Expressive Branding

Bryant Simon, professor of history at Temple University, has been studying Starbucks - here's his talk on the subject from the 2006 Taste3 conference.

Ron Howard Slated to Ruin "Cache"

Variety is reporting Ron Howard will direct a remake of the excellent French film, "Cache." Apparently, it will be "less intellectual and socially relevant and more amped up in terms of suspense." Of course.

XXX

Martin Scorcese loaded "The Departed" with X's. Several scenes use an X as a foreshadowing symbol. Here's the story with a bunch of screenshots.

Barney Bubbles

Here's a nice overview of Barney Bubbles' design career within the music industry. Interesting to see how he very effectively moved from the spacey world of Hawkwind to Elvis Costello and Stiff Records.

Here's to Ben

I'm not much of a metal fan, but I am a fan of good writing. This NY Times review of a recent Slayer show is nicely done. The writer is Ben Ratliff.

Stew / Sting / Photoshop

Have a look at this just-released photo of The Police. Andy Summers was born in 1942. And apparently again in 1975.

Toronto Art Punk from Days of Old

Long gone with the rest of my vinyl collection, this album was always a big fave of mine from the early new wave days - The Government's "Guest List", which is next to impossible to find. I'd been hoping it would turn up somewhere and it has. Still sounds great to me.

Yes sadly, in Dave's world this is a big deal.

Packaging Reconsidered

A collection of rejected design concepts for U2's Achtung Baby album. Did they make the right choice? I'm not so sure.

Related: here's a well written article on the current state of music packaging.