Album Cover Hall of Fame’s News Update and Link Summary for October, 2023

Album Cover Hall of Fame’s News Update and Link Summary for October, 2023

Posted October 1, 2023 by Mike Goldstein, AlbumCoverHallofFame.com

Summer’s gone and its time to start thinking about a) what to do during the day now that kids are back in school (I personally don’t worry about this but suspect that some of you do) b) Holiday season prep and c) what we’re going to do to keep ourselves warm until Spring. With all of those priorities, how in the world should I expect you to pay close attention to what’s going on in the world of album covers, packages and the people that make them for us? I’d surmise that it’s nearly impossible unless, of course, you have a friend – someone like me – who’ll spend countless hours of his own time getting all of the details together for you, which I’ve done again in this month’s summary.

You’re happy, I’m happy.

Seems like there’s a lot to look at and learn about, so let’s get going…in just one second…

I do want to let you know that there are not one but two extended items that include discussions I had with two experts – one, a true fan of anything/everything The Beatles, who had caught an error (unintentional, but still there) in a previous article and wanted to set the record straight and the other, a renowned designer from outside the music business who created some truly impressive images of furniture sporting design influences from album cover imagery using the latest AI tools.

Enjoy both and feel free to share/comment.

Album Cover Hall of Fame News Update and Link Summary for July, 2023

Album Cover Hall of Fame’s Latest News Update and Link Summary, posted July 1, 2023 by Mike Goldstein, AlbumCoverHallofFame.com

The Summer season is now upon us and, if you’re like me, you’re looking for something interesting to do to occupy your free time. If you’re also like me in that you sit in a stupor while trying to figure out just what you really want to take the time to do from the seemingly-limitless list of possibilities – walk into town for a coffee, take a trip to the grocery store, catch the train for a trip into the city, tend to the herb garden, make a spreadsheet of all of the concert tix you’ve saved since the mid-1970s, etc. – maybe it’d simply make more sense to spend a little time reading through your favorite monthly newsletter to see what your favorite album cover artists might be doing to make the world a bit more interesting and beautiful…that’s it!

I’ve done almost nothing in my efforts to launch a newer, cleaner album cover artist-focused web site, as that would take time away from my research and writing (and the aforementioned leisure-time activities), but I have made some headway in adding more bios to the site, so it’s not been a total under-application of my resources (and, I got to see the new Van Gogh exhibit at the Art Institute ON THE SAME DAY that I attended the annual Chicago Blues Fest – see photos, below).

Album Cover Hall of Fame Quickie News Update and Link Summary for June, 2023

Album Cover Hall of Fame’s Quickie News Update and Link Summary for June, 2023

Posted June 1, 2023 by Mike Goldstein, AlbumCoverHallofFame.com

Happy post-Memorial Day/early Summer season to you all. I know that I’d told you last month that I’d be skipping the regular monthly newsletter for a month (i.e., June) in order to catch up on a ton of work that I keep having to put off, so much has happened – or is about to happen – that I thought I’d figure out some way to deliver some sort of update so important details and events are now available to you, but with much-truncated introductions. I hope that you still find the info useful.

Album Cover Hall of Fame News Update and Link Summary for May, 2023

Album Cover Hall of Fame’s News Update and Link Summary for May, 2023

Posted May 1, 2023 by Mike Goldstein, AlbumCoverHallofFame.com

Mid-Spring greetings to you all. As a mostly-retired person, I spend a fair amount of time each month corresponding with people I know all over the world (yes, album art fans are EVERYWHERE!), and this past month I noticed an uptick in the people from outside the U.S. who’ve asked me “what the hell is going on over there?!”, a blanket statement that covers questions people have about our current political divide, courtroom dramas unlike we’ve ever seen before and the credibility of our national media organizations, to which I reply “which London dry gin will I be using in my G&T today?”. These days, I’m limiting my media exposure to my Financial Times Weekend Edition (which, in addition to its coverage of world news, comes on the cutest color newsprint), episodes of House Hunters International and whatever I find of interest on the BritBox, Apple TV and PBS Passport services. Yes, I know that I’m hiding, but having watched friends and relatives lose themselves to the 24 hour news cycle here, it’s the only way I seem to be able to stay focused on both what’s good in my life and what’s interesting in the world of album cover art and the people that make it so, if you don’t mind, let’s get on with this month’s news summary.

As it’s been the case for the past several months, this past month was a rather busy one prepping things for the ACHOF site, with work being finished on Part 2 of “The Art of Imitation” articles I collaborated with Richard Forrest on (it being posted early in April) and work nearly finished on two more interviews I’ve teased you on, those being with musician/artist/museum curator Martin Atkins and artist Dave Van Patten on his Grammy Award winning work on the Grateful Dead at Madison Square Garden box sets released late in 2022. Both should be ready within the next week or so, so thanks for your patience as I work to complete those ASAP.

Album Cover Hall of Fame’s News Update and Link Summary for October, 2022

Posted October 1, 2022 by Mike Goldstein, AlbumCoverHallofFame.com

Greetings to you all. I have to first warn you that this month’s edition of the ACHOF newsletter will be a truncated one as I’ve had to spend a lot of time and energy managing several things that have popped up and couldn’t be ignored. It will also force me to put off the publishing of the next summary until December 1^st.

Sorry about that.

In any case, there should be enough basic info now to get you the basics, but it’ll be up to you to click through to get “the rest of the story” (apologies to Mr. Harvey).

I’m also working feverishly to set up the voting for this year’s fan-driven voting for “the best of the best of” in all of the main ACHOF categories, so be on the lookout in a week or so for the official announcement and a link to the polling site. Voting will be open from October 10^th thru November 13^th, with the final tallies announced right before Thanksgiving here in the U.S.. It’ll be exciting to see who the fan favorites are in each category – tough choices must be made, but let’s do our best to honor all of those whose names will be on the lists.  

Thanks in advance for your help and your patience while I get my world back in order. Now, on with the newsletter.

Mike G

Album Cover Hall of Fame’s News Update and Link Summary for September, 2022

Album Cover Hall of Fame News Update and Link Summary for September, 2022

Posted September 1, 2022 by Mike Goldstein, AlbumCoverHallofFame.com

A late-Summer greeting to you all.

For the past 10 years, the ACHOF has worked to recognize and promote the talents of the people who’ve brought music fans and art collectors (and hybrids of both activities) the best in retail and online music packaging, graphics and photography. Helped each year by asking a panel of curators, gallerists, music marketing execs and writers/researchers who cover the topic, I’ve been able to deliver these details to my readers and, once a year in November, present the top vote-getters in our annual poll as inductees into the hallowed (virtual) halls of the ACHOF. What I haven’t been able to do is ask this site’s visitors and fans about their favorite album art-makers, and so to celebrate the 10^th anniversary of the launch of the ACHOF, I’m going to do just that.

Later next month, I will be posting a poll that will allow you to review the past winners in each of the active categories and then ask you to select your most-admired art directors, illustrators, designers and photographers, who’ll then be placed in special categories that will be called…well, what will we call them? We don’t want to call them “the best”, nor do we want to repurpose some of the popular names that the awards industry has used over time – “People’s Choice”, “Fan Favorites”, “Vox Populi”, “Diamond/Platinum/Gold Medal Winning”, etc. A quick trip to the thesaurus presents words and phrases like “title holder”, “prize winner” and “top dog”, among others, along with some that I think are a bit over the top, such as “conquering hero”, “vanquisher” and “numero uno”, so while I know that it must be something memorable and appropriate, I don’t think I’m quite ready to commit to anything. Now that I think about it, perhaps we should also rely on our readers to present their ideas for this project, keeping this year’s efforts all about YOUR notions for what’s good and right, so I’ll be adding a poll question for this task as well. Eager to see what you come up with – we have a LOT of creative types reading this newsletter, so I’m sure something great will show up.

Thanks in advance for your help. Now, back to the matters at hand.