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June 2010
From the scrapbook
During lunch, Dan Rhatigan explaining the complexities of Bengali on mobile screens. Dan talked about the collaboration between the University and Monotype to develop new fonts for the mobile and web environments in India.
NB: Not just Bengali, which is why I’m showing Gujarati in that photo.
Homosexuals ARE Different
Mattachine Society advertisement, 1966.
Oh yeah, this weekend is gay pride!
This flyer is kind of genius, kind of remarkably prescient in terms of queer-acceptance imagery. I’ve always had a strong aversion to the argument that "We're just like everyone else!" because, factually, gay people are different. We're not different in our capacity to love, of course, but our experience in understanding ourselves — in having to battle our own culturally and religiously instilled hatred of our very being, in having to learn to communicate with each other using subversive language and visual cues, in having to navigate and constantly redefine our relationships in uniquely individual ways because our commitments to each other go unrecognized by the government and our greater society — is amazingly singular.
That gay people in America somehow continue to thrive in spite of the fact that a flyer from 1966 is still as politically resonant as it was forty-four years ago is something that, I’d say, is worthy of a little pride.
The Lasagna Sandwich
Oh, for fuck's sake. I try to quietly accept that my aversion to most British food is just a matter of a cultural adjustment that I can't make. Regularly, though, I’m pushed to the brink and I have to lash out at the culinary monstrosities I encounter, especially at lunchtime, which has become the most stressful time of the day for me since moving to England. As if things weren't bad enough already at the Tesco near where I work, there's a new contender for most soul-destroying approximation of food — the lasagna sandwich.
Now, I’m not automatically opposed to the idea of a lasagna sandwich. In fact, I’m intrigued. Until I remember this isn't something from a great NY deli, something that involves a crusty roll and hot, fresh-made Italian food. No, this is the British take on it:
Between two thick slices of white bread, you'll find a generous filling of diced beef in a tangy tomato and herb sauce, layered with cooked pasta sheets and finished with a creamy cheddar, ricotta and mayonnaise dressing.
I think I’m sick already. It's bad enough that cheddar cheese is a common ingredient of Italian food here, but I’ve been trying to adapt to that. And their idea of "thick" white bread is nothing of the sort. It's just clammy and tissue-like. The fucking mayonnaise, though! Ugh. I can't even bear to think about it. Tesco regularly offends me (and leaves me with little to eat at lunch besides hummus and bread) with their generous use of mayonnaise on unlikely foods — cheese salads, Southern fried chicken, sushi — and it seems that this madness has no end in sight. The writer of that article about the lasagna sandwich gives a pretty good indication of what horrors lie in wait, but as he points out, there's a market out there for even the unlikeliest concoction.
I just want a decent grilled cheese and bacon. Is that so much to ask?
Glyphs on film
One of the intrepid designers who have purchased a license for Sodachrome (perhaps you recall me mentioning that lovely typeface designed by the talented Ian Moore and me?) is my pal Todd Macfie, a designer in Vancouver who I got to know at Type Camp India last December. After seeing some of the early print samples of Sodachrome when we visited our screenprinter in Chennai, Todd thought it would be a good fit for a project he was developing about self-reflexive literature and hybrid forms of the book. At last, he finally sent me a quick video of his completed prototype book, which features many pages of big, vibrant silkscreens of Sodachrome.
[You know, you can get a license for Sodachrome, too, if you like. Just get in touch.]