Russell, I’ve long been fascinated by this picture of Peary with his flag at the North Pole. His flag was navy blue and white, divided diagonally in half with a P floating on the top half and a star on the bottom. Such an enigmatic personal flag. Military/patriotic colors, but ambiguously so. The P rising above the star. I’ve seen versions of it where the P seems to have been switched to below. maybe in retrospect people wondered at the hubris of Peary, or in this case his wife who made it for him? Anyway, I am always fascinated by the souvenirs of tourism, which in some ways your trip, even though overtly journalistic, and Pearys’ even though an explorer, have clear overlaps with. These momento’s from a place so empty, distant, and imaginary are like little concrete proofs, facts, containers for all our ideals/visions of that place that most others will never go. That logo or slogan seems to be a sort of modern media branding that functions in a really similar way.

Yes, media branding is a good word for it, and in a sense this goes way back in the Arctic. Sir John Ross’s polar expedition of 1829-1833 was sponsored by Sir Felix Booth, owner of Booth’s Gin. One result was the Ross’s ship, the Victory, was christened with its sponsor’s gin; another was the discovery of the Boothia Peninsula, which I often like to remark is the world’s largest land mass named after an alcoholic beverage.

Another interesting incident was the Molson ice beer contest, the prize to which was a round-trip fare to Iqaluit, Nunavut, to see the Red Hot Chili Peppers peform. The Molson publicists, alas, hadn’t thought about the fact that the residents of Iqaluit would not be able to hear the Music (the show was on a barge in the harbor), but eventaually modified their plans and brought a few boatloads of Iqaluit fans to the site!

Ok, I’m thinking of mottos that would be stitched onto my clothing, and I’m sort of sadly torn between two states, between the real and the imaginary. Does “Long live dreams” (imaginary) get squashed by “long live dridgery” (real) on a daily basis? Must it?? It brings to mind this animation I saw at the MIT List Center of Luca Buvoli, called Flying, a practical training. www.lucabuvoli.com/, where the artist, in an animated line drawing, attempts to teach you how to fly. By thrusting your physical body head first across a line that divides the realm of the real from that of the imaginary. He demonstrates that in order to fly, you have to repeatedly throw yourself back and forth across that line.
I’m trying to do that right now, and I think if I keep trying, it will work, I’m sure of it