It's been a busy couple of months, and I'm finally getting around to making some posts on the summer's activities. First up, the release of issue 20.2 of So What! magazine, Metallica's fan club publication which I art direct and design. This issue's focus was on Metallica's own music festival, Orion Music + More. This year's festival was the second annual, held this time in Detroit. For me, the major story from this issue wasn't anything to do…
Zen Jam News
Kirk Hammett's book Too Much Horror Business, got another mention last Sunday in the NY Times Book Review section. A large image of the Spanish Nosferatu poster appeared on page 26, along with a short blurb. Here's a link to the page…
The latest issue of So What!, Metallica's fan publication, has hit the mailboxes of around 25,000 or so metal fans last month. This issue was a tribute to Metallica's first bassist, Cliff Burton, who died in a bus crash while the band was in Europe in the mid 1980s, touring in support of their "Master of Puppets" album. We got to use some great old photos from the archive of Metallica photographer Ross Halfin. Interviews were conducted with band…
I found an article the other day on street art in the Polish town of Łódź, while doing a bit of work on my mother's upcoming book about our family's geneology. She's been able to track one branch of the family, The Halborn's, back to 18th Century Poland, and one of the towns they settled in was Łódź, a town that is still on the map. A random Google search uncovered this article, with photos of some of the street art…
Zen Jam has been retained to consult on a redesign of Professor RJ Ross's web site. We helped RJ design his original site in 2009, and this year RJ decided it was time for a refresh. The new site will integrate much better with social media, and to facilitate interaction with his fans. We hope to have the site up…
Just finished doing two pro bono newspaper ads for some friends of mine back in Hawaii. The ads were taken out by a number of concerned citizens in response to the United States Government's use of drones to do targeted killings in Pakistan and elsewhere. As I sympathize with their position on the issue I was happy to help. They were placed in two local newspapers on the Big Island, the Hawaii Tribune Herald and Ke Kalahea, the…
The Noonan Building is a three-story wood-frame warehouse building, dating from World War II, located on Pier 70 in San Francisco. The building has been used as artist studios for at least the last 40 years, and I happen to be one of the current tenants. We have a good group of people here, mostly painters, some photographers, mixed-media artists, architects and designers. Pier 70 has been scheduled for redevelopment…
The new and improved Zen Jam web site is now live! Redesigned and content-managed, the site will now be much easier to keep up-to-date, and it includes a blog which, if I've set up my options correctly, will echo posts or links to posts to my Linked-in and Facebook pages. I will try to post to the blog every month or two, and I'll check in to LI and FB a lot more often than I have in the past. Please accept my invitation to check the site out and if you have any feedback…
The web site artistdirect.com published a review today of Kirk Hammett's new book, Too Much Horror Business. According to reviewer Rick Florino, the book gets 5 out of 5 stars. To quote Mr. Florino…
Publisher Abrams Image has released Kirk Hammett's book Too Much Horror Business, today. The book was designed here at Zen Jam, and delivered in May, 2012. It will be available at all the usual bookstores and online booksellers, the price will be $29.95. Here's a link to the web page for the book…