It’s officially the end of October and you know what that means - well actually you don’t because this is the first one ever - it’s time to round up all the cool stuff I bought, listened to, played with and stumbled upon in October.

Novation Remote37SL

I probably shouldn’t have, but sometimes you just gotta splurge on something nice, you know? This month I finally gave in and bought the Novation Remote37SL. At first the thought of a keyboard with no sounds of it’s own for over $500 sounded ridiculous, but I use so many virtual synthesizers and effects these days that what I really needed was a way to control them that felt like using my old synthesizers. This thing is amazing - it knows what effect or virtual synthesizer you’re using and instantly maps all the knobs to correspond with knobs on the screen. Sweet!

New Pornographers Poster

Maybe it was the new Cougar 100# cover stock. Maybe it was the sweet opalescent colors we mixed up. Or maybe it’s the fact that it was created for an amazing band. Whatever it is this is easily our greatest screenprint achievement yet. They’re for sale at the shop, though I’m considering just keeping them all for myself.

Ultima V: Lazarus

This one’s for all my nerds out there. I remember when my family got our first Packard Bell 386 computer. My first computer game was the mind-bendingly badass Ultima VI. I still remember opening the box in the car on the way home from the mall to reveal a stack of floppy discs and a giant cloth map of the magical world of Britania. I must of logged 150 hours on that game. My Dad even bound all our hand drawn maps and quest notes into little notebooks for us with his photocopier and label maker at work.

Now Team Lazarus has taken Ultima V and rebuilt it from the ground up using the Dungeon Siege engine. I missed out on Ultima V the first time around, but I can’t imagine a more exciting, immersive, adventure-filled game than their remake. All the good things I remember about VI, but with a slightly darker storyline. Amazing when I was 12, even better at 29. Not allot of video games can offer that experience.

You’ll need a copy of Dungeon Siege (cheap these days) to play. Go download Lazarus now!

Best Book: His Dark Materials trilogy

October was a little less busy than usual, and thank God, I finally got to do some reading! I’m an unapologetic scifi and fantasy fan, particularly fiction that re-imagines history or remixes previous literary works. Basically, the more steam-powered spaceships, the better. I grabbed this collection of all three of “Philip Pullman’s” His Dark Materials trilogy and my hunger for all things steam-powered was instantly quenched. Pullman plays with history and science, placing The Golden Compass in an alternate dimension in which the all-powerful Catholic Church rule politics, religion AND science in a world in which everyone has a demon, a small companion animal that is also that person’s soul. Such an imaginative and inspiring trip. Every night I read it I had to immediately pick up my sketchbook. Pick it up at amazon.com.

Best Music: Lost, Picking Flowers in the Woods by Black Moth Super Rainbow

I recently did some work for my favorite record store the Love Garden, and as part of the deal I got some sweet free records. The first one I grabbed was Lost, Picking Flowers in the Woods by Black Moth Super Rainbow. I’ve loved these guys since I first downloaded a track off Pitchfork and getting to do one of the posters on their recent tour with the Flaming Lips was the pat on the back I needed to keep screen printing. The bad news–it’s sold out. The good news–rumor has it it’s getting a reprinting! In the meantime pick up one of their other titles over at graveface –you won’t be disappointed.

Listen to Lost, Picking Flowers in the Wood

Best Site: GigPosters.com

Just the nicest, most helpful forum ever–and THE authority on screenprinting on paper. I can’t believe how many questions - many of them stupid, by the way - I’ve asked and had answered over there. If you’re even thinking about starting to screenprint, head over there.