Deckchairs on the Titanic

Die Off.

Tue, 06 May 2008 20:57:28 -0600

Oil reached an all-time high today, at $122 per barrel, which is twice what it was one year ago. A friend of mine introduced me to the unhappy world of Peak Oil and the suppositions that, soon, without oil, civilization will falter and fail. It's a very unpretty picture that folks are painting but it's not without its supporters (in government primarily) and those who believe it but can't speak its name. Anyway, if you're at all curious, the one site that's super gloomy but powerful is DieOff. I'm going to tread slowly on this territory but it's interesting, to me, in particular because the signs of the related Olduvai theory are apparent. The bubble of reality that we all live in seems never so thin. Postcript: I'm particularly curious about White's Law, which Wikipedia argues:

For White “the primary function of culture” and the one that determines its level of advancement is its ability to “harness and control energy.” White's law states that the measure by which to judge the relative degree of evolvedness of culture was the amount of energy it could capture (energy consumption). White differentiates between five stages of human development. In the first, people use energy of their own muscles. In the second, they use energy of domesticated animals. In the third, they use the energy of plants (so White refers to agricultural revolution here). In the fourth, they learn to use the energy of natural resources: coal, oil, gas. In the fifth, they harness the nuclear energy.

Flex.

Thu, 24 Apr 2008 21:45:34 -0600

I'm exceedingly boring these days. That's why I haven't posted very much on Deckchairs. And that's why the stuff that I have posted (e.g. videos, fonts, etc.) is of little relevance to almost anybody but me and three other people. My boringnesss stems, at this time, from three factors: I am completely swamped with (great) design work for (great) clients, Passover was here, and the weather has been mildly better (except for today when we got, yes, about 1 inch of snow). Just to keep this boring ball rolling a little longer, I saw this new car/SUV thing called the Flex today by Ford and it's just lovely. It's the car that I would want immediately if the following things weren't simultaneously extant:

The thing probably gets 14 mpg and gas is soon going to $5.00 and then probably $6.00 per gallon
I have a family of three, not seven
The car will probably cost $40,000 in Canada

What's so cool about this vehicle? It looks like what we, as kids in the 70s, would have wanted all of our parents to have back then. Lots of space, wood paneling, long sidelines, round dials up front, a big sunroof, a long wheel base, and seating for seven. Check it out in black. It almost makes me nostalgic for the days when gas was cheap, life was easier, wood was available, the sun wasn't bad for you, and travel was fun. Oops, that's what they wanted me to say.

Soho.

Mon, 21 Apr 2008 17:36:43 -0600

Happy Passover. It looks like typographer Sebastian Lester came out with Soho Gothic, a beautiful complement to his incredible Soho. Oooh, I need some money to buy these. About $1,500.00 is all.

Yelkrab Slrang.

Mon, 14 Apr 2008 21:59:01 -0600

It turns out that Gnalrs Barkley is giving away its whole album free, backwards and in one continuous track. You can download it from their crazy mini-site. It's not bad.

Gnarls Barkley.

Sun, 13 Apr 2008 09:38:26 -0600

Everything looks better with Gnarls Barkley's "Run (I'm a Natural Disaster)" - this was almost impossible to find as, seemingly, NBC has taken crazy steps to keep it off the Net. This song and everything about it is brilliant.

Gnarls Barkley - Run [Live @ SNL]
by Get-Me-Bodied

I'd be surprised if this is video is still around tomorrow.

Inky.

Thu, 10 Apr 2008 20:47:24 -0600

My cat of sixteen years passed away about four hours ago. It's been nothing but difficult these past few hours. I'm filled with longing and hurt, and sadness, mostly. I loved Inky tremendously. He was with me through thick and thin, big and small - the birth of my daughter, the death of family members, the deliberations of relationships, and the demise of jobs. I feel like I was punched in the stomach right now, ready to throw up my memories and not willing to let them, or him, go. He was born around October 31, 1992. He came to me through the window of my apartment in Albany, New York, where I was going to graduate school. In fact, he had already made a name for himself. The landlord upstairs told me about a cat and I expressed little interest. When he came around once and then twice, I took him in and kept him. And I've had him ever since, with the exception being when my then girlfriend took great care of him while I was studying in Poland. He was a gorgeous friend. I spent the day with him, lying with him, holding him, petting him, trying to imagine what life would be like without him and I couldn't. Now I can't imagine what life was like with him. It's as if the swinging doors of existence only swing one way. I find it so strange, so appalling, and so grotesque that I don't know what to do with myself. He had cancer for the past 10 months so, mostly in his paw. It led to a very circuitous track of looking for a vet that would help him and diagnose him correctly and act like they cared. In the end, I found that vet, and he administered the dose of drugs that gave him the lethal push into the ether. I was with Inky all day, as a I said. He slightly resisted going into his cage before we left the house and, in the car, I looked back a few times to see his bright, green, lovely eyes looking at me. I think he knew what was happening, kind of. The cancer had gotten to his lungs and chest and he was wheezing and breathing heavily the past four days. Yesterday, he came downstairs to my office and let out two sounds I hadn't heard before; they were something like a cry of pain and a call for help. I believe he was having trouble breathing coming down the stairs to see me. He plopped himself down and I attended to him. In the end, he was a supremely smart cat, often understanding what you said. He would wag his tail at me in approval today and he got up the energy to purr with me when I lied on his side with him. But I have questions. Lots of questions. Did I put him down at the right time? Could it have been tomorrow? Was he really in pain and how much? Could it have two or three days from now? Why so soon? And why couldn't we just hold on to him for a while? More generally, why does all the literature say that feline euthanasia is painless (which I'm sure it was today) yet we don't administer it to ourselves? Inky's last tiny little meal was a bit of tuna from a Fancy Feast can. Did that animal who died to feed him suffer? Even more generally, where is Inky right now? Is he in the stars as I imagine or in the nowhere that scares us all? What happened during his transition from here to there? Could I have done something, earlier in his life, to have prevented this from happening? What kind of world do we live in that this is what moves me? I recognize that I'm grasping at many different straws here. This post is mostly an attempt at publicly acknowledging my grief, which is shared by my wife and child and others that knew and loved Inky. He was adorable. Sweet. Smart. Truly wonderful to behold, hug, and love. Postscript: I found these two quotes to be helpful: As to "ending his suffering" - one may and should do so as soon as the animal has no chance of recovery and is only suffering - (source: "Code of Jewish Law" E.H. 5:14). Once an animal is dead, burial or cremation is permitted - (source: Exodus 22:30).

Help wanted.

Wed, 02 Apr 2008 21:53:33 -0600

So, I posted this position today for a CSS developer at Authentic Jobs. If you know of anyone who might be applicable and who might want to apply, please send forward this to them? Thanks. Postscript: Help wanted was gained at The Royal Mint. Check out these beautiful, beautiful designs for the new coins by 26-year old Matthew Dent.

Caved.

Tue, 01 Apr 2008 21:18:14 -0600

So, Nick Cave's newish band Grinderman is coming out with a new album called "Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!!" (I love those three exclamation points, by the way.) I've been a long-time man fan of Nick Cave, and the new album looks fantastic. Cool artists Tim Noble and Sue Webster, who were nothing just a few years ago I think, did some of the album artwork. And Graeme Swinton, a rich media / Flash/ other designer, looks like he helped with the video, which, in turn, is great. And below. The whole thing reeks of bad early 1980s production, Nick Cave looks old and ugly with that caterpillar mustache, and the song seems, as one commentator noted, fresh. It's really unlike anything else out there right now.

Paul Rand.

Sun, 30 Mar 2008 22:38:20 -0600

This was an amazing interview with Paul Rand. "I'll solve your problem for your the best way I know how." As a designer, I'd like to get to this point professionally. "I'll provide one design for you that I believe will help you. If you want other designs, ask other designers." In case you don't know Rand, he's the total master of corporate identity in the 20th century.

3 AM Girl.

Mon, 24 Mar 2008 14:52:22 -0600

The Clinton campaign apparently used stock video footage for her scary "3:00-am-who-do-you-want-answering-the-scary-phone" ad. Well, Hillary not only got called on the use of the stock footage (which is no crime) but it was done so by the child actor who was the actress in the footage eight years ago. And that child actor is a big Obama supporter. Doh. I imagine that there are a few creative directors in the Clinton ad campaign headquarters that are wishing they had hired a "real" actor to do the dirty work. Oy vey. P.S. I use stock for my clients. Everyone does. There's nothing wrong with it, inherently.

Hulu in Canada.

Tue, 18 Mar 2008 20:55:15 -0600

Unbelievable. I tuned in to Hulu.com, the nicely designed site featuring popular video clips, thanks to a link by John Gruber today. Lo and behold, I live behind some kind of iron curtain in Canada. Hulu.com is not available in my "country or region," which essentially means "we don't like your kind," or, more technically, "our copyright laws do not apply to you." What looks to be a promising means of corporate release of digital rights turns out to be, for now, a tease and poor one at that.

Dep.

Mon, 17 Mar 2008 22:20:38 -0600

Since the massive interest rate cuts by the Fed a few weeks ago, I've been thinking that the economy is far shakier than we are being led to believe. It wasn't from the numbers (which I can't say I understand) nor from some ideological belief about market economies (which I generally like). Rather, my worries about what the Fed knows and can't tell us stems from the fact that the Fed can't seem to stem the tide. The Fed cannot continue to bail out companies like Bear Sterns constantly, every week or every few days. If lending is shut down entirely, we will enter a massively scary economic crisis that could make 1929 look like fun. It's truly scary. The Fed's lack of transparency here or willingness to provide true oversight of these massively over-leveraged companies, combined with Mr. Bush's blind confidence in their capacity, makes for lots of worries. No Fed leader wants to say the word "recession" let alone "depression" but those two words came out today for the first time (to my ears) from a number of pundits on NPR. P.S. This piece from my pal, V.S., via Jon Stewart: "If you want to do the Jedi mind trick, you have to be a Jedi."

Architects.

Sat, 15 Mar 2008 17:09:23 -0600

Someone seemed to have forgotten to get an education on their way through architecture school. By the number of cars in the lot, this retirement home, somehow built in the shape of a swastika, is quite popular.

Empire State.

Tue, 11 Mar 2008 22:30:51 -0600

New York State continues to undergo crazy finger-pointing and gnashing of teeth with Spitzer's assumed coming resignation. In nice contradistinction, I found today a new typeface by one of my favorite type designers, Christian Schwartz. It's called Empire State Building and it's lovely, lovely, lovely. The font captures the aspirational, heady days of ornament and art deco without looking treacly, worn, or old. It's warm without being gothic, slick without feeling corporate, and legible without relying upon 2004 to make it modern. I don't know if it fully captures the odd beauty of the building's interior ground floor but it comes pretty close. Oh, it's not for sale, by the way.

Spitzer.

Mon, 10 Mar 2008 22:38:36 -0600

I've always had a lot of respect for Elliot Spitzer. You might as well take look at his current Governor of New York page, because it won't be there for long, as his statement today is listed on the website as "Recent Events." I've been listening to the shock and awe of Spitzer's announcement that he had a "private" mishap being involved with some kind of prostitution ring and/or being a john. But while the pundits are focusing on his poor family and wife, they seem to have forgotten that Hillary must be pissed off. As the Senator from New York and a Democrat closely aligned with the good works for the Spitzer administration and fund-raising machine, she must be livid. Additionally, the pundits I've heard are ignoring the possibility that he was targeted for this transgression by either the Feds or some kind of Republican apparatus, whether New York State-based or otherwise. Spitzer was dangerous to the Republicans and now, I think, he's a danger to the Democrats.