Words Do Matter

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Via Slog: Obama knows how to swear. I think he should do it all the time – the motherfucking state of the union could use some extra modifiers. Listen here.

Purple Reign

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Another thing I got Emily for Christmas is the Purple Magazine Anthology. Purple was one of the first magazines to interweave contemporary art and fashion, and while that mix can easily go horribly wrong in either direction, the various incarnations of Purple have been consistently smart, albeit in kind of a dirtbag way, since they started in 1992. Here are some spreads, click to enlarge:













More info at purple.fr

Staring at the Sun

Way back in August I mentioned that we had shot the Sunshine & Shadow Spring/Summer 2009 lookbook in Brooklyn.

Now that we're headed into that most hopeful of seasons, the clothes are finally in stores and online for your viewing pleasure – head for sunshineandshadow.com and have a look.

Define "Forever"

In the off chance anyone has missed this – a dad documents his son's ride home from the dentist.

Stuff we forgot we owned, Part 2

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Margiela paper coffee cups (white with silver ink and rubber stamp on the bottom), sent out to announce the new West Village store a couple years ago.

Flexi-Disc

I had the pleasure of working with Flexions and photographer Kyle Johnson last week on a photo shoot for the forthcoming Flexions record – a favor for my man Byron Kalet. Flexions = Robin Stein and Devin Welch and they are doing some interesting shit…it will be cool to see what else they come up with. I picked up the Flexions 7" (pictured above) at Cairo on one of the first weekends I was back in Seattle, and I highly recommend searching out a copy for yourself.

In the mean time, listen here.

The Inside is the Part That Makesthe Outside Sound Good

Thelonius Monk's advice to saxophonist Steve Lacy, 1960.
Click to enlarge:

Via Spencer.

I Don't Know My Way Around Maui

The plastic bag picture in the post below reminded me of a scene in the wildly underrated, almost entirely ad-libbed Wayne Wang and Paul Auster film Blue in the Face where this guy derives endless satisfaction from removing plastic bags from trees using a long pincer-on-a-stick device he's invented. Since that clip is not available on YouTube, here's some other highlights from Blue in the Face.



It's funny, I never thought about it, but on the map when it says "you are here," that's exactly where my brother lives.

Toy Stories

My step-brother Chris, a firefighter in Portland, sent me this link this morning, to illustrator Christopher Neimann's blog at The New York Times. Hilarious, and also makes me want to build Legos all day.

Click here for more.

I also love this post, about his sons' obsession with the subway system.


*Yes. Both my brother and step-brother are firefighters. I am a "graphic designer" and an "art director" and sometimes a "creative director." I am fine with that. Suck it.

Stuff we forgot we owned, Part 1

Playboy Club ashtray

Christmas Break

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Emily and I celebrated our Christmas a month late. We wanted to wait till we were in our new space and somewhat unpacked. (There are still 100+ boxes of books and records in the middle of the living room, but that's another story, shelves are coming soon.) Economic depression be damned, we decided to treat each other a little. Why the hell not. Anyway, here's some stuff we got, and I'll post a couple other things soon.

I got Emily this wool blazer she wanted from Topshop. Keeping it chic as usual.

She got me this set of maps showing all the ghost towns in Washington state. I didn't even know this existed (not to mention how many ghost towns there still are here). Can't wait to try it out, especially now that the weather is starting to get nice.

My brother's Nightmare-Before-Christmas Tree in Brooklyn. When we had our stoop sale back in September, someone down the street was throwing this weird old tree out and he grabbed it. Now it's covered with origami cranes in his apartment – it looks cool.

Straight Jackin'

This is an old generic record cover, found recently in the stacks and stacks of the new client I met with in New York a couple weeks ago. Reminds me a little of the most recent Animal Collective record cover.

It's called a Re-Jak It and the idea is that if a record cover gets messed up (your cat scratches it; you fall asleep with a J in your hand and it burns through the cover; your buddy Ray-Ray "just likes to move, man," and spills his drink on your record collection) you can replace the original jacket with a genre-appropriate new design. This is the one for your psychedelic records or any of that hippy shit you listen to, smelly hippy.

White As Diamonds

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The amount of white space in these new Jil Sander ads is pure luxury.



I'm not positive but I think the photographer is Willy Vanderperre, with art direction by Lloyd & Co. More than with almost any other brand, I'm always excited to see what they will do with the Jil Sander ads each season. The past several campaigns seem to have completely distilled to this logical, brilliant conclusion.



An idea expressed in such a simple, beautiful, minimal way is the exact opposite of information overload everywhere all the time. Honestly, I don't think that could be expressed more perfectly than it is in these photographs.



I wrote a little about the Howard Street Jil Sander store, which does roughly the same thing in architectural/interior form, here.

More info at jilsander.com

Your Weekly Mr. Littlejeans

The Cat That Ate Seattle.

Exclusive Interview

Huh. Fabien Baron is leaving his post as co-Editorial Director at the newly re-invigorated Interview magazine (and taking Creative Director Karl Templer with him) to be succeeded by M/M Paris. Should be no less interesting, really, though Jeremy Leslie has a good point: are Baron and M/M the only options? Obviously not, but it's weird that M/M also succeeded Baron at Paris Vogue. Well…whatever. The world continues to rotate.

Above, Andy Warhol interviews former assistant to Diana Vreeland and Melvin Sokolsky, Ali Macgraw – from the video section of Interview's attractive new website.

I still recommend subscribing – you get 18 issues for $10! That's like five Oly's at Redwood, with tip!

Free Design

In the neverending search for good podcasts (I have a hard time listening to music while I work sometimes – I end up focusing on it too closely, it distracts me), I almost can't believe I never knew about Design Matters, Debbie Millman's long-running series of interviews with notable designers. Particularly good, of the ones I've listened to so far, are interviews with hometown heroes Modern Dog and Art Chantry, and the series of interviews on art direction with the venerable Stephen Heller. Stefan Sagmeister, Luke Hayman, Michael Bierut, Milton Glaser, and many more await.

Check it out here or at Debbie Millman's blog.

And because I don't really have any images to go with this post, and I'm in a hurry, here are ten random images plucked from my hard drive:

Phone camera photo my dad took of Mt. Rainier

Anne Demeulemeester in the 3rd floor office of Le Corbusier's house

Twen magazine

Photograph by David Bailey. I always think this picture is like me and Emily, like an illustration of our personalities or something, except obviously that dude is way chicer than me.

Old poster

Another old poster

Absinthe ad

Edward Gorey

Lucky Lager

Hooded bandits

Department of Eagles Department

A little warm-up for tonight's show at Neumo's:



More on Department of Eagles here.

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Update, the day after: I think maybe I'm over this band. A little noodly and boring. Cave Singers killed it though, as per usual.

Cut, Copy

This is making the blog rounds but I still think it's worth posting here. I remember an interview in RapPages magazine with Jim Jarmusch and the RZA, together, right after Ghost Dog came out. Jarmusch said he was drawn to the RZA's production because of his imperfect samples – timing off (i.e. beats not quantized), little pieces of voices getting chopped off at the end of the loop, speeding up/slowing down, etc. This poster reminded me of that interview for whatever reason. That is all. Fuck, I have never been so busy in all my life, why am I writing a blog
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A Giant in the Mental

Yesterday was my Grandpa Don's birthday. He died in 2004 but it doesn't seem long ago – I think of him very often. Here's his obituary from the Whidbey News Times, written by my Uncle Perry:

Woodfin, Donald Wednesday, 08 Sep 2004

Donald A. Woodfin, 84, with his family by his side, died peacefully at his home in Rolling Hills Sept. 8, 2004.

He was born Jan. 26, 1920 in Palouse where the Woodfin family had homesteaded when Washington was still a territory. Don’s mother died when he was eight and his father passed away when he was 13. Orphaned during the Depression, he joined the Civilian Conservation Corps and at 15, lied about his age and joined the Marines. Stationed in Shanghai, China, in 1936, Don became an American Embassy guard and was the first American to sight and report the Japanese invasion of China. He was also a distinguished and decorated rifle and pistol marksman.

Out of the Marines, Don traveled to Sitka, Alaska, and worked on a halibut boat, and as an apprentice carpenter. He married Jeanne Perry and with the need for expert carpenter skills during World War II, joined the Navy SeaBees and helped build air runways at Sitka and Whidbey Island Naval Air Station.

Moving to Vashon Island, and with a growing family, Don purchased a berry and fruit farm. With his interest in agriculture broadening, he eventually built up the largest chicken farm in the Greater Seattle area. During this time he met and became a good friend of Betty McDonald. She wrote the famous novel “The Egg and I” that produced the lovable characters, Ma and Pa Kettle. Betty paid tribute to Don in her book Onions In the Stew as “...the unforgettable Marine.” The barn, chicken house, and caretaker house he built Betty and her family are now recognized National Historical Landmarks and Don is well known to the Betty McDonald International Fan Club.

Divorced in 1954, Don moved to Moses Lake, which was experiencing a boom. He married Jananne (Nan) Goltz and began a long and successful career as a custom builder. But his interest in agriculture did not leave him, and in the early 1960s he moved his family to Ellensburg and began ranching in addition to building. The Limousin breed of cattle captured his attention and by the 1970s he had earned a respected niche in the cattle industry throughout the Pacific Northwest, when in 1976, his wife Nan unexpectedly died.

In 1978 Don married Joyce Hofelter and they moved to Whidbey Island and began what was to be a 26-year marriage. Together, Don and Joyce became a major force in Limousin cattle with Don becoming known as “the Grandfather of Limousin” across the western United States. He became the president of both the NW and Washington Limousin Associations and with Joyce, started and developed the Limousin Bull Test. Many ranchers in the West attribute their start in Limousin cattle to Don.

Don had a passionate love of life which included golf (even a few holes-in-one), the stock market, and family. He fought a courageous battle with cancer for over 30 years. This battle defied odds and statistics due to his love of life, in addition to his excellent physical conditioning. He lifted weights and exercised every morning of his life, even up to one week before he passed away. On occasion, when in hospitals, he would be performing push-ups on his bed when nurses would enter his room and be startled by his unusual vigor. This zest for life included story-telling, and as everyone knew, he loved to tell a good joke.

Don is survived by his wife, Joyce Woodfin; his son, Perry Scott Woodfin of San de Fuca and his daughters, Donna Woodfin Stahl and Margaret Lee Woodfin of Seattle; his stepson, Gary Lyle Goltz and wife Bernatta of Coupeville; his stepdaughter, Roxanne Cole and partner Jim Anderson of Snohomish; his stepsons, Bill Hofelter and wife Cheryl of Phoenix, and Rex Hofelter and wife Jacqueline of Orange County, California. There are 12 grandchildren, six great-grandchildren and one great-great-grandson.

To his family, he was not a particularly tall man, but he was a giant.

I think I mentioned awhile back that I was going to start posting some photos of my Grandpa, as there are a lot of great ones (he was kind of a show-off). They're all packed away though, so this is that rare thing on Pacific Standard, a post with no images. My Grandpa Don was a great person – he had so many stories, we would beg to hear them all the time – and they were all things he had lived or seen…crazy stuff you don't hear anymore. I'm really proud to have known him.

Industrial Spy

I don't know what Charles Mudede is talking about half the time, but in a recent post he linked to these photos of abandoned amusement parks in Japan. Something I do understand: the international language of beautiful decay.

Mikey Dread Industrial Spy mp3


Click here for more
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