Sunday, December 27, 2009

Rappin' Rodney

It's very likely that Rodney Dangerfield was the coolest guy to ever live...

Monday, December 21, 2009

"Le Nez"

Check out this great animated short by Alexander Alexeieff based on the story "The Nose" by Nikolai Gogol.

Thursday, December 17, 2009

North By Northwest Title Sequence

I saw this the other night for the first time in a while. I had forgotten how cool the opening sequence is. Once you see it you realize how often it is borrowed from...

Wednesday, December 16, 2009

The Nameless One Hits the Web!

Turns out the internets are good for something after all. The complete works of HP Lovecraft are on line. Here. All of them. For real. Go technology!





Saturday, December 12, 2009

Nobokov on book jacket design

Check out this video of Vladimir Nobokov sharing his favorite covers of "Lolita" while puttering around his study in his bathrobe. Yeah!

Friday, December 11, 2009

A Tribute to the Wilhelm Scream

The scream that is embedded in our very genetic structure by now. Oddly enough, though, they left out The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers. The Wilhelm Scream is used when an elf is thrown from the top of the wall at the battle for Helm's Deep. *adjusts glasses*

Tuesday, December 8, 2009

Phil Hartman

I fully understand that missing someone you've never met is weird, perhaps kind of creepy, but damn it I miss Phil Hartman.



Friday, December 4, 2009

Simplicissimus

Simplicissimus was a German satirical political magazine that boasted one of the most impressive collections of staff illustrators and designers ever assembled at one publication. The list of contributors is a who's who of turn of the century German writers and artists including but not limited to: George Grosz, Hermann Hesse, Alfred Kubin, Heinrich Kley, James Ensor etc. etc. The magazine went out of print shortly after the Nazis came to power seeing as Simplicissimus was highly critical of Hitler and his cronies. Most of the staff was forced to flee the country before WWII, and after the war it never really regained its level of quality, but thankfully some diligent soul has archived all of the pre WWII issues here. Check out a few of these awesome (and fantastically weird) covers..
















Max Klinger

Recently I had the good fortune to see a collection of amazing etchings at the National Gallery of Art in Washington DC. Of the collection Max Klinger's "Paraphrases About the Finding of a Glove" was a big highlight. The series consists of ten etchings that are all based on the artist's real life experience of finding a woman's glove at a roller rink. Apparently Klinger found the lost glove, tried in vain to find its owner and ended up taking it home. The glove held a special fascination for him and that night he dreamt a series of dreams revolving around it. Being a surrealist painter and printmaker Max Klinger knew good material when he saw it (or dreamt it) so, happily for us, he turned his memories of his dreams into a series of etchings. Here they are in order (click for much better detail)..










If you're in the DC area check this show out, it really needs to be seen up close and in person..

Movies movies movies

Looking for interesting updates for your netflix queue? Check out ilovehotdogs.net for awesome stills from lots of great films ranging from the classic to the cultish to the down right weird. I know there are a bunch of movies on there that I really need to see. A couple of examples of the screenshots, can you name them all?















Tuesday, December 1, 2009

Going West

Crikey! This is an unbelievably cool video for the New Zealand Book Council, an equally cool organization dedicated to promoting reading in New Zealand. Good on ya'!