The Last Time I Saw Paris

I’m 15 years old and Max Blechman and I are contemplating the basement level of Tower Records on West 66th and Broadway. Two kids who have no idea why they’re considering venturing down into an area of the store reserved for such oddities as Jazz and Classical and in all likelihood - Show Tunes.

Through the double glass doors we go and as we do we’re hit square by the crisp lilting tones of a bygone era. Without a word between us we make our way to the counter where we ask in unison, ‘What is this?’ A counter jockey  who appears to be in the final moments of a death throe pulls himself together long enough to reply, ‘That? That’s The Coward’.

Holy shit. We don’t know what that means but we know we have just discovered something epically cool. We hunt around the ‘Ts’ for close to twenty minutes before one of us realizes that obviously ‘The Coward’ will be homed under the ‘Cs’. The closest we can find is someone by the name of Noel who shares the surname. We each grab a copy of More Compact Coward, have our suspicions confirmed by an exasperated, yet ever perishing counter jockey and head off to our respective homes; new purchases in hand. Somewhere between ‘Poor Uncle Harry’ and ‘Don’t Let’s Be Beastly to the Germans’ I know gold has truly been struck.

Above is a scan of recently acquired 78 featuring the classic ‘London Pride’ on one side and ‘The Last Time I Saw Paris’ on the other. Though lacking in the mirth of other Coward recordings, T.L.T.I.S.P does not want for charm. For those interested I digitized the track above using the Ion iPTUSB portable turntable. The record isn’t in the best of shape so I’ve done a rough clean up by running it through Audacity. A large version of the sleeve is available to view here and wow what a sleeve it is.

Now THAT’s a project brief!

Mitchell&Webb

One of the things I quite like about living in the U.K is that there is still a healthy tradition of creating content for the Radio. I’m not talking about a load of quaint little ‘tea time with the vicar’ sort of programming here I mean full-on proper radio programs. Only, they’re not programs because they’re programmes and I think it must be that superfluous (sorry… requisite concomitant) ‘m’ that makes the difference. In any case one such programme is That Mitchell and Webb Sound. Not to be confused with their excellent televisual offering, That Mitchell and Webb Look.  For those outside of Blighty the previous links will likely yield very little in the way of joy but get thee to a proxy and perhaps you too can bask in the glory that is Auntie or just type their names into that Youtubes.

Dr. Dog is a band from Philadelphia and they’re a band I quite like. Their sound is their own but is clearly informed by the music of the 60’s and as a fan of music from the 60’s I see this as no bad thing.

I discovered Dr. Dog last year and as sometimes happens I was in a bit of a musical rut at the time but their sound not only lifted my spirits it also reminded me of all the great artists I had been neglecting during my usual listening rotations. What more could you ask of a band?

At some point I must have visited their website and I dare say i was less than overwhelmed at what I encountered though I’m sure it serves their purposes. I guess I just felt that they deserved better. I wasn’t (and am not) convinced I was the best person to inflict a little design vigilantism but figured there was no harm in trying. The result is a humble tributary site launched today - www.drdog.co.uk

A Colt Is My Passport (1967) - directed by Takashi Nomura and starrring Joe Shishido. Well I mean, come on. Based on the stills alone this has got to be a must see.

I’ve decided the best way to determine what film to watch is by referencing film stills. If they can get it right there then it’s well worth giving the multi flickering version a chance and thankfully I’ve stumbled upon a great tumblelog called I Love Hot Dogs which is serving up the stills thick and fast.

Back in January 2009 the guys over at IA were asked to pitch for the redesign of Swiss newspaper Tages-Anzeiger. Their premise was to throw out any of the old rules of newspaper design that didn’t serve the reader and introduce elements commonly found in online design such as highlighting key words to make the page ‘scannable’ - an idea I LOVE.

Sadly, IA didn’t land the gig which is a shame and while Mario Garcia offers some fantastic insights into why they didn’t there’s still plenty of elements in IA’s work that should get the newspaper design world to sit up and take notice. In edition to providing us with a glimpse into their design process, IA have also made their original presentation to the client available for download. In short there’s a wealth of information to pour over so get pouring.

All of this has also reminded me of the inspiring talk given by Jacek Utko at TED in March 2009 on the subject of how design can save newspapers.

While the completed identity for the Danish Law firm Leoni Advokater is wonderful it’s these ‘works in progress’ that I’d want framed over my mantle. View more of Sebastian Gram’s work over at Behance.