stairwells and hallways

finally made it home. tired of sitting on a plane.

i was killing time in georgetown before hopping on my flight home from the holidays and came across a store i had never seen before. it was ralph lauren rugby. it's basically punk rock preppy complete with patches, pins and there was even an exploited poster on the wall. you can customize rugby shirts with patches that they will stitch on or even buy the patches individually (which i did.) 

i'm not vain by any means but it's taken me a good five years to get a decent picture of myself, plus i bought myself a pretty kick ass scarf for my birthday.

i have several months worth of posts building up that i've neglected due to my lameness with this template, so if you're on a feed to this blog for some reason you're about to get a ton of posts... sorry.

a long day at the office called for a long run at the gym. by the time i got home and made dinner it was pouring rain for the first time this year which made for a good reason to get some work done. worked on some side project stuff and finally set up a bike only blog for myself so no more random bicycle posts here. it'll be a nice place for the people who i'm building for to check in and see the progress of their bikes and i can also put up cool bike stuff i find via the internet or the outside world. it's all here... geektastic!

skipped the gym today to run home and open my box of goodies. met up with a german couple who want bikes built, they were super nice, i hope i can make them something that they love. john called to tell me he had an extra ticket to turbonegro at slim's so i said i was down. gay, norwegian punk/metal, of course. the show was insane, people were getting thrown out left and right one guy as being shove out and fell down the stairs so the bouncers grabbed him by his feet and drug him the rest of the way. given the crowd issues the band actually walked off stage for a bit so they could get it under control but that was short lived and they eventually came back and finished up. for the encore jello biafra and blag dahlia came out on stage for one song. i think it was a weirdo's cover. jello's looking his age a bit and blag was looking a little drunk, he jumped out into the crowd at one point and ended things by jumping onto the drum kit. he also was ushered out by security. one of those nights. ran into an old friend pete on my way out, then hopped on my bike and pedaled home. had some funny dreams but luckily none of them involved turbonegro...

i remember as a kid i was allowed to occasionally place an order through mail order catalogs for a variety of items usually something that either transformed or came with kung fu grip. i also remember the excitement that i had when i new their arrival was imminent, i'd jump off the bus, run up the driveway as fast as i could, turn the corner at the porch and hope to the heavens that when i entered the kitchen that little brown box would be sitting on the table.

many years later (ie: today) the boxes (and the toys) are bigger but i had that same feeling, knowing that my recent spree on ebay had come to fruition i headed out of the office in hopes of seeing a large box waiting for me in front of my apartment door and no doubt about it, it was there.

this is the beginning of a my first true build for myself, by myself and i can't help feeling like a kid...

i've posted about this before but it was just repbulished with the help of a copy editor on the DWR blog.

In a recent Design Notes newsletter, Ray Brunner discussed various forms of alternative, environmentally sound transportation. We’ve been asked: “So, where is that white bicycle in the picture from?” In response, I was asked to provide a little background about it.

Several years ago I asked one of my bicycle geek friends to build me a bike. What resulted was my pride and joy – an all black hybrid of old-school track bike and new-school fixed gear. Since then I have been very content with it. Given my love for my bicycle and all things cycling related, about a year ago a friend asked if it was possible for me to build her a bicycle. I had already been tinkering with the idea of taking up bicycle building as a hobby to get myself out from behind the computer, and I had experience in restoring vintage motorcycles so I thought, “How difficult could it be?”

I began pulling the pieces together, both new and vintage, and got the build under way. Having worked as a graphic designer for the last 10 years, I know the value of designing for my client – not for myself – so my goal was to design the prototypical bike for her, both in function and form. The finished product turned out exactly as I imagined it from the start (see the above Design Notes pic) and when I handed it over to her I saw her face light up (this must be why parents give their children bicycles for Christmas). Once everything was tightened down, we took a ride through the park together and her excitement grew the further she rode. She was hooked on riding her new, Jeremy-designed bike and I was hooked on building them.

Since then I’ve had more requests for work and it has actually grown into a fun little side project. While most designers love to see their work preserved for all to see, I much prefer seeing mine locked up to a post and worn from use – that means the owner is out enjoying themselves.

i'm weak for the ol' myspace survey:

1. Where's your number one on your top 8?
there's no hierarchy... they are all equal

2. What is your favorite possession?
bicycle

3. Do you own a gun?
staple gun

4. If you could tell ur ex something what would it be?
congratulations

5. Do you get nervous before doctors appointments?
nope, nerves of steel.

6. What do you think of hot dogs?
ick. help yourself, i'll pass.

7. Favorite Christmas Song?
'christmas sucks' by tom waits and peter murphy

8. What do you prefer to drink in the morning?
coffee, blue bottle, french press

9. Can you do push ups?
you bet.

10. Is your bathroom clean?
immaculate. someone recently described it as being "hotel bathroom" clean, but some days not so much.

11. What's your favorite piece of jewelry?
metal watch, has a weight to it that i love.

12. Do you take painkillers?
do martinis count?

13. What is your secret weapon to lure in the opposite sex?
awkwardness.

14. Do you have A.D.D.?
i traded it in for O.C.D. years ago.

15. Still have a birthmark?
yep, or at least a funny scar that's been there as long as i can remember.

16. What are you doing tonight?
gym, meeting peeps for dinner, having a few cocktails and then out to some super late nightclub party that is bound to be pretty douchey but by the time i get there i won't care.

17. Name 3 thoughts at this exact moment?
1. is this person hovering about to give me more work?
2. i'm hungry
3. i would like to leave work now please.

18. Name the last 3 things you have bought?
1. coffee and a scone
2. a pair of marc jacobs vans
3. a birthday present for a friend

19. Name 3 things you drink regularly:
1. water
2. coffee
3. martinis

20. Are you on a diet?
no way. i eat constantly

21. Who's number one on your top 8?
i love them all equally

22. Current worry:
that i'm not good enough at blocking my face and my kickboxing trainer will hit me so hard that the room changes color again.

23. Current hate:
people that try to put themselves above others.

24. Favorite place to be:
on my bike and in motion

25. How did you bring in the New Year?
at a friend's restaurant having dinner with one of my best friends. civilized.

26. Where would you like to go?
anywhere i haven't been.

27. Why do you wanna go there?
because i haven't been there.

28. What shirt are you wearing?
striped polo shirt. i'm bringing preppy back.

31. Would you be a pirate?
hell yeah.

32. Are you gay?
not remotely, but i get that question a lot...

33. Do you sing in the shower?
no but a little humming with the occasional whistle.

34. What did you fear was going to get you at night as a child?
the demon dogs from ghostbusters that my uncle convinced me that lived in the woods behind my house.

35. What's in your pockets right now?
nothing, i hate having stuff in my pockets.

36. What are you going to do after this?
eat lunch, friday means sushi boats.

37. Who do you want to be with right now?
me, myself and i

38. Worst injury you've ever had?
broken thumb, bet that sucker around almost 180 degrees.

39. Best feeling in the world?
warm summer nights.

40. Worst feeling in the world?
hangovers.

41. Does someone have a crush on you?
i hope so.

42. Do you wish on shooting stars?
no, i'll wish upon the occasional meteorite though.

43. What is your favorite food?
all of them.

44. What is your favorite candy?
boston baked beans

45. What song do/did you want played at your wedding?
no wedding is complete without the electric slide.

46. What song do you want played at your funeral?
'my way' sid vicious version.

49. What were you doing @ 12 AM last night?
drinking and talking about girls in my friend's kitchen.

50. What was the first thing you thought of when you woke up?
ouch, i don't think i can move my legs.

legendary record label founder, tv host and general purveyor of all things hip in manchester and abroad passed away on august 10th. a really great article on him can be found here.

"Italian director Michelangelo Antonioni, whose depiction of alienation made him a symbol of art-house cinema with movies such as "Blow-Up" and "L'Avventura," has died, officials and news reports said Tuesday. He was 94."

link to the obit is here

if you haven't seen this, netflix it today.

1. tom waits - ol' 55
2. rolling stones - let it bleed
3. hum - i'd like your hair long
4. lamb - here
5. q.lazzarus - goodbye horses
6. swayzak - floyd
7. lush - sunbathing
8. pink floyd - dark side of the moon
9. madonna - nobody's perfect
10. red sparowes - and by our own hand did every last bird lie silent in their puddles, the air barren of song as the clouds drifted away. for killing their greatest enemy, the locusts noisily thanked us and turned their jaws towards our crops, swallowing our greed whole.
11. joy division - warsaw
12. the stooges - no fun
13. mobb deep - stole something
14. nick drake - which will
15. twilight singers - martin eden
16. ghostcauldron - vortex
17. melvins - the mechanical bride
18. thelonious monk - introspection
19. fsol - a study of six guitars
20. bat for lashes - trophy
21. squarepusher - 50 cycles
22. riverboat gamblers - biz (hearts) sluts
23. east flatbush project - tried by 12
24. birdman and lil' wayne - don't die
25. david bowie - amsterdam

Seriously. He's swears it's not a midlife crisis but anyone that wants to spend their 33rd birthday in Las Vegas is a little suspect. We'll see which way this goes– either day spas and shopping or down a darker path like renting the yellow convertible Ferrari... Needless to say you are all cordially invited to come along for the ride...

...from September 27th (the big day) through September 30th. In Vegas, baby. Vegas.

Round trip tickets are available at Travelocity for about $100, and I'm sure with a little more research less expensive methods could be found. The birthday boy and a few others will be staying at the Luxor Hotel but there are plenty of digs in the surrounding area. Even seen some great package deals available for hotel and airfare combined.

Given everyone's schedules around work, life, travel, love (wah, wah) and what not it's obvious not everyone can attend. But know that you are all invited anyway!

More details and an official countdown to come.

L.A.

you will be missed.

my very first bike build, the transformation started here.

1. the war is over - black heart procession
2. the truncated life of the modern industrialized chicken - matthew herbert
3. the talking horse - the melvins
4. keeping up with your quota - prefuse 73
5. take care - chloe
6. crossroads - tpm waits
7. this is the modern world - the jam
8. dancin' shoes - murder city devils
9. i don't need 'em - 50 cent
10. rock n roll suicide - david bowie
11. make up you mind - swayzak
12. the end has no end - the strokes
13. sous le pont - les triplettes de belleville
14. man - yeah yeah yeahs
15. aliens - dr. octagon
16. wake up - arcade fire
17. tenderly - luis bonfa
18. it's funky enough - the d.o.c.
19. les bon bons des raisons - stereolab
20. superafim - css
21. cat on the wall - p.j. harvey
22. mother's little helper - rolling stones
23. feel like i fell - kaos
24. berry meditation - fila brazillia
25. the last one standing - ladytron

after a recent night of drunken karaoke johnny convinced me to ride with him in an upcoming bike race. in the light of the morning it seemed a little bit more daunting, but i can't back down at this point.

this is on top of the marathon that i will be running at the end of july... that is if i survive the bike ride...

buying my tickets early!!!

you can't see it in the pic but it's at least two stories with a spiral staircase in the living room... maybe i can just move in and they won't notice. can't believe i have to leave here in less than two days.

... yeah right, they gave us the first one in 1900 and they have two more in case we break ours.

more pics are up here.

today i turned left instead of right going out the front door and found a whole new neighborhood just around the corner.

Architects: Ibos & Vitart

more pics are up in flickr

just making a little inspiration board...

took a walk last night from the apartment to the bastille, wonderful night for a walk. had a crepe from a small shop in the bastille and basically kept walking until about midnight. more photos have been added to the flickr set

finally made it to paris and checked into my place, a great little studio on the sixth floor. took a walk and grabbed a sandwich, totally started pouring rain but guess what... i didn't really care. must be the vacation kicking in. there is so much good shopping it's sick, haven't bought anything probably because it's been information overload and i can't decide on one shop to go into. after my excursion i was pretty wiped out, probably because since leaving on thursday 5:00pm san francisco time i've maybe gotten a total of five hours of sleep so i crashed out to take a nap.

now i'm up and am feeling like i should get out of the apartment and go find something to do, it is saturday night after all. still, can't quite wake up so we'll see if i actually make it out.

not laying any claim to musical quality but the dancing girls in the unitards are pretty amazing.



1. cascada - truly madly deepy
2. kaiser chiefs - ruby
3. paulo nutini- new shoes
4. pussycat dolls - beep
5. timbaland, nelly furtado & JT - give it to me

it's really early in the morning and i'm getting ready to leave the hotel and take the chunnel from london to paris. so far everything has been great, this hotel, the riverbank park place, has been a pleasant surprise, the staff is great, the rooms are great and the restuarant and bar are great. from what i can tell from the look of things (and the new carpet smell) the hotel itself it pretty new... got a great rate so i'd recommend it.

uploaded a batch of pics to flickr, more will come along as i go so here's the link to the set i'll be updating as i go and as i find internt conetivity.

vacation!

you're trying to tell me that there's a secret government agency in this building? hmm, not seeing it, looks pretty inviting.

got lucky with the hotel, quite nice.

nice bike.

sfo waiting for my plane

be back soon

1. at the seams - epoxies
2. everywhere and allover - lali puna
3. track 6 (live at the audobon ballroom 1978) - grandmaster flash and the furious five
4. you lie - channel 3
5. hot night crash - sahara hotnights
6. super mercato digit - kerosene
7.hello kitty kat - smashing pumpkins
8. where eagle dare - iron maiden
9. what's pinnochio's theory - leaders of the new school
10. l-invasion - dj cam
11. house of mirros - airborn audio
12. method man (remix) - method man
13. only you - flying pickets
14. two guys (for every girl) - peaches
15. the present lover - luomo
17. i've changed my address
18. press gang - the murder city devils
19. spur of the moment - ludacris
20. last night - the strokes
21. real niggaz - n.w.a.
22. an introduction to science - solvent
23. i am the cancer - sloan
24. prose combat - mc solaar
25. forty dollars - powder burns

this is how i feel today, i didn't go to art school for this...

Paris 1978, 5:30 am, Ferrari 250GB

this is a portion from an aiga talk that milton glaser gave in 2001, i read it a few years ago but was researching something for work and came across it again. long but worth the read:

"1 - YOU CAN ONLY WORK FOR PEOPLE THAT YOU LIKE.
This is a curious rule and it took me a long time to learn because in fact at the beginning of my practice I felt the opposite. Professionalism required that you didn’t particularly like the people that you worked for or at least maintained an arms length relationship to them, which meant that I never had lunch with a client or saw them socially. Then some years ago I realised that the opposite was true. I discovered that all the work I had done that was meaningful and significant came out of an affectionate relationship with a client. And I am not talking about professionalism; I am talking about affection. I am talking about a client and you sharing some common ground. That in fact your view of life is someway congruent with the client, otherwise it is a bitter and hopeless struggle.


2 - IF YOU HAVE A CHOICE NEVER HAVE A JOB.
One night I was sitting in my car outside Columbia University where my wife Shirley was studying Anthropology. While I was waiting I was listening to the radio and heard an interviewer ask ‘Now that you have reached 75 have you any advice for our audience about how to prepare for your old age?’ An irritated voice said ‘Why is everyone asking me about old age these days?’ I recognised the voice as John Cage. I am sure that many of you know who he was – the composer and philosopher who influenced people like Jasper Johns and Merce Cunningham as well as the music world in general. I knew him slightly and admired his contribution to our times. ‘You know, I do know how to prepare for old age’ he said. ‘Never have a job, because if you have a job someday someone will take it away from you and then you will be unprepared for your old age. For me, it has always been the same every since the age of 12. I wake up in the morning and I try to figure out how am I going to put bread on the table today? It is the same at 75, I wake up every morning and I think how am I going to put bread on the table today? I am exceedingly well prepared for my old age’ he said.

3 - SOME PEOPLE ARE TOXIC AVOID THEM.
This is a subtext of number one. There was in the sixties a man named Fritz Perls who was a gestalt therapist. Gestalt therapy derives from art history, it proposes you must understand the ‘whole’ before you can understand the details. What you have to look at is the entire culture, the entire family and community and so on. Perls proposed that in all relationships people could be either toxic or nourishing towards one another. It is not necessarily true that the same person will be toxic or nourishing in every relationship, but the combination of any two people in a relationship produces toxic or nourishing consequences. And the important thing that I can tell you is that there is a test to determine whether someone is toxic or nourishing in your relationship with them. Here is the test: You have spent some time with this person, either you have a drink or go for dinner or you go to a ball game. It doesn’t matter very much but at the end of that time you observe whether you are more energised or less energised. Whether you are tired or whether you are exhilarated. If you are more tired then you have been poisoned. If you have more energy you have been nourished. The test is almost infallible and I suggest that you use it for the rest of your life.

4 - PROFESSIONALISM IS NOT ENOUGH or THE GOOD IS THE ENEMY OF THE GREAT.
Early in my career I wanted to be professional, that was my complete aspiration in my early life because professionals seemed to know everything - not to mention they got paid for it. Later I discovered after working for a while that professionalism itself was a limitation. After all, what professionalism means in most cases is diminishing risks. So if you want to get your car fixed you go to a mechanic who knows how to deal with transmission problems in the same way each time. I suppose if you needed brain surgery you wouldn’t want the doctor to fool around and invent a new way of connecting your nerve endings. Please do it in the way that has worked in the past.

Unfortunately in our field, in the so-called creative – I hate that word because it is misused so often. I also hate the fact that it is used as a noun. Can you imagine calling someone a creative? Anyhow, when you are doing something in a recurring way to diminish risk or doing it in the same way as you have done it before, it is clear why professionalism is not enough. After all, what is required in our field, more than anything else, is the continuous transgression. Professionalism does not allow for that because transgression has to encompass the possibility of failure and if you are professional your instinct is not to fail, it is to repeat success. So professionalism as a lifetime aspiration is a limited goal.

5 - LESS IS NOT NECESSARILY MORE.
Being a child of modernism I have heard this mantra all my life. Less is more. One morning upon awakening I realised that it was total nonsense, it is an absurd proposition and also fairly meaningless. But it sounds great because it contains within it a paradox that is resistant to understanding. But it simply does not obtain when you think about the visual of the history of the world. If you look at a Persian rug, you cannot say that less is more because you realise that every part of that rug, every change of colour, every shift in form is absolutely essential for its aesthetic success. You cannot prove to me that a solid blue rug is in any way superior. That also goes for the work of Gaudi, Persian miniatures, art nouveau and everything else. However, I have an alternative to the proposition that I believe is more appropriate. ‘Just enough is more.’


6 - STYLE IS NOT TO BE TRUSTED.
I think this idea first occurred to me when I was looking at a marvellous etching of a bull by Picasso. It was an illustration for a story by Balzac called The Hidden Masterpiece. I am sure that you all know it. It is a bull that is expressed in 12 different styles going from very naturalistic version of a bull to an absolutely reductive single line abstraction and everything else along the way. What is clear just from looking at this single print is that style is irrelevant. In every one of these cases, from extreme abstraction to acute naturalism they are extraordinary regardless of the style. It’s absurd to be loyal to a style. It does not deserve your loyalty. I must say that for old design professionals it is a problem because the field is driven by economic consideration more than anything else. Style change is usually linked to economic factors, as all of you know who have read Marx. Also fatigue occurs when people see too much of the same thing too often. So every ten years or so there is a stylistic shift and things are made to look different. Typefaces go in and out of style and the visual system shifts a little bit. If you are around for a long time as a designer, you have an essential problem of what to do. I mean, after all, you have developed a vocabulary, a form that is your own. It is one of the ways that you distinguish yourself from your peers, and establish your identity in the field. How you maintain your own belief system and preferences becomes a real balancing act. The question of whether you pursue change or whether you maintain your own distinct form becomes difficult. We have all seen the work of illustrious practitioners that suddenly look old-fashioned or, more precisely, belonging to another moment in time. And there are sad stories such as the one about Cassandre, arguably the greatest graphic designer of the twentieth century, who couldn’t make a living at the end of his life and committed suicide.
But the point is that anybody who is in this for the long haul has to decide how to respond to change in the zeitgeist. What is it that people now expect that they formerly didn’t want? And how to respond to that desire in a way that doesn’t change your sense of integrity and purpose.

7 - HOW YOU LIVE CHANGES YOUR BRAIN.
The brain is the most responsive organ of the body. Actually it is the organ that is most susceptible to change and regeneration of all the organs in the body. I have a friend named Gerald Edelman who was a great scholar of brain studies and he says that the analogy of the brain to a computer is pathetic. The brain is actually more like an overgrown garden that is constantly growing and throwing off seeds, regenerating and so on. And he believes that the brain is susceptible, in a way that we are not fully conscious of, to almost every experience of our life and every encounter we have. I was fascinated by a story in a newspaper a few years ago about the search for perfect pitch. A group of scientists decided that they were going to find out why certain people have perfect pitch. You know certain people hear a note precisely and are able to replicate it at exactly the right pitch. Some people have relevant pitch; perfect pitch is rare even among musicians. The scientists discovered – I don’t know how - that among people with perfect pitch the brain was different. Certain lobes of the brain had undergone some change or deformation that was always present with those who had perfect pitch. This was interesting enough in itself. But then they discovered something even more fascinating. If you took a bunch of kids and taught them to play the violin at the age of 4 or 5 after a couple of years some of them developed perfect pitch, and in all of those cases their brain structure had changed. Well what could that mean for the rest of us? We tend to believe that the mind affects the body and the body affects the mind, although we do not generally believe that everything we do affects the brain. I am convinced that if someone was to yell at me from across the street my brain could be affected and my life might changed. That is why your mother always said, ‘Don’t hang out with those bad kids.’ Mama was right. Thought changes our life and our behaviour. I also believe that drawing works in the same way. I am a great advocate of drawing, not in order to become an illustrator, but because I believe drawing changes the brain in the same way as the search to create the right note changes the brain of a violinist. Drawing also makes you attentive. It makes you pay attention to what you are looking at, which is not so easy.

8 - DOUBT IS BETTER THAN CERTAINTY.
Everyone always talks about confidence in believing what you do. I remember once going to a class in yoga where the teacher said that, spirituality speaking, if you believed that you had achieved enlightenment you have merely arrived at your limitation. I think that is also true in a practical sense. Deeply held beliefs of any kind prevent you from being open to experience, which is why I find all firmly held ideological positions questionable. It makes me nervous when someone believes too deeply or too much. I think that being sceptical and questioning all deeply held beliefs is essential. Of course we must know the difference between scepticism and cynicism because cynicism is as much a restriction of one’s openness to the world as passionate belief is. They are sort of twins. And then in a very real way, solving any problem is more important than being right. There is a significant sense of self-righteousness in both the art and design world. Perhaps it begins at school. Art school often begins with the Ayn Rand model of the single personality resisting the ideas of the surrounding culture. The theory of the avant garde is that as an individual you can transform the world, which is true up to a point. One of the signs of a damaged ego is absolute certainty.

Schools encourage the idea of not compromising and defending your work at all costs. Well, the issue at work is usually all about the nature of compromise. You just have to know what to compromise. Blind pursuit of your own ends which excludes the possibility that others may be right does not allow for the fact that in design we are always dealing with a triad – the client, the audience and you.

Ideally, making everyone win through acts of accommodation is desirable. But self-righteousness is often the enemy. Self-righteousness and narcissism generally come out of some sort of childhood trauma, which we do not have to go into. It is a consistently difficult thing in human affairs. Some years ago I read a most remarkable thing about love, that also applies to the nature of co-existing with others. It was a quotation from Iris Murdoch in her obituary. It read ‘ Love is the extremely difficult realisation that something other than oneself is real.’ Isn’t that fantastic! The best insight on the subject of love that one can imagine.

9 - ON AGING.
Last year someone gave me a charming book by Roger Rosenblatt called ‘Ageing Gracefully’ I got it on my birthday. I did not appreciate the title at the time but it contains a series of rules for ageing gracefully. The first rule is the best. Rule number one is that ‘it doesn’t matter.’ ‘It doesn’t matter that what you think. Follow this rule and it will add decades to your life. It does not matter if you are late or early, if you are here or there, if you said it or didn’t say it, if you are clever or if you were stupid. If you were having a bad hair day or a no hair day or if your boss looks at you cockeyed or your boyfriend or girlfriend looks at you cockeyed, if you are cockeyed. If you don’t get that promotion or prize or house or if you do – it doesn’t matter.’ Wisdom at last. Then I heard a marvellous joke that seemed related to rule number 10. A butcher was opening his market one morning and as he did a rabbit popped his head through the door. The butcher was surprised when the rabbit inquired ‘Got any cabbage?’ The butcher said ‘This is a meat market – we sell meat, not vegetables.’ The rabbit hopped off. The next day the butcher is opening the shop and sure enough the rabbit pops his head round and says ‘You got any cabbage?’ The butcher now irritated says ‘Listen you little rodent I told you yesterday we sell meat, we do not sell vegetables and the next time you come here I am going to grab you by the throat and nail those floppy ears to the floor.’ The rabbit disappeared hastily and nothing happened for a week. Then one morning the rabbit popped his head around the corner and said ‘Got any nails?’ The butcher said ‘No.’ The rabbit said ‘Ok. Got any cabbage?’

10 - TELL THE TRUTH.
The rabbit joke is relevant because it occurred to me that looking for a cabbage in a butcher’s shop might be like looking for ethics in the design field. It may not be the most obvious place to find either. It’s interesting to observe that in the new AIGA’s code of ethics there is a significant amount of useful information about appropriate behaviour towards clients and other designers, but not a word about a designer’s relationship to the public. We expect a butcher to sell us eatable meat and that he doesn’t misrepresent his wares. I remember reading that during the Stalin years in Russia that everything labelled veal was actually chicken. I can’t imagine what everything labelled chicken was. We can accept certain kinds of misrepresentation, such as fudging about the amount of fat in his hamburger but once a butcher knowingly sells us spoiled meat we go elsewhere. As a designer, do we have less responsibility to our public than a butcher? Everyone interested in licensing our field might note that the reason licensing has been invented is to protect the public not designers or clients. ‘Do no harm’ is an admonition to doctors concerning their relationship to their patients, not to their fellow practitioners or the drug companies. If we were licensed, telling the truth might become more central to what we do."

Milton Glaser
Ten Things I Have Learned
Part of AIGA Talk in London
November 22, 2001

images via new york times

a new book is out about brazilian architect oscar niemeyer's homes and at first glance it looks pretty amazing... personally i've read his memiors and i'd highly recommend them as well.

...and i'd rather be in kingston. david rodigan says you should listen to this and i say you should watch this.

more of david "ramjam" rodigan:

the gamblers have been listed as the number 5 editor's video pick by rolling stone.com. awesome!

1. whoo! alright-yeah...uh huh - the rapture
2. the beehive - lil' kim
3. undermining - space mtn
4. get down - connie case
5. shame - pj harvey
6. eat it - dr. octagon
7. pussy galore - the roots
8. drunk right now - hollertronix
9. sneakin' out the hospital - the beastie boys
10. talkin' about you - the animals
11. you know i couldn't last - morrissey
12. domestic violence - rza
13. sotto controllo - ayro
14. scientist - anna oxygen
15. last light - prefuse 73
16. black tongue - yeah yeah yeahs
17. life on mars - david bowie
18. the fat lady of limbourg - brian eno
19. alien - lamb
20. yeah (remix) - usher ft. lil jon and ludacris
21. sofa rockers - sofa surfers
22. fuck wit dre day - dr dre
23. be still my heart - postal service
24. iron fist motörhead
25. why is that - boogie down productions