ultramedia
Please visit the active Ultrasparky blog to browse the for the content that has accumulated since this all began in 1996.
Hero
Even before I realised he or I was gay, John Waters was a massive, massive influence on my overall queerish sensibilities....
She was a boozer, a user and a loser
...and I miss her. Jerri Blank, we salute you!...
Type choice and type use
I'm still getting back into the swing of things after an extraordinary one-week trip to Iceland for this year's ATypI conference in ReykjavÃk. Although I've attended ATypI before, this was the first year I've been a speaker, and one lucky...
I do believe in fairies!
John Candy as Divine as Peter Pan, from 1982. Uncle Buck as Babs! [via Dangerous Minds]...
The Dap-Tone Super Soul Review!
Take a minute and picture that woman working as a corrections officer at Rikers. The fact that an incredible singer like Sharon Jones languished in obscurity for years doing jobs like that is part of the tragedy of her...
Hand-Painted Type
It's been a treat to see Hanif Kureshi's completely awesome HandPaintedType project getting a lot of attention and praise during the last month or so. I met Hanif back in March, at Typography Day in Ahmedabad, and immediately took...
Street Life: India
Well, street traffic, at least. You could spend a lifetime trying to show all that happens as part of the rich, bustling, messy, magnificent life on the average city street in India, but here are a couple of quick videos...
Opulence! You own everything!
For a while now, I've been joining some pals for a monthly movie night and last night we had a selection of mine, the 1990 documentary Paris Is Burning. Every time I come back to this film, I love...
It's Madison time. Hit it!
Although it's not the most thrilling clip, it's cool to see this version of the Madison Time from Baltimore's Buddy Deane Show, the inspiration for Hairspray's Corny Collins Show. (And it's worth looking for other Buddy Deane clips to...
Ron Swanson dancing in a tiny hat
That is all....
So much sparkle!
jonnodotcom: Love Boat Follies (1982): “A rarely seen clip, and perhaps Merman’s final film performance, this is Ethel Merman, Ann Miller, Carol Channing and Della Reese performing ‘I’m The Greatest Star’ from Funny Girl on an episode of ‘The...
Timeless
I hope these Youtube videos stay online for a while, so you can all see this British documentary about John Waters, made around the time Hairspray (the first, non-musical one) was released. It's a little annoying to listen to Jonathan...
At sea
Another Sunday on the water with the Dutch members of the Reading mafia...
Let me adorn you, the bold design of you
GAY TYPOGRAPHY ALERT! If you are a regular here at Ultrasparky, then there's a good chance you're either a type nut, or kind of a homo. (Those are both wonderful things, and I applaud for either. You may still be...
Witness the magic
Witness the magic at 3:07: fishheadned: My pal Dan (at ultrasparky.tumblr.com and pinkmince.tumblr.com) told me over the weekend that Justin Bieber and John Waters met on a talk show in the UK, and that somewhere out there was a picture...
I knew her when
Long before autotune, that Oscar, little baby Apple, and even her duet with Huey Lewis, young miss Gwyneth Paltrow and a few of her chums at the exclusive Spence School on the upper east side of Manhattan planned a...
Type is only skin-deep
Ready at last! Feast your eyes on this little video clip of me getting my tattoo of the "w" from Type Mafia's Actium Black Italic this Summer. Henk Schiffmacher, the tattoo artist, was quite a character, and luckily he...
The Power of Bollywood
Two things I’ve been enjoying while working all this week: Video: Season 4 - Music Video - "Game On"...
The Pink Angels
ruffians: The Pink Angels (1971)...
Glyphs on film
One of the intrepid designers who have purchased a license for Sodachrome (perhaps you recall me mentioning that lovely typeface designed by the talented Ian Moore and me?) is my pal Todd Macfie, a designer in Vancouver who I got...
Enter the Void
One of the points I try and make when I talk about "bad" type (let's just say it's of dubious quality, for whatever reason) is that a good designer can do brilliant things with almost any typeface with enough imagination...
Oh Coney, My Coney
The start of Summer always makes me long for Coney Island, especially now that it's so far away and I'll probably never see it again before it finally gives in to all the pressure and becomes something else. But there's...
Raising the bar
I completely adore what my colleagues and pals are doing to establish their up-and-coming foundries like the Type Jockeys and BAT Foundry. Of course, it just makes it harder for the rest of us — all dazzling, charming, and talented...
How To Find A Masculine Halloween Costume For Your Effeminate Son
How To Find A Masculine Halloween Costume For Your Effeminate Son...
Legacy of a misspent youth
This one goes out to all of us who grew up in the New York City during a certain era before cable or movie rental when you had to make sure you were home in time to catch the annual...
VB4 is coming!
div#main{overflow:visible;} Holy cow! So excited. (Via)...
And you're crawling like a...
In these grim times, let us not forget some of the sublime pleasures of the lesser Jacksons: Centipede — Rebbie Jackson I’m not even being funny. I love, and have always loved this track. Embedding is disabled for the video...
Busted!
This year, I finally got sucked in and become one of the "ironic non-idiots": I also gave into peer pressure and reactivated my long-defunct Facebook profile, even though the whole tign still kinda gets on my nerves. Between that and...
Subway Stories
It only dawned on me yesterday that the videos from the WYSIWYG Talent Show were still languishing on our old web server, which is rather a terrible waste considering how much more easily you can handle video on the internet...
Oh, Hitler
He's freaking out about fonts again: I like the shout-out to I Love Typography in that one....
The Alphabet Shelves
I am in love with this installation/cluster of shelves shaped liked letters. (I may also have a bit of a crush on the guy who made them, but that’s a different matter entirely.) Check out his other stuff, too:...
OMG STAR TREK!
Trekkies Bash New Star Trek Film As 'Fun, Watchable'...
The Master Reads
It a truth universally acknowledged that the Hitler-loses-his-shit scene from Downfall is an almost endless source of comedy gold if you play around with the subtitles. Finally, a version that cuts to the chase on a subject very dear to...
You will like my sense of style
"Let me adorn you, the bold design of you." I absolutely love this song from Towa Tei's second solo album, Sound Museum. When it came out in 1998, I had no idea who Kylie Minogue was (and although I...
Processional
My supremely talented and charming pals Eric and Nicole of the Process Type Foundry delivered a great, illuminating talk about their work recently at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis. Luckily, you can view it on YouTube (below), or download...
Secret Lives
Oh captain, my captain! We all wish we got to know that Jean-Luc Picard....
A Quick Tour
I made a short little video to show how nice my new place is, and how lucky I am to have found it. Especially after the last nine months of slowly degenerating awfulness. Sadly, Flickr cuts it off shortly before...
A bullet dodged
Like its predecessor, this would have featured cool ships and robots, and crappy everything else. Behold! The promo trailer for the never-finished Battlestar Galactica: The Second Coming:...
Too Many Dicks
I’m so happy that the second season of Flight of the Conchords has finally arrived. On the whole, it's even funnier this season, although the music is a bit iffier. I’m devoted and all, but I’m still waiting for a...
Library data
Shamelessly, unoriginally ripped off from Norm: Number of Songs: 18,812 Most Recently Played Song: Peaches & Herb, "Shake Your Groove Thing" Most Played Song: Freeez, "I.O.U. (7" Version)" Most Recently Added Album: The Eurythmics, We Too Are One First Song...
The Party's Over
We lost another treasure this weekend, when 82-year-old Blossom Dearie passed away in her sleep. Blossom's music was a wonderful mixture of sadness and sweetness and mischief, but I’m very surprised that her Times obituary didn't mention the work that...
Let's sing that plucking song
I’d forgotten about this, and am very grateful that I stumbled across it again to distract me from my housebound boredom: If you're dumbfounded, here's some background info....
A Holiday Venture
One of the few Christmas traditions I’ve come to treasure is the annual cover song recorded by the guys behind the Venture Brothers. It's just the bit of good-natured pop-culture fun that can actually make me smile this time of...
She's Amazing.
Granted, it's not as great as the final choice, but how is it possible that I’ve gone this long without knowing there was an unused (or perhaps very rarely used) alternate version of the Bionic Woman theme? And while I’m...
If you like it put a spin on it
It seems that this old Gwen Verdon/Bob Fosse clip that I wrote about is the video-remix gift that keeps on giving:...
Kids those days
From the foreshortened perspective of the 21st century, this extraordinary clip just reads as a bunch of old or dead people doing stuff a long time ago that sure looks goofy now: But yet if we pick it apart, we...
Singin' for your supper
Bette Davis pulled a neat trick when she took on the title role of Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?, managing to revive (and in some sense, reinvent) her career at an age when most leading ladies were left with no...
Urges
I love it when my iPod — always in shuffle mode — randomly throws together a perfect mini-theme. Just now I got Song Against Sex by Neutral Milk Hotel, followed by Sexcrime (1984) by the Eurythmics. Even better, they were...
Go Team Venture!
I only recently discovered that the third, brilliant season of The Venture Bros. is running a great promo gimmick: The Amazing T-Shirt of the Week Club. Each week, after an episode is first broadcast, you can get a t-shirt...
It's funny 'cuz it's true
Caution: The following video clip may cause graphic designers, art directors, and other creative functionaries to laugh and weep, perhaps simultaneously....
Cultural Miseducation
For ages, most of what I knew about the golden age of Hollywood came from figuring out the jokes on old sketches from The Carol Burnett Show, which I watched in reruns pretty regularly as a kid. Until about three...
Battlestar Barbarella
When worlds collide, eh? I love both Barbarella and Battlestar Galactica, but for very, very different reasons. Seeing them mashed together for a promo shoot makes my head hurt a teeny bit. If I were more of a straight...
Danny Boy
Happy St. Patrick's Day from the Muppets (via Sean): I can't stop laughing once Beaker chimes in. It's perfect. As you might imagine, I have a bit of a love/hate relationship with Danny Boy, since it's effectively been my family...
The Old Stomping Ground
Speaking of my high school, its Wikipedia entry led me to this video, filmed in the building, which still looks the same, apparently: That may be the merest bit of trivia to most of you, but I bet a few...
This Room Is a Mess!
My favorite thing of the moment is this ridiculously fun song about cleaning your room: (Performed by GOGO13, as seen on Yo Gabba Gabba!, by way of BoingBoing.) At any point between 1987 and 1993 or so, this would have...
Reading's Glorious Past
Random pop-culture trivia about Reading that I learned today (with audio references): Mod band Secret Affair played their first show at the University here in February 1979, opening for The Jam. (I would have loved to see either band.) Ten...
Always never quite right
One of the more profound touchstones of my pop-cultural development was Square Pegs, a short-lived sit-com from 1982 that starred, among others, the people that would be better known as Captain Kirk's bastard son (so pretty, so tragic) and...
Cult of UHF
Find of the day: a free podcast featuring full-length downloads of classic B movies in the public domain. Cult of UHF! They're not high-enough resolution for home-theater viewing, but if I’m watching stuff that’s for curiosity or light entertainment I...
Temporary separation
People are always surprised to hear that I haven't been homesick all year. Although there are lots of things — and certainly lots of people — that I miss, I was really ready to leave the States, and in...
Battered veg!
I wish Reading had a few pubs like that near campus....
The Matter of Anti-Matter
Oh, and in my free time time this year I designed a book, too. It's also my first design project to get its own MySpace page, since it's about indy music stuff and the music folks apparently use the MySpace...
The Bionic Nun
There are so many reasons why The Bionic Woman is an all-time favorite of mine. And that was before I remembered there was an episode where Jaime poses as a nun to uncover a diamand-and-heroin smuggling ring operating out...
What's old is new
Some things naturally cross the cultural, racial, and generational gaps. Watch what happens when Bob Fosse and Gwen Verdon get mashed up with Unk. Bonus! Check out the original clip....
Ska and Stars
I mostly want Dave to hear this, but since we're not the only ones who can appreciate the sheer awesomeness of a Romanian gypsy brass band fused with ska beats, I present it for you all: Mahalageasca (Bucovina Dub) —...
Crossing Cultures
This week at school we've taken a brief detour from our alphabets and immersed ourselves in the world of North Indic scripts. (Apparently I have a flair for Bengali — who knew?!) Rather than bore you all with exposition about...
Thank YOU, Internet!
Whenever I try to explain why I have such fond memories of the short-lived sketch-comedy show The State, I invariably end up trying to paraphrase the "muppet meat" sketch. Now, thanks to your friends at the Internet, you can just...
Kiki and Herb Died for Us
Did anybody else get their 2-CD set of the Kiki and Herb Carnegie Hall Show yet? I just ripped open the package and threw it on, and it's amazing! I’m quivering in delight. I’ve been anxiously awaiting it — especially...
Long Live Kiki and Herb
If the conservatives really wanted to eliminate the subversive homosexual menace, the best way to do it would be to blow up Carnegie Hall tonight, where a great throng of us (and a great many sympathizers, no doubt) will...