Poster by MODE for AIGA Charlotte

AdCharlotte.com points us to a super-cool poster the folks at MODE designed for an upcoming AIGA Charlotte event with designer Stefan Sagmeister.

Sagmeister is on the road plugging and talking about his book Things I Have Learned in My Life So Far and will be doing just that here in Charlotte on April 21, 2008.

About the poster:

For [Stefan Sagmeister's] lecture tour stop in Charlotte, the AIGA was in need of a poster promoting the event. Inspired by the spirit of social discovery in Stefan’s book, MODE asked various individuals around the city to share some of their own personal maxims, which were captured in their very handwriting. The individuals were chosen at random and photographed over a 10-day period at 30 different locations around the city. They represent a variety of ages, social statuses, races, professions, religious beliefs, and life experiences. The final piece was elevated to greater social level and beyond design circles, having a reciprocal relationship between the city of Charlotte and Stefan.

Cheers to designer/photographer Maxim Vakhovskiy for the great photos.

Photo by Diane Arbus

Susan Sontag with her son David Rieff photographed by Diane Arbus in 1965.

Rieff writing about Sontag in his recent book Swimming in a Sea of Death:

“If I don’t believe in my own work,” she once said to me after one of her books had received a particularly disdainful review from a writer who made much of how seriously my mother took herself, “why should anyone else?”

© Armando Bellmas

Musician Ken Vandermark is the subject of an aptly titled television program called Musician. I stumbled upon this show recently on the Ovation cable network. It was great to catch a glimpse of Vandermark at work, at home, and on the road.

Vandermark is devoted to his craft, true to his vision, and is driven to make it successful both creatively and professionally. He’ll always be an important figure in my own creative/professional endeavors (especially since he was one of my first “clients” way back at the beginning).

Play on, KV.

The Vandermark 5 “Aperture (For Walker Evans)” (6:45)
from A Discontinuous Line

I recently read Brian Morton’s novel Starting Out In The Evening and was struck by this passage on “the glory of choosing your own life, even when it takes ruthlessness to do it.”

You seize your freedom in a spirit of rebelliousness, exuberance, defiant joy. But to live that choice — over the weeks and months and years to come — requires different qualities. It requires that you turn hard, turn rigid. Because it isn’t a choice that the world encourages, you have to wear a suit of armor to defend it.

© Armando Bellmas

They don’t come any prettier than my girl Sophie.

© Joshua Wildman

I first got turned on to Joshua Wildman’s photos a few years ago via The FADER. This photo is from a recent post on his blog JOSHUAWILDMANGOODTIMES and is accompanied by the following caption:

i don’t know who made this poster, but i look at it everyday in my living room and it makes me feel good

Indeed.

The Ramones by The Ramones (1976) / Cover photo by Roberta Bayley

From a recent email from my four-year-old son Nick’s preschool teacher:

We also were entertained by Nick and Steven singing and acting out a song we sing called “Five Green and Speckled Frogs.” After singing this song for a few minutes, Nick decided he would rather sing a Ramones song. He kept trying to get Steven to sing “Hey, Ho, Let’s Go.” Steven looked confused but sang along anyway.

The Ramones “Blitzkrieg Bop”
from The Ramones

© Armando Bellmas

Shot with a Holga. Light leaks and all.