Pharewell
18 November 2008
Tuesday, 1:30 PM
What a year this turned out to be.
Shortly after the year began, my time with the amazing team at Happy Cog ended. It was the best thing for all concerned, even if my lack of an exit strategy left me without direction. My comfort zone was toxic, so really, any direction would do.
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Fall Travels
17 September 2008
Wednesday, 12:59 AM
Thanks in large part to Rob Across America, this has been the most traveled year of my life, but it’s not over yet. Before I disappear under a pile of blankets for the winter, I have a few more North American destinations lined up for the fall. If you happen to see me in any of these places, I hope you’ll say hello.
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South by Southwest 2008
17 March 2008
Monday, 6:06 PM
My fourth year at Austin’s juggernaut of an interactive conference was more of a mixed bag than years past, as both I and SXSW adapted to its growing pains.
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Flying Southwest Airlines Southwest to South by Southwest
03 March 2008
Monday, 2:59 AM
March has arrived, and since college basketball doesn’t interest me any more than a zombified messiah figure selling chocolate or an ophidiophobic Irish folk hero selling Budweiser, March means just one thing: South by Southwest. In just a few days, I will descend on Austin for nearly a week’s worth of quality time with good friends and good ideas. If you see me there, I hope you won’t hesitate to say hello. Here are some easy opportunities to do so.
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Cursivert
24 January 2008
Thursday, 6:51 PM
Recently, I started wondering if I could/should get back into writing in cursive, which I haven’t done with any regularity since elementary school. I thought it might be interesting to reconnect with the way I related to language and typography in my formative years, and to see how that meshed with what I’ve learned since. So, I started scribbling out some random stuff in my sketchbook to see what would happen, and was fascinated with the results.
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Here and Now
09 September 2007
Sunday, 3:48 AM
I killed my own summer. I took on more work than I should have, and hopefully I suffered the consequences more than my clients did. The summer is drawing to a close, though, and with its end, my schedule is finally becoming kind of manageable again. Today was the first day in ages that I was able to leave the house for something that didn’t resemble work.
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Thirty Days Has September
04 September 2007
Tuesday, 10:33 AM
Another busy summer has come and gone, most of the fruits of which are still not quite ripe enough to talk about. I do, however, have a few things going on this month that are worth a mention.
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South by Southwest 2007
16 March 2007
Friday, 2:56 PM
Whoever “they” are, they say you never forget your first time. And in 2005, my first SXSW was definitely unforgettable. They also say twice is nice, and as such, my second SXSW was all sugar and spice. As we all know, though, the third time is the charm, and this year’s SXSW charmed the hell out of me.
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The Hunt Is on at SXSW
26 February 2007
Monday, 1:09 PM
I’ve done a bad thing. And I didn’t act alone.
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Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann
20 February 2007
Tuesday, 10:43 AM
One doesn’t often have the opportunity to work on a project that strengthens his skills in multiple disciplines and helps him reevaluate his connection to his heritage. I have been fortunate to have just such an opportunity, and after months of hard work, that project is now available for public consumption.
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How I Spent My Summer Vacation
03 October 2006
Tuesday, 3:35 PM
When I saw the gorgeously dreadful October 2006 edition of Stan’s site on Sunday, I remembered that I had intended to dust off my site’s costume from last year and put it back on. I dug around in my files, and was somewhat horrified to discover that the costume had vanished. Then I realized that if I was looking for that costume, summer must have ended. And boy oh boy, was there a lot of exciting stuff from the summer that I hadn’t gotten around to writing about.
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First Born
31 July 2006
Monday, 3:05 AM
Through an act of either charity or desperation, Born Magazine allowed me to contribute to its Summer 2006 issue, which launched recently. Having been a great admirer of Born for several years, I was honored to participate.
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Titonic
13 June 2006
Tuesday, 11:59 PM
It was the beginning of a new millennium. School was in my past, a magazine production job in Manhattan was in my future, and limbo consisted of waiting tables in New Brunswick, New Jersey. It may as well have been Mars. I knew no one, and my ghetto neighborhood, animosity for hostile Jersey traffic, and underdeveloped sense of direction prevented me from venturing out much (to say nothing of the dearth of places worth visiting). In social and cultural isolation, I turned to the World Wide Web for aesthetic guidance and discovered Epitonic, a champion of independent music whose calculated mix of information, editorial content, and free, legal MP3 downloads would help shape my listening habits for years to come. Hundreds of musicians from the worlds of rock, folk, pop, electronic, hip hop, jazz, experimental, and modern classical music were there, catalogued, cross-referenced, and waiting to be heard. The site’s design was not especially inventive or breathtaking, but it was attractive, functional, and easy to use. All in all, Epitonic was nothing less than a godsend.
As so many great sites do, Epitonic fizzled out almost two years ago. It remained online, but updates ceased completely and without explanation. And so I was delighted to find a brand new Epitonic newsletter in my inbox yesterday, heralding its rebirth and redesign. I raced to the hyperlink at the bottom of the e-mail, giddily anticipating a tearful reunion with an old friend. Imagine my horror when I found my friend covered in sores, barely able to stand.
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1976
03 June 2006
Saturday, 10:42 AM
I was born on 3 June 1976. Today, I am thirty years old.
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South by Southwest 2006
20 March 2006
Monday, 10:39 PM
Although most people are completely unaware that it encompasses anything other than music, South by Southwest is one of the world’s largest interactive conferences. 2006 was the biggest SXSW Interactive ever, or so assumes this second-timer, for whom the scope of “ever” begins in 2005. There were more panels, more parties, and most importantly, more people, many of whom were old friends, and many of whom are now new friends.
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Leaving on a Jet Plane
02 March 2006
Thursday, 11:37 AM
If anyone is still reading, I’ll be leaving for Austin in a little over a week for South by Southwest, where I will be immersed in symposiums, cinema, and suds-soaked socialization for five glorious days. Last year’s SXSW was a big part of what made 2005 the best year I have had in a long time; it was a steel-toed inspirational kick in the pants, and a networking free-for-all whose participants generally inhabited more warmth and sincerity than I even imagined was possible at an industry event. If the How-to-Make-a-Zillion-Dollar-Web-2.0-Application frenzy doesn’t transform everyone into a slobbering horde of cash-crazed zombies, I fully expect this year to be just as exhilarating. I’m looking forward to seeing many old friends and meeting just as many new ones. So if you see a badge that says “Rob Weychert” attached to a big red beard with some pale limbs jutting out of it, please don’t hesitate to come say hello, or at least wonder aloud if I’ve ever stood in direct sunlight.
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The Horror
04 October 2005
Tuesday, 11:01 PM
October has arrived once again, and as autumn’s chill makes its graceful entrance, a young man’s fancy turns to... the macabre. I’m something of a Halloween fanatic, which is a great comfort when the transition into fall would otherwise find me irritated by the loss of warm temperatures and extended daylight. So, with nature in its gorgeous death throes all around me, I fill my Octobers with all things horrific, and this year, even my site is getting in on the action.
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An Illustrated Retrospective
06 June 2005
Monday, 12:10 AM
Late in 2001, when CDNOW finally succumbed to the dot com crash and unemployment was imminent, I realized that a personal web site would be a necessity if I was to find another job. Self-promotion can be a tricky thing for any designer, especially a borderline-OCD perfectionist like myself. Personal deadlines tend to be meaningless if I feel my work is not up to snuff, and I am, without question, my own worst critic and client.
In those days, my design process was less than optimal, foregoing preliminary structural planning and sketches in favor of just diving right into layout on the computer. As a result, I had a habit of painting myself into corners, and abandoned comps began piling up fast and thick, poignantly emphasizing the irony that my lazy process actually caused me a lot more work.
What follow are some examples of what this site used to be, as well as what it might have been. I don’t do this without humility, even though some of the stuff I could have shown is considerably more cringe-worthy.
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Action-Packed Silence
24 July 2004
Saturday, 7:47 PM
In the 77 days since I last posted: I started a new full-time design job at TMX Communications. My face graced television screens nationwide in several episodes of VH1’s ILL-ustrated. I finished the Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from Kutztown University that I started ten years ago. I saw Andrew W.K. for the ninth time. I had my 28th birthday.... more »
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Dawn of the Tortoise
01 April 2004
Thursday, 12:11 PM
Spaceboy Music got the new Tortoise album, It’s All Around You, nearly two weeks ahead of its release date, so I did too. I like it, and I expect to like it more as I listen to it more, but there are no great departures from the oft-imitated Tortoise sound to report, and nothing noteworthy about this newest assemblage of... more »
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The Darkness Falls on D.C.
01 March 2004
Monday, 12:39 PM
I’m not often interested in shows that could conceivably sell out in less than five minutes after tickets have been made available, so imagine my disappointment when that exact thing happened on Friday as I waited in line for Darkness tickets. Now it appears that my only chances at seeing what will probably be the best show of the year... more »
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The Poorly-Planned Pittsburgh Pop-In
29 October 2003
Wednesday, 8:30 AM
Since Pittsburgh is the other big city in Pennsylvania, and I had never been there, I decided to check it out with Merritt this past weekend. The chosen weekend was timely; The Animation Show (which isn’t scheduled to visit Philadelphia) was screening in Pittsburgh, and since I wasn’t going to Ottawa this year, this was a good excuse to drive... more »
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Kutztown, Killers, and Kidneys
12 October 2003
Sunday, 11:10 PM
I remain too distracted to produce contemplative opuses detailing my recent experiences, so here is some brusque vagueness about my tremendous weekend and some recent adventures in cinema: Kevin Cornell’s bachelor party meant food, booze, billiards, and video games all night at Dave & Buster’s on Friday. The Table’s opening reception for the Land Lines exhibition meant beautiful photographs from... more »
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What’s Goin’ On
01 October 2003
Wednesday, 6:27 PM
There has been plenty going on, but I haven’t had much to say about any of it. Lightning Bolt, Hangedup, Battles, and Lost in Translation are all great and were all taken in last week. Over the weekend, I saw a bumper sticker that said “Abortion Causes Breast Cancer,” watched my dear friend Mary get married, and cheered as some... more »
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Kutztown Arts News
05 September 2003
Friday, 9:49 AM
Some Kutztown arts news: The PIMA Group will be performing its improvisational “Paper, Rock, Scissors” tonight and tomorrow night at The Table in conjunction with the Philadelphia Fringe Festival. Josh Rickenbaugh has some new and affordable “Art Under $20” available from his “War Series” and “Manna Series” over at Knewseen. Support these creative people, won’t you?... more »
Filed under: Art/Design
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2003 Chicago Adventure
03 September 2003
Wednesday, 1:37 AM
The summer technically ends on September 22 (as anyone eagerly anticipating the redesign of this site should note), but most people pack up their lawn sprinklers and sun dresses after Labor Day, moribundly lumping the whole of September into the Autumn category. Apparently Mother Nature’s embitterment toward this trend compelled her to adjust the calendar herself; it was 65° and... more »
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Far from The Table
14 July 2003
Monday, 12:27 AM
My friends and fellow Kutztown alumni in the Table Collective opened a small exhibition with a variety of work in their co-op gallery in North Philly last night. My favorite piece was an untitled sound sculpture comprised of textures contributed by (I think) every artist in the show, which were mixed randomly through two channels. I believe the show will... more »
Filed under: Art/Design, Film
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Saga
11 July 2003
Friday, 1:35 AM
I was going to begin this long-overdue post with a verbose description of the difficulties of keeping a weblog like this: the busier a person is, the less time he has to write, and the larger the pile of experiences to write about becomes. I have opted instead for the succinct description you have just read, which still has not... more »
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Moving Pictures
21 April 2003
Monday, 1:43 PM
So a bunch of stuff happened in the last week. Puppetmania on Monday turned out to be the best of the animated shorts program at this year’s Philadelphia Film Festival, offering such gems as Jesse Rosensweet’s The Stone of Folly and Patrick Bouchard’s Brainwashers, both of which I missed at Ottawa last fall. On Friday night, the ultra-low budget kung-fu... more »
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Twink du Jour
03 April 2003
Thursday, 10:38 PM
Today I completed my first ever full-page magazine advertisement for a gay pornographic DVD. High five!... more »
Filed under: Art/Design
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Rejoining the Workforce
03 March 2003
Monday, 9:20 AM
I have accepted a job in the design department at TLA Video. After nearly fifteen months of unemployment, getting paid to get out of the house will be lovely. And since I got the offer while in the midst of—and will be starting immediately following—a short-notice freelance gig, my excess of free time has vanished very suddenly, forcing me to... more »
Filed under: Art/Design, Personal, Random
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Don’t Eat the Yellow Design
26 February 2003
Wednesday, 12:20 AM
The newest addition to the Projects section is entitled Snowfall; it’s a series of photos I took in the aftermath of last week’s blizzard. Also, I have been spending a lot of time on Designologue, which is one of the best graphic design community sites I’ve come across. As stated on the site’s homepage, “A designologue is a conversation between... more »
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Turn Off the Bright Lights
22 January 2003
Wednesday, 11:08 AM
Peter and I took a trip up to New York yesterday. The early afternoon was occupied by sifting through galleries in Chelsea, the highlights of which were the Tim Gardner and Michael Craig-Martin exhibitions, held (respectively) at 303 Gallery and Gagosian Gallery. The late afternoon was spent being herded around NBC Studios in Rockefeller Center, waiting to see Interpol perform... more »
Filed under: Art/Design, Music, Travel
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Sonata for the Unaware
07 January 2003
Tuesday, 12:47 PM
Sonata for the Unaware, the new k10k issue by carbonatedjazz, is the best issue I’ve seen in a long time. There are three simultaneous video clips of public places in Philadelphia; the candid movements of the random people who appear in the clips generate varying bass notes, percussion, and tone frequencies. The 4MB download might scare off the dialup crowd,... more »
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Winter Happenings
05 January 2003
Sunday, 12:20 PM
I guess it’s been pretty quiet around here. In the last month: I braved the Philadelphia blizzard fallout to get to the sold-out Interpol show at Gasoline and was rewarded with a terrific performance. I caught the final two Andrew W.K. club dates of the year and even got kicked out of one of them (apparently the Chameleon Club in... more »
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Hatch Show Print
15 November 2002
Friday, 11:51 AM
Last night was an inspiring Ad Club lecture at York College given by Jim Sherraden, the disarmingly charismatic head of the notoriously lo-fi poster shop Hatch Show Print. They’ve been using not only the same technology to print posters for 100+ years, but also many of the same pieces of woodblock type, linoleum and woodcut illustrations and designs, and photolythographic... more »
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I Am a Creative Person. Really.
10 September 2002
Tuesday, 11:48 AM
While I’m sure all (3) of my regular readers are enjoying my media critic pretensions, the About section does say something about the intentions of this site aimed at keeping people informed of what I’m up to creatively, so I think some relevant news is in order. Lately most of my time has been been spent working on version 2... more »
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The Motörhead Version
16 July 2002
Tuesday, 8:50 AM
You may or may not have noticed that I redesigned the site. Welcome to robweychert.com Version 2, lovingly dubbed “The Motorhead Version” by my friend Merritt. Version 1 has been permanently archived and will no longer be updated. As with that original version, I welcome any and all comments, suggestions, criticism, praise, and disparagement regarding content, functionality, and/or aesthetics. To... more »
Filed under: Art/Design, Travel
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Jim Horwat
02 May 2002
Thursday, 5:59 PM
A quick link before I’m off: my illustrator friend Jim Horwat launched his site today. He has a slick style all his own; go check it out.... more »
Filed under: Art/Design, Web
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Hello, Newman
22 April 2002
Monday, 12:07 PM
I hadn’t been to the Philadelphia Museum of Art in a year or so, so I went on Saturday. Primary points of interest were the massive Barnett Newman exhibition and Out of the Box: 20th Century Print Portfolios, including works by Man Ray, El Lissitzky, Andy Warhol and more. I was also happy to stumble upon a room I somehow... more »
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Melting at the ICA
18 April 2002
Thursday, 10:52 AM
Yesterday I escaped the unseasonable sweltering heat for a couple hours with a visit to the Philadelphia ICA. The Photogenic exhibition was especially slick, including a number of works that applied photographic principles to other media, such as relief sculpture. Shoot the Singer: Music on Video was slightly disappointing, but still well worth seeing. Particularly noteworthy was a video piece... more »
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2002 Philadelphia Festival of World Cinema
15 April 2002
Monday, 10:56 AM
Should I go see Trouble Every Day on Thursday or should I go see The Locust? I don’t think I’ll have another chance to see Trouble Every Day in theaters in Philly, whereas The Locust will likely be coming around again within a year. Hmm. Tonight is A Chronicle of Corpses, which I’ve been looking forward to seeing for awhile... more »
Filed under: Art/Design, Film, Philadelphia, Video Games, Web
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Dancing in Heaven
07 April 2002
Sunday, 4:06 PM
Last night was a fund-raising party at the Heaven Gallery in Wicker Park for the upcoming Version02 Festival (which I’m really sad I’m going to miss). Despite huge potential for overhipness, it was a genuinely great time, and I met a bunch of really nice people. I was also familiarized with the very slick SELECT zine. Thanks to Kelly and... more »
Filed under: Art/Design, Travel
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The Ubiquitous Bearskinrug
06 April 2002
Saturday, 2:50 AM
My friend and Grand Theft Auto 3 provider Kevin Cornell is currently the featured artist on Media Inspiration, where his true southwestern yearnings are revealed. He also squared off against Karen Ingram this afternoon in a rousing match of Photoshop Tennis.... more »
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2002: A Chicago Odyssey
05 April 2002
Friday, 2:39 AM
My generous hosts and I got back a couple hours ago from seeing a gorgeous digitally remastered 70mm print of 2001: A Space Odyssey at the Music Box Theatre. Wow. This afternoon I paid my inaugural visit to the inside of The Art Institute of Chicago (I took some fabulous photos of my sock monkey around the exterior last spring).... more »
Filed under: Art/Design, Film, Travel
