Person Three

The walk takes him about twenty minutes. The suburban streets are just hot enough to stir up some pollen and irritate his eyes, but not to a level where it is unbearable. He walks through the side door to his house, stepping over the tube that vents the tumble dryer. The fact that the door is open would suggest that either someone is already home or that his residence is being burgled by someone both skillful enough to pick the lock, and sloppy/well armed enough to leave it wide open. After dumping his rucksack in the living room he backtracks to the fridge and picks out a mini can of Coke. The decompression as it opens is music to the young man's ears and the first sip is like the elixir of life itself.
This is surely the power of branding at work; during the final steps of his walk he had been pondering the differences between Microsoft and Coca-Cola as companies. Both are basically in the same league of creating a world dominating brand, but for some reason he feels much less dislike for Coca-Cola. He thinks that maybe this is because he feels trapped in his Microsoft bubble, and wishes he had made the time to learn how to use MacOS, Linux and whatnot [note to self: is whatnot a good name for an OS? It'll probably sound worse when I read this back later.] CC on the other hand? Well there's always Pepsi... with their puny three colour advertising, inferior to the minimalism of Coke's Red and White. (Microsoft = Four. FOUR! The brutes.) Not to mention the variety of other beverages he consumes on a regular basis, both soft and alcoholic, ranging from the ales of local micro-breweries to mass-produced pop.
And so it was a combination of the heat and this train of thought that inevitably led to the selection of the drink. Now there's about three-quarters of an hour to use (he tries to avoid thinking of it as "killing" time) before going out.

Street Art: Nottingham

I have no idea who to give the credit to, but this is on the side of Ohmygosh Records on Mansfield Road:


I love these little ninjas on the drips:

Remake

I hate remakes of good movies, don't you? If it ain't broke the chances are you're only going to **** it up. But today I read about a remarkable exception. Two boys from Mississippi spent a considerable chunk of their childhood (over a period of about 7 or 8 years,) making their own version of Indiana Jones: Raiders of the Lost Ark. Spielberg LOVES it and the first ten minutes are available for our viewing pleasure on Youtube: Raiders of the Lost Ark: The Adaptation

Block

I'm in the process of designing a typeface based on a little challenge I set myself a while back. The idea was to take a rectangle and see how little could be taken away from it to make it recognisable as a letter. This was inspired by the chunky type used in Susology magazine which is a FREE magazine (www.suso.co.uk) and surprisingly high on worthwhile content for a freeby.

The typeface (working title Block) is included in my final major project, might see use as my band logo, will be sent to at least one other band to see if they're interested and I'm planning to incorporate it into a design for my entry to the Glastonbury t-shirt design competition being run by Q - first prize is £1000 and two tickets to the festival. I should probably be a good designer and be more selective with its use. Oh well.

J-Malk.

Official Secrets Act at the Social

Went to see Frontiers (www.myspace.com/frontiersofficial) last night, supporting Official Secrets Act. They put on a good solid set, their new material's evolved since last time I saw them (at Rescue Rooms not so very long ago) and their frontman's falcetto really was top notch in the one section of a song that made prolonged use of it. I think their performance is currently too music orientated though - could do with more showiness, but there's a fine line between that and looking like arrogant something-or-others...

The headliners, Official Secrets Act (www.myspace.com/officialsecretsact) were more showy - fairly camp if they don't mind me saying, and fairly entertaining because of it. Their quirky dancing made me more inclined to hear out a set of synthy dance-rock falling somewhere in the Franz Ferdinand / We Are Scientists ball park. But sort of different. Haha don't listen to me, listen to them.

J-Malk.

Glastonbury: Hopes and Predictions

Franz Ferdinand are already confirmed - should be good. All of the following are unashamedly tinged by bias and very little research or listening to rumours. It's pretty much a wishlist.

It's been announced that there'll be two US acts and two from the ol' U of K headlining Glastonbury this year. My bet for US is Green Day and Bruce Springsteen - both easily have the muscle for the headline slot; Bruce's album is sitting at #1 in the charts, and Green Day's is scheduled for release in the month before the festival; so they have stuff to promote. UK? Blur perhaps, and since that would make it three old established acts we'd need a surprise, so someone young and punky. Non-headliners I'm hoping for = The Subways, White Lies, Elbow (I think Elbow are as good as confirmed anyway). I'll add more as and when I feel like it.

Multitasking

Bottom left: "fear and panic in the air" a page of my typography sketchpad. Typornography cos I google it so much.
Left: My pencil case, an All Saints box.
Top left through to bottom: Drawings for my current project, a character design of Y.T. from Snow Crash.
Top right: My printmaking sketchpad open on top of some other pads.
Bottom right: Letraset and a Muse biography. Two essential tools of the trade. (What trade? I have no idea... the Muse-obsessed typographer?)

J-Malk.