Category: Music

#110 He She Me & We

Chaz DeSimone 9 Comments
110 He She Me & We#110 He She Me & We
Click image to view full size or download poster for gallery-​quality printing & framing.
This is a high-​resolution pdf & may take a few minutes to download.
Find printing tips & framing ideas here.

Ampersand stars in hilarious music video

The ampersand looks kinda happy.Amper­Art #110, He She Me & We, was inspired by a cre­ative, fun & very fun­ny video, Sec­ond Favorite Man, by Tight Paja­mas. You’ll see, it fea­tures our favorite char­ac­ter, the fun & fab­u­lous ampersand.

Watch the video!

Most of you know I love nud­ism & hate coun­try music — not to men­tion I kin­da like amper­sands — so this video real­ly made me a fan of Tight Paja­mas. I laughed my naked ass off.

In the band’s own words:

“Sec­ond Favorite Man” is the debut sin­gle by the bay area’s Tight Paja­mas. It address­es the “cheatin’ & lyin” you often find in coun­try music, but in a total­ly unique way. In fact, it cel­e­brates a kind of love tra­di­tion­al­ly bemoaned in country/​western songs!

If you enjoy the song & the video, please con­sid­er shar­ing the link with your friends via social media. With your help, we think it has the poten­tial to be spread far & wide.
You can sup­port our work by down­load­ing a copy of the song here [like Chaz did].
tight​pa​ja​mas​.band​camp​.com
Thank you for sup­port­ing weird art & the weird artists who make it!

Musi­cians:
Mau­rice Tani — lead vocals, elec­tric gui­tar & bass,
Robert M Pow­ell — Back­ing vocals & ped­al steel gui­tar, engi­neer­ing, mix­ing, mastering
Susie Davis — pro­duc­er, back­ing vocals, piano
Pam Del­ga­do — back­ing vocals

Not men­tioned is the per­son who sug­gest­ed the title of the Amper­Art piece, He She Me & We: Jeff Green­wald. He co-​wrote the song with Susie Davis & shot much of the video. (He’s the “rab­bi” in one of the pho­tos.) I checked out some of Jef­f’s own videos & books. He’s a very inter­est­ing guy. His speech about Noah’s Ark is enter­tain­ing: Jeff Green­wald /​ Noah’s Ark

Please comment here.

chaz sez ...

Check out the new “chaz sez” blog at Des​i​moneDesign​.com, my com­mer­cial graph­ic design web­site. It’s most­ly about design, typog­ra­phy, print­ing, pub­lish­ing & mar­ket­ing, but on occa­sion I’ll divert to a side­ways top­ic that just can’t escape my rant­i­ng & raving.

Production notes for #110 He She Me & We:
Original size: 20x30 inches
Program: Adobe Illustrator
Fonts: Cooper Black, Benguait Charisma
Ampersand: Benguait Charisma
Effects: Gradation intended to resemble a method of screen printing, common in the 1960s-​70s-​80s, as were the chosen typefaces. 
You may repost the AmperArt image. Please credit Amper​Art​.com.
To download a full-​size high-​resolution 11x17-​inch poster, click on the image.

For pro­fes­sion­al graph­ic design, please vis­it Des­i­mone Design.

Desimone? Damn good!

#89 Guns & Roses & Joe at the Fotoplayer

Chaz DeSimone 3 Comments

89 Guns & Roses

#89 Guns & Roses
Click to view full-​size or download hi-​rez image for gallery-​quality printing & framing.
This is a high-​resolution pdf & may take a few minutes to download.
Find printing tips & framing ideas here.

Amperbr& series

First watch Guns & Roses & Joe at his Fotoplayer

What you see is Joe Rinaudo at the Fotoplayer he restored. What you hear is a very clever Guns & Roses overdub by adnmusic.

 

Joe Rinaudo

Amper­Art #89, Guns & Ros­es, was inspired by a my best friend of fifty years, Joe Rin­au­do, who prob­a­bly does­n’t even know who Guns n’ Ros­es is — he’s more into Scott Joplin. We were both into “old stuff” — I col­lect­ed & refur­bished old office machines (mimeo­graphs & type­writ­ers) & Joe col­lect­ed 16mm films of ear­ly cin­e­mat­ic com­e­dy — Char­lie Chap­lin, Buster Keaton, the Key­stone Cops, Fat­ty Arbuck­le , & of course Lau­rel & Hardy (Amper­Art #99).

Today Joe is a 35mm silent film col­lec­tor, refur­bish­er, itin­er­ant pro­jec­tion­ist, and con­sul­tant to the Acad­e­my of Motion Pic­ture Arts and Sci­ences, as well as the Library of Con­gress Nation­al Film Preser­va­tion Board. Vis­it his web­site, SilentCin​e​maSo​ci​ety​.org.

Short­ly after high school, Joe restored a Mod­el 20 Foto­play­er, a play­er piano/​organ/​percussion con­glom­er­a­tion that would add music and sound effects  to silent cin­e­ma. This is now in his liv­ing room. His neigh­bors love him.

There are near­ly a mil­lion posts on YouTube of Joe play­ing his Foto­play­er, which was fea­tured on Huell Howser’s Cal­i­for­nia Gold. How­ev­er, the sound you hear above is a very clever over­dub, per­fect­ly timed and enhanced, by adn­mu­sic on YouTube.

To hear the actu­al music Joe is play­ing, and to learn more about the Foto­play­er, step right over here.

Vis­it SilentCin​e​maSo​ci​ety​.org, Joe’s new web­site for old entertainment.

 Please comment here.

INTRODUCING A NEW AMPERART THEME: 

Amperbr&

Amperbr& fea­tures brand names which con­tain the word “and,” a con­trac­tion such as “n” or the amper­sand itself. In each case, the con­junc­tion is replaced by an amper­sand which is set or styl­ized in the pri­ma­ry type­face of the brand’s logo. Guns & Ros­es is the first Amperbr& issue. Search Amperbr& for others

How did Guns & Roses get its name?

I find brand nam­ing fas­ci­nat­ing when it just falls into place. Sort of like my for­mu­la for inspired design: luck+talent=that’s it! (Read about it here.) The Guns & Ros­es sto­ry fits the formula:

GUNS N' ROSES RETURN FOR HISTORIC NORTH AMERICAN SUMMER STADIUM TOUR: Founder Axl Rose and Former Members, Slash and Duff McKagan, Regroup For The 'Not In This Lifetime Tour' Produced by Live Nation (PRNewsFoto/Live Nation Entertainment)

In 1984, Hol­ly­wood Rose mem­ber Izzy Stradlin was liv­ing with L.A. Guns mem­ber Tracii Guns. When L.A. Guns need­ed a new vocal­ist, Stradlin sug­gest­ed Hol­ly­wood Rose singer Axl Rose. Guns N’ Ros­es was formed in March 1985 by Rose and rhythm gui­tarist Stradlin, along with lead gui­tarist Tracii Guns, bassist Olé Beich, and drum­mer Rob Gard­ner of L.A. Guns. The band coined its name by com­bin­ing the names of both pre­vi­ous groups.  —Wikipedia

Popular mid-​century phrase

Many “old­sters” will recall the term guns & ros­es being used after World War II, as some peo­ple had to learn that “life is not all guns & ros­es.” Of course, that’s not yet a brand name so it would not be an Amperbr& theme. But it could still be AmperArt!

How many Amperbr&s can you think of?

(That’s a brand that’s got an amper­sand in its name.)

M&M’s?  Smart & Final? Smith & Wes­son? Add yours here.

Take this fun Amperbr& quiz.

Please comment here.

Production notes for #89 Guns & Roses:
Original size: 20 x 30 inches
Program: Adobe Illustrator
Font: Cornivus
Ampersand: Cornivus (brand’s logo font)
Guns n’ Roses logo: enter​tain​men​trocks​.com
Video: adnmusic, YouTube
Quiz: sporcle​.com — quizzes

You may repost the image. Please credit Amper​Art​.com.
To download a full-​size high-​resolution 11x17-​inch poster, click on the image.

For pro­fes­sion­al graph­ic design, please vis­it Des­i­mone Design.

Desimone? Damn good!

#92 1 2 3&4

Chaz DeSimone 1 Comment

 

1 2 3&4

 

#92 1 2 3&4
Click to view full-​size or download hi-​rez image for gallery-​quality printing and framing.
This is a high-​resolution pdf & may take a few minutes to download.
Find printing tips & framing ideas here.

Remem­ber Lawrence Welk? He would use a lot more than just one amper­sand in his musi­cal count…

“A one & a two & a…”

I’m keep­ing the count sim­ple: two quar­ters, two eighths and anoth­er quarter.

This Amper­Art con­cept, “1 2 3&4,”  was inspired by a book cov­er I designed recent­ly for one of my favorite clients, Jen­nifer Eklund. She has a fab­u­lous piano instruc­tion series called “Piano Pron­to.” Her lat­est book, in col­lab­o­ra­tion with piano instruc­tor Kris Skalet­s­ki of Kid­dyKeys, is called “Road­trip! Your Musi­cal Jour­ney” and is per­fect to keep the kids enter­tained and edu­cat­ed whether in the car or tak­ing a “pre­tend trip” in your home. This fun music learn­ing book will be avail­able in time for Christ­mas. Sub­scribe to Jen­nifer­’s won­der­ful newslet­ter at pianopron​to​.com. You’ll be noti­fied when “Road­trip!” is available.

PianoPron​to​.com fea­tures piano instruc­tion for “all ages and all stages.”

Kid​dyKeys​.com fea­tures music explo­ration and piano prepa­ra­tion for preschool-​age children.

chaz sez ...

The count 1 2 3&4 is what I hear every time I take cha cha lessons. I’m still a begin­ner, although I’ve tak­en the same begin­ner class sev­er­al times already. (I get my 1’s & 2’s & 3’s & 4’s mixed up.)

Production notes for #92 1 2 3&4:
Original size: 20x30 inches
Program: Adobe Illustrator
Font: Bodoni Poster
Ampersand: Bodoni Poster Italic
Credits for #92 1 2 3&4:
Staff & notes repurposed from client’s Piano Pronto book cover design. Visit pianopron​to​.com for a superb piano lesson course—pronto!

For pro­fes­sion­al graph­ic design, please vis­it Des­i­mone Design.

Desimone? Damn good!