Dispatch #377: Footprints Across Time

 

Ice Age Earth footprint, Apollo 11 lunar footprint

  It's hard not to be discouraged living in a modern world still plagued by war, superstition, sexism, and bigotry. 

  That's why it helpful to step back occasionally and look at the big picture—to remember where humankind began and just how far we've come. The photo at the top of today's dispatch illustrates that concept quite literally.

  On the left is a fossilized human footprint—said to be around 23,000 years old—found near a dry lakebed in New Mexico. Meanwhile, over on the right we have a boot print on the lunar surface, left by an Apollo astronaut in 1969.

 Those Ice Age humans—who doubtlessly gazed up at the Moon each night—couldn't possibly conceive that their descendants would one day walk the lunar surface. In that same way, we modern humans have no idea what our forebears might accomplish in the future.

Lascaux cave painting, Van Gogh's Starry Night

  That's why it's good to remember that humans aren't always bent on finding new ways of hurting or killing each other. We're not always hateful, petty, or stupid. Sometimes we can do great things—inspiring things. 

  Here's to that next great thing.

 There's more to come in the next dispatch.

 ©2024 SummitCityScribe

Dispatch #338: Stylish 1970s Logos

 

NBC logo (1976)

  Growing up in the 1970s, I was always intrigued by the decade's corporate logos—with their bold shapes and colors. Today's dispatch showcases some of my favorites.

US Bicentennial and Apple logos

  First up: Bruce Blackburn's patriotic star design for the U.S. Bicentennial in 1976 and Rob Janoff's rainbow-striped Apple logo from 1977.

  Anyone who sipped a 7-Up in the 1970s will instantly recognize Thomas Miller's bold Futura Dot logo for the bubbly soft drink. Beside it is one of my all-time favorites: NASA's iconic "worm" logo designed by Bruce Blackburn and Richard Danne. Gotta love the worm!

  There are few more recognizable Rock and Roll logos than John Pasche's "tongue and lips"—which he designed for the Rolling Stones in 1970. Speaking of iconic, in 1972, Warner Brothers went with the legendary Saul Bass for their new corporate logo.

  Although it got very little love then (or now), I've always liked NBC's 1976 red-and-blue trapezoid logo from Lippincott and Margulies—it's bold, colorful, and futuristic. 

  Finally, when discussing graphic design in 1970s, it's impossible to overlook Milton Glaser's love letter to New York City. Along with the Rolling Stones logo, it's probably the most recognizable today.

  There's more to come in the next dispatch.

  ©2023 SummitCityScribe

Dispatch #320: Where the Saguaros Bloom

   For over a dozen years, I called the city of Tucson, Arizona home. I loved the dry Sonoran Desert air, the perpetually sunny skies, and the ubiquitous Saguaro cacti. 

   Having walked through plenty of forests in my time, I can say that there are few views as majestic and breathtaking as those inside Pima County's Saguaro National Park. 

   Long before I moved to the Arizona, I'd seen so many images of the tall, multi-armed cacti in western movies and TV shows that I began to associate them generally with the American Southwest. 

   I didn't know then that the long-lived species—who only begin to grow their distinctive "arms" at age 75—are only native to a rather narrow area of Southern California, Arizona, and Mexico.

Saguaro Habitat

   Despite this, I've watched dozens of cowboy movies supposedly set in New Mexico, Oklahoma, or Texas that feature Saguaros in the background. Even worse, I once spotted a jar of Lone Star Salsa in the grocery that sported a green saguaro prominently on its yellow label.

    Much like how the color of mailboxes are a clue as to when a movie or TV show was filmed, the presence of a saguaro is an indication as to where it was filmed—usually near Arizona's Old Tucson Studios—a facility used in hundreds of productions since 1940.

    So, the next time you're watching a movie or TV show set in American West, check the landscape for the majestic saguaros. If you spot some, you'll know it was probably filmed in Arizona or Mexico—but definitely not Texas.

  There's more to come in the next dispatch.

  ©2023 SummitCityScribe

Dispatch #279: Night Monsters

      

Me and Mark on a Halloween night in the 1980s.

   Like millions of American kids, I loved dressing up on Halloween and going door-to-door begging for candy from my neighbors, usually in a cheap dime store costume from Ben Cooper or Collegeville—a plastic half-mask fitted tightly to my sweaty face with a thin elastic strap.

     I did so for the last time when I was nine years old, and although I continued to enjoy all the trappings and atmosphere of the spooky season in the years that followed, I didn't dress up again in horrific regalia for almost ten years.

     In the picture at the top of today's Dispatch, that's a teenage me on the left wearing the black coat and hat and sporting a chalky white skull mask. My friend Mark Ward (who painted both our masks) is the wolfman on the right. 

     The two of us went out looking like this out on a Halloween night in the early 1980s. We didn't go door-to-door, however—instead we merely tooled around Fort Wayne aimlessly after dark, occasionally popping into public places like Southtown Mall to gauge people's reactions to our frightful get-ups.

     Since this is the time of year when everyone from kids to grownups like to dress up in costumes both fanciful and fearful, here's an interesting article examining the history behind such traditions.

Photograph ©1964 Diane Arbus

    These days, my October traditions no longer involve wearing spooky garb, but I still have fond childhood memories of walking down the sidewalks in my northside Fort Wayne neighborhood after dark on Halloween—tucked into one of those Collegeville/Ben Cooper costumes from Kresge's or Mr. Wiggs—with a plastic jack-o-lantern bucket swinging from one hand that I hoped by the end of the night would be filled with sugary treats.

     There's more to come in the next dispatch.

     ©2023 SummitCityScribe