Category: ultrapersonal

Linkdump: Introversion

If you’ve met me, you’ve probably picked up on my being maddeningly, awkwardly shy, unless you’ve known me so long that you’ve forgotten about it. (Strangers terrify me, basically.) This has always been a bit of a problem, but has at least been easier to manage since learning to understand and manage the parts of being shy which are just plain old introversion.

“Caring for Your Introvert” is a 2003 Atlantic article by Jonathan Rauch that has been making the rounds for years, and is one of the first things that help me put my finger on this side of my personality, and make peace with it. The opening paragraph is powerfully resonant:

Do you know someone who needs hours alone every day? Who loves quiet conversations about feelings or ideas, and can give a dynamite presentation to a big audience, but seems awkward in groups and maladroit at small talk? Who has to be dragged to parties and then needs the rest of the day to recuperate? Who growls or scowls or grunts or winces when accosted with pleasantries by people who are just trying to be nice?

“Confessions of an Introverted Traveller” and “Six Tips for Introverted Travellers” are a pair of articles by Sophia Dembling about what it’s like to go to new places and see new things as an introvert, when all the writing and conventions about travel assume you wouldn’t be. Interestingly, I’ve found that an awful lot of the aspects of business travel, rather than leisure travel, are really well-suited for me. Hotels and other services usually assume that the business traveller is after some time to relax, unwind, and recharge to escape the demand of being “on the clock” all day, just because you’re away form home. That works really well for people who get worn out from a day or interacting with others.

“10 Myths About Introverts” by Carl King is a handy listicle on the subject. A good bit, which I hope my friends have already figured out:

Myth #5 — Introverts don’t like to go out in public.
Nonsense. Introverts just don’t like to go out in public FOR AS LONG. They also like to avoid the complications that are involved in public activities. They take in data and experiences very quickly, and as a result, don’t need to be there for long to “get it.” They’re ready to go home, recharge, and process it all. In fact, recharging is absolutely crucial for Introverts.

Treasures from the attic

About five years ago, when I was getting ready to move to England and take another crack at grad school, I was starting to worry about what to do with all my stuff. I’d surrendered many treasures as I downsized and moved from one place to another, but emigrating — even if it would only be for a year — would require me to pare down to the essentials once and for all, and even then I’d probably need to give preference to relevant books for my course.

Luckily, my brother generously agreed to let me use the attic of his large house to store all the boxes of things that I couldn’t take, but wasn’t quite prepared to throw away or sell. In the years since, as I’ve adjusted to the idea that I may be living here for quite a while, I’ve emptied out a box or two when possible, throwing away things that don’t seem quite so precious anymore and bringing some of the treasure back to the UK.

Last week I sorted through the stack of boxes again, grabbing a few essential books I’d been missing and rescuing a small stack of ephemera I’ve been collecting for the past thirty years or so. Looking through the pile is like finding old friends again, and unleashing a flood of memories. I suspect many of the the tidbits will make their way into Pink Mince eventually, but here’s a selection of other things with less editorial potential.

cyclone.jpg

Ticket stub from the Cyclone at Coney Island

Divorce Sale

Flyer for a divorce sale — “Everything is cheap but HIS stuff is cheaper”

Loch Ness

Flyer for a “Scottish” gay bar in Rio de Janeiro

Strapped

Note given to me by a 15-year-old deaf boy when I was working the front desk at Waterstone’s in Boston

John Waters autographs

A couple of John Waters autographs from 1989 or so.

John Waters scripts

Much more beloved Waters memorabilia: copies of various scripts from films of his.

Ziggy played guitar here

After living out of suitcases for the past few months, I finally get to settle down again this month. I was spared the horrors and aggravation of gambling on strangers when some friends of mine in Greenwich let me know that one of them was moving out and freeing up a room, a much better situation — in terms of rent, location, and housemates — than I was facing otherwise. So I’ll be south of the river again, happily reunited with my books and the rest of my clothes. I’ll also be living in a neighborhood where I’ll be within walking distance of decent food and places to hang out, a welcome relief from the general lack of amenities in Leyton. (It was a nice enough two years in a super flat with a super housemate, but sorry, Leyton, as a neighborhood you kinda suck.)

Ziggy Stardust

On the whole, Greenwich looks like a great area. There’s the nice bit nearby, with the shops and observatory and the river taxi and the park. In the other direction are trains which will get me up to my studio or down to the office with minimal fuss. Lots of charm and amenities, to say the least. However, the gentleman whose room I’m taking points out an exciting piece of trivia that dwarfs all of that, at least this morning. It seems as if the pharmacy on the corner down from the new place is actually the site of Underhill Studio, where David Bowie developed Ziggy Stardust.

Early in 1971 Bowie was regarded as washed-up, a one-hit wonder. That summer he worked up Hunky Dory, which was a critics’ fave but initially made no impact on the charts. Then around September 1971 he started work on the album that would make his name: The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars. And Ziggy, the ultimate rock-’n’roll creation, was hatched at Underhill.

Hunky Dory had been put together in the recording studio, without any preparation. Ziggy was the one time when Bowie worked as a proper band, with guitarist Mick Ronson, bassist Trevor Bolder and drummer Woody Woodmansey, taking time to work out the songs beforehand. “It was a bit more rock and roll and we were a rock band,” says Bolder. “So doing that album was more like Oh yeah, we know what to do with this. We rehearsed it, we went in and we played. At Underhill Studios in Greenwich.

— Paul Trynka, Starman: David Bowie – The Definitive Biography

There’s a bit more detail at The Greenwich Phantom, but essentially, yeah — I’ll be buying aspirin at the conceptual birthplace of Ziggy Stardust come next month.

Birthplace of Ziggy

Avant Garde

Avant Garde

I spent the day working on a custom version of this typeface, thinking that it’s one of those designs that only seems to deserve its fame when it’s used just right, but the rest of the time feels a bit off. I don’t love it, but I have a deep affection for it. Avant Garde was, after all, the typeface that turned me into a typographer.

Kroy 80 Supplies and Specimens-coverKroy 80 Supplies and Specimens

When I was a pimply 14-year-old freshman in high school who still just wanted to draw comics for a living, I joined the staff of the school newspaper hoping to contribute a bit of art now and then. One of the first things I was taught was the use of the Kroy machine, which set type on transparent strips of adhesive tape for the headlines in the paper. Among the font discs we had on hand was Avant Garde Demi, and it included a number of the alternate glyphs that actually make this design interesting. Playing with that font and that machine was the first time I thought about the visual possibilities of a certain style of letter, and how you could create something by manipulating how you arranged letters. It wasn’t an immediate conversation, but something clicked, connected to my fascination with comic book titles and sound effect balloons, and — obviously — eventually led to a lifelong fixation.

Avant Garde Sparky

[Letraset photo via alexvmsf]

Old Friends

I had a vivid imagination as a kid, in a way that is a lot harder to maintain once you get older and have to devote more and more mental space to the rest of the world. I wasn’t lonely, but I spent quite a bit of time alone. This wasn’t a matter of deprivation at all — I had plenty of friends in the neighborhood, and was typically active, at least as much as a nerdy introvert who didn’t like sports was likely to be. I guess perhaps it feels like I spent so much time alone just because that time was creatively rich.

I invented characters and worlds, built spaceships and house out of boxes and styrofoam packing inserts and Lego and odds and ends. I collected action figures, but ignored who they were “supposed” to be and made them into new characters. Before 1977 my cast was primarily made of Fisher-Price Adventure People, but after 1977, well:

Brother Sister

…there was really no other competition.

Continue reading “Old Friends”

Archival material: NYC edition

Photo by Rebecca Cooney for New York TodayA decade ago, which is essentially a lifetime ago, the New York Times had a web-only site about living in New York, and featured me in a weekly column about homes/apartments in the city. While I’m impressed that the article and accompanying slideshow are still online, I’m making an effort to gather up things like this and store them here for posterity, just in case.

[To be honest, I’m also just having a bout of nostalgia for the days when I lived alone an had a lot of space to myself for gathering treasure and doing cool stuff.]

So let’s take a little wistful trip down memory lane, past all the awful (and occasionally lovely) things that have happened since then.

Continue reading “Archival material: NYC edition”

Official business

April Fool’s Day is probably a bad time to make a major announcement, but I swear this one is for real. As of today, I am employed full-time as a senior type designer at Monotype Imaging, based out of our office in Salfords, a bit south of London. (I live and spend most of the time working in London itself, however.) I will probably spend most of my time for the next few months continuing to work on Indic typefaces, and doing a bit more speaking about type design and typography. And actually getting paid for it. Is that awesome or what?

Hooray! Did you know that I’ve spent the last few months whining about my work visa issues, and living back in New York while I waited for all this to fall into place? After working for two years on a collaborative project between Monotype and the University of Reading, and then waiting for the visa stuff to get sorted, I feel like I have finally completed the longest job interview of my life. I am relieved, and excited.

Sparky typefaces

[Note: This is as good a time as any to point out that this is my personal web site, though, where I generally speak off the cuff, and occasionally talk some shit. Those opinions are mine, not the company’s. Obviously.]

Bollywood!

Bollywood

I’ve just come back from an incredible two-week trip to India — a whirlwind tour with stops in Bombay, Ahmedabad, Boroda, Calcutta, Serampore, and Bangalore — and there’s a lot of material to sift through, a lot of new ideas to work on, and a lot of thank-yous to write. Seriously, this past weeks could easily be the start of months of activity if I were able to spin all these threads into other things.

A lot of that will have to wait, however, because I also found out that my UK sponsorship came through, and I suddenly have to jump though all the hoops necessary to move back to England in about three weeks. THREE WEEKS! That’s great, yes, but also a little overwhelming.