It was done by Scott Stowell’s design studio, Open N.Y., the people who design GOOD Magazine.

Katya gets involved in the party planning. (Photo by Lisa)

More Photos from our V.P. Debate Party »

Also, check out our V.P. Debatinator – a mashup of video, transcript, and timeline from the debate.

Invitation design for our party, Thursday night.

I couldn’t resist – Lisa and I are hosting a V.P. Debate party this Thursday night, so I whipped this invite up. The idea was to play up two of the more striking elements of the candidates’ appearance: Sarah Palin’s beehive and eyewear, and Joe Biden’s abnormally large teeth.

The result is kind of awkward but fun. It looks like an elongated John Kerry-sized head, but it’s not worth fussing with the proportions at this point. Just go with it… I did.

UPDATE: The always charming Emily pointed out a rather obvious spelling mistake in the design above. Can you find it?

There are a few new tweaks to the familiar design, the most noticeable being the link roll folded-in with longer form entries, creating a nice chronological flow. Also, he created templates for photo posts.

My Bloody Valentine performing at Roseland Ballroom, in New York City.

My Bloody Valentine on MySpace »

Brooklyn Vegan’s Photos »

Stereogum’s photos and video of an earlier show »

Walking out of the Roseland Ballroom last Tuesday night, I felt blind, deaf and dumbfounded – and I’m not the only one. We had just stood through an assault on our eyes, ears, and patience, but it was an amazing show.

Ear plugs were handed out on the way in, and I jammed them in as far as they would go – but, I’m not sure it was enough. It was certainly the loudest show I’ve ever witnessed.

And it wasn’t enough for the light show to be trippy and beautiful, but it also had to burn out your retinas. Lisa made the point that there were more lights pointed out at the crowd than at the band themselves. Still, the bright pink glow was exactly the perfect accompaniment for the band that recorded Loveless.

Both Roseland shows were sold out. Photo by Lisa.

I realize that most people have no idea who the hell MBV is, but I’ve waited fifteen years to see them perform. Loveless was one of my favorite albums as a teenager – not only is that LP a modern rock masterpiece, but it also was the centerpiece of the whole shoegaze scene in the early 90s.

Last week, MBV front-man Kevin Shields told the Times about the likelihood of new material, and that the band made quite an investment for the reunion tour:

The band spent £200,000, about $366,000, on equipment for the tour, and Mr. Shields laughed when asked how many effects pedals he owned. “Hundreds,” he said. He only uses 30 onstage, he added.

I wouldn’t know what to do with 30 pedals, let alone hundreds. But the result was incredibly loud and layered, but still very faithful to the albums.

There is quite a bit of video from the Roseland shows, but most of it is near worthless because of the volume level. This one is probably the best out there, though it still doesn’t do the show justice… judge for yourself:

My Bloody Valentine performing “Soon” at Roseland Ballroom in New York City. Video by risekevin.

We were so far in the back though, that I didn’t realize how stunning Belinda Butcher is these days… lovely.

I really enjoy the little bits of art direction that I get to do at the Times. It’s fun to search for the illustrators, work with them on concepts and sketches, and in the end they do all of the work.

Economix

Illustration by Headcase Design

Economix is written by David Leonhardt and Catherine Rampell, and will focus on both the global economy and the personal decisions readers make everyday.

The illustration was done by Paul Kepple’s team at Headcase Design, with art direction and design by myself.

Editorial wanted to avoid anything that smacked too much of an Econ 101 lecture, so we went with this juggling concept. It reflects the accessible tone of the writing, while keying in the decision making angle.

I did an illustration that was a little drier (below), that made use of one of the most basic concepts of economics – the demand curve. It was rejected by Editorial, but I thought that it was worth taking a crack at.

Green Inc.

Illustration by Peter Hoey

Green Inc. is edited by Tom Zeller Jr., and will focus on how businesses and consumers are responding to climate change and the scarcity of fossil fuels.

The illustration was done by Peter Hoey, with art direction and design by myself.

In this one, we took that familiar comic book symbol of sudden inspiration – light bulb inside of a thought bubble – and gave it a “green” twist.

I’m really happy with the jobs that both Paul and Peter did on this, and I’m looking forward to working with both in the future. Here are some more screenshots:

Economix blog at nytimes.com

Illustration by me that was rejected.

Green Inc. blog at nytimes.com

It will be interesting to keep an eye on it during the first presidential debate tonight, as I’m sure there will be lots of insightful, thoughtful comments. ::wink, wink:: Though I wish that the list was curated down to a select bunch of journalists or commentators.

Earlier today, he caused a ruckus when he crashed the catwalk at Milan Fashion Week, dressed in a ridiculously funny costume. The photos and video look hilarious.

The Javascript was only supposed to toggle the pink grid bars when the user hits ctrl+shift+G – but it must have interfered with some other ajaxy stuff, because it was toggling with only the G key. So, it’s been removed – and I added a screenshot of what it looked like to my original post about the redesign.

That is all.

Everyone feels tricked and betrayed by their beloved Hershey. And to that I say, it’s f*cking hershey, get over it. It’s not a high quality product to begin with (still love it, though).

I just think this is a dumb thing to get worked up about, especially when so much food right now is making people sick. Can we focus on making and growing food that won’t give us E. Coli and forgive a little vegetable oil?

My answer is no, but I think that foods of all kinds contain too much processed sugars and fats.

New design for the homepage of time.com, the website of Time Magazine.

Time Magazine started rolling out a redesign of time.com yesterday – it was designed by my friend and former colleague Sean Villafranca, who left our group at the Times earlier this year to become the Design Director for time.com.

It strikes me as a welcome departure from its previous CNN-esque iteration, and a little more faithful to the print design. I like the use of Arial Black, and the daring use of the TIME wordmark on the white background. (Daring because it would’ve been far more predictable to use the wordmark reversed on a red background.)

They seem to have only rolled-out the home page and the article pages at this point – section fronts still show the legacy design. But on the whole, it’s a very good improvement to a very good news resource – just in time for the general election season.

ALSO – A few birdies tell me to expect some major design changes to wsj.com today or tuesday, coming hot-off-the-heels of their magazine launch this month. Yes, we’ve heard this before, but there are some preview screenshots out there. Stay Tuned!

Twin beams of the Tribute in Light in lower Manhattan, as seen from the Promenade in Brooklyn Heights.

Lisa’s tattoo confirms that Buffalo is indeed #1.

New York magazine has an interesting feature on New Yorkers moving to Buffalo, NY, the very city that Lisa and I were raised in and subsequently couldn’t wait to leave from after high school.

Some people will read this as a story of defeat. They will look at Herbeck and Cloyd and think, They came; they couldn’t cut it; good riddance. That’s also a familiar New York narrative, one that’s especially comforting to those of us who stay and stick it out. Because, sure, stained glass and spare bedrooms are nice and all, but no one moves to New York because they think they’re going to get a great bargain on an apartment. You move here because you want to live in New York City.

The writer then goes on to say that this is not a story of defeat, but rather an opportunity:

But New York, for all its mythology, is no longer a frontier. Buffalo is a frontier. And when you think of the actual frontier, you’ll recall that no one ever packed up and moved West to a gold-rush town because they heard it had really good local theater.

Um, okay… Truth is, I know more former 716 area coders that are now in 212 or 718. But, it’s a provoking premise for a city famous for little more than snow and four consecutive failed Superbowl bids.

Cassie Ramone and Vivian Girls perform.

Last week I saw Vivian Girls play at Death By Audio in Williamsburg. It was my second time seeing them, and certainly won’t be the last. The Times printed a rave review:

Even though this band’s music tends toward the discordant, Vivian Girls … are romantics at heart. Their taut, no-nonsense songs brim over with noise and touches of shoegaze reverb, but at the center are glorious, gentle harmonies.

They open for Sonic Youth tomorrow, August 30th, at the McCarren Park Pool, or you can catch them again at Death By Audio on September 2nd.

Gossip Girl Invades Carroll Gardens, Olds Are Befuddled, Enraged »

I’m going to refer to my neighbors as “Smith Street whipsters (wealthy hipsters)”, unironically and with zero self-awareness, from now on.

The Democrats are going “game show” in Denver.

Flickr revamped their slideshow feature, and the results are stunning. The full-screen mode is especially nice, and videos are now integrated:

One of the main improvements we’ve made is that you can watch videos as they appear in a slideshow. When we come to a video in a slideshow, we’ll play it before we move on to the next item.

The slideshow above is from the Democratic National Committee, showing what the stage will look like at for the party’s convention in Denver, which starts Monday. It’s just about the cheesiest Deal or No Deal thing I’ve ever seen, but perhaps it will play well on TV. (The Caucus has a photo of the Republicans’ stage, as well.)

Or, if kitties are more your speed, here is a gallery of our cats Katya and Mouse…