Friday, February 12, 2010
Wednesday, February 10, 2010
Thursday, February 4, 2010
The Moderns
Sex Madonna (1992)
I was at a screening for the film Helvetica a while ago and after the movie there was a Q&A with the director and many of the participants in the film. One audience member asked Massimo Vignelli, "If you could be a type face which one would you be?"
Vignelli answered, "Helvetica in the day and Bodoni at night."
Bodoni was designed by Giambattista Bodoni around 1798. It's a modern typeface, with flat, unbracketed serifs and an extreme contrast between the thick and thin strokes. Like it's predecessor Didot, it is removed from the sweeping serifs that mimicked the quill and gestures of the hand. Born out of the Industrial Revolution it would become the standard for fashion and beauty for years to come.
It is precise, crisp, and unflinching.
It is warm, elegant, and sensuous.
The moderns are delicate, but harsh. They're inhuman but sexy. Bodoni is alluring in it's contrasts of generous curves and honed edges. It's the typographic equivalent of a knife blade over the arc of a hip.
Friday, January 29, 2010
Do the robot!
Last night I was watching t.v. and an ad came on for some car company. I don't know which one, I don't really care about cars, but they showed an assembly line with those rows and rows of yellow painted robot arms all tinkering in unison and because I am the kind of person that I am, I thought, "That's kind of hot".
I've always been fascinated by machinery. I always linger by construction sites when the cranes are in motion. I love those impossibly gigantic earth moving machines. Oily gears and metal chains have always turned my crank. Crash by J.G. Ballard is one of my favorite books. Then add to all that the suggestion of human activity. After all, these machines are replacing what human hands used to do. They are huge, yet doing the most delicate precise movements. They are bulky, but glide gracefully like ballet dancers that have had their feet nailed to the floor. They're all in unison like a Busby Berkeley* choreography each with it's own very specific task it does perfectly over and over and over again.
* There is so much in this little clip to talk about but I'll leave it up to someone else.
I've always been fascinated by machinery. I always linger by construction sites when the cranes are in motion. I love those impossibly gigantic earth moving machines. Oily gears and metal chains have always turned my crank. Crash by J.G. Ballard is one of my favorite books. Then add to all that the suggestion of human activity. After all, these machines are replacing what human hands used to do. They are huge, yet doing the most delicate precise movements. They are bulky, but glide gracefully like ballet dancers that have had their feet nailed to the floor. They're all in unison like a Busby Berkeley* choreography each with it's own very specific task it does perfectly over and over and over again.
* There is so much in this little clip to talk about but I'll leave it up to someone else.
Wednesday, January 27, 2010
Wednesday, January 6, 2010
The Libertine (1969)
bebelestrange: La Matriarca (The Libertine) - 1969 (hop on pop... - Watch more Music Videos at Vodpod.
(this was the only video I could find online, but there are English subtitles)
In The Libertine, a newly widowed young woman discovers her husbands secret swinging kinky sex pad and decides to make it her own. She goes through an encyclopedia of abnormal sexuality trying out kinks one by one with a new hair-do and outfit for each one.
It's also why I now refer to my apartment as The Fornicatorium.
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