31 October 2009

Baby Parking?

Subway ad for the upcoming MoaCasa interior design show...


Yeah, yeah, nothing really to see here. It's just...well, let's take a closer look at the information block at the bottom left...


Baby parking???
What's that all about? With activities (con animazione)?! Okay, so it's basically a "kids' area" where parents can leave their children to play while they peruse the furniture. It's just the choice of wording that is so...blunt. No euphemisms here. And in english too. Or maybe that's just enough to make "parcheggio bambini" sound euphemistic. It's just that i'd imagined hundreds of toddlers with bits subsituting pacifiers tethered like horses all aligned like so many cars in the Ikea parking lot.

29 October 2009

Girls, girls, girls

I'm been on assignment in Trastevere and during lunch i like to walk around the area. The sun's out, it's still not cold out and i've always liked that neighborhood.

Two days ago, i ran into an former AE student of mine, Marta. She was walking her dog (i'm assuming it was her German Shepard). She's a very pretty girl and seems to have become even prettier since i'd last seen her last year. The girl told me on the last day of classes last year she thought i didn't like her, that i have something against her. Which is completely untrue. In fact i was taken aback by her comment and to this day i have no idea why she thinks/thought that. I even remember complimenting her on her work. She actually showed a bit of talent.

She says she and Ilaria (another former student of mine) are taking a regione-sponsored class in "open-source graphics." "Open source? Like GIMP and Blender," i asked. I asked because italians are famous for adopting english words or phrases and tacking on a different definition. But she confirmed it was exactly what i thought. I asked how she was getting along with The GIMP and she politely answered just fine. I confessed i've never gotten along with The GIMP (for production purposes). We then said our goodbyes, quite stiffly.

Yesterday, while taking my lunchtime stroll, i ran into Marianna, a girl i'd met last year while she was working for the same Trasteverian production house i'm freelancing for these days. She used to speak english with me and spoke very well, sometimes not even revealing an italian accent. And she didn't speak to show off, which is a common defect here. She was always very sweet and was just as same yesterday. So, that was very pleasant! She was with two colleagues of hers; she's working at an advertising agency somewhere around there. Of course i didn't think to ask the name or where exactly it was. Typical of me.

Today on the bus, i saw Mo Tucker. No, it wasn't actually her, it was the girlfriend of a friend i haven't seen in a few years. In fact, the girlfriend's the reason i haven't seen this person in years. I'd just had enough. From then on it seemed as if the day was filled with unmade-up women with undyed hair wearing flat comfortable shoes (thank you, Annalisa: sometimes i am just blind to certain things). No familiar faces during my lunchtime stroll -- a nigerian selling socks accosted me following me around for meters -- but later that day, who should show up at the office but Franci and Laura with their new puppy.

I go back tomorrow to finish the assignment.

19 October 2009

Flatwounds are for pussies

I was stinkin' about some of my favorite guitar sounds...

Well, there's Ronnie Wood's Dan Armstrong through his Ampeg 4x10 (what is that, a Rat pedal?)...

Then, there's always John armed with his Casino through a Fender Twin...

Peace.

17 October 2009

Where is my mind?

Jesus, it's been a while! What's been happening since i last reported in? Well, not much!

I played bartender for about a month. No, wait...that was in July....

Feex came and went. No, that was July/August...hmmmm.

Ah! I did The Perfect Bun's website.

I'm thinking of opening something. Something not graphic/design-related.

I worked on video for RAI Sport, BNL, Caccia e pesca, and Studio Universal.

And now i'm cleaning up and out my font collection of over ten years. And what timing, as i read that OSX 10.6 Snow Leopard is having major problems (as of this writing) with legacy PS Type1 fonts. That, plus the fact that the rewritten-from-scratch QuickTime X is as of yet little more than a movie player, guarantees that this time around i'll let the others be the penguins closest to the water.

And in more Macintosh news, i (certainly one of thousands) am trying to learn all there is about the iTunes LP format (.itlp). Effectively, it's just a HTML4 and javascript bundle, but it's heavy-duty javascript with calls to the iTunes app itself. Interesting. Hope it's not too out of my league.

Next week, i'll be working on Boing!

And now i'll leave you all with a photograph by Phoenix Sky Di Mauro...