MY POSTER PAST :: part 7

Every parent needs to ask themselves: is it appropriate or healthy to force your beliefs onto your children? More importantly, is it even ethically sound to make decorating choices for them? There's an unspoken social faux pas: don't ever give wall art to someone because you think they'll like it. Fortunately, even as a baby, I was openly direct and articulate in my interests and my folks were entirely generous and amenable in customizing my environment into a safe and familiar setting. 

For those of you just joining us, this series is a specifically selective archive of the posters I've hung on my wall throughout my lifetime. This entry goes back to the beginning of that lifetime - roughly the first 6 years - and looks at the things that just appeared on my bedroom walls without my consent or even any real consultation at all. And the results were, for the most part, on the mark. 

- Paul

The Wizard of Oz

This sepia tone mini poster hung above my crib for the length of my crib days, and while on the surface you couldn't have picked a more mainstream motif for a 0 year old, I predictably was a fan of the movie. And while there's a charm to these brown, old-timey barroom prints of iconic pop culture, the Land of Oz was eminently the opposite of this; it's a goddamn plot point for chrissakes. 

We Are the World

This wild "cast" photo with graphics that don't match anything from the album or video also hung above my crib and made it to my first big boy bed. But this one had true subjective purpose; as I've detailed here, this song was my first song as it were, alongside the ABCs and the Fraggle Rock theme, and I'm proud that my first "rock poster" included every pop artist of the 1980s. 

Garfield

The trend of "Keep Out" signs and general warnings about boundaries or shamelessly living in squalor seemed really popular when I was young - or maybe they always were, how would I know. What I do know is that I kept a pretty clean living space and I had no need for privacy before puberty. So I don't know how I ended up with this, but I'm sure it's a fine story. 

Ghostbusters

Amazing to me that I actually ended up with an original one-sheet of this - though in hindsight you coulda probably picked these up at any gas station, free with fill up. I'd say it was an underappreciated privilege to live in a time surrounded by accessible 1980s iconography, but then I look around today at the hollow facsimile we've created and I'm like "eh, I'm good." 

I Saved The Princess

This one is the true holy grail - as much back then as it is today. For as much Nintendo merch as they made it was still difficult to get your hands on anything more exciting than a toothbrush or pencil - and even those were exciting. But a poster?! By way of dream and prayer the heavens opened and bestowed upon us this dynamic, colorful, and compositionally awkward wall art depicting the most popular pop art icon of that very brief few minutes. And I didn't appreciate it enough - I was too busy playing Nintendo.