Seattle’s EMP exhibit “American Letterpress: The Art of Hatch Show Print” is opening this weekend. The touring exhibit features 126 historic and current posters for concerts, fairs, vaudeville shows and 29 hand-carved woodblocks. Hatch Show Print has been in business for 129 years and is experiencing a recent boom in business as clients clamor for that vintage look of letterpress. CNN hired them to create all the promotional materials for the presidential election. There are several YouTube videos of work at Hatch Show Print, including of course various presses running. This one goes through much of the printing process.

It’s October so it’s Christmas time for Neiman Marcus. Their annual, over-the-top Christmas book has all the “wow” gifts conveniently gathered on consecutive pages this year. You can get a life-sized replica of yourself made out of Lego ($60,000), a 3-hole golf course designed for your backyard by Jack Nicklaus (over a million and that’s without construction costs), a fully functional, traditional Irish pub built in your home, Guinness Stout included ($250,000), and 35 years worth of Top 100 hits on 18,400 45 RPM vinyl singles ($275,000 and I think you need your own turntable). If you don’t have all that dough, perhaps you can afford the $24 box of infamous Neiman Marcus Chocolate Chip Cookies, and if not, you can make them yourself.

Jonas Samson’s light emitting wallpaper would illuminate a room from the flat surface of the wall. An intriguing idea made possible by new technologies. (via several blogs, most recently reminded by Shiny Shiny)

These heavy cut-glass Harman Kardon speakers supposedly offer better sound as they have no resonance or movement. I would’ve made them look less menacing.

Blog photos of two new places to eat: Top Pot Doughnuts in Bellevue, Jerry Traunfeld’s Poppy in Seattle. And a high end cinema is opening in Redmond Town Center (where the previous movie theater used to be) featuring $22-$35 tickets (!!!!), drinks, and gourmet cuisine. I’d like to see their consumer research results; there must be people out there I don’t know who like to eat good food, drink, and not talk about it during a movie. Maybe the food won’t be good enough to talk about or perhaps silence will not be golden.

A co-worker who was invited onstage for the sound check at a Police concert in July told us the story of the woman in his group (all associated with Unitus) who so impressed Sting that he invited her to sing during the concert as well. Three months later, the Seattle Times has printed the story of Jessica Ketola’s moment in the spotlight. It also happened to be her 17th wedding anniversary and her husband trudged all the way to a far away parking lot in 90 degree heat to get her a change of clothes for her duet with Sting.

The availability of cell phone art tours has increased over the past couple years in museums and outdoor displays. The logistics are simple: call a phone number, enter a code, and hear about the art you are presumably standing in front of. There’s no charge except for your phone minutes. 4 Culture has launched a cellphone tour of Seattle’s public art installations. Guide By Cell is a company that has provided cellphone audio tour services for several museums. Another, Museum411 created phone audio commentary for Dale Chihuly installations in Tacoma, WA. The traditional recorded audio tours costs museums in both staffing and equipment.

What’s going on with Berkeley Breathed and Opus? The Sunday strip is on a “life flashing before my eyes” nostalgia trip (with a few quick digs at the Governor of Alaska thrown in). A recent Lio strip with a freshly dug Opus grave made me really take notice (graveyards are common on Lio, but not headstones for comic strips). In a brief Texas Monthly interview in April 2007, Breathed, doing publicity for his book Mars Needs Moms, mentioned Opus’s death as one of his upcoming projects. And he said he meant it “literally” and perhaps in conjunction with the end of the Bush presidency, though his wife threatened to leave him if he did kill off the penguin. The Daily Cartoonist’s Alan Gardner has called Amy Lago, Breathed’s editor, several times and each time she has said there is “no official word” from him on the demise of Opus or the strip. But, as Gardner points out, there may be an unofficial story that they aren’t going to put out until they are good and ready. Officially, on Breathed’s website, he has a new book out Pete & Pickles (which he stole from his daughter) and a tease for “The Opus Paradise Contest” coming on October 12.

The Westport Country Playhouse flew their flags at half mast in honor of Paul Newman. Newman and Joanne Woodward are big supporters of the Playhouse. I saw my first play there in the 1970s at their children’s theater program. They have a great historical Flickr photo album. Broadway theaters will dim their marquee lights for one minute at 8pm today.

An economic downturn has a mixed effect on used booksellers. Doris Moskowitz of Moe’s Books in Berkeley says business is better when people need to save money. But Diane Goodman of Ocean Avenue Books in San Francisco says “this is the worst we’ve seen.” Goodman has to turn away many people coming in to sell books as Ocean Avenue only gives store credit and what people want nowadays is cash.