2009-05-31T11:59:00.000-08:00

Like the Muse French Kissing You - An Evening with Joss Whedon

Publish at Scribd or explore others: Magazines & Newspape fantasy pop culture

2009-05-28T11:25:00.000-08:00

Sara Jane Moore enjoying Adam Lambert.

Sara Jane Moore (born Sara Jane Kahn[1] on February 15, 1930) attempted to assassinate U.S. President Gerald Ford on September 22, 1975, outside the St. Francis Hotel in San Francisco, just seventeen days after Lynette "Squeaky" Fromme had also tried to kill the president. - Wikipedia

2009-05-17T06:42:00.001-08:00

Review

“Forget Frodo; Ethan Gilsdorf guides readers through fantasy lands far more enchanting than anything you’ll find in Tolkien’s books. Donning his cloak of invisibility, he takes readers along on a mind-blowing tour of nerd universes—from a knighting ceremony in a Pennsylvania park to vampire slayers in a Marriot Hotel. The result is a compassionate, humorous and magical trip that makes reality seem like a poor substitute for the realms of imagination.” –Pagan Kennedy, author of New York Times Notable Book Black Livingstone and The First Man-Made Man
“Vivid, moving, evocative, intriguing, engaging.” –Chris Castellani, Artistic Director Grub Street, Inc., and author of A Kiss from Maddalena and The Saint of Lost Things

Product Description

Fantasy. Sci-Fi. Role-playing games. Tens of millions of people around the globe today turn away from the “real” world to inhabit others. The online game World of Warcraft has alone lured nearly twelve million users.

Who are these game-players and fantasy fans? What explains the irresistible appeal of such escapist adventures? And what could one man find if he embarked on a quest through fantasy world after fantasy world?

In an enthralling blend of travelogue, pop culture analysis, and memoir, former role-player Ethan Gilsdorf crisscrosses America, the world, and other worlds—from Boston to California, New Zealand to France, Planet Earth to the realm of Aggramar. He asks gaming and fantasy geeks how they balance their escapist urges with the kingdom of adulthood. He seeks out those who dream of elves, long swords, and heroic deeds. He hangs out with Harry Potter tribute bands. He goes to fan conventions. He battles online goblins, trolls, and sorcerers. He camps with medieval reenactors. He becomes Ethor, Ethorian, and Ethor-An3. What he discovers is funny, poignant, and enlightening.

2009-02-16T08:21:00.001-09:00

Though I have done a few local chapbook covers, this is my first cover design for a trade poetry book. Check it out - it looks interesting.

Product Description

Full Count: The Book of Mets Poetry takes us inside the mind of a diehard Mets fan, who uses poetry as the means to express his love, angst and suicidal delirium for America's favorite pastime...and particularly for his team, the New York Mets. From sheer panic to utter joy, this action-packed volume of hilarious, sad and poignant verse about fathers, sons, crushed beer cans and fed-up girlfriends grand-slams its way straight to the heart of anyone who understands what it's like to be a true fan.

About the Author
Frank Messina, “The Mets Poet,” has regularly appeared on SNY-TV, the station that broadcasts Mets games, in video montages that feature him reciting his poetry against the visual backdrop of glorious (and not so glorious) moments in Mets baseball. A New Jersey resident, he travels nationwide giving poetry readings (not all of his work deals with the Mets) and readily admits that much of his Mets poetry is driven by the passion of being a diehard fan of a team that repeatedly endures dramatic failure and victory like no other sports team.

2009-01-26T07:57:00.002-09:00

Here is a comedic short film I made recently called The Laundry Room Business Network.

Foreward the link if you find it funny.

2008-11-07T06:47:00.002-09:00

Election Day 2008

2008-11-04T09:46:00.001-09:00

Election Day 2008, originally uploaded by bkerr.

NYC panorama.

2008-11-03T08:23:00.001-09:00

NYC panorama., originally uploaded by bkerr.

Over Central Park West

2008-11-03T08:13:00.001-09:00

Over Central Park West, originally uploaded by bkerr.

2008-10-27T13:27:00.001-08:00

Swing State

2008-10-14T08:36:00.001-08:00

Swing State, originally uploaded by bkerr.

14 months

The New York Times Green Inc. blog

2008-10-08T11:46:00.001-08:00

Picture 93, originally uploaded by bkerr.

The cover I designed for Green, Inc was featured on the New York Times Green Inc. blog to illustrate an interview with the author.

2008-09-24T08:01:00.002-08:00

Film Review Wizardry
As screenwriter and director, first-timer Gregg has his work cut out for him wrangling Palahniuk’s unwieldy provocations and off-topic asides into a remotely coherent narrative structure. He’s also got an impossible act to follow, as back in 1999 David Fincher applied a prankish wide-screen wizardry to the author’s tonally and thematically similar Fight Club. Blessed with more than 20 times the paltry indie budget of Choke, Fincher ramped up all sorts of mind-blowing special effects and glossy directorial curlicues, finding an elastic visual corollary for Palahniuk’s saw-toothed prose.

Sean Burns on Choke

I once walked into a poetry open mike many years ago clutching a copy of Chokee. Having not started to read it, I scanned through it and picked a page and a half and instructed the crowd to oink everytime I said the word pig. It didn't go overr too well.

The 1969 Miracle Mets

2008-08-23T09:43:00.001-08:00

1969Mets, originally uploaded by bkerr.

My year of Mets covers continues .

My first trade hardcover

2008-08-15T10:13:00.001-08:00

green_inc
Originally uploaded by bkerr

Obeydex

2008-07-28T11:32:00.001-08:00

Picture 50, originally uploaded by bkerr.

Sheppard Fairey has designed a Dexter ad campaign for Showtime, it appears.

Mets Poetry

2008-07-23T09:32:00.001-08:00

Mets Poetry, originally uploaded by bkerr.

Mets poetry book to be released

2008-07-22T14:05:00.001-08:00

MetsPoetry_, originally uploaded by bkerr.

The publisher I work for is releasing a book of Mets inspired poetry next season by acclaimed poet Frank Messina

I am designing the cover; this is a picture of a current mock-up.

I was a big Mets fan in 86 to the chagrin of my north shore of Boston middle school mates.

2008-04-09T17:56:00.000-08:00

Incredible! from kwest on Vimeo.

via Kanye via Vimeo via Kottke (KVK)

2008-03-26T19:25:00.000-08:00

More covers ...

2008-03-22T22:40:00.001-08:00

More covers ..., originally uploaded by bkerr.

2008-02-21T06:48:00.000-09:00

2008-02-14T09:40:00.001-09:00

On the press with Wired Issue #1 .... by Louis Rosetti

4. I think you radically underestimate John and Barb's design work. As they often said, their job was to imagine what the future looked like, and do it on a medium out of the past. They brought amazing design smarts to the process of putting out the magazine, as well as incredible production chops, which were reflected in Wired from the first issue. That opening multi-page spread illuminating the McLuhan quote which launched the issue, that incredible graphic indulgence which continued for the entire time I was editor, and which is conspicuously absent from the current, was true modern graphic art -- in the case of the first one, a collaboration between John and Erik Adigard (Erik's work would appear regularly in the mag, and, for a while, he worked at HotWired/Wired Digital helping Barb create it's graphic sensibility). John and Barb were the ones who landed us our printer, a company back East in Connecticut John had worked with on slick annual reports. They had just taken delivery of a brand spanking new Heidelberg six color (CMYK plus two spot colors -- ah, that's how it was done!) press as big as a couple of box cars. We were the first clients on the press. The first issue was on press over Xmas 1992, and John, Barb, Eugene, and I were on press check. The pressmen were grizzled 30-year pros. They set up the press, they put on the VW size rolls of our special matte paper, they poured in the gallons and gallons of our eye-burning fluorescent ink, they started the press, they adjusted the print flow, they ripped off the first pages and put it under the calibrated lights to check color, they looked at it through a loop to check the dot gain, they did this half a dozen time, then they pronounced it perfect -- calibration was absolutely nominal. I can still remember how John took one look and said: put more ink on the page. The pressmen were aghast. It was perfect as is, just the way it was supposed to be. John insisted. They ultimately relented. He looked at the new sample. He told them he wanted still more ink. They protested again. They finally relented again. John looked at the new sheet. This time he told them: I want you to turn the ink up until it smears, and then dial back to where it's only just not smearing; and that's how I want the entire job done. The pressmen were appalled, outraged, embarrassed. But ultimately, they did what John told them. That's why the magazine looked and felt the way it did, because it literally carried more and brighter inks than a normal magazine -- they leaped off the matte paper. Later, as the magazine started to get recognition, the Wired job became the one the pressmen all wanted to work on. Under John's direction.

2008-02-01T23:08:00.001-09:00

2008-01-19T18:46:00.000-09:00

well-packaged academic satire

HERE'S WHAT'S COMING TO R.J. JULIA...
Award-winning graphic design pioneer Chip Kidd is here to to talk about his hilarious new novel The Learners. With Yale University as the backdrop, this book is the follow-up to his national bestselling debut The Cheese Monkeys and chronicles the life of Happy in this sharp, fast-paced, and well-packaged academic satire.

This event is held at the New Haven Lawn Club, 193 Whitney Avenue, tickets are $15; $5 can be used toward the purchase of the book. Wine & cheese will be served.

DATE: Wednesday, February 20
TIME: 7 PM
LOCATION: New Haven Lawn Club Get Directions