Fun Mail from Shooting Star Press

Having a retail store and writing a book about letterpress has its benefits, and one long standing benefit has been free samples of one of my favorite printers, John Horn of Shooting Star Press in Little Rock, Arkansas.

Power & Light's Moveable Type Project: Please support.

Check out this cool video, and then follow this link here to help Kyle make this awesome project a reality. She's raised more than half of what she needs in the first 24 hours of her fundraising, but as of this blog post she has another $4ooo to go. Every little bit helps, and there are various cool letterpress gifts you can get as a reward for pledging a small amount of money. She's raised more than half of what she needs in the last 24 hours, but as of this moment has another $4ooo to go. If you like the idea but can't pledge, please share her fundraising page (and awesome video) to other folks who

I'm blogging elsewhere...

And lo it was formed: the Dark Academy.

I've started a filmmaking blog called Dark Academy, where I review books on filmmaking, talk about my favorite films and directors, post cool finds on filmmaking tricks and gadgets, and eventually I will document my own filmmaking process. You should check it out, iffin that kind of shit interests you.

Get you some Janelle!

ATLiens Janelle Monae & Big Boi collaborate again.

I highly recommend you get Janelle's album The ArchAndroid, which is hot, banging, and crazy weird. She also collaborates on the album w/ one of my Faves, of Montreal. Of Montreal is currently on tour playing new material from their upcoming album, False Preist; Janelle Monae is opening for them for most of the tour--with the intent of alot of onstage crossover action. Not to be missed.

of Montreal performs Coquet Coquette from False Priest on Jimmy Fallon.

C&P Oiling Chart

Seeing as many oiling charts are difficult to find online, I'm posting them here on my blog, so even I can reference them at my lesiure.

Here is one that is a great outline for oiling points for most C&P's, though certain features will vary. Click on the image to enlarge, and you can print it out for your reference.

We use 30 weight oil on everything- I've heard packing grease between the Pinion Gear & the Large Gear Cam Wheel is a good thing but we haven't done that in a while, pretty messy. If you use a treadle, use vaseline on the treadle hook where it meets the flywheel shaft. Don't forget the Cam Roller & Stud hiding inside the Large Gear Cam Wheel -- it's easy to miss and only appears during a small window during the print cycle. Oiling points on the motor will vary- I've never seen the same motor on a C&P twice!

Brooklyn Renegade Highlights 2010

The Renegade Marching Band!

We arrived for the National Stationery Show 3 weeks ago and ever since it's been a whirlwind rife with bloggable happenings. I'm still a week away from things truly cooling down and getting to sit down and write it all out-- but I have a few hours to kill between client meetings here in the W. Village so I'm gonna go ahead and do a quick and dirty look at my faves from the Renegade Craft Fair in Brooklyn that we attended last weekend.

Miniature Rhino, purveyor of stationery and embroidery, offered a Letter Writing Service where you can type up a cute little note, which she would put in a nifty corked bottle before she'd send it via post to your intended recipient. It was one of the highlights of my Renegade experience, (though the audience of fair-goers crowding over my shoulder to read as I typed made me a bit self-conscious.)

Renegade is a fantastic venue to find silkscreened posters. Sel & Vinaigre from Montreal was my kind of freaky retro.

Illustrative wonders silkscreened by Clinton Reno of Columbus, OH.

A smattering of shirts from Print Liberation...

including this one sported by Lydia See. Now she can apologize for her tardy ass with panache.

Imaginative and peculiar illustrated posters from Raw Toast.

Got a booth visit from Jeremy, a senior printer at Studio on Fire, who was wandering the fair wearing this sweet t-shirt.

Up next, NSS highlights!

The Avatar!

Bad Avatar!

Avatar (2010): Dumb Movie about newagey blue critters in a hallucinogenic jungle exploited for their outofstockium or hardtofindium or whatever it was called.

Good Avatar!

Avatar: The Last Airbender (2006): Super cool Nickelodeon action/adventure cartoon series/trilogy that flips Japanese/Chinese culture/mythology on it's proverbial head/ass. Beautifully rendered by an indie Korean animation studio, visually stunning action sequences choreographed by a sifu master (using five distinct styles of martial arts), funny, gripping, complicated, spiritual, compelling, heart-wrenching, well written. Intended to captivate kids, obsessed over by adults. The series was an intricately put together 61 22-minute episodes, and ties up so gorgeously that a box of kleenexes for a) tears and b) jizz is strongly recommended.

One of my favorite action sequences from season 3.

The Avatar cartoon series was finished before Jim Cameron's Avatar was being filmed. However, by the time Nickelodeon was ready to do an Avatar movie for real, Cameron's film was in production, and with a court-order the Nickelodeon was forced to call the film anything but The Avatar.

M. Night Shyalamalamadingdong was a fan of the Avatar cartoon and got dibs on writing and directing the film. You might remember him from his first good film, the Sixth Sense, followed by a string of poorly written WTFs. From the trailers, I can tell that much of the story has been lost and doctored for Hollywood. And even with the expected trilogy that this franchise will dish out, there is no way in hell that anyone could take a movie and recreate the magic, humor and complexity of the original series that took more than 22 hours to play out.

But am I gonna see the movie? Hell yes. All 3 films. The Airbender movie will likely be a blockbuster and take folks by surprise... I've never seen a story that's been told quite like this one, and its a fun world to dwell in and ponder. Just know that there is something way better that precedes what yr about to be spoon-fed Shyamalamadingdong style.

All three Last Airbender trailers:

Thar be real arrggghh in thar blood.

My Viking buddies Erik and Dane are seriously fucked up.

It's going to be a great day.

After years of suck, SNL is back on top, the Digital Shorts in particular never fail to please.

You want it? You got it.

After a customer saw our Alice series at the Stationery Show, she asked if we had a Very Merry Unbirthday card. Nope. But 10 minutes after she left the booth, a new design was borned.