However, when it works, it can work brilliantly.

Check out 3Com’s logo… brilliant. They create networking components. Both local (linked circles) and external/wireless etc. (unlinked circle).

Simple, yet powerful and beautiful.

A few people have asked me about the squid logo for silenttalkie (see above and below). I have no reasoning why I included the squid beyond this: when I began design work on ST, I read the news story about the first photographs of a giant squid. That’s pretty damn awesome. A worthy inspiration for a logo if I’ve ever heard of one. And I’m happy with the way the logo turned out as well, which is always nice. Who doesn’t love a squid?

While making a logo for big time design and communication, my corporate identity, I decided after a few years of business that a normal logo wouldn’t cut it. I was going to try something which many would shy away from. Nobles and Dukes be damned, I wanted a crest.

Small countries, who are recently formed can have a crest, so why not big time? I’m pretty excited about it and am tired of keeping it a national secret. Of course, being the professionally trained artist that I am, I welcome and crave critique of my work… so, without further ado, i give you the new big time crest.

You can lambast me here.

I feel that crests should be more prevalent and common. So, if you need an idea for something, look to the crest… the crest will show you the way.

And no, you don’t have to call me “Your Highness” or “Sir”, unless you want to.

There are all kinds of tools out there that can help keep our hectic everyday lives from falling apart but most of them are just no fun to use. And as more people are using more devices regularly (work computer, home computer, laptop, PDA, etc.) the need to have one place to keep track of everything in once place becomes even more important.

Thankfully there are already a few great ways (and more come out of the binary woodwork every day) to keep all your shit together.

First and foremost at the moment is Basecamp. Ostensibly a project management tool for managing any number of collaborative projects, it also works great as a catch-all personal organizer. Included in the basic free account are Messages (notes-to-self), Milestones (due-dates), To-do lists (also available as a stand-alone product), and Writeboards. There are varying degrees of subscription accounts that add other features and the ability for multiple projects. Most of the features are pretty self explanatory/basic but Writeboards is the really cool thing here. With the free account you can keep track of one document that could potentially be contributed to by any number of participants and it saves each iteration of edits so you can “roll back” to a previous version if need be. I actually wrote this article on my Writeboard because it was incredibly easy to make adjustments/additions as long as I was working on a computer with an internet connection. No need to carry around any kind of media between work and home! As an added bonus, each Basecamp has a unique RSS feed so if you are working collaboratively everyone involved can keep up to date on what’s changing without even having to log on.

The only thing that’s missing here is a good calendar tool. That’s where 30boxes comes in. While I haven’t used this one quite as much (most of the time I personally don’t have plans for the weekend to keep track of, let alone two weeks down the road) but everything I’ve seen on this tool is absolutely fabulous. The interface is slick, intuitive and looks like a regular grid calendar so the learning curve is barely a speed-bump. The collaborative element comes in here as well as you can add people to view all, part or a single event on your schedule. This also provides a wide variety of RSS syndication.

The last site I’ll mention here is de.lcio.us. This has been around for a while but i’ve only just recently discovered the convenience of keeping track of bookmarks online, again back to the multiple computers issue. the other nice thing is that with each site you link you can assign searchable keyword tags as to what the particular site is about. This makes it WAY easier to find that post about CSS drop downs without having to remember the site’s all-too-clever URL. Here again, each account can be private or open for anyone to see.

The largest inconvenience of all these great tools is mostly in their decentralization. Having to log into multiple apps to keep up on everything can be a pain but I don’t see it as much less a problem than having to launch different applications on your desktop to do similar functions. Also, while it’s not the best idea security-wise, you could set all of them up to use the same username and password, just so there’s one less thing to keep track of.

As with any kind of personal organization, these do take some work to keep on top of things but their ease (and fun, amazingly enough) knock off a few of the barnacles on the Pier of Procrastination.

i’ve received some great comments about silenttalkie so far and a consistant thread seems to be “wow. an issue a week? that’s ambitious.”

yes. it is.

am i daunted by this? no. without amibition we are no better than common lay-abouts or sleep arounds. do you want to be this slothful?

so while it may become tough to put an issue out a week forever, we’re on a pretty good pace for at least four and that’s pretty awesome.

again, silenttalkie is an open call to all artists.

lay-abouts. hehe

“Chef!” (1993-1996)

Lenny Henry – although not widely known North America – is one of Britain’s comedy elite. He’s been a wildly successful stand-up comedian, a co-writer for BBC productions, and he managed to snag one of our favourite British kooks, Dawn French, into blissful matrimony. All that aside, his true forum is the half-hour comedy series, “Chef!”, in which he plays the title role. Following the trials and tribulations of a chef as he runs the top restaurant in Britain, we get the full-on blast of Lenny Henry’s sharp wit. In the similar vein of the AbFab formula, the key to this show is the well-crafted verbal abuse being hurled at people in a constant stream of hilarity. My recommendation: be prepared to pause the show a lot, so that you can write down quotes that you can use later!

“Neverwhere” (1996)

Speaking of Lenny Henry, he also paired up with the legendary Neil Gaiman to create a mini-series adaptation of Gaiman’s book, “Neverwhere”. Obviously low-budget and truly homemade, this show manages to somehow capture Gaiman’s dark and delicious imagination as it sucks you into his fantasy world under the streets of London. If, like all of us who were angsty teenagers, you went through a passionate Sandman phase in your life, you owe it to yourself to get your hands on this gem and watch it with bated and shaking breath. It is definitely a collector’s item.

“Ultraviolet” (1998)

Before Hollywood got their hands on it and ruined it with their upcoming movie release, “Ultraviolet” was a quiet little cult hit amongst us vampire fans. By combining BBC’s well-proven talent for police drama with the battle cries of “Buffy”, this show becomes ridiculously addictive – even without fancy special effects (or even remotely convincing death scenes). Unlike the upcoming movie of the same name, this show’s premise revolves around a secret agency within the British police force, working hard to keep those wily vampires from destroying all of humanity. What it lacks in North American polish it makes up for with excellent plot twists, good acting, and superb lighting. My only regret is that it was never picked up for another season, leaving us with a painful cliff-hanger that, to this day, leaves me all antsy and eager for more.

“Prime Suspect” (1991 – 2003)

You can’t do BBC without doing mysteries, and the world famous series “Prime Suspect” definitely ranks up there as one of the best ever made. The springboard for Helen Mirren’s esteemed career, this police drama is truly flawless. Mirren, in all her gritty glory, plays a woman detective ruthlessly elbowing her way up the ranks against old-boy mentality – while at the same time, angrily tracking down serial killers and ripping open pedophile rings. Each “episode” is actually several hours long, so I recommend that you cuddle up and get lots of snacks for this marathon. You will not regret the investment made – the writing is amazing, Mirren is astonishing, and the dark and dirty side that we all love in our police dramas is pumped up to the max. Cap each episode off with a sweaty and intense interview in which Mirren manages to get the guilty to confess, and you have a winner. For the real heart-thumpers, I recommend “Prime Suspect 1″ and “Prime Suspect 3″, with a chaser of “Prime Suspect 4: Scent of Darkness” (a sort of sequel to number 1).

1. The IT Crowd - Yeah this was here last week, but we’re still pretty into it… ok, we’re obsessed.
2. In keeping with the British / winter olympics theme: Top Gear: Jaguar v speed skater* It appears bbc won’t let us link directly to the video so go to the Top Gear section for it.. it’s worth it.
3. And just for good measure: Top Gear: Ski jumping with a mini. * It’s part of the link above.. but awesomer!
   
4. Bears. Again with the bears? Yup. Bears
5. Scotch… just not the scotch from Cuba. That stuff’s just wierd.
6. Dr. McNinja : He’s a doctor who’s also a ninja, what else do you need?
7. My cat is psycho… he does this all the time.
8. Lists that are short… don’t ya just love ‘em?

From the Producers of “Lion King: The Musical” and “Lord of the Rings: The Musical” comes a new venture in the musicalification of all elements of popular culture…

Street Fighter II: The Musical

Social issues and personal differences get in the way at an international Martial Arts competition. As the tension mounts between the combatants, they decide to rally around one another to have the best ‘to-the-death’ competition yet.

• E.Honda struggles with an eating disorder and constantly being cast as ‘the fat guy’ in his pursuit of a career as a professional actor.

• Dhalsim faces a crisis of faith when taking souls and burning skulls no longer satisfies him. He dabbles in Scientology, but passes all the stress tests.

• Blanka falls into a deep depression and Xanax dependence after years of ridicule for his green skin and orange hair.

• Ken and Ryu fight to keep their forbidden relationship together amidst the trials of competition, and under the judgement and persecution from Balrog and M.Bison (who are struggling with crushes of their own… on each other).

With a fully digital set produced in 2D on a heavily pixellated backdrop screen, Street Fighter II puts us in the middle of the competition while showing us the emotion that pours out behind-the-scenes.

For almost forty years, Bernie Taupin has been writing some of the world’s most memorable songs and movie scores, and although this is his first foray into the world of the stage musical, his keen ear for story-telling serves him well.

From sad soliliquies like Guile’s “Why must they mock my hair?” to bawdy ballads such as Zangief’s “Give me two whores and case of Vodka”; Taupin weaves a complicated tale of personal vice and pain.

It’s not ALL serious and sad with full-cast hilarity in songs like “Snap that Towel” from the infamous shower-scene, and “C’mon… best two out of three”.

Surely this musical will be a night you’ll never forget.

*Note: To patrons in the first few rows, you may be sprayed with blood or burned with flaming skulls or disks during some of the action scenes.

I get my weekly dose of easy listening at the laundromat. For an hour each Saturday or Sunday I hole up in the filthiest laundromat in Kitchener, held captive by the damaged radio frequencies of Chime FM. Often I bring an MP3 player, but every once in a while I forget. After piling my laundry into the machine and plugging in quarters I instinctively reach for my MP3 player, and if it’s not there, well… it’s hard times. Something inside me doesn’t react kindly to easy listening. First I become hostile and agitated; slowly I’m overtaken by depression. If I were to let the situation continue long enough I would surely lapse into a coma.

Why is easy listening so offensive when its sole purpose is to be completely inoffensive? Perhaps that’s just it – there is something so inherently wrong about a genre that is absolutely unwilling to offend. What is so offensive about the inoffensive? Nothing really… the problem lies with the fact that the genre allows for zero display of real emotion. Real emotion is often heated, often excited, and most importantly, a display of real emotion is imbued with risk: it can turn away a potential lover just as easily as it can bring one close; it can offend as easily as it can placate. If you strip music of genuine human emotion, you leave it cold and dead. I use music vicariously, and this is probably why I flounder when in the company of easy listening; it’s empty, and I can’t use it to get my vicarious kicks.

If you work in an easy listening environment, I feel your pain. Hopefully you’re lucky enough to be listening to one of the better easy listening stations; some pit classics (usually soul classics like Marvin Gaye’s Sexual Healing) against dreck like Richard Marx or that song Listen to Your Heart. The nuggets are easy to spot, so if you’re thrown a bone grab on to it and don’t let go. Mariah Carey’s newer single We Belong Together* is a good example. Fiest’s Inside and Out is another. These may not be your first choice for music accompaniment, but try to appreciate the songs for the genuine emotion they inhabit. You may have to train yourself to do so, but the effort will help you to get through the day. Good luck.

——————————————–
*How can you not like a song that name drops Bobby Womack? Listen to a choice Womack cut in the archives.

We Belong Together – Mariah Carey (lyrical excerpt)

I can’t sleep at night, when you are on my mind
Bobby Womack’s on the radio saying “If you think you’re lonely now…”
wait a minute, this is too deep, too deep, I gotta change the station

It is up to you, dear reader, to tell that cynicism to get behind you. Tell that devil to get off your back. The first step towards healing can be taken together.

First of all, I suggest you read this short article by a writer and philosopher named Susan Sontag regarding art and interpretation. It’s called Against Interpretation and it is well worth your time.

Now, I know some of you have trouble trusting yourself when viewing abstract art. I know what you’re thinking, or at least I can see a puzzled look on your face. You’re probably thinking, ‘Isn’t there supposed to be something more there? That’s just a square. I must be missing something.’ You’re not missing anything. Trust me. Bring yourself to accept what is there. Try not to look past the painting too quickly. Much of abstract art can be understood, at least partially, in a formal sense. That is, the artist isn’t giving you a product that has a meaning separate from the arrangement of the composition and the colour. The piece may be an experiment in genre; modern questions artists try to answer can be deceptively simple ones, like trying to create a painting that only involves painterly elements; devoid of sculptural, architectural, etc elements. Or the artist may be trying to create an affect, often either optical or emotional, by employing certain devices. Optical effects include pairing colours, generally complimentary* ones, together so that it appears that the colours are vibrating. Some artists, including a few of those branded as Abstract Expressionists, attempt to convey emotional affects, or be emotionally effecting, through the use of gesture. A brush mark, it is argued, can indicate the emotional state of the artist who made it, or can be a device to indicate such an emotion to the viewing audience. To generate your own opinions, you’ll need to look at a few paintings yourself.

Don’t worry about understanding everything all at once. I have two further suggestions for appreciating abstract art. The first is to go with your gut. Find a painting that you like and enjoy it by basking in its glow. Then try and figure out what attracts you to it. Maybe find out some of the context behind the art including the social climate in which it was made. But don’t trust everything you read about the meaning – hold true to yourself. The second suggestion is to try making a piece of abstract art yourself. Copying a masterwork can be very instructive. Make sure you choose a painting that you have a really good picture of, and one that you can actually visit once or twice before starting as well. You don’t need to use the same media or scale, as just the attempt to put the painting together yourself will give you a much deeper insight into the work.

If it all works out, feel free to email us the results. Get out there and live, dammit.

*Complimentary colours are colours that are opposite each other on the colour wheel eg red and green, yellow and purple, blue and orange.