Christmas

Xmas Xis Xupon Xus. Which is awesome, because it means every Who down in Who-ville has begun putting up its lights. (Even Coldplay has noticed!) And the lights are so pretty. It makes me wish the Whos did this all year long. Although, for all I know, they do. I rarely get down to Whoville anymore.

Anyway, tonight, I thought I'd act on my fleeting sense of Xmas Xspirit:

I stared off from the deck of the Holiday Inn,
looking down at the harbor, I held tight to my gin.
And what do you suppose captured my fascination?
Than a boat full of lights changed with Hue/Saturation.

Oh shucks. The mood is over. That holiday tickle is so fickle. Meanwhile, I'm nearly done with my Illustrator CS5 One-on-One: Mastery course for lynda.com. I just knew you'd want to know.

First, thanks those of you who contributed to the Photoshop Top 40: The Contest. I had originally planned to announce winners today (Dec 24), but we had so many entries and so many of them are great that I'll need a bit more time. Colleen and I have culled the list to the Best 40 or so. and now comes the hard part. I'll shoot for getting the winners announced this weekend.

Second, and probably more important, permit me to wish you the happiest of all possible Holiday Seasons and a sensational 2010. Here's a picture of me and my two thoroughly awesome boys (care of Target, of all places!). If there are two more beautiful or exceptional children on the planet, I would like to meet them and shake their fortunate little hands.

Best of luck and a bright tomorrow. Read more » 

Well, really, this mini-episode is more like the Dutch and American versions of St. Nicolas waging a fierce holiday battle--a joyous, racous, Jenever and herring-fueled battle though it may be. This Very Special Martini Hour features two of our new friends from Amsterdam, Bob Van Duuren and...Sinterklaas! The former is Deke's Dutch publisher. (More on him next week.) The latter is the Dutch equivalent of St. Nicolas. In the States, we have turned this character into a jolly, grandpa-like figure with a particularly girlish name. And in the process, we Americans have taken away all his edge, forced him to relocate to inhospitable terrain, and turned his dark, possibly child-stealing helpers into innocuous pointy-eared makers of toys. During our visit this month to Amsterdam--on the very eve of the celebration of Sinterklaas' birthday--Deke and I recorded this exchange of cultural transmutation. Now we offer it before you, our beloved denizens of the dekePole.

This special (and short) episode is wrapped in good will and original holiday music. By way of extra giftwrap, Deke and I have each submitted a show graphic this week. See if you can guess which of us is filled with peace and gentle good will this time of year and which of us obviously has some dark Christmases Past in their closet.

For your consideration, this:

Or this (turn the page at your own risk): Read more » 

I've been searching around for an end-of-year post. And I came up with this. Altho truthfully, it's something of a downer.

The other day--about two weeks ago in fact--I was reading a few pages of my favorite print publication, The Atlantic. One article in particular appealed to me, and the next day I was discussing it with one of my friends. "Did you know," I began unceremoniously, "That it seems to be a foregone conclusion that the polar ice caps are on their way out? They may be gone in as soon as five years." Based on this article, Russia, Norway, and Canada are duking it out for over-the-pole shipping routes. Furthermore, if it successfully secedes Denmark, Greenland will suddenly become the first fully fledged (and potentially non casino-based wealthy) Native-American nation. Inasmuch as we're thinking that policy wonks are trying to save the North Pole, they're actually aggressively and enthusiastically scavenging its remains.

Which is great for the 500,000 native Inuit of Greenland. And--let's be really super generous--the 5,000,000 employees of a group of cargo, retail, and fulfillment companies that benefit from faster polar-express transportation. But somewhat disturbing for the 6,694,500,000 (or 99.92%) of the rest of us. Never mind that we have to invent new Christmas narratives. (Santa Claus lives on an impossibly large hovercraft? With mer-elves and flying beluga whales? Imagine Gene Autry or Burl Ives singing, "Rudolf the aqueous mammal, had a very shiny fin. And if you ever saw him, you would even say he's grim.") Without the polar top-ice, those of along industrial coasts could find ourselves knee-deep (or even scalp-deep) in a world of hurt. Read more »