10 days

I'm soooper busy this week. Work is hectic. I am not able to work on my design resource isea, or write down what's going on in the crack shack. I smelled something horrible this morning @ 2. They were cooking something, and it wasn't food. It made me kind of sick.

Will write and work on design resource when i get a minute or two. We move in 10 days.

Tis the Season to be a Carnie

There is something quietly disturbing about having a carnie shack up with you when the state fair summer season comes to an end. We found out that our "My Name is Earl" nightmare version of a landlord has a buddy that's a carnie. Oh, and he also happens to live upstairs with said nutty landlord, "faces of meth" girlfriend, and Tony. He also brought his girlfriend to live here, a very classy, sophisticated socialite by the name of Crystal. That's right folks, we have 5 people (and 27 hours of Jeff Foxworthy comedy material) living above us now.

I have started a countdown by writing the number of remaining days we have left in this house that should be placed in Hazzard County. Living here has now become the equivalent of the Waltons, if only Ma and Pa drank themselves to death and the kids promptly dropped 60 IQ points and installed a meth lab in their bath tub.

The carnie's name is Perry, and my wife counted no less than 8 people coming in and out of the house during the day (another 4 at night).

These people play loud music and party until about 5 AM, then promptly disappear until the afternoon, when they crank back up. Tony told me that they are rock stars, which explains the noise and the ability to be wired 24-7. It also explains why I mysteriously started calling our home "the crack shack" about a week ago. I guess I have a nose for these things, or maybe it was the numerous, mysterious 10-minute "runs" they would take, pulling all of the shades and locking the doors when they got back with their wadded up, 10-year old McDonald's bags. Also, we watched the girlfriend frantically wash her truck IN THE RAIN. It was almost as good as watching her trying TO DRY IT IN THE RAIN. Let me type that again. SHE TRIED TO DRY HER TRUCK IN THE RAIN. Not a mist, or a drizzle. A full-on rain. Maybe that's what tipped me off. Call me a pessimist, but I don't think you can ever completely dry a truck while it's still raining.

My landlord has a 12-year old son from a relationship with an old girlfriend, and she is getting married to some other guy. He was supposed to go to court because she wants full custody. In order to make the hearing an easy choice for the judge (and to avoid paying child support), he gets wasted before he goes to court, and promptly gets put in a holding cell until the evening because he's all f*cked up. My guess is that she has full custody now.

Perry and his girlfriend Crystal got in a huge fight and she stole my landlord's motorcycle this morning and rode to a bus station, where she ditched the bike and hopped the first bus going to Phoenix.

There is also now a dog living upstairs. That was just today. Can't wait for tomorrow.

Call For Entries

I am thinking about creating a design resource online, sort of an online design/art journal, to use as a reference when looking for fresh ideas or inspiration. I know I have some designer friends that read this from time to time, as well as others. I encourage designers, as well as non-designers to email me with any logos, graphics, products, book covers, anything that you really like, and I'll try to get it up.

E-mail me at ganglanddesignresource@gmail.com

This should be up in a week or so.

Brew Crew

The Brew Crew is ridiculous. They are one of the few teams in baseball that score 8 runs, and still are in a panic in the 7th and feel they need to tack on a few extra to get the win. Can their bullpen be any worse? This team banged out 210 home runs, yet still struggles to keep themselves in contention. I say combine the Twins bullpen and the Brewers offense, and you'll get the best team in baseball.

By the way, I'm totally happy to be a packers and a brewers fan, because I think they both might have the best logos in professional sports. Can you really beat the Brewers old-school logo? I mean, it's perfect. They work in the m, the b, and a catcher's mitt and a baseball.

The Willingham Watch

While most of the college football nation talks about Notre Dame and how much they suck (why is this even a topic?) with current coach Charlie Weis, there has been little said about the coach he replaced, Tyrone Willingham and his Washington Huskies.

For those of you who don't know the story of Ty Willingham, here is a short synopsis:

He got off to an auspicious beginning in 2002 when he became the only first-year coach in Notre Dame history to win 10 games. For his efforts he was named the ESPN/Home Depot College Coach of the Year,^[2] the Scripps College Coach of the Year, the Black Coaches Association Male Coach of the Year and the George Munger Award College Coach of the Year by the Maxwell Football Club. The next year, Notre Dame finished 5-7, then went 6-5 in '04.

After going 21-15 over three seasons, he gets fired. No other Notre Dame coach was let go with years remaining on his contract, and a shorter tenure. They bought out his remaining years on his contract and sent him packing, without even getting a decent chance to play all of the players he recruited.

So in comes Charlie Weis, the NFL bigshot, riding into town to save the storied franchise, because he worked with Bellichek and Bill Parcells. They sign him to a bigger contract without seeing him coach a college team, and to add insult to Willingham, they somehow, incredibly, give him a $40 million contract extension after he goes 9-3 in his first season (Willingham had gone 10-2 in his first). By this time, Willingham is presiding over a Washington team that had gone 1-10 before he got there, then 2-9 under him. He must have wanted to set himself on fire.

It is known in the general population of South Bend that the Willingham firing stirred some controversy. It is also fairly common to hear folks say that Notre Dame alumni like to have black players on the team, but maybe not so much to have a black leader. I'm not leaning one way or the other on the race issue, but it does stink a little, like going to an art opening when they have the fancy cheese out, and it smells like corpse feet. You look around and think, "should I even eat this?" That's the way I feel about it.

The case remains open with some folks, because he compiled the exact winning percentage of Bob Davie, the successor to Holtz, but Davie was given 5 years to prove himself. Willingham didn't even get to see his senior recruits play.

So while Weis goes 9-3 with Willingham's recruits, he now has his own recruits playing and sits atop a storied ND program that has been embarrassed by unranked teams the past two weeks, compiling an 0-2 record while boasting a total of -8 yards rushing. Meanwhile, Willingham is coaching a team that destroyed Syracuse and then beat #22 Boise State this weekend. His Washington Huskies sit 2-0 for the season, his third year of recruiting.

Here is what the Axe man from Syracuse had to say about the Washington thrashing of Syracuse:

Standing just a few feet away from Washington coach Tyrone Willingham after the game turned out to be a scary experience.
He talked and acted like a man who just knew things were going to turn out this way. Every coach has confidence in their team, but Willingham had an aura about him that seemed as if he climbed in his flying Delorean and saw how this game would play out before arriving on campus. Perhaps he threw the wind comment out there just to throw us off the trail of just what exactly he knew about this game.

"We expected to do what we did, Willingham said after the game,"That is our expectation in every game"
This next one also shook me to the core. It was just the way he said it. It was as if he had to fight off a smirk when it came out of his mouth
He began the remark commenting that he knew Syracuse underestimated Washington's speed then said...

"That is the most speed we've had on the field in three years, and it showed in a lot of positions. There was one play where Louis (Rankin) didn't look like he had the corner, and then the next thing you know, he's going in for the TD."

I hereby am starting the Willingham Watch. As you can tell, I think ND screwed him over, then promptly stated it had nothing to do with race (they might be right), but then added insult to injury by giving Weis a $40 10-year contract after he loses one more game than Willingham his first year, using Willingham's players.

I always liked Ty Willingham and I thought he was what ND needed. But perhaps it's best that he's out in Seattle, because when ND loses, South Bend is a small, small place to be.

Anyway, Washington sees Ohio State (#12), UCLA(#13), and USC(#1) the next three weeks, and that is as tough a schedule as you'll see. They could end up 2-3 in three weeks, in which case this post will look silly. It is a murderous schedule, and the odds are against him. But if they pull off an upset or two, I told you so.

Willingham Bowl Watch is on. And this South Bend native is smiling all the way to the BCS.

Trapped in the Closet

So a year or two ago I heard about R. Kelly's "Trapped in the Closet." Since everyone talked about either how horrible or how genius it was, I bought the first 12 chapters. I listened to it, laughed my ass off, and then forgot about it. THEN yesterday by accident, it came up on my iTunes at work. It scores a solid 8 on the unintentional comedy scale. Then again, the question begs, is it unintentional? I know R. Kelly swears he invented a new form of music (hip hopera) and all indications are that he seems to be really serious about this serial drama of his.

Somehow, though, I think he is really in on the joke. He has to be because it's so bad. He HAS to know that you can't take any piece of music seriously if you are singing about a well-endowed midget who craps himself and an old nosy neighbor who defends herself with a spatula. He's messing with us, right? He probably sat down and thought, "I wonder how far I can go. Just what will people buy? If I make it borderline bad, drawn out and goofy/funny/stupid, will people still like it?" It certainly creates conversation.

So I highly recommend listening to it, even if you think it's stupid, because it's worth the time trying to figure out if he's serious.

This Just In

Bill Simmons is hilarious. I just read this and had to repost it:
Green Bay Packers Old quarterbacks are like old strippers, old rappers and older bottles of white wine -- with the exception of Don Strock and that's really it, they get dramatically worse with age. Most people think Brett Favre is just about washed-up; actually, he is washed up. According to Pro Football Prospectus, Green Bay led the league in overthrown passes last season. In 2005 and 2006, Favre turned the ball over 64 times. Heading into Week 14 last season, the Packers were 4-8 and lost to four teams with good defenses (the Bears, Pats, Eagles and Jets) by a combined 130-19 margin. What else do you need to know?





Trust Bill here: This is a picture of two washed-up old guys.




(Note: I feel bad for the underrated Packers defense, which has a chance to be really good this season. I also feel bad for the good people of Wisconsin. In the span of seven months, they could watch the Brew Crew blow its division to the hated Cubs, followed by the greatest QB in Packers history potentially embarrassing himself in his final season, and then Chairman Yi playing 20-25 minutes per game -- guaranteed by Herb Kohl to the Chinese government, as reported by Ric Bucher!!!!! -- and single-handedly killing the Bucks' playoff hopes. The only silver lining is they'll be covered in mustard and cheese sauce the entire time. Could we send an extra shipment of EKG machines to Wisconsin please? And make it a rush order. Thanks.)

Correction: We'll be covered in mustard, cheese sauce, rendered meat fat, frozen custard AND Miller High Life. God help us.

At least we aren't the Vikings, though, who are in the "two years away from saying, "I can't believe we turned the reins over to Tavaris Jackson" era."

T.V. Revision

I know that my last television post was a little outdated, with the Sopranos, Six Feet Under and Carnivale on the list, even though most of those shows are over.

So here goes my attempt to update the television offerings:

1. Living with Ed - I have only seen this once, but I am slightly amused at how Ed Begley Jr. and his wife trade cheap shots while he defends his decision to penny-pinch, like keeping a 17-year old carpet (it looks fine, what's wrong with it?), It might not turn out to be a great t.v. series, but for me it's worth checking in now and then to keep up on what his neighbor (Bill Nye) is up to.

2. Anthony Bourdain - No Reservations - Now this tight, intellectual show from the Travel Channel has become one of my must-see shows during the week. Any time I get to watch a famous chef get hammered in Hong Kong and eat squid balls (with the black ink) or cruise around the desert with a vagabond-hippie-character straight out of a Hunter S. Thompson book headed for Vegas, well, it makes for good t.v. in my opinion. What really gets me is his witty writing, his humanist views, his genuine curiosity and openness regarding strange food from other cultures. Add in his eloquent, timely narration and his penchant for beer and hard alcohol, and you have a winner. A recent show in Mexico focused on the border and how the two cultures exist.

He basically states that on the border there is an unavoidable mixing of the cultures, Americans and Mexicans working and living side by side, their lives intertwined by relation, work, food, and friendship and are only separated by those who are obsessed with lines and boundaries, and their attempts to keep the "others" out.

See it. I'm asking you to do it once. Watch it.

My New Job

I just started my new job this week at a local ad agency. I like it. It's a cool environment, and I get good benefits and the people seem to be pretty decent. They have decorated, "themed bathrooms" (guys can choose from the Packers, the Graffiti Wall, or the Deer Hunter bathrooms) and a nice cafe, along with an outdoor Weber Grill and a fridge full of goodies. The work is good, and I think I can learn some things there. It seems to be a nice place, with not an insane amount of chaos and pressure. It's pretty laid-back and tame, if you compare it to the agency on Mad Men. Working in advertising is probably one of the most fun things you can get paid to do.

The Father-in-Law

Most people don't relish hanging out with their in-laws. I am an exception. My in-laws are super cool. They are old-school anti-establishment types who went to art school in the 60's. In fact, if I were born in 1945 I would be my father-in-law.

To the left is a Haier coffee maker.
The other week my mother-in-law (we call her MOMA - like museum of modern art - get it?) bought my father-in-law this particular brand of new coffee maker you see above. It's ultra-sleek and modern. So MOMA asks my father-in-law the other day, "How is the new coffee maker?" He says "oh, you mean the medieval castle?" Obviously, he doesn't like the design.

Then another week goes by and he tells MOMA that it doesn't work. So when I get there I inspect it, but it's working. Then he shows me the water tank, and I see what he's talking about. When you open the lid to pour in the water, you only have a little over a 1/4" - about - 3/8" to pour the water in. Even if you are using a water pitcher, the water goes everywhere but in the tank. You need a funnel to get it in there. The design is horrible. Totally not functional. As he shuts the lid, he says "designed by some exterior-surface-decorative-son-of-a-bitch."

Amen.

I love Panera

Not so much for the food, which is definitely a step up from fast food, but for their free wifi access. Jessica can go anywhere and post her online class if she gets in a pinch. They are pretty prevalent around the midwest. Sounds like a small thing, right?

Free wifi is no small thing, though. Does Starbucks have it? How about McD's? Barnes & Noble? Arby's? We have found that we have to pay for wifi in some of these stores. But with Panera, it's free, and I suppose it's for their business customers who might want to do a meeting there. Smart marketing.

So, the food is decent, and the wifi is free. I am a fan.