The face of the type and the yearning for kerning

Anyone with more than a passing interest in typography (I'm looking at you strangedave) should have a gander at John D. Berry's new blog. I've described John before as a typographical rock star. Can't wait to see his design on the 25th anniversary edition of Little, Big.

Exogamy

Lately it seems to me that my borders are getting stretched again by encounters, real and virtual, outside my usual confines. This is partly thanks to recent output and input and story-pitching by wrdnrd, e_compass_rosa, and kdotdammit, my three most recent new Friends, whom I mostly don't know in so-called real life; partly due to an ongoing infusion of strange new music; and partly, over a somewhat longer course, due to changes in my work situation that, after initially leaving me feeling completely out of my depth, are finally beginning to give me a whole new perspective on what I'm doing here. It's all pretty exciting, if also more than a little bit disorienting. I mean, the people I work with were really excited about that UWeek story last week, which was a completely unexpected reaction and still rippling. Yesterday, for example, the Vice Provost over our division came down from on high to congratulate me, which I think was a really cool thing for him to do. (I was in a meeting at the time, so missed it, but it's the gesture that counts.) To a large extent, this was all down to wrdnrd, who originally pitched the story to UWeek on her own initiative and out of the blue.

Well, to quote Johnny Guitar, I'm a stranger here myself. You come to expect the unexpected, but it still changes you.

Not that I've lost contact with familiar landmarks. Tonight holyoutlaw and I are going to go see American Gangster -- the third gangster movie in our recent movie-going history. All of a sudden it seems I'm seeing nothing but Ridley Scott movies in the theater. Maybe it's time to watch Legend again. Nothing like Tim Curry in red rubber Satan-suit to make me feel right at home.