This past Valentine’s day Julie and I had dinner at Typhoon. She lost her class ring earlier in the day and fretted about it every once in a while, saying that it felt really weird not to have her class ring. During dinner, while others were having their Valentine’s dinner as well, she looked at her finger and exclaimed,

“Geez, my ring finger feels really empty without a ring.”

Barack Obama made a huge impression on me at the 2004 DNC. I knew that he would be running for president at some point, but I didn’t expect it to be so soon. I’ve always wanted Hillary to run, and throughout the campaign I’ve been telling myself that Obama doesn’t have enough experience - that he should spend more time in the Senate. But as I see the diverse support he’s getting, and as I realize his speech at the DNC wasn’t a fluke, I find myself hoping he’s running the White House in 2009.

So let me me list the reasons why the Obama logo is pure genius:

• The O represents Obama and he can use the logo without his name next to it. He’s claiming the O as George W. Bush claimed the W
• The blue O and the red stripes represent the flag
• The red stripes represent the plains, the American farmland
• The O’s whitespace represents the sun, shining over the plains. Because it’s white, it evokes sunrise, not sunset.

So what the logo is trying to say is that there’s a new morning sun (a hope, change) rising over America, and that Obama is it. I don’t think you can find that level of meaning in any other logo, campaign or corporate. For contrast, take a look at the other campaign logos:

About 2 years ago I made some mixed CDs for my friends. I called them “Intro Packets” and they were meant as introductions to non-mainstream music. Some of the songs eventually became mainstream, such as Hide and Seek by Imogene Heap. I made 6 intro packets, and I’ll be posting the playlists every once in a while.

1. Air - All I Need
2. Asian Kung Fu Generation - Re Re (live version here)
3. Autour de Lucie - Les promesses (Not available on YouTube)
4. Badly Drawn Boy - Once Around the Block
5. Basement Jaxx - Stop 4 Love (Not available on YouTube)
6. Grand National - Drink to Moving on
7. Hooverphonic - Blue wonder Power Milk (Not available on YouTube)
8. Hooverphonic - Renaissance Affair (Not available on YouTube)
9. Imogen Heap - Hide and Seek
10. John Legend - Ordinary People
11. Phoenix - Too Young
12. Pleasant Stitch –Something Real
13. Telepopmusik - Breathe (Extended)
14. The Streets - Has It Come To This
15. Vast - Touched
16. Zero 7 - Give it Away

I found a notepad file with this on it. About a year and a half ago I had a “supposedly cool” dream and I had to write it down. I wonder what kind of crack I was smoking that day: