Abu Dhabi & Jerusalem

Greetings on this fine day to both Muslim and Jewish friends around the world… Eid al-Fitr for the former  (a Muslim holiday that marks the end of the Islamic holy/fasting month of Ramadan), and Yom Kippur for the latter (also a fast and the most solemn day of the Jewish holidays). Father Abraham (along with son Ishmael/Isaac) looms large in both belief systems… and of course in Christianity as well. Best wishes to all… let’s give peace a chance, eh?

Image: detail from Laurent de LaHyre’s 1650 painting Abraham Sacrificing Isaac, at the Musée des Beaux-Arts d’Orléans. See the full image here.

Monte Rosa, Switzerland

“This remote alpine retreat calls to mind classic James Bond architecture, complete with a futuristic design, advanced building technology, and killer views of the Matterhorn. Can’t you just see Bond skiing down the glacier in a white ski suit, stealthily approaching his enemy’s headquarters? You could imagine that the top of the roof pulls down to reveal a giant laser, which is used as a tractor beam to smash the moon into Earth as the villain demands 700 million 700 billion dollars from the US Government. Oh wait, sorry, we’ve been having nightmares about the economy. But seriously though, this hut outside of Zermatt in the Swiss Alps is for real. It’s the Swiss Alpine Club’s new Monte Rosa mountaineer’s hut, and it’s 90% energy self-sufficient.”

From Inhabitat—read the whole story here. (That’s the Matterhorn on the left edge of the upper image).

From all over the USA…

Chaz Maviyane-Davies writes: “Tell me it can’t be true. Following 8 years of disastrous governance, the Democrats field the best candidate this country has seen in generations, against one of the worst the Republicans have ever mustered, and the media’s political pundits would have us seriously contemplate more of the same. Is anyone ever going to learn?” From ‘30 Reasons,’  a 30-day email and internet campaign to encourage people to vote for Barack Obama.

“Our goal is simple: Use design to build a logical, multi-faceted argument for Obama and make it easy to share each reason with another person… We enlisted 30 graphic designers to create a poster that represents a reason to vote for Obama. Starting on October 5th, we will post a new poster online every day and email it to our list. Recipients can easily share the email with other supporters and friends who are undecided.”

See all the posters (to date) here: or sign up at www.30reasons.org to receive a daily email.

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David is back in Italy… after a two-year trip to the United States— corporate sponsors are acknowledged. For comparison, see a photo of David taken just over two years ago, here.

This was sent to me individually by several friends in Europe, so I know it really must be true. Le David de Michelangelo est de retour en Italie après 2 années passées aux USA—merci aux sponsors…

New York, USA

I met Dana Bartelt by chance on an airport shuttle bus to downtown Prague in June of 2002, during my first year as Icograda president. Two days later we crossed paths again at the Icograda Identity/Integrity Conference in Brno, Czech Republic, held in conjunction with the 20th Brno Biennale. Dana handed me a disk of images from Don’t Say You Didn’t Know/Posters for Palestine, an initiative she had spearheaded using propaganda art to shed light on the sustained (some would say nefarious) support the U.S. provides to Israel in its ongoing occupation of Palestinian land and its oppression of the Palestinian people. Among the images in the collection, Rajie Cook’s The Star stood out for the power and clarity of its statement re: organized Zionism as an internal force in American political life… a topic often considered taboo (and quick to trigger accusations of Antisemitism).

Here’s a snip about Rajie from The Electronic Intifada: “Born in 1930, Palestinian-American artist Rajie Cook has had a very successful career in graphic design. The ‘Symbol Signs’ that hang in airports internationally, communicating purely through icons rather than text, were designed by Cook and his design firm. He has been honored by President Reagan and the ‘Symbols Signs’ project has been acquired into the Smithsonian’s collection. However, Cook is not done creating work that intends to communicate. Born in the United States to parents originally from Palestine, the violence and continued injustice that consume his homeland spurs him to make Joseph Cornell-inspired boxes that comment upon various aspects of the conflict…” Read more about Rajie’s passionate work here, and visit his website to see more of his assemblages and posters here.

Poster images: The Star (1996) and The Dollar (2007), both © Rajie Cook.

Winnipeg, Canada

Travel details are confirmed, and the Poet is making final preparations for his trip to the prairies. For friends, family, and poetry fans in the Manitoba area, here are the dates, times, and venues of Sam W. Reimer’s confirmed book launches, poetry readings (and signings) during the second week of October:

Winnipeg – 8pm on Monday, 6 October,
McNally Robinson’s Grant Park store,
(The Prairie Ink Restaurant).

Morden – 7pm on Tuesday, 7 October,
Pembina Hills Arts Centre (wine & cheese, etc.).

Steinbach – 7:30pm on Friday, 10 October,
Mennonite Heritage Village museum.

More information is available at www.samwreimer.com. A bit of background on Gray Matter Graffitti (the poetry book I edited/published with Sam W. earlier this year) is available at this post. Photo credit: Dan Schellenberg.

Lucknow, India

…Mohandas Karmchand Gandhi was born 139 years ago—on the eve of the anniversary of his birth, Indian children dressed as the Mahatma pose for photos. On 15 June of last year the United Nations General Assembly voted to establish 2 October as the International Day of Non-Violence. (Photo from The New York Times slide show here: by Pawan Kumar/Reuters)

Somewhere in the USA

Ohne Anmerkung… aucun commentaire… an oil painting by Ron English…

Toronto, Canada

Designer/cyclist Simon Farla (about whose FontBike project I posted back in April here) has recently taken over design duties for Mr. Something Something—he’s given me a heads-up re: the band’s innovative new pedal powered, off-the-grid show format—all the power comes from bicycles! The format was launched in conjunction with International Car-Free Day 2008 (a week ago) in Toronto.

London, England

Kudos to Catharine Brandy (nee Hildebrand; originally from the rural hamlet of Plum Coulee Manitoba; and a senior design colleague at Circle for over a decade) on the rocking success of the UK’s Beatles stamps—not only have these become the country’s best-selling (non-royalty) postage stamps, they have also won a Gold Cube at this year’s New York Art Directors Club (87th Annual Awards), and have been selected as ‘best of category’ in I.D. magazine’s 54th annual design review. Cath has been a design director with Britain’s Royal Mail for the past half-dozen years—for this issue she worked with the talented designer Michael Johnson of London’s johnson banks.

The six stamps (marking the 50th anniversary of Lennon and McCartney’s first meeting in 1957) portray the ‘Fab Four’ in casual stacks of LPs, each topped with an essential album from the band’s brief history.