Reasons To Be Cheerful: week of 06/27/08

Another week, another batch of essential whatnot...

1. Carlin Continued: It was a safe bet that we'd see lots of remembrances of comedian George Carlin after his death last weekend.

I've found it a little shocking how much 'official' reportage seemed to really not 'get' Carlin at all - - and yet there they were, using his 1972 'Seven Words You Can Never Say on Television' as a main focus, and missing the breadth of a diverse career that began long before and stayed vital for the 3-plus decades following.

A couple of nice exceptions that I enjoyed were Jerry Seinfeld's short and sweet op-ed piece in the New York Times, and a GREAT post at WFMU's Beware of the Blog that concerns itself with Carlin's early comedy career, from his partnership with Jack Burns and early ventures in television.

Several links are provided to video clips from 1965 through 1972, including an appearance on the game show 'What's My Line', the strange sight of a Carlin introduction from Jimmy Durante, and much more.
Check it out!

ALSO:

2. Easily lost amid the spotlight on Mr. Carlin's exit, a moment please, to remember comic actress
Dody Goodman, who also passed away last weekend.
She was 93.

Goodman's 1950's stage roles led her to a long string of TV talk show appearances in that decade, showcasing her trademark ditsy persona.

She then became something of a 'professional celebrity' until the mid 1970's, when she played Martha Shumway, the mother on Norman Lear's TV soap opera parody, 'Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman'.





That role led to her appearances in both of the 'Grease' movies as Blanche Hodel, the principal's assistant at Rydell High, at which point Ms. Goodman remained quite active on film, TV and stage well into the 1990's.

Looking over her credits reinvigorates my desire to finally track down and see 1964's 'Bedtime Story'.

She had a supporting role opposite David Niven and Marlon Brando in this film comedy that would be remade in 1988 as 'Dirty Rotten Scoundrels' with Michael Caine and Steve Martin in the lead roles.

I'll keep my eyes open for that, and (who knew?) her 1957 LP of novelty songs, too...

See also: Dody Goodman.Com

3. Meanwhile, during a recent phone conversation with
My Friend Topic, we were both multi-tasking in front our computers (as usual), which meant at least one of us was doing two or more activities poorly at the same time.

Among other things, Topic was looking at online images of tattoo art.

Sparking a shift in the conversation, she pointed me to the
Bad Tattoos Gallery at Radar Online, which shows a selection of photos included in 'No Regrets', a recent coffee-table book that collects examples of some interesting choices in body art.









Many of the images found in the book were already floating aroud online, and I strongly suggest you surf around and see what you find.

Some are brilliantly funny, bold and creative, some are unfortunate mishaps or just poorly rendered.

Many of the tattoos you can uncover might make you thankful that it didn't happen to you, and several very special ones travel WAY past the big questions of 'Why?' and 'What were you thinking?' into a jaw-dropping territory of
'?!?!?'.

Not surprisingly, there are PLENTY of places to see bad tattoos online.

A couple of photo galleries that you might start with: (Watch out! NSFW)

- 'Worst tattoo you have ever seen' at grupthink
- A recurring series, 'Really Bad Tattoos' posted at Typebrighter

- - but go ahead, run your own search: "Bad Tattoos" - -
It's a great big colorful world out there...

Speaking of which - -

◀ 4. These and other great portrait studies capturing the human condition are available for viewing at Jowlers.Com
("Where distortion is cause for celebration").
It's a huge photo sharespace devoted to shots of what they like to call 'The Jowler'.

"These fun pictures are created when the subject of a photo shakes their head really fast while the picture is taken."



This is the sort of project that should be happening on a global scale. A vast catloguing of 'jowling' faces around the globe. Just the thing to bring all the diverse nations of the world together.

For now, browse in fascination through galleries of folks who just may have all wound up with bad headaches.
Surprise - - lots of college students, lots of drunken revelry. You can also sort photos by all men, all women, groups, and shots that include flying saliva and other ejecta. Perhaps not for the squeamish. (Via People Corporation)

5. - - and also via People Corporation, it's 'The Worst Batman Squirt Toy Ever'. ▶

What were they thinking?











6.The Newsarama blog has posted a 'sneak peek' of comics and other books to be published by Fantagraphics later this year.

In addition to some predictable items, like new reprint volumes in their gorgeous Complete Peanuts, Complete Segar's Popeye and Ketcham's Dennis The Menace series, and new issues of their Mome comix anthology, here are a couple of other items I'll likely be committing to my 'wish list':

- 'Modern Swarte: Joost Comics' - - A major retrospective of the comics work done by Dutch 'clear line' artist
Joost Swarte since 1972. Long overdue, at least here in the US.

- 'We Are not Saints' - - The latest collection of Kaz's 'Underworld' comic strip. Essential reading!

- 'The Wolverton Bible' - - Later in his career, the amazing Basil Wolverton followed his unique legacy of humorous and horrific comic book work with a long period of illustrating bible stories. This collection brings that work together, with previously unpublished material.


- 'Love & Rockets: New Stories #1' - -
New numbering for another new re-boot, new material in a new annual 112-page trade paperback format.
The Hernandez Brothers can do just about whatever they please. I'll be there, just like I have since the first #1 back in the '80's...

San Francisco's Panama-Pacific International Exposition of 1915: 'Official Program' Guidebook, plus documentary video

San Francisco hosted the Panama-Pacific International Exposition of 1915, a great World's Fair ostensibly meant to celebrate the opening of the Panama Canal, though San Francisco's agenda was to show the world that it had truly recovered from the devastating effects of its 1906 earthquake and fire.

Much of the real estate that the fair occupied was on landfill created just for the event, and is now in the City's Marina District, with the lovely landmark
Palace of Fine Arts being the only structure still left (after much restoration) from the 1915 fair.

(click on images to
ENLARGE in a new window)













Included here are scans of an 'Official Program' guidebook printed for the day's events of
June 22nd, 1915.
(Thanks to My Friend Topic for sharing this treasure!)

(⬇⬇ click on links below to view pages in a new window)

inside front cover
page 1
page 2
page 3
page 4
page 5
page 6
page 7
page 8
page 9
page 10
page 11
pages 12, 13 - gatefold map (shown above ▲)
page 14
page 15
page 16
page 17
page 18
page 19
page 20
page 21
page 22
page 23
page 24
inside back cover
back cover

Bonus: Below, ⬇ scans of a
four-page program to an organ recital given at the fair on
June 26th, 1915.
(click on links below to view pages in a new window ⬇)

Recital program, page 1 (shown)
Recital program, page 2
Recital program, page 3
Recital program, page 4




















Below, ⬇ links to a 27-minute video documentary about the PPIE, in three parts.

Follow links to:
1915 Panama Pacific Exposition doc, part 2 of 3
1915 Panama Pacific Exposition doc, part 3 of 3

- For still more, follow link to The PPIE website, a lovingly presented trove of 1915 Exposition info and images.

Reasons To Be Cheerful: week-end of 05/16/08

Last week was so busy that I find myself finishing writing my wrap-up to it on the following Monday.
And so it goes...

1. I'm pleased to report one big blog update recently completed;

I've added an additional 125 images to my flickr set - - 'Nostalgia for the Scholastic Book Club, circa '60's & '70's' - - bringing the total in the set up to 187!

Because no one demanded it!
Too many juvenile lit memories!

More cover scans, more illustrations, more links to author and illustrator info, back cover images & info now appearing on the same page as a book's cover image, more, more more!

Please follow this link to my flickr set - - 'Nostalgia for the Scholastic Book Club, circa '60's & '70's'!

















































2. One nugget thrown my way this past week included a peek at the charmingly disturbing ◀ManBabies.com.

Father / Son photo switcheroos that are the stuff of nightmares!

(Thanks to My Friend Topic for the link)

3. I've been all over the San Francisco bay area in the last week or so, as I start to lay the groundwork for moving back home after my two-year Idaho experiment.

Those wheels are turning, but I've also been greatly enjoying visiting friends, family, and locations both familiar and new.

I've pretty well boxed the compass here; Down the South Bay towards San Jose to see my Godson and his folks, over to the East Bay and up to Sonoma for home-cooked meals with my siblings and their families, great lunches, dinners, and hangtimes with folks in various parts of San Francisco, Berkeley, and all over Marin County.

It'll be good to come back.

A few days ago I met a friend at the wonderful de Young Museum in San Francisco's
Golden Gate Park.

We went to catch the Gilbert and George ▶ exhibit they'd been running, before it was gone.

Found the show a bit disappointing, a little overrated, derivative.
As so much of the work reminded me of advertisements, CD jackets and club flyers, I felt as though the pieces often suffered due to their lavishly large scale.

More is less.


◀ Fortunately, the de Young is a wonderful adventure in itself - -

- I'm still marvelling at the beautiful 2005 remodel that I'd long ago been determined to hate.

- It's impossible not to enjoy their 360-degree view observation tower (it won't be long before the remodeled California Academy of Sciences will be ready to re-open, just across the park's band concourse!!).

- And the new underground parking garage with its entrance at 10th & Fulton is so elegantly civilized and forward-thinkng that it's slightly difficult to believe it's in San Francisco.

One painting I spotted near an entrance to the deYoung's bookstore resonated for me unexpectedly - - Painter
Harvey Dinnerstein's figurative work can stand out among the often less realist fare of a fine art museum.

Dinnerstein's 1999 painting, 'Sundown, The Crossing' ▶ looks like it could be the cover image on a genre fiction paperback, and I confess that helped to draw me to it. (It sends its message more successfully when the details are clearer)



- you can see more of Harvey Dinnerstein's artwork at the Frey Norris Gallery website.


The icing on my slice of deYoung cake that day was spying an old
Morris Minor 1000 ▼ sitting parked in the garage.

Just another memorable work of art...






4. I'm quite certain that She & Him don't need a bit of help from me in getting the word out about their charming debut album 'Volume One', but I do feel compelled to say that I've really been enjoying listening to it.

Big thanks are sent to my buddy Snappy for the definitive reminder about the existence of this collaboration between musician M. Ward and actress / singer Zooey Deschanel.

The blend on their album of sunny pop music combined with a country twang and occasional girl-girl group vibe hits me just right.
Cute without being precious, light but not lite, sweet without too much processed sugar.

There's plenty of info, audio and video available at the official website and (of course) at
She & Him's MySpace page.

Reasons To Be Cheerful: week of 05/02/08

1. It's a good thing that owls grow up to have such beautiful plumage that makes them look so stately and perfectly competent - -
an 'outfit' perfectly tailored to make them appear so on their game - -

'Cuz the reality of what they look like naked and immature can just ruin their image.

I suppose it's that way with many of us...
... But no, that's all flawed human projection.

This photo (from The Hungry Owl Project of San Anselmo, California) shows a handsome rescued barn owl orphan who looks just as he should.

If we think he looks like a weird hand puppet, well - -
that's just our own problem, then, isn't it? (Thanks go to My Friend Topic for the link)

2. I had a nice comment come in this week from Kevin Kidney; he'd enjoyed 'blissfully frittering away his entire evening' visiting my blog.

Thanks Kevin - - and I must dutifully direct folks to your blog, chock full of gorgeous
mid-century Disney images. A treat!

3. Another visual treat that popped up on my radar this week is grain edit; "...inspiration from vintage kids + rare graphic design books."

"Grain edit is focused on classic design work from the 1950s-1970s and contemporary designers that draw inspiration from that time period." - - and it's a great site to visit. Check it out.

4. Thanks to hawk-eyed Joe Sixpack, who sent along a link to a New York Times article on adman / graphic artist George Lois - - 'The King of Visceral Design'.

The article spotlights a MoMA exhibition that opened recently, and includes a slideshow gallery featuring some of Lois' covers for Esquire magazine that ran in the 1960's and early '70's.










5. Comics geek cartoon alert!

Coming to DVD this summer - -
'DC Super Heroes: The Filmation Adventures'.

This batch of DC comics character 'guest appearance' cartoons ran in 1967-68 as part of 'The Superman/Aquaman Hour of Adventure' on Saturday morning TV.

(I must confess I love seeing the old DC 'bullet' logo evoked on that DVD cover. They must have seen me coming when they designed it.

Fortunately they didn't figure out that I'd likely buy any old crappy thing if they'd put the 1960's DC 'Go-Go Checks' on the packaging.)

This was a production of Lou Scheimer and Norm Prescott's Filmation studios, who did a very effective job of economical quantity-over-quality productions that usually managed to actually entertain as well.

Featuring animated versions of The Flash, Green Lantern, Hawkman, The Atom and others, the good news is you'll no longer need to travel to a funny-book convention to gawp at these odd 1960's TV cartoons.

The bad news (perhaps) is that they were never that good to begin with.
Fun, nostalgic, a bit out-of-the-ordinary - - absolutely, but - - umm, not the height of animated excellence.

- - More like cartoon junk food. Tasty and comforting, especially so when it's not your steady diet...

6. Speaking of packaging that's hard to resist; Have you seen the Predicta TV website?

No, these aren't the original Philco Predictas of the late 1950's, but newly-manuactured models using the classic designs.

Personally, I'm relieved to discover that these new specialty production Predictas are fairly 'spendy'.
Choosing to just look is a much easier decision than picking a favorite model and cabinet color scheme!

Reasons To Be Cheerful: week of 04/11/08

1. Bob Dylan's Pulitzer prize.

In other important news this week, I saw the need for some debunking...

2. This week my 'forward' cousin included me on a list of folks to receive an e-mail that's made the rounds online in recent years - - "What does a 320 pound woman look like?".

Maybe you've seen this, or received the same forwarded message - - ?

In looking at the photos of the 7'4" woman, purportedly living in Holland and dubbed "...The tallest and best proportioned woman in the world..." I began to have doubts.

I kept finding the same photos as I googled about, with the same vague info and no name given for the statuesque woman.

And so, inevitably, the search led to Snopes, the Urban Legends Reference Pages.

Snopes reports that these are undoctored photos that have (through the miracles of the internet) become paired with an inaccurate description.

Apologies for squelching any fantasies, but Snopes goes on to identify the 6'5½"-tall, 210-pound lady in question as Heather Greene of Las Vegas, Nevada.

Not the world's tallest woman, but still quite impressive in tall-heeled shoes standing next to people of slightly less-than-average height.

Snopes also reports that Heather's website is currently inactive.

3. The Bulbdial Clock

At his blog 'Ironic Sans', designer / photographer David Friedman floats the concept for this beautiful 'electric sundial', which he says would be "...best suited for dim spaces such as restaurants and nightclubs"...

"The Bulbdial Clock has no hands — just one pole in the center of the clock, and three light sources of varying heights which revolve around the pole casting shadows.

"In the model illustrated above, the light sources are each attached to a ring which rotates around the pole. The innermost ring rotates once per minute, casting a 'second hand' shadow. The middle ring rotates once per hour, and casts the 'minute hand' shadow. And the outer ring rotates once every 12 hours, casting the 'little hand' shadow.

"The Bulbdial Clock can be used flat like a traditional sundial, or mounted vertically on a wall. A variation on the design intended for large-scale installation (such as in a museum) involves a pole sticking up in the middle of a room, while the light sources are mounted on the ceiling, shining down on the pole as they rotate around it."

I like it. I really like David's
Pre-pixelated clothes for Reality TV shows, also... ▶

(Via Dark Roasted Blend... um, I think. Or was it Neatorama?)

4. Stanley Stories!

A website devoted to classic comics creator John Stanley.

This work-in-progress and labor-of-love includes a spotter's guide to
'Stanley-isms', and several different Stanley-rendered stories available for your reading pleasure. Yow!

(Via STWALLSKULL)

5. Oh, the Places You'll Go - - with Wikipedia and an inquisitive friend.

Some discussions and e-mailing conducted this past week with My Friend Topic led (as is often the case) to some interesting web research and small voyages of discovery (or
connect-the-dots) for both of us.

Chatting about some raccoon-like critters seen in her community, Topic began some research, but was quickly side-tracked by stumbling upon the enchanting Asian Raccoon Dog, known in Japan as Tanuki.

Neither raccoon nor truly dog, it stands to reason that the Tanuki is a part of Japanese folklore.

Just a bit of further exploration led Topic to learning about 19th-century Japanese woodblock artist Tsukioka Yoshitoshi.

His 1881 print of Tanuki 'with typically enlarged scrotum' engaged her love for
Ukiyo-e prints but also connected with her enjoyment of Studio Ghibli anime.

She explained to me about having seen the 1994 film 'Pom Poko' which had featured Tanuki and retained some of the 'testacular' feats from folklore.
(The DVD is now in my queue)

But wait, there's more.

Topic fired off another e-mail to me as her surfing along the Studio Ghibli route led her eventually to the character
Tony Tony Chopper, a member of
'The Straw Hat Pirates' from a manga and anime series 'One Piece'.

In reading the Wikipedia description of this 'reindeer doctor' character, his history, his special abilities and physical transformations available to him from eating 'human human fruit' and 'rumble balls', Topic and I concurred in our vague assessment; 'How perfectly Japanese'.

I also declared that it's people like Tony Tony Chopper that continue to make me feel all a-scared of any halfway serious attempts to satisfy my curiousity about the just-so-VAST arena of anime and manga.

Sometimes I'll reason that maybe I've got enough nerdly interests on my plate already, thanks all the same...

However, while learning about T.T. Chopper and his 'Monster Point' transformation ('the misunderstood monster'), we also learned about literary tropes and their definition...

"(literature) Something recurring across a genre or type of literature, such as the 'mad scientist' of horror or 'once upon a time' introduction to fairytales. Similar to a Cliché, but is not necessarily pejorative."

Hurray Wikipedia.

Meanwhile, I was up to some websearch shenanigans of my own, and once again My Friend Topic was in on it.

So there I was, innocently looking up 'Bandanna' on Wikipedia.

Summer approaches, it's looking like I'll be doing a lot of driving, and I'm getting tired of my hair always getting in my face.

One passage managed to give me pause;
"Bandannas in particular colors are also worn as a means of communication or identification, as with the prominent California criminal gangs, the Bloods, the Crips, the Norteños, and the Sureños or in sexual subcultures in the United States."

Great. So what colors are there for a bandanna that send NO message, no invitation - - ??

I fired off an e-mail to Topic upon discovering via Wikipedia's fascinating page on 'Handkerchief code' that essentially there is no such color. Naive me, I must not get out enough...

Still - - education is a good thing, and My Friend Topic and I were excited to learn of the term 'tea room' in reference to 'cottaging' (another new word for us, meaning to cruise public lavatories for gay sex).

Even better was the information about Polari and other cant or slang / subculture languages.

Wow! Oh, the Places You'll Go!

BUT.
Never to be outdone, My Friend Topic then countered by heading back to the list of colors in the 'handkerchief code' roster.
By following the seemingly innocent link to the color beige, she discovered Zinnwaldite, a color classification previously unknown to either of us.

In addition to a listing for the mineral zinnwaldite (that shows no resemblance to the color) was a somewhat perplexing reference;

"It is common for those in the baby boom generation to think of beige as being the color zinnwaldite because in the 1960s, AT&T marketed a colored telephone for offices and homes in a color they called 'beige' which was actually the color zinnwaldite."




This factoid may or (through the miracles of the internet) may not be true, but the proof of neither of Wikipedia's examples of beige or zinnwaldite quite matching the color of that telephone doesn't help matters.

Welcome to the internet. Oh, the Places You'll Go...
(Where to next, Topic?)

6. Residing at the always enthralling Ethan Persoff, http://www.ep.tc comes:

'A gallery of 21
Paper-based Condom Envelopes from the 1930s and 1940s'

(Via
The Bunny House)





- Finally, one blog update of note this week:

A visitor sent in an LP cover photo that's been added to my previous post on the artwork of Richard Erdoes. ▶

Many thanks!

- - D'oh!! And this JUST in
(via My Friend Topic, no less):

A reminder that Free Comic Book Day is coming 'round again, on Saturday, May 3rd, 2008 to a comic-book shop somewhere (hopefully) near you.

Always a fun event, and a GREAT way to give someone an introduction to the world of comic books ('first one's free kid, heh-heh-heh') - - especially youngsters still learning to read, or learning about the power of reading in general!

There's often some cool special-to-the-event books made available too.
Follow this link to see some of what you might find...