Ellison Webderland

Posted in The L Word on July 12, 2009 by Samuel John Klein Portlandiensis

2143.Ellison Webderland is Harlan Ellison’s officially-endorsed home on the web. I’m hardly the first person to have found it, but I must mention this because I was slightly incorrect on a remark I’ve made earlier: while it does seem to to be correct in the main that Ellison has little truck with the intertubes, he does not completely eschew the komputenmaschine; he does occasionally answer and banter in the “Art Deco Dining Pavilion” section.

But it’s a fun site, and maybe no more fun than realizing that it’s a paradise of 1998-era web design. But the denizens are terribly welcoming. I’m glad I found it.

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A Bridge To WordPress

Posted in Uncategorized on July 12, 2009 by Samuel John Klein Portlandiensis

2142.This is more a bit of self-documentation of the evolution of this blog, but I suppose it is a fishing expedition for suggestions as well. Also, those who blog tend to write obsessively about what they’re doing with their blogs because we are all the masters of our own worlds (we’ve got to be … otherwise why have a blog? We might just as well continue keeping a diary, yes?).

Anyway, for a while now I’ve been wanting to sharpen my Blogger customization skills. I have a little Blogger mojo but not as much as I want to. Sadly, though, every time I start studying Blogger markup, my eyes just glaze over, and the new regime with widgets – while mad fun and easy to add spiffy stuff – just starts to make my eyes cross.

Not long ago I broadcast an appeal to teh Twitter for any suggestions for good Blogger references that won’t make me want to, say, go out and mow the lawn just to get a break from it. And it was suggested to me that I move my whole operation to WordPress. What I didn’t publicize at that time was that I have had a WordPress version of this for a while – it’s at http://zehnkatzen.wordpress.com – and I’ve been using it as a mirror/backup to this one.

It does have awesome functionality, and I’m exploring it slowly. A move may be in the offiing – and it may be just the thing.

Fortunately, ScribeFire (the blogging plugin for FF) makes it easy to post to both places. So, starting here, that’s just what I’m going to be doing.

Does anyone know of any resources to help me pierce the inscrutable veil around the Blogger markup? Also, is WordPress any easier to customize?

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An Important Note About Illustrations Here

Posted in Uncategorized on July 12, 2009 by Samuel John Klein Portlandiensis

This version of The ZehnKatzen Times is a mirror of the original blog, maintained since 2004, on Blogger: http://zehnkatzen.blogspot.com.

Since the images on the original blog are hosted at various places, some of them don’t come through at this blog, of course.

I’m, at this time, still evaluating the pros and cons of a move of all my content over here to the WordPress, and many balls are still in play.

I’ll Believe This When They Send Me A Free One To Review

Posted in Stuff that does't fit anywhere else, Teh Funnay, net liff on July 10, 2009 by Samuel John Klein Portlandiensis
2141.(via Jeff Fisher via Twitter) Here’s the i.Saw – the world’s first USB-powered chainsaw:

The above is a screenclip of the page. If you want to see it for reals, the address is http://usbchainsaw.com/, where pre-ordering is conveniently closed.

I sense a viral goof here. I jus can’t shake it. Why in heavens name would you want a chainsaw of any dimensions anywhere near your computer? One wrong move and say buh-bye to that lovely screen.

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Portland Street Mnemonics Make The New York Times

Posted in Oregoniana, Portland Geography, Portland Quirks, liff in PDX, liff in oregon, mapping, memes on July 10, 2009 by Samuel John Klein Portlandiensis
2140.Okay, well, the comments of a regular feature anyway.

One of the residents of the sidebar is a couple of Portland street name mnemonics. It’d be fantastic if I could take the credit for them, but while I, amazingly enough, inspired them, they aren’t my composition. But they are nifty. Today, via the miracle of Google alerts, I saw that this humble place of woolgathering was namechecked by a commenter to the “Schott’s Vocab” column, identifying himself as one Matthew G. Miller:

And Samuel John Klein has posted three more–covering more streets and helping us remember the order of which M and which C streets come first–on his blog The ZehnKatzen Times in a posting January 14, 2009:

The colon there at the end was as in the original; presumably the commenter ran out of room. The 14 Jan 09 post which mentions this is at the end of this rabbit hole, but if you don’t feel like clicking yet another link that has a target=”_blank” attribute, I’ll save you a step.

The streets, in order from north to south starting from SW Ankeny Street (1 short block south of West Burnside, which should need no introduction) and continuing through the PSU district, run as follows:

Ankeny, Ash, Pine, Oak, Stark, Washington, Alder, Morrison, Yamhill, Taylor, Salmon, Main, Madison, Jefferson, Columbia, Clay, Market, Mill, Montgomery, Harrison, Hall, College, Jackson.

The first submitted one, from a commenter identifying himself as JD, went as such:

All Across Portland Our Streets Wind Around Mossy Yards. Traffic Snarls May Mean Jammed Cars, Cranky Motorists Making Minimal Headway. Harried Commuters Just Love Going Slow.

Nice, simple, sweet, poetic, and topical. Mnemonic WIN. But another commenter, Dave DiNucci, pointed out that since some initials duplicate (Main-Madison, Market-Mill-Montgomery, Harrison-Hall), and gave us two alternatives that included more letters. The first one plays off the tendency of names in the Alphabet District to be named for historic Portland figures and alludes to the curious geography of the south end of the grid, where all lines pivot, and offers a sort of gently gibing editorial commentary of the fairly fashion-oriented names of the streets:

ANcestors ASsociated Portland Oregon STreets With ALphabetic MORtals, Yet Toward SAlem, MAInly MADe JEjune, COLUmnar, CLiche MARked MIxtures. MONotones HARmonize HALfway, COLLiding JAuntily.  Lines Gently SHim.

Another mnemonic WIN. But Dave wasn’t finished. Knowing that Portland has its share of left-brain/right-brain thinkers, he offered another, more lyrical version which goes so far as including the whole of the name Columbia:

AN AScending Path Of STone
Wends ALong MORning Yellow Trilliums.
SAnity MAIntenance.
MADe JEalous,
COLUmbia CLeaves MARvelous MIsty MONuments,
HARsh HALcyon COLLages.
JAcob’s Ladders Gorge-ously SHine.

Note also that Dave’s mnemonics include streets athward the I-405/South Portland interface, which is even more nifty.

From the comment at the NYT’s column comes the phrase that started it all with me. The original questor of a memorable PDX downtown mnemonic was none other than The Oregonian’s quondam quotidian quipster, Jonathan Nicholas (who was in his time sort of PDX’s version of Herb Caen) who, after an appeal in his column sometime back in the 80s, eventually produced a little gem of his own:

Any Portland, Oregon Sunny Weather Always Makes You Think Some More Magic Just Came Calling.

Which at least gets you through to Columbia and Clay.

We have an embarrassment of riches, each suited to a particular way of thinking, each equally memorable, so that you may never be lost amongst Portland’s downtown street again. I wish I could have said that I came up with them, but I am honored to have been thought highly enough by some that they’d share them with you all here.

And thanks to Matthew G. Miller who though enough of my blog to have made a mention of it in the New York Times.

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How Do You Say Blellow?

Posted in design, social networking on July 10, 2009 by Samuel John Klein Portlandiensis
2139.Blellow’s Sean Loyless and Veronica Jorden explain, a la classic Electric Company:

Independent designer? Get to know Blellow.

You’ll find me there under the monicker zehnkatzen.

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Hung Far Low: Finally, A Re-Erection Campaign That Doesn’t Promise What It Can’t Deliver!

Posted in Oregoniana, PDX WIN, Portland visual history, branding, design, liff in PDX on July 9, 2009 by Samuel John Klein Portlandiensis
2138.Some months back, a charming and representative piece of Portland visual design and history diappeared with the taking down of the landmark Hung Far Low Restaurant sign.

The vertical sign, which resembled a great majuscule letter I with the words HUNG FAR LOW down the spine, and advertising CHOP SUEY across the top and COCKTAILS across the bottom, and topped overall by a cute little stylized pagoda,(see it here, here and here), stood over the corner of NW 4th Avenue and Couch Street in Portland’s Chinatown since at least the middle of the 20th Century. In 2007, the eponymous restaurant moved to the corner of SE 82nd and Division (where it now sports a much less memorable sign) but the sign remained. Between then the word COCKTAILS was reduced by some prankster to the word COCK, and all the words at the top and bottom were altered to read “EST. 1928″ at the top and “BUILDING” at the bottom.

The years had taken their toll and the sign had become more of a sword of Damocles to some potentially unlucky pedestrian, thus in October 2007 the sign had to come down. It now rests in a “sign graveyard”, reputedly in Scappoose.

There was always the intention of re-erecting the sign, but it’s going to take $30,000 to get that done. So this blog, as indeed should every self-respecting Portland blog, am taking great pleasure in helping to spread the word that the Re-erection campaign to get the Hung Far Low sign back up over the corner of NW 4th and Couch is on.

I’ve visited the website and it’s very clear and nice, and donations are priced so that everyone can get in on the act; there’s a donation level as low at $10, so as soon as I can find me a tenner, I’m sending one along.

The address to view is: http://reerecthungfarlow.com/ .

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Branding The Intertwine

Posted in Graphic Design, Oregoniana, branding, design, web design on July 8, 2009 by Samuel John Klein Portlandiensis
2137.Noted in passing was the rebranding of the Metro initiative, formerly known as Connecting Green, into a new look they’re calling The Intertwine.

The idea behind Connecting Green is to create, cooperatively, out of the abundance of awesome green spaces that the greater Portland area is rightly famous for, a world-class parks and recreation system. Connecting Green is the alliance of local authorities that was to make this happen.

The identity “Connecting Green” did need a little “sprucing” (’scuse) up, and not just because the website used Comic Sans. Whoever decided that the new identity needed something slick (but not too slick) and modern (but approachable) had the right idea.

The name The Intertwine has a modern connotation (I bet you thought of the Internet when you heard that name) and a rustic connotation (in as much as the word twine refers to a low-tech device used to tie things together). It also represents the apparent aims of the initiative – to meld, with regional cooperation, the vast public green space wealth of the greater Portland/Vancouver area – with deft cleverness, and extending the “internet” metphor, it, too, represents a network of networks.

The logo is a real winner, IMO. The swirling motion of four parts coalescing into a center is given dynamic energy by increasing the size of the parts from the 3 o-clock throug the twelve o-clock positions. It’s a risk to come up with a logo where individual parts mean something – they tend to get shambolic very quickly – but the design keeps it simple. The four parts of the symbol represent the four properties of the Intertwine, which are trails, water, greenspace and … well, I forget the fourth, but it might be Whiffie’s fried pies (and if it isn’t, it should be). The type was also well-chosen: it has a humanist, hand-wrought feel to it. It’s actually rather organic and has a pleasant cross between subtle and chunky.

The website currently comprises a splash screen whose bottom part alters to an input box for your email so they can keep you updated with press releases and announcments. But the style is very well chosen as is the palette, which is made of simple flat colors with an earthy overtone. Simple shapes and artful type keep it all very human.

It’s a definite improvement, and a very clever use of branding to promote a connection to nature and the environment.

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Abysinnia, Mr Kasem

Posted in Pop Cult, Stuff that does't fit anywhere else on July 8, 2009 by Samuel John Klein Portlandiensis
2136.Mr. American-Top-40, Casey Kasem, is retiring from the ray-did-eeo.

Seems so early. He’s only 77!

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The Michael Jackson Lesson: Spectacle Has A Price

Posted in illustration, modren times, web design on July 7, 2009 by Samuel John Klein Portlandiensis
2135.And it’s up to the City of Los Angeles, California, to pay for a good sized chunk of it. From Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa’s website:

I note this in passing for a few reasons: one being the above graphic – actually, that’s the biggest reason. I’ts pretty nifty! The treatment is a monotone, everything grayscale, but you can see that it’s indeed possible to create a sort of color with shades of gray. The pose of MJ is a classic one.

The other reasons coalesce around my uneneding ensorcelment with popcult and all of its hypnotizing spectacle. I don’t care who you are, if you’ve heard of MJ, you have some sort of feeling about it. Watching the development of MJ’s afterlife is just wicked fascinating. He died as he lived: amazingly, flashily, gaudy touching on the gauche, with a huge spectacle, and under mysterious circumstances. How could you not be enthralled – or at least interested?

Somehow this says something about who we are and where we’re headed as a culture and a society. I’m not sure what, and I’m not sure I want to find out. But it does.

Oh, and if you want to help the City of Los Angeles pay for the amazing overtime for public safety professionals they’re going to incur over this, here’s the Mayor’s website, with a PayPal link:

http://mayor.lacity.org/PressRoom/PressReleases/LACITYP_005598

I’m sure it’ll probably go down in flames later today as it gets hammered and the MJ memorial service breaks the intarweb, but that’s the way it goes, peoples.

Damn but Los Angeles is a fascinating place. I’d like to visit there someday.

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