A few more stickers

I like the add-your-own-eyes Mickey Mouse.

Sticky situation

More from the walls of Amsterdam.

Stuck on walls

What's with the stickers?

Sticker graffiti

More junk stuck on walls in Amsterdam.

A different kind of graffiti

Amsterdam has some cool graffiti.

Update: Just watched the graffiti movie "Exit Through the Gift Shop" and the artist responsible for these tile thingys is "Invader." He's from Paris. He must have made a side trip through Amsterdam at some point.

Arrow Pontiac

University Ave. in St. Paul. I don't remember what was covering this sign. I admit that the rounded-rectangle television shape is soothing to me.



[Update:] Here's a "Before" view courtesy Google Maps Street View.

Look at all that free

I work for the one that costs money. (It costs a quarter.) (Fourth from the left.) (Pick up a copy today!)

Cheese on that?! What?!

Maybe it's the new policy of Jimmy John's sandwich shops to crank up the music to "I can't hear you talk" levels.

Maybe I just hit the place on a noisy day.

But the last two times I was in there, the music has been really, really loud. Maybe it's an effort to change the environment of the place from "cheap sandwich shop" to "nightclub."

If they had wanted to do that, they coulda just painted the walls black.

Night snow

Really underexposed digital photo, taken into Photoshop and cranked the "levels" tool. Digital grain.

Lucky cow

This cow is a lottery ticket mascot in Norway.

Essence of Vader

Nice sticker in Århus, Denmark.

Department of Duh

In the Pioneer Press today, a little blurb reads, in part: "The new Wildly Cherry M&M's disappeared within a matter of seconds of arriving in the office." I would venture to say that any flavor of M&Ms would disappear just as quickly. Even Awfully Artichoke and Sassy Brussels Sprouts. Free candy!

Face time

While we were passing through Hamburg, there was an election. Or maybe there had just been an election. Anyway, this guy's face was in lots of places near the train station.

[Update: Thanks to Bob, I now know that this guy is the mayor of Hamburg, Ole von Beust. Ole was reelected in February, a couple weeks after I took the photos.]

Bike symbols

Snoopy doesn't like Ford

Disguised cell phone tower

Ramsey Junior High School is picking up a little extra cash, and no one is the wiser.

Who would guess that the ugly lumps on the chimney hide ugly cell phone transmitters?

Airstream. Now with video!

The Airstream trailer -- a classic design. A skillful melding of form and function.

How to improve perfection? Shoehorn in a large television screen that plays commercials, of course!

Two trucks

Nice, distressed logos and lettering. Daily use interacts with graphic design. (Click on photos for a closer look.)

Droppings

Distinctive vertical markings on the brick side of the Xcel Energy Center. Bird poop. I guess the signage gives pigeons a place to roost.

Three fonts

I like the close relationship of these three fonts. All sans. All condensed. One typeset. One character- by- character sign type. One stencil type. All about the same weight. Pleasing clashing styles.

Christmas tree in a bag

Comment from a reader

Got a comment today. I think it came from a robot. I deleted it because I didn't particularly want to promote the robot's site on my blog. But without the link, it's kinda fun. Generic fun. Thanks for reading, robot!

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B movie -- and proud

Uwe Boll, director of the upcoming "In the Name of the King -- A Dungeon Siege Tale," is known for directing movies based on video games. "BloodRayne," "Alone In The Dark," "House of the Dead," and more. I confess I have not seen any of his movies -- and I haven't played any of those video games.

Boll appears to be an unapologetic B movie moviemaker. Looking at the bottom of the ad, I was tickled to notice the logo for his production company, Boll KG, is a big, plain "B". He seems to have a sense of humor.

And wasn't there something about Boll staging a boxing match with his critics?

The cast of "In the Name of the King" includes: Jason Statham ("Transporter"), Kristanna Loken ("Terminator 3" and "BloodRayne"), Mathew Lillard ("Scooby Doo"), Ray Liotta ("Goodfellas") with Burt Reynolds ("Deliverence" and "Dukes of Hazzard") as the king.

Tilting logo

One's tilted on purpose, one's tilted due to hardware failure.

Simpsons DVD promotion is getting out of hand

First there was this (above) in London.

Now, this (below) in my city.

Rounder mint M&M's

I'm a big fan of M&M's Brand mint chocolate limited edition candies. They used to be called Holidays, but I guess the branding got too complicated, so now all the holiday-themed M&M's are limited edition this and limited edition that.

Anyway, the mint M's are my favorite. They are only sold at Christmastime and I eagerly await them each year.

This year they are different. The mint M's used to be exactly like "plain" M's -- that certain shape. But now, they are a little larger, a little rounder. Bigger.

Wonder if there was some demand for bigger M's. I know the company marketed Mega M&M's last year with the "Shrek 3" movie. And they continue to sell them. And Peanut Butter M&M's are rounder than the regular M.

Anyway, I don't particularly like the new shape. But I'll keep buying the things. M-m-minty!

That's a lot of plastic forks

There was a going away party at work -- and what do you need for an office full of people to eat going-away cake? Plates and napkins, yes, but also forks. Lots and lots of forks. The label on this box says there are five hundred forks in this box. Biggest box of plastic forks I've ever seen.

Street billboards

1. You can read the backwards ad in the mirror of the bus shelter window. Sorta cool.

2. The ad copy makes a big point of mentioning "Minneapolis." The poster is on display in St. Paul. They are (slightly, but proudly) different cities.

1. and 2. The text is way too small.

St. Pauli Girl beer truck

Nice, er . . . taillights.

Spoiler alert

I'm going to spoil at least four movies in this post. So if you don't want to read about crucial plot points of these movies, do not read further.

What movies am I going to spoil and why?

"No Country For Old Men," "Fantastic Four," "Constantine" and "Erin Brockovich." (And "Dirty Mary, Crazy Larry." But nobody cares if I spoil that 1974 movie.) (Oh, and I spoil a second-season episode of "Lost.") All these have something in common.

Okay, really, you should stop reading now if you don't want to be spoiled.

We saw "No Country For Old Men" last night.

(Nitpick on a good movie: The movie never quite gets around to saying its title out loud -- but it says everything but. "Yeah, it's a tough place. But for people of a certain age, it's even tougher." Like that. If you're not going to say the title, don't paraphrase it. Just a suggestion.)

There's a plot point that seems to pop up unexpectedly (that's a big part of its popularity) and it's been in a number of recent movies.

In a scene very near the end . . .

SPOILER ALERT.

I'm not kidding, this is a total spoiler.

STOP READING IF YOU WANT TO REMAIN UNSPOILED.

Okay. In a scene near the very end of "No Country," the character, "Sugar" has fulfilled all his promises and he's driving away. The camera lingers on an approaching stoplight. It's green. Sugar looks in the rear view mirror at some possibly-threatening kids riding bikes. Is he going to have to kill those kids? He drives through the intersection and -- wham -- his car is hit by another car running the red light! Surprise! And when I see this I think, I have seen this before. Maybe too many times.

Didn't see 'em coming car accidents as plot points occur in "Erin Brockovich," "Constantine," "Fantastic Four," and way back to "Dirty Mary, Crazy Larry," (Larry says, "There ain't nothing stopping us now!" and -- wham -- they drive right into the side of a train.)

In "No Country" and "Erin Brockovich" the crashes are between cars. In "Constantine" and "Fantastic Four" the crashes are car-human. Semi-human anyway.

Reminds me of an article in the 1970s National Lampoon magazine on writing a twist ending (though in fairness, only "Dirty Mary, Crazy Larry" used it as the final scene). The article said the perfect twist ending is: "Suddenly, the main character is run over by a bus!"

(In the TV show, "Lost," a character is actually run over by a bus!)

What I really wanted to write about is, movies get spoiled for me when I read even spoiler free reviews. Reviewers want to tell me about the movie and not ruin it, but they've already seen it and can't help telling me -- in code -- major spoilers.

For example, in reviews of "No Country," Josh Brolin's character, Llewellen, is described as "ill-fated" and "not as smart as he thinks he is." The character played by Woody Harrelson is described as "cocky" and "over-confident." Even though the reviewers didn't spell it out, it's clear to me that Llewellen and Harrelson will not survive until the credit roll.

It bugs me to know I'm being spoiled, but if I read reviews I will be spoiled. There's really no way around it. I remember I used to try to see movies before reading any reviews, but it's really hard. And, I realise, I like to know what's going to happen before it happens. So I kinda want to be spoiled too.

Oh, hey -- here comes my bus. I gotta get going.

Two bikes, three wheels

One very tall bike and one one-wheeled-no-seat bike, one lock, one pole.