This is a seven minute video showing highlights of the production of a two colour business card for the Doctor at our Dispensary. The video begins showing the cards with the first colour, black, already printed. They have been setting for forty-eight hours. Now we pick up with adding the blue American Optometric Association Logo and horizontal bar, printed in process blue. The logo was drawn on my PC's FreeHand IDE, and transfered to Adobe Illustrator CS4 for the addition of the Optima and Helvetica Neu fonts which reside on my Power Mac G-4.
This video shows the second (blue) dye, the process of make-ready, setting registration, and the actual running of the job. I suspect that the process shown will be somewhat obvious, so I did not feel the need for a boring and verbose narrative. Hence, I went with a sound track written specifically for this video.
The sound track you will hear is a song called "The Printer and His Devil". Each verse alludes to a historic event. Can you guess the sequence? I'll give you a hint, it starts with the closing of the Port of Boston, 1775. The vocal is by your's truly, and for those keeping count or are interested in technical aspects of the recording, it was cut on five tracks: Guitar 1, Guitar2, Harp ( Hohner Marine Band, G) , Synth pad bass line (Kurzweil PC-88) and vocal. Mastered at Q-5 on a Zoom MPS-1608CD 16ch. HD workstation, courtesy Josh Rustin. I play all instrumentals. Board time was six hours.
I will include the lyrics below.
I hope you enjoy "A Business Card for the Good Doctor" and the sound-track "The Printer & His Devil".
The Printer and His Devil © 2009, G. Johanson
The Printer and his Devil – Are working late tonight
Word came not so very long ago
borne on ships by men in red, a’coming to our shores
. . . the Printer thought that you would like to know . . .
The Printer and his Devil – Are working late tonight
News had come not very long ago
That Washington is burned, but Dolly saved a memory
. . . the Printer thought that you would like to know . . .
So plane the Forme and cut the Frisket –
Pull the Devil’s Tail
For a Towne without a Printer
is like a ship without a sail
The Midnight Oil is burning in
the Printer’s Shop tonight
. . . the Printer thought that you would like to know . . .
The Printer and his Devil – Are working late tonight
A packet came not very long ago
A cannon shot in Charleston took Old Glory from the sky
. . . the Printer thought that you would like to know . . .
The Printer and his Devil – Are working late tonight
A dispatch had arrived not long ago
A pistol shot, a frantic chase – had brought the curtain down
. . . the Printer thought that you would like to know . . .
So plane the Forme and cut the Frisket –
Pull the Devil’s Tail
For a Towne without a Printer
is like a ship without a sail
The Midnight Oil is burning in
the Printer’s Shop tonight
. . . the Printer thought that you would like to know . . .
The Printer and his Devil – Are working late tonight
For a cable came not long ago
The S-O-S that went unheard and ice upon the sea
. . . the Printer thought that you would like to know
The Printer and his Devil – Are working late tonight
The Teleprinter spoke not long ago
A sudden shock, a sudden war, a Harbor known as Pearl
. . . the Printer thought that you would like to know
So plane the Forme and cut the Frisket –
Pull the Devil’s Tail
For a Towne without a Printer
is like a ship without a sail
The Midnight Oil is burning in
the Printer’s Shop tonight
. . . the Printer thought that you would like to know . . .
The Printer and his Devil – Are working late tonight
Word came not so very long ago
borne on ships by men in red, a’coming to our shores
. . . the Printer thought that you would like to know . . .
The Printer and his Devil – Are working late tonight
News had come not very long ago
That Washington is burned, but Dolly saved a memory
. . . the Printer thought that you would like to know . . .
So plane the Forme and cut the Frisket –
Pull the Devil’s Tail
For a Towne without a Printer
is like a ship without a sail
The Midnight Oil is burning in
the Printer’s Shop tonight
. . . the Printer thought that you would like to know . . .
The Printer and his Devil – Are working late tonight
A packet came not very long ago
A cannon shot in Charleston took Old Glory from the sky
. . . the Printer thought that you would like to know . . .
The Printer and his Devil – Are working late tonight
A dispatch had arrived not long ago
A pistol shot, a frantic chase – had brought the curtain down
. . . the Printer thought that you would like to know . . .
So plane the Forme and cut the Frisket –
Pull the Devil’s Tail
For a Towne without a Printer
is like a ship without a sail
The Midnight Oil is burning in
the Printer’s Shop tonight
. . . the Printer thought that you would like to know . . .
The Printer and his Devil – Are working late tonight
For a cable came not long ago
The S-O-S that went unheard and ice upon the sea
. . . the Printer thought that you would like to know
The Printer and his Devil – Are working late tonight
The Teleprinter spoke not long ago
A sudden shock, a sudden war, a Harbor known as Pearl
. . . the Printer thought that you would like to know
So plane the Forme and cut the Frisket –
Pull the Devil’s Tail
For a Towne without a Printer
is like a ship without a sail
The Midnight Oil is burning in
the Printer’s Shop tonight
. . . the Printer thought that you would like to know . . .
Good Providence in all your Letterpress Endeavours!
-gary
G. Johanson, Printer
I'm so thankful that people like you are producing these videos. I'm in the sticks, with my new press, no experience, a few books.
ReplyDeleteI learn so many tips from watching!
I would love to see someone wash up a press! hint, hint!
Thanks.
Mary
Gosh, your tympan is CLEAN!! (5 years ago, that statement would not have made any sense to me).
ReplyDeleteFran, cleanliness is next to Godliness. So whenever I get a guilty conscience, I go out and stand next to my clean tympan. Actually, it's a poser. I save the trashy ones for real use and use the clean ones when I see someone with a camera hanging around :>)
ReplyDeleteMary, I'll make one. What I need to do is talk my videophile daughter into holding the camera and moving about while I clean off the press. I use a lot of newsprint, basically laying if over the ink disk and hand-jogging the rollers over it. I spray Kerosine on the paper which absorbs ink from the disk as well as from the rollers. I'll change it out about three times, then wipe the excess off the disk, and usually, by that time, off the rollers which are already pretty clean. The final wiping of the rollers are done over the type bed (with forme removed, of course.) I store the rollers mounted on the press over the empty type bed.
Gary, this tune is very good. I actually stumbled across it on YouTube and left a comment there.
ReplyDeleteWe have previously shared our music with each other a couple of years ago, and I am really impressed with this tune. It's very catchy and I'm in the process of learning to play and sing it, so thanks for sharing the lyrics here. I love the historical perspective and progression. Thanks again ! Very well done !
Dave Jasmund a.k.a. "Ray D. Aider".
I totally love looking at the hand set form on your home page. A true work of art.
ReplyDelete