October 2015 – Alphabet City Press

30 October 201530 October 2015

Dot dot dot

In typography, an ellipsis is, as its common name suggests, a series of three dots. It has several uses, and its placement can convey a great deal of information by the very fact of taking the place of words that are absent. Primarily, it indicates an intentional omission of words from a larger text without changing the meaning. This can be an unfinished thought, a leading statement, a pause, a feeling. As for style, I use the option+semicolon keyboard command, which gives a non-breaking three dots, and I always insert a space each side of it. The well-regarded and much-used Chicago Manual of Style recommends the use of an ellipsis for any omitted word, phrase, line or paragraph from within—but not at the end of—a block of text, and their preferred method of construction is three spaced periods.

26 October 201526 October 2015

Bank

I like this because there is no mucking around. Just one short word and you know exactly where you are. The lettering is gold, so if your money was lodged with this establishment you might feel reassured that it was being managed in a profitable way. I’m itching to tinker with the kerning though.

23 October 201518 October 2015

Orange truck

The truck was parked there, minding its own business at the back of the Princeville shopping centre, just waiting to have its picture taken! How could I resist? It appeared to be a regular freight truck, not specifically a ukulele carrier—but really, for all I know it could have been a troupadour’s caravan. And it hardly matters. It’s the striking block of orange and the lime green lines and the giant uke that is the attention grabber—an unusual sight even in the land of the ubiquitous four-stringed instrument.

19 October 201518 October 2015

Hawaiian music

If you were to visit my house or ride in my car, you might wonder if there was any music other than Hawaiian music. (Is there?) We have an eclectic collection of music, but it’s the slack key guitar records that are on high rotation. I’m not quite sure how it all started, but the seeds were sown even before we set foot on Hawaiian soil for the first time, even before we heard The Descendents soundtrack. This handpainted sign is in Kapaa.

16 October 20159 October 2015

US eggs

It’s generally regarded that the colour of an eggshell matches the colour of the chicken that laid it. At home, a carton of eggs rarely contains twelve perfectly matching eggshells, but whenever we have bought eggs from a supermarket in Hawaii, I am astounded by the uniformity of colour, especially those ones that are so perfectly white, not a dot or speckle to be seen. I am confounded by it! I chose these eggs, from Foodland, for two reasons. One, there was just enough variation in their colour to provide me with some reassurance, and two, the ubiquitous branding was a little smudged and unperfect.

12 October 20158 October 2015

The pool room

It’s views like this that make me love the city so much. I have passed this building hundreds—perhaps thousands—of times since I have lived in Sydney, but on this day I was walking towards it from a particular direction at a particular time of day with particular light conditions, and I saw, for the first time, the sideways neon sign in the window and the reflection of the M. It’s not just the pool room sign on the reflection of antennas that I love, but the shape of the windows, the rich colours, and the beauty of the architecture despite the fact that the building has seen better days.

9 October 20158 October 2015

The end

I can’t even remember what movie this was. I have a vague memory of it being the tail end of something before the thing I was recording started—highly likely in light of the fact that tv program guide times are more of a suggestion than something you can set the recording clock by. Anyway, I just thought it was rather lovely—pleasingly proportioned and elegantly drawn, on that moody backdrop of clouds.

5 October 20155 October 2015

Chips

It’s unseasonably hot, an October long weekend Indian summer. The beaches and pools are going to be crowded today, but I’m staying in the cool indoors, safe from the throngs. Days like today, the smell of chips emanates from every seaside kiosk, an unpleasant aroma unless you are the one eating the chips, in which case you are immune to the malodorous deep-frying fat. The chips on offer here are a little removed from the beach, though. I like the hand-drawn writing, outlined in gold, set within the bounds of those colourful lilac and yellow lines.

2 October 20152 October 2015

Inverted commas

Inverted commas, quotation marks, quote marks, speech marks, sixty-six-ninety-nines. Whatever you want to call them, they are pairs (one opening, one closing) of double or single punctuation marks to indicate direct speech, quotations or phrases. Although the double quotation mark dates from the fifteenth century, usage specific to quoted material did not became common till 200 years later. Single quotation mark came into being around 1800 to indicate a second level of quotation. In current usage this order has been reversed. Single quotes are used first, and a quote within a quote takes on double quote marks. Like any letter form or punctuation mark, inverted commas vary in design from typeface to typeface, from the lush curves of Sahara Bodoni to the chunky blocks of Interstate and everything in between.