Zeichen Press

Category: World Dominance

  • A Special Weekend

    Jen and I share many things: Type wash, paper towels, dirty looks… But nothing… nothing even comes close to this weekend…

    Whew! That was a tear-jerker! Um… there is no easy way to segue from a cat eating a placenta…

    Well, other things happened this weekend, too… I biked 8 million miles to Hopkins to take some pictures of the new Pizza Lucé…  I wrote about that on the Tanek blog… And, well I guess nothing can really compare to the moment when Jen and Susie the Cat locked eyes and Jen stated firmly (but tenderly) “I love you.”

    Sigh.

  • Overdue Cat, a new letterpress greeting card and a little bit about the weather

    Well, Susie hasn’t had her kittens yet – and like every other overdue/expecting mother – she is watching Oprah and eating tubs of Ben & Jerry’s.

    Meanwhile, I biked through the Heat™bike-computer

    to bring Fred a card so he could photograph it. It isn’t any ordinary card – it is the card to introduce our new website.

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    Aren’t you intrigued?? It must say something sweet – just look at that cute little bellhop! I’ve been waiting to use him for a long time – thanks, cute little bellhop!

  • SHARK!!!

    The morning coffee brought big news:
    Swimmers spotted four Great White Sharks on the beach in Chatham. Wait, let me be clear: Not ON the beach – in the water. Swimming around … and around … and around.Some would call that circling – orbiting their prey, slowly moving in for the flesh-ripping, limb-tearing, feeding-frenzy. But I’m not here to give sharks bad press – that’s already been done – I’m just trying to help you, the reader, understand the everyday danger that is my life. I risk it all to bring you, the reader, a good story.
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    So, off we went up the coast. Past Chatham, to Wellfleet. Wellfleet, where there is no swimming ban. God forbid we miss a beach day because the “Coast Guard” spotted some 12′ sharks. The Atlantic called us and it would be rude to ignore the call – we had to dive right into the water like good-natured guests.
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    A seal joined us – not more than 15 feet from shore. If he were walking on land he’d be limping… I don’t know what that’s called in the water. Drowning?
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    Oh, Seal! Do you remember our meeting last year? I do. It was magical. Last year, I had to swim ever so far – my legs dangled 100 feet above the ocean floor – they were like little noodles hanging off the end of a fork, ready to be swallowed up by the sharks. This year, you bob seductively near shore… it would be effortless to get to you. But I won’t do it because I am sensible and also I saw this
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    hovering overhead. A sure sign that somebody is looking for sharks. I said, LOOKING FOR SHARKS. We decided that building sand castles is pretty fun.

  • Yesterday and Today

    Our transition from the Cape included a stay in Boston.

    Boston is best experienced on-foot and with a tour guide dressed as Dorothy Quincy Hancock.

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    The next picture is for Andrea. (Edmund loved the Westin).

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    Okay, fun’s over. Back to the muggy wall of heat – we walked out of the Minneapolis airport and I felt like someone wrapped me in 100 electric blankets.

    … remember when I told you about this?? I don’t know  a lot but I do know that this belly is full of kittens. They are due in a few days – and I swear to God, if any of you take one home – I will repay you in strange and creative ways.

    susie-full-of-kittens

    One more thing: The pile of mail, collected by Jen, contained this:

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  • Airplane Safety Card (continued)

    After a harrowing day at the beach, I had to stop into the Brewster General Store

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    to check out their card selection – one thing is clear: they might have enough rubber lobsters but they do need some letterpress from Minnesota. I will see what I can do about that.

    A day at the beach always includes:yellow-bucket-450x427

    That poor thing has been around for such a long time.

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  • Airplane Safety Card

    The trip to the Cape always begins with studying the airplane safety card.
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    When we land alive, I kiss the filthy airport carpeting and raise my fists in the air in triumph.
    The drive from Boston to the Cape included a pit-stop for newborn-sized burritos and an impromptu visit to a little stationery store in Hingham called social graces - adorable! This just proves my theory that Hingham has newborn-sized burritos and little stationery stores.
    The Cape is paradise, as usual – except for the E. coli outbreak – that’s Electronic coli. We had to boil our water – it reminded me of Mexico – without the drug mules. And everything else.
    To be continued…
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  • Lord of the Letterpress Flies

    I remember some sort of Mexican-standoff In an early apartment that involved my roommate, dirty dishes and refried beans. Neither of us wanted to do the dishes and so they were stacked, teetering on the counter – pots and plates on top of other pots and plates – the bottom of the pile forgotten like a lost tribe. My roommate, a vegetarian, had a particular pot that she favored for heating her refried beans – she used this day after day until one day it was forgotten – and the pot joined the pile. But not before she filled it with water, she believed in the pre-soak method. I’m not sure how much time passed – a forensic scientist would be able to determine that based on the evidence in the kitchen.

    One morning (or was it afternoon?) I discovered something disturbing: the kitchen windows alive with hundreds of flies. I don’t remember either of us being overly surprised. I do remember having to do the dishes in the bathtub.
    There are no dirty dishes in the shop and certainly no vegetarians – and yet, I awoke to the same disturbing scene: windows alive with flies. The only conclusion that makes any sense has something to do with the devil. I’d like to believe that our printing projects aren’t evil but I guess I can’t be the judge of that.flies
    Oh, by the way: Before the flies, I finished those prints for Room & Board:new room and board

  • Canada: You’re strange and wonderful.

    You're strange and wonderful. Letterpress printed on recycled paper. Comes with coordinating envelope and packaged in cellophane sleeve.So, I (meaning the Zeichen Press intern) pulled one of everything (x3) for our new Canadian reps

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    while I sat on the cold concrete floor and worried. Andrea is learning so much from me.

    Our new reps will be taking our goods to the the CGTA and from there I guess back to their ice palace. Canada is so different than America!

    I found a short list of shops in Toronto that I imagine will soon be carrying some letterpress from Minnesota… but that’s for the reps to decide. I’m not some kind of control freak.

  • Sweat Shop

    The shop has been a very sultry 90° for the past couple of days – which makes for nearly nude printing. The latest Room & Board project is half done and it’s looking frantastic – the ink loves the heat and lays down like a whipped dog – I also love the heat and yet I stand. And stand. I’d like to thank cold-press coffee from Sisters’ Sludge for helping me to keep it real.

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  • Tortured (commercial) Artist

    I need to get into character for the big Room and Board project… “WHAT’S MY MOTIVATION??!”

    Backstory:

    In a post-apocalyptic world, one breathtakingly beautiful woman finds herself wandering through the residential remains of South Minneapolis. She stumbles upon a letterpress print shop – it is impossibly intact. She drags her shopping cart of possessions inside and studies her surroundings. Type, ink, paper, a giant wrench and an autographed photograph of Kelly Clarkson. This is exactly like her dream – except without Abraham Lincoln. There isn’t much time before the feral cats find her…  But she finally has a method to preserve the dying language – at last! At long last… 

    Whew! That was intense! Okay, enough screwing around – the clock is ticking and the cats are coming.