Anyhow! Yesterday I went to an ol’ high school chum’s place for a sleepover—and caught up with a lot of girls whom I haven’t seen since like, graduation—although I was the only one who stayed back the whole night (honestly, I wouldn’t be heading home at 4am, even if I had a car). We watched I am Sam, Kiss the Girls (lolz LUCIUS FOX) and Breakfast at Tiffany’s. All in all, an eclectic mix of tears, fear and romance.

So, who here’s staying up to watch Obama’s inaguration? I, who never really cared for Australian politics (but that doesn’t mean I’m not up-to-date), much less American (which I have to say is way more interesting). Like so many, I’ve been swept up in the ocean of hope for good change ahead. All our free-to-air stations will be showing it “live” at different times (ironic) between 1:30–6am. Will be so pleased to see the back of George W. Bush, and only sorry for the tremendous, irresponsible mess he’s leaving behind for the President-elect.

The power of image and typography:

Funnily I keep thinking to the time in The Dark Knight when Bruce held a fundraiser for Harvey Dent: “I believe in Harvey Dent”. So will Obama be our White Knight? Time will tell. Just hope no psychopathic Joker-type will be out to destroy him. ¬¬;; I saw a feature on Obama’s lucky trinkets in TIME magazine the other day. He does in fact have a few lucky coins on him! Should we be worried?

(Yeah, trust me to make a vague reference to Batman. I could be talking about toilets and still segue back to Batman)

What a momentous occasion. I am very pleased. Evidently, much of the world is pleased with this decision; it’s been an incredible journey for the Senator, and this is only the first step towards the change perpetually emphasised throughout his campaign, but for now let’s just shout out with glee: HELL YES, HE MADE IT! (It makes me sad though to think that Australians have yet to witness such an historic occasion on our own turf; like, when will we vote in an Aboriginal Prime Minister?) To be fair on the Republicans, McCain’s speech of defeat was gracious. I think he ended up sounding pretty sincere, and definitely downtrodden. Anyhow, I think they’re all doing him a favour by not electing him as President; it’s obviously a great deal of stress and anxiety to be in those shoes.

On a side note, let me reiterate: Alex Ross’ works are truly fantastic! While Cam and I were lining up to see Jim Lee at Armageddon we some some bloke wearing the Super Obama shirts, and the prick in front of us asked him to stay back so they could compare their “Obamas”. Yeesh. Anyway, my next book purchase is definitely going to be this one: Mythology: The DC Comics Art of Alex Ross. I saw it in Readings the other day on one of my bookshop rounds and I fell in love with it.

I didn’t do an awful lot today. I went to the bank to withdraw one of my term deposits, on behalf of my dad. He’s a shrewd one. He gets me to open term deposits because I don’t pay tax (although that’ll be changing very soon). A n00bie teller was organising the closure of my account; I was actually a little bit worried she’d wiped out the interest or something. But it was all good. Now I’m going to have to re-invest elsewhere.

Afterwards I had lunch with my uni mates in a Japanese restaurant in the city. I don’t even remember what I had. It was some sort of curry don. And the drink I ordered (iced latte chocolate) was rubbish. And then like the fobs that we are, we went to get sticker photos taken in the nook and cranny of Chinatown! They’re actually the nicest ones I’ve taken. I remember seeing some awful results before. My favourites:

The rest on my Flickr

P.S. If it looks like I haven’t been blogging everyday “YOU’RE WRONG!” to quote (Harry-cum-Goyle in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets), I’m posting on both LJ and Eveninghour. Yay.
P.S.S. I am really happy with the new blog layout. I used Live Trace (my favourite Illustrator filter) to strip Catwoman and Batman down to the “basics” (take that comment as you will). It’s smouldering!

I’ve been paying a lot more attention this year than in ‘04, possibly because I understand the whole system a bit more, and the candidates (and their running mates) are just so much more “intriguing” and “different” to say the least.

Now as a designer, and having written a mini-thesis (well, it sure felt like one) on propaganda and advertising, I’ve been particularly fascinated with their design campaigns, and I know it’s probably late now to talk about it, but I’m going to anyway.

I noticed when watching footage from a 2004 Obama campaign, there hadn’t yet been the use of the iconic Gotham typeface, now made ubiquitous through the rigorous campaign front. (Of course, he hadn’t had the popularity and following he has now.) Back in ‘04 it was just some conservative-looking serif font, lacking the vitality and modern look and feel to push Obama’s message of “change” forward. It then struck me what an excellent choice Gotham was (designed by Tobias Frere-Jones in 2000), quintessentially American, but with all the sentiments of a modernist typeface.

Gotham aside, another great symbol of Obama’s pledge for change is his logo. There are two versions of this, one with the gradient and one with just solid colours. I love the gradient version. It evokes hope, like a beacon of pure light, a star rising above the horizon. The round O not just stands for Obama, but the united stand for change, as one people, one nation. This is further emphasised with the familiar, trusting and patriotic colours of the American flag. Idealistic, to be sure, but extremely well visualised. And simple! We loves the simplicity!

McCain, the ol’ maverick, is obviously on the other side of the coin, and his logo reflects that with a more military token style. Look at that pointy, shiny star! It screams Vietnam veteran! A man who’s been there, and knows what to do, just because he says so! To be fair, it’s simple, and probably easiest to identify from a distance, what with those pervasive horizontal lines converging at the centre. It’s a nice touch.

Interestingly the typeface used here is Optima (designed by Hermann Zapf between 1952- 1955). Personally I rather loathe Optima, because it never seems to fit into the context of what I’m working with. Yes, it’s a sans serif, but on the other hand it has humanist leanings. It is most famously used as the typeface for the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington D.C., which is possibly the reason why John McCain’s crew took the typeface on. It suits his persona, to be sure. The navy blue background is the perfect tone as well, although I have seen the logo on black backgrounds as well, which is too dark, I think.

On Another Note

Just for good measure I checked out each candidate’s websites, Obama clearly being the winner in probably all aspects of usability, design and accessibility, not that McCain’s was bad, but the layout lets it down through inconsistent use of fonts (from condensed to bold to wide face, ugh!), not to mention different font sizes, all contributing to a garish, overblown impression. There’s no room to breathe! On print, you should really only stick to no more than 3 different typefaces and keep the sizes and alignment consistent for a steady and relaxing read; I think this rule should be adhered to even more strictly on the web. It’s the inconsistency that will frustrate any web user. It’s actually quite a poor attempt at web 2.0 standards. Conversely, Obama’s website is understated with a serious tone but it’s elegant, clean and quite easy to navigate. The message for “change” perpetuated in the Obama campaign is consistent through the familiar colours and fonts.  Still, one good thing I like from the McCain website is that the type size in the logo for “McCain-Palin” is the same, rather than the Obama outsizing Biden on the Obama website. It shows an equal partnership. Minor point, but it’s those little things that always make a difference.

Verdict: if US Presidents could be voted on their design ethics and aesthetics rather than their government policies, then Obama wins, by quite a high margin!

I wonder what the design of this year’s ballot is like? Did you know that apparently Bush won Presidency in 2000 due to the structure of the voting boxes on the sheet? I’m rather appalled.

Given my background in visual arts/design it’s become second nature to be on the look out for visually striking things and aesthetics, and I have to say I was utterly gobsmacked by the majestic, epic splendour of each performance. The ceremony began with a rumbling, thunderous countdown made by 2008 fou drummers, meticulously synchronised to utmost perfection as is humanly possible, building up a thrilling momentum before a loud bang of a circular ring of fireworks. That alone makes the opening ceremony incredibly memorable. But there was so much more opulent, elaborate, high-tech, sophisticated, synchronised madness yet to come.

Zhang Yimou directed the ceremony alongside Zhang Jigang, China’s most renowned choreographer and a team of other talents. If you’re familiar with Zhang Yimou’s recent films, Hero or Curse of the Golden Flower, then you can probably tell where his vision stems from. There was clearly a heavy emphasis on ancient China’s glory and achievements—humanism, philosophy, the arts, rather than its more turbulent and devastating modern history. Personally expected this and I was really impressed with the direction. Since I’m an avid typography lover I’m rather appalled at myself that I did not know that China had invented the earliest form of movable type. I’ve always been taught that Johannes Gutenburg was the leading pioneer in the printing press process. There’s roughly a four century span between the two events, which isn’t much in Chinese history. Begs the question yet again whether the West “stole” the technology; such an irony now when China is always copying other brands…

Apart from the amazing use of vivid colour and contrasts, the next highlight for me is the utilisation of enormous masses of people participating in the performances. China, by default, has the largest amounts of pretty much anything, given its dense population, so it comes as no surprise that they would take advantage of their strengths in numbers. The movable type segment had me fooled; I initiallly thought it was computer-programmed, then I wondered if it was people (never doubt the capabilities of a human, a Chinese human at that), then I rested on my initial conclusion. Totally wrong! Totally unbelievable!

The lighting of the cauldron was a surprise to me, and definitely unique. Li Ning, a retired Olympic gymnast, held the honour of igniting the flame, not by the conventional means of walking up a bunch of steps, but by being hoisted into the air and gliding along the edge of the stadium towards the cauldron in a majestic, suspended fashion. It was just breathtaking.

I don’t think I’ve ever felt so empowered or inspired by my cultural heritage. *weeps from the awesomeness* China has successfully plunged itself onto the world stage with confidence and finesse. What bodes for the future, well, we can only await for with great ancticipation and newfound admiration.

On the side: hopefully the 9 year old girl who sang the Hymn to the Motherland will fare better than “our Nikki Webster” did, the latter of whom last seen on a racy men’s magazine. WELL DONE, NIKKI.

A lot’s happened in the past three weeks:

- back at uni, huzzah.
- got sick, oh noes, although I made a remarkably speedy recovery
- saw Dark Knight on its first day of release, or in fact, first day of release in the whole world, lucky us!
- Dark Knight was bloody awesome by the way. Seeing it again this week at IMAX.

OK, not really a lot.

Anyway, I’m gonna have a proper review (with full coherent sentences!) of the Dark Knight, plus its music score hopefully after this Friday, which is when I am slightly freer.

This essay I’m writing is driving me up the wall; I’ve forgotten the entire process, having not brushed up on my skills for over a year. And it’s such a measly word limit at 800 words. *sighs*

A few videos to compensate for missing Videos of the Week:

Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince trailer (looks pretty damn good, judging from the junior!Tom Riddle! But all trailers are misleading as hell):

ItsJustSomeRandomGuy’s latest “I’m a Marvel, I’m a DC” parody, brilliant take on the Dark Knight media hype and its sheer awesomeness:

Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans, directed by F.W. Murnau, 1927 release (gorgeous silent era film I watched in film studies):

Why is iPhoto such a bitch to use? I mean, I can see how powerful its potential is, but I find it altogether quite difficult to operate, especially the fact that I can’t access the raw folder containing all the photos I upload onto the computer. I have to manually go to the Pictures > iPhoto Library, right click and select ‘Open Package Contents’. If anyone has a better solution, I would be so grateful to know what it is!

Meanwhile, I had an excellent walk after dinner with dad. Think we walked 5 km. Mum never joins us — bloody ‘ell; she can’t blame us if she gets sick again because she doesn’t keep fit. Will probably have to use physical force to drag her along with us, although she ends up dragging us behind because she can’t keep up with our pace. Anyway, said walk tonight was excellent because we trekked along the railway line all the way to the next two suburbs (I’m not sure if that’s legal, since someone tore through the barricaded fence, so obviously we weren’t the only people to venture by, but it was fun); it’s used mainly for cargo, and apparently V-line services, although I don’t believe dad’s testimony about the latter since I’ve never seen any passenger trains; imagine if this railway could join along the metropolitan lines, it would be so much more convenient. Logistically there might be a few issues in joining with an existing service, possibly the Sydenham line over the Broadmeadows Craigieburn, but honestly, it can be done! Our infrastructure is choking, and all that’s left is rhetoric.

While I’m on a ranting streak, I’ll continue. I am very frustrated about the wank re: Tibet. It’s sheer Western hypocrisy to propose such things as boycotting the Olympics and Chinese goods or what have you, and if you think that, you know nothing about what’s going on. Human rights, yeah right! Case in point, I was particularly perplexed and outraged by Bob Brown’s careless remark about China’s supposed ‘dictatorial’ conduct in its dealings with the Tibetan rioting. I only have to look at the numerous examples of similar, if not worse, conduct and persecution, and quite frankly, a lack of human rights, in Australian, British and American history, just to name a few countries that proudly promote democracy. Dictatorship was the likes of Hitler, Stalin, and Mao. Get it right: Mao is dead, Mao is gone, this is an entirely new and different China. In fact, Communism won’t last this century, but we don’t know when … and I digress.

The riots have actually been aimed at Han Chinese, who are entirely innocent of any political agenda (as such); in fact, they have done GOOD to Tibet in bringing the region good economy, tourism and trade, so of course, China must act in some way if they’re being brutally attacked by violent rioters. I’ve given up all hope of any UN intervention — Ban Ki Moon was not the best candidate for the role of Secretary-General — what power or influence can he exert over other national leaders, if he doesn’t give off a sense of strength and conviction? Super powers will just trample all over the organisation, or worse yet take advantage of its weakness. It’s the League of Nations all over again.

Ho hum.

I saw an interview with Zhang Yimou (of Hero and House of Flying Daggers fame) re: his direction of the Beijing Olympics opening and closing ceremonies — he’s very tight-lipped about the whole thing, and so he should be, but it would have been nice to know just a bit of what’s to be expected. I am so excited about this! But there was mention about a Chinese poll that asked the general public what they want to see — so expect some more flying daggers… xD

Full moon last night — no werewolves or vampires near my territory. *sighs* Gee whiz, suburban Melbourne is dull.

And why am I having verbal diarrhoea? I just want to test this Wordpress to Livejournal cross-posting plugin. LOLZ. I shall be blogging more at Eveninghour now methinks. It makes me sad to know that I’ve lost contact with most of my blogging friends back in the day (yeesh, it was only 7 years ago?).

Crikey, have I been blogging that long?

Anyhoo, John Simm ??? + Van Gogh ??? awaits!

Anyhoo, I am on a week long Easter break, which I know for certain will zoom by like flies. I’ve got a lot of work to do if I am to be on top of things. Work for electronic design, studio and typography. Eeep. And I plan to see The Other Boleyn Girl, Sidney Nolan, Black in Fashion: From Mourning to Night and Game On. Possibly not all at once. Not to mention snapping hundreds of shots of a yet to be chosen township/city of metropolitan Melbourne for type. Decisions, decisions.

Borders at Melbourne Central on Tuesday night was packed to the near brim (well, the queue anyway) of people taking advantage of their 40% off one full-priced book deal. For once I am glad to have signed up for this particular mailing list! Look what I came out with: All American Ads from the 1920s. TASCHEN Books slogan is:

TASCHEN Books trigger the desire to buy.

What can I say but, TOO TRUE, TOO TRUE!

Meanwhile onto a more epic scale, I finally signed up for Earth Hour — I’ve been meaning to for, well, months, but then today I remembered. So, if you’re in any of the participating countries or even if you’re not, join in, and spread the word!

No, I have not forgotten Jesus died for all of us on this day. I’ve been an agnostic cooped up in a Catholic institution for most of my life thus far, not likely to forget in a hurry. So, enjoy the Easter with your family and friends, drive safely, and let me ponder over my desire for chocolate hot cross buns.

I went to Adelaide for several days with my parents. We drove there – which is quite an amazing feat. I think Adelaide very fine – in spite of what Premier Brumby said re: Adelaide being a backwater. I suppose in terms of trade and industry it’s a little lacklustre, but the people are generally very friendly and the area is very clean. Mother Nature was very good to us – the weather was glorious! I particularly like how the CBD layout is structured, and the really nice, quaint Victorian and Edwardian architecture surrounding. I went to the Art Gallery of SA (quite an impressive collection, although I didn’t have time to peruse every section of the gallery – I saw my first Waterhouse and Bouguereau paintings, wow!). The Rococo, Baroque, Regency, Pre-Industrialisation and Pre-Raphaelite collections are a notable mention. Then again they always are. Also went to the Museum, which was simply enormous, and seemingly neverending! I was very interested in the extensive indigenous artefacts collection but I didn’t get the chance to really check them out, which is a shame. So yeah, in all, a jolly ol’ time, excepting the part when our car radiator sort of pucked up on the night before we left for Melbourne… It went through a rather unsuccessful diagnosis today, hah.

My next trip out of town will be in June – I booked tickets with Tiger Airways (it’s their ubiquitous $9.95 deals, wowsers!) for Hobart. Definitely not a peak season – it’s going to be absolutely freezing at that time – practically near the Antarctic! Still, I’m excited about it!

Meanwhile Kevin Rudd gives formal apology to Aborigines. About time.

The epitaph of all roles: Heath as Batman’s arch nemesis, Joker.

Always an Aussie: Heath celebrates with Sharon (nursing a pash rash) from Kath and Kim and Dannii Minogue at the 2006 AFI Awards in Melbourne.

Rest in peace, Heath Ledger. You’ll be remembered not for the way you died but for the way you lived.

Meanwhile, onto some pleasantries, I ordered my black Macbook from Apple today! I get a student discount. I was going to upgrade the RAM to 2GB but then I thought better of it. If I really need it I can just add another 1GB RAM inside the spare RAM slot. It should be delivered by Friday or Tuesday (as Monday is a public holiday). Now I won’t be a plebeian!

Black Macbook: It was a hard decision but eventually Fate would have me with black. And the parents and friends are more pleased too.