Harry's New York Bar

The reason for blogging this bar is similar to the reasons for blogging the bookstore, it is in Paris, and was frequented by Hemmingway and Fitzgerald, however i get the feeling that they were visiting this establishment for very different reasons. This bar again was set up by an American hoping to profit from the American occupation of france in the WWI, he bought it with a friend who owned a bar in NYC, dismantled the NYC bar and shipped it to france to re build it there.

The owners hired a guy called Harry to run it, when the bar went out of business Harry bought the property put his name in the title and ran it himself, turning it into the parisian legend it is today, it purports to be the oldest cocktail bar in europe and created cockatails like the bloody mary and the monkey gland. There are pictures of writers and artists sat at the tables hanging on the walls, and gershwin composed and American in Paris on the piano in the cellar bar.

Again just the oppourtunity to be in a place that Fitzgerald and Hemmingway may have thought or even penned a draft of The Great Gatsby and The Old Man And The Sea* is really exciting and gets the creativity inside me all riled up. Plus the Long Island Ice Tea is fantastic if brutally alcoholic.

*if you haven't read these, do so. They're really good.

Shakespeare and Company Ltd Book Store, Paris

As I said, graphic design in Paris seems to be on the back burner, however there are some very cool places for the arty creative types (surprise surprise).

One of these places is the Shakespeare and Company bookstore on the bank of the seine just opposite Notre Damme, It was opened before the war and has had quite an interesting past, it published Ulysses by James Joyce, when the States and the UK banned it, it was closed by the Nazis when the then owner wouldn't sell Finnegans Wake by James Joyce to a Nazi soldier, it sold risque books like Lady Chattersley's Lover when it was banned in other countries and was a hotspot for travelling authors of the 'lost generation' like Hemmingway and Fitzgerald.

After its closure it was reopened by George Whitman, and american soldier who didn't want to go back to the USA, it followed on in the same tradition as the original shop, becoming a cultural point of reference for bohemians and authors alike, it offered a very open door policy to travelling authors offering them free accommodation in return for a few hours work in the shop. This tradition continues today with shop housing 70 beds for traveling authors and bohemians, in addition there is a piano which the owner encourage the customers to play, similarly the writing booth complete with typewriter and fresh ink ribbon is there for all the aspiring writers.

The shop is fantastic housing every book you could possibly wish for, 1st editions, re additions, classics, modern classics, fictional or reference, all aspects are covered, with velvet seats scattered around the upstairs for you to sit and read.

It is of personal interest for me as I am a big fan of American Literature especially Fitzgerald, so just to see the places he hung out, drew inspiration from and was a part off is quite an experience.

Paris

Hi, so i have just come back from Paris, I went with my lady, firstly it was pretty sweet, secondly there was barely any decent graphics there, terrible poster designs and no agencies in central paris to have a look at, the galleries were pretty good, but very traditional, no real exapmles of a graphic edge in any work, even in the Pompadou, however there was a real presence of some quality product design, Phillipe Starcks presence in Paris is clearly rubbing off.

Hope you like, I'll find the designer in a bit and post up his website, for now there is a link to Phillipe Starcks website because, in my opinion he is a fantastic designer.

http://www.starck.com/

enjoy.

Patrick Hruby

Patrick Hruby is an interesting Illustrator, illustration isn't exactly my thing, but type is, and he uses his obvious skill to create some really nice illustrative typefaces, check out the rest of his portfolio here...

http://www.patrickdrawsthings.com/index.html

Helvetica 50

This is some of Andy Young' graphic design for the Sheffield Leg of the Helvetica 50 exhibition, celebrating 50 years of Helvetica, not only is this a delicious piece of graphic design, it uses Helvetica, a type face I favor in my own work. If you like this then check out his other works here.

http://www.ayoungdesigner.co.uk/

enjoy.

Kick-Ass

Kick-Ass (2010) from holli on Vimeo.

Saw it a couple of nights ago, probably one of the best films i have seen, totally re imagines the comic book genre, perfect mix of comedy, irony and brutal violence, accomplished performances from all the actors including a truly brilliant performance from a back on form Nic Cage.

Matthew Vaughn as director improves his portfolio with this film, taking everything he learnt from lock stock, snatch, layer cake and stardust and tweaking it ever so slightly, as it was totally funded by his company and Brad Pitt, there were no studios to tell him to tone anything down and the result is a film that he wanted to make and we wanted to see. He is one of the only directors making films this way and it works for him perfectly. If you can see it, go see it.

I Met The Walrus. Vimeo.

This is a very cool animation i found a while back and forgot about until now, its relatively interesting if you value the opinions of a spaced out musician, but really what makes this so good is the animation and graphic, it's a classic case of if you don't ask you don't get. Enjoy.