to lucha, with love

1. RC 12.21.07 / 5am

   I’m actually a graduate of Printing Institutes of New York and studied in the Ancient Times of “Stripping”. Yeah, yet another lucrative trade that the computer killed. It killed Paste Up and Mechanicals and Sign Painting and many other highly skilled trades I used to do. Picking the fonts I can do without thinking, it’s automatic for me. But the rest of the custom blog concepts dismay me enormously simply because of my ignorance. Sooner or later I will have to face the music and do the dread Blog Dance. For now, it’s still later.
2. Nezua 12.21.07 / 5am

   my papi was doing some teaching to me of cut and paste back in ’89, and i mean real cut and paste!! jeje. trying to beef up my knowledge so i could apply for more graphics/art jobs back in the day. back before it entirely moved into the electric and electronic format.

   you are right. i keep many fonts in my mind. i need a certain look and i can mentally rolodex quite a lot, say “hmmm maybe Confidential would work there” but i havent stored all 9000 there yet. so i still have to do a bunch of looking.

   you are a sharp guy. you will get the blog mechanics easy in time. if you ever need a hand, shout out. i’ve spent too many days under the hood here. never planned to know this much about blogs or code. had to learn, just like a kid learns how to change his own oil on his first car if he wants to be driving anywhere. (well, a kid without tons of cash!)
3. RC 12.21.07 / 6am

   Thank you very much for the offer Nez, I will absolutely take you up on that in 2009 as you have announced that you are steering away from the site work this year of 2008 to concentrate on other productions.
   I may have sold off my collection of 1000 10 foot high mahogany {caoba} trees yesterday along with most of my native fruit tree collection which is now pretty extensive. I met a guy who has a naked three acres and wants to remedy that problem. So maybe I will buy the MAC finally when I convert the biomass to greenbacks.
   But if no sale, I’ll have to wait. Meanwhile, in the nursery, the money continues to grow on trees and today the glorious rain is falling. So, it’s all good. How about a font called “Glorious Rain”? For me, the best part of the font lists is the names of the fonts. I also like the names of the colors in the BLP Mobile Paint color fans. Some person or crew has to dream up thousands of names for those colors. One can imagine the job description: Color Inspiration Executive. Hey, I could do that job, but maybe a computer program is now doing it. That could explain why that brownish red color is now labeled “Bloody Hell”.
4. RC 12.21.07 / 6am

   Oh yes, we fogies actually used Exactos and rubber cement and rulers and squares and gum erasers in olden times. We used the ridiculous type point conversion wheels. Spec-ing type sizes? A whole migraine inducing science that Art Directors had to overcome before they could even get on the bottom rung of the ladder at the ad agency or production room. The whole game was primitivo and massively time consuming and inefficient. It helped if you were born a Libra to keep all that cut up text and illustration balanced and aligned on the page. This was an actual handcraft and was a nice trade to be in. Gone now.
5. Nezua 12.21.07 / 6am

   you crack me up.

   sure enough. and if you get the mac before 2009, please also hit me up for advice. i’ve been using these things for a number of years now, too. it wouldnt be hard to pass on some advice. wouldnt take anything away from my time. even setting up a quick blog isnt too hard. i am just staying away from paid jobs. paid jobs people expect done in a certain amount of time and a certain way. i’ve actually never been a good commercial artist. just a good enough artist that people wanna hire me. and i always need the cash. bloody hell indeed.
6. Nezua 12.21.07 / 6am

   my original education, when i was in Commercial Art, indeed included much typography, and tools. doing logos with ink and tech pens and such, before i ever got on a computer. and then i went to fotografia. where i learned all about silver particles and lights and D76 and such and spent years learning that and then went to film school and learned more…and was lucky enough to be in school as the cusp drastically shifted to digital video. so i feel you. i was worried that my years of fotografia based on film and film cameras—that kodak is hardly making anymore—was lost years and wasted time. luckily, computers really just replace the tools. not the principals. all that still applies.
7. RC 12.21.07 / 6am

   Needed The Cash, sure to be my epitaph. I see Cali is only three hours behind us now. We never change the clock here.
   I wonder if your faithful following appreciates the schedule you have to keep? I got in at 5 AM today and did my computer work, I’m done now.
   Later, and Excelsior!
8. RC 12.21.07 / 6am

   I was lousy with the pens, my right hand is 50% disabled. That was my weak area in the old world. But with a maul stick and mongoose brush I was fine with the sign painting as that was really an elbow skill. I love to cut a line and love the feel of the paint flowing out of the mongoose hair. It is an ecstasy. I’m sure you know. The FLOW brother! It gets me high, I swear. And it wasn’t just that high lead content paint I used either!

   Well, off to the bank to deposit some checks. Need The Cash.
9. Nezua 12.21.07 / 6am

   i’ll see to it that the proper papers are in order. “Needed the Cash.”

   i dont know that people do appreciate the schedule i have to keep, and it doesnt really matter, because i dont, actually, “have” to keep it. i’m just stricken with the affliction of near-boundless self-expression, and i guess i’m happy people enjoy it. i dont want their appreciation for the hours i keep at it…because then i’d have to take seriously complaints that i dont do it enough, or the right way…so its a self-rewarding activity, or none at all.

   lata bro!
10. Nezua 12.21.07 / 6am

    i keep answering you before you reply again.

    i hear you tho on the physicality. that is lost. i was JUST talking about that. it is freeing to stand before your easel, let that elbow ride the invisible arc of an imagined line. it is good to shake the body out. this is part of what is bad about computers. you just become a potato bug curled into one shape for too long.

    which is why i am very glad to have a conga/bongo set in this room and i often stand up and start banging out beats. good for breaks.

    talk soon bro
11. Carmen D. 12.22.07 / 5am

    Well, this is kinda off topic gentlemen, but maybe you can help me with a question that has been nagging me for ‘Decades’: what in the hell is ‘blueprint blue?’
12. Nezua 12.22.07 / 5am

    hey there carmen. i’m wondering if you mean “non-repro blue”? if so, that is a blue that artists and layout people use that does not show up when making photographic reproductions or printing of the art. so this pencil (and its a specific shade of blue, of course) is used for guidelines and crop marks and such.

    if not, i dont know, haven’t heard of “blueprint” blue myself.
13. Carmen D. 12.22.07 / 7am

    Hee. I was referring to the lyric in Steely Dan’s “Peg” where they sing “I got your picture…I keep it with your letta’…done up in blueprint blue…it sure looks good on you…” Not exactly a technical reference and maybe just an assemblage of words to create a lyrical fit. But I have ALWAYS wondered about it. At least I no know about ‘non-repro’ blue. That’s interesting.

    Also, I am picking up the poster you made today. I had it framed (floating) at the best shop in Los Angeles. It is indeed fine art. (Emily did the same and it is incredible.)
14. Nezua 12.22.07 / 7am

    oh…i feel simultaneously stupid and flattered!

    thank you. i am very happy to hear this.
15. RC 12.22.07 / 12pm

    Carmen: Nez’ def of Non-repro blue is correct. But actual blueprints, which are made in black ink on paper traced over the non repro blue pencil {this is the long ago past as now it is all computer Autocad — no one uses a writing instrument any more} when printed on a blueprint copier, print in a color called Blueprint Blue.
    Decades ago I was often asked when my turn came at the blueprint copy office: “India Black or Blueprint Blue”.
    And yes, the moment you asked the question I knew it was about Peg. The Steely Dan pair have many a lyric of diamantine brilliance, and crafted phrases that have burrowed themselves down in my mind. And the music is as tight as it gets. It always disturbed me how much the critics of the era would put down Steely Dan as Soft Rock elevator music. Mozart is kind of like that too if you want to be judgemental, but Mozart’s lyrics were less impressive.
16. Nezua 12.22.07 / 12pm

    steely dan is an odd band. and i have a rare reaction to them in that i can see they are really talented, and a unique sound, and i appreciate it, and i get it. i get the jazz roots, and i get their niche, can totally understand how they have a big following.. and i even find a bunch of their stuff catchy. yet i dont like the way the recipe plays out in my body. so i dont listen to them. odd. maybe hard to explain beyond this.
17. Nezua 12.22.07 / 12pm

    jeje mozart’s lyrics
18. Carmen D. 12.22.07 / 3pm

    RC, thanks for clarifying. Glad to meet another Steely Dan fan.

    Nez, what you say about Steely Dan intrigues me because although they are one of my favorite all time groups, it is the way their music plays on my mood and creates a feeling behind the eyes for me…in my head?. I can’t articulate it exactly, but songs like “Deacon Blues” and “Dirty Work” take me to places no other music can.
19. Nezua 12.22.07 / 3pm

    i’m not ruling out that i have yet to hear the right songs. you never know! i’m sure my experience of them is limited.

de

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