I know the mock despair.com images are getting way played, but I couldn't resist this one.

Posted by SoGlitchy at 6:18 PM | Link | Comments (0)

In spite of the rather serious question, and talk of war and chaos, this song makes me happy, like the sound of kids playing on the sidewalk outside. Wherever we're going, it couldn't be that bad, could it? Could it?

Posted by SoGlitchy at 1:17 PM | Link | Comments (0)

If it's true that, as the saying goes, "a writer always writes," then I guess it's equally true that a designer always designs. I don't take days off from sitting at a computer and messing around to make things prettier. Doesn't even occur to me. When I'm stressed or bored or, in the case of this week in Chicago, overheated, I just downshift a bit and mess around with something that doesn't matter to anyone but me. Desktop wallpaper is perfect for that.

This pretty lady has a message of some kind. Perhaps you have been chosen for some gravely important task, or maybe you need a stern reminder of who's untimately responsible for something. (For instance, you.) In any case, the object of her attention is unmistakable.

Detail

Widescreen

2560 x 1600 -- .jpg (439k) | .png (999k)

1920 x 1200 -- .jpg (285k) | .png (664k)

1680 x 1050 -- .jpg (225k) | .png (528k)

1440 x 900 -- .jpg (187k) | .png (439k)

Standard

1600 x 1280 -- .jpg (332k) | .png (763k)

1280 x 1024 -- .jpg (183k) | .png (425k)

1024 x 768 -- .jpg (122k) | .png (286k)

iPhone

320 x 480 -- .jpg (49k) | .png (106k)

Posted by SoGlitchy at 12:35 PM | Link | Comments (0)

I don't know that I've read a review of this album yet that didn't mention Tom Petty, and I think it's a bit unfair, because at a glance you'd assume the record sounds like "American Girl." There's so much more going on than that. This track, for instance, makes me think of Animal Collective more than anything else.

Posted by SoGlitchy at 6:39 AM | Link | Comments (0)

Update 2008.06.18: I suppose I can blame it all on Brand New, but that just wouldn't be classy. ;) It seems that this logo is from a piece of merchandise that is not necessarily canon. This does not make it seem any less sinister, IMO. Also, it now seems like a bit of a waste to NOT have this as the McCain logo, for all of the reasons I point out below.

The first thing that pops into my head when I see McCain's new logo is a poster for an Arnold Schwarzenegger movie from the 80's. In this (non-existent, as far as I know) film, Arnold plays a spy, or better yet a member of an elite team of soldiers, most of whom will be picked off by the end -- except of course for him. He is fighting communism, and if not explicitly communism, a thinly veiled metaphor for it. (A predator of some kind?)

This isn't just a flight of imagination (though that part is kinda fun, I admit); it's all right there in the logo, and it is not subtle. The yellow star loudly declares military credentials, the font (Eurostile) and color scheme are severe to the point of seeming fear-mongering all by themselves, and the slant of the whole thing conveys ACTION in the most ham-fisted way possible.

Yes, it is a "bad" logo, but remember that the Republicans have not made any effort to establish a legacy of good design or typography. In fact, the graphic design of the Republican party is so consistently, aggressively bad that it is its own aesthetic. The game here is to look like you're not playing the game, and the subtle (or perhaps not so subtle) implication is that paying attention to aesthetics is not the kind of liberal frivolity that Republicans engage in. People with that kind of time on their hands are a bit suspect, a bit soft. They may actually be homosexual. You know how those graphic designer-types are. If this sounds ridiculous, that's because it is, but the tactic's very brashness is what gives its motives a layer of plausible deniability. Looked at from this point of view, the whole catalogue of terrible design that the Republicans have built, from the clunky, cheap-looking graphics on the Fox News Channel to the childishly simple backdrops of the President's speeches, begin to seem almost... clever.

And so, given all of this, I have to consider McCain's new logo a big upgrade. Now we at least know who he is -- he is The Republican. Compare this to his old logo, which didn't have nearly as much to say. Optima is a standby "nice" font, perfect for the door of your dentist's office or a bottle of mid-priced shampoo, and perfect for a candidate who is non-committal about being a member of his own party, and doesn't believe he has a hope in hell of winning its nomination. Those days are long over, and it is now clearly time for the chiseled, strained authority of Eurostile Bold Italic. With a yellow military star, of course.

Posted by SoGlitchy at 12:06 PM | Link | Comments (0)

OMG dance pop! They don't make it like this anymore. (Um... except when they do.) These guys seem to have taken to the form in a big way.

Posted by SoGlitchy at 9:37 PM | Link | Comments (0)

Seems like all the indie kids want to make grand, lush dance music nowadays. And god bless 'em for it, if it's this good. I was shamefully late to this album.

Posted by SoGlitchy at 9:34 PM | Link | Comments (0)

The fact that this "album" is actually 13 remixes of the same song doesn't hurt its listenability at all. Beautiful ambient dub.

Posted by SoGlitchy at 12:07 AM | Link | Comments (0)

Just a little jazz, nothing to panic over. Some Sunday morning going-to-get-coffee music.

Posted by SoGlitchy at 5:28 AM | Link | Comments (0)

Listen for James Brown sounding more and more sinister with every break, until by the end he's advocating... killing white women? Holy shit. (And it's still a great song.)

Posted by SoGlitchy at 1:58 AM | Link | Comments (0)