G-Sync – Postcards from the Edge of GR

One of my favorite pastimes when I travel is to engage in a delightfully obsolete form of communication: scribbling notes on postcards that I send to family and friends. Not only do I enjoy sending them,  but I really enjoy getting them as well because they  provide a snapshot in words of what is happening at another city.

While this low-tech art form is becoming rarer in an age of electronics, I still appreciate each person’s account of his or her surroundings.

And when I meet someone visiting our city, I often wonder what they would write on their postcards if they only had three sentences to share.

Some visitors to our fair city will wander down to the hotel gift shop to purchase the obligatory  postcard image of the Calder, but is this single image really a fair representation of our story?

I would say: “No, it is not.”

The Calder was  our story when the artwork was adopted as a symbol of the massive urban renewal effort that shook downtown Grand Rapids, but our story now is much bigger than a single work of art.  

Over the past few weeks,  Grand Rapids has played host to a wide range of visitors —  international beer drinkers, touring guest DJs,  convention goers.  

And each traveler comes away with stories about our city that barely mention our venerable orange artwork — or maybe neglect it altogether.

Their observations may not be recorded on  the back of a postcard anymore,  but they do live on in the videos they create and the photos they take.  But most of all, they share their  experiences over coffee with their friends back home.

I hope we will always remember we are all a part of our region’s story – an ongoing creation that for many of us may have begun by a friend’s postcard bearing an image of La Grande Vittesse.

The Future Needs All of Us (to chimp for the camera.)

Tommy Allen, Lifestyle Editor

Email:  RapidGSync@gmail.com
Twitter Feed: @TommyGSync

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Photo of LA based DJ Irene at the Intersection, photo provided by Terry Johnston

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