My first job in college was selling popcorn at the Student Union Movie Theatre at the University of Utah. All of 18 at the time, I didn’t realize how dramatically that job would change my life and entire career. I was given the position to manage the movie theater the next year, one that I embraced and maintained for four more years with the kind of verve that included additional part time positions as a 35mm film projectionist at Salt Lake City’s revered underground cinema The Blue Mouse, as well as film critic for the University of Utah’s Daily Chronicle. The Student Union Manager position happened to coincide with the introduction of Apple’s Macintosh personal computer. Though I had nearly failed my introduction to computer programming in High School, I took readily to the wonders of the Mac, and have been a lifelong user and Adobe Illustrator aficionado ever since. My first creative portfolio included a copy of the 1990 Winter Quarter Film Schedule that I considered my first successful work in graphic design. It was photocopied on 11 x 17 inch colored paper as a handout at the theater.

What the hell! In 2026 I decided to add the rest of my program guides from this period that had been sitting untouched in a manila folder for nearly 40 years. It’s great to look back and see where the career as well as my passion for film began, corresponding to writing that I commenced on the topic for substack this same year.

All one needed back in the day was a) scissors or an x-acto knife, b) a photocopy machine, c) pen, pencil and paper and d) a computer, which only had limited use, for me at least, in composing text or ceating some kind of patterened background. It was fun to craft fliers, program guides and advertisements in this manner, old school style. There is no good reason why things have shifted to the perfection that digital design now allows, outside of it taking up less space and perhaps taking less time. Fuck A.I.