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The New FontBook

What you would see on my face — if the camera angle were different, and my emotions not so stifled — is smug satisfaction.

In college, I “borrowed” a big yellow book from the Daily Utah Chronicle, where I worked as a typesetter. It was substantial — thick and heavy (nearly six pounds), but with narrow proportions that made it easy to hold. Hours which should have been spent studying, working, or partying were spent with my head buried in this book filled with thousands of samples of digital typefaces. I was fascinated by both the contents and the sheer curiosity of the concept: an exhaustive catalog of an esoteric craft. I decided I loved type.

“FontBook” was the best thing of its kind, but it wasn’t perfect. I began to find flaws. Penciled notes filled the margins, most dealing with the “see also” cross references, which were very handy, but scarce. Over the next few years I would write to the publisher about the errors. They were both fan letters and letters of complaint: I love it. But do this. Do that. This year is wrong. That designer credit is missing.

Jump ahead to 2004. After more criticism (this time in blog form), FontShop finally grew tired of my whining and hired me. Lucky punk.

This means I was around to help make all those picky edits myself. Weighing in at 7 pounds and 1,760 pages, the fourth edition of FontBook — completed a long eight years after the last — is still the work of editors Truong, Siebert, and Spiekermann, but includes something like 6,000 additional bits of information from me and my partner-in-font-geekery, Yves Peters.

The first copies of the new FontBook arrived from the German press on Wednesday. Pardon my gloating, but I am damn proud.

Technorati Tags: books, FontBook, fonts, FontShop, typography

The Answers to 126 Questions = Me

Advanced Global Personality Test Results Extraversion |||||||||| 40% Stability |||||||||||||||| 63% Orderliness |||| 20% Accommodation |||||||||||||| 56% Interdependence |||||||||||| 43% Intellectual |||||||||||| 43% Mystical |||||||||| 36% Artistic |||||||||||||||||| 76% Religious || 10% Hedonism |||||||||| 36% Materialism |||||| 30% Narcissism |||||||||||||||| 63% Adventurousness |||||||||||||| 56% Work ethic |||||||||||||||| 70% Self absorbed |||||||||||||| 56% Conflict seeking |||| 16% Need to dominate |||||| 23% Romantic |||||||||||||||| 63% Avoidant |||||| 23% Anti-authority |||||||||||||||| 70% Wealth |||||||||||| 50% Dependency |||||||||||||||| 63% Change averse |||||||||||||||||||| 83% Cautiousness |||||||||||| 43% Individuality |||||||||||||||||||| 83% Sexuality |||||||||||||||||| 76% Peter pan complex |||||||||||||||||| 76% Physical security |||||||||||||||||||| 90% Physical Fitness |||||||||||||||| 70% Histrionic |||||| 30% Paranoia |||||||||||||| 56% Vanity |||||||||||| 50% Hypersensitivity |||||||||||||||| 63% Female cliche |||||||||||| 50%

Take Free Advanced Global Personality Test
personality tests by similarminds.com

secretive, reclusive, messy, disorganized, introverted, unassertive, rarely worries, dislikes large parties, does not like to fit in, does not need to control others, solitary, ambivalent about chaos, tough, leisurely, does not respect authority, not aggressive, observer, abstract, impractical, dislikes leadership, daydreamer, bizarre, does not make friends easily, not a perfectionist, suspicious, rarely irritated, strong physical instincts, unsympathetic at times, risk taker, submissive, weird, sarcastic, strange

The Sea Ranch is a rugged landscape, dotted with distinctive homes, that extends for about ten miles on either side of Highway One in coastal Sonoma County, California. The building design constitutes an architectural vernacular that is world-renowned. Its hallmark is the attempt to blend man-made structures with their natural setting, and to “live lightly on the land.”

Gary knows the owner of the enviable Obie Bowman house and enjoyed a two-week stay with Deanne and fam. We visited for the weekend.

What I found most beautiful about The Sea Ranch — other than the thoughtful architecture — is that nearly every view is dominated by five large fields of color: the pale brown untreated wood of the homes, the mustard grass, the deep green cypress groves, and the blues of sea and sky.

More info about The Sea Ranch from JLT on Mocoloco SF »
Corii’s gots the beauty Sea Ranch pics from her trip last year »

One of the most interesting sets of images added to our Mid-Century, Modern Flickr group: Scott Golla of Eugene, OR has created a 3-D rendering of the entire Brady Bunch home.

One commenter observes:

The thing about many sixties shows was that they showed modernist interiors, but in attempting to make audiences relate to the characters the outdoor shots were always of familiar suburban “traditional” homes, just like the home the typical viewer supposedly owned.

More discussion here including some history of the house used in exterior shots.

The marvelous Miss Martha has deemed this week “Birthday Princess Week”. I've received copious presents — certainly more than I am due. The latest of which was this delightful birdfeeder. Unfortunately I was not able to accept the gift yesterday due to my lack of presence on the West side of the Bay.

That was a mistake. Martha warned me that her cat could use the Internets and that if I did not take the feeder right away he would post it on Craigslist as trade for food. I waved off that notion as poppycock. “Cats can't compute!” I said, and informed the lovely lady that I would collect the gift on the morrow.

I was wrong.

Silvio, 74, from Buenos Aires.

We went to Stern Grove to see the Rebirth Brass Band, but I ended up watching this man for much of the afternoon.

He appeared in full dandies, complete with olde tweed sport jacket, corduroys, jaunty cap and ascot(!). I wondered whether he and his conservative companion were prepared for a raucous funk/hiphop band. But he soon proved that he was. Rising to his feet halfway through the set, he waved-his-arms-in-the-air-like-he-just-didn't-care along with the rest of the crowd.

After the show, I had to shake his hand and tell him that I hoped I could be as stylish and exuberant as he when I grow up. He laughed, kissed my forehead, and told me that I was too skinny and I must take someone I am “crazy about” to Cafe Jacqueline in North Beach. “Be careful. After the meal, she will want to marry you.”

Animated Silvio 1
Animated Silvio 2
Animated Silvio 3 - taken by Martha

Now that I have a record player and I'm reminded of the huge canvases LP sleeves provided in the “good old days” I sometimes dawn my old codger cap and bemoan the digital music revolution. But David Byrne isn't worried:

Lots of people will miss these olde objects of veneration — even CDs will be missed. The photos and the lyrics, the liner notes, the credits, shout outs and thanks can be perused in a comfy chair while the music plays — you don’t have to be at your computer screen to savor the graphics and text.

But downloads could offer so much more. They could be an opportunity to expand the experience rather than a whittling away of the music/image connection. For less than the price of printing those sleeves and CD booklets you could get slideshows, photos, videos, bios, credits, lyrics, merch…. some of this stuff could play on your MP3 player along with the music, the rest could be on your computer to view or print out. You could get way more than could ever fit on a dinky little CD booklet. The LP sleeve was a package, a square billboard advertising the record. Now it is possible to connect this material to the music, but it is no longer packaging in the physical sense. It is liberated, in a way.

Update, Sept. 2006: The new iTunes 7.0 revives the album art.

I submitted my John Denver dream to fellow Oaklander Iris AlRoy who is collecting dreams for an art project. My apocalyptic beach tale fits nicely in the “Celebrity” category.

Superglue and army figure in the Montgomery BART Station, San Francisco.

The Sea Ranch: Mid-Century Modernism Meets Environmentalism

The Sea Ranch is a rugged landscape, dotted with distinctive homes, that extends for about ten miles on either side of Highway One in coastal Sonoma County, California. The building design constitutes an architectural vernacular that is world-renowned. Its hallmark is the attempt to blend man-made structures with their natural setting, and to “live lightly on the land.”

Gary knows the owner of the enviable Obie Bowman house and enjoyed a two-week stay with Deanne and fam. We visited for the weekend.

What I found most beautiful about The Sea Ranch — other than the thoughtful architecture — is that nearly every view is dominated by five large fields of color: the pale brown untreated wood of the homes, the mustard grass, the deep green cypress groves, and the blues of sea and sky.

More info about The Sea Ranch from JLT on Mocoloco SF »
Corii’s gots the beauty Sea Ranch pics from her trip last year »

Brady Bunch House in 3-D

One of the most interesting sets of images added to our Mid-Century, Modern Flickr group: Scott Golla of Eugene, OR has created a 3-D rendering of the entire Brady Bunch home.

One commenter observes:

The thing about many sixties shows was that they showed modernist interiors, but in attempting to make audiences relate to the characters the outdoor shots were always of familiar suburban “traditional” homes, just like the home the typical viewer supposedly owned.

More discussion here including some history of the house used in exterior shots.

“Trading 1 Bird Feeder for Rotisserie Chicken and Other Foods”

The marvelous Miss Martha has deemed this week “Birthday Princess Week”. I've received copious presents — certainly more than I am due. The latest of which was this delightful birdfeeder. Unfortunately I was not able to accept the gift yesterday due to my lack of presence on the West side of the Bay.

That was a mistake. Martha warned me that her cat could use the Internets and that if I did not take the feeder right away he would post it on Craigslist as trade for food. I waved off that notion as poppycock. “Cats can't compute!” I said, and informed the lovely lady that I would collect the gift on the morrow.

I was wrong.

Ascot Envy

Silvio, 74, from Buenos Aires.

We went to Stern Grove to see the Rebirth Brass Band, but I ended up watching this man for much of the afternoon.

He appeared in full dandies, complete with olde tweed sport jacket, corduroys, jaunty cap and ascot(!). I wondered whether he and his conservative companion were prepared for a raucous funk/hiphop band. But he soon proved that he was. Rising to his feet halfway through the set, he waved-his-arms-in-the-air-like-he-just-didn't-care along with the rest of the crowd.

After the show, I had to shake his hand and tell him that I hoped I could be as stylish and exuberant as he when I grow up. He laughed, kissed my forehead, and told me that I was too skinny and I must take someone I am “crazy about” to Cafe Jacqueline in North Beach. “Be careful. After the meal, she will want to marry you.”

Animated Silvio 1
Animated Silvio 2
Animated Silvio 3 - taken by Martha

Byrne on New Music Packaging

Now that I have a record player and I'm reminded of the huge canvases LP sleeves provided in the “good old days” I sometimes dawn my old codger cap and bemoan the digital music revolution. But David Byrne isn't worried:

Lots of people will miss these olde objects of veneration — even CDs will be missed. The photos and the lyrics, the liner notes, the credits, shout outs and thanks can be perused in a comfy chair while the music plays — you don’t have to be at your computer screen to savor the graphics and text.

But downloads could offer so much more. They could be an opportunity to expand the experience rather than a whittling away of the music/image connection. For less than the price of printing those sleeves and CD booklets you could get slideshows, photos, videos, bios, credits, lyrics, merch…. some of this stuff could play on your MP3 player along with the music, the rest could be on your computer to view or print out. You could get way more than could ever fit on a dinky little CD booklet. The LP sleeve was a package, a square billboard advertising the record. Now it is possible to connect this material to the music, but it is no longer packaging in the physical sense. It is liberated, in a way.

Update, Sept. 2006: The new iTunes 7.0 revives the album art.

John Denver Spreads His War on Terror

I submitted my John Denver dream to fellow Oaklander Iris AlRoy who is collecting dreams for an art project. My apocalyptic beach tale fits nicely in the “Celebrity” category.

Rumsfailed!

Superglue and army figure in the Montgomery BART Station, San Francisco.