MODERN FURNITURE

I'll be moving in a few months and I won't be able to take half my heavy furniture. That means I'll have to buy a few new things when I get where I'm going and that's exciting. 

I plan to go for an eclectic blend of Charles Eames knock-offs (that's his work, above), Wright, Indiana Jones, Cliff May, Craftsman, Wally Wood, Mad Scientist, Calder and Carl Larsson. At one time or another I've blogged about all these influences on Uncle Eddie's Theory Corner, and now I get to try out some of these ideas in my own house.   

Lately I've taken a close look at modern furniture. Some ideas stand up to scrutiny and some don't. Like Mies van der Rohe's famous "Barcelona Chair" (above): I have to admit, it looks great, but...wait a minute... there are no arms! I like to rest my forearm on something when I sit, don't you?

I might give in and get just one Barcelona chair as an accent, but then I'll be sorely tempted to get an armless sofa to go with it. I'll need to steel myself to avoid that lest my living room look like a reception area.

Besides, I like to lie down and read on the sofa or even take a short nap there once in a while, and you need an arm for that. Why would anyone design a sofa without arms?

Then there's the Noguchi CoffeeTable. It's a beautiful work of art, no doubt, but is it functional?

 In the picture above, the table top is triangular and only the tip containing the green ashtray faces the sofa. That can't be right. What if someone on the far end of the sofa (off screen) wants to use the table? They can't.

If you turn the table around then the people sitting opposite get the awkward tip. Yikes! And look at the awkward dead space that surrounds the table!

Compare the triangular Noguchi Table just discussed to the rectangular, red marble coffee table above. I like this thing. The broad surface is available to everyone on the sofa, and there's plenty of room to stack the books I always have going. Marble adds psychological weight to counter the fear that the modern supports are too thin and flimsy.

 By the way, what do you think of the Windsor chairs surrounding the dining table in this picture? My current table uses chairs like that, and they've given me years of pleasure. It's a centuries-old design that still works. My only criticism is that the ones shown here all have arms which would be hard to slide under the table without pinching fingers.

Maybe I'll get lucky and find a new home with built-in bookshelves. If I can't then I'll rely mostly on a combination of George Nelson-type shelves (above), Ikea's "Billy" shelves, and some custom shelves that I'll tinker together myself. Eames made some good shelves which Nelson tweaked and improved.

George Nelson was a prolific artist. You might already own something he designed without knowing it...like his sunburst clock or this asterisk clock (above).

Nelson's designs have a light and airy modern feel and they blend well with other styles, like the fabric pattern above.

Well, there's more I could say but I'll have to save it for another post.

ARCHITECTURAL TOYS

I looked up "architectural toys" on the net and was surprised at how many I found. Christmas is coming and if you know someone who's interested in architecture then maybe one of the items in this post would make a good present.

Hmmmm, come to think of it....this Robie House toy wouldn't work because you can only see the whole layout when it's down at waist level. If you put it out of the way up on top of a book shelf, which is what I'd do with it, then you wouldn't be able to see it. 

This "Wright Blocks" kit was actually sold for a while. It was conceived and designed by Frank Lloyd Wright's son, who was also the inventor of Lincoln Logs. He only got a measly $800 for the Log idea so he figured he'd try again with a new set based on his and his dad's ideas, and this (above) is it.

It looks like an interesting toy that would have good top shelf visibility. It didn't sell well, though. 

I bought my kid an old-time erector set (above) and he never used it. He's an adult now so maybe the set has reverted to me. I'm tempted to build it myself, but where would I put it? 

I also got my daughter a nice Lego Victorian dollhouse and she never used it. Maybe it looked too old-fashioned. Probably she would have liked it better if the design had been more modern, like the one above. 

It would have been an ideal house for a new, updated cubist Barbie (above). I can imagine a situation where she's on the other side of town when Ken calls and invites her to the beach.

She gets in her cubist car and drives to her new cubist house to meet him.

And there's (above) Kubist Ken now, looking dapper as usual!

Apparently there's a whole subculture of adult block enthusiasts who build modern architectural toys. This guy (above) displays his blocks on shelves. He doesn't even have to build anything. The parts look good all by themselves!

While I'm on the topic of architecture I think I'll change the subject a little and hazard a guess about what houses will look like in the near future. My guess is that homes are heading for a new look something like the one in the picture above. Yep, that's what we'll all live in 20 years from now. You can take that to the bank!

What will the interiors look like? Mmmmmm....maybe something like this (above).

THEORY CORNER FOR TEENS

So you're twelve years old now! You're almost a teenager! Wow, I'm envious, or at least partly envious. Um...there are some troublesome parts and I thought I'd discuss them here by way of giving you a heads up. 

Well, let's see....okay, for starters... any day now you could wake up with strange bumps where you never had them before. 

I don't mean the obvious bumps. I mean.....ZITS!

Well, better zits than acne. Wait til you see what a job acne can do on you. I'm not aware that there's a cure.

At least you'll be thin. That's something.

It won't last long, though.

Then there's braces, which will make you look like a little kid again just when you thought you'd left all that behind.

Maybe you'll be lucky and just get overbite and not buck teeth teeth. On a girl overbite is  kinda cute, don't you think?

And if you're a guy, expect that 90% of your waking hours will be spent on thinking about girls. That time could be used to find a cure for cancer or to figure out how to translate the secret tablets of the Pharohs, but...naaaaaaw...it'll be for girls.  

You'll get a unibrow. I guess that's easy to take care of.

Your taste in clothes will plummet. You'll wear things you wouldn't have been caught dead in a few years ago. 

If you're a girl you'll put on make-up with a trowel.

 You and all your friends will fall in love with the local chick magnet (above). The trouble is, there's not enough chick magnets to go around.

You'll be stuck with the pathetic alternative of pasting up pictures of your favorite movie star all around your room.

Boys know girls do that so they react accordingly.

You'll develop an obsession for...no,wait, I said that already.

Wait til you see what teen angst is like. Only your closest friends will be able to stand you.

You'll develop a very harsh view of your parents.

And did I mention...oh, I did? Okay.


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Yikes! I forgot that Wednesday is Veteran's Day! Thanks to all the brave soldiers of the past who made it possible for me have a blog where I can be myself and say what I like.

HALLOWEEN 2015

Well, another Halloween bit the dust this Saturday. Here I am at Mike's place, posing in his Flintstone hat.

I only had a short time to decorate the porch for the Trick or Treaters. Usually I spend a whole day making paper cutouts for it, but this time I just emptied a couple of garage boxes and made what I could from what was there. How do you like this "Old Lady from Hell?"

Haw! The little kids hated the evil old people dummies and had praise only for the pumpkins. The older kids liked them, though. Halloween always brings out the local art students.

 Here's a wig I got from Ikea the day after Halloween. It doesn't look like much from the front but it strikes a great profile.

I wish I'd saved the masks my kids made in grade school. One or the many benefits you get from having kids is that you get lots of free wall decorations that are better than what you can buy.

 Nobody in my neighborhood sold good plastic masks this year.

They used to be cheap and readily available. Now they're expensive collectors items.

Wait a minute...this face is based on an ancient Greece mask. How do you like that? The original was created 2,300 years ago and the mask is still on sale.

I was a snob who only collected latex masks. Now the good plastic masks are gone and my latex masks are falling apart. Why did I ignore these nice plastic masks?

Why?

Because I'm...
S T U P I D !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

RALPH BAKSHI'S "LAST DAYS OF CONEY ISLAND"

This Sunday I paid a visit to Steve Worth's to see Bakshi's new film, "Last Days of Coney island." I knew the film would be good but I didn't know it would be THAT good.  It was gorgeous! Look at the way the painterly way the characters (above) are handled. Who else does that?  All the way through I kept saying to myself, "This is shocking! Absolutely shocking! I don't believe what I'm seeing!!!"

At the film's end it was clear that, at an age when most animators retire, Ralph had created an industry changing film. It's easily the best thing he's ever done.

The first thing you notice is the color.  Ralph did all of it himself. I've always liked Ralph's paintings...I knew he could  paint...but who knew that he could paint like this? He's raised the color bar for the entire industry. What was acceptable last year will get faint applause after people have seen this film.

By way of an example, check out this bar (above). It's red, like something out of a Nolde painting. Not only that but but the woman behind the bar is wearing a similar red, making the bar shape more complex and interesting. The background is green to make the bar pop out, and even the guy sitting at the bar is wearing a type of green. It's a case where red sits on top of green, and green sits on top of red. It's a nice contrast, and it fits the contrasty story, which is flamboyant and melancholy at the same time.

The film is full of exciting color, like this triad (above) of red, green and purple. The big studios are too timid to try things like this.

You can see the character color a little better here.

The second thing you notice is the cartooning. Everybody who's worked for Ralph has lamented that the public never sees his own sketches and animation, but only other artists' translations. Now we get to see Ralph raw and unfiltered and the experience is vastly entertaining. 'More about this in a minute.

The third thing you notice (and this'll be my final bullet point) is how cinematic the film is. Ralph's always had a knack for editing but here the film is uniquely wedded to what's happening with the color, cartooning and music. I'm not aware that his own paintings have ever been shown to greater advantage. It's "synergy." Ralph's a big believer in the power of combined arts to create something bigger and better than its parts.

 I said I'd return to the subject of Ralph's cartooning and animation. Some of his characters are drawn as if they were made for a pencil test. The characters are outlined carefully, but sometimes have internal lines everywhere, and it works spectacularly.

 The lines don't get in the way, rather they help to give the characters a texture, and color reads better on texture than on a flat ground.

The animation, that's done in Ralph's own style and it's beautiful!!!!! It's alternately smooth and deliberately jerky, and when it needs to be wild a Jimmy Tyre influence comes into play. It conforms neatly to the animator's code which is, "funny drawings that move in a funny way."

To sum it up, THIS FILM LOOKS LIKE IT WAS CREATED BY AN ARTIST! AN HONEST TO GOD ARTIST...and a CARTOONIST, NO LESS! Imagine that! What a rarity! Geez, there are some studios where cartoonists are shot on sight and their bodies fed to sharks. Many thanks to Ralph and the visionary supporters who financed this at Kickstarter!

BTW: The film costs 4 bucks through PayPal and is yours for a week. What a bargain! The link:

https://vimeo.com/ondeman/lastdaysofconeyisland