Onawa, Iowa July 17 & 18, 2010

It's not likely to make anyone's list of top viral videos, but it does sort of catch the pace of place.

A Project For a Friend

You Lost Me There

Longtime friend Rosecrans Baldwin dropped us a line asking if we'd be interested in making a trailer for his debut novel You Lost Me There. He'd sent us some uncorrected proofs a few weeks prior and we'd loved it, so of course we said yes. He wanted to use the prologue to the book and tracked down a studio where he recorded himself reading it. Sending those files over, along with a collection of amazing photos by Aya Padrón, and we got to work. Since the prologue, and the book itself, is all about memory, we built a collection of blur and flicker effects and thought gradual fades would work nicely throughout. To really make the piece work, we spent most of our time on the sound design, assembling dozens of miscellaneous audio clips in our archives and finding bits and pieces at our regular go-to: the wonderful, collaborative site The Freesound Project. We hope you'll enjoy the end result as much as we enjoyed making it, and really hope it encourages you to pick up a copy of You Lost Me There.

A Film and New Exhibitions

Collective Memory

New exhibitions and our three-part MoOMumentary entitled The Curators, are now showing at The Museum of Online Museums. Kevin Guilfoile is the Collections Director of the MoOM, and he chatted chatted with Time Out Chicago recently. The MoOM has also been featured on All Things Considered, in the NY Times, Chicago Tribune and Time Magazine and was discussed at length on an episode of NPR's Hello Beautiful!.

Recapping Layer Tennis

In Orbit

We're finalizing the details for Season Three of Layer Tennis but meanwhile check our retrospective video of the recent Exhibition Matches. It's like that CBS video they show at the end of the NCAA basketball tournament, but with much, much better music, this time by the mighty Diego Bernal. Also, the video recapping Season Two is available too. More news soon.

It All Started In the Bathroom

I’m OK
You’re OK Go

This is the sort of thing that Twitter is especially good for, but a washroom full of chalkboard walls works too. A while ago we hosted a quick contest called Booking Bands in which we asked people to combine the name of a book with the name of a band. We received thousands of entries, posted a ton of them and then randomly selected three and sent those people the book and a CD from the band that they mashed together. The process of coming up with funny or unexpected associations in this contest became a central part of JC's presentation at SXSW, A General Theory of Creative Relativity.

The Field Tested Books Book

I Read That Somewhere

We had this notion that somehow through experimentation we could identify how our perception of a book is affected by the place where we read it. Or maybe the other way around. Maybe it's possible to determine how a book colors the way we feel about the place where we experience it. The result is Field Tested Books. Check hundreds of reports online or better yet, for portability and typographic excellence (Linotype Electra!) you can't beat the paperback Field Tested Books Book which is available now for just nine bucks.

A CP Film Copy Goes Here

How Do You Spell Courage?

For the proper effect, check the trailer first and then please take a few minutes (eleven actually) to watch our short feature film about words, pictures and bravery, Copy Goes Here. In case you missed it, here's what our home page looked like when we debuted the movie.

ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ

Proper Attire

A perfectly constructed tee from a sweet new tri-blend with just our "Crois" on the front. That's it.

A CP Film In Five Parts

Laboratory Conditions

RIP Ed Grothus who we met while we were in Los Alamos, New Mexico. We were looking for locations for one film project and we discovered a lot more about the town and its people than we bargained for. So we made a different film and called it Laboratory Conditions. It's being shown here in five pieces and is also available on DVD.

From an occasional series Face Time

Classic Display Faces That Deserve Props

Chauncey H. Griffith's Bodoni Poster Black was developed for Mergenthaler in 1929 and features strong verticals and shallow descenders. It's regularly employed for era-specific "Appearing Nightly at the Copacabana" lobby-card-ish announcements and by and large it's serviceable, if not particularly interesting. But, just in case you find yourself in need of a two skinny chicks whispering near the coke mirror, late 70's, Los Angeles sort of vibe, set it tight in all-caps with almost no line spacing. Suggested pairing: Univers Light Extra Condensed.

July Guest Colleen Wainwright

Wright What
You Know

Colleen Wainwright (cw) is the Los Angeles-based force behind Communicatrix, a name she came up with for herself after having become a writer-speaker-layabout and had "hit three hyphens." A former children's television writer, playwright, commercial actor, and advertising copywriter (where she once wrote a Wheaties campaign for Michael Jordan, "reason enough for quitting your day job"), the jack-of-all-trades Wainwright now spends her time consulting and getting hired out for speaking engagements to talk about marketing, new media, and communications. We'd like to know about all of that stuff, so as she takes over guest editing duties for us here in July, we'll be trying to glean as much as we can.

A list of all the brilliant people who have helped us by guest editing Fresh Signals can be found here.

Other recent features are listed on Page Two.

Fresh Signals

So you know, Teen Chat Decoder. ms-today

Trailer for the film Catfish. ms-today

"Fortunately, however, tonight is Make Your Own Goddam Dinner Night, a recently instituted family ritual I shared with you in last week's column." Easy Cocktails from the Cursing Mommy, by Ian Frazier. jc-yesterday

Just a couple of guys, having a drink at a bar in Italy, 50 years ago. Lovely. ms-yesterday

An important resource. "The following is a listing of "Bewitched" episodes in which the consumption of alcoholic beverages was shown, and by whom." jc-yesterday

It was at Tony Soma's, reportedly, that a bartender asked Dorothy, "What are you having?" and she replied, "Not much fun." Where Dorothy Parker drank. jc-yesterday

FDL Relink. "Ordinary yuppies, those who frequented the bars on Rush Street and Old Town, did not blend in. For one thing, they were unimpressed by the booths and tables, knocked together from plywood, shellacked, caked by years of smoke and sweat; for years the bar had no more air conditioning than central heating. O'Rourke's was the ultimate singles bar, it was said: You went there with a date, and came home alone." A Bar on North Avenue by Roger Ebert. jc-yesterday

Another classic FDL. "I quickly met my second wife, a brilliant graduate student who liked to brag that she had never met a man who could drink her under the table. Then she met me." Liquor and Lit, by Charles Deemer. jc-yesterday

Watermelon Lime Sangria. Yum. ms-yesterday

The fine folk at American Drink make me wish every day was a Friday night, and that this one was wrapping itself up at Jimmy's Corner. cw-yesterday

Composition tutorial using matryoshka dolls. Rule #1: No kissing! Via The Fluent Self. cw-yesterday

What Ben likes. jc-yesterday

I don't even know what the hell Mark from 37s is talking about most of the time, but I love his Nuts & Bolts posts anyhow. jc-yesterday

It's the 39th Anniversary of George Harrison's Concert for Bangladesh. Here's Dylan's Blowin' in the Wind and piece about the event by Bill McKibben. jc-yesterday

German movie posters from the 50's and 60's. Via The Cartoonist. ms-yesterday

"I installed an ant colony inside my scanner five years ago. I scanned the nest each week." dw-yesterday

Gorgeous artist workshop in Boeotia, Greece. dw-yesterday

"How can you not represent your home state with the Field Notes Brand County Fair edition. Already in my back pocket." Thanks for that. jc-yesterday

"...items detained or seized from passengers or express mail entering the United States from abroad at the New York airport." Photographs by Taryn Simon. jc-yesterday

"I'm a geek, and I might be a nerd, but I'm not a dork." Thump. Michael Lopp's excellent new Being Geek just landed on my desk and looks great. Available now, from O'Reilly. jc-yesterday

We heard this story from KG at Conference Room B the other evening and we're glad to see he wrote it up. I'll Be Hoping For the Big One Out of the Blue, a tale about an old book, Christy Mathewson, the '29 Series at Wrigley, and how you never really know what you'll find if you're not looking. jc-yesterday

A new trailer for the Coast Modern doc is up. Looks good. Thanks Marshall. jc-yesterday

So you know, how vinyl records are made and how to pirate a vinyl record. ms-yesterday

Monty Python's Holy Grail beer. ms-yesterday

If you're a photographer who nerds out on how to caress every single pixel—or even if you just like your photo pr0n nice and juicy—have I got a detailed breakdown of film scanning for you. (Via Kernspiracy.) cw-yesterday

"Walls, benches and floors made of used books structure a series of rooms at once framing and dissolving into their environment (approximately 40,000 books were used)." Jardin de la Connaissance. ms-yesterday

How do you spend your summer if you're a couple of hippie book artists from Santa Cruz? In a Gypsy Wagon Bookmobile--duh! (Via The Practical Archivist.) cw-yesterday

Tiny Houses. ms-yesterday

Rules for emailing your instructor. cw-yesterday

Great Flickr set of the Montgomery Ward catalog from 1947. ms-yesterday

"Friendly fire claims lives of 27 innocents at wedding party on Alderaan. However, 1.97 billion insurgents also confirmed killed #wookieleaks." #wookieleaks. ms-07.29

"In a lot of ways it's the most important way that design affects our lives on a daily basis--where you live and where you work and how you get there." The third film in Gary Hustwit's trilogy (Helvetica, Objectified) is about the design of cities and is titled Urbanized. Our pal Alissa Walker has the scoop for Fast Company. Yay. jc-07.29

"When you get 200 designs with strawberries, we'd do a strawberry shoe. So that's how we would do it and having our own factory, I could have a new shoe out tomorrow." A great interview with Steve Van Doren: "The History of Vans." sd-07.29

"Second only to the film classic Last Tango in Paris in terms of its cutting edge cinemato- graphy and intriguing and highly original plot." User reviews on IMDB of My Little Pony: The Princess Promenade. sd-07.29

Vintage Russian postcards. ms-07.29

Page Two contains the previous 35 Fresh Signals, recent features, a key to the icons and the categorical archives.

Grab our blended RSS feed here.

Translate

French | German | Italian
Japanese | Spanish | Portuguese

One Hundred Forty

Coudal on Twitter

The MoOM Board

One of the most popular parts of our site is The Museum of online Museums (MoOM) which is updated quarterly. Please consider joining the MoOM Board of Directors. A subscription comes with a handsome coffee mug but none of the snootiness so often associated with the patronage of old-school cultural institutions.

Chris Ebmeyer
Christen Carter
Chris Allison
Keith Krieger
Kathleen Devlin
Roger McLeish
Fred Beshid
Katie Harrar
Mary Beth Sancomb-Moran
Daniel Annereau
Dan Rubin
Barbara Ann Kipfer
Sunniva Geuer
Gareth Walters
Claire Zulkey
Sean Palmer
Misty Castaldi
Jane Quigley
Edward Lifson
Witold Riedel
Brian Cook
Anne Herron Hussung
Abby Urban
Erik Ratcliffe
Michael Jenkins
Katie Carney
Mark Greenberg
John Boardley
Jon Tan
Robin Sherwood
William Dampier
Don Stillman
Grettir Asmundarson
John Pojman
Werner Haker
Amy Hostler
Whet Moser
Debbie Millman
Matt Russell
Bill Keaggy
Adam Kruvand
Randy Hunt
David Demaree
Erik Vorhes
Dan Mabrey
Nalani McClendon
Mary Catlan
Anonymous (8)

Supporting the MoOM requires a simple annual non-tax-free contribution of $75. In exchange for your generosity, you'll receive one sweet, tall coffee mug anbd a permanent listing and link as a member of the Board of Directors. Thank you in advance for your consideration.

A Thing We Made:
Field Notes

Field Notes Brand memo Books and more. "I'm not writing it down to remember it later. I'm writing it down to remember it now." A CP/DDC joint.

Some Other Things We Made:

We hated the options available for custom packaging DVDs and CDs so we created a brand that gives creative professionals and hobbyists the tools to make great stuff. Here's a bit from the latest Jewelboxing weblog entry:

"My favorite part about Jewelboxing is how professional and sturdy they are, with neither form nor function sacrificed." Read the entire post.

Pinsetter: Spell with buttons.

The Deck Network. Interested in getting your product or service in front of millions of savvy, curious remarkably good-looking people? Give a shout.

We actually do
stuff beside
updating this site.

Find out what.

infrequent mail

Our occasional mailings always contain a contest and a special offer or giveaway and usually some smart alecky commentary too. Enter your email to subscribe. We won't ever abuse the privilege. Period.