The striking record cover art above is by Mishka Westell, and you’ll see more here (link).

The 60’s—a time of heady change, new music and cool posters. I still have some on my walls. Today, Westell captures that zeitgeist with her stunning record cover art, and reawakens a fondness for the look that defined an era. Pushpin Studios was spawned back then and their exciting graphics by names like Milton Glaser and Seymour Chwast have not been equaled since. It was a fun time to be an art director in advertising and these heavyweights influenced a lot of the work we did in the 60’s. I’m happy to see the DNA resurface in younger illustrators’ and designers’ work.

Milton Glaser passed away in 2020 at age 91, June 26 (his birthday was June 26, coincidentally, the Bronx, New York) and this quick interview will show some of his spirit, essence and work. I’m proud to say we had him speak at the Kansas City Art Directors Club when I was president. And he came back to judge some of our awards competition. He was a welcome presence.

I’d still like to open a bookstore in Paola, Kansas

We thought about it maybe 20 years ago and did some rudimentary feasibility studies which equated it to manned flights to Venus. We found a very oddly shaped lot (still for sale—maybe 30 ft. wide, 100 ft. deep) and thought, hey, we could always build upward. Paola’s only skyscraper. Here’s a poem about it, which is in “The Taste of Red-Orange” (out soon, and cheap—buy several for gifts!)

So that and about 100 other poems are in “The Taste of Red-Orange.” If I had a bookstore I would have a stack of these next to the cash register, and I would give readings to the rapt pups, Cash and Millie, who would get treats for listening. The cats might listen for treats, might not.

In lieu of a bookstore, I’ll let you (and the world) know when and where you can pick up your copies, when I know.

I’m guessing Amazon, or Shakespeare and Company in Paris. One of those, anyway. The cat doesn’t care.

John Vachon’s Chicago Streets

His name is up there among the Walker Evanses, the Dorothea Langes, the major lights of the second world war years that dot the pantheon of shooters who showed us that we weren’t really looking. When he turned up in Chicago, he took a messenger job with a government agency even though his major was English Lit. Then he got a camera. Then he became THE John Vachon. Here are some Chicago pix on the way. (Yes, and another poem from The Taste of Red-Orange, this one about these guys, the shootists, the lens-meisters.)

And now, the odds and ends…

…or more of them, but some pretty good ones, like Pat Metheny in Japan with several thousand of his closest friends and fans, here’s that link, and a pretty good listen. It’s called Third Wind. He’s from Lee’s Summit, MO, (Kansas City) and he does us proud. I like his album “As Falls Wichita, So Falls Wichita Falls.”

And Bette Davis, when asked what was the best way for an aspiring actress to get into Hollywood, she replied, “Take Fountain…” I took Fountain a few times. It was pre-GPS and as a newbie I had a large, worn map of L.A. unfolded on the passenger seat at the ready. Try reading that before your 405 turnoff. Then it all became easier and I didn’t need it anymore. But I still have it. All folded up correctly.

I read somewhere The Holdovers was simply the best movie hands down, so I pass that along with this link, just in case it’s true. I’m watching Oppenheimer now. They mumble a lot.

The Hot Spot might be pretty good, too…here’s a review and here’s the soundtrack. The film has Don Johnson in a Mitchum-like sleaze role; some say it’s his best ever.

And, with that I take my leave, bye bye 2023, we probably won’t miss ya. I wish you all no New Years’ Involutions (complications) and take resolutions with a big fat grain of salt.