That triangle off Bermuda gets more attention, but it turns out that Massachusetts has its own three-sided region of paranormal activity. A new documentary,
“The Bridgewater Triangle,” chronicles decades of weird activity (UFO sightings; Bigfoot alerts; unexplained, bloodless cow slaughters) in a 200-square-mile area in southeastern Massachusetts. The Bridgewater Triangle is roughly defined by the towns of Abington in the north, Freetown in the southeast, and Rehoboth in the southwest, an area that encompasses the Hockomock Swamp and the “infamous” Freetown/Fall River State Forest. The well-produced trailer features a parade of old local newspaper headlines (“Searchers Baffled in Hunt for Girl”) along with interviews with cryptozoologists and testimony from local eyewitnesses, one of whom drops this incisive comment: “Whatever it is,” he says, “we keep talking about this region for some reason.”
“The Bridgewater Triangle” screens Monday at 7:30 p.m., at Bridgewater State University.
The lure of massive type
The prolific design writer Steven Heller has published not one but two fascinating books on typography this fall. In September there was “Shadow Type,” which traced the popularity of relief lettering in the early 20th century. Now comes “Lettering Large,” in which Heller and coauthor Mirko Ilic look at the diverse ways that artists and architects are using “monumental typography” in buildings, sculptures, and outdoor displays. “[I]t might seem curious to think of type as an art,” they write in the book’s introduction, noting that letters have traditionally been used more for practical than aesthetic purposes. But as they show in the book, type is evocative apart from any particular message it might carry. On one Japanese building, three-dimensional type is used to create an irregular, appealing lattice roof. Elsewhere, two-dimensional printed lettering creates a sense of frenetic intellectual activity, as if to say what’s going on in the building is so turbo-charged, ideas are actually condensing onto the walls.
Kevin Hartnett is a writer in South Carolina. He can be reached at kshartnett18@gmail.com.