pug.jpg, originally uploaded by visualkaos.

At least two things happened today that were just kind of weird.

First, I was listening to a podcast of a Neko Case concert recorded by NPR at the 9:30 Club in Washington D.C. in April, 2006.
Between songs she was bantering back and forth with one of the other musicians in the band and at one point she said, “I could still get arrested after eating macaroni and cheese.
“I wasn’t paying that much attention so I didn’t actually get the context of this comment but that statement, that she could still get arrested for eating macaroni and cheese, for some reason just kind of recalibrated my ears.
Like when a cat has his back to you and you make some kind of noise. Their ears instinctively turn backward. They hear the sound and their little brains process the information and they know immediately if what they heard was threatening or not. If they deem the sound to be benign they see no need to turn around for any visual information about it’s source. They just crank the ears backward and keep those auditory detectors on the situation as a cautionary measure.
When Neko made the macaroni comment, my ears instinctually cranked around and focused attention on what she said. Not because I felt a threat or because I felt I needed more information about what she said. But because those words didn’t go together.
That was a sentence I did not expect to hear today.
The other thing weird thing was that I was perusing the Netflix website and I came across a movie called “Helvetica.”
I need to type that again.
I came across a movie called “Helvetica.
“Movie. Called. Helvetica.
Can you see where I’m going with this?
Now, don’t misunderstand. I happen to be a fan of Helvetica. All of my designer friends are likely wincing as they read that but, I admit it. I am a fan of Helvetica.
To be more specific, I am a fan of HelveticaNeue. Actually, I love HeveticaNeue. I love it because of the nice variety of weights it comes in from the ultra light, which is barely visible to the ultra black which when set at sizes above 80 point will use an entire toner cartridge to print the word THE. Especially if it’s all caps.
Definitely a very versatile font.
But how desperate must a filmmaker be to make a movie about a font?
Here’s the tag line: We use it every day on our computers, we see it on street signs — and we take it for granted. Now, Gary Hustwit’s unique documentary introduces us to Helvetica, whose readability has made it the most popular font in the world. Interviews with designers and artists offer insight into the development, use and universal acceptance of Helvetica as the typeface of choice for everything from writing letters to creating corporate logos.
Even as a documentary filmmaker Gary Hustwit must really be running out of ideas.
Aren’t there some groups of homeless alcoholics living in a river bottom receiving food from Catholic nuns who trudge through thorny bushes and climb over piles of broken concrete with rebar sticking out of it and get mud all over their brilliant, white habits to bring it to them?
Isn’t there some nerd from Cleveland who spent the last 15 years collecting the fluff from his belly button and now makes 1/3 scale sculptures of national monuments from it?
Wouldn’t that make a good doc?
But who am I to talk?
The best idea I had tonight was to post a photo of a pug who rides around in a stroller.
The above photo may not be the best thing I’ve ever done but I love it nonetheless.
The pugs name is “Jefe” and the woman who is his guardian said of his incongruous position, in good English but with a strong accent, “He walk good, but he get tired.”
They live in the same apartment building as my mother-in-law in downtown Ventura, California. A place I fondly refer to as “Hotel Freakshow.”
They fit in beautifully.
My mother-in-law, not so much.

Another sentence I didn’t think I would say today, but I did was, “Those Newmans have a banana taste to them.”