chiaroscuro

There ought to be an international Make a Diorama day--or week, as well.  Holidays where one does not necessarily exchange cards or the pillage of some retail expedition would be excellent excuses to be creative, experiment, or just play. 

logos, gnomon and iconoclasts

 

Sometimes the calendar really gallops and juggling holidays and upcoming vacation and planning to optimize the time, and maybe what one needs for time management is a clever logo or symbol. Today marks another United Nations holiday in the annual cycle, World Graphic Design Day, on the anniversary of the founding of Icograda whose mission is to give a voice for all "visual communicators," professionals in the arts, marketing, education and general short-hand. I was thinking about a nice sun-dial icon with springtime elements, the shadow-casting gnomon whirling around--but I don't really have the talent for that without it turning into a mismatched, clip-art collage. Design is never something that should be taken for granted, but the bit about setting aside a day for it is a bit obtuse, like celebrating our three spatial dimensions. Breadth. If an organization can move signage and the like from the generic to the enriched and creative, however, that is a positive move, something that splinters originality and vision.

Logos can help solidify a commercial identity, like this Serrano-region ham consortium pork-chop "S" that I saw at breakfast. In general, however, I think icons and graphic arts are better vehicles for expressing processes, especially persuasive when rethinking the mundane, like this impressive series of workspace propaganda posters from Steve Thomas.

This day would be an excellent time to try one's hand at composition, message and short-hand with a poster or drawing--and even if it turns out to be a clip-art collage, imitating style and device helps build talent.

poll tax or right-of-return

Thanks to the vigilance of BoingBoing, since the machinery of bureaucracy usually does not garner much attention and was only noticed due to a mandated window for public commentary (on the particulars but not the process) that has since closed, maybe the US government, intoning another refrain of its swan song, will not be able to raise the stakes on what its people will tolerate not without some dissent. First of all, who knew there was this forum for soft-suffrage, being able to offer one's opinion, for what it's worth on American policy--for maybe gauging outrage and deciding how to bury reporting on the changes? I suppose public-opinion would be an excellent inverse-marketing tool. In essence, the passport application process will become an impossibly difficult task, with a revised questionnaire that mines deeply into the applicant's past and genealogy.

For now, the arduous task is supposedly reserved for those who cannot produce an official copy of their birth certificate (giving this new gradient of bureaucracy a strange twist with one faction calling the current presidency illegitimate and questioning his citizenship), but I am sure there will be some seepage of red ink and maybe all applicants will be expected to submit all these answers--which are more in depth than the battery of questions one must answer (if not correctly then at least consistently) for a security clearance. Moreover, delving that deeply into one's past and familial relations create assumptions and affinities before individuals have the chance to decide for themselves--not to mention. That sort of concentration of personal data--extended enough so as to form anyone's complete biography, connected to a machine-readable, RFID document also seems rather ill-advised.  I am not certain what ought to be read into breadth of questions and answers but controlling movement (as America has already pioneered in the name of air-security) has at least what the propaganda would have us believe about liberties of underclass in Soviet times and with Soviet objectives. Making it more difficult to obtain a passport leave more stranded on Exceptional Island, and discourage the cultural exchange, travel, commerce and exploration that all should have the opportunity to experience.

handschuhe

Over the weekend, I found a pair of these new sporty foot mittens on sale and decided that I would try them on for size. 

I wanted to get them in any case, but I did feel rather obligated to get them after plastering them onto my bare dirty feet with other customers watching.  They do seem rather amphibious and are very light and probably very good over a lot of terrain--or possibly for skittering up a tree.  Socks are not an option but they are comfortable, and nearly like being barefoot (though probably not a significant departure from the latter--I did think, however, that I would be in trouble for tracking my dirty feet in the houses and then I remembered I was wearing these shoes) since the toes are articulated--except for the wanky smallest ones, making one either looked evolved or like a cartoon character.  One does not feel entirely the grain and texture of the surface, although the I suppose toes and parts of the feet that are usually sheltered and isolated are sensitive and a little sheepish to the experience--almost at first like walking in shoes with holes in them, feeling the contours of the street and ground.  These, I think, will be good for outdoor adventures.