A few post-worthy things that have been buzzing around in my head lately.

⇓ A sort of privacy in public
Wendy Richmond writes about “What We Reveal” in the latest issue of Communication Arts. (It’s the Design Annual issue, not online yet.) She touches on one of the things that I love most about New York City.

During a recent television interview on NYI, the host, Sam Roberts, asked me, “Is New York City different from other places?” I responded that for me, a major difference is its extreme density and the intense, unconscious aptitude of its inhabitants that enables us to share our public space. We are able to be close and simultaneously maintain our distance — a sort of privacy in public.

⇓ Because of the times
Bob Dylan write a few words about our new President and the challenges he and all of us as Americans have ahead of us. Obama’s election is “the first step in a long, hard journey for America.”

Dylan writes:

Let us not forget how our founding fathers had no experience in governing a nation, but they succeeded based solely on the fact that they had to succeed.

Sometimes that is really all it takes: such a strong desire for something that you have to succeed. It’s what they call the American dream. Not that we always succeed, it’s that we succeed when we need it most. Today can be a day to be proud to be an American, but also a day for people with a vision to come together and try building a better and stronger America. We cannot fail, but I think that is why we will succeed.

I love that line: Such a strong desire for something that you have to succeed. You can apply that to almost anything: our country, your work, parenting, marriage, etc.

(You may have to become Bob Dylan’s friend on Facebook to read the whole note. I don’t know what’s weirder: that Bob Dylan is on Facebook or that he and I are “friends” on Facebook.)

⇓ My, you have a…
Lovely Package is a recent discovery all about product design. They bill themselves as “the leading source for the very best that package design has to offer.” It’s a constant source of awe and desire.

My 19-month-old daughter Sophie pulled this bookmark out of a book on the shelf recently. It’s from a bookstore I worked at fresh out of college in ‘93. I don’t know which book she pulled it out of. She just walked over and held it up to me as if she knew I would want or need it.

The phrase I wrote on the bookmark:

…walked with a stagger of experience…

I don’t recall what book the quote is from. The phrase, however, has just as much punch for me as it did back then.

Those days I noted the phrase in a bookmark as I read the book. Today, I scan the bookmark with the phrase on it and post it on my blog.

© Armando Bellmas

The past couple of weeks have been super busy and it’s been a blast of fun: new clients, creative assignments, the North Carolina mountains as a backdrop, another project for an awesome design firm here in Charlotte, Atlanta for some family time, a call from a big business mag, and lots of time riding north and south on Interstate 85.

Here’s some of what made the days even better:

An interview with Calvin Trillin. The man’s an absolute delight and damn good writer to boot. This interview made me feel like I was sitting at a dinner table with him in the Village instead of behind the wheel of a Toyota on a highway.

Folkmoot, the world at our doorstep. I’m so taking the wife and kids next year.

Lunch at Dot’s Cafe in Lenoir, North Carolina. Roast beef, mashed potatoes, peas, sliced cantaloupe, and true southern hospitality.

Fresh raspberries and blackberries, revisiting old friends and acquaintances, and bbq chicken and beer with cousins and in-laws on our deck.

Listening to the new Ryan Adams, The Brand New Heavies, new Spoon, The Shins, WNCW, Guy Clark, and the sweet sweet sound of my children’s voices.

More work and more good times are ahead, too. I love what I do.

David Byrne points us to a video by Catherine Ross titled “Trilling” that is clever, hilarious, and fun to watch.

Shane Lavalette shares some info about Robert Frank’s Cocksucker Blues, a rare and notorious film about The Rolling Stones and their 1972 North American tour.

Amy Stein’s Photo of the Week: Fireman’s Parade, Port Jervis, NY

Heavy rotation: The Hold Steady, O Samba Brazil Classics 2, Patti Smith, Vic Chesnutt