May 11
May 09
w.i.p.s wednesday: woven labels
Posted in: Issue 13In the current issue (#13), Carolyn Fraser has an excellent article about Cash’s Labels—the last woven label manufacturer in Australia. While visiting the plant, Carolyn shot some footage on her phone. I’m learning Final Cut Pro X, so here’s something I’ve edited together.
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May 03
Weather Music
Posted in: Issue 13Weather is a powerful muse in a number of ways, and when it comes to music, it seems to fall into four categories: songs that evoke weather or seasons, but does not mention them directly; songs that uses weather as a metaphor for the themes of the song; songs that use weather as part of the background of a story of scene; and lastly, songs that are simply about the weather.
Earlier this year, the Weather Channel had a tournament, NCAA style, matching 64 weather-themed songs against one-another to determine a weather music champion. Readers voted on songs in head-to-head matchups, and after 63-such matchups, The Beatles Here Comes the Sun was crowned champion. While the reader-voted aspect of the competition was always going to favour mainstream classics (like other contenders Over the Rainbow, Singin’ in the Rain, and White Christmas), it’s a little disappointing that more contemporary music wasn’t featured, even in the early rounds. I think U2’s Beautiful Day and Adele’s Set Fire to the Rain are the only pieces from the last decade featured. One can also question whether some of the songs are really songs about weather. Is Ice Ice Baby a ‘weather’ song in any sense of the word? I’ll save you the trouble of googling the lyrics: it’s not.
So, with the weather channel having taken care of the mainstream selections, what are your favorite underrated weather-themed music?
I think one could probably identify an entire bracket of 64 Tom Waits songs that feature weather imagery in one way or another, with the comic musings of Emotional Weather Report (with tornado watches issued shortly before noon Sunday, for the areas including the western region of my mental health and the northern portions of my ability to deal rationally with my disconcerted precarious emotional situation); and the simple observations of Strange Weather (All over the world / It’s the same / Strangers talk only of the weather) being a couple top contenders.
So, share some of your favorites in the comments!
Apr 23
She had me at self-saucing
Posted in: Issue 13Now that you’ve had issue #13 for a while, have you tried Tara O’Brady’s recipe for lucky spring rice on page 106? Truthfully, I am intimidated by it.
Tara was included in a National Post story where she noted that one of her most popular recipes is Caramel Self-Saucing Walnut Puddings.
And that’s where she had me.
Sometime this spring I will make Tara’s rice. Because someone who could create self-saucing pudding can’t be wrong. About anything.
Image from sevenspoons.net
Apr 20
Burritos with Moonpie
Posted in: Issue 13, Press/MentionsUPPERCASE contributor Alanna Cavanagh visited with Lourdes Sánchez for issue #13. Alanna recently posted some pictures of the day she spent with Lourdes, and her dog Moonpie, for the interview. Alanna also links to Lourdes’ site. Scrolling through the images there is an inspirational way to kick off your weekend.
Image from lulisanchez.com
Apr 19
What the weather does to us
Posted in: Issue 13An article by Jonathan Shipley in Issue 13 explores how the climate around Seattle has influenced the art community of that city. He links the insular, self-reflective spirit of the arts community there to the famed damp and dreary weather of the Pacific Northwest.
Driving out onto the prairies from my home of Calgary today, I was thinking back on Shipley’s piece and contemplating how weather shapes Calgary’s arts. It’s a question that anyone can ask of their own town. Despite the wet conditions that I was driving through, Calgary boasts itself to be the sunniest city in Canada or North America, depending on who you ask. (Environment Canada lists it has having the most sunny days in Canada, at 333.) The other weather phenomenon that we lay claim to is the similarly cheerful chinook: a foehn wind (you can look it up in your Issue 13 abecedary!) that can warm the chilliest winter days by fifteen or twenty degrees.
When I think about how that shapes Calgary’s artistic identity, the one thought I keep coming back to is just how gosh darn hard it is to be a curmudgeon here. The coldest days of the year are bright and clear, and a chinook may be just around the corner. Summer is short, but filled with days so perfect that even the sun lingers long past any civilized bedtime. One can’t even become cynical about the sunniness, in the way that one might in more tropical climes. Trying to characterize the spirit of an entire community is always difficult, but I do feel like we have far more optimists than cynics. Within the city as a whole, the cultural community can feel a little bit neglected, but at the same time there’s often genuine, heartfelt belief that the city is on the cusp of a sea-change in terms of its awareness of local culture, and thus our role within our city. That’s not to say there’s no cynicism—about self, about the community, about life in general, but I always feel like there’s a bit of an optimist’s streak underlying so much of the creative work that’s done in the city.
So now I’ll put the question out to you: how does the weather of your city affect the artistic community and the work that’s done there?
Apr 19
Cover colours
Posted in: Issue 13
With Janine in London this week, Finley, Percy and I were making our own modest trip out to my parents’ farm, about an hour from Calgary. Along the way, I couldn’t help noticing that the colours were very reminiscent of Eloise Renouf’s cover of Issue 13: a heavy grey sky, silver of granaries and shimmering asphalt, yellow fields and road markings. And I thought to myself that if Janine were along on the trip, she would likely take a bunch of photos and then do a blog post about the colours.
Apr 13
Contributed to 13
Posted in: Issue 13
We would like to welcome Courtney Eliseo as a contributor to UPPERCASE. Courtney wrote the profile on Kelli Anderson found in issue #13.
Long time subscribers, may remember Courtney’s name from our inaugural issue where she redesigned the book jacket for the Tao of Pooh.
From seamlesscreative.com
Courtney’s first typographic memory was discovering her father’s extremely meticulous handwriting as a child. From then on she carried a pad of paper with her everywhere, feverishly trying to perfect her own and create new styles. Little did she know it would lead to a life-long obsession with typography. The obsession forged a path to Syracuse University, where she studied Communications Design. She then landed in New York and hasn’t left since.
When not attached to the computer, Courtney collects business cards from New York restaurants, plays with her gocco printer and catches live music wherever she can.
Apr 13
13 everywhere
Posted in: community, Issue 13
Jenn Kitagawa spotted this thematic window display at Type Books in Toronto. You may remember their amazing video The Joy of Books. It is always worth another look.
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