Man I love these behind-the-scenes/studio tours. Here is Stefan’s, mastermind behind the Wheelers, studio/office. Nice Star Wars collection, but my Chewbacca mug beats your Storm Trooper mug any day of the week.

How fresh are your Christmas cards this year? Clink got this one. You know, no big whoop.

Masaya, thanks for the greatest Christmas card ever. Seriously.

Hey, check out this photo from Clinker John. It’s this week’s New Yorker cover chillin’ with Kevin’s Taco Bulls in the Kentucky factory where my beloved New Yorker magazine is printed and where John works. Here’s a brief description of what he does to get that sweet sweet rag into my hands each week (I love this “How it Works” kinda thing!)…

“A loose description of what I do is roll storage. What that involves is receiving in rolls of paper, ranging from 1-6000 pounds in various widths and weights. When the job starts running, we check what size it requires, how much, and take it to the appropriate press. There, it leaves my hands, but the printing plates are loaded(4-5 per version, depending on ink/color orders), and ran through. From there, it is moved to the manufacturing side of our building where it is set up on a binding line. NEWY usually takes at least three lines, since it starts production on Friday and we try and get it out by no later than Monday at noon. All the pieces are laid out, and then run through a stitcher/stapler or a cover press when it is square-bound. Newsstand copies are run first, since they have the half-cover overlay, and then mail is run, west coast generally first, then work our way eastward. Office copies and customer copies are run after we think we have all the jinks worked out. Then loaded on appropriate truck, and either moved to a distribution site(newsstand copies) or entered into the mail stream. 1 CSR, 1 roll storage guy, 1 pre-lim/plate maker, 1 ink services, 1 roll tender, 2 book packers, 1 pressman, 1 color tech, 1 hoist driver(at least), 2-3 line feeders, 1 line tech, 1 trimmer tech, 1 backend(catches finished books, puts them on correct loads), 1 shipping hoist driver(at least), and a USPS clerk to check and make sure our loads are going out right and not messed up. A few others here and there(QC, handwork, label-prep, etc.) but that is roughly it. A lot more people involved than what I thought when I started working there 12 years ago. Bigger the book, more people involved at line-feeder stage, but pretty stable manpower before there. On an average week, NEWY takes 130000 pounds of paper 5 times over for the insides of the magazine and 40-50000 pounds for the cover and makes around 1.2 million copies on the high side. We also run a whole lot of other magazines(all WWE magazines, Vanity Fair, Glamour, Harper’s Bazaar, Game Informer, Bon Appettit to name a few), so it never gets old. Always something to read.”

Thanks John!

Clinkers! I need a 3D modeler for a project we’re working on. Are you a badass at Lightwave, Maya, Rhino, or zBrush? Or maybe another program that I’m ignorantly forgetting to list? We need people with experience rendering creatures, no animation experience necessary, but a few good characters under your belt is a must.

Email your portfolio or a link to your website or flickr stream to theclinkroom@planbbranding.com. I think Jason’s put out a call for something similar at some point over the last year. If you’ve already submitted an email to us for that project, don’t be shy to submit again. Thanks and looking forward to seeing your work!

Check out Clinker Black Jason Statham at The Blind Project auction/fundraiser sporting T.J.’s Shams and looking sharp doing it. Black Jason Statham (Greatest Facebook name ever?) had this to say…

“Rocked the Shams x Rejects League fitted hard at Episodes: an art auction/fundraiser for theblindproject. Theblindproject benefits girls and women caught up in the commercial sex trade; teaches them life skills and helps them maintain a higher standard of life through art and fashion. Check them out at www.theblindproject.com. They do good things.”

A couple nights ago, the Omaha Storm Chasers got oh so close to winning the Triple-A Championship. But man did they ever look good doing it! You’ll get em next year Chasers. We designed that Govener’s Cup logo just for you!

Roger Lugo sent us these amazing photos of him, his son, The Clink Room’s Lehigh Valley IronPigs Official On-Field, and the most infamous field in Iowa if not the World. Man does this fill my heart with gladness.

Thanks Roger!

Hey, check this photo from NYMag’s infamous Party Lines photo series. It’s model Miles McMillan sporting Kevin’s Taco Bulls at the Alexander Wang after-party. He’s with Bee Shaffer, Anna Wintour’s daughter, no less. That Taco Bulls’ got some good company right there. There you go Kevin, you made it to Fashion Week and you didn’t have to compete in Project Runway or anything!

If you do, then you can read this article written by David Fajula of Barcelona, Spain about the Asheville Tourists. I don’t read or speak spanish so will someone give me a brief of what it says?

Thanks David! We’re flattered!

Every once in a while we like to take a walk around the Clink-uverse. Kicking it off is one of Jeffe Crupper’s buddy’s sons, Samuel Mende, playing his first innings in pro-ball for our Casper Ghosts. He’s batting .378 with a .440 OBP and .978 SLG. Pretty epic start!

Here, I lost my way. I forgot where I got these photos from. Shout-out your photo credits in the comments. Sorry about that. If I see a photo that I like, then I save it in a folder. But I forgot to note where I got it from. Again, sorry.