Newspaper Taxis

New Blog

2008-11-19T01:20:00.004-05:00

For anyone who checks or reads this site, I haven't posted in so long because I have created and been working on a new blog design and posting over there. I set up the new one in Wordpress and its a lot fancier and cooler. I'm not done with it yet, but its looking better than this one at least. I'm not sure if anyone does read it, but here you go!

http://williepetersen.com/blog2/

I M SLOW

2008-09-01T01:38:00.003-04:00

So I haven't posted in a really long time. And now here I am, summer is almost over, and I have 2 weeks left of my 20s. Summers always seem to go by so fast these days. Well I didn't do a whole lot. Went to six flags, tomorrow we are going to IKEA. I am going to Denver to see a Broncos game in October though, that is cool. I guess I will just sit here and wait out the remaining days of my youth.

Summer

2008-08-05T20:03:00.001-04:00

Well summertime is already almost over. It's august and I have my usual list of things I haven't done yet: the beach, no road trips, have only been to Cental Park a couple of times. We are going to Six Flags this weekend though. That is something.

Posted with LifeCast

Two Weeks

2008-07-23T21:26:00.003-04:00

So I am coming up on two weeks since my switch from my old RAZR to my shiny new iPhone. So far, I am all aboard the one device to carry around train. Having a phone and an iPod all the time was a bit annoying, especially in the summer when I don't have extra jacket pockets. My iPhone works just as good on the subway as my old iPod touch did and now I can make calls without taking out my earphones. I also am much more willing to send text messages, before it was such a chore using the numeric keypad that I would stop myself or just cut the message really short. Now I just type away and bother to construct cohesive sentences. Of course, having constant access to the internet is probably the biggest change, I can check the Mets score at anytime or look something up on wikipedia. Now I just have to work not to become one of those people. The battery life on it isn't great and I will probably end up buying a rechargeable battery pack for emergencies, but it is definitely worth the trouble overall. So this post really doesn't have too much of a point other than, I love my new iPhone.

You're Just a Freak, Like Me

2008-07-17T21:37:00.005-04:00

Tonight at midnight, The Dark Knight is released in the US. I have been waiting for this movie for a long, long time. I don't read comics anymore but I still have some strong attachments to some of the characters from my youth, including Batman. I loved when Burton's came out in '89 and liked the next one. Well everyone knows the awfulness after that with Mr Freeze and stupid Chris O'donnel as a horrible Robin. Well Christopher Nolan made all that go away with the brilliant Batman Begins, which brought the series back into as much of a reality that a man dressed up as a bat beating up bad guys can be in. Now we have the sequel, and what looks to be a legend making performance of the Joker by the great Heath Ledger. We are seeing it on IMAX Sunday afternoon, and I think I might make myself a cape to wear before then. Maybe a utility belt.

Green Grass & Blue Skies

2008-07-17T00:34:00.001-04:00

IMG_4046, originally uploaded by willrmc.

Its been a couple of weeks now, but star and I went to Iowa over Fourth of July for a family reunion. It's always nice to get away from the city, especially to places so very different. There are a lot of vast fields of corn and soy beans there and a few really nice people. Here's to the farmer.

Ricky Gervais!

2008-07-16T19:05:00.001-04:00

Going to see Ricky Gervais, the hilarious created of the Office tonight. I've wanted to see his act the last few times he was in NYC but never did. It's at Theater at MSG which is an awfu venuel, but it should still be great. Best of all I'm writing this while sitting in the little pizza place on the corner. God bless you iPhone.

Posted with LifeCast

Testing Lifecast

2008-07-13T17:44:00.001-04:00

It's been too long since I've posted, maybe this will help me be better at it.

Posted with LifeCast

Philly

2008-06-20T00:12:00.002-04:00

I get to go to Philly tomorrow for a very brief trip for work. I think I will try and get cheesesteak for lunch on the bus on the way back. Hopefully there is a good one near downtown where I will be.

obsessed

2008-06-04T21:03:00.003-04:00

Since the shackles that have bound me to Verizon Wireless have finally been removed, I only have one thing on my mind. iPhone. I patiently waited while everyone around me gobbled up the latest and coolest gadget the world has seen, I bought an iPod Touch with hopes that it would take away the emptiness (which it did for a while) all the while just telling myself, only one more year. Well that year is over, and now I have the prospect of a better, shinier, fancier new 3G iPhone coming out next week. Now its just a waiting game, and the last few days are much worse than the previous 12 months. Things I am hoping will be announced are: 32gb (the 16 I have now aren't cutting it anymore), GPS (would be cool for when I rent a ZipCar), and some good 3rd party apps like solitaire, a ww point calculator, and Nike+ compatibility. Then I can move on to obsess about something else.

Happy Memorial Day

2008-05-26T01:04:00.001-04:00

IMG_3478, originally uploaded by willrmc.

May all your picnics and bbqs be meaty. Very meaty.

Back from Boston

2008-05-22T00:14:00.004-04:00

I am back from Boston tonight, Suzi and I left Saturday and just got back tonight. It seemed like a really long time to be gone. Anyways, the HOW Conference was amazing and I saw a lot of very inspiring talks and am back tired but very creatively energized. Highlights for me were: Stefan Bucher and John Foster discuss inspiration and creativity, Debbie Millman interviewing Michael Beirut and a creativity workshop with Sam Harrison. Now its time to buckle down and put all these great lessons into action instead of just letting them slip away.

I also got to see the beautiful city of Boston for the first time. I have always wanted to go, but never did. We walked the 2.5 mile Freedom Trail there and back and walked another several miles to a great seafood restaurant on the pier called No Name Restaurant. We also got to see a game at the one and only Fenway Park, which just happened to be one of the best games possible as Jon Lester threw only the 8th no-hitter in Fenway's almost 100 year history. I put aside my Mets loyalties for the night to cheer on the Sox with all of the very enthusiastic Bostonians.

UPDATE: Pics finally up. WICKED!

Shipping up to Boston

2008-05-17T03:53:00.001-04:00

Heading for Boston tomorrow for the HOW Design Conference. I'm really excited and will post more later.

JO-han SAN-tan-A

2008-05-11T23:44:00.001-04:00

IMG_2676_cr, originally uploaded by willrmc.

Got to see my first Santana game, as a Met at least on Saturday. Wasn't his best game but he's just getting going anyways and we still won big. Good times, plus the tickets were free and I got to use my new camera to get some sweet close up action shots.

Poor Eleanor

2008-05-09T01:28:00.001-04:00

IMG_2554, originally uploaded by willrmc.

She had to have a minor operation. She is fine and doesn't need to wear the collar anymore, but still. Poor thing.

Tote Bags

2008-04-24T00:50:00.002-04:00

The tote bag charity show that I have the honor of being involved in is live and selling online. There are a lot of great artists on there and most are still available. My wife's was one of the first ones sold so congrats to her! Mine is still up there, but honestly there are a lot better ones than mine. Check them out here.

Back Home

2008-04-23T23:58:00.005-04:00

Well we made it back from Japan. It was an amazing trip, probably the best one I have ever had. Tokyo was an amazing, bustling, insane, but so very organized city. Everything just runs like clockwork there, the trains, the roads, just everything is buttoned down and in place. In a place like NYC where chaos seems to run everywhere, it is crazy to see a city with more people, more bustle, but so much calmer still and in control. Kyoto was very beautiful with a modern city center and then the historic old Kyoto districts of tea houses, Geishas, and temples. These two cities and Japan in general have such an interesting contrast between old Japan, with its gardens, crafts, and very conservative traditions; and new Japan, with its crazy colors, ultra-modern feel and a general no-holds barred aesthetic. These two very different sensibilities seem to exist side-by-side without much problem. The people there were also really great. Not many people spoke English, but everywhere we went people went out of their way to make us feel welcome and to help us to understand as much as we could.

Things got a bit rocky towards the end though, when I came down with the flu. It made my last couple days there a bit long and we weren't able to do a ton of things without me getting extremely tired. The flight back was twice as bad while being sick and then I got worse once we got back. I am recovering now though, so that is good.

I put up the photo links before, but here is a condensed version of the photos, since I'm sure the whole lot of them is a bit overwhelming. Click me please.

Konnichiwa

2008-04-13T02:45:00.002-04:00

I am writing this from my hotel room overlooking the skyscrapers in Shinjuku, Tokyo. We are having a great time and have fully immersed ourselves in the insane Japanese culture. We have already done exploring of our neighborhood Shinjuku, Ueno, Akihabara, Shibuya, and just got back from a very costly trip to Harajuku. Lots and lots of stuff to buy. Before we left, I talked Starla into letting me get a new digital SLR for the trip and I was so excited to take some great photos. So I got to JFK Thursday morning and realized that I left the battery to my new camera charging plugged into the wall at home. Luckily, I was on my way to Tokyo, the electronics capital of the world and I found a new one and charger the first night. We are here in Tokyo until Tuesday, when we take the bullet train to Kyoto. The first batch of photos are uploaded and we will keep uploading them until our trip is over. Click me for happiness of life.

One Week

2008-04-04T00:54:00.003-04:00

Counting down now. One week until we leave for Japan. We still have a lot of planning and reading up to do, this whole thing kind of sprung up out of nowhere. I'm worried about jet lag when we get there, its a 14 hour flight with an 11 hour time difference, don't want to waste any of my time there sleeping. Really excited though.

re*

2008-04-01T23:59:00.002-04:00

Starla and I were to get involved with Kalene, Dan and Easton of Thundercut and Open Space to design a Tote Bag for a benefit show promoting using reusable canvas bags instead of disposable plastic ones. I decided to do a typographic version of the reduce/reuse/recycle using re* ( prefix used with the meaning “again” or “again and again” to indicate repetition.) I'm excited to see what everyone else does.

Finally

2008-03-30T16:38:00.003-04:00

After what seemed like an eternity, opening day of the 2008 baseball season is finally here. The Mets are coming back with hopeful thoughts of erasing the horrible collapse of last season from everyones memory. Johan has definitely done his share to make everyone forget and look forward to the future. There are still some questions about the #5 spot in the rotation and some possible depth and age issues to be found, but All and all the team looks to be much stronger overall than the start of last season. Suzi and I also bought tickets to opening day at Shea next Tuesday.

Stupid Busses

2008-03-30T15:40:00.007-04:00

I'm back from another Beatle-fest and it went great except for some mishaps with the NJ Transit. I managed to miss a few busses, get on wrong busses, make a few unplanned transfers and wait in the cold for about an hour until midnight for a bus that never came. Because of my bus issues I missed the deadline to enter my poster into the art contest. I never got a print I was truly happy with anyways, but there wasn't really anything worthwhile in the whole "contest" thing anyways, nothing that I would call art. There is still a lot I have to learn about the intricacies of screen printing, but I guess the more I do it, the easier it will get. Back to the fest, I did get to meet, however briefly Pattie Boyd, George Harrison's first wife and the muse behind some great songs. There was quite a rush over her book signing and I ended up having to wait a really long time to do it. I met some really nice people from New Jersey though and talking to them made the time go by a lot faster. I ended up giving them the poster I brought too, so it didn't completely go to waste.

I made a last minute t-shirt from one of my poster screens that turned out really cool. It was very spur of the moment, I just searched my closet for a blank shirt, found one and tried to print on it right off. I think I will make some more of them and try and sell some on my eventual etsy shop. I also bought an actual replica bronze badge to go with my Shea jacket, from the same people star bought my jacket from (beatlesuits.com). There was also tons and tons of stuff that I would love to have but probably can't ever afford. There are original Beatles ticket stubs, including some from Shea stadium, which go for about $300-$2000, and of course the holy grail of Beatle items original autographs which I heard one went on auction there for $2600 but in the marketplace they were about $15,000 all the way up to $46,000. That is just nuts.

Makin with the screen screen

2008-03-24T00:31:00.003-04:00

Well I didn't get as far as I would have liked on my new poster but I'm still in good shape to have it done by next weekend. This one is a lot bigger than my previous one (15"x20") and as it got larger the complexities went up as well. I got a great deal on some bigger screens at Standard Screen on Friday so that was nice. Once I got the screens, I coated them with the emulsion Friday night. So far, so good. First obsticle was printing my transparencies for each screen, and with the size I am working at meant printing four 8.5x11 sheets then trimming and tiling them together. I managed to get the five color design onto three screens, so that meant 12 sheets total.

After I got the positive transparencies done I need to expose the screens to light. Now since this poster is so much bigger than my past one it was very difficult to make sure all the edges and corners of the screen got as much light as the middle. It took a few tries and three ruined screens but I eventually got them all burned right. The text layer was the most difficult by far though since there is so much coverage plus a lot of intricate little shapes from the smaller letters and counter forms.

Now that I have the screens done I need to worry about the actual printing of the piece. I'm sure the size of it will be a hurdle again here and will have some learning to do. I also am going to be playing with a new technique, transparent inks.

All good though, all good.

Beatly Goodness

2008-03-19T23:43:00.002-04:00

So in spite of American Idols butchering a lot of their music this week, I have been working on my new Beatles posters that I hope to have ready for printing this weekend. Next weekend is Beatle-fest in New Jersey and I would like to have a few posters to enter into an art contest so hopefully I can get some people interested in buying some. As it is now it is a bit more complex than I would like at this stage of my printing career, but I guess the designer side of me is winning. Here I will need to make 5 different screens and figure out some transparent ink stuff as well. I guess there is no way to learn better than just jump in there head first. We'll see.

Classic/Contemporary

2008-03-13T01:24:00.003-04:00

Tonight we saw industrial designer Tucker Viemeister of Rockwell Group talk at an AIGA/NY Classic/Contemporary talk. We have been to all three of them so far where we also saw Louise Fili and Jim Sherraden of Hatch Show Prints. All these events have been very low key and informative with short presentations and very insightful interviews. With smaller rooms and crowds it is a much more intimate place than the big ones like the Sagmeister talk a few weeks ago. It is nice to be involved in the ny design community, even if I can't bring myself to talk to anyone else I don't know there. The next one should be in April and will probably be just as good. Suzi and I are also going up to Boston for the 2008 HOW Design Convention which will also be ridonkulous.