Road trips on film

Pop culture has had a impact on the concept of the roadtrip. Road trip movies are a genre unto themselves; not only do they share themes of travel, but many follow a common pattern: that originally, an end destination or goal is important, but through the course of the journey, discovers lessons or relationships more important than the original destination. This transformative narrative is arguably more important to the road trip movie than the presence of any roads. And often, the mode of transportation itself becomes a character in the story as well, its health and wellbeing is as important as that of any family-member. Any list of road movies is going to be incomplete, so rather than attempt any sort inclusive or 'best-of' list, I'll simply tell you some of my favorites: 

Hard Core Logo

If you're not a Canuck, you might not be familiar with the work of Bruce MacDonald, who made a trio of rock-and-roll road-trip movies in the 1990s: Roadkill, about a record-label employee dispatched into northern ontario to find a band that has gone missing on tour; Highway 61, about a naive blues enthusiast and pop-historian who gets conscripted (or seduced) by a roadie to transport a drug-stuffed corpse down to Louisiana; and Hard Core Logo. It's a dark and ruthless story of an aging punk band trying to hold together a reunion tour across the Canadian prairies.

Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou

While it's almost entirely set at sea, it's uses every wonderful device of the road trip comedy. Zissou starts out as a modern-day Captain Ahab, a man who takes a crew on his own mission of revenge, but unlike Ahab, finds that the relationships with those who travel with him are more important than his own anger. The soundtrack of Seu Jorge's samba covers of Bowie classics are an unusual and brilliant fit with the film. While Owen Wilson and Bill Murray are front and center, the colourful supporting characters (Anjelica Huston, Willem Dafoe, and Jeff Goldblum) are the most memorable in the movie.

The Straight Story

This is the story of Alvin Straight—played by the incomparable Richard Farnsworth—who makes a journey to see his dying, estranged brother. Because Alvin's fading faculties have left in unable to obtain a driver's license, he makes the journey on his garden tractor. All of this is based on a true story, and David Lynch guides the film along with an unusually understated hand. On the surface it's similar to the more will known 'About Schmidt', as both are about a reflective journey toward the end of one's life, but there's a slow, beautiful pace to the journeys (both personal and physical) in The Straight Story that the best road films have.

Mad Mad Mad Mad World

Here's the other end of spectrum: a madcap story of manic, flawed characters all motivated only by greed, unleashed upon on America's highways like rats running through a crowded diner. The comedy is often little more than letting dozens of comic actors interact with one another, yet it captures another side of driving. It always seems like there's a tremendous number of jerks out there on the highway; in some ways, this movie is their story. When I'm tailgated or cut-off by someone who seems to have no regard for other drivers, I can be calmed a little by envisioning them as Ethel Merman, Buddy Hacket, Jonathan Winters, or one of the other incredibly self-centered personalities from this movie. 

O Brother Where Art Thou

I love this Coen brothers retelling of the Odyssey myth set in the depression-era Deep South. George Clooney, John Turturro, and Tim Blake Nelson form a trio of escaped convicts trying to get to buried treasure before the land is flooded. The bluegrass music of Ralph Stanley perfectly matches the landscape of this film: cornfields, dusty, deserted crossroads, beautiful slow rivers, and glorious old forests. 

Planes Trains and Automobiles

Its not the only 1980s movie that focuses on the madness of modern travel (see National Lampoon's Vacation), but the combination of Steve Martin, John Candy, and the direction of John Hughes make this an absolute classic with so many unforgettable scenes. It perfectly frames those classic roadtrip themes (of realizing that our rush for the end destination has caused us to lose sight of what's important) around the holiday season. 

So what are your favourites? Again, use the comments section to share with us and with other readers. 

Rights of passage

There are two types of roadtrips: the purposeful roadtrip, and the roadtrip for its own sake. The purposeful roadtrip has been around for as long as there have been roads. But the roadtrip for its own sake is a relatively recent phenomenon. Some link it to the idea of the Grand Tour—a renaissance idea that young men of wealth should, at a certain age, travel throughout the continent, absorbing all of the cultural offerings available. As transit opportunities diversified, class ceased to be such a barrier and touring the continent grew in popularity.

The North American roadtrip his a very different history, as the earliest travel was rarely about cultural enrichment but instead about industry. The development of Route 66 in 1926 combined with the rise of the automobile around the same time cemented the roadtrip as part of American culture. An Oklahoma businessman chose the route number, because he thought it would be easy to remember and had a pleasing sound to the number; the R&B standard—covered by musicians from Nat King Cole to Depeche Mode—has proved him right on that account. The anthem has become the unofficial anthem of the American roadtrip. In recent years, increasingly wide and busy freeways occupy a major role in American travel and transportation, but a true road-trip requires at least some time spent getting off the freeways and enjoying the smaller highways that connect one town to the next, and the song perfectly captures the spirit of this. 

The quintessential Canadian roadtrip is the Trans-Canada highway, which wasn't officially completed until 1971. In contrast to Route 66, the unofficial anthem of the Canadian roadtrip is the austere and haunting Northwest Passage by the late Stan Rogers. Rogers focuses on the wilderness and a link between modern travellers and the early explorers of the country; it's about the spaces between the towns, just as Route 66 is as much about the towns themselves, and it helped the relatively new highway become a source of national identity. 

Road trips

In Issue 12, we look at different types of creative adventure, including the roadtrip. Particularly, Hillary Webb of the Gold Fools tells us about their roadtrip from Halifax, Nova Scotia, across North America to exhibit at Renegade Craft Fairs. Today, we're going to look at the roadtrip in more detail. One of the great aspects of a roadtrip, for creative types, is that it provides both time with little to do but think, as well as constantly changing (or sometimes not so changing) backdrops. There may also be some adversity and some random encounters with people or creatures or roadside artifacts. 

When we drove from Calgary down to San Francisco two summers ago, one of my favorite memories is an early morning drive across the border from Nevada into California. We took a lonely little highway from Hawthorne, Nevada to the east side of Yosemite (#359 in Nevada, #167 in California); we didn't see another car along the entire stretch, infact the only other traffic we saw were the road crews who were just finishing resurfacing the Nevada stretch. The dark, virgin pavement and perfect yellow markings contrasted beautifully with the surprising green and purple and gold colours of this scrubland, and then we rounded a corner and the road turned suddenly straight, a wide basin opening before us and beyond that, Yosemite and the Sierra Nevada batholith towering up. While there were many more notable sights and events on that trip, that is the stretch of road that sticks in my mind the most.

photos by Janine Vangool

 

So what's your favourite roadtrip memory? Tell us in the comments.

I'm on the Herman Miller blog!

Thank you to Amy Feezor of the Herman Miller Lifework blog for inviting me to share my playlist and pictures of my workspace.

Scissors screenprint is by UPPERCASE contributor Alanna Cavanagh, click the photo for her shop.

Love Letters

I had a cold and was feeling run down, so I hadn't been downtown to my studio for a few days. When I opened my mailbox, it was overflowing with an amazing assortment of envelopes and small parcels. I instantly felt better!

Inside this beautifully addressed envelope with Australian postage was an actual love letter from Lee of bluebirdmill.blogspot.com. In addition to a gushing letter, Lee included some ephemera, an old map, and a photo of herself. I'm blushing!

Laura Schwammann decorated her envelope which contained a Valentine (which made me think of issue 11 with its themes of linocut/sharp and labour-intensive art-making and owl motif).

Christina Crook, one of our writers (most recently she wrote the feature about Angela Ritchie Ace Camps and Creative Retreats in the current issue #12) sent one of her simple and lovely greeting cards. Each contains a vintage embroidered patch. (They're available on her Etsy shop here. Please visit her shop to see better quality images—it's a great concept for a unique card.)

Mister Edwards sent a fun bag of candy and stickers. (Check out this Crap Book - that's right, no S on scrap!)

Janae Easton of Platypusfile sent a soft owl paperweight/beanbag and some prints of her artwork. Finley is enjoying playing with the little owl, but our dog Percy is awfully tempted, too!

And that's not all that was in this incredible mailbox haul! There's a new book by Gemma Correll, an activity journal to document What I Wore Today, a postcard from Eight Hour Day, and a letter from Carolee Wheeler with some tiny stamps and beautiful handwriting that needs further investigation. A publication from Grow Books entitled Pushie, Jr. And a postcard from Stephanie Levy.

Really, you've all spoiled me. I don't remember a February 14th when I had better Valentines than these. Thank you!!!

Ok, nobody sneeze...

(Want to read more about paper cutting? We have a feature about the art of paper cutting and other labour-intensive artmaking in issue #11.)

A heart a day by Thomas Fuchs

animation by Thomas Fuchs

Every day offers Thomas Fuchs the potential explore the heart as a visual and creative motif... {discovered via Type Theory}

Paperchase has issues #8-12!

Thank you to the excellent people in London who went over to Paperchase's Tottenham Court location and cleared out all the UPPERCASE magazines in under three days. They've ordered more and back issues, too—issues 8 through 12—so their magazine experiment seems to be going well.

type tuesday: Marian Bantjes

by Marian Bantjes

type tuesday: like, like, love by Iskra Johnson

click the image to go to the download pageThank you, Iskra, for sharing this fun (limited-time) download with us! You might remember Iskra Johnson's beautiful lettering as featured in issue #4. (Oh, to have handwriting moods and styles like hers!!!)

(Sorry, issue #4 is sold out.)

type tuesday: Sign of the Times

photo by Tom BlandUK-based photographer Tom Bland had been collecting images of old signage:

Ghost signs (as they are most commonly known) began to catch my eye when I moved to London, and I inevitably found it fascinating to think about how they’d been created and the level of skill and craftsmanship that was involved. I later realised how attractively some of the signs I was seeing had aged. I was seeing layers of typography, paint, colour – and combined with the texture of the crumbling and flaking materials, many of them were appealing to me as looking like contemporary pieces of design in the vein of work by the likes of Tomato or Ray Gun magazine. I felt that if these faded remnants of the past I was seeing around me were used on new book jackets or record covers for example, they would stand up incredibly well against a new piece of work, the signs having evolved and aged completely naturally in ways that contemporary designers or illustrators often emulate.

To see more of Tom's work, visit his Flickr set. Cards and prints are available in his Etsy shop.

Love, Tanamachi Style

i love YOU (and you love U)

Do you want to declare your love for UPPERCASE on your own blog or website? Now you can—and be rewarded for your enthusiasm—with our new referral program. Sign up is easy (you can even use your login info from Twitter, Facebook or Gmail), then grab the code for the graphic that best suits, put it on your site and that's it! There are also social media links and emails that you can use that will track your referrals. In the beta phase, you will earn $1 on every sale resulting from the link from your referring site. Once you reach $20 or more in commissions, they will be paid out automatically on a monthly basis.

What to share the love? SIGN UP HERE

Thank you! UPPERCASE readers are awesome.

(Here are some of the graphics to choose from, with more on the way after the testing period is over.)

introducing... peeps!

Hey, peeps!

Do you have something that you'd like to share with UPPERCASE magazine readers? Now you can publish it in honest-to-goodness ink on paper in our new "peeps" section! Think of a peep as a creative cross between a tweet, the community newspaper classifieds and a type specimen. Thanks to lithographic technology, these "paper tweets" leave a lasting impression. And with beautiful typography and design for each message (typeset by UPPERCASE designer Janine Vangool), these peeps transform a classified into something classy.

Have you just launched your portfolio site or redesigned your blog? Maybe UPPERCASE readers would love your shop with a unique offer just for them? Are you starting a special project that seeks collaboration? Do you have a special message for a fellow reader? A shoutout or just a friendly word of advice to share? Just want to see your name in print? That's what UPPERCASE peeps are for!

Easy and inexpensive, just fill in the form to submit your peep for the next issue (Issue #13 will be released for April-May-June). Deadline for peep submissions for issue #13 is February 28.

my brother ROCKS!

My brother Marc is an amazing musician and guitar/amp genius. Yamaha has recognized his talents by asking him to demo their cool new amp, the THR10.

From the Yahama website: 

"The go-to guy for anything guitar-related in LA, Marc's credits include Daughtry (Marc's THR5 made it on to the latest record!), Kelly Clarkson, Black Stone Cherry, Theory of a Deadman, Creed, Adam Lambert, Papa Roach and 3 Doors Down and he's as likely to be found modding an amp or building a pedalboard as he is tracking an amazing guitar part or finding the perfect guitar sound for a hit record with his awesome collection of amps (a small part of which can be seen in the background of the video). Suffice to say, what he doesn't now about tone isn't really worth knowing...

And don't be fooled by the collection of incredible amps and outboard in the control room at Bay 7 Studios, everything you can hear was done using only what comes in the THR box (apart from the laptop and guitars)."

You can download the track that Marc recorded here. The product design is cool, too.

Glamorous tape photo shoot

I took way more photos of tape than I needed for "A Field Guide to Tape" but I was having too much fun!

Washi tape sources: Pretty Tape, Cute Tape, Omigaye

12: A Field Guide to Tape

photo by Beebee
Issue 12 has a fun article called "A Field Guide to Tape". Written by our youngest contributor so far, I met Beebee at last summer's Renegade fair in LA. I had been planning this article for a while, but after seeing Beebee's blog and zines, I thought she would do a nice job on the topic of tapes. She's quite an expert!

As editor, one of the exciting and fulfilling things about UPPERCASE is inviting people who have never been published before to contribute in one way or another. (It doesn't matter that you're not a "real" writer or "professional" artist—if you show passion and talent, that's all I need.)

photo by BeebeeHere's a closer view of the illustration by Michael Mateyko that accompanies the article. I love how his Scotch tape pattern makes a great suit for this snail/tape creature.

illustration by Michael Mateyko

Lotta's washi tape (and an idea...)

Lotta Jansdotter has her own sets of patterned washi tape. With a huge following in Japan, this makes perfect sense!

Well before seeing these, Glen had the brilliant idea that I should make the UPPERCASE patterns that appear on the magazine spines into washi tape. Wouldn't that be lovely! Is UPPERCASE-y washi tape something that you would like? Let me know in the comments!

some of the pretty spines of UPPERCASE magazine

Lotta love at the workroom

photo by the workroom

I have a crush on Lotta Jansdotter and everything she does. Her patterns always look for fresh and unlaboured. the workroom in Toronto just got Lotta's new fabric line, Echo, in stock. Lotta was recently featured on Design*Sponge, if you haven't already seen it!

The Genius of Pigeons

National Geographic’s Brilliant Beasts series has an excellent episode on Pigeon Genius. Watch it and you’ll be guaranteed to develop a new appreciation for these creatures, from slow motion footage of their impressive wing patterns (their wingtips actually touch at the top and bottom of their beats), to the still hotly-contested theories about how they maintain such remarkable homing navigation. 

One of the more fascinating elements is how their strong monogamous bonds play into their homing instincts. A racing pigeon will be removed from its nest and partner for a few days prior to the race, then reintroduced to its beloved just before being taken away to race. This, in theory, gives it the maximum motivation to get home in a hurry. 

Here's the first of four parts of the program; you can find all of them on Youtube.