June 2005 Archives

While I am not a huge fan of the new Toronto Unlimited logo (the last thing we need is something that makes Toronto seem even more a prisoner of the 70's than we are), I do understand that it's freaking hard to come up with something effective that appeals to everyone. So I respect them for taking a run at it, and also respect that it's professionally done.

And to all the folks who hate it and think this whole design thing is a bit of a scam (just like the whole advertising thing) and that "I could do better than that!!" here's the proof that "No, actually, you couldn't."

http://www.torontosun.com/PhotoGalleries/LogoContest/2005/06/28/1108904.html

Too hot? Never! The pure joy of a good sprinkler run more than compensates for a a couple of happy individuals.
.

Too bad, the Dude turned out to be a bit of a dud for Carol. She didn't do brilliantly last year either -- see post below about relative hipness -- but this year attendance was really quiet which meant that she was drawing from an even smaller pool of potential buyers. Part of it has to do with the fact that College St was punishingly hot on Saturday and Sunday keeping people inside with AC, but it didn't seem well promoted at street level either. As you walked down towards the Latvian Hall, there was just a sandwich board which said SALE on it. But no description of what it actually was or anything.So I doubt they got any walkby traffic.

Ah well. The good news is that Carol paid all her expenses plus some -- keeping her streak alive of never losing money on a show -- but I think that will be the end of The Dude for Kid Brother. Live and learn.

Carol and Kid Brother are at the DUDE Show this weekend, so I'm a shmatta trade widower again with the boys. All good though, the show's hours aren't too onerous, and the weather is "get outside and play" stuff. Uh, except for the smog alert and humidity alert. But that's just big city living... right? Toughen up boys!

Here are details for anyone who wants to stop by:

-----------------
The Summer DUDE Show (Downtown Urban Design Event) , a three-day sale of some of Toronto’s best art, craft and fashion creations, takes place Friday to Sunday at the Latvian House (491 College St. near Bathurst).

The sale’s hours are Friday, 6 p.m. to midnight; noon to 6 p.m. on Saturday; and noon to 5p.m. on Sunday. Admission is free.
-----------

Here's what The Torontoist has to say about the DUDE Christmas Show. I like the mention of it being the antithesis of the One of a Kind Show. Carol feels a little un-hip at the DUDE compared to some of the very funky stuff, but the pretty and hip young things (I'm referring to the men of course) sometimes buy shirts for their nephews and what not, and it's a pleasant way to stay connected to the creative community.

I was in Starbucks today (I was meeting someone, okay?) and noticed that they were selling the new Coldplay album... for $18.95.

Now I know even on the iTunes store it's $11.99 (a $2 surcharge to cover the extra hype) but even so, I was amused that to see someone still trying to get the better part of $22 for a CD. So charmingly old fashioned, almost like the Internet never existed.

Walking down Yonge today, I noticed a man approaching me gesticulating wildy and babbling to no one that I could see. He was actually quite well dressed, so that in itself was notable as usually the uniform that comes with this behaviour is a little rougher round the edges. Then I noticed that he was in fact talking on a cell phone with a tiny headset attachment. He appeared to be having a business disagreement or something, thus the dramatic gesturing.

This is the cellular phone equivalent of people who sing along tunelessly to their Walkmans, seemingly unaware that even if they can't hear themselves, everyone else can. But at least with those people, you just know they're singing. The talking thing is unnerving; couldn't these people just give a "I'm not crazy, just clueless" sort of sign? One hand to the ear in the universal listening to earphone gesture? Not making eye contact with other passersby while you're talking to someone else we can't see?

Lalalalalaaaaaaaa!

With all Apple's slick marketing and iPods and Tiger and what not, there's something so charming that that they still keep Applescript going. I remember it back in the 90's when a company I worked for used it to help them automate certain publishing functions. It was pretty quirky and didn't always work well, and franky I just assumed it would eventually die off as a more sophisticated solution (read: retail solution) came into the market. Instead, I just had my first experience with it in a decade, and it was impressive.

Carol wanted to send out a so-called "complex" HTML email for Kid Brother, but this is impossible to do with Entourage or Outlook on Mac (for some reason you can on a PC). So I was at a loss on how to do this. Our friend Rupert pointed me to a great Applescript site which actually has an script that allows you to do this. You basically set up your HTML file, create a new email, then run the script. It asks you to locate the HTML file, then sends it for you.

Works like a charm. Hope for a better world restored.

As a designer I've led a pretty charmed life. Although I've had difficult projects where the client wasn't happy with the designs or whatever, I've never had the dreaded "client designer" before. You know, the guy who has Photoshop and decides that he'd like to take a run at it himself. So he takes your design, and gets to work adding different fonts and colours. I finally have my first client like this (a freelance one), who just sent back my design with a new colour scheme (mostly black) and a background image of lava (lifted from Google images). I won't name said client, he's a nice guy, but the lava is related to his theatre company's name. And it looks pretty awful.

On one hand, I think it's funny and even a relief because this means I can just hold my nose and deliver the site a lot faster. And invoice. On the other, this is freelance work and if I'm going to spend my evenings doing it then the either the money or the product should be something I'm happy with. So I guess I'm going to have to try and be happier with the money. Also, even if I recognize this is a reflection on him as much as me, I still have that designer insecurity which says, "I suck."

Sigh.

Ah June, so great. Been awhile since I put anything in here, I was sick for so freaking long, then work got crazy busy, and then I procrastinated because just like when you hook up with someone you haven't seen for a long time, the list of subjects is so long you don't know where to begin.

But as the world is hardly waiting breathlessly for my next entry, I do feel a sense of ease about this.

Latest news is that last week when I went to turn on the sprinkler, water started pouring out from the wall as well, which means it was pouring into our tenant's apartment. So, after the plumber came and fixed the burst pipe (winter freezing) we ended up having to pull out the carpet and lay down a whole new floor. It looks nice, but financially it's been a strain, not to mention physically. Coming home from work, having dinner, getting the kids to bed and then drywalling is not appealing. Most of it got done on the weekend, but there are still a lot of loose ends, and I feel bad for our lovely tenant Julia who has been very patient.

At work, we finally launched a site we did for Netscape calle The Cubicle (you need to turn off pop-up blockers for it to work BTW) which is pretty cool. The funny thing is that while it has a fair bit going on, I didn't think it was going to be much harder than doing the average movie site. I underestimated the task of dealing with the AOL/Netscape monolith. Omigod they are a giant lumbering bureaocracy like I have never seen in my life. Even compared to car companies. Our direct contacts were great, but even they seemed mystified by the larger workings of their company and what was going to be required by any one of the various fiefdoms who needed to contribute to it. Anyway, it's all done now. And so am I.