The New York Times Magazine is the reason I wake up early on Sunday morning. Excellent photography, fascinating articles, and sophisticated design fill its pages week to week. It was recommended to me when I started graduate school and I haven’t missed an issue since.
This week the Times rolled out a new, svelte version of the Magazine. Like everyone, they are cutting costs where they can, and it was determined that reducing the size of the magazine by 9% would save them millions in paper costs. To accommodate the smaller page real estate and squeeze in more words, they enlisted Lyon Text, a more condensed typeface than they were using before. It’s a very subtle switch, and as they say, “Perhaps if we hadn’t mentioned it, you would hardly know the difference.” Where the change is most obvious is with the two new display faces: Knockout (H&FJ) and Nyte (Dino dos Santos). Both work really well in the new layout; definitely my favorite part of the redesign. They have also reworked the table of contents, changed the section order a touch, and sprinkled a multitude of new design elements throughout.
I think Arem Duplessis and his team have done an incredible job. I loved the Magazine before, and was initially concerned they might mess with a winning formula, but I think they succeeded in turning budget induced page shrinkage into a successful and well-executed redesign. Intact is the nuanced and ultra refined look and feel that first caught my eye. The smaller size is actually more manageable (a la Rolling Stone), and afforded them the opportunity to make the exciting upgrades. I don’t think anyone will miss the extra millimeters.
note: There were two covers that came out with the redesign. The one above, with a model by Thomas Doyle, was my favorite, but be sure to check out IC4Design’s version on the NYT website if you’re interested.
I love the concept behind this release of Casino Versus Japan and Freescha, a split EP with a couple tracks from each artist on a CD. I think more artist should be open to this idea, Daedelus recently started a label that is doing this called Friends of Friends and it looks very promising, also on a side note did everyone know that Freescha did a song for Britney Spears called Heaven on Earth??
I’ve been really impressed with tracks by Nôze, their remix of Franz Ferdinand is a simple yet very effective track for the dancefloor. The combination of that flute, synth and tambourine make me actually like this Franz Ferdinand song.
I wonder who picks the remixers for Moby? Do you think he does? I know he djs a lot in New York but does he play this kind of music? Well this Holy Ghost! remix and the recent Apparat remix are some top choices, i’ll post the Apparat one next week, this one you can add to your weekend night out mix even though its a bit older.
If any of you are in town this Saturday i’ll be djing with Trus’me and Worst Friends at some Circus/Performing Art/craziness at S.L.A.M. Warehouse, i’ve posted a track of Trus’me before awhile back in October, I might like this Drilling track even more now.
Things to Look At has a great post on Vintagecalculators.com. They’ve got plenty of adverts and pictures of old school adding machines. I have an old 70’s TI from my dad I should get it out and dust it off. Jakub also has a couple if I remember correctly.
So, I’m sure most of you have heard of Delicious Library already, but the mastermind Wil Shipley released the iPhone companion this morning (iTunes link), along with v2.1.
Delicious Library has a lot of neat features that I simply don’t use, but the best use I’ve found for it so far is cataloging your vinyl collection. Unfortunately you have to manually enter everything, as well as find the album art yourself… but it’s really handy to have your collection in a lusciously designed searchable beast in your pocket.
It’s $40, but the demo let’s you add 25 items so you can play. The iPhone app is free.
“This is the first chapter of the Moodgadget 2009 Tour compilation video, with video and photos of wacky antics and performances from Detroit, Ann Arbor, Chicago and Cincinnati with Shigeto, D. Gookin, Charles Trees, Mogi Grumbles, Calmer, Worst Friends, Guardian, Mux Mool and more! Stay tuned for the next chapter, with full-length footage from shows in Brooklyn and Baltimore!” – Alex/H34dUp
Some of you know Alex/H34dUp on the blog from positive comments on Scott’s topics, well he went on tour with some of the musicians we post on and took some good photos and video from the shows. The video includes: Mux Mool, D. Gookin, Charles Trees, Shigeto, Calmer, and Mogi Grumbles and a lot of unreleased material that I thought some of you might get a kick out of. Some of the best parts are the Adult Swim style bumpers which you can read along to and enjoy the layout. Scott actually came to the Detroit show which is mostly just a collection of photos from that night. There are some awkward moments at times which kind of show you how crazy you might get driving 9 hours a day.
Highlights
– D. Gookin’s cover of Smashing Pumpkins – 1979
– Mux Mool / Shigeto live collab
– Shigeto’s drumming style
– New Charles Trees song
– New artist Dubstep artist Guardian
– Photos of the tour flyers
– The credits
I recently visited the Triennale Design Museum in Milan and saw some nifty little things. The exhibit was dedicated mostly to Italian industrial design from the 50’s/60’s. Some of my favorites are pictured above; a Ferrari P6, Olivetti Lettera 22, Brionvega TV and radio, and a Zanussi Refrigerator which looks like a time travel device. Unfortunately, I missed Design Week by a few days, but the museum was a decent substitute. It wasn’t very big at all—took only about 15 minutes to walk through—but it’s always nice to see a dedicated design exhibit.
I really don’t know what to say about Dirty Projectors, I like the synth part and the girl vocals are growing on me slowly, its definitely a nice change up for radio charting indie pop. I would love to hear your guys thoughts on it.
Last weekend I went to Public Assembly which is a venue here in Brooklyn to hear Alva Noto play but I missed his set instead I caught Byetone which was an amazing show, i’d post pictures but they look kind of crappy. If you haven’t heard much from the Raster Noton label then here is a nice intro of the more gentle side of the label from Alva Noto & Ryuichi Sakamoto.
I’ve been seeing more posts on CocoRosie recently which means maybe a new record is in the works? I remember loving this song and playing it at this wine bar weekly every time I DJed, the kitten samples kinda make me laugh, just makes me think if you sat down to make music when would you ever decide to add those to your song?
Yasume takes me back to the more geeky IDM music that had substance and still kept the warmth so it never felt too digital, really nice to hear on a nice system and not my 70USD Altec Lansing computer speakers.
