micah Smith



Bicycle by Eleanor Grosch



All the Colors of the Dark by Doublenaut



http://www.postercabaret.com
http://www.postercabaret.com
http://www.postercabaret.com

So Many Books, So Little Time

As a child, I read a lot. I mean, a LOT. There were a couple of summers where I completed my local library's summer reading program TWICE... not just because I wanted the crappy prizes, but because I really just enjoyed the act of reading. Strangely, though, at a certain point, I just stopped. I can't really explain it, but fiction just became unbearable. My ability to immerse myself in the plot, absorb the characters' personalities and motivations just faded away. Pretty suddenly as I remember it, actually.

Biographies, historical and scientific accounts still capture my attention from time to time, but nothing beats the thrill that I get when reading about artistic people and their endeavors. It goes beyond simply admiring the pages and pages of eye candy. While I often find immediate inspiration in their images, I find it more fascinating to arrive at a better understanding of how personal or historical circumstances shaped artistic outlooks, movements and processes. Luckily for me, the birthday and Christmas season just dumped a TON of these sorts of books in my lap. Here's what I'll be thumbing through and eating up in the coming weeks and months.