Perfection of means and confusion of goals seem, in my opinion, to characterize our age.

—Albert Einstein

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Thanks to friend Suchot Sunday for the quote…

Tim Minchin’s ‘Storm’ is a 9-minute beat poem that has become an anthem for critical thinking… “In the confines of a London dinner party, Tim argues with a hippy named Storm…”

Thanks to colleague Scott Gillam for the link.

Aix-en-Provence, France

I was thinking about Pablo Picasso today… and remembering how it felt to hear the news that he had died (on 8 April, 38 years ago, at the age of 91).

Image: Picasso’s painting Les Demoiselles d’Avignon juxtaposed on a portrait photo of the great man.

Ottawa, Canada

The Gibson font family is a humanist sans serif typeface designed by our colleague, the eminent Canadian type designer Rod McDonald. It honours John Gibson FGDC, Rod’s long-time friend and one of the original founders of the Society of Graphic Designers of Canada (GDC).

As well as paying tribute to John Gibson’s productive life and love of the typographic arts, the Gibson family is intended to be a mainstay of the future of Canadian design education. The 8-font family is available at token pricing (only $48 for all eight weights!) to make it especially affordable for design students. For less than the price of a design textbook, a student can now have a sturdy and contemporary humanist sans serif family that fits pretty much any design application, and will remain useful long after academic studies and well into a professional career in design.

All the revenues from the sale of Gibson are being donated to the GDC, where they will be allocated to a variety of programs aiming to improve the creative arts and elevate design education in Canada. Read more about this special typeface launch here.

Each of the eight Gibson fonts comes with 370 characters and features extended Latin-based language support. The Gibson family ships in cross-platform OpenType format. Test or buy Gibson online here.

London, United Kingdom

This year, Amnesty International is celebrating half a century of active opposition to human rights abuses… “From community to community in every corner of the world, Amnesty International enables ‘ordinary’ concerned people to work together to protect other people in danger. Change begins each time a single, concerned person speaks out against wrongdoing.”

The Guardian‘s ‘Observer’ has just published a selection of the powerful posters used by Amnesty International over the past 50 years (see more here), including the selection above.

Winnipeg, Manitoba

If you’re a climber in or near these parts, mark the evening of 18 April (two weeks from today) to take in a talk by, slide show (yup, the old-fashioned kind) with, and a film about climbing legend Fred Beckey, sponsored by the Manitoba Section of the Alpine Club of Canada. Known variously as “the original dirt-bag climber,” “old man of the mountains,” “the climbing bum’s climbing bum” and a variety of other colourful monikers, Fred Beckey boasts an impressive resume of alpine first ascents second to few—and at the age of 87 (not a typo) he’s still climbing!

The Fred Beckey gig will take place at the Franco-Manitoban Cultural Centre at 340 Provencher Boulevard in Winnipeg (more details still to come). In the meantime, read more about Fred Beckey here; watch a 5-minute film piece that The New York Times featured two years ago here.

Image: a Patagonia climbing poster featuring Fred from a few years back.

Winnipeg Beach, Manitoba

I’m the chuffed new owner of the one-of-a-kind Paddlelele built by master luthier Fred Casey (of C.F. Casey Guitars). This tenor ‘ukulele began as a child’s canoe paddle… by dent of imagination and practiced skill it evolved into Fred’s entry into the Lake, the WAVE/WINNBAC art show currently on exhibit at the New Iceland Heritage Museum in Gimli, Manitoba (I was attending the show with Ev, who’s entry was entitled On the surface all seemed normal…, and the Paddlelele called to me the moment I saw it on exhibit).

Lake Winnipeg (the world’s 11th-largest freshwater body) looms large for anyone living in these parts. Commenting on Paddlelele, Fred says: “To me, the lake means canoeing: slipping along in a sheltered cove or quiet backwater. Canoes and ‘ukuleles just seem to go together: a couple under a full moon, he paddling slowly as she serenades him with her ‘uke.”

Paddlelele, front, back, and side views. The original paddle is white poplar, back and sides are black walnut, as is the fingerboard. The tuning pegs are hand-carved black walnut, salvaged from one of Fred’s early dulcimers.

Christian fundamentalism + Gainesville, Florida = words fail me… and please don’t say you didn’t know. Learn more for yourself about what passes for God’s love…