[design] I Has Accomplishments!

886. In conjunction with this posting, which is a basic exploration of my skill set, herewith an exploration of my modest record of accomplishments.

When I settled on graphic design as the Thing I Wanted To Do When I Grew Up, I knew that breaking into the field would be a bit tough. I am still not at the place I want to be, however, that’s not the same as saying that I’ve not achieved anything. 

What is that someone once said–the difference between a saint and a sinner is that the saint didn’t quit trying? Something like that.

And that’s as maybe. One thing that has hit home again, and again, and again is that design isn’t the sort of place for people who are bashful, or hide their lights under a bushel (I, inopportunely, have a sad tendency to do this; business proceeds as usual during alterations). On the other hand, one shouldn’t exaggerate, I think; you want people to trust what you say.

Perforce and herewith are a list of the things I’ve done, the things I’m proudest of, in no particular order. 

1. I am a content creator. Of the sites QuarkVsInDesign and Designorati, I have supplied a great deal of stuff–news, reviews, opinions. I know not how much weight these writings carry, but I understand it may not be world changing, but it’s of a degree of importance–at least as much importance as to get commenters at both places calling me an Adobe shill. I must be doing something right!
2. Adobe, Inc has quoted and linked my reviews for InDesign CS3 and InCopy CS3. I really must be doing something right!
3. I haven’t designed the range of logos I’d like to yet, but the two I did for the old-style Designorati departments (cartography and graphic design) I am quite proud of. I’ll bring those out presently; this is more of a brainstorming session.
4. I never thought I’d get my name in any book anywhere but as it happens, I have my name in one (Illustrator CS2 @ Work, by Pariah S. Burke, ISBN 978-0672328015) and am soon to have my name in another one (Pariah’s upcoming Mastering InDesign CS3 from Wiley, ISBN 978-0470114568) as Technical Editor (which is, by the way, a fascinating thing to do and something I heartily recommend. If you can do this, do this). What a TE in a book like this does is take the author’s manuscript, run the exercises and make sure everything works the way it should. In the case of the Illustrator book, I was also expected to catch as many style errors as I could; in the InDesign book, there was another editor on the team to do that. I’d love to do more editing–it’s one of the most fulfilling things I’ve ever done. And, like I said, my name’s in print!
5. I have been a member of the Adobe Creative Suite 2 and Creative Suite 3 program. This was to provide me with copies of the software so that I could run the exercises in the two books, but while I was in the process I gave as much feedback as I could. It gave me a great insight into how a company like Adobe tries to iron all the bugs out. No software is perfect, even the finished produce, but Adobe does a mad thorough job.
6. For the past three, going on four, years, I’ve been laying out and designing the quarterly for the local branch of the Sierra Club (the Oregon Chapter, Columbia Group). I hesitate to say newsletter, because that’s always to me been a much more informal thing. The Columbia Overlook, on the other hand, is a 4-page broadsheet that has news, opinion, and upcoming events. I’ve had to cöordinate with editors, submitters, and people with photographs; I’ve run into many things I think your average news designer has, yet, on a different level; this is assuredly one part of my experience that I’d like to kick up to that mythical next level, if only I had the chance. Some of my issues can be downloaded from this link. I think I have it pretty tight and clean looking, and I’m proud not only that I can do this, but I can do this for a group I admire and whose aims I believe in.
7. And how can I forget that I am now a semi-professional photographer? I was actually paid for the rights to one of my own favorite photos (see the blog header for an edited version of my downtown skyline) and am still flattered that someone liked it enough to buy the rights to it. I may have another side line…

Okay, I see that I have done some interesting things, but naturally, I want more. What would be ideal at this point is to think for a few minutes (at least) and decide for myself what things I want to do next, and how I can get the experience doing them…or the experience that would enable me to do them.

More exploration here to come.

Tags: Samuel John Klein, design, InDesign CS3, InCopy CS3, Photography, news design, newspaper layout, writing, editing

[hk2007] The Penultimate Episode: it’s Rock and Bonnie

885. Perforce, some thoughts.

• I’m just amazed that Bonnie had made it this far. Given the field, though, it was an easy decision; Bonnie and Rock deserved to go forth more than Jen did.
• We saw a different Bonnie this time. When Chef Ramsay took her into the other kitchen to have her practice chewing him out (which was a howl), it’s amazing how quickly she slipped into the bitch-straw-boss persona. It was like she was waiting for that her whole life.
• The task at had for Chef Ramsay was to really know who were the solid, true leaders there. Bonnie showed leadership we never thought she had. Rock and Jen had to be revved up to do it.
• We wish Rock would have been the way he was during this phase also during the middle of the series, back when he was all 3rd-person on us and being the Sturm und Drang drama king. We’re still not so impressed with Rock because of that.
• We weren’t that thrilled with Jen–we can’t forget the way she kept backbiting Bonnie when Bonnie was getting under her skin–but we sympathize. In a “reality” competition like this, to be the last also-ran before the final has got to be heartbreaking–to go that far and have no chance at the prize to show for it. That’s gotta hurt.
• We absolutely love watching the next-to-last show, because this is shaping up to be tradition; putting the last three in rotation to handle expediting for part of the service. You really see, as Chef says, whether you run the kitchen or the kitchen runs you. Bonnie really shone here, Rock was 2nd, and Jen was weakest–the letting the crab spaghetti go out without the crab in it was a big hit. She recovered well, but she was definitely the weakest of the three.
• One thing we find amusing but somewhat annoying is the way the contestants act surprised at something that has happened once each series so far. The final challenge is to give the finalist a one-night go at operating their own place. This happens by dividing the set in two and letting each chef equip, decorate, and set up an individual micro-restaurant. It’s been this way with every show. So why are they so shocked when it happens? Presumably they’ve watched the show before, so this shouldn’t be such an unexpected shock when the blind comes down for dramatic effect. But they always have this “what are the odds” look on their face. At least there wasn’t any presser–last season’s, which starred Virginia and Heather, seemed pretty artificial. Note to HK producers; we all suspect a lot of this is maybe a little more orchestrated than it looks, so try a little harder to keep some cliches out, k thx.
• Hell’s Kitchen is casting a fourth season, as crawls across the bottom of the screen repeatedly announced. Go to http://fox.com/hellskitchen and click on the link in the middle of the page that says “Casting” (it’s right below the “Beyond Hell” logo) if you think you have what it takes.
• Next episode…it’s it, people. If you’re as invested with this as we are, you can’t wait to see what they do.

Oh, and before we move on, here’s something of note: we won’t have to wait another year to see new Chef Ramsay on American TV. FOX (the part of it that I like) is bringing a British staple, Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares, to TV this fall. Skookum!

KN, if you’ve not heard of it before, takes The Ramsay Doctrine to new heights by going to restaurants in dire trouble and turning them round. Do a search on YouTube for Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares, and you’ll see clips from the BBC version. They show Chef as more than just a person who screams at people…he does a great deal of that, but you’ll find out that he’s a businessman who, bluntly put, knows what the hell (so to speak) he’s doing, doing and is not afraid of giving strong medicine to people who very badly need it.

Clicky thee hence to see what all the fuss is gonna be about.

Tags: Hell’s Kitchen 2007, Hell’s Kitchen, Gordon Ramsay

[hk2007] The Penultimate Episode: it’s Rock and Bonnie

885. Perforce, some thoughts.

• I’m just amazed that Bonnie had made it this far. Given the field, though, it was an easy decision; Bonnie and Rock deserved to go forth more than Jen did.
• We saw a different Bonnie this time. When Chef Ramsay took her into the other kitchen to have her practice chewing him out (which was a howl), it’s amazing how quickly she slipped into the bitch-straw-boss persona. It was like she was waiting for that her whole life.
• The task at had for Chef Ramsay was to really know who were the solid, true leaders there. Bonnie showed leadership we never thought she had. Rock and Jen had to be revved up to do it.
• We wish Rock would have been the way he was during this phase also during the middle of the series, back when he was all 3rd-person on us and being the Sturm und Drang drama king. We’re still not so impressed with Rock because of that.
• We weren’t that thrilled with Jen–we can’t forget the way she kept backbiting Bonnie when Bonnie was getting under her skin–but we sympathize. In a “reality” competition like this, to be the last also-ran before the final has got to be heartbreaking–to go that far and have no chance at the prize to show for it. That’s gotta hurt.
• We absolutely love watching the next-to-last show, because this is shaping up to be tradition; putting the last three in rotation to handle expediting for part of the service. You really see, as Chef says, whether you run the kitchen or the kitchen runs you. Bonnie really shone here, Rock was 2nd, and Jen was weakest–the letting the crab spaghetti go out without the crab in it was a big hit. She recovered well, but she was definitely the weakest of the three.
• One thing we find amusing but somewhat annoying is the way the contestants act surprised at something that has happened once each series so far. The final challenge is to give the finalist a one-night go at operating their own place. This happens by dividing the set in two and letting each chef equip, decorate, and set up an individual micro-restaurant. It’s been this way with every show. So why are they so shocked when it happens? Presumably they’ve watched the show before, so this shouldn’t be such an unexpected shock when the blind comes down for dramatic effect. But they always have this “what are the odds” look on their face. At least there wasn’t any presser–last season’s, which starred Virginia and Heather, seemed pretty artificial. Note to HK producers; we all suspect a lot of this is maybe a little more orchestrated than it looks, so try a little harder to keep some cliches out, k thx.
• Hell’s Kitchen is casting a fourth season, as crawls across the bottom of the screen repeatedly announced. Go to http://fox.com/hellskitchen and click on the link in the middle of the page that says “Casting” (it’s right below the “Beyond Hell” logo) if you think you have what it takes.
• Next episode…it’s it, people. If you’re as invested with this as we are, you can’t wait to see what they do.

Oh, and before we move on, here’s something of note: we won’t have to wait another year to see new Chef Ramsay on American TV. FOX (the part of it that I like) is bringing a British staple, Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares, to TV this fall. Skookum!

KN, if you’ve not heard of it before, takes The Ramsay Doctrine to new heights by going to restaurants in dire trouble and turning them round. Do a search on YouTube for Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares, and you’ll see clips from the BBC version. They show Chef as more than just a person who screams at people…he does a great deal of that, but you’ll find out that he’s a businessman who, bluntly put, knows what the hell (so to speak) he’s doing, doing and is not afraid of giving strong medicine to people who very badly need it.

Clicky thee hence to see what all the fuss is gonna be about.

Tags: Hell’s Kitchen 2007, Hell’s Kitchen, Gordon Ramsay

[hk2007] The Penultimate Episode: it’s Rock and Bonnie

885. Perforce, some thoughts.

• I’m just amazed that Bonnie had made it this far. Given the field, though, it was an easy decision; Bonnie and Rock deserved to go forth more than Jen did.
• We saw a different Bonnie this time. When Chef Ramsay took her into the other kitchen to have her practice chewing him out (which was a howl), it’s amazing how quickly she slipped into the bitch-straw-boss persona. It was like she was waiting for that her whole life.
• The task at had for Chef Ramsay was to really know who were the solid, true leaders there. Bonnie showed leadership we never thought she had. Rock and Jen had to be revved up to do it.
• We wish Rock would have been the way he was during this phase also during the middle of the series, back when he was all 3rd-person on us and being the Sturm und Drang drama king. We’re still not so impressed with Rock because of that.
• We weren’t that thrilled with Jen–we can’t forget the way she kept backbiting Bonnie when Bonnie was getting under her skin–but we sympathize. In a “reality” competition like this, to be the last also-ran before the final has got to be heartbreaking–to go that far and have no chance at the prize to show for it. That’s gotta hurt.
• We absolutely love watching the next-to-last show, because this is shaping up to be tradition; putting the last three in rotation to handle expediting for part of the service. You really see, as Chef says, whether you run the kitchen or the kitchen runs you. Bonnie really shone here, Rock was 2nd, and Jen was weakest–the letting the crab spaghetti go out without the crab in it was a big hit. She recovered well, but she was definitely the weakest of the three.
• One thing we find amusing but somewhat annoying is the way the contestants act surprised at something that has happened once each series so far. The final challenge is to give the finalist a one-night go at operating their own place. This happens by dividing the set in two and letting each chef equip, decorate, and set up an individual micro-restaurant. It’s been this way with every show. So why are they so shocked when it happens? Presumably they’ve watched the show before, so this shouldn’t be such an unexpected shock when the blind comes down for dramatic effect. But they always have this “what are the odds” look on their face. At least there wasn’t any presser–last season’s, which starred Virginia and Heather, seemed pretty artificial. Note to HK producers; we all suspect a lot of this is maybe a little more orchestrated than it looks, so try a little harder to keep some cliches out, k thx.
• Hell’s Kitchen is casting a fourth season, as crawls across the bottom of the screen repeatedly announced. Go to http://fox.com/hellskitchen and click on the link in the middle of the page that says “Casting” (it’s right below the “Beyond Hell” logo) if you think you have what it takes.
• Next episode…it’s it, people. If you’re as invested with this as we are, you can’t wait to see what they do.

Oh, and before we move on, here’s something of note: we won’t have to wait another year to see new Chef Ramsay on American TV. FOX (the part of it that I like) is bringing a British staple, Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares, to TV this fall. Skookum!

KN, if you’ve not heard of it before, takes The Ramsay Doctrine to new heights by going to restaurants in dire trouble and turning them round. Do a search on YouTube for Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares, and you’ll see clips from the BBC version. They show Chef as more than just a person who screams at people…he does a great deal of that, but you’ll find out that he’s a businessman who, bluntly put, knows what the hell (so to speak) he’s doing, doing and is not afraid of giving strong medicine to people who very badly need it.

Clicky thee hence to see what all the fuss is gonna be about.

Tags: Hell’s Kitchen 2007, Hell’s Kitchen, Gordon Ramsay

[hk2007] The Penultimate Episode: it’s Rock and Bonnie

885. Perforce, some thoughts.

• I’m just amazed that Bonnie had made it this far. Given the field, though, it was an easy decision; Bonnie and Rock deserved to go forth more than Jen did.
• We saw a different Bonnie this time. When Chef Ramsay took her into the other kitchen to have her practice chewing him out (which was a howl), it’s amazing how quickly she slipped into the bitch-straw-boss persona. It was like she was waiting for that her whole life.
• The task at had for Chef Ramsay was to really know who were the solid, true leaders there. Bonnie showed leadership we never thought she had. Rock and Jen had to be revved up to do it.
• We wish Rock would have been the way he was during this phase also during the middle of the series, back when he was all 3rd-person on us and being the Sturm und Drang drama king. We’re still not so impressed with Rock because of that.
• We weren’t that thrilled with Jen–we can’t forget the way she kept backbiting Bonnie when Bonnie was getting under her skin–but we sympathize. In a “reality” competition like this, to be the last also-ran before the final has got to be heartbreaking–to go that far and have no chance at the prize to show for it. That’s gotta hurt.
• We absolutely love watching the next-to-last show, because this is shaping up to be tradition; putting the last three in rotation to handle expediting for part of the service. You really see, as Chef says, whether you run the kitchen or the kitchen runs you. Bonnie really shone here, Rock was 2nd, and Jen was weakest–the letting the crab spaghetti go out without the crab in it was a big hit. She recovered well, but she was definitely the weakest of the three.
• One thing we find amusing but somewhat annoying is the way the contestants act surprised at something that has happened once each series so far. The final challenge is to give the finalist a one-night go at operating their own place. This happens by dividing the set in two and letting each chef equip, decorate, and set up an individual micro-restaurant. It’s been this way with every show. So why are they so shocked when it happens? Presumably they’ve watched the show before, so this shouldn’t be such an unexpected shock when the blind comes down for dramatic effect. But they always have this “what are the odds” look on their face. At least there wasn’t any presser–last season’s, which starred Virginia and Heather, seemed pretty artificial. Note to HK producers; we all suspect a lot of this is maybe a little more orchestrated than it looks, so try a little harder to keep some cliches out, k thx.
• Hell’s Kitchen is casting a fourth season, as crawls across the bottom of the screen repeatedly announced. Go to http://fox.com/hellskitchen and click on the link in the middle of the page that says “Casting” (it’s right below the “Beyond Hell” logo) if you think you have what it takes.
• Next episode…it’s it, people. If you’re as invested with this as we are, you can’t wait to see what they do.

Oh, and before we move on, here’s something of note: we won’t have to wait another year to see new Chef Ramsay on American TV. FOX (the part of it that I like) is bringing a British staple, Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares, to TV this fall. Skookum!

KN, if you’ve not heard of it before, takes The Ramsay Doctrine to new heights by going to restaurants in dire trouble and turning them round. Do a search on YouTube for Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares, and you’ll see clips from the BBC version. They show Chef as more than just a person who screams at people…he does a great deal of that, but you’ll find out that he’s a businessman who, bluntly put, knows what the hell (so to speak) he’s doing, doing and is not afraid of giving strong medicine to people who very badly need it.

Clicky thee hence to see what all the fuss is gonna be about.

Tags: Hell’s Kitchen 2007, Hell’s Kitchen, Gordon Ramsay

[hk2007] The Penultimate Episode: it’s Rock and Bonnie

885. Perforce, some thoughts.

• I’m just amazed that Bonnie had made it this far. Given the field, though, it was an easy decision; Bonnie and Rock deserved to go forth more than Jen did.
• We saw a different Bonnie this time. When Chef Ramsay took her into the other kitchen to have her practice chewing him out (which was a howl), it’s amazing how quickly she slipped into the bitch-straw-boss persona. It was like she was waiting for that her whole life.
• The task at had for Chef Ramsay was to really know who were the solid, true leaders there. Bonnie showed leadership we never thought she had. Rock and Jen had to be revved up to do it.
• We wish Rock would have been the way he was during this phase also during the middle of the series, back when he was all 3rd-person on us and being the Sturm und Drang drama king. We’re still not so impressed with Rock because of that.
• We weren’t that thrilled with Jen–we can’t forget the way she kept backbiting Bonnie when Bonnie was getting under her skin–but we sympathize. In a “reality” competition like this, to be the last also-ran before the final has got to be heartbreaking–to go that far and have no chance at the prize to show for it. That’s gotta hurt.
• We absolutely love watching the next-to-last show, because this is shaping up to be tradition; putting the last three in rotation to handle expediting for part of the service. You really see, as Chef says, whether you run the kitchen or the kitchen runs you. Bonnie really shone here, Rock was 2nd, and Jen was weakest–the letting the crab spaghetti go out without the crab in it was a big hit. She recovered well, but she was definitely the weakest of the three.
• One thing we find amusing but somewhat annoying is the way the contestants act surprised at something that has happened once each series so far. The final challenge is to give the finalist a one-night go at operating their own place. This happens by dividing the set in two and letting each chef equip, decorate, and set up an individual micro-restaurant. It’s been this way with every show. So why are they so shocked when it happens? Presumably they’ve watched the show before, so this shouldn’t be such an unexpected shock when the blind comes down for dramatic effect. But they always have this “what are the odds” look on their face. At least there wasn’t any presser–last season’s, which starred Virginia and Heather, seemed pretty artificial. Note to HK producers; we all suspect a lot of this is maybe a little more orchestrated than it looks, so try a little harder to keep some cliches out, k thx.
• Hell’s Kitchen is casting a fourth season, as crawls across the bottom of the screen repeatedly announced. Go to http://fox.com/hellskitchen and click on the link in the middle of the page that says “Casting” (it’s right below the “Beyond Hell” logo) if you think you have what it takes.
• Next episode…it’s it, people. If you’re as invested with this as we are, you can’t wait to see what they do.

Oh, and before we move on, here’s something of note: we won’t have to wait another year to see new Chef Ramsay on American TV. FOX (the part of it that I like) is bringing a British staple, Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares, to TV this fall. Skookum!

KN, if you’ve not heard of it before, takes The Ramsay Doctrine to new heights by going to restaurants in dire trouble and turning them round. Do a search on YouTube for Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares, and you’ll see clips from the BBC version. They show Chef as more than just a person who screams at people…he does a great deal of that, but you’ll find out that he’s a businessman who, bluntly put, knows what the hell (so to speak) he’s doing, doing and is not afraid of giving strong medicine to people who very badly need it.

Clicky thee hence to see what all the fuss is gonna be about.

Tags: Hell’s Kitchen 2007, Hell’s Kitchen, Gordon Ramsay

[my_happy] Attack of the 80’s–Peter Gabriel and "Sledgehammer"

884. As usual, the theme is something I’m taking forward with me into a drudegery-filled weekend in order to make it a little more survivable. This time, the Peter of the Gabriel.

Like a whole lot of music consumers of the day, being raised at the time on top-40, I had a limited awareness of the British supergroup Genesis (my loss, since rectified). What I therefore had no way of knowing was of the huge role that Peter Gabriel had in it, nor his inimitable sense of artistic style, which is why when his song “Shock the Monkey” became popular and started to get heavy rotation on MTV. This was in 1982.

To this day I’m not sure I even like the song really. But I can’t resist listening to it, even today. And if I see the video playing (which you can probably find on YouTube). I’ll always pause to take the whole thing in.

In 1986, Gabriel broke a string of self-titled, avant-garde’ish solo albums with a sparely-designed album sparely titled: So. Compared to what I’ve heard of his previous effort, it was almost unabashedly commercial, but since Gabriel was as Gabriel did, it didn’t sound like a sell-out; it was listenable but still had all the interesting quirks and influences and experimentation that made Peter Gabriel’s music what it was.

The song “Sledgehammer” was an interesting bean, notably opening with the sound of a shakuhachi flute, then going right into a brass-heavy blues sound. The lyrics were fun and entendre-laden:

You could have a steam train/If you just laid down your track/You could have an aeroplane flying/If you’d bring your blue sky back…

But the real triumph of “Sledgehammer” was in video form. In the 1980’s, having a good song was one thing; having a good song backed up by a killer video took you to the top. And “Sledgehammer” has a killer video:

Watch it, then, we’ll discuss.

The joke of the video is that it took the lyrics and purified them. In each scene, the metaphoric content is represented literally, making it a sweet, fun, jokey sort of song. It couldn’t be otherwise–the human/animation of the video had a power that couldn’t be denied.

The power of the content arrested so much attention over that year that it seemed to be in heavy rotation on MTV nearly all that year, from the time it was released. In 1987, it garnered (according to Wikipedia):

...nine MTV Video Music Awards, a record which still stands as of 2007. It ranked at number four on MTV’s 100 Greatest Music Videos Ever Made (1999). MTV later announced that “Sledgehammer” is the most played music video in the history of the station. “Sledgehammer” has also been declared to be MTV’s number one animated video of all time.

It’s impossible not to watch it, once you stumble on it. There’s so much going on in every frame you want to go back and look at it again, just to make sure you don’t miss anything.

Technically, the video’s most obvious technique is “pixilation” (which must be distinguished from pixelation, which is what happens to a GIF or JPEG when you zoom in on it, or pixelization, which is how they obscure faces and logos on shirts on television). Pixilation is essentially an stop-motion technique in which your subject is a person; the person becomes the stop-motion puppet.

For many of the stills in the video, Gabriel had to lay prone, under a sheet of glass, over a process that took some 16 hours, according to the legend. Staging in this way explains quite a few visual aspects of the video, such as how in several animated scenes, Gabriel’s face doesn’t exactly look like it’s quite being pulled by gravity in the traditional way, and how so many of the other stop-motion effects seem to magically maintain themselves in from of his face (the produce and the woodwork, most notably).

Many (if not all) the stop motion effects were done, in their pre-Wallace & Gromit days, by Ardman Animation, who, like Jim Blashfield, has a long and famous history with the music video. This would explain the familiarity of the stop-motion clay animation in the late-middle third of the video.

That’s all for now.

Tags: Attack of the 80’s, Peter Gabriel, Sledgehammer, So, 1986 Music Videos, Ardman Animation

[my_happy] Attack of the 80’s–Peter Gabriel and "Sledgehammer"

884. As usual, the theme is something I’m taking forward with me into a drudegery-filled weekend in order to make it a little more survivable. This time, the Peter of the Gabriel.

Like a whole lot of music consumers of the day, being raised at the time on top-40, I had a limited awareness of the British supergroup Genesis (my loss, since rectified). What I therefore had no way of knowing was of the huge role that Peter Gabriel had in it, nor his inimitable sense of artistic style, which is why when his song “Shock the Monkey” became popular and started to get heavy rotation on MTV. This was in 1982.

To this day I’m not sure I even like the song really. But I can’t resist listening to it, even today. And if I see the video playing (which you can probably find on YouTube). I’ll always pause to take the whole thing in.

In 1986, Gabriel broke a string of self-titled, avant-garde’ish solo albums with a sparely-designed album sparely titled: So. Compared to what I’ve heard of his previous effort, it was almost unabashedly commercial, but since Gabriel was as Gabriel did, it didn’t sound like a sell-out; it was listenable but still had all the interesting quirks and influences and experimentation that made Peter Gabriel’s music what it was.

The song “Sledgehammer” was an interesting bean, notably opening with the sound of a shakuhachi flute, then going right into a brass-heavy blues sound. The lyrics were fun and entendre-laden:

You could have a steam train/If you just laid down your track/You could have an aeroplane flying/If you’d bring your blue sky back…

But the real triumph of “Sledgehammer” was in video form. In the 1980’s, having a good song was one thing; having a good song backed up by a killer video took you to the top. And “Sledgehammer” has a killer video:

Watch it, then, we’ll discuss.

The joke of the video is that it took the lyrics and purified them. In each scene, the metaphoric content is represented literally, making it a sweet, fun, jokey sort of song. It couldn’t be otherwise–the human/animation of the video had a power that couldn’t be denied.

The power of the content arrested so much attention over that year that it seemed to be in heavy rotation on MTV nearly all that year, from the time it was released. In 1987, it garnered (according to Wikipedia):

...nine MTV Video Music Awards, a record which still stands as of 2007. It ranked at number four on MTV’s 100 Greatest Music Videos Ever Made (1999). MTV later announced that “Sledgehammer” is the most played music video in the history of the station. “Sledgehammer” has also been declared to be MTV’s number one animated video of all time.

It’s impossible not to watch it, once you stumble on it. There’s so much going on in every frame you want to go back and look at it again, just to make sure you don’t miss anything.

Technically, the video’s most obvious technique is “pixilation” (which must be distinguished from pixelation, which is what happens to a GIF or JPEG when you zoom in on it, or pixelization, which is how they obscure faces and logos on shirts on television). Pixilation is essentially an stop-motion technique in which your subject is a person; the person becomes the stop-motion puppet.

For many of the stills in the video, Gabriel had to lay prone, under a sheet of glass, over a process that took some 16 hours, according to the legend. Staging in this way explains quite a few visual aspects of the video, such as how in several animated scenes, Gabriel’s face doesn’t exactly look like it’s quite being pulled by gravity in the traditional way, and how so many of the other stop-motion effects seem to magically maintain themselves in from of his face (the produce and the woodwork, most notably).

Many (if not all) the stop motion effects were done, in their pre-Wallace & Gromit days, by Ardman Animation, who, like Jim Blashfield, has a long and famous history with the music video. This would explain the familiarity of the stop-motion clay animation in the late-middle third of the video.

That’s all for now.

Tags: Attack of the 80’s, Peter Gabriel, Sledgehammer, So, 1986 Music Videos, Ardman Animation

[my_happy] Attack of the 80’s–Peter Gabriel and "Sledgehammer"

884. As usual, the theme is something I’m taking forward with me into a drudegery-filled weekend in order to make it a little more survivable. This time, the Peter of the Gabriel.

Like a whole lot of music consumers of the day, being raised at the time on top-40, I had a limited awareness of the British supergroup Genesis (my loss, since rectified). What I therefore had no way of knowing was of the huge role that Peter Gabriel had in it, nor his inimitable sense of artistic style, which is why when his song “Shock the Monkey” became popular and started to get heavy rotation on MTV. This was in 1982.

To this day I’m not sure I even like the song really. But I can’t resist listening to it, even today. And if I see the video playing (which you can probably find on YouTube). I’ll always pause to take the whole thing in.

In 1986, Gabriel broke a string of self-titled, avant-garde’ish solo albums with a sparely-designed album sparely titled: So. Compared to what I’ve heard of his previous effort, it was almost unabashedly commercial, but since Gabriel was as Gabriel did, it didn’t sound like a sell-out; it was listenable but still had all the interesting quirks and influences and experimentation that made Peter Gabriel’s music what it was.

The song “Sledgehammer” was an interesting bean, notably opening with the sound of a shakuhachi flute, then going right into a brass-heavy blues sound. The lyrics were fun and entendre-laden:

You could have a steam train/If you just laid down your track/You could have an aeroplane flying/If you’d bring your blue sky back…

But the real triumph of “Sledgehammer” was in video form. In the 1980’s, having a good song was one thing; having a good song backed up by a killer video took you to the top. And “Sledgehammer” has a killer video:

Watch it, then, we’ll discuss.

The joke of the video is that it took the lyrics and purified them. In each scene, the metaphoric content is represented literally, making it a sweet, fun, jokey sort of song. It couldn’t be otherwise–the human/animation of the video had a power that couldn’t be denied.

The power of the content arrested so much attention over that year that it seemed to be in heavy rotation on MTV nearly all that year, from the time it was released. In 1987, it garnered (according to Wikipedia):

...nine MTV Video Music Awards, a record which still stands as of 2007. It ranked at number four on MTV’s 100 Greatest Music Videos Ever Made (1999). MTV later announced that “Sledgehammer” is the most played music video in the history of the station. “Sledgehammer” has also been declared to be MTV’s number one animated video of all time.

It’s impossible not to watch it, once you stumble on it. There’s so much going on in every frame you want to go back and look at it again, just to make sure you don’t miss anything.

Technically, the video’s most obvious technique is “pixilation” (which must be distinguished from pixelation, which is what happens to a GIF or JPEG when you zoom in on it, or pixelization, which is how they obscure faces and logos on shirts on television). Pixilation is essentially an stop-motion technique in which your subject is a person; the person becomes the stop-motion puppet.

For many of the stills in the video, Gabriel had to lay prone, under a sheet of glass, over a process that took some 16 hours, according to the legend. Staging in this way explains quite a few visual aspects of the video, such as how in several animated scenes, Gabriel’s face doesn’t exactly look like it’s quite being pulled by gravity in the traditional way, and how so many of the other stop-motion effects seem to magically maintain themselves in from of his face (the produce and the woodwork, most notably).

Many (if not all) the stop motion effects were done, in their pre-Wallace & Gromit days, by Ardman Animation, who, like Jim Blashfield, has a long and famous history with the music video. This would explain the familiarity of the stop-motion clay animation in the late-middle third of the video.

That’s all for now.

Tags: Attack of the 80’s, Peter Gabriel, Sledgehammer, So, 1986 Music Videos, Ardman Animation

[my_happy] Attack of the 80’s–Peter Gabriel and "Sledgehammer"

884. As usual, the theme is something I’m taking forward with me into a drudegery-filled weekend in order to make it a little more survivable. This time, the Peter of the Gabriel.

Like a whole lot of music consumers of the day, being raised at the time on top-40, I had a limited awareness of the British supergroup Genesis (my loss, since rectified). What I therefore had no way of knowing was of the huge role that Peter Gabriel had in it, nor his inimitable sense of artistic style, which is why when his song “Shock the Monkey” became popular and started to get heavy rotation on MTV. This was in 1982.

To this day I’m not sure I even like the song really. But I can’t resist listening to it, even today. And if I see the video playing (which you can probably find on YouTube). I’ll always pause to take the whole thing in.

In 1986, Gabriel broke a string of self-titled, avant-garde’ish solo albums with a sparely-designed album sparely titled: So. Compared to what I’ve heard of his previous effort, it was almost unabashedly commercial, but since Gabriel was as Gabriel did, it didn’t sound like a sell-out; it was listenable but still had all the interesting quirks and influences and experimentation that made Peter Gabriel’s music what it was.

The song “Sledgehammer” was an interesting bean, notably opening with the sound of a shakuhachi flute, then going right into a brass-heavy blues sound. The lyrics were fun and entendre-laden:

You could have a steam train/If you just laid down your track/You could have an aeroplane flying/If you’d bring your blue sky back…

But the real triumph of “Sledgehammer” was in video form. In the 1980’s, having a good song was one thing; having a good song backed up by a killer video took you to the top. And “Sledgehammer” has a killer video:

Watch it, then, we’ll discuss.

The joke of the video is that it took the lyrics and purified them. In each scene, the metaphoric content is represented literally, making it a sweet, fun, jokey sort of song. It couldn’t be otherwise–the human/animation of the video had a power that couldn’t be denied.

The power of the content arrested so much attention over that year that it seemed to be in heavy rotation on MTV nearly all that year, from the time it was released. In 1987, it garnered (according to Wikipedia):

...nine MTV Video Music Awards, a record which still stands as of 2007. It ranked at number four on MTV’s 100 Greatest Music Videos Ever Made (1999). MTV later announced that “Sledgehammer” is the most played music video in the history of the station. “Sledgehammer” has also been declared to be MTV’s number one animated video of all time.

It’s impossible not to watch it, once you stumble on it. There’s so much going on in every frame you want to go back and look at it again, just to make sure you don’t miss anything.

Technically, the video’s most obvious technique is “pixilation” (which must be distinguished from pixelation, which is what happens to a GIF or JPEG when you zoom in on it, or pixelization, which is how they obscure faces and logos on shirts on television). Pixilation is essentially an stop-motion technique in which your subject is a person; the person becomes the stop-motion puppet.

For many of the stills in the video, Gabriel had to lay prone, under a sheet of glass, over a process that took some 16 hours, according to the legend. Staging in this way explains quite a few visual aspects of the video, such as how in several animated scenes, Gabriel’s face doesn’t exactly look like it’s quite being pulled by gravity in the traditional way, and how so many of the other stop-motion effects seem to magically maintain themselves in from of his face (the produce and the woodwork, most notably).

Many (if not all) the stop motion effects were done, in their pre-Wallace & Gromit days, by Ardman Animation, who, like Jim Blashfield, has a long and famous history with the music video. This would explain the familiarity of the stop-motion clay animation in the late-middle third of the video.

That’s all for now.

Tags: Attack of the 80’s, Peter Gabriel, Sledgehammer, So, 1986 Music Videos, Ardman Animation