Pending Publishing

A quick note to smugly, I mean humbly, share the news that as well as having posters and fliers in the US and the UK (as well as a cover CD on The Wrench Mag)this year my efforts have been chosen for inclusion in an upcoming book featuring the best of burlesque poster design from The Folies to Neo-Burlesque. Huge props to Missy Malone and the brilliant Yak at Korero Books.

the curta

subject of retro-collectability in william gibson's "spook country" and designed before world war II. one of the most beautiful pieces of precision engineering ever. more text to follow.

a softer world

I've been reading a softer world for some time now. not every day, just when it pops into my head i like to open the page and hit back again and again until I get to a strip I've read before.

It's like a cross between a web comic and post secret but it's darker and more twisted and sometimes as beautiful. A Softer World is the brainchild of Emily Horne and Joey Comeau. Emily takes the photos and Joey does the writing. Topics are everything that goes on in your head. It's at turns beautiful, funny, witty and poignant and sometimes all of the above. Sometimes it also has zombies.

a warm glow

Call me crazy but even knowing that playing compressed digital audio through one of these isn't gonna push it a whole hell of a lot there is something about the Glow: Amp One that makes me want one. While valve amps do have a more distinctive sound I feel that their legendary "warmth" is a bit of a myth. Sure, play a guitar through one of them it sounds amazing, but an iPod...I wouldn't be so sure.

For me it was always the smell of a warm valve amp that was so distinctive. For years my Dad had this same battered old amp that would be lugged from gig to gig. I can remember him changing the valves several times through my childhood and my being fascinated peeking through the grille of the amp to see the tubes glowing.

Perhaps that's why the diminutive bookshelf USB Amp One has me rubbing my knees with childish excitement.

Over the last few years i've accrued some great old tech and given i'm moving to another city soon I'm looking forward to shedding some of my old stuff and kitting my prospective abode out with a housewarming gift or two. I think I may have found one here for $488 at Glow Audio.

Purporting to be equal parts style and substance the Amp One, at least on paper seems to deliver. Using point to point wiring and hand-wound amp transformers Glow Audio's aim is to take the complexity of modern day amps back to older days whilst offering DAC and a USB port as well as the ubiquious auxhilliary in on the back. I gotta say I admire the aesthetic of their workmanship greatly. Needless to say the proof shall be in the listening.

Glow Audio via BLTD

The Last Of The Living

From New Zealand comes what looks to be a fairly rock solid adition to the zom-com genre. These Antipodeans and their Zombies! It's no Fido but I look forward to it.

A highly contagious virus has transformed almost every human into flesh-eating zombies. Now it’s up to three bickering, video playing friends, Morgan, Ash and unreformed rock’n’roller Johnny with their pick of well-appointed houses to occupy and free rein at the local Pak-N-Save, to save the world.

The film is about to premiere at the New Zealand International Film Festival so reviews should start to creep out soon.




Via Twitch

Clarity and Sound

Found on the Apple store and garnering praise web-wide are these fetishistically well designed FH007 speakers from Ferguson Hill. Featuring a design aesthetic that compliments both the white and aluminium iMacs as well as some serious specs these speakers will blend into your room while still being eye-catchingly gorgeous.

From the Apple site: The FHOO7 System is a mini version of the acclaimed FHOO1, FHOO2 & FHOO3 combined system, developed for a wider consumer market. It has been designed to work with all Hi-Fi music player formats. Competitively priced, it should be noted that no compromises were made in the R&D process, the sound and build quality are of the standard expected from a Ferguson Hill product.


System Specification

Two Horn speakers 8 Ohm Horn H 43cm W 27cm D 18cm
Two Bass speakers 8 Ohm Bass Sphere 20 cm diameter
Integrated Amplifier 14 cm cubed, Bi-amped class A/B, 16 Watts times four into 8 Ohms
Frequency response 75Hz - 20KHz +/- 5dB

The speakers retail for €499 and can be complimented with a similarly specced and well designed sub-woofer also from the Apple store.

My City Screams

According to the nice folk over at cinematical Apple have posted the second trailer for the upcoming frank Miller adaptation of Will Eisner's "The Spirit". I'll add some links later but for now enjoy the trailer.

Writer-director Frank Miller described the main character:
“The character has a terrifying side to him. This is a man who’s died and come back to life. So it twists into fantasy. And of course there are tons of women in it. There have to be — it’s The Spirit. They’re all in love with him, and he’s in love with all of them. You might say he’s a bit of a slut."

The film series will not begin with an origin story, but will instead open with the adventures of The Spirit already having begun.[4] The film will be more contemporary than the '40s and '50s era of the strip and will aim for a "timeless feel."

The protagonist will be involved in a love triangle with Sand Saref and Ellen Dolan, the daughter of Central City's Police Commissioner Dolan. The controversial character Ebony White will not appear in the film.

Via: Cinematical