If you’re in the Portland, Oregon area right about now you’d be amiss to miss the month-long ‘Totally Spoked’ bicycle-related-art show at Portland’s Upper Playground / Fifty 24 PDX Gallery.

Curated by Jeremy Kove of Munson Industries, the show includes works by Mike Giant, Marco Zamora, Will Barras (who I’m sure was in the print Level at some point), Tommii Lim and various others who will break my word-count limit including late-show Evan Hecox and our very own Andy Jenkins.

, 06 June 2010

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Those cafe racer-riding photo-nerds at Olympus have churned out another iteration of the E-P-series, this time one for the masses. (That is, the masses that would have bought an E-P1 or -2 if only it weren’t for their fiddliness and pricey price tags.) The new E-PL1 is the iMac of the bunch, it doing most of the things its fancier brothers do—take quality shots, shoot 720p video, feel P-R-O-hip while you swap lenses—only more simply, for a few hundred quid cheaper, and with the backup of a built-in flash.

And you can get it in red.

, 05 February 2010

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My Pad

Anyone who has hired a graphic designer or other Apple geek today might wonder why it’s all gone a bit quiet. If the bewildered employer asks, they might get told anything but the truth, which is that the designer is too busy wetting himself—a ‘herself’ will likely be much less distracted—over Apple’s new Next Big Gizmo to recycle any second-rate, wishy-washy design right now, sorry.

It’s the iPad’s fault.

The iPad is a whopper iPhone without the Phone, a pumped-up netbook computer without a physical keyboard (though one can be docked on), an eBook—sorry, iBook—reader and something that an awful lot of people are going to accidentally drop on their polished concrete floors because they bumped their elbow on the arm of …read on

, 27 January 2010

Michael Leon (him again) has moved from Portland, Oregon back to LA to start a skateboard company. Rather than start a brand from scratch, he’s reusing the good name of his long-running, somewhat mothballed, as-seen-in-print-Level, pet project clothing company Commonwealth Stacks—Stacks for short.
“It will be a departure from where Stacks has been in the past, toward a more clean/refined approach with maximum attention to detail when it comes to product design, graphics and packaging,” says Leon. “I guess we just want to up the level of craft you would usually associate with a board company.”
Product arrives in autumn.

, 18 January 2010

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Pick up a thriller novel and chances are it’ll have a review quoted within that’ll assure you that you’ll not be able to put it down. “A page-turner.” I use these charity-shop-bought bestsellers at night to induce sleep: it requires turning only a page or two before my lights are out. (Bloke from Chicago Tribune, you’re an idiot.)

Stewart’s book, however, is, in fact—no, really—truly compelling. That it’s sort-of based on a period of the author’s own life makes it all the more so. It’ll have you wondering: Did he really work a crazy job on a fishing boat? Did he …read on

, 15 January 2010

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Pro whizplanker Patrick Melcher has teamed up with BMX shred-vet Jon Peacy to make a new TV series—or at least the firing-off point of one. If it comes to fruition, Good Times Roll will feature the two shredders’ travels around the country from spot to spot. Along the way they’ll enlist locals as guides and live that life on the road, all in front of the cameras.
“This is gonna get sooo loose!” says Peacy. “Straight killing spots and pumping the revolution is what’s goin’ down!”
All they need now is a TV network with the vision to kick it into gear.

, 08 December 2009

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Scott Toepfer photographer

THE FAMILY THAT PLAYS TOGETHER

When photographer Scott Toepfer took a call from Chuck Ragan, formerly of Hot Water Music, inviting him aboard the bus for the California leg of this year’s Revival Tour, an alternative to accepting didn’t cross Scott’s mind. He was already on the plane. Literally. Nor did he think that one of the bands on tour, The Anderson Family, would make such an impression on him. Scott latched on to the family of musicians and returned with rolls of photographic gold and a new-found respect for the mandolin.
 

Who are The Anderson Family, to you and to the world?

The Anderson Family is a family bluegrass band from Northern California, Grass Valley I believe. They are exceptional people, and damn fine musicians. …read on

, 07 December 2009

Type fancier site Typographica has put together a simple website showing an exhaustive collection of photos of classic logos and letters in (mostly) chrome and steel. Mid-century cars make up the bulk, with old fans, fridges, cameras and bicycles all getting a look in.

, 13 November 2009

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Graphic tickler, artist and Levelogger Lee Basford teamed up with friend and illustrator Simon Peplow to grit their teeth in a zen-inducing cyclothon across the south west of England. Hills came and hills went (and then more hills came and went) but, much like Pheidippides, they never gave up. Granted, then had gears, village pubs, comfy tent equipment and didn’t die at the end, but still. You try it.

, 11 November 2009

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OH, SNAP

Not too long ago, on a website very close to this one (this one), Mark Noble waxed lyrical about Olympus’s brand new high-end compact shooter, the E-P1, which was inspired by its classic old high-end compact shooters, the PEN series.

Surprisingly, Olympus have just mothballed the E-P1. Welcome, the E-P2. (It’s as if Olympus sent out the E-P1s and then realised the factory had missed off a few things.) Aside from a couple of fancy and useful-looking focussing features, the major upgrade is the addition of a port on the back, just below the hot-shoe, that enables plug-in gadgets such as the new, included, digital external viewfinder (shown above, top), which can be used at any angle up to 90 …read on

, 10 November 2009

THE E-P2 WILL BE ON THE SHELVES IN JANUARY AND WILL SET YOU BACK AROUND US$1099, UK£850 OR €949

THE GXR WILL BE AVAILABLE AT SOME POINT FOR ANYONE WHO INVESTED IN BETAMAX IN THE LAST TEN YEARS

MARK’S PREVIOUS WAX

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