Kevin Savetz has just posted MP3 files of the “First Philadelphia Computer Music Festival,” an LP released in 1979 by Creative Computing magazine, on vintagecomputermusic.com. If you are a fan of 2001: A Space Odyssey and have wondered why HAL sings “A Bicycle Built For Two” when he is being disconnected, check out the last track, recorded in 1963.
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I’ve been invited by Addison Hall to participate in this “musical baton” thing that’s being passed from blog to blog. I’m a good sport, so here goes:
Total volume of music on my computer: 10.09GB, 2,572 songs, 6.5 days worth.
The last CD I bought was: Escondida, by Jolie Holland. Already among my favorite albums.
Song playing right now: None. I actually don’t usually listen to music while I work (this is working?). On the other hand, I do like to listen to stuff from the Fresh Air archives while I work.
Five songs I listen to a lot, or that mean a lot to me:
Well, these don’t all necessarilly mean a lot to me, but they are a few of my favorites…
Cheminant A La Ville, by Kate & Anna McGarrigle. I know some french so I can almost understand this song. Plus, it’s beautiful.
Communication Breakdown, by Led Zeppelin. Best played very loud.
Jealous Guy, by John Lennon. My favorite Lennon song.
Free Money, by Patti Smith. I love her early stuff.
You’re Gonna Make Me Lonesome When You Go, by Madeleine Peyroux. Great cover of an old Bob Dylan song.
Five People to Whom I am Passing the Baton:
Typographica (either Stephen or Josh)
Mark Friesen
I discovered Todd Dominey’s What Do I Know [Update: Sadly, it no longer exists] weblog a while back among the hundreds of sites listed on Movable Type’s old Donors’ page (R.I.P.). I thought, “Well there’s an interesting name.” It turned out to be an interesting site, too. I always look forward to reading what Todd has to say. Great links.
I know. Everybody knows about Jeffrey Zeldman’s blog. It’s still one of my favorites. I discovered it when he linked to one of my articles a couple of years ago. He hasn’t been writing much lately due to the fact that he just became a father. I can’t blame him at all, but I hope he manages to drag himself back to his keyboard soon. Closely linked to Zeldman is A List Apart—essential reading for anyone who creates websites.
Illustrator and designer John Martz’s Robot Johnny weblog is a recent addition to my short list. I discovered it when John added my Notebook blog to his links page. Robot Johnny is every bit as fun and interesting as I hope my site is. In fact, it’s a bit eerie how many interests we have in common. I’ve come to realize that on the internet this sort of thing is inevitable.
I’ve been getting a number of emails lately from people wanting to know what I think of the recent controversy surrounding some documents shown on 60 Minutes concerning President Bush’s military record which are said to be from around 1972. I’m not going to comment on it here, but I and many others have been expressing our opinions about it on Typographica where Scott Stowell posted an item about it last Friday.
I will say one thing: I don’t know as much about 1970s typewriters as I’d like to. Typewriters are like type in the way that bicycles are like motorcycles. Being an expert on one doesn’t necessarily mean you know much about the other.
Cheshire Dave’s Mastication Is Normal is home of the famous Behind the Typeface: Cooper Black, a clever spoof of VH1’s Behind the Music series. Cheshire’s latest production, Etched In Stone, is a murder mystery revolving around the typeface Trajan. It was premiered at TypeCon 2004 in San Francisco and, hopefully, will be viewable online soon. **Update:**Chesh called it quits on his site, but Etched In Stone can be seen on Vimeo.
Jon Coltz is a statistics guy who discovered type at some point and has been writing about it on daidala. [Update: The site no longer exists.] Jon has absorbed a massive amount of knowledge about the subject for someone who is not in the design profession (he won the type trivia contest at TypeCon this year). He is also a very entertaining and engaging writer. Be sure to check out the interviews.
David Earl’s UK-based Typographer.org has gone through several incarnations over the years. When I first discovered it, it was an online magazine with articles about type and featured several writers. Then it changed into a type news blog for a while. A couple of years ago, it changed again and David has scaled back to posting an in-depth article every now and then.
Nick Shinn, a talented type designer based in Toronto, regularly posts essays about type and design on his site which have appeared in various design magazines. My favorite is “The Golden Age of Lettering” (big surprise).
Peter Bilak, creator of the extensive Fedra family and based in The Hague, has a large collection of critical essays and articles on his foundry’s website, many written by him. He also co-founded dot-dot-dot magazine. When does this guy have time to design type?
Los Angeles-based illustrator, lettering artist and type designer Leslie Cabarga is also a prolific writer. His first book, which he started writing as a teenager, is still the definitive history of the Fleischer Brothers animation studio. In his latest book, Logo, Font, and Lettering Bible, he seems to reveal all the tricks in his bag. Highly recommended.