Best of the British Arrows (formerly British Television Advertising Awards) closed out our Film Fest Sunday, as it so often does. There is something strange about paying money and spending two hours to watch television ads, but these are definitely ads that deserve to win awards. They stretch the medium, go in unexpected directions, and treat the viewer as a smart person.

There were one or two ads this year that I had already come across on the internet and one or two that I found problematic, particularly in terms of gender issues. Still, most of them were excellent. A good chunk of the award winners can be watched in this playlist.

Comrade Kim Goes Flying was possibly the most charming piece of Communist propaganda ever. Seriously. Western-financed but shot entirely in North Korea, this film shows a good-natured workers paradise where even the coal miners are rosy-cheeked and excited about their work. (I found myself wistfully thinking, "If only this were true.")

The film centers around the eponymous Kim, a pretty and agile young coal miner with dreams of joining the circus as a trapeze artist. Her work sends her to Pyongyang were hijinks ensue and her work comrades (including her avuncular boss) help her to make her dreams come true. Along the way, she also has a classic romantic comedy "feuding their way into love" match-up with the circus' star performer.

Cheesy and silly and fun, it was reminiscent of classic Hollywood musicals and screwball comedies. North Korea in Comrade Kim is candy-colored and entirely good-natured. The movie isn't deep and the herione has pretty much everyone routing for her, but the lack of reality and weight make it is an escapist delight, much like cotton-candy.

So, Dear Mr. Watterson was the second and possibly the most consistently delightful of our Sunday films. It was basically a love letter to Bill Watterson and Calvin and Hobbes, with a variety of folks (including a lot of comic creators) talking about their experiences with the comic strip, and the influence that it had on their lives.

The documentary was beautifully filmed and well-edited. Unsurprisingly, Watterson himself did not make an appearance in the film, but the strips themselves were featured, along with footage of Chagrin Falls, OH, Watterson's home town and the basis for the landscape of the strips.

One of the main ideas of the film is that, even thought the strip ran for ten years and then ended almost twenty years ago, children today can still be found reading and enjoying the collected Calvin and Hobbes. The filmaker, Joel Allen Schroeder, posits that some of the credit for this may be due to the fact that Watterson never agreed to licensing of the characters, which prevented over-saturation and allowed the strips to stand on their own, rather than getting lost in the noise of plushes and coffee mugs.

Taking this into consideration, I started reading the comic to my 6-year-old nephew, via comics.com. While he does need some things explained to him, he really, really loves them and specifically asks me to read them to him. (We usually cover about a month in a sitting.) At some point, I will likely get him on of the collection books, so that he can read them on his own. However, for now I enjoy the time together, sharing the comic I remember from my childhood. (He is also very much like Calvin, in looks, age, and personality, and has his own ever-present stuffed companion animal in the form of Bucky Badger.)

I was 9 was the strip debuted and at the start of college when it concluded. I'm glad that it can be a part of his childhood, too. (It really hold up well. Only a very few things are dated, mostly having to do with telephones.) I am grateful for having been able to watch this film, without which, it might have taken me much longer to decide to do this.

Dear Mr. Watterson Teaser Trailer from Dear Mr. Watterson on Vimeo.

Computer Chess started our Sunday morning Film Fest viewing.

While I knew that it was a mockumentary, when the film began, I thought they were using archival footage to introduce the story. But nope. The whole thing was shot on vintage Sony AVC 3260 tube-powered videocameras which, along with the excellent hair, costumes, and props, give it an "archival footage" look. It's an amazing effect.

The cast seemed like it was full of vaguely familiar faces, yet on perusal I discovered that Wiley Wiggins was the only actual familiar face.

Overall, I really loved this movie. It was awkward and hilarious and both surreal and very real. That it, I really loved it until the last twenty minutes or so, at which point it felt like it totally went off the rails. As has been my opinion on a number of other films, I think a bit more editing throughout would have made for a much stronger film. There were a few scenes that went on too long, or could have been eliminated entirely. Yet, even with it's flaws, I was happy to have seen it, and might watch it again if the opportunity came around. (I wouldn't necessarily seek it out.)

"Everybody" knows that a more symmetrical face is more attractive, right?

Julian Wolkenstein created a series of carefully neutral portraits, which he then made into two photos each, using the mirror half of each side to complete the face. The results show just how uneven even the most "symmetrical" of face really is, and how odd and off-putting true symmetry can be in a face.

As a continuing project, people are invited to take phone or webcam photos of themselves, mirror them lie Wolkenstein did, and submit the results to echoism. The results are both delightful and bizarre.

When the Tea Party is screaming about taxes, sometimes you have to remind people what those taxes pay for and that they value those things.

Every spring, an interactive installation takes over a high-traffic area in Montréal's Quartier des spectacles and sets a collective ritual. The installation offers a fresh look at the idea of cooperation, the notion that we can achieve more together than separately.

The result is a giant instrument made of 21 musical swings; each swing in motion triggers different notes, all the swings together compose a piece, but some sounds only emerge from cooperation.

This is truly lovely. I would like to see this someday, and getting back to Montreal is already on my life list. I think I would definitely want to try to get there while this is up some spring.

If I hadn't hurt my ankle, I'd have been at my lesson until about 8. It is possible that my bike still would have had trouble on the way home, only this time it would have been after dark, and neither my friend nor the bike shop would have been available to help me out. (I also wouldn't have found that quarter.) It's all in how you look at things.

A time-lapse view of a place where I have been spending much of my free time.

I am now kind of in love the with the University of Wisconsin Archives' Flickr photostream. It is a treasure trove of great historical images.

In particular, I am quite taken with the Campus Area and Madison Walks (1900-1970s) set:

After reading Tara Austen Weaver's account, on Tea & Cookies, of her walk through the labyrinth on Lummi Island and the small pile of little things (stones and shells, mostly) that she found there, I started thinking of a similar walk I took a couple of years ago.

In early fall of 2010, my boyfriend and I bicycled out to Governor's Island, on the northern edge of Lake Mendota. We spent a golden afternoon wandering around the edge of the island, and exploring the small trails through the little woods. In one shaded area, I found a small shrine or altar. It was very crude, made of things that one would find on hand there in the woods, but it was still quite recognizable. Sitting on top were a number of small objects, including several dollar coins.

I didn't take any photos, because by that point the late afternoon light was too dim under the cover of the trees, though I wish I could have. I don't know who made the altar, nor for what specific purpose. I certainly didn't touch the objects on the altar, particularly the coins. I figured that, sooner or later, someone would come along, disturb the altar and pocket the coins. But I was not going to be that person.

It isn't uncommon to see roadside shrines: crosses, flowers, maybe balloons or stuffed animals, marking the scene of a fatal accident. It is also pretty common to come across places like the Dickeyville Grotto, which are built with genuine love and respect, but are also pretty public. Something like this, in such a quiet place, stumbled-upon, rather than displayed, seems unique. Yet there are probably just as many quiet, out-of-the-way little altars and shrines as there are in full view. You just have to be there to find them.

This recipe from Forgiving Martha caught my eye on Pinterest about a month ago, and I finally got around to trying it. The verdict is yum.

The pudding is very simple and very rich. Jess' recipe yields two servings, and you will find that a serving is quite filling. This isn't low calorie (my calculations say that it is about 282 per serving) but it is vegan, if you are looking for that.

The next time I make this, I think I will substitute honey for the agave nectar. I like honey much better. It will alter the flavor profile a bit, but it would be interesting to try.

Another thing I will do differently is to blend it in a smaller jar, or use an immersion blender. The small quantity of pudding didn't work very well in my full, large blender. I had to keep stopping the motor and stirring with a spatula to get the mixture back into the blades. In the end, I left some of the avocado unblended, so there were tiny chunks of green floating throughout the creamy brown chocolate. I was ok with this, but I'm sure that other people might find it less than appetizing if I were sharing this.

Inspired, in part, by Maggie Mason, of Might Girl I started my own Life List back in November. I think it is time to post it, and see what I have done so far (completed items will be crossed out).

• Own my own home
• Take voice lessons
• Swim at a beach with warm, crystal clear ocean water
• Take a train trip coast to coast (and back?)
• Own a dog (or two?)
• Revisit NYC
• Visit San Francisco
• Visit Seattle
• Visit New Orleans
• Visit Savannah
• Pass the Madison Parks and Beaches swim test and get out to the diving platform at B.B. Clarke Beach
• Go canoe camping on the Wisconsin River
• Get belay certified at Boulders
• Throw an event/party for at least 100 people
• Have my art for sale in a brick and mortar business
• Take part in (and finish) a bike ride of at least 100 miles
• Have an entire outfit that is tailor made for me
• Learn how to go underwater without having to plug my nose
• Take the car ferry across Lake Michigan
• Spend some time in Door County
• Spend some time in the Apostle Islands
• Learn to ballroom dance without tripping over my own feet
• Learn to contra dance without tripping over my own feet
• Healthy 125
• Learn to use a chef's knife like a pro
• Revisit Cape Breton
• Revisit Montreal
• Set foot in every continent (except maybe Antarctica...no way)
• Go to a session and play at least 50% of the songs
• Busk
• Stay with friends at Camp Lake Resort (Fairyland!) for at least a long weekend
• Raise chickens
• Go to grad school
• Act in a play
• Get my CPR and First Aid re-certification
• Go to Comic-Con with my brother
• Take the Union sailing course
• Learn to whistle
• Update my blog more regularly
• Update the look and feel of my blog

Also, while I haven't yet learned to use a chef's knife like a pro, I did take an hour-long class on it through the Willy St. Co-op, and have been practicing the techniques we were shown. Practice is the thing.

The last two items currently on that list are things I just added today, but I think they are important. I used to blog on a daily basis, and then things got in the way. Not important things. Just things. I'd like to get back to it. I also need to update the design and the back-end, because the comment spam is getting redonkulous.

I really love passenger trains. I love big cross-country trains, commuter rail, and urban trains. I have a particular fondness for traveling via subway, when I'm in a city that has one. So I was grimly fascinated by A Short History of Death on the New York City Subway, which highlights a little over a century of underground tragedies in the MTA.

The loss of life is sad, especially when it could have been prevented. At the same time, it is morbidly interesting. And not all of the stories end in death:

1965 Power Failure

In November 1965, 800,000 people were stranded for six hours in dark subway tunnels. Transit police walked people out along the tracks while warming them with emergency blankets. There are no recorded deaths, but how freaky would that be?

I'm also fond of the little Flash-animated train that makes its way down the page as you scroll.

Members of NAVA (North American Vexillological Association) responded to a survey, in which they ranked the designs of 150 United States city flags. Madison's flag took eleventh place.

But wait, what on Earth is vexillology? Apparently, it is the "scientific study of the history, symbolism[,] and usage of flags or, by extension, any interest in flags in general." So now you know.

Ecstasy of Order: The Tetris Masters was our last film of the festival for the year. Our hopes were high and we were not disappointed.

One worry I had going into the screening was that, as can often be the case with documentaries of this kind, at least some of the subject would be the cringe-inducing type of obsessive, which I find uncomfortable to watch. This was not the case. To be sure, all of the Tetris players had a degree of obsessiveness, which is required to be really good at any skill. You cannot achieve mastery without practice, and you won't get that much practice without at least a little obsession.

But beyond that, all of main folk getting screen time were, for the most part, personable and people with whom I'd happily hang out. I'm not a computer gamer, but they were still my kind of folks. None of them came off as "poorly-socialized gamer geek" or "crazy obsessive". It certainly helped that the filmmaker was not some outsider looking in, but someone who had a love and understanding of the subject.

As a film, it told it's story in a fun and compelling way, and it held my attention and interest for the full time. I'm usually pretty tired by the last film of the weekend, but I was not afflicted by drooping eyes and a nodding head. I really enjoyed it, and would recommend it to other children of the 80's who came of age with Super Nintendo.

You basically need to go take a look at this. The photos are lovely. It must be completely enchanting in person.

Look into that face, those eyes, and tell me that it is "just" and animal. James Mollison has taken portrait photographs of 40 different apes, of a variety of species, from Cameroon, Republic of Congo, Democratic Republic of Congo and Indonesia. Each one shows a different personality, a different intelligence. Assembled together, the effect is rather striking.

I don't know exactly why, but I find this video strangely mesmerizing.

It could be because I am lousy at ironing and avoid it whenever I can. It could be the blueish lighting, the steady camera angles, and the lack of soundtrack beyond the quiet, incidental noise of the activity. But seriously, watch that man iron and tell me you wouldn't want to wear that shirt. (Or maybe not *that* shirt, but it's equivalent in your size and style.) Even mundane chores can be beautiful when practiced with skill.

Before we could go get ourselves some sushi, we were back in line at the Orpheum for Raiders of the Lost Ark: The Adaptation.

It was amazing because of what it was: After seeing Raiders of the Lost Ark in 1981, three 12 year old friends, Chris Strompolos, Eric Zala and Jayson Lamb, began filming their own shot-by-shot adaptation in the backyards of their Mississippi homes.
Seven years later their film was in the can.

My. God. I have never, in all my 36 years on this earth, undertaken a project even half so grand as what these kids did over the course of their teenage years. Certainly never did anything like it when I was actually a teen. The movie was a love letter to Raiders of the Lost Ark and a love letter to cinema. I was amazed at what they were able to pull off, and was rather bummed that we weren't able to stay for the Q&A after the film.

If you grew up on Indiana Jones and you get a chance to see this film, you should not pass up the opportunity.

First off, if you ever have the opportunity to try the cheesy pub fries at Laz Bistro and Bar in Stoughton, WI, do not let the moment pass you by. Those are some amazing, tasty chips. However, unless you plan on making a meal of nothing but them, plan to split them with at least one friend. While it may be found in the "tapas" section of the menu, there was nothing "small" about this plate.

Secondly, the Stoughon Opera House is remarkable beautiful venue, both in terms of looks and in sound quality. Even though it was a bit of a drive to get there, I will gladly go again. (And now I am extra sad that the Carolina Chocolate Drops show there last fall sold out before I got tickets. It must have been an astonishing show in that space.)

Finally, even with a hint of laryngitis roughening up her voice, Dar Williams remains as luminous and buoyant as ever. It was an intimate show, just Dar with her guitar and a piano accompanist on some songs. The last few times I'd seen her she had a band along. As nice as the bands were, I definitely prefer her solo (or almost solo) sound. I have always been fond of the way she interacts with the audience and introduces the songs with little stories. It's that kind of thing that gets me to live shows.

She also looked fantastic, and gave me a great idea for what to do with my hair when it gets a bit longer. I think I've always had a tiny girl-crush on her unassuming hippy-goddess rockstar style. She never goes over to top in any direction, but nails it with confidence. Considering her severe stage fright in her early career, it really inspires me.

It was a great night.

Japan's Wrecking Crew Orchestra performs an amazing routine with the help of a darkened stage and costuming that features electroluminescent wire. It's like watching something from a video game or a sci-fi film.

(via BoingBoing)

Not practical. Not practical at all. And yet, how fun would it be to have a lovely wall display of your CSA bounty? Perhaps if you were also making sure to eat what you have very regularly. After all, refrigeration is a fairly new concept.

Jihyun Ryou doesn't seem to actually be trying to replace the fridge, so much as to get us to think about the role of technology in our lives, and how we interact with the world around us through that technology. In what ways does it help us, and in what ways does it keep us from connecting with that world.

Non-refrigerated food for thought, as it were.

Pascal Witaszek has made a charming and delightful assortment of movie posters for movies that don't exist, but maybe should.

I guess the poster for Walt made a bit of a stir around the net, as people thought perhaps it was real. I'd certainly go see it, if it slipped out of that alternate universe into ours.

I sing in a large chorus (over 150 people) that performs large works for chorus and orchestra. Over the years, we've sung a number of Requiems. I've developed a fondness for the Dies Irae movements.

Tonight I was thinking about the Dies Irae from the Benjamin Britten War Requiem:

It is anything but comic, yet it reminded me of the type of scene that would appear in a 1930's comedy, like the Marx Brothers' Duck Soup, when characters are sneaking around at night, tiptoeing through the dark, only to have their stealth interrupted by something crashing down.

In this Dies Irae, the chorus is tiptoeing up to Judgement Day, only to have all that wrath come crashing down on them in spite of their best efforts. Voices, brass, and percussion all explode into fortissimo, and nothing is going to stop it.

Needless to say, I really like this piece of music.

Via: CableTV.com

As you may have already heard, Wired.com has done a wonderful thing:

Beginning today, we're releasing all Wired.com staff-produced photos under a Creative Commons (CC BY-NC) license and making them available in high-res format on a newly launched public Flickr stream.

Wired has some really excellent photography, so this is quite a trove. I wonder if any other companies might follow suit?

I remember it well, that feeling of light-headed "Oh my, I may have to keel over and die now." post-run euphoria/exhaustion. And no, it isn't pretty.

Dear Photograph is a charming photoblog that puts a cool spin on the "rephotographing" trend. Rather than just recreating an old photograph, "Dear Photograph" inserts the old photograph into the scene as it is today, lining up the shot as closely as possible, along with a bit of commentary (in the form of an apostrophe to the photo itself). So far, I am finding it utterly charming.

And just in time for summer vacation. I will be getting there by way of the Monroe Street Library. How will you make your way to Bordertown? Here's a head start...

Cement Eclipses: Tiny Street Art Sculptures by Isaac Cordal

Both the sculpture themselves and the photos are wonderful. Enjoy!

Literally

Alimation - Annecy Festival 2011 from Alexandre DUBOSC on Vimeo.

Yarn bombing, knitted graffiti, crafty tagging... Maybe you've heard of it. Maybe you've seen it in the wild. This street art has been around for at least a decade (possibly earlier) and is now getting notice in The New York Times. The article is brief, but very interesting and informative.

I found three things to be particularly worthy of note. First was the contrast between the male dominance of traditional graffiti and street art, versus the traditional feminine orientation of the yarn-based work.

Next was the degree of "I'm better than that because I've been in galleries" attitude from one of the knitters profiled:

Olek, whose work has been shown in museums and galleries worldwide, considers yarn bombing to be the trite work of amateurs and exhibitionists.

"Lots of people have aunts or grandmas who paint," she said. "Do you want to see that work in the galleries? No. The street is an extension of the gallery. Not everyone's work deserves to be in public."

Deliciously snobby, neh?

Finally (and not entirely surprising) was the fact that was started out as DIY, crafty, underground, etc has been co-opted by a number of Fortune 500 companies for advertising purposes. Certainly not the first time for such a thing.

Today (ETA: yesterday, at this point), I am taking part in an Edgewood College writing retreat at Painted Forest in Valton, WI. There is no internet here, but my plan is to prep a series of entries, to be posted later.

Our group drove over from Madison a little after 8. The drive through the Driftless Region was absolutely gorgeous. I am in love with the rolling hills and winding roads in this area. The "400" state bike trail runs near here, and I think I may wish to take a ride on it at some point this season.

Painted Forest is kind of a two-part location. The main activity of the retreat is taking place in the Art Studio and Study Center, which was built in 2004. I am tucked away in the sleeping loft, which is cozy and quiet and warm. Perfect!

Painted Forest proper is an old meeting hall for the Modern Woodmen of America from the 1890s. On the outside, it is just a plain, white wooden building. But on the inside, it is covered from floor to ceiling by murals painted by Ernst Hüpeden, a German immigrant who taught himself to paint while wrongfully imprisoned. The murals are weird and wonderful, full of symbolism and scenes of the organizations initiation rituals. My favorite parts were the areas were the murals move from wall to ceiling, with the tops of trees silhouetted against a blue sky, dotted with friendly white clouds.

It is a great location to do some work, without the distraction of the rest of the internet. (Though I was careful to make sure I opened a number of new tabs last night, so that I could make use of the internet in a slightly more static way.)

8 bits to be precise.

Enjoy!

Ryan Novelline has constructed a exquisite, couture ballgown out of Golden Books. The link not only has some great photos of the dress, but excellent documentation of the process. Showing your work: not just for math class. I love it!

Even Disney can't make fairy tales entirely sweetness and light. No matter how they scrub, some darkness remains.

Now, the farther back you go for your fairy tales, the less scrubbing they have had and the darker they remain. They are full of death and sex and violence and complete weirdness.

Miwa Yanagi captures that darkness and deepens the shadows in her collection, Fairy Tale. These will haunt your dreams.

There are some excellent photos in the archives of the New South Wales, Australia police department. Of particular interest are the mugshots, which are so different in so many ways from the mugshots of today. And yet... so very similar. (I could very much see the young woman in this photo in combat boots, a band t-shirt, and ripped jeans.)

A tip of the hat to Very Short List for bringing this to my attention.

Try to watch all the possibilities.

Greenwich Locksmiths in New York City looks like my kind of place.

So, I need to talk about Dane 101's FireBall, especially since it happened at the end of January. It took a while to get all the photos together, and frankly, I'm still sifting. But I do have enough to share.

It was an amazing spectacle. So many beautiful costumes. So many dark and wonderful costumes. The performances on the stage were entrancing.

Since I am much better with images than with words, I will follow with three slideshows of my photos from that night. Enjoy!

Some faster than others. Daniel Del Nero makes houses of out cardboard, covers them with flour and mold spores, and the photographs the decay. It is creepy and gorgeous and wonderful.
It's like something from a strange and haunting dream.

You really must check it out.

So, it only took me most of a month to get my photos edited. Pretty soon I'll try to get a write-up of the event, but so much of it defied description. In the meantime, a picture is worth a thousand words...

Have some wonderful oddness. I can't stop re-watching this video:

I swear, I will find the time to get the Gallery Night photos up. In the meantime, I have a wonderful thing for you.

In almost every picture #7, collected and edited by Erik Kessels and Joep Eljkens has an amazing series of photos taken from the perspective of a shooting gallery. From age 16 in 1936 to the present day, Ria van Dijk has been going yearly to the shooting gallery at the fair, where he picture is automatically taken when she hits the target. (There is a gap in the photos during the war years.)

The series is remarkable as we watch her get older, fashions change, and the photography go from sepia to polaroid. All the while, her arms are up, her left eye is closed, and she bears a look of steady concentration and pride. It really is a wonderful thing, and I highly recommend checking it out.

This grand old post office building is going to be transformed into Moynihan Station, an expansion of Penn Station. In the meantime, a lot of it is currently vacant.

Open House New York allowed Scout, the blogger of Scouting New York to tour and photograph the facilities. The result is a really interesting photo series.

I'd love a chance to look around there myself, but alas....too far away. However, I really love looking at these photos.

Author Michael Swanwick has written a short story aout autumn, and put it together in a Flickr set using photographs of fallen leaves with words of the story written on in marker.

The story is pretty simple and some of the photos are out of focus, but the project itself is fun and clever.

Check out the set. It works especially well if you view it as a slide show.

LIFE.com has some previously unreleased photos of the Hell's Angels from 1965, LIFE photographer Bill Ray. These are great aesthetically, historically, and as a sociological piece. Too bad the story was killed in 65, but I'm glad they've put the photos online.

NPR is featuring some neat "ground as backdrop" photos at the moment.

I'd already seen Oren Lavie's "Her Morning Elegance"

as well as "Sorry I'm Late"

But Strawberry Swing was new to me.

And now, into Friday we gooooooooooooooooo!

Go take a look!

Miniature Art on the Tip of Pencil by Dalton Ghetti (via Odd Stuff Magazine) showcases the amazing and beautiful sculptures that Ghetti carves into the graphite tips of ordinary pencils.

He has a level of patience and devotion to his work that I have not achieved. The fact that he gives his work away, rather than sell it, adds a layer of wonderful to the whole thing.

Go take a look!

Go take a look!

Everyone ponder what Metallica would sound like as a swing band? Wonder no more! Let The Swinger demonstrate. This is pretty darn cool.

With utterly charming results!

Go take a look! The other diptychs are pretty sweet, too.

It's a Treasury! It's a Tarot reading!

I was obviously not the only photographer at the Floating Market. Here are some that were actually shot during the market. (And with better lighting, since she was working with more than just the pop-up flash.) It's a very nice set.

Also, here is another excellent write-up of the event, featuring some of those photos.

I want to pass the word along on this, as well as making something of a bookmark/reminder for myself.

There is a call for artists for the Habitat Restore Annual Salvage Art Show and Auction in October of 2010.

The Salvage Art Show will be juried by professional artists. Interested artists will submit three examples of their work, which will be evaluated on such elements as originality, design, composition, subject matter, choice of materials, and skill of execution. Submissions to the jury will be due by May 22. Artists will be notified of their status during the week of June 1.

Worth a try, I think.

At the name of this post would indicate, our second stop on Saturday was another shorts program. This one made no promise as to whether we would be unsettled. What we got was an interesting mixed bag.

(I can't exactly remember the order, but that is not the important part.)

Duck Crossing was a charming little mocumentary. 13 or so minutes of clips and "interviews" on the "duck crossing" scene that appears so often in film. More often than I'd ever realized, that's for certain. My one criticism is that the subtitles were extremely hard to read: a small, white font. It gave me a bit of a headache.