An enjoyable short film on Paul Rand by Imaginary Forces

“Using multiple classes within selectors” is useful for CMS-generated HTML.

Jay-Z sort of gave away the movie in his rhymes: “Like Frank Lucas is cool but I ain’t trying to snitch.” Based on a real story, Ridley Scott’s American Gangster is built and fictionalized around the rise and fall of Frank Lucas, CEO of a brand-name dope called “Blue Magic.” Denzel Washington is indeed cool, slick and ruthless in control as Mr. Lucas while Russell Crowe is quiet, nervous and aggressive as the good cop Richie Roberts. Like most mobster flick, this one is laced with bloods, needles, cash, powder, profanities and naked ladies. Listening to Jay-Z’s new album with the same title after having watched the film, references creep up everywhere in his songs.

Kelefa Sanneh on Jay-z:

By contrast “American Gangster” gives him a chance to get out of his head. The story of Mr. Lucas — a real-life gangster turned informant who is still alive — gives him license to return to the subjects that really inspire him: crime, punishment and the dope trade.

Rob Sheffield reviews American Gangster:

Forget Frank Lucas: The real black superhero here is Jay, and with American Gangster, Gray-Hova is back in black.

Jeff Fisher’s Identity Crisis! presents the old and new logo side by side to show how each brand had been redesigned. With 50 case studies, concise explanations and hundreds of visual illustrations (including websites, stationary packages and collateral pieces), the book is a useful resource for graphic designers.

Little Jimmy tries to get big Jay’s attention again. Jimmy please! Your arms too short (your lyrics too weak) to box the God MC.

Live performance of “Roc Boys” on the show. My man Tim can’t get the horn lines out of his head.

What’s different on Amazon.com?:

We concentrated on shopping, searching, saving, and buying–the four activities that customers have repeatedly told us are the most important to them. They’re now prominently featured at the top of every page on the site.

The codes are still horrendous.

Hop to Layer Tennis for a creative battle between Marian Bantjes and Armin Vit. After that you can head over to the brand new Department of Music site designed by yours truly and tune into a live webcast of the Vassar College Choir performance at 8:00 p.m.