Painstakingly Made Surrealism: Le Nez (1963)

Here is a short, French film based upon a story ("The Nose") by Nikolai Gogol about a man's nose that suddenly decides to leave the man's face and find a new life in a nearby town. The animators used pinscreen animation to bring the surreal tale to life.

I can remember when Spencers Gifts sold small boards of pins. One could press their faces and hands and other body parts if one wished into one side of the board. The other side of the board would show the "impression in pins" of the pressed body part or whatever else one pressed against it. This novelty item was based on this animation technique.

The amount of time the animators spent making this short has got to be mind-boggling.

The Ghouls in My Haberdashery Dictionary

Funky:



Incongruous:



Maudlin:

Confusion and Wonder for Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow.

Nothing is Real.  Yesterday and Today.

Even though footage from this funny Conan O' Brien sketch


was edited into a clip from the un-aired pilot (1979) of Orson Welles' talk show.


I still think Orson Welles (given an endless leash) would have been a glorious talk show host.  Imagine the guests, the discussions and the grandeur .  The doctored clip made the rounds of the internet a few months ago which of course caused a minor tremor of interest in the show that lasted about a day.   I had visions of something that was part experimental art and the usual yadda-yadda (albeit retro yadda-yadda)  of a typical talk show.

When the Fog of the Edited Unreality of 70s TV was blown away we were left with only the Muppets, Angie Dickinson and Burt Reynolds. 

I Dig Cleveland, Ohio.  Now and Yesterday.

A couple of months ago, I stopped myself from bidding on a matchbook that came from this wondrous eatery which was once located within a mile and some change from my pad.    Please click on those postcards for a better look at the place.

I had no idea a little bit of exotica was couched in the beer belly of the Rust Belt.



 

Crumbs From Pop Culture's Breadstick and Other Things to Brush Off the Suitjacket in Your Mind.

Here is a post in which the blogger writes a sentence (and then usually posts a clip from YouTube) about something for you the reader to dig.

In the same year (1969) Sesame Street debuted, Jim Henson presented something to the public that was much more existential than Grover's angst.



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Pretty much the only thing I do on Facebook anymore is wish folks a Happy Whatever Holiday it is...

Merry Christmas!


or wish some long lost pal a Happy Birthday.


I don't see much use for it other than that these days.

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Altar of Flies is a Swedish fellow named Mattias Gustafsson.



"It is far better to writhe about on the floor at a noise artist's gig than to write about a noise artist's work."
Joe Mange from an article published in Jungle Jitters: A Noise and Exotica Fanzine.

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I know very little about classical music.



I know for sure I totally dig this.

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I was so excited when I found this record in a local thrift store I did not take much of a gander at the record inside the sleeve. I just plopped it out real quick, viewed the grooves, found them to be Very Good (VG, as they say) and bought the mutha!



But what I actually got inside the sleeve was a record by this dude:



I was kinda disappointed...then...I imagined the sweet record listening party that could have caused the mis-filing of these records...and...I began to wish I could have been there...

Tidbits of Ephemera or The Year National Lampoon Goosed E.M. Forster.

Did you know that during a long bout of writer's block Dashiell Hammett decided to cash in on the popularity of his Thin Man (Nick Charles) character by creating a detective who was, well, um, a Fat Man?




Did you know that Merchant Ivory Productions (mainly known for their fancy-trousered film versions of novels read in upper level English Literature classes) once put together an absurd, little art film (co-written by genius Michael O'Donoghue ) that has more in common with Luis Buñuel than Henry James?