Daily Book Graphics #25 / Matchbox 1979/80

The fact that this catalogue still exists in one piece is pretty amazing. I don't know how it came into my possession, but somehow it did, probably in 1979. The orange BMW CSL in the lower left hand corner of the bottom picture was the first Matchbox car I was ever given, most likely in 1976 or 1977. I pored over this booklet hundreds, maybe thousands of times, thinking about the cars I wanted and checking off the ones I already had. I can still tell you which ones I had played with at other kid's houses. I think I still have some residual desire to own the red car carrying truck in the middle image.

Parade Day

I stopped by the St. Patrick's Day parade yesterday. Unfortunately I wasn't up for making a day of it, having been out late/early the night before at A.J.'s studio party. My friends were watching the parade from a second floor apartment on Delaware Ave. The weather was in the mid 50s and sunny which is the best weather anyone can remember for parade day. I took a few iPhone photos:

Daily Book Graphics #24 / Helvetica Bosch

I think this book was purchased by my father on a trip to Italy in 1969.

Daily Book Graphics #23 / Fancy Pigeons

I found this book at Rust Belt Books in Buffalo. It was originally written in German and translated into English for the UK market in 1985. I really like the layout and the way the pigeons are photographed against alternating color backgrounds. I find the bizarre range of pigeon breeds fascinating and slightly alarming. It is a very thorough and technical book, there are gruesome pictures of pigeon autopsies that illustrate the effects ofdiseases and parasites.

Daily Book Graphics #22 / The Modest Medium

I bought this book recently at a used book sale. It's a paperback book in a hardcover library binding, From the University at Buffalo Library. It was published by the United Nations in 1976. I like the strangeness of the cover illustration. Another interesting thing about the book is that the last person to check it out was minimalist composer, video artist, filmmaker and Buffalo resident Tony Conrad in 1980. Conrad's website here, and a recently published (massive) book about his work here.

Daily Book Graphics #21 / A Penguin Cover

This a pretty basic post, one straight up Penguin cover from 1975. Someone's really good Flickr set of Penguin and Pelican covers here.

Daily Book Graphics #20 / Pop Art

This was (mine now) one of my father's books from his time as an art history Professor at the University of Wisconsin Whitewater in the late 60s and 70s. The book was published in 1968 and reprinted in 1969. I like contemporary books about art movements, they often feature interesting artists that don't end up making it into the official art history. The cover illustration is Clip-o-matic Lips, 1967 by Joe Tilson and the back cover features Jim Dine's 1965 painted cast aluminum piece A Nice Pair of Boots. Design: Gillian Greenwood

Saltwater Crocodile Eats Shark

I recently posted an illustration of a crocodile attacking a shark from Jacques Cousteau's book Shark: Splendid Savage of the Sea. Well here is what it looks like in real life. Link

Daily Book Graphics #19 / How to Know the Spiders

This book was a major inspiration for my To Know the Spiders project (now you can be one of the rare people who get my project title reference). This edition is from 1978. The book provides keys to Families and common genera. It is part of The Pictured Key Nature Series (you can find them on Amazon). I really should make an effort to collect them all, the covers are all brilliant.