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Art Department
The Psychedelia Of Yesterday’s Textbooks

The opium poppy and its derivatives. (Image: Patty Peck)
When searching through old books at thrift shops or church rummage sales, you often come across vintage textbooks and magazines that feature incredible art and design — pieces that warrant being hung in a frame, or at least deserve wider public recognition. But like the work of so many commercial artists, these types of one-shot pieces are often relegated to utter obscurity. Over at 50 Watts, Will Schofield scans and catalogs such work, giving it a second life before it hits the landfill.
Some of the richest material Schofield has uncovered comes from a publisher called Communications Research Machines, which seemed to go out of its way to publish visuals best experienced while on some form of hallucinogen:
Communications Research Machines published Life and Health in 1972. I started to collect CRM’s intentionally or unintentionally psychedelic publications after finding a copy of Biology Today in a bookstore’s discard pile. Other early-seventies gems I plan to feature include Psychology Today and Developmental Psychology Today. (If searching for your own copies, pay attention to the dates as apparently subsequent editions are toned down.) For a fuller picture of Life and Health, see my previous posts featuring the surreal paintings of Phil Kirkland and the diagrams of Tom Lewis. Read More »
Occupy Wall Street
Occupy The Rust Belt: Notes From The Pittsburgh Protest

Occupy Pittsburgh crowd massed at Freedom Square in the Hill District. (Photo © Karen Lillis)

Occupy Pittsburgh crowd massed at Freedom Square in the Hill District. (Photo © Karen Lillis)

Occupy Pittsburgh crowd massed at Freedom Square in the Hill District. (Photo © Karen Lillis)

Occupy Pittsburgh crowd massed at Freedom Square in the Hill District. (Photo © Karen Lillis)

Occupy Pittsburgh crowd massed at Freedom Square in the Hill District. (Photo © Karen Lillis)

Occupy Pittsburgh march, descending into downtown. (Photo © Karen Lillis)

Wishful thinking on the march through downtown Pittsburgh. (Photo © Karen Lillis)
On October 15, I marched with Occupy Pittsburgh, the city’s first action in solidarity with Occupy Wall Street. I watched excitedly as the crowd grew throughout the day, building from a modest gathering when my partner and I arrived at Freedom Corner at 10:00 a.m., to a rally in the low thousands by the time the march reached Market Square at 1:00 p.m. In sharp contrast to national anti-Occupy jeers against the “dirty hippies” and stereotypes of black-clad anarchists, a broad spectrum of the population showed up to march. College students and parents with small children. Union members and nine-to-fivers. Retirees and laid-off workers. Voters and tax-payers. The underclass and the working class and the middle class and self-identified members of the 1%. At one point I found myself between an old man in a motorized wheelchair and a young girl being pulled in a wagon. Read More »










