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I was delighted to receive a link this week from designer friend/equestrian Christina Weese in Saskatoon—to an online version of the 1972 Chouinard Catalog. As an aging trad climber this really takes me back… legendary climber/mountaineer (and IMAX photographer) David Breashear writes about the influence of this very same 1972 Chouinard catalog on his climbing in his 1999 autobiography, High Exposure.

“Another serious influence on my developing style came via the Chouinard climbing equipment catalogue of 1972, a slender publication with a Chinese landscape painting on the cover. Its author, the revered rock and ice climber Yvon Chouinard, called for “clean” climbing, proposing that climbers disavow pitons and bolts that scarred or otherwise altered rock. Instead, he advocated the use of metal nuts of various shapes and sizes which slotted into cracks without damage to the rock and could be recovered by the second climber on a rope. He reminded readers of the edict of John Muir, the late-nineteenth-century poet-environmentalist: ‘Leave no mark except your shadow.’ This ethic of purism and self-control made a profound impact on the climbing community—and on me as well.”

Images: a few pics from the catalog, including the chapter title for a treatise on clean climbing, a mess of ‘biners, the breakthrough Hexentrics stopper, Yvon’s ironmongery, and a pair of exquisite Annapurna glasses.

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Growing up in cities of central Europe, I spent countless days visiting galleries (as a teenager, contemplating an art career) where I would stand for hours in front of classic paintings by great masters…

Today I chanced upon Google’s Art Project—the closest I’ve come for a long time to those joyful times of youthful wonder and discovery. Make a (virtual) visit to a growing number of top-notch art galleries around the world, zoom in to examine exquisite levels of detail, and come away truly awed… here.

Images: assorted details…

Winnipeg, Manitoba

Louis David Riel was a Canadian politician (elected three times to the Canadian House of Commons, although he never assumed his seat), the leader of the Métis people of the prairies, and is considered to be the true founder of the province of Manitoba (in these parts he’s now regarded as our greatest folk hero). Today we celebrate his contributions by means of an official provincial holiday—125 year sago he was hung for treason… his body is buried here in the churchyard of Saint-Boniface Cathedral.

“My people will sleep for one hundred years,
but when they awake, it will be the artists
who give them their spirit back.”

—Louis Riel

Inspired words from the great Rumi…
Jalāl ad-Dīn Muḥammad Balkhī, جلالالدین محمد بلخى

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Love is the Water of Life.

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I am your moon and your moonlight too
I am your flower garden and your water too
I have come all this way, eager for you
Without shoes or shawl
I want you to laugh
To kill all your worries
To love you
To nourish you.

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Speak a new language
so that the world
will be a new world.

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You were born with wings.
Why prefer to crawl through life?

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Every object, every being,
is a jar full of delight.

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The way you make love
is the way God will be with you.

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Only from the heart
Can you touch the sky.

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The moon has become a dancer
at this festival of love.

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They will ask you
what you have produced.
Say to them,
except for Love,
what else can a Lover produce?

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I am bewildered by the magnificence of your beauty and wish
to see you with a hundred eyes.

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Silence is an ocean. Speech is a river.

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Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing,
there is a field. I’ll meet you there.

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I was you
and never knew it.

(found in Design Observer)

Steven Heller had heard from various designers and design historians over the years about the existence of a Nazi graphics standards manual. No one could say they actually saw it, but they knew of someone who had… so it grew into something of a Big Foot or Loch Ness Monster tale, until one day he actually saw it too—and it had been right under his nose the whole time…

Thanks to friend Ian McCausland for the link (unfortunately, now broken).

callipygous (aka callipygian)

For many years I have collected dictionaries—in printed book form, and also online. I take great delight in discovering new words, and in understanding their roots and etymology. “Callipygous” crossed my desktop recently, and I couldn’t help but ‘share’ this lovely, voluptuous word that means: “of, pertaining to, or having beautiful buttocks,” 1800, from Gk. kallipygos, name of a statue of Aphrodite at Syracuse, from kalli-, combining form of kallos “beauty” + pyge “rump, buttocks.” Sir Thomas Browne (1646) refers to “Callipygæ and women largely composed behinde.”

Gluteous maximus triumvirate image from unknown sources: Cooper Black (typeface) seemed to fit just right… (with a nod to Matt Warburton).

(just passing this on…)

“Tack’s Cartoon Tips have been prepared for the purpose of aiding those desirous of entering the field of Comic Art…”.

From a Flickr slideshow (scan of B. ‘Tack’ Knight’s 1923 instructional book on cartooning). 

Basel, Switzerland

It’s funny how one becomes so attached to certain places… I’ve found myself pining for Basel again of late (I spent most of my school-aged years in and around this fine old city on the banks of the Rhine).

Illustrated poster by Marcus Schneider, Graphis Annual 61/62.

Memphis, Tennessee…

This is Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, a fitting moment in time to honor the visionary activist and civil rights leader. Earlier today I was sent a link to a compelling clip from the embattled National Public Radio in the U.S.—four minutes well worth listening to (please listen to the end), here.

(thanks Gregor)

(meme | rhymes with cream)

Interesting news out yesterday that Toronto entrepreneur Jamie Salter has bought the rights to the image of 1950s Hollywood icon Marilyn Monroe. Salter’s New York-based intellectual property corporation, Authentic Brands Group, is thought to have paid in the area of $50 million for Monroe’s name and likeness. “Marilyn Monroe is recognized around the world as the embodiment of beauty and glamour,” says Salter, CEO of Authentic Brands. “Quite simply, her name and her image have timeless appeal. We feel fortunate to be responsible for the future.”

The question in my mind… in this day and age, can you really own a meme?

Images: some quick grid|meme studies I just did… decidedly not of the famed Marilyn, yet triggering recall to the glamorous legacy of the unhappy starlet who died of an overdose in her Los Angeles home in 1962, age 36.