I saw Cornelius live at Bimbo’s 365, in San Francisco. Here are two videos from their Sensuous Synchronized Show, which featured tightly synced video and lights, and glorious studio-like sound quality and performance by the 4 current members. The first video is a taste of Cornelius’ more ambient moments, and the second is a complete song from the encore.

Incidentally, one of the entertaining moments was when Oyamada pulled a guy out of the audience to perform the theremin solo on one song, actually guiding his hand to make sure he stayed on track, while the helpless bystander stood there blushing and grinning ear to ear.

More photos in my Flickr set.

I’m in L.A. CA right now, tacking a weekend in the sun on to the end of a week of business travel. Last night I managed to attend a screening of Helvetica, a documentary celebrating the 50th birthday of the most ubiquitous typeface in the modern world. So, of course, they had a birthday cake. Or, 9 separate cakes, to be precise. Each letter was a different flavor of cake; I had a slice of the vanilla H. All my photos from the event.

The film was quite good, by the way; it actually lived up to my expectations and anticipations, which were high. Michael Beirut and Massimo Vignelli both stole the show, and Paula Scher semi-facetiously blamed the Vietnam and Iraq wars on Helvetica. Interesting tidbit: the name “Helvetica” does not mean “Switzerland” as I had always thought; it means “The Swiss (Typeface)” (Typeface being implied.)

One day soon, this sentence may look as strange as Old English.

Employing obscure but powerful techniques like vwl mmssn and cap reduction, FF Mt uses up to 50% less paper, screen real estate, and wall space than other text faces without a single condensed letter.

In keeping with the stereotype of being efficiency-obsessed, Germany is already using Spiekermann’s FF Mt on highway signs along the Autobahn. This occurs not so coincidentally with to the emergence and acceptance of “textspeak,” born out of the desire to type close to the speed with which we express ourselves verbally. It’s fascinating how technology can inspire such dramatic shifts in our vernacular.

Some talented baristas! (The girl pictured in the cup is the protagonist of Kiki’s Delivery Service.)

#3, #2, #1.
NSFW.

I saw the Aqua Teens Movie last night and it is hee-freakin-larious. Here’s a little taste.