What ever happened to aging naturally?

The November issue of Vanity Fair features a one-page excerpt from Lesley M. M. Blume's newly released book Let's Bring Back: An Encyclopedia of Forgotten-Yet-Delightful, Chic, Useful, Curious, and Otherwise Commendable Things from Times Gone By. Blume is a style contributor at the Huffington Post, and the book is the eponymous extension of her online series.

The first item that struck me as worthy of revival was the Stork Club in New York—or, an aspect of it, at least.

"Each little table sported a discreet telephone, on which you could dial the other tables: That is a charming feature."

Every item includes its own description and commentary, many with chic, old-timey illustrations. They had me nodding in agreement, especially the idea that umbrellas should be "[beautiful] with carved handles, instead of those silly guaranteed-to-break-immediately quasi-disposable ones that you always see jutting out of street-corner garbage cans."

I have yet to read the entire book, but surely will some time soon.

Other favourites...
Radio Plays
Aging Naturally
Headscarves
Wearing White Gloves to Lunch
Riddles
Skating Parties

Getting friendly with the animals

While in the Okanagan on my work trip, I fed some BC wildlife and wrote about it for BCLiving online magazine.

Shardik the grizzly bear

Dharma the moose

Big-ass camel

Big-ass bull elk

Listening to

"Hang me out to dry" - Cold War Kids

Unfortunately, they disabled the ability to embed their video (aka free advertising), so you'll have to go HERE to see it. It's worth it, though!

Bon voyage, mes amis!

Last night we spent the evening with our best buds who are heading off to Europe for 5 weeks. We're going to miss them dearly, but I was so excited to hear that they're starting a travel blog! Kate just got a new DSLR camera (very jealous!) so I'm looking forward to seeing their amazing photos. They wanted me to make a banner for the new site, and I was more than happy to oblige:

Going on around the web

The trip home from work these days usually leaves me with my feathers a bit ruffled. It's a one hour and fifteen minute two-bus, bumpy journey that frequently involves running for and missing buses, suffering through stinky co-passengers, and coffee-umbrella-book-bag juggling acts. Today, however, was pleasant as can be and has left me in a great pre-long weekend mood. To put a cherry on top of the seamless bus ride home,  I stopped in at Cobbs for a butter croissant. I crossed paths with a friendly neighbour on my way into the apartment and had a great chat. I'm in such a great mood and wearing such a big smile, and I want to pass on the pleasantry with some fun stuff I've been enjoying this week from all over the web.

Baby portraits: the perfect balance of looking like an adult yet being a baby makes these both eerie, adorable and hilarious.

An amazing boutique hotel on a rock face in Jamaica.

The new Wintersleep album

The cool monthly market I'm going to visit this weekend.

Some priceless commentary and photos on the fashion-impaired citizens of Vancouver.

A super-dorky, yet somehow endearing kid whose photo I stumbled across at work while doing some image research for an article.

This ultra-quirky music video for Grizzly Bear's song "Two Weeks."

Reading

Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden

Reading

The Witch of Portobello - Paulo Coelho

Question

When did the refs stop calling "traveling" in the NBA? I've been watching a lot of basketball at the gym and I'm convinced that dribbling is now optional.

My love-hate relationship with technology

In class yesterday, our prof quoted Robert Bringhurst calling a book "something small enough to hold in your hand, but something large enough to get lost in" - I really enjoy that idea. It conjures an image of being curled up in a big chair but feeling like you're miles away in a different world. There's this romantic notion associated with printed books that I'll never abandon. I've talked about it before, and I'm sure to talk about it again. 


This discussion came from our Technology and Evolving Forms of Publishing class. We also talked about social networking tools and how they can be used as business tools. I've been reluctant to participate in Twitter, not because I think it's just a fad and I'm worried about investing time in something ephemeral, but because when I think "Twitter", I think "lame, attention-hungry celebrities" and "people writing about stupid shit I don't want to hear about". It seems like an entire tool dedicated to proliferating messages that are really just glorified Facebook status updates. But that's not always the case- I'm being harsh. The reality is, the way the tool is defined in your mind depends on your experience with it and what you want it to do for you. Some people use Facebook to chat with friends and keep in touch. Some people use Facebook to post inappropriate/explicit pictures of themselves and show off about all the cool stuff that they do and how hungover they always are. And some people just try and have as many people on their friend list as possible. Regarding Twitter - I'm holding any further judgements until I have a more thorough knowledge of the subject (and an experimental account of my own). 


I'm keeping an open mind and trying not to let my paranoid thoughts rule. New technologies are great, but they also scare me a bit - their overwhelming grip on society and they way we lead our lives is remarkable. Sometimes a text suffices or a status update saves you time - but I fear a world where we're all 'connected' but we're emotionally further from each other than ever. It sounds corny, but I know a lot of people who feel the same way. It's cool that I can see pictures and get updates of a friend's trip while they're away....but I like looking at photo albums after someone's been gone, and meeting for coffee to hear all the crazy stories. Sometimes I don't want to be connected to everyone and I wish that I wasn't privy to 24/7 updates. I think this comes from the fear of where we're headed though - not so much that I don't enjoy the technology that we have now, but that I'm afraid of what it's capable of doing. I love you technology, just please don't turn us into a society of out-of-touch blobs like the people in Wall-E . 

Don't talk to Jarome about destiny

Has anyone seen that new Nike commerical? The one about destiny - it's amazing. It gives me goosebumps and makes me nostalgic for my days playing competitive sports. The video uses one of my favourite songs by TV On the Radio, and it's just plain bad-ass. Check it out below.

Design Stuff

These are links to some portfolio material from my Masters of Publishing program. I'll be making periodical additions, and nothing boring for now - just design stuff! I've also added all of my blog banners.

Book Redesign



Magazine Redesign



Catalogue Redesign



Blog Banners



And if you'd like to see the rest, you can find them here: http://issuu.com/kage

Mind blowing

This post on Joanna Goddard's blog is remarkable - with one 20 minute helicopter ride over New York, this artist drew the entire skyline....to scale.....perfectly....

Check it out here

Reach out and touch someone!!

Over at Chelsea Talks Smack I came across her most recent post and I was so inspired. Everyone is getting lost and tangled in technology that we can no longer see the real people standing all around us! Drop the blackberry and hug a friend!!

I constantly see people out together but they're all ignoring each other and making sweet love to their hand held devices. Yes, technology is WONDERFUL - I blog, I text, I call, I email - but face time is even BETTER! Sometimes it's nice to put the tweets, the texts and the telephone aside and connect with someone who is right in front of you. Eye contact, conversation, physical contact...it's all good! While we're on the topic, PLEASE watch this.....please watch it, you'll love it...

Fancy that...a pigeon

Before leaving for the day, I printed this picture from Color Me Katie (one of my new favourite blogs) to put up at my desk. Now I might actually be looking forward to coming into the office on Monday.

Someone give this man an Emmy

I used to watch CSI Miami for one reason alone. His name is David Caruso and this is his legacy.