Sunday, September 30, 2007

Uh, Yes, Pitching IS Pretty Important...


"When I first came here, I said that pitching is 85 percent of the game. In this division, it might be 90 percent... [g]ood pitching is going to thwart real good teams. It is my belief now that this franchise is really going to have to focus on pitching."

- Orioles President of Baseball Ops, Andy MacPhail

Mister MacPhail, let me correct you: pitching isn't even 90% of the game. It's more like 95% of the game. Baseball is essentially nine innings worth of head-to-head showdowns between pitcher and batter. Give me 4 top notch starters, two powerful relievers, and a few average hitters, and we'll go to the playoffs every year.

Instead, we've just wrapped up our 10th straight losing season.

Please Explain #5


Sunday evening, under CNN.com's "Latest News":

"The Rock's 'Game Plan' beats Foxx's 'Kingdom'"

Why do we consider a movie's opening weekend box office take "news?" A film, even a film starring "The Rock," is a creative work. Must we quantify a creative work's value by tickets sold?

The weekly reports gushing over the profits raked in by major film studios really cheapen the art of moviemaking. Do you really care if Jamie Foxx was "beaten" by "The Rock?" Does everything in America have to be reduced a football game?

Like the United States, France is well-known for it's cinema. But rest assured, you won't see articles about "Le Box Office" on the front page of "Le Monde."

Broadly speaking, French films are based on ideas; American films are based on formulas. The quality of cinema in France absolutely blows away the United States. Now, that's a game worth winning.

Friday, September 28, 2007

“You’ve Infiltrated The Sanctity That Is Men’s Football”


Some follow up to the Lady Reporter vs. Coach story:

Well, the readers have weighed in. While the vast majority of comments posted at the Daily Oklahoman took the high road and merely eviscerated the Lady Reporter for what she wrote, quite a few men (and women) unleashed their full misogyny:

"What do you expect from a girl covering football. She should be fired."

"As for Carlson--I don't know what it is that makes a female want to be a football writer. As a male, I can't imagine writing about things I really know little about like, say...beauty contests or women's issues. But, as we all know, it's a free country. Why don't you just assign her to write a powder puff football column or stories about the sport from a female point of view--not locker room stuff. She's not qualified."

"Women should really stay off a sports board, I mean really, they only pretend to like sports. A chick has to display intimate knowledge of the game before I'd believe it.."

"She's certainly entitled to an opinion. But, it sure looks like the opinion of a token female sports reporter who has never played an organized sport in her life or had much of a relationship with her mother."

"When was the last time you played college football? I'm not so sure you would jump up and walk it off. I find it disturbing with all of the sports to write about, you go after Reid. I was hoping for something more from a women. Maybe you should try writing about who is wearing what and who is dating who."

"Maybe it's just me, but am I the only one tired of having women tell me their 'think-so's' and so-called 'facts' on men's sports? Don't get me wrong. I love women and see them as equals, but it just seems to be extremely odd to have more and more women commenting on men's sports! It began in the sixties, I guess. I wasn't alive then. All I know is that women have infiltrated the sanctity that is men's football. A MAN'S game!!"

"An adult woman who is supposed to be a professional took cheap shots at a young mans manhood."

"She gives woman sports writers a bad name"

"I am still in high school and I know that if some woman who has never played football or known the pressure and emotional toughness of quarterbacking a team would write the same article on me I would want to have her fired. "

"Send this woman over to the celebrity beat where she can write catty gossip to her heart's content. Then get someone who actually knows and cares about sports to write your sports columns. "

"I think that it is a sad day in America when a "grown" obese woman can sit and judge a "proven" athlete. This is a man who is in school trying to do things right, and you have the audacity to put him down.How dare you! "

"Do women feel that a man can honestly tell them what it is like to have a baby or how much pain they may be experiencing during the birth? When they do, I will listen to a woman's opinion on how a male football player is supposed to "gut it out" and question his level of pain during a game. "

Thursday, September 27, 2007

Try To Wrap Your Brain Around This Idea


Ever wonder what Alexander the Great's voice sounded like? Or what Cleopatra really said to Marc Antony while cruising the Nile? Did Charlemagne speak with a lisp?

Alas, the ancient folk didn't have recording technology back then, so all of that is lost forever.

Or is it?

Years ago, Art Bell's radio show featured a discussion of a nascent scientific theory called "acoustic archaeology." Basically, the theory proposes that, under the right conditions, audio can be captured from certain inanimate objects like pottery, wood or canvas. Some have theorized that sounds are stored like the rings in a tree, never disappearing.

Sound far-fetched? Well, as the cliché goes, space travel was once science fiction. Sound extraction may never happen as perfectly as we might dream, but with computer modelling, who knows? Maybe one day we'll hear that elusive audio of Jesus trying to pick up a chick.

For some further discussion on the topic check out this book on Stone Age acoustic archaeology. If you like reading quasi-academic papers, try this on for size.. For more of a layman's introduction, click here.

What The Early 1940’s Looked Like





Though color photography has been around since the Civil War, until fairly recently it was too expensive for the masses. From 1935, when Kodachrome was invented, until probably the mid-1950's, color photography was a luxury few middle class Americans could afford. That's why when you see a rich color photograph like the ones above, it stops you in your tracks.

Study these photos too long and you'll get a little teary-eyed. So much has changed; yet nothing has changed.

These rare shots were found on one of the best blogs on the net, Shorpy.com.

Visit Shorpy.com

A Must Have For The Lil' Urchins


Fond Childhood Memory: During summertime visits to my grandparent's Appalachian farm, we'd often bust out the ice cream churn for a good old fashioned treat. We didn't use one of those post-modern electric churns, either -- it was all elbow grease.

This interesting unit upholds the same Puritan principal (work, then eat) but turns it into a toy. Kids today have it too easy -- buy this and tell 'em they can have all the ice cream they want, as long as they make it themselves!

Tuesday, September 25, 2007

The Wayback Machine: Reaction To Release of Original iPod


I'm not a big techno-geek, but when I read about the soon-to-be released 5 GB iPod back in 2001 I knew I HAD to have one. I bought mine within days of release, and have had one ever since.

Yet many of the Mac faithful boldly predicted the white-cased iPod was no more than a white elephant, destined for failure. Here's a sampling of early reaction from the MacRumors website:

"I still can’t believe this! All this hype for something so ridiculous! Who cares about an MP3 player? I want something new! I want them to think differently! Why oh why would they do this?! It’s so wrong! It’s so stupid!"

"gee! an mp3 player with a HD! how original! kinda reminds me of a JUKEBOX i once knew."

"I’d call it the Cube 2.0 as it wont sell, and be killed off in a short time…and it’s not really functional."

"All that hype for an MP3 player? Break-thru digital device? The Reality Distiortion Field is starting to warp Steve’s mind if he thinks for one second that this thing is gonna take off."

"There are already two products similar to this on the market. The Nomad Jukebox and the Archos Jukebox which can come with a 20 gig HD. The iPod is obviously alot cooler and has firewire, but it is far from revolutionary. I for one am disappointed and think that apple is making a mistake by trying to get into this market."


Since the above remarks, Apple has sold over 100 million iPods. More significantly, the iPod has forever changed the way people listen to music. No one proudly displays CD collections in their homes anymore. And does anyone really enjoy listening to format-driven commercial radio these days? The iPod made it possible to store a complete CD collection in a card-deck sized device, allowing custom playlist creation for effortless shuffling between musical genres. The only negative I've noticed is this: with so many songs at your disposal, it's sometimes hard to finish listening to one before skipping ahead to the next one.

Yes, it's possible to create an iTunes playlist so large that you couldn't listen to each song in your lifetime. Isn't that the real challenge of the digital revolution? With so much content, so easily stored and accessed, and one short lifetime, how do we decide what's worth our attention?

You Go, Girl!

"Woman Attacks Vice Cops With Pepper Spray

JEDDAH, 25 September 2007 — Two Saudi women called members of the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice “terrorists” and one sprayed the men with pepper spray after the men stopped them for not conforming to the Kingdom’s public dress code, the commission said yesterday in a statement."

Read the full article here.

At Christian University, we were harassed for violating the dress code, but it was usually for wearing shorts. These gals were intimidated for wearing (gasp) makeup. We all know the K.S.A.'s a tough place; they're certainly braver than I would be!

Sunday, September 23, 2007

Underachieving Coach Yells At Lady Reporter


After his Oklahoma State Cowboys squeaked by Texas Tech, you'd think coach Mike Gundy would be in a great mood. Instead, he decided to scream at Jenni Carlson, Lady Reporter.

See, the Lady Reporter had the temerity to point out the OSU quarterback's infantile behavior in last week's devasting loss to a lesser team.

Gundy's response? Make sure everyone finds out the Lady Reporter doesn't have children of her own. You see, in his mind, a childless Lady Reporter covering a major Division I college football team is prohibited from criticizing an athlete receiving a state-funded scholarship. Why? Well, uh, hmm... any PARENT would understand!

Gundy describes his poor, helpless QB as if he's an eight year old boy who just found out there's no Santa Claus. C'mon, Mike, give us a break!

Implicit message? Why would a Lady want to write about football anyway, when she should be at home having babies?

Please Explain #4


We hear it from the right wing all the time: "Big Government is anti-capitalist! Let the free market decide!" Or, from Ronald Reagan himself: "Government is not a solution to our problem, government is the problem."

The free market worshippers claim all the world's problems would be solved if we'd only let the God-ordained free markets operate unfettered. Well, last week Jon Stewart asked the Big Kahuna of free markets, Alan Greenspan, a simple question, which I'll paraphrase:

"If the United States purports to advocate a free market economy, than why do we need The Fed to regulate it?"

Check out the answer.

Let's Not Let A Good Thing Die



For those of us who obsess over such minutiae, here's a great presentation on the Toronto subway font, a striking, geometric design, but one that recent station expansion has completely watered down. New stations don't always bother to feature the unique Toronto font. Some feature Gill Sans (descendant font of the London Tube's ubiquitous "Johnston") or (gasp) a poorly-drawn Helvetica.

C'mon, Toronto, you're in the big leagues now -- let's get your typographic house in order!

Click here to read the presentation
Purchase the font here.

Wednesday, September 19, 2007

A Modest Proposal

The New York Times has lifted the firewall guarding their TimeSelect premium service. Management recognizes that web traffic drives advertising revenue, and denying access to their most popular columnists only hurts their bottom line.

Everyone knows that traditional newspapers are on their deathbed, so why not take this approach one step further: give the printed newspaper away free! That's right, if you want a newspaper from the vending machine, just grab one and take it.

This business model works for hundreds of free alternative weeklies across the country. It also works for commercial television.

Think about it, Arthur Sulzberger, Jr!

Tuesday, September 18, 2007

This Week in Pit Bull Attacks


Such sweet lil' doggies!

"Pit Bull Attack Victim Speaks Out"
"Takoma Park Considers Ban After Pit Bull Attack on Teen"
"Pit Bull Attacks In Fremont, Hayward Connected, Police Say"
"Women save toddler from pit-bull attack "
"Patrol dog on mend after pit bull attack"
"Pit bull attack claims life of family's beloved dog"

Hyperbole In Top 10 Lists: The "...of All Time" Claim

Overly enthusiastic writers love to add gravitas to their lists by injecting the "...of All Time" claim. Sometimes, though it's just not called for.

To Wit:
"The Best Punk & Emo CDs of All Time."
Punk & Emo as musical forms have only existed for around 30 years. Human beings have kept written records for around 5,000 years. Don't you find such a grandiose proclamation about the importance of Punk & Emo in the grand sweep of human history a bit presumptious? Plus, I'll bet the list writer has never heard some of the old school Emo that came out of Ancient Mesopotamia back in the day...

Homework Assignment:
Refrain from using the "...of All Time" claim unless appropriate.

Correct use:
"The Top 10 World Events of All Time"

Incorrect use:
"The Top 10 Things I Did Yesterday Of All Time"

The Top 10 List of Top 10 Lists #1

Who doesn't love a list? Here's Blogrizzard's first installment of the Top 10 Top 10 Lists:

Click to visit.

1. Top 10 Most Fascinating Urinals
2. Top 10 Deadliest Animals
3. Top 10 Most Influential Amiga Games
4. Top 10 Wedding Photographers
5. Top 10 Worst April Fool's Day Hoaxes Ever
6. Top 10 Funniest and Most Brilliant Bus Ads
7. Top 10 Most Dangerous Toys of All Time
8. Top 10 Most Annoying Alarm Clocks
9. Top 10 Things Food Companies Don't Want You To Know
10. Top 10 Least Intelligent Dogs

Monday, September 17, 2007

Sunday, September 16, 2007

The Cult of Billy Mitchell



"Who is Billy Mitchell?" you ask? Well, he's only the best Donkey Kong player in the world! Any hardcore gamer will tell you that! But when Steve Wiebe, a down-and-out family man from Washington State, loses his job, he sets out to change his luck by breaking Billy Mitchell's untouchable Donkey Kong world record.

That's the premise of the incredible new documentary "The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters." If you're not sure you'd enjoy a movie about a bunch of arcade-dwelling social misfits, think again. The first minute of this film hooked me. And it hooked the audience, too: reacting to a key plot point midway through the film, the crowd erupted into spontaneous applause, something I've never experienced before.

Good storytelling doesn't obsess on a solitary theme. Hence, "King of Kong" becomes a tale of (take your pick): cult of personality, the cycle of failure, the quest for redemption, recapturing past glory, a man's needs vs. his family's needs, the integrity of our institutions, the return of the Messiah, and many more.

The likable outsider, Steve Wiebe, represents the moral center of the film, but his goodness comes with a price. After losing his job, rather than focusing on providing for his family, he neglects his wife and two young children to play Donkey Kong in the garage. For most of the film, he's essentially a bachelor, unwilling to step into his role as husband and father (sadly, a role he already inhabits). For him, a loving wife and two beautiful children aren't success -- earning the respect that comes with the world Donkey Kong record is.

His nemesis, Billy Mitchell isn't just the most compelling character in the film; he's one of the most compelling characters I've ever seen on screen, anywhere. The long-haired, bearded Mitchell inspires a Christ-like devotion in the gaming world. He's got it all: money, charisma, a luxurious mullet, and a silicon-enhanced babe at his side. When interviewed on screen, he eats up the camera, exuding total confidence and self-assurance, unlike his terminally-geeky disciples. And because of his personal magnetism, we witness this fan club desperate to protect their hero as the movie builds to a "High Noon" showdown.

Why do these arcade insiders worship Billy Mitchell so much? The film shows us a cocky sleazeball so unaware of his own megalomania that you'd hesitate to call an ambulance were he struck by an SUV. But among the arcade geek-eratti, he enjoys such Branch-Davidian devotion that you wonder if he's drugged their Red Bull with love potion. One Billy-devotee breathlessly equates him to a Jedi Master. A pair of Billy-boys show up unannounced at Steve Wiebe's house to intimidate his wife. Billy's own parents gloat about how their son is always one step ahead of everyone else.

No spoilers here. Believe the hype, and go see this movie. The ensemble of real-life characters are far more compelling than any others you'll see this year.

Saturday, September 15, 2007

The Best Athlete in the World?


The best always seem to make it look easy.

Roger Federer has won 12 majors in 5 years, barely breaking a sweat. It took the current record holder, Pete Sampras, 12 years to win 14 majors. You can't call Roger the Tiger Woods of tennis, because he's better at tennis than Tiger is at golf. And he's a more complete talent on the tennis court than Michael Jordan was on the hardwood.

Kurt Streeter over at the L.A. Times makes the case:

Friday, September 14, 2007

Pete Will Not Go Quietly


From Roger Federer's web site:

"Immediately following his 4th consecutive US Open victory, a 7-6, 7-6, 6-4 win over Novak Djokovic, Roger announced that he will play Pete Sampras in a special one night exhibition to be held on March 10, 2008 at Madison Square Garden, New York. Sampras holds the current record with 14 Grand Slam titles."

Pete's a bit concerned that his Grand Slam record will be broken by Roger Federer next year, and rumors have swirled that he's plotting a return to the game. This exhibition will give Pete an idea if he stands a chance against the mighty Federer.

We're Kinda Doing Pretty Good, Sort Of... I Guess


Remember the war thingy that's going on in that place that's really far away? (it's what all those faded yellow ribbon bumper magnets were supporting).

The people that are doing war stuff over there say we're having a rousing not-total-failure!

So what say we keep going with this thing!? And by "keep going," I mean let's keep letting our Army dodge IED's while the rest of us drive our SUV's over to T.G.I. Friday's tonight for some chicken wings and FRIED MOZZARELLA!

Who's with me?

Fallingwater Meets CGI


Check out this incredible labor of love from computer modeller Cristóbal Vila.

I've had the pleasure of touring Fallingwater, and must say that yes, this short film does indeed do it justice!

Big download, though. Grab some coffee.

Watch it here:

(incidentally, how beautiful is the Spanish name for Fallingwater, "La Casa de la Cascada?")

Phascinating Phact #1



Reno, Nevada is further west than Los Angeles.

To paraphrase Shakira, Maps Don't Lie!

Top 10 Songs About Northern England


Folks, it's never too late to build your own playlist of songs about northern England.

To get you started, here's some recommends from the Guardian:

1 The Dalesman's Litany, Tim Hart & Maddy Prior
2 It's Grim Up North, The JAMMsy
3 Station Approach, Elbow
4 Gonna Send You Back to Walker, The Animals
5 Hit the North, The Fall
6 Rumble on Mersey Square South, Wimple Winch
7 Up Here in the North of England, The Icicle Works
8 Sproston Green, The Charlatans
9 Stanlow, OMD
10 Sheffield Shanty, Monkey Swallows the Universe

Thursday, September 13, 2007

Those Drudge Report Ads


If the Drudge Report were around in 1863, you can bet we'd see hastily-produced "survey" ads like this.

The Gold Standard of Old Time Radio


If you've got an iPod and an DSL connection, you really should be loading up on the free episodes of old time radio (OTR) shows floating around out there on the internets. Before television, OTR = The Big Leagues. The biggest stars and best writers all spent time in OTR. Established screen idols dropped by for special guest appearances, and talented writers and producers like Orson Welles parlayed their OTR success onto the big screen.

One OTR's very best writers was a man named Carlton E. Morse.

Morse earned his fame writing a proto-soap opera called "One Man's Family." It ran for 27 years, with Morse writing over 3,000 episodes.

But Morse had a hard-boiled side, too. Starting in 1937, he developed, wrote and produced the legendary "I Love A Mystery," a groundbreaking serial that expertly blended action, adventure, mystery, suspense & horror. The show revolved around the exploits of three globetrotting soldiers of fortune, and their adventures played out over the course of as many as 25 fifteen-minute episodes. The storylines were dense epics, with titles like "Snake With the Diamond Eyes," and "Terror of the Frozen Corpse Lodge."

Because of the success of "One Man's Family," Morse was basically free to develop "ILAM" as he saw fit. The scripts absolutely buzzed with energy and excitement, and the acting was always first rate (Mercedes McCambridge was a frequent guest, and a young Tony Randall starred in the late 40's).

Morse's adventure show saw several incarnations: "I Love A Mystery" became "I Love Adventure" which became "Adventures By Morse." The basic approach stayed the same, though: exotic adventures in mysterious locales.

Unfortunately, most of the original shows disappeared into the ether. We have a good chunk of extant recordings, but not nearly enough. From time to time, modern fan clubs stage re-enactments from the original scripts, but legal tangles with the Morse estate have stalled further productions.

If you like high adventure, download some free mp3s to you iPod. Keep in mind that these shows were aimed at 10 year old boys. If you've still got some of your own 10 year old left inside, I don't think you'll be disappointed.

Click here to grab some free mp3's.

(side bar: "ILAM" was the inspiration for TV's "Scooby Doo." Then head of programming at CBS, Fred Silverman, was a huge ILAM fan)

I Want One! I Want One!




Paperpod makes cool toys for kids.

Kids won't care that they're not made of wood or plastic. When they get bored with them, don't stash in the garage -- crush and recycle!

It's a UK company and I don't know if they ship across the pond.

No problem, though, I don't have a kid!

See the full line here:

Please Explain #3


Why do advertising copywriters promise something "for free?" How much is "FREE?"

Answer: It costs "NOTHING."

Therefore, the phrase should read, "Get A New Thing FOR NOTHING."

Or, if you must use the word "free," just drop the "for." It's already implied: "Get A New Thing FREE."

In this instance, "FREE" is an adverb, not a pronoun! And "FOR" is a preposition. "FOR" is superfluous.

Then, again, maybe I'm wrong. I'm no grammarian. And anyway, in copywriting, grammar is like a Scottish bog -- don't expect a firm footing.

Remember Apple's "THINK DIFFERENT" tagline?

Playground Diplomacy


Um, hey, y'all, watch this um, charming clip of an um, overfed Manhattan neocon blustering um, about "what this war was about."

(It's good that we men rule the world because of the level of unemotional, clear-heading thinking we offer. Booo-ya!!!)

For a Pulitzer winner, he sure likes to speak in tired old clichés.

The biggest shame is that some people take this guy seriously...

Brought To You By The Second Amendment


"HOLLIDAYSBURG, Pa. -- An auxiliary officer for a local police department was killed when a machine gun discharged at a private gun show in Blair County.

Michael Kurty, 36, of Hollidaysburg, was killed Wednesday night during a gun expo at the Hollidaysburg Sportsmen's Club.
Police said a Gatling mini-gun attached to a Humvee fired a few thousand rounds earlier in the evening before it discharged and released a fatal shot to Kurty's head.

""What appears to have happened is there was some sort of a jam and when they were trying to clear the jam is when the gun actually went off," said Pennsylvania State Police trooper Jeff Petucci."

Well, shucks, at least his family can take comfort in the fact that he died celebrating our freedoms. Those pansy socialist Europeans don't even get the CHANCE to die in gun show accidents!

(Extra credit question: why do we need to have a Gatling gun attached to a Humvee in Hollidaysburg, PA in the first place?)

Monkey Loves Pigeon


What a beautiful story... abandoned macaque being nursed back to health in an animal hospital forms an unlikely bond with a white pigeon (also known as a "dove").

The photo couldn't be more beautiful, it's like a Vermeer...

Full story here.

Tuesday, September 11, 2007

The Bookshelf As Sculpture


From Contraforma.com

The Worst Vehicles of All Time


Time.com gives us a provocative list of the 50 worst cars of all time.

Blessedly, the list doesn't just feature engineering nightmares. It also looks at vehicles as they relate to their time and place, and what they say about the people who bought them.

Take the Hummer, for instance. While I grudgingly applaud its design and marketing, I absolutely abhor what this automobile says about the American way of life, and I can confidently stereotype its driver as (a) gingoistic, (b) anti-environmentalist, (c) insecure, and (d) modestly endowed.

Time.com's take:

"One struggles to think of a worse vehicle at a worse time. Introduced shortly after 9/11 — an event whose causes were tangled in America's unquenchable thirst for oil — the Hummer H2 sent all the wrong signals. It was/is arrogantly huge, overtly militaristic, openly scornful of the common good. As a vehicle choice, the H2 was a spiteful reactionary riposte to notions that, you know, maybe we all shouldn't be driving tanks that get 10 miles per gallon. Not surprisingly, the green-niks struck back. A Hummer dealership was torched in Southern California. The H2 was also a PR catastrophe for GM, who happened to be repossessing and crushing the few EV1 electric cars at the time. It all contributed to GM's emerging image as the Dick Cheney of car companies."

The Hummer H2: Official Car of the Declining Empire

Monday, September 10, 2007

No One Will Sleep


Here's an old clip of Pavarotti's take on Puccini's "Nessun Dorma," from Turandot.

The beauty and majesty of this aria cannot be overstated...

Musically, it starts on the ground and climbs and climbs and climbs until it reaches the heavens.

Pavarotti absolutely owned this aria; it's his signature piece. While it doesn't require particularly difficult scalular runs, it's the perfect showcase for his emotional genius. Watch as it unfolds; he's completely inside the music. He barely blinks his eyes.

After nailing his final, magnificent high B, watch his facial expressions. They communicate triumph, disorientation and ecstasy, all at the same time. He looks like a prize fighter that's scored a surprise 12th round knockout.

An opera singer attempting a piece like this is walking a tightrope. One lapse of concentration and you're screwed. Pavarotti always seemed to make it across the rope safely to the other side.

(Programming note: if you love this piece, you'll want to compare versions from other great tenors. For two of my favorites, check out the rich masculinity of Mario del Monaco's version, and for a different approach, Placido Domingo sings with incredible clarity in the high register, though he struggles a bit with the lower notes.)

Thoughts on the London Olympics Logo


First, I appreciate that the designers tried to break the stale design pattern that's developed over the last decade or so. The Olympics logos are formulaic and somewhat sterile to be sure. It's a difficult design assignment; the logo has to work on gigantic banners, hats, drink cups, you name it.

Having said that, this logo fails on several counts:

• It says nothing about the city of London
• It elevates the year 2012 to the most important "take-away" from the logo
• The Olympic rings appear slapped on in an afterthought. In order to house the wide Olympic rings, the designer was forced to widen the graphic "0", which gives undue visual weight to the top right of the logo
• The clunky letterforms suggest heaviness (the Olympic motto is "Swifter, Higher, Faster")
• The shapes in the logo don't harmonize -- they fight one another

What do you think? Am I being too critical?

The Very Definition of 80's Graphic Design


This album cover presents a virtual textbook of graphic design conventions during the 1980s.

Witness:
• Loose, handwritten type
• Ultra-condensed san serif typeface anchored in a horizontal bar
• Graphic drop shadows under each design element
• Primary color palette
• Flying triangle

Homework: Now, take these elements and make your very own 80's graphic design!