Archive for September, 2008

“Yesterday, I went with my friends Matt, Dana and Juan to the Treasure Island Music Festival. The three of them got into San Francisco at 3 am Saturday morning, due to the fact that Matt insisted on seeing Aesop Rock that night in San Luis Obispo. That makes sense I guess, but Aesop was also playing at the festival. And, Matt had already seen him three times. Whatever though. Matt never claimed to be a good decision maker.”

After a short night of rest on a newly purchased Aero bed, my friends awoke to me getting into bed with them. I learned this technique from my brother George, and have always thought it to be the nicest way of waking someone up. It says, “Hey, rise and shine. Don’t rush it though.” After George’s technique failed miserably, I resorted to something I learned from my niece Georgia– sticking feathers up their noses.

After a quick BART ride, followed by a long walk, followed by a charter bus, we made it to Treasure Island. The island is very strange. There are a lot of deserted buildings, things in disrepair, unkempt patches of grass, and no locals to be found. It’s basically like a Bakersfield suburb during an RC Cola sale at WalMart.

Right as we were walking into the festival, I noticed a tent with posters for sale. I immediately recognized the posters as those done by The Small Stakes, a one-man, Oakland based design firm that did the 2007 poster for the Treasure Island Music Festival. I’ve admired his work ever since I saw it in a book called Fingerprint, so it was especially cool meeting him and browsing through his stuff in real life. He was a really nice guy, and I bought a poster he did for Stars.

The concert was every thing I’d hoped for. Aesop Rock was the first one we saw, followed by Hot Chip, Foals, Goldfrapp, TV on the Radio, and finally Justice. I won’t go into details about how great the shows were, but suffice it to say that it was well worth the cost of admission. I just wish I’d remembered my pacifier. Seriously, last time I saw so many kids with pacifiers I was backstage at the Santa Maria Spearment Rhino. Heyo!

I liked a lot of things about the whole day– talking to 19-year-olds about how they smuggled in their ecstasy (in their boots), backing up a churro with an ice cream sandwich, hearing Juan complain about how sweaty he was after wearing a hood all through Justice– but my favorite part must have been when we were recounting all the great concerts we’d been to. I think we’re up to eight amazing shows/ festivals, and I can’t think of a group of friends I’d rather have fun with. Eh, I take it back, the churro/ ice cream sandwich combo was my favorite part.

The first day of classes at college has always been a long day. Sometimes I’m a little nervous going to new classes, being around new people, and I always hate the silence before class starts. All you can really do in that silence is read the syllabus, and they’re usually pretty ugly.

Teachers don’t normally care about the design that goes into a syllabus. Some have tried to look like they’re fun and cute, and opt for Comic Sans (hold on while I throw up in my mouth. Ok I swallowed it). Others go for a photocopy of a photocopy of a photocopy, and think that they’re getting away with it. At any rate, I’m usually pretty turned off by these things, but today– my first day of classes at California College of the Arts– was different.

I recieved my first ever beautiful syllabus. Note the strict adherence to a two-column grid, the perfect line heights, and the simple choice of Helvetica. I also like the big page numbers. I did a very similar treatment on the page numbers for my portfolio. She probably stole it from me…

In private, I told my professor how much I liked the syllabus, and she sort of blew me off. It was like she was thinking, “What did you expect, an ugly syllabus? Who do you think I am?”

The syllabus was a great start to what I’m sure will be an amazing class. I can’t wait to get started on my first project, but that’s another post.