a helluva town...

...the Bronx is up, but will I want to see the new Yankee stadium?

New York gets in your blood, I guess. It's not in the cards for me to live there at the moment, but who knows what the future will bring. It was fun to be back, if just for a few days. But a little surreal, as the city is very different from when I last called it home.

Besides 9/11, New York has become "family friendly," which actually translates to gigantic high-end mall. As we took a quick stroll down 5th this afternoon to check out some holiday store windows, I was appalled to see people lined up to get into the Abercrombie & Fitch store. C'mon people. It's just the Gap. Really. And last time I looked, they had one of these stores in a local mall. But this was the New York store...

Did I mention the other crowd of tourists taking photos of Trump Tower? Why? You got me. Because it was there, I guess.
This is my third New Yawk trip in a year. Wow. Anyway, I have to admit that Times Square still fascinates me. Where I work I am always hearing the fearful predictions of the death of print. I do think that newspapers are on the way out, and magazines probably not so far behind. But we'll still have the IKEA catalog, right? But I digress.

I do both print (primarily) and web graphics to earn my bread, but what this latest trip through Times Square taught me is that yes, digital techniques are changing printing, making paper products, posters, less necessary. I have to admit to being amazed that a digital subway kiosk sign was already proclaiming Twilight as the #1 movie. Quite a far cry from the old out-of-date posters advertising movies tnat bombed or concerts that happened long ago. A digital ad can be updated frequently. Bad news for printers with old-school presses, but good news for designers and others wishing to embrace new technologies.

New York is leading the way. D.C. has a small area in it's Chinatown with a large digital display. In another ten years or so we could all be living like Blade Runner. But what will New York look like then? What will our Obamaworld be?

todd rundgren is a punk

I mean that as a compliment.

I caught his Sgt. Pepper show the other night and was blown away. Not just by the music, although Rundgren's performances of Mr. Kite and Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds were stellar. As were Denny Laine (once with the Moody Blues and Wings) on Within You Without You, Christopher Cross on When I'm 64 and Bo Bice's guitar work on While My Guitar Gently Weeps. Unfortunately, the other headliner, Foreigner's Lou Gramm, was not up to par, missing cues and seeming to be in a separate time zone from his fellow performers. They all played their own hits to open the show, with the second act featuring that most famous of Beatles albums, a record that most folks know by heart, and have had as a part of their lives.

But what really made the evening a treat, and kept it all together, was Rundgren, who owned the stage from the moment he stepped out to perform his hits Open My Eyes, I Saw the Light and Bang on the Drum, a personal anthem for me these days, as I struggle to get back to art-making while still having to put up with a frustrating, but necessary, job.

I remember liking Rundgren when I was a tween, still too young to go to concerts (Dad would have never allowed that!) By the time I was old enough to do such things (basically, getting out of the house and on my way), the Clash, Squeeze and the Police were my main focus. But reading (and sometimes writing) about music kept his name in the background, mostly hearing about his producing work, which was also impressive.

What really touched me the other night was that the spirit of punk, or rock, or whatever it is that floats your boat, was alive and well and flourishing. And we could all channel into it. You can still make your art, bang your drum, bleach your hair, do whatever it is that makes you who you are. We are all a product of our history, our tastes, our shared moments. Sgt. Pepper was the vehicle, the shared consciousness.

Rock on Todd, keep challenging that inner punk and I will, too.