So a few weeks ago, I was at yet another library sale in town, and found an old VHS copy of “How to Succeed in Business…,“  a 60′s Broadway musical starring a one Robert Morse.  It follows the metoeric rise of a young man from the mailroom to the board room in a matter of days.  The play is humorous and crisp, with fantastic visuals and modern songs.  It also playfully describes and exploits the typical 60s business workplace, with all female secretaries, a president’s mistress, and all old men at the top.

The lead actor, Robert Morse, does an excellent job.  He’s funny and creates a very lovable character that you really wish would win in the end, despite the sort of sneaky nature in which he accomplishes his tasks.  He can sing, the dancing is pretty good, and he also playing the character originally on Broadway.

But where did this guy come from?  What has he been in since its release in 1968?  I’ve watched quite a few musicals and didn’t recognize this dude from anything, so I decided to investigate, and this what I found:

ROBERT MORSE PLAYS BERT COPPER ON MAD MEN

The same dude who plays in a contemporary 60s musical about the corporate rise of a regular dude in 60s NYC ends up playing an ad partner in a contemporary 00s drama about a 60s office in NYC.

Way to blow my mind, Universe.

News in the design world is that Font Bureau, one of the largest type design companies in the country, are taking NBC to court for the unlicensed use of several of their popular fonts.  In a suit for ‘no less that $2 million,’ Font Bureau indicates that NBC used Bureau Grotesque, Interstate and Antenna on several computers throughout the company without paying for all the copies.

Shame on you, NBC!  You know just because you can copy it, doesn’t mean it’s legal.  And it’s awfully funny that a company that started its own online video streaming site in reaction to posting clips of SNL and Conan on YouTube would be so lax in their distribution on another company’s intellectual property.  You know better than to do that, especially when you hire tons of people to score the depths of YouTube for anything that had to do with one of your many TV programs, movies, or news broadcasts.

As a result, NBC has had to redesign much of their fall network promotional materials, which may have not really even be a bad idea.  Maybe all the promos for the Jay Leno Show will be misplaced, saving millions of people from having to continue to see his face.  Anywhere.  We can always hope!

Found via CityFile, where you can also read/see the legal paperwork from the case.

Wow.  Just wow. Monsieur COK is a short French film illustrating the struggle between capitalism and communism, labor and money, automation and human labor.  Visually stunning and groteschly real, this is a fantastic yet somewhat scary look at the industry that drives our lives, wars, and world.  Watch it online.

Fantastic!

(Found via NotCot.org)

Hey, let’s go to the movies…

This looks awesome! Like the Helvetica of advertising. I took an advertising class in college and have a friend who works in the field. It just seems too hyper-maniacal when it comes to the creative demand of the field, but I think it really would be thrilling, maybe for a little while.

So let’s all go see Art & Copy. Tops? OK!

We all knew that one day, two of the greatest things in film making–stop motion animation and Wes Anderson–would come together, and the result would be so awesome that the universe of awesome would explode into a million awesome pieces, like stars of greatness, like that scene in The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy when they blow up earth, but better because now, Earth survives. 

And likewise, we will not panic, but also, freak out because Fantastic Mr. Fox is the dream’s things are made of and looks amazing:

I heard about this a while ago, peed my pants, and then totally forgot, because at the time, 2009 seems so far away. I was too busy being excited about Sweeny Todd and finally finding a copy of The Life Aquatic Criterion Edition on DVD at Half Price Books.

But now, this trailer, with a fox dressed like Richie Tenebaum and a soundtrack that I’m sure features David Bowie, I couldn’t be more excited.

Double Cheers!

I don’t even want to set this one up it’s so good. You’ll want to watch it again.

Cheers!

Ok, here’s the deal:  it would be super easy for me to automatically take the low road and make fun of this movie like a lot of people because of the obvious ‘trite movie flaws’ it may have: Ellen Page, Drew Barrymore, Austin Texas, Weezer in the trailer, etc.

But I won’t, because this movie look awesome:

See? This looks funny and quirky, and as someone who was like t h i s close to joining the first every Springfield MO roller derby team, I think this is awesome. And I freakin’ love Drew Barrymore, and she’s directing this thing, and that’s pretty cool.

Whip It hits the movie screens in October. I’m stoked.

Cheers!

(Ana Galvañ)

So a few years ago, my roommate in college dressed up like Max from “Where the Wild Things Are” for a school function about childhood, and ever since, I’ve had a renewed sort of fondness for this book I read when I was a kid.  And as everyone knows, they are making a movie, which looks fantastic, with everyone, I think, stoked about the new popularity of the book.

Terrible Yellow Eyes is a blog collection of illustrations inspired by the book and is just amazing!  The submissions are done in everything–pen/ink, oil, chalk, digital–from artists all over the world.

Here are some of my favorites:

Jess Smart

Shannon Bonatakis

Tad Carpenter

I think what I love most of all is the variety of style and interpretation of the characters.  It’s almost if they would have had to read the book without the pictures.  Amazing!

So, yesterday, I headed down to my local library to return some stuff and get some new movies.  And I just recently rediscovered/discovered my like for the legendary Kids in the Hall, a great Canadian export of the early 90s, so I was stoked when I came across Brain Candy.

The movie features the Kids in the typical cross-dressing, mustache wearing, comedic selves in a story about drug companies.  Ok, this aspect, I liked.  I liked the idea of a movie released in 1996 poking fun at pharmaceutical companies and the Prozac crazy/scare of the time.  I liked the concept and most of the delivery, but I’m sad to say that I won’t be buying this used on Amazon anytime soon.

The acting seemed sort of forced by most, like they all thought it would be an awesome idea to do a movie, and then got it picked up, and then hated it.  Dave Foley (who, I think is probably  one of my favorites…News Radio, duh) seemed to just phone this whole performance in.  On a 1996 cell phone. While on vacation.  And I liked the doctor role, played by Kevin McDonald, but he was kind of overshadowed the whole time by other, more ridiculous characters.

The rest of the Kids’ performances were good, sort of bringing back people from the TV days and featuring a lot of their best skills as performers. Mark McKinney was great as always, playing the CEO of the drug company with a spot on corporate exec impression.  Scott Thompson again brought out the best old lady characters, singing gay guy-in-denial and a lady? scientist.  And Bruce McCulloch played songs, a woman, and the infamous “I guess it would be in 1996″ Cancer Boy.  But it just seemed like they were the ones really wanting the whole thing to work.

ANYWAYS, it’s a fun watch, especially if there are snacks and ridiculous people around.  Just be warned though there are quite a few ‘boy-related bathroom humor’ jokes right from the start. I wouldn’t suggest a purchase–not because it’s unbearable; it just seems a little forgettable.

Cheers!

Mark Simonson has a great write up about the use of fonts in various movies (search “Son of Typecasting“), including The Royal Tenenbaums.  The film uses primarily Futura, which Wes Anderson uses in all of his films, for everything from the titles to the credits.  Simonson also points out the use of Helevetica in the film, which is used for the movie’s classic graphical book covers.  Definately give it a read.

Cheers!