What, No Taylor Swift?

Top 100 songs of the first decade of the third millenium, courtesy Rolling Stone Magazine.

They Shoot, They Score!

Received an e-mail from the National Film Board today saying that 2009 marks the 30th anniversary of Sheldon Cohen and Roch Carrier's classic piece of Canadiana The Sweater. Happy anniversary! (NFB)

On the topic of graphic design...

In response to Stephen's previous post, someone named Olly Moss made these book covers based on video games.

Then, because this is the internet, a bunch of people started making them-- much to the overwhelming joy of those of us who enjoy looking at things that reference newer things but look like older things.



Ah, to live in a world where everything isn't generically airbrushed in Photoshop. I love these things! NERRRRRRrrrrr....

Today in Ridiculously Beautiful Graphic Design, Part 2

I read Kerouac's On the Road when I was younger, and I feel I've had enough. Consequently, I feel pretty much no desire to read The Dharma Bums.

The new cover by cartoonist Jason honestly has me thinking twice about it, simply by virtue of awesome. On the inside flaps, Jason illustrates a scene from the novel that does an excellent job of showing just how hillarious Kerouac could be.

A good cover should convince readers to pick up the book, and that's just what a lot of the Penguin Deluxe Classics do. They've been enlisting a lot of reputable graphic artists and cartoonists to make up new covers for classic books for a while, including Chris Ware doing Candide, Seth doing a Dorothy Parker anthology, Joe Sacco doing One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, and, my personal favourite, Tony Millionaire doing Moby-Dick.

Today In Ridiculously, Stupidly, Beautiful Graphic Design

Wow, I love this stuff. Some dude has designed a retro-looking faux-book cover poster series for several of the biggest Web services. They're so gorgeous, just looking at them I feel like my face will melt faster than that Nazi's in Raiders Of The Lost Art. Pretty, pretty, pretty, pretty, pretty. The Youtube cover is probably my favourite, although the colour red works best with this style, to me.

I found this on Boingboing, Cory Doctorow's spectacular uberblog. You can buy work by this graphic designer here. His name's Stéphane Massa-Bidal, his handle's Retrofuturs, and I think I'm gonna break out my credit card now.

Six In The Morning

1 OUR ROUGH CITY The psycho who tore off a woman's toe with pliers has been sentenced to three years in jail. Between that and the two kids who burned a slain teenager last week, it's been a brutal stretch for Regina. (CBC)

2 GIVE THE CHAIR TO THE MAYOR WITH THE HAIR Rosie, who is bald, blogged this yesterday after a report on CJMA radio; today the Leader-Post has a story on Mayor Pat Fiacco's speech about the provincial government's rotten decision to scrap the new revenue-sharing formula.

3 POWER STRUGGLE IN ALBERTA? The chief executive of a private company says the province colluded with private companies to charge Albertans for unneeded power lines, all without approval from the Alberta Utilities Commission. Are the Imperial Alberta Conservatives in trouble? Ruh-roh! (Calgary Herald)

4 LET'S ALL KILL, KILL, KILL THE OCEANS Climate change is dangerously increasing ocean acidity. This could and probably will be catastrophic for the planet's food chain. If you or anyone you know is running around denying climate change, stop it/demand they stop it right the fuck now. Ut! I said NOW. (Guardian)

5 EUROPE'S BIG ATOM-BASHER The Large Hadron Collider is now officially the most powerful physics machine in the world. Booyah, Europe! (New York Times)

6 HEADLINE OF THE DAY Obama Accepts Nobel, Defends War. (Salon)

Pick of the Day: Chantal Kreviazuk

Hubbie Raine Maida was in town this July with his band Our Lady Peace. They played a Friday night gig at the SaskTel Summer Invasion that I caught from across Wascana Lake on what turned out to be one of the few gorgeous evenings we had last summer (although the mosquitoes were a little thick, if I recall).

No chance of that being a problem with Chantal Kreviazuk's concert at Conexus Arts Centre tonight. First off, it's indoors. Plus, it's winter. So all the moquitoes that menaced me are either dead or hibernating.

Kreviazuk celebrated her 35th birthday in May. Through Maida, she's the mother of three sons. In addition to her own solo career, she has extensive song-writing credits with a number of well-known artists from Avril Lavigne and Carrie Underwood to Kelly Clarkson and Gwen Stefani. She's had songs featured on a host of TV and movie soundtracks, and has even done a little acting herself.

To help set the mood for tonight's show, here's the video for "Is This Life" off Kreviazuk's 2002 album What If It All Means Something (YouTube)

And if that doesn't appeal, or you're looking to do something after the show, local space-time continuum rockers Intergalactic Virgin have a CD release tonight at Gabbo's Nightclub.