Sunday, January 01, 2012

WHAT I DID AT CHRISTMAS


Is it too late to post a Christmas card?  Here's one (above) that I never finished. I just couldn't get enough time in the days before Christmas. The caricature of me is from the sidebar. John K drew it and I redrew it.

Well, Christmas was great, one of my best ever. It was indescribably wonderful to have my son home for a week. I refrained from lecturing him, which parents are apt to do, and just enjoyed the experience of hanging out with him.


  
My Christmas present to him was a truly enormous "Russian Divers Watch" (above) which I got from Amazon. He hated it, and now it has to be returned. I didn't mean to get a watch that big. It looked normal size in the promotion, but in real life the thing was big and heavy as a grandfather clock. It might even be a real divers watch, something you wear over a wet suit when you're way down in the Marianas Trench spearing luminescent devil fish. 



The present he seemed to like best was one given to him by a girl FBI agent. It was a book about running barefoot called "Born to Run." Apparently there's an Indian tribe of super runners in Mexico who beat everybody in races, and who never wear shoes. They admit that padded shoes reduce pain, but they say that's the problem; only by allowing yourself to experience pain do you undertake the necessary correctives in your stride and stance. They believe padded shoes lead to permanent injury. Now my kid is hot to run over gravel in his bare feet. 

I'm dying to tell you about my wife and daughter's Christmas adventures but they won't let me, so I'll have to keep those stories to myself.



John just got back from Europe and Canada. He says that British guys are wearing low crotch pants like the pair pictured above, except the pants he saw were torn all over. Fascinating!




Mike is back from the East Coast and he's discovered a new fez site. 


Some of his favorite designs (below):




Man! Those are classy hats!


Thursday, December 29, 2011

A POEM CELEBRATING SHOPSIN'S RESTAURANT


I just watched a terrific Netflix documentary called "I Like Killing Flies" about Shopsin's, a hole-in-the-wall Greenwich Village restaurant that's run by an eccentric cook who's famous for kicking people out when they don't obey "The Rules."

What are The Rules? Only the owner knows, he and a few regulars. One of those rules is the subject of this post: The Party of Five Rule. A New York poet named Robert Hershon wrote a poem about this rule, and it's a falling down classic. I'm going to  memorize it. See what you think....


PARTY OF FIVE
by ROBERT HERSHON


you could put a chair at the end
or push the tables together
but don't bother
This banged-up little restaurant
where you would expect no rules at all
has a firm policy against seating
parties of five
And you know who you are
a party of five
it doesn't matter if one of you
offers to leave or if
you say you could split into
a party of three and a party of two
or if the five of you come back tomorrow
in Richard Nixon masks and try to pretend
that you don't know each other
it won't work: You're a party of five
even if you're a beloved regular
Even if the place is empty
Even if you bring logic to bear
Even if you're a tackle for the Chicago Bears
it won't work
You're a party of five
You will always be a party of five
A hundred blocks from here
a hundred years from now
you will still be a party of five
and you will never savor the soup
or compare the coffee or
hear the wisdom of the cook
and the wit of the waitress or
get to hum the old-time tunes
[among which you will find

no quintets.]

P.S.: Shopsin's recently moved to fancier digs, and that's what you see in the picture above. Long time Shopsin's fans might prefer the older greasy spoon location, which was unbelievably grimy and filthy. Good food, though.


Wednesday, December 28, 2011

CARTOON CHARACTERS SHOULD DRESS FUNNY!



I wish cartoonists would pay more attention to what people wear. Clothes are funny (above), though you'd never know it by looking at modern animation and newspaper strips. 


A hundred years ago main characters were drawn like clowns with outrageous clothes. I admit that's going too far, but I prefer that to the bland clothes cartoon characters wear today. 

The way I see it, characters should always dress to fit their occupation or physical type. Rich people should look rich, poor people should look poor. Texans should look like cowboys, fat people should look like opera singers, and skinny people should look like scarecrows. 


Cartoon characters should live in homes that reflect their professions. They should speak and act the way people in their profession speak and act. Everybody should be visibly attached to a profession, even if that profession is loafer.


Cartoonists should exaggerate. Slightly rich people (above) should look and act very rich.  Sneaky people should dress like professional sneaks, and not simply act that way while dressing normally. 


Unfortunately we live in an era whose fashion is dominated by geniuses like Calvin Klein.  Klein set himself to the task of making the common man look as elegant as the rich, and he pretty much succeeded. Now every working person looks good, but nobody looks funny anymore.






Er...well, maybe some people do. Thank God for emos, skaters and hip hoppers. 



Tuesday, December 27, 2011

SORRY FOR THE DELAY........


FORGIVE ME!!!!! I haven't been able to post because my kid is visiting and my computer is in the room he's using. He's a sports guy and my computer table is full of athletic gear, smelly socks, hair gel, underwear, crumbs and the like. Having him here is delightful, but he sure does fill a room. I'll be back Wednesday, if not before.

Friday, December 23, 2011

MORE ABOUT WALLY WOOD'S ARCHITECTURE

Let's take a closer look at the Wally Wood architecture that I posted a few days ago. There was a lot going on there and one post wasn't enough to cover it.


Well, to begin with, we all know Wood is fond of tight spaces. He uses perspective cheats to make them appear more spacious, and that's a great technique. His spaces are simultaneously wide and cramped. There's no reason why real architecture can't do this. 


Wood intuitively knows that tight spaces and varying levels (above) are sheltering and nurturing. We naturally seek safety in places like that.  A house full of gullies and alcoves and ledges and interesting reveals fits the kind of creature we are.

Of course a home consisting of nothing but tight spaces would be claustrophobic. I like the way Wood opens up the space in front of the entrance. Immediately upon entering the house (or is it an apartment?) you're confronted with a choice: whether to walk down into the living room or up onto the second floor. From the vantage point of the door both choices are visible and enticing.


I know what you're thinking...that some modern architecture (sample above) already does all that...but does it?  The examples I've seen are usually botched, like the bed above. Granted, it sits on a level or a ledge of sorts but it's lost in a gigantic, impersonal space. None of Wood's sheltering here.


For contrast, observe how Wood handles his levels (above). The levels resemble solid blocks. They seem to protect the girl sleeping in the single bed at the bottom of the stairs. I'm guessing that's a guest bed, which is also useful for reading and lounging in the middle of the day. Spacious closets could be hidden in the blocks. There's actually a lot of potential closet space here.

The sleeping hipster on the top level sacks out on the comfortable wall-to-wall carpet that covers the floors, stairs and walls. Currently wall carpets are dust traps, and are probably unhealthy, but the day can't be far off when the right material will make them practical.


Most modern architects are too fond of empty space (above). Wood seldom made that mistake.

Here's a large space that almost works. It would work a lot better with a low, nurturing, Wally Wood ceiling that would emphasize the wideness of the room.

Sigh! There's more to say on this subject, but it'll have to wait til after Christmas. I've got presents to wrap!

Let me lay on you........


Tuesday, December 20, 2011

SOME GREAT CHRISTMAS MUSIC


Yeah, I know...these are the songs I put up every year at this time, and Mahalia Jackson's "O Holy Night" always tops the list. So shoot me...I love this stuff.











This (above) is done by the St. Thomas Children's Choir. Is that the same Church that we associate with Bach?




'Not the best version (above), I admit, but it's interesting to hear this piece sung more simply than it usually is. The title says the singer is Pavarotti, but is this really him?







My kids loved this Chipmunk song (above), and they played it over and over and over. It drove my wife nuts. One year she deliberately "lost" it, and the tearful kids made me go out into the freezing night to find another copy.



I just watched this (above) and it was buried under a clutter of annoying advertising. Sigh! What can we do? They've got us over a barrel. The video is too good to miss!

Sunday, December 18, 2011

WALLY WOOD'S HIPSTER CHRISTMAS


Wally Wood worked on a hipster version of "The Night Before Christmas." I don't have the poem at hand, but I have these three illustrations (above and below) to remind us of what a knack Wood had for modernism.

Wood would have made a terrific architect. That fireplace (above) is beautiful, and the tree that spans two floors is pretty neat. I love the brickwork in the foreground and the idea of a mat-framed print to set it off. I love how the whole place is on levels. What do you think of the cheetah skin beret on the guy on the lower right?


Here (above) are beatnik children all snug in their beds while visions of Abstract Expressionism dance in their heads. Being the kids of cool parents they naturally wear headphones and dark glasses to bed, and have little goatees.


Boy, even Santa's reindeer are hip!


That's all I had to say about Wood. How about a few non-Wood pictures to round the post out?

What do you think of this photo (above) from the Christmas sequence of "Meet Me in St. Louis?" I get sentimental when I see pictures like this. Imagine how great Christmas would be if you had this many kids...okay maybe half this number, say...five or six. I had two and it definitely wasn't enough.


Bored Santas (above) are a whole genre of photography.


So are kids recoiling in horror from Santa.


Above, a good card to send a tall friend.


Can't afford a Christmas tree?


Surprisingly, some modern-day hipsters (above) are pretty good purveyors of the Christmas spirit. I guess they have a flair for design and this is a holiday that rewards that. Come to think of it, Halloween is a haven for designers too.  The entire Fall and early Winter is a playground for artsy people like us.

Thinking about that reminds me of why I like Christmas so much. It's a time of the year that's steeped in profound tradition and sentiment, and it's simultaneously a fun celebration that's always trying to re-invent itself.