A Privilege

New Watson Twins album is coming in June! I really love them. When they sing with Jenny lewis, it is good, but I like them by themselves the best. I found out where I'm going to be living this summer... Hillsboro! I am excited. Now I just need to find a job. There are a ton of really cool internships that I wish I could do. Too bad they don't pay actual money!

I've been reading a lot about communism during WWII and the aftermath in Eastern Germany. Quite interesting stuff, I had no idea what went on behind the scenes in the making of the German Democratic Republic (actually communist) and how the introduction of communism into Germany was being planned in the Soviet Union even before WWII was lost by the Nazis. I find communism quite interesting, not that I'm interested in becoming a communist, but it just seems like the history of communism has been so hush-hush here in the United States, for fear of it taking hold here. If Americans had been able to see what communism was really like in Soviet Russia, they probably wouldn't have thought of it so highly after WWII.

I'm very curious what went on behind the "iron curtain" and in Soviet Russia. Some things really shocked me. I didn't really realize what Stalin did, his influences on the common people, and all of the propaganda romanticizing communism. His policies caused a famine in Ukraine, that nowadays is referred to as a genocide of the Ukrainian people. Over 20 countries recognize it as a genocide, but I've never heard of this until now. Stalin killed more people than the Nazis did in the holocaust. It seems like everyone keeps quiet on this topic. Oh history, so interesting.

Side note: I'm so thankful I live in America. We like to complain a lot about our country, but it is a really great country to live in. When looking at history, I am once again reminded of what a privilege it is to live here. A lot of people made sacrifices so we could live the way we do today.

The Diving Bell and the Butterfly

I love this film. I picked it up at the store, but then set it down to look at magazines. I'm one of those people who looks for different films, ones I've never heard of, hoping to find a gem. I get some pretty strange films at times, but once in a while I get lucky. For some reason I remembered this film's title and looked up the trailer when I got home. It looked like it could be good, so I went back and got it right then. I sat down all alone and watched it.



Perfectly depressing and beautiful at the same time. It's not a film that I'd watch in a group. The cinematography was pretty powerful. I've never seen anything quite like it. Reading a review later, I found that the director's father died about a week before filming started. He said, "What I tried to show was what my father was seeing when he was dying, not what I was seeing when I was looking at him." I also really enjoyed the soundtrack.

I get so tired of happy movies. Why does everybody want a happy movie? It's not true to life. We want to live in a fantasy world. I guess that isn't a bad thing—I just prefer realism. If you think there wont be a happy ending, and then there just happens to be one, it is even that much sweeter. That's life.

New favorite song: Ultra Orange & Emmanuelle, 'Don't Kiss Me Goodbye'

Print

We've come a long way in the past ten years. Heck, I didn't even know about Print mag, or that there was such a thing as a career in graphic design. It's nice to have a look back at things I never knew about. Here's a look at a few ancient Print magazines that I discovered in my empty basement office.



November/December 1996
Topics included The Legacy of Cranbrook's former design directors, Skateboard Art, Lawrence of Arabia: Designer and Printer, and Print's 33rd Annual Student Cover Design. Apparently distressed type was cutting edge.



November/December 1997
Film posters by Moscow's Stenberg brothers (1923-1933), Flesh and Bloods: Body art from the Texas Penitentiary, and the disturbing topic of ugly Online Newspapers graced the pages of this issue. The cover was another student cover design winner.



May/June 1998
Wow, exactly 10 years ago this was on newsstands everywhere... A whole cover with a rambling stream of consciousness. Somewhat entertaining, some of it is applicable for today, some not so much. The line, "first I'll blow up the logo huge to fit across the whole page, and put a drop shadow on it" makes me feel a little uncomfortable. Welcome to the 90s. And inside, The Californication of American (guessing that is RHCP related), The Harlem Renaissance Artists, Kids Magazines, Arabic Typography, and last but not least, Gill Sans.



January/February 1999
This issue is all about innovation... hence the cover. Apparently there are endless illustrating possibilities when toast and a toaster are involved. Who knew? I love the flexible illustration—I like my toast bendy... not really. It just looks really funny. In this issue, Freshman Class: Twenty established designers reflect on their early work with hardly a wince, Religious Advertising, The New Visual Artist Review, and The X-Phile: Using industrial strength x-ray technology to view the hidden inner lives of everyday objects.

Seven Eleven

After working feverishly on putting the mt. ash together tonight with a couple friends, we decided to go get slurpee's from the 7-11 in eastgate. While we had been working, we had some great conversation and Lafe said something to the effect that these are the times that we will look back on, because nothing stays the same. I didn't think much of it, but as we drove the familiar route down Rose street, singing at the top of our lungs and pretty much having a wild dance party in the car, I thought to myself, these are good times.

We got to 7-11 and ran inside, but the slurpee machines were closed for the night. Determined to purchase an icy cold, artificially flavored, blended beverage, I persevered and drove on to Isaacs to the Shell station. They had blue and red. Rach and I got half red, half blue in our cups. We later decided that red is the best. Case closed. As we were purchasing the drinks, somehow weddings came up and the lady who was helping us asked if any of us were getting married. We all said no way. Not for a long while. She laughed and said that we were smart.

Driving home in the dark, I kept thinking about how I always focus on the future. I plan it out, and while planning is valuable, I deprive myself of the pleasure of living in the moment. I'm not sure where life will take me, or the people in this world that I love the most. Tonight I was just happy to be one of the girls—not a care in the world.

Here's some songs I've liked lately in no particular order:
Nicole Atkins, 'The Way It Is'
The Little Penguins, 'Say It Once'
Republic Tigers, 'Buildings & Mountains'
Architecture in Helsinki, 'Heart it Races'
Air, 'Mer du Japon' (Teenagers Remix)
French Kicks, 'Abandon'