Breakfast Links: Lucas at it again, Helvetica & Sludge Olympics
I am speechless, I am aghast, I am annoyed, I am a little hungry. George Lucas is at it again (scroll down about 2/3 down the page). He warms up with the admission that he’s making Indiana Jones 4. Seriously, does he have a single creative bone left in his body? Then he suggests that Spider Man 3 is silly because “there isn’t much there.” Umm… Did he see Episodes 1, 2 and arguably 3? Then keeping in his continually going back to the well/lack of creativity he says that he’s getting ready with a Clone Wars animated TV series. But here’s the capper, he’s planning not one but two more live action movies based on Star Wars. Seriously, I’m serious now, do you think he has one original thought left in his mind? I mean it’s not like he’s an aging rocker who has run out of money and needs to have a reunion tour - he’s got more money than anyone knows what to do with - why does he have to keep this up?
So Helvetica, it’s the font you know and love. People love it and they hate it, but it definitely inspires. First there was the shirt. Then there was the movie. Now, for it’s 50th anniversary there’s the retrospective. Kind of like an It’s Your Life for the font, the BBC describes the history and the emotions behind the legend. You didn’t think there was history or emotion behind it did you? Eh? I thought not.
And then there was the Sludge Olympics, also known as the Operator’s Challenge - now in its 20th year. Brings together sewage treatment workers into competition with each other to complete a series of 5 challenges. It’s good to see that these workers who nobody ever sees yet perform an oh so vital task to this big city get their time, figuratively as well as literally, in the sun. I mean, check out this memory of the job:
Roger Alava grimaced, thinking of the time he had to rinse his mouth out with rubbing alcohol; like all the sewage workers, he has learned to hold his lips permanently pursed, but a tiny splash of sewage can still go astray.
Gross, I hope these guys are getting paid enough.
BONUS LINK! Paris Hilton gets it wrong again when in a statement about her latest court hearing she says “No one is above the law.” Um, earth to Paris, Steven Seagal is Above The Law.
