Picture
Spotted this in a Seth Godin email, 100,000 plus vintage advertising images from the 1870's to 2000. Great reference for design teachers, but should be interesting to all. www.vintageadbrowser.com/ Doing a search for labels the search engine allows for search by color as well. There is also a sister site for Covers, for example: "Twilight Zone" www.coverbrowser.com
 
 
 
Happy Holidays! 12/24/2009
 
Picture
Click on image above for card.
Illustration by Arielle Gorman arielleink.com
 
 
If you click on a song below and do not have iTune software on your computer you won't be able to hear the song, however, sites like Amazon.com will let you listen to a small sound byte if you search for the song.
 
 
 
 
Picture
Paul Kiesche is a talented friend and colleague of mine and has seven paintings entered in this contest, the winners work will be incorporated on billboards to be displayed along the Palisade.  There are lots of great paintings and photos...I encourage you to vote (go to view & vote) for your favorite, but give Paul's work a close look, his landscape series is impressive, more of his work can be viewed here. Enjoy the art.
 
 
Picture
Robert Patterson, a mathematics professor at the University of Pennsylvania, sent a cipher (coded message) to his friend Thomas Jefferson in 1801, recently it was solved by a math professor in Princeton, NJ containing a message referencing the Fourth of July. Happy & Safe Fourth! Read more about the message.
 
WolframAlpha 06/04/2009
 
Picture
OK, WolframAlpha may look complicated, but it's easy to use when looking for statistical information, measurements, stocks, music notes, what the weather was like when you were born, and other interesting facts. Type in a question in plain language and it will interpret your question. Some info can be quite obscure...type in your name and find out its rank in popularity and how many other "Gerards" are in the country, 44,710 in case you were wondering ;o) Check out the overview video to see what else you can find, I think you will find it useful...at least the dataphiles should.
 
 
Picture
New album from Coldplay, free download. Live concert with a couple of new songs. Enjoy!
 
 

Perhaps the wisdom of the crowd can help me identify this commemorative event and what these people are known for. I can't find anything on the web to help me identify the event or what these gentleman are famous (or infamous) for...I think they may be composers, but collectively there must have been some 30 year anniversary that escapes any reference that I can find. Please let me know if any of you can help me.

Some hints include: 1) the years 1929 -1959; 2) the names: Emeric, Albert, Armand, & Zoltan. Also the the cities: New York, Paris, and Grenoble (France) repeat around the outside perimeter, the back has a logo of a deer with the logotype of "Dofan". This 3/4 lb Bronze medallion measures 3 1/2" in diameter was purchased for $3.00 at an auction in NJ...which makes a great paperweight until I find out more information.

Mystery Update (5/14/2009): Thank you all who contributed to help solve the identity of the medallion. The most comprehensive explanation was supplied by Ulysses Grant Dietz, Senior Curator of Decorative Arts at the Newark Museum "Dofan was a high-end handbag manufacturer in France that had a shop in NY as late as the early 1960s.  So this medallion was clearly an anniversary moment for the company--which obviously was founded in 1929. My guess is that the four men were the founders--perhaps even brothers (given the use of first names)."

Several contributors also helped identify (with photos) that Dofan was a handbag manufacturer (now vintage and apparently in high demand) and the logo was in fact a calf and not a deer as I first suspected (Thanks Cheryl). The calf represents the material that makes up the handbags. Thanks go to Rich, Andy, Bruce, Brett, Cheryl, Melissa, Matt, Doug, Marilyn, Jody, Rick & Ulysses for their contributions. I guess I'll have to keep looking for some new puzzles...stay tuned.