Urban Honking

I am in my office, enjoying my new desk which I have finally hutched out in full, using an old cabinet door I found down in the basement, oiled with lemon oil, and propped up on my desk on four bricks I pried out of the backyard garden. This has enabled me to spread out […]

This year was a real mixed bag. I am feeling astounded at all that has happened to me, while in so many ways I also felt like I just spent a year stuck unmoving in a shoebox. I can’t believe that I actually got a job and am now finished with my first year, by […]

This was the tag on a deodorant commercial I saw on YouTube. I can not even parse what that sentence means. What does “changes” mean? I am picturing a woman morphing into Godzilla, a butterfly, a pile of goo, over and over again all day long. Also, why is it obvious that “changes” can “cause […]

The list of things I had in my youth that I later decided were “lame” and got rid of and now wish I had again continues to grow – crazy creek camping chair everyone had in high school but in college it was associated with hippies so I got rid of it – incredible Pendleton […]

Monday was yet another state holiday! Which means today acts as a Monday schedule, which means I again don’t have school. I feel very blessed that I randomly moved to a state that apparently has more state holidays than any other state in the union. I can’t believe how many days off we get. I […]

And verily it came to pass, that one day the people of campus looked at their calendars and realized there were only 1.5 weeks until summer vacation, and that their grad students were in presentations so there was no more course prep, and next Wednesday is a Monday schedule which means the late-night class doesn’t […]

On April 8th I will be participating in a public discussion with Michael Carabetta, creative director at Chronicle Books and Kate Bingaman-Burt (illustrator, PSU design professor, cultural force) about design legend Paul Rand. Chronicle recently reproduced Rand’s seminal book—Thoughts on Design—for the first time since 1970. The book is a manifesto to exceptional design. Chronicle is […]

Those of you who have actually made your way through the 3 volumes of Karl Ove Knausgaard’s autobiographical whatever-you-call-it, “My Struggle” (same title as Hitler’s book) that have been translated into English thus far (there are six total volumes I believe) will understand, I imagine, the kind of intense ambivalence he inspires. On the one […]

1. In a stack of papers, each more incoherent than the last, one seems to shine out, as though lit from within by the divine glow of its interesting ideas and correct grammar. It is difficult to not write “thank you, thank you, thank god for you” on this paper 2. A box of leftover […]

This past week saw Fort George Brewery canning the last batch of Plazm Farmhouse Ale. It’s been awesome to collaborate with one of our favorite clients and with The Commons on this project. Thanks to our friends at Fort George for suggesting we make a Plazm beer. Get it while you can! It’s available where fine beer is sold in the […]