Kojak

The Urban Dictionary definition of kojak parking is: To find a parking spot directly in front of the place you want to go, any time day or night. The way Telly Savalas did in his 1970s TV series, "Kojak."
The way I remember it, my family had a variation on this definition. We defined a kojak as driving right in to a parallel-parking spot without having to back up or adjust your car's position at all. A perfect parking job in one go.

Customize your lawn sign

[Update: These signs are now gone. I suspect it's less a change of heart than neighborhood vandals.]

Two political signs on one house's lawn. Including little owner-added jabs. It's not enough to show support for a candidate -- the competing candidate must also be insulted.

Go gray, Linda Ronstadt

Nice article in the New York Times about Linda Ronstadt. She's 62 years old. And I think it's totally great that she has not gone down the plastic surgery road. Although I think she'd look more comfortable if she let her hair go gray. (Suggested with this amateurish Photoshop job.)

"Recycle" the bottle

I'm not convinced that plastic soda pop bottles are recycleable in any useful way. Coca-Cola has recently been making a big pitch for recycling their plastic bottles.

At the Minnesota State Fair there were giant plastic Coke bottles asking to be filled with empty plastic Coke bottles. I suppose so the empties could be made in to more giant plastic recycling/advertising stations.

It's interesting that the Coke recycling triangle has two arrows. They should have used just one arrow. The traditional "Reduce, Reuse, Recycle" slogan certainly doesn't apply.



I've been complaining about this since the turn of the century.

Where is last week's City Pages?

Last week, before the big convention, I was looking around for a copy of City Pages, the local weekly free paper, published on Wednesdays. I wanted a copy because in this issue is a swell comic by Zander Cannon.

There are a number of boxes around downtown St. Paul that usually have plenty of papers. The boxes were empty. Last night, after the convention was over, I spotted a City Pages box that was chock-full of the Aug. 27 edition -- hey, that's from last week.

I didn't miss last week's paper after all!

Is so. Is not.

Just to set the record straight.

It's a first

Sure, the Science Museum of Minnesota has always used the side of its building to advertise. To advertise its own shows, that is. But this is the first time they've used the space to advertise someone else's product. (Yeah, they like to stretch out the change, so there are a few days of confusion as the poster gradually changes from one to another.)


Here's a closer view.


[UPDATE: I guess there's a reason they haven't done this in the past. It's a violation of St. Paul's signage code. The sign was for the benefit of the Rebublican Convention. The Science Museum is saying they thought the Republican National Committee was responsible for getting the proper permits. The ad will be taken down on Monday -- three days after the convention ended.]

Republican-ready

Red on the right, blue on the left and red, white and blue in the middle. Must be symbolic of -- something. Look! That big ol' American flag is glowing!

Cleverness

The new attack book about presidential candidate Barack Obama is titled "The Obama Nation." Say it out loud and it sounds like "The Abomination."

It's perfect for use on talk radio.

I'm guessing the author must be, what, 14 years old?

Republican-ready

Pictures of some of the cameras that have recently appeared downtown. Welcome to St. Paul!

Republican-ready redo

That's more like it. Guess they aren't going to go with the mushy, glowy logo after all.

Republican-ready

I go by the Xcel Hockey Arena every day. Two days ago I noted they were putting up a big sign on the glass. There was the Republican National Convention dancing-elephant logo, bigger than life! Kinda colorless. Guess they are going with the red=Republican theme.


Yesterday, the sign is a little bit littler. Not sure why the dancing elephant is gone. But I imagine it will be back. Without the elephant and with only the red background and yellowish stars it looks a little bit Soviet-ish.

Crop art time of year

Crop art time. Blogging progress at
www.cropart.blogspot.com. If you think watching paint dry is exciting, you may enjoy this.

New warnings

In an ad for the new movie, "Hellboy II."


In an ad for the new movie, "Momma Mia."


Smoking -- er, I meant to say, tobacco consumption -- takes place in these movies. You have been warned!

Blinky lights

We've got road construction in the neighborhood this summer. I had to take some video of this bunched-together group of warning lights.

One Dam(n) thing after another

Alcohol ads and "damn" -- they just go together.

Your dad was a damn drunk

Tech nostalgia. I don't like these ads, but I like the real-looking edges of the photos with the dates. And the simulated uncorrected fading colors of old snapshots. The headline type and the white background of the ad are also given the faded look. Click on the image to get a closer view.

Type quiz

From the hallway signage in Town Square in downtown St. Paul. This is really great because there's a duplicate of almost every letter in "UBS Plaza" in the rest of the sign. So you can make a thorough comparison.

Question: What two typefaces are used here?

Bonus question: Why are two typefaces used?

Extra-credit question: If inconsistant font usage delighted me on this sign, why does it bug me here?

Bang, bang, bang

All five "Dirty Harry" films are now available in a set. With new prints, new documentaries, new interviews, new commentary, also available on BluRay, blah, blah, blah.

The only one worth seeing is the first movie. Sorry, Clint.

DayGlo -- is back

A couple DayGlo things from last week's mail. A difference: Wired uses Helvetica, Walker uses Akzidenz-Grotesk.

My favorite noodles

First one: Standard. Blocky. A logo that isn't fussy, it just is.



Second one: More sophisticated. An improvement in some ways. Diluting some of the power, but nicely drawn.



Today's logo: A return to the emphasis on the double "t." Some wiggly noodle shapes added. Weak type treatment. Not an improvement.


Tomorrow: A return to the original logo? Why not!

Video art or malfunctioning sign?

Striking in either case.

From three to one

Way back in January I posted about a church sign I liked because it used three closely related fonts. Stencil, typesetting and letter-by-letter sign type.

Well, the sign's design changed. Now it's one font only (Helvetica, rather than the more expected Arial) and it's a big ol' laser print.

Things change.

Nobody Walks! Drive Green!

Two signs on two buses. Double meanings for both.

Nobody Walks! Nobody has to walk -- even people who think they can't afford a car can afford one with our EZ financing. And, nobody but an idiot walks because everyone drives.

Drive Green! Drive a car that is easy on the environment. And, drive a car that is worth a lot of money.

Wholesome life

Wholesome and cool little logo (about a half-inch tall) on the side of a Pocky chocolate cream- covered biscuit-sticks box.

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.