Weird reminder of a past life. About 2 years ago, I was given access to an original IBM office clock and tasked with redrawing the face. It took a lot of work to preserve all the idiosyncrasies as I redrew those wonky numbers, while editing out all the print defects and mistakes from the original to give it a fresh, clean feel (the template used for that original clock must have been old and worn).
A few months later, Schoolhouse Electric and Supply Co. released this “faithful reproduction of the classic IBM indicator clocks found in offices, warehouses and schools during the mid-20th century.” A beautiful piece of industrial design and I was strangely and abruptly inserted into its history, and now I don’t even do that kind of work anymore. Weird, wild stuff.
1960s IBM 13.5” Standard Issue Clock
Old school tech.
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But what if the bear were wearing a trench coat and fedora, and carrying a newspaper in his mouth when he walked into the office?
Think about it. He’d look just like a businessman! Sure, people might be a little confused by the hairy, 1200 lb beast lumbering through the office on all fours, but this is Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce we’re talking about. Those people have SEEN THINGS. You really think an office full of people who watched a drunken secretary drive over a man’s foot with a riding lawnmower — indoors, in Manhattan — is going to react quickly enough to a perfectly disguised bear that Pete would have enough time to grab a bunch of salmon and rub it on his secretary before the bear gets to him? Fat chance, I say. Besides, they’ll probably all think it’s Stan with a really bad hangover.
God, it would be so great. The bear could just march past everyone straight to Pete’s office (“Hey there. Haven’t seen you around before. You the new man on Chevy? Name’s Benson. Bob Benson. Gotta say, love the whole ‘newspaper in the mouth thing. Keeps the hands free. Listen, I have an extra ticket to Sinatra tonight. You want it? You want both of them? I don’t mind missing it. Bring the wife. No answer? I like that. Power move. Did I mention the name’s Benson?”), shut the door, calmly shake off the hat and coat, then just maul the hell out of him. Nothing but Pete Campbell’s blood and screams filling the air for 300 uninterrupted seconds. I would cheer. I would honestly cheer. Out loud. Then the next day I would find a bunch of high-quality GIFs — OH, THERE WOULD BE GIFS — and I would open up so many of them at once that it would shut down my browser. Then I would open it back up and do it again. And again. Andagainandagainandagain.
”Okay … But What If Pete Campbell Gets Eaten By A Bear?
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![youmightfindyourself:
Brian Koppelman (Rounders cowriter, Grantland contributor): In the last poker scene of Rounders, Matt Damon’s character — originally we had written it so that you didn’t see his cards, so that you didn’t know he had the straight that mirrored Johnny Chan’s straight. And the director said to us, “We should show the cards,” and I said, “No, if you know the cards it’s not going to be as interesting.” John [Dahl] said, “Let’s put them both up in front of an audience. The same exact movie. The only difference is in one version you can see Matt’s cards, and in the other version you can’t see Matt’s cards.” And we played our version, the one where you couldn’t see the hand, and it went great. The crowd was really surprised when the cards turned over — it was awesome. But when we played the one where you could see that Matt had flopped the straight, the crowd was on the edge of their seats hoping that [John] Malkovich would fall for it. They were completely engaged. It was exactly the hole-card phenomenon. They wanted to be inside Matt’s head. (via)
(Editor’s note: And if you want to get super nerdy about it, this write-up overanalyzing the final hand is a pretty entertaining.)](http://25.media.tumblr.com/02820720b3cc8edb86c9e628282d61ea/tumblr_mn8j7gjPxm1qzu6nxo1_500.png)
Brian Koppelman (Rounders cowriter, Grantland contributor): In the last poker scene of Rounders, Matt Damon’s character — originally we had written it so that you didn’t see his cards, so that you didn’t know he had the straight that mirrored Johnny Chan’s straight. And the director said to us, “We should show the cards,” and I said, “No, if you know the cards it’s not going to be as interesting.” John [Dahl] said, “Let’s put them both up in front of an audience. The same exact movie. The only difference is in one version you can see Matt’s cards, and in the other version you can’t see Matt’s cards.” And we played our version, the one where you couldn’t see the hand, and it went great. The crowd was really surprised when the cards turned over — it was awesome. But when we played the one where you could see that Matt had flopped the straight, the crowd was on the edge of their seats hoping that [John] Malkovich would fall for it. They were completely engaged. It was exactly the hole-card phenomenon. They wanted to be inside Matt’s head. (via)
(Editor’s note: And if you want to get super nerdy about it, this write-up overanalyzing the final hand is a pretty entertaining.)
*The nature of the mid-21st century. You can tell we’re getting there, because we get a little older, a little bigger, and quite a lot more scared of the sky, with every passing week.
Yuichiro Miura, 80, becomes the oldest to scale Mount Everest. Miura explained his attempt to scale Everest at such an advanced age: “It is to challenge (my) own ultimate limit. It is to honor the great Mother Nature.”
Carl Sagan passes on wisdom about the importance of understanding the origins of cosmic bodies before you begin baking for the afternoon.
“If you want to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first create the universe.”
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Civilized London - The last (and maybe my favourite) of three new Delilah Dirk images inspired by vintage travel posters.
I’ll have prints of these three posters and more with me at this weekend’s Vancouver Comic Arts Festival (May 25 - 26 2013, at the Yaletown Roundhouse). One million more details can be found here: VanCAF!
Many thanks to everyone who’s shared these posters around the internets over the past few weeks!
Previously: Verdant England and Portugal Walking Tours.
Here’s the evolution of the icon over time. The far right is the most recent version. Just realized it’s come full circle.
“ 1: Do not feel absolutely certain of anything.
2: Do not think it worthwhile to produce belief by concealing evidence, for the evidence is sure to come to light.
3: Never try to discourage thinking, for you are sure to succeed.
4: When you meet with opposition, even if it should be from your husband or your children, endeavor to overcome it by argument and not by authority, for a victory dependent upon authority is unreal and illusory.
5: Have no respect for the authority of others, for there are always contrary authorities to be found.
6: Do not use power to suppress opinions you think pernicious, for if you do the opinions will suppress you.
7: Do not fear to be eccentric in opinion, for every opinion now accepted was once eccentric.
8: Find more pleasure in intelligent dissent than in passive agreement, for, if you value intelligence as you should, the former implies a deeper agreement than the latter.
9: Be scrupulously truthful, even when truth is inconvenient, for it is more inconvenient when you try to conceal it.
10. Do not feel envious of the happiness of those who live in a fool’s paradise, for only a fool will think that it is happiness. ”
Bertrand Russell’s Ten Commandments for Living in a Healthy Democracy | Open Culture (via ario) I’m sure I’ve re-blogged this before. I have a copy of this posted on my office door. (via notational)
Fuck a democracy. These are rules for any semi-functioning work space.
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