Comments on: yes.

By: jean

jean — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 09:19:03 +0000

6:30 am Weds morning? Rough! Come back home!

I visited Dallas, where my dad grew up, twice this summer, and I was just kind of bowled over by the landscape. There it’s super-sprawl, subdivisions, and highways (rather than historical ‘western’ stuff, or Bhutanese-monastery!) but it’s just on a scale that I couldn’t really comprehend. That’s another whole set of thoughts, not for tonight… but my general conclusion, though not too articulate, was: “Man, the world sure has different places in it.”

Well, I extend to you a pre-emptive welcome back to the east coast… if you find yourself nearby to Providence, I would love to have you visit!

Jonathan, those buildings are crazy. Again, the scale is what’s so jarring, rather than the weird stylistic touches… Texas. man.

By: Jonathan

Jonathan — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 17:16:22 +0000

Funny western buildings? The best example I can think of is the Univ. of Texas at El Paso campus, which is Bhutanese Revival.

Coffeemakers: I tried enlarging the picture to see the reflections of your kitchen in the shiny sides of the morenita (a la High Anxiety), but I was foiled by the crappy office computer. Can you photoshop it somehow? Nice pic; glad it found a good home. I’ll send you some Brasso next.

By: Kate Thomas

Kate Thomas — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 01:05:17 +0000

Oh, that building’s great. Did you ever spend much time driving out Lancaster Avenue in Bala Cynwyd? There’s a similarly blah brick building, only some owner clearly had something funny going on in their head, so they slapped on a giant ornate train station clock right over the front door. One of the four-sided cube clocks that juts out from the wall so it can be seen from all sides. It’s huge and looks terribly heavy and I’d be quite scared to step under it for fear of it falling on my head, but it does always make me laugh.

Sadly, I don’t think I can get you photos of the funny Western buildings. I usually see them while going from Austin to Houston, which I only did to visit my ex’s parents. And since he is now my ex (as of 6:30 AM Wednesday morning while cooking grits for breakfast!) I don’t think I’m too likely to be heading back that way any time soon. Anyway, the buildings are exactly the ones that you’re thinking of. I always wonder if they’re made that way to be more imposing or for some more useful reason, like shading the roof. But then, buildings down here are odd in general. The walls are so thin, I feel like I’d fall through if I leaned against them! I am a fish out of water and plan to head back East as soon as I can, to where the buildings are older than I am (older than my great-granny, too!) and the trees are taller than I am (okay, maybe that one’s an exaggeration… but not by much!). And there’s so much sky that I feel deep empathy for small animals that are scared of hawks. Too much! Back to the old country!

By: graham

graham — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 19:24:40 +0000

“Also it’s incredibly obsessive & reveals my need for an ordering system to underlie everything I do.”

JEANARCHY!

By: mark sawtelle

mark sawtelle — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 14:39:20 +0000

BTW, the timestamping on these comments doesn’t seem to have adjusted for the change back to EST. (E.g., I actually posted the previous comment at 9:33am.)

By: mark sawtelle

mark sawtelle — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 14:33:13 +0000

Yes, that (hand-dotting) does sound totally crazy and backward (based on my hazy recollection of the art-to-screen-tint process). But it looks really good so far.

Now I see what inspired your letterforms. For an example that I instantly loved of slightly manufactured nostalgia, how about the title lettering on the cover of Workingman’s Dead (e.g., http://img.imeem.com/ai/FEFTOLWSSK7FYKZNXZAWSDRUQDYNGVFH.jpg), which was a bit of a shocker when it appeared. Or, also in the California early 1970s, anything by David Lance Goines.