The Pilgrimage...

As you may or may not know, I'm in Saudi Arabia performing The Hajj. The videos can be viewed HERE and the images HERE.

I don't know how to begin to describe the experience. I have written about it here and there and haven't had time to share it with the very limited and very expensive interwebs. Saving the words for now and just sharing the picture with you since they are worth thousands of words, in lieu of mine.

Let's just say that I've finally experienced love. Not the love that we see in magazines or movies or day to day... I mean the deepest and widest form of the formless.

There was an invitation that was extended and I'm glad to have shook the hand of all that is.

008_Hot, Buttered Soul...

This installment of Hot, Buttered Soul was heavily inspired by feeling the music and the trenchant message of love throughout the songs and titles. I never sit down and scratch my head at what I'm going to play, the songs kind of just fall into my lap and out of my chest.

With my new friend Last.fm, whom I speak to when it has a hiccup streaming and I ask it,

"Last.fm. Are you ok? What's wrong? Why don't you want to play my Neo-Soul radio?! Oh, you want me to switch the station. Thanks Last.fm".

That's kind of how it goes ;) I dedicate this session of soul to Last.fm and those who resonate with any of these songs who wish they were played specifically for them. From time to time I am inspired and I could not have done it without the following people:

Sugababes / Erykah Badu / K-Os / Leela James / J-Live / Queen Latifah / Lucy Pearl / Crown City Rockers / Angie Stone / Glenn Lewis / Sweetback

The titles are in the flow somewhere and if you listen along then you can play along - the name of the game is Name That Tune! ;)

From Time To Time...

What an overload experience,
the love of my life taught me.
Learning to be the man I used to be,
don't speak, can't love - tense.

Now I'm coming home to
witness simply beautiful,
the dance tonight, a tool
one transmutes through.

Side step, and move forward,
because life goes on, it always does.

It's ok to believe, dream
your dream & you will rise.

From time to time, through thick and thin, love resides within us albeit most often it is conspicuously hiding from the world to see. Well this is me saying the clouds are parting and the sun is shining down on you and taking a snapshot of you right this moment. A snapshot of your thoughts, your feelings and how you treat the world around you. Do you like what you see? If your answer is no, then take the picture again... and instead of saying "cheese" this time, say "LOVE".

Ya, that's the ticket...

I am Khayyam and this is Hot, Buttered Soul...

Typographic Madness...

(via noupe.com)

This is a brilliant compilation of some of the finest typographic treatments that you've probably never seen. Only a few are familiar, the rest fresh and they are keeping my jaw on the ground. Really impressive and well worth the checking out.

Typography Madness: 30 Brilliant Pieces of Work

Design Your Own Tequila bottle...

I've been following (@simoncook) from Made In England for some time now and have been amused for hours on end with his wonderful characters, cross country treks, bizarre stories that I wouldn't normally find, he makes me laugh and well, most of all... he rocks a pretty darn nice moustache ;)

Well, just like he... I was drawn in to an opportunity to design my own 1800 Tequila bottle. So I ventured off to make my first bottle design ;) I whipped one up quickly just to see what it would look like if my nose was on the side of a bottle ;) It's not the quickest process out there so I'm calling it quits at one for now... I'll be back though.

Yes, I am a typophile...

I've been a typography whore since my elementary school days of ordering from Scholastic Books and my favorite and first of all time, The Lettering Book (Noelle Morris, 1988). Amazon has the book listed for one new version at $218.46?! - far from the $6.95 I once paid. I tried finding an image of it and the only one in Google images' existence I found was on typophile.com which led me to the article that it resided within: A SURVEY: What was your first book about typography?

Through an another excellent article Five Simple Steps to better typography, written by Mark Boulton. In the depths of his site I found this absolute gem of a short film. Now this is how I'm would cherish spending time with my son or daughter, kicking back, sharing brushstrokes and creating typefaces. From my calculations, that is a five year old kid with a solid stroke and a brilliantly genius way of seeing the world. Inspiring on so many levels...

(via mark boulton)

a video by Job & Roel Wouters
recorded in Amsterdam at studio Xelor early 2008

Hand 1: Gradus W. Wouters, Amsterdam, the Netherlands, 2003
Hand 2: Job Wouters, Leiden, the Netherlands, 1980

Director: Roel Wouters

Director of photography: Sal Kroonenberg
Music: Rik Elstgeest & Bo Koek
Production asst: Ton de Munck

notes from the director:
‘Job and Gradus are both ambitious concerning letters. Spontaneous jam sessions in our studio inspired us to make this film about the fun drawing letters’

Digitalmash is a digital pimp...

I've been surfing the swells of the interwebs for a long time (Mosaic ring a bell? ;)) and I have never been quite blown away like this with such an absolutely clean and aesthetically pleasing site before. Recently I've been digging grids in typography and Rob Morris's use of grid systems on digitalmash.com is so pretty. If I had money, I would give it to him. Yup, he's that good.

Take a quick peek...
digitalmash

007_Hot, Buttered Soul...

Another installment of Hot, Buttered Soul on CFCR 90.5FM. A rememberance edition that left me the only one in the studio and I turned up the monitors and had me a little Tuesday afternoon tail feather shaking. So grab you sweat bands, track suits, Kangol and unlace those Adidas... damn I'm getting old ;) My soundtrack for the day brings to you the likes of:

George Kranz | Robin Thicke| Uncle Louie | Rap Parker Jr. | Jean Knight | DJ Jazzy Jeff & the Fresh Prince | Honey Drippers | Stevie Wonder | Faze-O | Barrabas | Cookie Crew | Michael Jackson

The titles are in the flow somewhere and if you listen along then you can play along - the name of the game is Name That Tune! ;)

Something Like This...

Din daa daa goes the song
And I have to stop and ask myself,
Do I like funky music?
Am I still in the groove?

Mister big stuff on the floor
As we go and impeach the president.

I wish there were no more disputes;
We could be ridin' high together
Woman, but I'm born this way
And you don't stop til you get enough.

As we go a little something like this...

A rememberance to a time when disputes were dealt with on the dance floor... crew against crew. Mess with the best, get disgraced with the rest. Trade in your guns for boom boxes and slap the cardboard down on the floor...

Bring it... cause mine be broughten... ;)

The art of sourcery code...

(via creattica)

I remember when I had my Atari 1040ST linked up with my 1200 baud modem connecting to the BBS's that rocked ASCII art top to bottom. The dark background with the glowing green text - makes you almost want to pull out your old phreak manuals and anarchist cookbooks to hack into the system and make free telephone calls from payphones ;)

This is a beautiful modern day application that has left me going... "Damn, I can't wait to do that." ;)

Start generating your ASCII:

• ascii text generator
• ascii art generator
  
• ascii art & image conversion
  
• ascii image generator
  

A rough guide to napping...

(via swissmiss)