I thought this video was relevant to Winnipeg for a number of different reasons. First, we have some great designers (and champions of design) here that are looking to do some amazing things for both our city and the design disciplines studied here. Second, we have a lot of great capital projects that are either underway or about to be announced that will add excitement and life to our city. Coincidentally, many of them are museums of some sort or another. But the definition of museum is changing. They are no longer static exhibits that merely educate. They are interactive experiences that entertain as well. The success of these new institutions rely on the ability to draw back visitors several times a year. They need to educate, entertain, inspire and relate to their audience. We can no longer think of museums as places that preserve history. We need to think of them as places where we can celebrate history and anticipate the future.

The snark, formally referred to as the point d’ironie, deserves serious consideration for a punctuational revival. Originally used in the 16th century, and more recently in 1899 when French poet Alcanter de Brahm suggested its return, the snark signifies what it’s name suggests - sarcasm.

Come to think of it, there are a lot of punctuation needs that have emerged through our increased use of the written word for day-to-day social and professional interaction. It’s not a need to clarify wording, but the need to convey the intended tone.

I would love a visual cue I could use for the follow up email, something that emits the feeling of being desperate to know when you’ll get what you need, understanding of the difficulties the other person faces, but clearly and politely running out of time.

I don’t know what that would look like, but if it’s anything like those ridiculous sideways winky happy faces, forget it. When I was a six year old girl I didn’t dot my i’s with hearts and I’m not about to start now.

So bravo to Henry Hitchings, who, in the Wall Street Journal, suggested revisiting lost and struggling punctuation candidates from the recent and distant past. We need linguists, graphic designers, bored desk jockeys and keyboard manufacturers to suggest and deliver snarks, interrobangs, their cohorts and their offspring to add depth and contrast to the monotone landscape of texting and email.

:) place snark here.

This is one of those pieces of work that you come across once in a long while that feels full and complete. I love it when I experience something like this because it happens so rarely. The Spike Jonze and Olympia le-Tan co-created Mourir Auprès de Toi, is a beautifully torrid little love story that fits humour, suspense, tragedy and love into the span of a perfectly paced few minutes that leaves you walking away from the table fully satisfied while at the same time wanting more. Thanks to Ed Huot for posting this on Facebook and introducing me to Nowness which will surely become one of my regular web haunts from now on.

I have to admit, I'd never heard of Steampunk prior to coming across Tom Banwell's apocalyptic creations. I'm not going to get into the whole Steampunk history or origins because a) you can read it for yourself and b) I'm actually not that interested in learning enough about it to sound like I know what I'm talking about. I will say this though, without knowing diddly or squat about this sub-culture, I'd say these guys have a pretty active collective imagination. I guess it must be comforting knowing what you are going to dress up as for every single Halloween. Guaranteed, none of these crackers are deciding between Thor or Iron Man this October. Unless of course it's some kind of messed up Steampunk Thor or Steampunk Iron Man. Sweet dreams.

In honour of the man himself, I am going to keep this short and sweet. Check out Funny or Die for more Ron Swanson tributes.



 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I don't know why this bothers me so much, maybe because I'm in the military where we use (inverted) chevron insignia for our ranks, but it does indeed make me crazy. So, I did a little diagram to illustrate the difference between the chevron and the zig zag.

Jackson Browne played the Concert Hall on Saturday night and reminded us what happens when anyone (musicians included) match their product to their values.

In these days of pre-fab, insert city-name here, concerts that we’ve grown so accustomed to, Browne put on a show that made Winnipeg concert-goers from the day remember what it was like to actually interact with a performer. For those of you who don’t know, bands used to stop in Winnipeg because of the reputation of our crowd - that we knew music and we knew how to make an artist feel appreciated. The challenge was always to get them out for the third encore, and many times, out at the Winnipeg arena, they did.

That doesn’t happen much any more. But on Saturday, we saw a genuine performance. A few songs in, Browne admitted there’s no real set list, because he’s lazy and he likes it that way.

So people started calling out songs to play. Now, I don’t know how, or if, this works in other cities. But as usual, Winnipeg music fans knew what they were talking about - calling for a few hits - but lots of requests for album cuts.

A while later, Browne says he’s hitting a few off notes because he’s distracted - by his shirt. He’s worn it quite a bit, apparently, on this tour, but somehow, tonight, it’s not right (even though, we’re assured, he washes it regularly). So off stage for five minutes, a change of shirt and back to it.

He moves regularly from the keyboard to one of his eighteen guitars, as he plays through almost two dozen songs. Some I haven’t heard and now need to get, and a few that I forgot I knew. Each time, it was like finding $20. that I didn’t know I’d lost.

For those who know, here’s a partial song list: Rosie; the Load Out; Love Needs a Heart; Take it Easy; The Pretender; Peaceful Easy Feeling; Cocaine, the Rehab mix - including Ron and Nancy just say no references; These Days; Doctor my Eyes; Running on Empty; In the Shape of a Heart; I’m Alive and The Naked Ride Home.

Browne looks great without the beard, sounds a little more breathy than he did on vinyl and emits an integrity that reminds us of those days of high ideals, but now includes the wisdom of time.

Somewhere near the end, he says, ”There’s a whole bunch of songs I usually play that I didn’t get to do tonight.” I believe we received a truly unique concert. Like the best brands in the world, this actual experience was in every way consistent with what I had hoped for on the way in.

In this Intel Visual Life Profile, Michael Wolff, co-founder of Wolff Olins, talks about exercising the 3 muscles of seeing: curiosity, appreciation and imagination.

Just imagine stepping off a bus at the break of dawn, in the middle of a freezing cold desert, where someone offers you coffee and a warm blanket. As you stand there in silence, you take in the cool, fresh air and wait for the music to start playing. Sound fantastic? I think so. That's exactly what 2 buses full of people did after the WPPI (Wedding and Portrait Photographers International) Conference in Las Vegas. Stillmotion was there to film the 3am set-up and capture the performances of Jesh de Rox, Kelli Schaefer and The Ravishers. We need to do this in Manitoba... except not in February... and substitute the remote desert with a remote wheat field surrounded by nothing but sky.

We ffffound these tremendously illustrated Jules Verne books earlier today, ironically Mr. Verne's 183rd birthday, and can't stop looking at them. They were created by Jim Tierney, whom we recognized from this past month's How Magazine, as his senior thesis while studying Illustration at the University of the Arts in Pennsylvania. This series is incredibly detailed, not to mention consistent, and we found a detailed look at his process at Faceout Books which takes us from start, to wonderful time-consuming finish. Great work Mr. Tierney.