Alison Garwood Jones

This saying made me laugh (out of recognition).

Here’s where we are four months into 2013. Narcissistic? Perhaps. But it sums up the technological revolution we’re all feeding and advancing, mostly through our phones. Who’d have thought that the gatekeepers, for whom we used to do our breathless song and dance routines, would lose their sex appeal so rapidly? Power in decline isn’t pretty. It’s mean and selfish. Beware.

Patti Smith is calling this new reality, “the democratization of self-expression.”

I can’t get enough of her right now as I navigate my way between creativity and solvency in cyberspace. Smith first came to us in beads and bandanas — a curious, scruffy and luminous beat poet and performer. Her heightened awareness of the meaning of life and change is proving to be as strong today as it was in 1969. “We’re going through a painful adolescence again,” she told a crowd. “What do we do with all of this technology? What do we do with our world? Who are we?”

So, it’s official. My heart has moved on from chasing deals on paper. I’ve boarded the rocket ship. I didn’t ask where my seat was. I saw one, it was empty, so I claimed it. You’re looking at it.

“Follow the growth” is a business axiom with massive creative potential.

This is a riot. And the mic was on.

“Canadians love things that aren’t practical or useful, like pennies, the metric system and bilingualism. It’s just part of who we are.” — Jim Flaherty, finance minister (announcing that the Canadian government is reinstating the penny, effective immediately).

Postscript: Yup, they got me hook, line and sinker. Only on April Fool’s could a politician make such a correct observation about Canada, then pretend it’s a joke. I wanted to believe the Google Nose gag too.  I’m so sad that one is not true. Click and sniff is the final frontier in computing.

 Photo: Ryan Faubert, Design: Alison Garwood-Jones

I’ve upgraded my blog and website. Here’s a rundown of the changes:

1. I added a throw to my new fiction site called Drop Cap (enter through the parachute, top left)

2. I’ve reorganized my drawings on a separate site called iArt (enter through the Etch-A-Sketch, top left).

3. I’ve trumpeted these additions on my home page with three new fancy tags. I’m not the only one who likes those vintage office tags.

And in case you’re wondering about the art above, I was inspired by old record covers from the early 1960s — in particular, The Supremes and some old comedy recordings by Elaine May and Mike Nichols. Here I tried to replicate the quality of the photography fifty years ago on pulpy LP sleeves (grainy black and white). I also got that sixties look by adding false eyelashes, courtesy of Photoshop (I already had the pixie). To finish, I added a few signature graphic touches of the era: round stickers with serrated edges, the Bewitched sparkly text and the oval WordPress symbol I invented to look like the old labels for Capitol Records and Mercury Records.

There is nothing “High Fidelity” about this website, but I like Nick Hornby, so in it went.

Finally, I’d like to thank my friend, Graham Scott, for turning all of my website ideas from the last three years into HTML reality. Nice work, Graham!

Get creative

Courtesy of Etsy

The paper I associate with postwar Paris, chocolate brioches dipped in milky coffee, and a certain soignée presentation of self is changing its name.

The International Herald Tribune is to become The International New York Times. I suppose it makes sense. It was always the global edition of the Grey Lady. But still …

Will the new name fit on the T-shirt?