Category Archives: Art/Style/Culture

The ink that never was

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Tattoo SleevesI confess I was surprised by the number of readers that –even for a moment– entertained the idea that I got real tattoos for my little video project. (You are the people that open the spam email)

It wasn’t Magic Marker. It wasn’t Photoshop magic (I should be so talented). Simple nylon sleeves that come in all sorts of designs and prices (from expensive to cheap. You can even get full-body faux tattoos.)

You pull these on and you start fantacizing about walking into a biker bar and GETTING IN SOMEONE’S SHIT, MAN!!

Everett reports you can still see plenty of jailhouse tattoos in Kennet.

“The L-O-V-E H-A-T-E across the tops of the fingers in ballpoint ink is most common, though the Dagger Dripping Tears on the forearm is a close second. Then there’s the guy who started on the wrong finger and got LOVE HAT.”

Everett loves hats.

The Cleopatra Effect

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Hugh Macleod explains why he doesn’t do corporate blog consulting.

gapingvoid.com

My take on this goes something like this: If you have what it takes to blog, you really don’t need much guidance or consultation. If you do not have what it takes, no amount of either will help.

Many years ago a wise and patient man named Hoyt Wooten gave me some guitar lessons. In answer to my question, “Think I’ll ever learn to play this thing?”, Hoyt answered: “Depends on how long you live.”

Colorado images by Henry Domke

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Willows by a Creek

Henry shares some beautiful (a poor adjective in this instance) images from his recent trip to Colorado, where he concentrated on Lichen and of the Aspen trees.

“At first glance the colors of the skies, leaves and lichen appear to be too saturated to me, but that is the color they were.”

You’ll also find some amazing new images at Henry’s website.

Mac desktop image

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I am incapable of keeping a clean, orderly desktop on any of my Windows machines. Folders and files and shortcuts scattered from top to bottom. It is in no way the fault of the OS. It’s my sloppiness. I have discovered, however, that I can keep the MacBook desktop clean. Maybe it’s the dock or the way Finder works or, perhaps, it’s just the beautiful desktop images that ship with OSX. It would be a shame to cover them. I don’t know. But here’s the desktop as of 5 minutes ago.

Web surfers see only what they want

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Certainly no surprise to anyone that designs or (in my case) maintains websites. A few specifics from recent study by Jakob Nielsen’s Nielsen Norman Group:

  • Individuals read Web pages in an “F” pattern. They’re more inclined to read longer sentences at the top of a page and less and less as they scroll down. That makes the first two words of a sentence very important.
  • Surfers connect well with images of people looking directly at them. It helps if the person in the photo is attractive, but not too good-looking. Photos of people who are clearly professional models are a turnoff.
  • People respond to pictures that provide useful information, not just decoration.

And my favorite: When there is less on a page, users read more.

Cliff Birklund

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I’ve been thinking a lot about advertising these days. Radio advertising in particular. I have met hundreds of radio sales people during the past 30+ years. My father sold for many years.

Cliff Birklund (I don’t remember how Cliff spelled his name) was hired to do news at KBOA but eventually moved into sales. In a previous life, he was a commercial artist and I’ll never forgive myself for not saving more of his doodles. This one is a classic (have I posted this before?) but I’ve always liked this self-portrait.

Update: Bob Heater asks how Cliff could have –in 1978– doodled something on a 1989 calendar page. I left KBOA in 1984 so I must have salvaged the drawing on a later visit to Kennett.

Best Album Name: A Ass Pocket of Whiskey

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Terry McVey recently pointed us to the Best Album (CD?) Cover Art, and now has a nominee for Best Album Name: A Ass Pocket of Whiskey (Fat Possum Records) by R. L. Burnside. Sadly, R. L. died on September 1, 2005, in a Memphis hospital.

“A Ass Pocket of Whiskey is a collaborative effort between well-known artists R.L. Burnside and Jon Spencer Blues Explosion. Recorded in a rented out hunters cabin near Holly Springs, Mississippi, both acts bring their best to the table with amps turned all the way up, drums pounding and R.L. and Jon Spencer screaming with their charismatic voices back and forth at one another.”

Based solely on track names, my favorites are: Snake Drive and Tojo Told Hitler.