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“Dear Loser: Letter from the Comic to a Young Plagiarist”, an Object Lesson in design-theft caution.

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Click to read Sara's amazing letter to a plagiarist!

And then…this happened, beginning a couple of weeks ago. Long store essentially short – a fantastic comedian Sara Benincasa (who is pretty much the coolest person on the planet to me now) contacted me about quite a sticky wicket. And hats off to her not only for her talent, but her quick moves and general coolness under what had to have felt like complete, well…crap.

The chain of events:

1.  Sara Benincasa, an up & coming comedian hired “designer” to make a promo flyer and poster for her one-woman show Agorafabulous. As it turns out, that “design” was (unknowingly to Sara) a ripoff of a poster that I was hired to do for the band Spoon. My poster is the first you see below:

My design done under commission for the band Spoon in 2007.

2. The ripoff poster (mind-blowingly) was nominated for a design award with the ECNY Awards. The ripped off design by a real Wang is below:

My design stolen and re-sold to Sara Benincasa as "original".

3. My design was recognized by a savvy someone who alerted Sara.

4. Sara then emailed me immediately & before I even knew fully what was going on. I was out running errands before the SNOMG 2010 round 2 hit here and started seeing Tweets about me, but not to me, so I was trying to follow the leads when I got her email about the situation. Amazing.

5. Sara had already started taking down all images from her sites ASAP, and also had the design DQ’d from the award competition, and we’ve been talking ever since.

6. We’re definitely going to work together soon on a couple of projects. So, really? It’s all good.

Does the story stop there? It should, but it doesn’t:

7. THEN awesomely (!) a couple of days ago the “designer” (thief) emailed Sara asking why “his design” was no longer in the running for an ECNY award.

8. Oooohhhhhhhhhhh good times. This girl is fierce! Please CLICK HERE or the below giant link to read Sara’s open letter on her blog to The Wang who stole art & tried to profit:


UPDATE 1: Well, as it turns out, the same Wang also tried to initially sell another stolen design, this one from our very good friend and extremely talented Dan Stiles. Unbelievable. Dan’s beautiful Zero 7 poster is first, with The Wang’s ripoff following.

Dan Stiles poster for Zero 7. (Visit http://danstiles.com to see more of Dan's work.)

The Wang's stolen "design". Unbelievable.

UPDATE 2: The theft was finally acknowledged, and the Wang apologized, which is really appreciated. Apology accepted. Please do not steal my work or the work of others again and we’re cool. This goes out there to every designer and artist who needs to hear it.

So you see kids, you WILL get busted for thieving designs. And to boot? Something truly good and just might just happen to those you’ve wronged. Thanks to a Wang, a designer and a fun client have found each other. Sara Benincasa rules the skool.

I love a happy ending.

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La Muette, a time capsule of French advertising posters

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Old advertisements revealed at La Muette. (Photo: Paul Shamble. Click for more info or to read the article 'History dans le Métro'.)

Thanks to a friend who alerted me to this link posted on the AIGA site, (thanks Dave C!) I have a cool little moment in design to share here.

Like all cities, civilization and history continually build on top of itself. One really lovely case in point is the renovations as we would say in English, also known as décarrossage in French, to denote the deconstruction of a previous style or building, of parts of La Muette Metro station in Paris, where for a short time in 2009, demolished walls revealed layers upon layers of old posters and advertisements.

Lovely decay of several posters revealed at La Muette Metro station. (Photo: Paul Shamble. Click for more info or to read the article 'History dans le Métro'.)

It seems that simply pasting up new posters was so the norm when something new came along, that this system even went so far as to work for the construction of the typical Parisian white-arched tile and rather than bother to remove these posters, they were simply walled over.

Happily!

These posters and ads, long since forgotten probably just a few short years, if not months, after being enclosed behind sparkling white tile walls in the 1950’s & 60’s, were a surprise to a new generation of contractors and architects (under the direction and employ of the RATP’, Paris’ transportation organization) apparently when the tiled walls were broken down and these gems from the past were revealed. At times, the layers of posters were incredibly thick, as you can see below.

Dense with poster and board and posters. (Photo: Paul Shamble. Click for more info or to read the article 'History dans le Métro'.)

The article, ‘History dans le Métro’, written by Gene Tempest, a doctoral history student currently studying in Paris can be read in it’s entirety here. It’s a very cool read with neat clues about the ages of many of the posters based on cultural changes, such as the one-time use and eventual discarding of Parisian phone numbers having a place name prefix, a bit like old-fashioned American ones. While ours were more created out of neat sounding memes (PENNSYLVANIA 6500!), the Parisian name-number combinations were geographically linked to the subscriber’s location.

Plus, the article mentions Haussmann’s impact & influence on Paris, a force which can never be overstated nor over-discussed in any of its positive or negative aspects. These photos are really beautiful, and as a designer and history geek…it’s pretty dang neat to see two loves linked together in Paris, even if it was fleeting.

A torn ad for a modern design school sat hiding behind seats for decades. (Photo: Paul Shamble. Click for more info or to read the article 'History dans le Métro'.)

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Light Up Dog Hoodie – DIY adorableness!

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Tucker showing off the night lights of his LED-lit Light Up Dog Hoodie. (click for more info!)

Get ready to file this is in the “Super Cool / Super Cute” folder. Our smartie friend Val (and fellow Pittsburgher) who works with and on about a million different  design projects and interactive/digital organizations (PittMFUG and Refresh Pittsburgh and Flashpitt to name a few) is also the power behind the This Is Portable blog. Where, she recently posted a process piece about the awesome LED lit custom doggie jacket that she made for her dog, Tucker. (Yes, the handsome fellow above and below.)

Val’s post was so rad, it was even re-blogged by Make here. Dag!

Tucker's badass hoodie in the light. (click for more info!)

Walking my dogs at night in the city, especially on busy, dark, or hilly streets – and even all 3 as we have commonly here in Pittsburgh – something like this fantastic little safety get-up with good design is just the coolest.

Rather than fudge up the technicals, (I find electricity and its theories to be mysterious, baffling, and a leap of faith), I’m just going to re-post how Val built, sewed and made this bit of awesome. It’s better that way, trust me.

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“This was a really fun project to work on. Printing, sewing, and soft circuit stuff all rolled into one project! I can’t wait to take Tucker out for a walk wearing it, but right now there is just way too much snow for that to happen.

The LEDs on the hoodie’s pocket light up when it’s dark out and fade back when there is more ambient light. Perfect for evening walks in the winter when it gets dark far too early. The photo resister peaking out of the bottom of the pocket senses the amount of light present and the rest of the circuit reacts from there. There’s a lot going on in that little pocket!

A close up of the circuitry work of the Light Up Dog Hoodie. (click for more info!)

Close-up of the circuitry of the Light UP Dog Hoodie. (click for more info!)

If you’re interested in how it was made, I documented my work on this project in a flickr photo set with lots of notes. It’s much easier to describe in photos. The only part I didn’t take photos of was printing the skull and cloud on the fabric. Those were silk screened on the fabric before any of the sewing started.

Originally I had planned to make the hoodie a little more complex and include a lilypad arduino. As it turns out, a hoodie that fits a ten pound terrier is very small. Luckily I was able to convince one of my officemates, Tom, to do a little soldering for me for an alternate plan.

I used coin cell batteries (two 3V batteries) for this project because of their size and the fact that they would be easier to swap out in a small space. I was hoping that this project was still small enough to get away with using coin cells, but well, maybe not. They definitely work, but they die FAST. So, I’ll be buying a batch for cheap on eBay and then looking into lithium polymer batteries for my next project. Lesson learned.”

Open pocket on the Light Up Dog Hoodie. (click for more info!)

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For more information, or to see what else Val & Jason are up to from time to time, be sure to visit This Is Portable or check out her full Flickr set about the construction of Tucker’s Light Up Dog Hoodie here.

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Damn Fine Tea & Damn Fine Design

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Series 1 teas in Nepalese, Ceylon & Chinese green styles. (click for more info)

It’s hard to tickle my design and happy feathers more than something like this does. Yummy, carefully crafted teas and super dupes design all smooshed up into one awesome product. Our  design-y peers (nay, HEROES) at Aesthetic Apparatus have teamed up with the folks at Damn Fine Tea to produce a series of limited edition teas, all with an eye as careful on the design as the teas themselves. If you are a design nerd or a tea devotee, or gasp! BOTH well dang, here’s our Nirvana. This is a design dream job.

Series 2 teas in traditional English tea styles. (click for more info or to purchase)

Tea-obsessed Damn Fine Tea offer exceptional teas, sold loose and processed traditionally, rather than industrially with custom blends and styles. All with a keen eye on the quality not only of each tinning, cup and brew, but in the design factor as well. Potentially an endangered cultural species these days. Plus, each style has specific brewing tips tailored for that particular tea for the perfect cup.

We love these tins’ killer flair and style, and of course we do. They are all designed by the powerhouse of fun, rad, and on-point Aesthetic Apparatus out of Minneapolis, MN.

With each series Damn Fine Tea & AA take a fresh approach to the tea’s style and name. This is so apparent with teas such Series 1 and Series 2 pictured above (inspired by British Victorian boxers & the wonders of the Far East) and the below Series 3 & Series 4, respectively inspired by Rock’n’Roll (YES! See? It’s a triple match made in heaven!) and 2010 The Year Of The Tiger.

Series 3 teas in Rock inspired styles. (click for more info or to purchase)

Sometimes tongue-in-cheek comes off poorly, more like tongue-in-cheekiness or it just falls flat. Not so at all with these designs paired so well with these teas. For instance, the Series 2 teas come with limited edition mini-posters, replicating the awesome old boxing posters of yore. A fact that’s coolness is only amplified by the fact that Aesthetic Apparatus are rooted firmly in the rock & gig poster scene as well as the Series 2 mini-poster designs evoke the phenomenal test print style that so many know and love AA for in the first place. It’s like a hall of damn designers, errr, I mean mirrors. With designers in them. Maybe.

Moving on, just peep the below Carävan tea with it’s adorable little blood dripping pentagram, surrounded by a ring of tea like a Dark Wizard waiting for his Master. Hehe.

Series 3 teas come with a freakin’ Tour Patch too. Seriously, if the AA guys weren’t so nice and cool, you want to hate them for being so damn fun.

Hellfire!!!! (click for more info or to purchase)

And finally, the newest addition to the Damn Fine Tea line is the ultra-limited edition tea for Series 4, Yunnan tea, inspired by 2010, the Chinese Year Of The Tiger. Raaarrrrrrrrgh! Amazingly, this tea is limited to just 50 (FIFTY! Come on, that’s crazy!) tins, with designed & hand screenprinted labels by Aesthetic Apparatus. At the time of writing this blog post, only 6 tins remained…duh DUH.

So, these Damn Fine Teas are my current obsessive design and tasty treat geek out. Pass it on if you’re down.

We can’t wait to see what comes next.

Series 4 tea is Yunnan & limited to just 50 tins. (click for more info or to purchase)

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Phoenix’s magical Blogotheque Take-Away Show

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Click to watch Phoenix play live, outdoors in Paris.

Un, duex, trois, quatre!

It’s not secret that I love the band Phoenix, (they’re the best) nor the fantastic paris based music blog La Blogotheque and their signature Les Concerts A Emporter, or Take-Away Shows. If you are not familiar, the basic premise is always the same, where French filmmaker Vincent Moon asks a band to play a short set, often consisting of just 2-3 songs, at an impromptu and outdoor location, usually accoutically, while he films the moment.

The Take-Away Shows are often really lovely and intimate, almost always with small surprises and little treats that can only happen with the unplanned & gentle collision of a band suddenly playing live in public spaces not typically made for such moments.

Click to watch Phoenix play live, outdoors in Paris.

A perfect case in point are the most recent 4 songs on La Blogotheque featuring the French band Phoenix, (who sing just about exclusively in English), and are perhaps better known outside of their home country than withing their native France.

In this heart melting set of 4 songs for Take-Away Shows (or more rightly Les Concerts A Emporter), quite possibly my favorite band Phoenix performs  1901 at Trocedero Square, close to the Eiffel Tower, with lots of passersby simply stopping to get an ear and eyeful of the band. There’s even a freshly married couple among the gathering crowd, and it simply couldn’t be more romantic.

Click to watch Phoenix play live, outdoors in Paris.

Phoenix then moves onto a crowded Parisian tour bus, taking seats at the back of the open upper deck and play 2 songs (Lisztomania & One Time Too Many) while the bus and it’s happily surprised tourists take a ride through Paris streets. The final show is Long Distance Call, played beautifully under a stone bridge along the Seine, complete with a sweet echos from the pigeon encrusted columns of the bridge. My favorite band + my favorite city = I’m done for.

Basically, it’s all awesome and you should watch ’em all. Click the images above or here to watch & listen as well as read a bit more about each performance. Phoenix!

Click to watch Phoenix play live, outdoors in Paris.

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BookBook = lit geek meets computer geek, falls in love.

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BookBook's cool MacBook cover, click for details and info.

This might be the coolest thing I’ve seen all year. And yes, I’m aware that 2010 just began. And yes, I’m still saying that this might be one of my favorite things for the entire year, already. Yes. I really might be.

BookBook is a rad Apple MacBook laptop case and cover designed exclusively for MacBooks & MacBook Pros, from Twelve South (whose self-proclaimed motto is: “We’re not just Mac friendly, we’re Mac only.“)

There is little more depressing and somewhat sad to me than a dullard, run-of-the-mill laptop cover. Seriously. Those of us who use (and love) our little super machines develop an emotional affinity with them, so why encase that in something that says: “Do you have those TPS report cover letters?” Yuck. I am currently rocking a custom made laptop by the sadly now defunct Flicka bags, but I’m mega tempted to add one of these awesome cases to my gear.

BookBook disguises your laptop neatly. Click for more details.

The old book cover style evokes a Robinson Crusoe/Great Books Of the Western World vibe to it that I just adore. It reminds me of perusing used bookstores for hours with my mom as a kid, being held in reverie by older, fantastically bound books that had clearly seen better days, yet seemed all the more loved for their reading wear.

From Twelve South’s site, they describe BookBook’s protective qualities of the hardbound book and soft interior:

Protecting your MacBook is a top priority and it’s job one for BookBook. Slip your Mac inside the velvety soft, padded interior. Zip it closed and your baby is nestled between two tough, rigid leather hardback covers for a solid level of impact absorbing protection. The rigid spine serves as crush protection for an additional line of defense. BookBook creates a hardback book structure that safeguards your MacBook like few other cases can. Far better than any floppy neoprene bag ever will. End of story.

Each BookBook case is individually hand crafted, and with design details like the ability to keep your laptop plugged in and charging while in use. If you can be a hardcore laptop user, that’s a really great feature. Clever + good looking + functional = I’m all about it. As to Twelve South‘s claim that the BookBook is a more secure way to disguise or prevent the theft of your laptop, well, I don’t know about that. Especially if this sucker gets as popular as it should, but then again, I’m not one to leave my laptop out in the open in public much anyway. Still, it is a clever disguise.

Like a laptop at Vincent Price Halloween bash, it’s BookBook. Nifty and cool.

Click for more information about BookBook from Twelve South.

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Win this print at Design Crush!

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Click on this image & enter to win my 6-color all hand screenprinted print: "Going To See My Baby Sage" from the blog Design Crush. It's free to enter. Good luck!

Free stuff is rarely this easy.

This week the fabulous Kelly from the awesome design & style blog Design Crush is featuring one of my prints in one of their fun Win It Giveaways (<–click for details and to enter.) Kelly is not only fun and funny and cool, but as it turns out, she is also from Pittsburgh, and now living in Oklahoma City, OK. Yinz rock!

Design Crush is a really super dupes blog, so definitely check it out while you are there. Kelly posts new things just about every day, and it’s all stellar picks from around the globe.

Starting yesterday Monday, January 25, 2010 (I’m late to post this, I know, I’m sorry! But there is still plenty of time!) and running through this coming Monday, February 1st at 9am CST you can enter into Design Crush’s Win It contest and get your very own, pristine copy of my “Going To See My Baby Sage” print. Just for you! And just for entering.

The entry rules are simple:

1. Head over to Design Crush to enter.

2. Post a comment THERE, as per Design Crush’s instructions, before the deadline and BAM! You are entered and ready for Lady Luck.

One winner will be chosen at random and that winner will receive my print (shown above). Yep! It’s that easy. I will ship directly to the winner, so no worries, the winner will get my usual treats and tricks in their tube too 🙂

There are already 73 entrants, so go on with your bad self. Enter today!

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Artful way to help Haiti, beautiful print by Judge

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Beautiful 3-color fund-raising screenprint for Haitian earthquake victims' relief screenprint by Judge. 100% of the proceeds are donated to help survivors. (Click for more info or to purchase and make a donation to help!)

Our good friend Judge, an incredibly talented illustrator and printmaker from Chicago, IL has done something awesome and in lightning speed. She’s turned her immense talents into doing something good to help the Haitian relief efforts for those millions devastated and effected by the January 12th earthquake and on-going aftershocks.

The above print is a limited edition, 3-color screenprint available at Judge’s web store here. All proceeds from the sale of this powerful print will go to help the victims of this overwhelming tragedy. Proceeds will become donations to 2 excellent charities:

Doctors Without Borders

Partners In Health

Also, for those interested in finding other ways and charities to help do the greatest good, check out the fantastic Charity Navigator site for in-depth information about over 5,000 US-based charities.

And, of course The American Red Cross is still utilizing the very popular and easy Text “Haiti” to the number 90999 to raise $10 per text with ALL proceeds going to help the Haitian people. For a really cool FAQ about that system please click here.

For more information, or to make a much needed donation purchase see below or click here for Judge’s website:

PRICE: $30 USD + shipping (note: buyers OUTSIDE of the US please e-mail Judge for a shipping quote)

SIZE: 13″ x 20″, EDITION: 130 signed and numbered, COLORS:  3 colors, PAPER: Brick red heavyweight

Judge uses a very distinctive and labor-intensive method for many of her illustrations and designs, (you might recognize her work from the numerous pieces that she’s produced for the musician Neko Case), and all of this work is BEFORE she gets to the also labor-intensive process of screenprinting her prints. If you would like to see a great step-by-step process thread about this piece, click here to visit Gigposters.com and read the thread, with photographs, descriptions and questions & answers about her work in this piece.

http://judgeworks.bigcartel.com/product/haiti-lunion-fait-la-force-poster

Detail of the 3-color, gorgeous hand screenprinted print by Judge, with 100% of proceeds going to help Haitian survivors. (Click for more info and to make a donation purchase & help!)

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Twin Soul Art Studio & Chris Bryant Guitar School opening!

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This is one of those stories about when two souls meet and see their counterparts in one another. It really is.
A couple of months ago I was contacted by a lovely woman & fellow artist named Jeanne on Etsy.com (check out her shop Three Paper Pigs here! and her beautiful collage below) who had some questions about a few of my posters.

"Circus Everywhere" by Jeanne of ThreePaperPigs. (Click for more info!)

After conversing back and forth, she placed a rather large order (to my amazement and delight) of posters and told me that she and her partner were opening up a brand new art & music space in Los Gatos, CA, in the greater San Francisco Bay area, in the form of a new guitar school and art studio. I was thrilled and honored that these two artists chose a bunch of my work, from all of the talent they saw on Etsy to help decorate their new endeavor.
At the time, they were still working furiously to completion, but now, it’s all done, ready, and up and running so I’d like to introduce you all to the Twin Soul Art Studio & Chris Bryant Guitar School.
Twin Soul Art Studio & Chris Bryant Guitar School open & ready for you!

Twin Soul Art Studio & Chris Bryant Guitar School open & ready for you!

Jeanne (an artist and designer) and Chris (a musician, ceramicist and guitar teacher) describe their new venture as a true labor of love here on Three Paper Pigs blog:
Chris and I just had our grand opening last weekend and it was truly a blast. We celebrated the opening of Chris Bryant Guitar School and Twin Soul Art Studio in downtown Los Gatos, CA. We had two weeks to prepare the school and studio before the celebration, so you can imagine how busy we were after Christmas until the day of the event on January 10th. I took care of putting up all the wall decals (Dali Decals on Etsy) and my sister helped me design the Twin Soul Art Studio logo as a main focal point for the back wall. I prepared the appetizers for over 100 people and loved how everything came together. My family was a great support and they flew out from Hawaii just for the event. The weather brought sunshine, lots of traffic, happy hearts and awesome music. Chris put together a five-hour playlist of Indie artists – The Decemberists, Black Moth Super Rainbow, Brett Dennen, Tristan Prettyman, Meiko, Joshua Radin, Belle & Sebastian, Matt Costa, Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin, The Dandy Warhols, We Are Scientists, Bishop Allen, As Tall As Lions and Ben Harper to name a few! And, I was happy to also put up tons of gig posters by the talented and down-to-earth artist Strawberry Luna on Etsy.

Artists an co-creators, Jeanne & Chris.

Yum! And so much natural California light too.

As you can see from their photos for the opening, they’ve created an incredibly positive and warm space to foster creativity on many levels. We here at strawberryluna wish them the best of luck and are so honored to have  such an array of our work gracing the walls of the Twin Souls Art Studio and the Chris Bryant Guitar School.
If you are in the Bay Area in California, please check them out! Get a guitar lesson, or schedule a time for a fantastic hands-on art learning experience. The new Twin Soul Art Studio & Chris Bryant Guitar School is located at:
644 N. Santa Cruz Ave., Suite #9
Los Gatos, CA 95030
40-354-7400

More details for you and websites about this rad couple that you should check out:
Chris Bryant Guitar School – all information about schedules, hours, Chris, the guitar school, directions and more are here.
Three Paper Pigs – Jeane’s line of custom stationary and her super cool collage pieces in mixed media and more.
Three Paper Pigs on Etsy.com – a good selection of Jeanne’s currently available collage pieces are here.
Three Paper Pigs Blog – you know what a blog is! Lots of great stuff to be found there.
Chris Bryant’s pottery can be found here.
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Stunning animation: Maurice Gee’s “Going West”, by Andersen M Studio

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(click to watch the animation)

So, here is a really cool animation that I found through my friend Standard Design’s Twitter feed today (Tom Pappalardo) and I’m just unable to stop watching it.

It’s from an outfit called The New Zealand Book Council, a not-for-profit organization that serves to promote more reading, foster a love of  books and promote New Zealand authors. I think it’s just completely riveting, beautiful, eerie, and downright superb.

(click to view the animation)

Paper cutting, stop-motion, and plain old lighting are 10,000x more mysterious and lovely looking than computer-generated work. As a fan of very old Disney (just about only the old stuff) and more so Warner Bros. classic Looney Tunes work, I’ve said it a million times before and I’ll probably be saying it in my grave.

(click to view the animation)

This piece, “Going West” is based on a novel by New Zealand author Maurice Gee. Produced for The New Zealand Book Council by the Andersen M Studio in London (a multi-talented brother & sister duo), the aim is clear as the NZBC’s motto at the end of the animation suggestion, to bring books to life. This piece is a stunner in that attempt.

(click to view the animation)

The NZBC’s mission statement reads: “Bringing books and people together. Like no other human activity reading opens up our imagination. It enables us to understand those around us. It allows us to project the future and reach back into the past. Reading can entertain, challenge and educate. We believe that reading can transform people’s lives.”

Having never heard of Maurice Gee, I can assure all that I will be seeking out his work based purely on the animation done here from his novel “Going West”, so it appears that their aims have worked a bit already. And, I’m now a HUGE fan of the Andersen M Studio, who’s range of work runs from animated pieces (as evidenced here) to commercial photography, music-making, and music packaging to book design. Perhaps I’ve found new heroes.

To learn more about the novel “Going West” click here.

To learn more about Maurice Gee, click here.

To learn more about Andersen M Studio, click here.

To learn more about The New Zealand Book Council & it’s projects, click here.

(click to view the animation)

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Criterion Collection films now on Netflix “Watch Instantly”

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Click for more info and full list of available films

And it’s pretty darn exciting. The Criterion Collection of films has been an outstanding aggregator & distributor of excellent movie-making from around the world for over 2 decades. Keeping pace with the advent of DVDs and now more online film viewing, Criterion has released 35 movies for Netflix online streaming tool “Watch Instantly”.

For someone like me, who uses the heck out of the “Watch Instantly” feature on Netflix, often while printing or otherwise working the studio, these releases are a welcome addition.

The list of Criterion releases is impressive and not at all a slacking one. The complete list (with links right to their corresponding Netflix pages) is here at the Criterion Cast podcast site (or by clicking the above & below images). It’s also worth noting that Criterion’s standards include routinely fantastic renderings of poster and cover art for their releases as well. Some of my favorites are below.

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Christmas Vinyl, nifty web radio station

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In keeping with the previous post today, I thought I’d share this quite cool internet radio station that I found today, called Christmas Vinyl, When Music Was Music, where the only music is Christmas related fare recorded on vinyl. I have to say that I sort of love the somewhat cranky implication that music released on vinyl, and in vinyl’s heyday is better than more recent music. There is something to be said for classics and tradition and sticklerhood.

Beyond that, this station, Christmas Vinyl is really cool for mixing all sorts of vinyl recordings of Christmas songs from Burl Ives (!) to jazz artists like Bing Crosby or Ella Fitzgerald to lesser known, session & pop singers, as well as instrumentals and choral works. Basically, if a Christmas song was recorded on vinyl? They’re up for playing it over there. The site itself  Christmas Vinyl is only able to handle 500 listeners at a time, but! Fear not. I actually found the site via Shoutcast.com Radio, and they’re listener capacity is much larger. Just search for “Christmas Vinyl” in Shoutcast.com’s search box when you click here. If you do listen to Christmas Vinyl‘s stream from their website, you get an accurate current and upcoming track listing that’s pretty handy too. Also, it’s really nice when you can hear little noises that you only get with vinyl. Very warm and cozy.

I’m listening to a lovely recording of Louis Armstrong singing “Christmas Night In Harlem” and not only does it give the phrase “all lit up like a Christmas Tree” an added meaning, it’s the jam.

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NPR All Songs Considered Holiday Music Mix ’09

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Click for All Songs Considered

It’s a good time!

If you read my blog even semi-regularly, you know that I am a fan of the NPR music show All Songs Considered. And while I don’t get to listen to every single show, you may consider me curating their offerings for you when I post about a show here on my blog.

Christmas and holiday music is something so ubiquitous as to almost be a joke. Either the crushingly sweet songs that you come to expect are blaring at you from all directions from retail stores from Thanksgiving (or sooner, ugh) until practically New Year’s, or the “ironic” or what I call trashy Christmas & holiday music is thrust out like some sort of cure to the overly sentimental traditional offerings. (It’s not.)

However, look, the reality is that we all grew up with the experience of music switching from whatever is on the radio to a slew of holiday cheer for a few special weeks a year. I still get nostalgic thinking about that inexplicably special day when the Christmas music vinyl records would come out of the catalogue my parents had and the hours that I would pour over their cover art and listen so closely to each note. From the Harry Simeone Chorale “The Little Drummer Boy” collection, to the slightly weird and awesome Victoriana throwback “A Music Box Christmas” by Rita Ford. Or the parade of hits from the 1940’s – 1980’s that would fill my neighbor’s house for 2 or 3 days at a time, day & night while 3 generations of women made dozens of types of cookies creating a bounty of literally hundreds and hundreds of treats for us all.

Somehow, while being able to laugh at ridiculous songs as well as collecting some really great tunes, the All Songs Considered Holiday Music mix isn’t smarmy or ironic or jackassed. (Have I told you that I am completely sick of and over irony as a statement? I am. It’s boring. Knock it off.) It’s just good, fun, and yes, ready? Jolly.

There. I said it. I’m listening to it right now as I write this, and I’m recommending it to all of you. Enjoy , Happy Holidays and Merry Christmas!

Click here to listen to the All Songs Considered Holiday Music Mix ’09.

My favorite childhood Christmas album cover art.

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Jackson Pearce’s awesome Sisters Red giveaway!

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My ARC jacket design for Jackson Pearce's awesome new book "Sisters Red" (Click for more info.)

Ohhhh dang yinz, this is rad. The lovely and funny Jackson Pearce, the author of the above upcoming book Sisters Red (for which I designed the cover, such a fun gig!), is doing an amazing 6 months of giveaways for you.

Here’s the deal, she gives away one ARC copy of Sisters Red plus lots of mystery prizes AND previous prizes per month. How does this work? Well, allow Jackson to tell you herself here on her video blog:

So, what are you waiting for? Enter her giveaway of Sisters Red and pass the word around too!

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Book Light for Book nerds

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Super cool hanging Book Light by Studio MS. (Click for more info.)

Ooooh neato. I love these very cool and yes, clever Book Lights designed by UK design outfit Studio MS. Am I a nerd? Yes, for design and for bookish things, so naturally these lovely lights are right up my alley.

Neat desk or end table Book Light by Studio MS. (click for more info.)

Constructed of leather (just like an old classic hard-bound classic), paper, PVC and cotton, these lights are really appealing and give off a very warm and soft light. There is something very sweet about these lights that feels like curling up with tea and settling in for a good long read. I love it.

So pretty! Book Lights by Studio MS. (click for more info.)

Visit the UK-based Studio MS for ordering and more information. Happy reading!

 

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