#more bizarre humor from 1932

[babylon-crashing]

TEXT

Now that we have so much leisure, what is more fun than cantering through the park on a turtle with the wind whistling through one's whiskers? By holding a herring in front of the turtle he will go into reverse. Isn't that too thrilling?

[briannas-casebook]

ANIMATION CONTEXT: Flipboard

In this week's lesson on Animation Context, we looked at a few articles on our Flipboard. One of these articles featured a video showcasing an hour-long demo for the latest version of Toonboom Harmony, HARMONY 22. This software is used primarily for digital 2d animation and allows for the creation of frame-by-frame animation. The software is also an industry standard for 2D animation, particularly for television.

As someone who has experience with digital frame-by-frame animation and 2D paper cut-out stop motion, I would love to try and learn how to use and experiment with ToonBoom Harmony.

After this, we were shown several animated short films from the 1920s and 30s. This included two shorts from the 'Out of the Inkwell' series by the Fleischer Brothers and the early shorts of Walt Disney animation such as 'Skeleton Dance' and 'Steamboat Willy'.

During the 1920s and early 1930s, the Fleischer Studio was a fierce competitor with Disney. At this time, Disney had yet to release their first feature-length film and its main output at this time was the Mickey Mouse and Silly Symphonies shorts. These theatrical shorts are best known for their use of synchronised sound and simple, yet bouncy, and expressive "rubber hose" character animation by animator and director Ub Iwerks. A style that would serve as the precursor to the squash and stretch Disney style of the later 30s and 40s and would serve as the groundwork for the 12 principles of animation outlined by Frank Tomas in his book 'The Illusion of Life'. Fleischer Studios were also innovators for their time, inventing and patenting the rotoscope. a device that allows an animator to draw over live-action footage to create animation cells. This is a technique that the Fleichers would go on to use in short films such as 'The Tantilizing Fly' from 1919 and 'Minnie the Moocher' from 1932. Rotoscoping as a technique would also go on to be used in non-Fleicher Studios feature films such as the 1968 'Yellow Submarine' and the work of Ralph Bakshi like 'Wizards' and his adaptation of 'Lord of the Rings'.

On a side note, you can see the influence of films like 'Humorous Phases of Funny Faces' and 'Gertie the Dinosuar' had on the 'Out of the Inkwell' series. With 'Ko-Ko the Clown' being drawn by the animator in a live-action segment of the film and comes to life seemingly before the eyes of the audience. An influence you can see carried on in more contemporary works such as the 1991 short film 'Manipulation' and the 'Animator vs Animation' web series.

Another thing that set Fleischer Studios apart from its competitors, such as Disney were the dark and surreal situations of their shorts. With many of their protagonists portrayed as being down on their luck and placed in dilapidated city streets (reflective of the bleak landscape of 1920s depression era America) and strange landscapes filled with bizarre spooks. The cartoons of the Fleischer Brothers also skewed their content more toward adult viewers, with innuendo-laden gags and risque designs, such as Betty Boop. A flirtatious and cheeky character whose personality and, for the time, risque short-skirted outfit and ever-falling leg garter were heavily inspired by the flapper girl counter-culture movement of the 1920s. Betty's sultry looks and the male attention she receives because of them - being a frequent running gag throughout films starring her.

Echos of the rubber hose animation of both Disney/Ub Iwerks and the Fleischers can still be seen in the modern day, most notably with the action platformer game, 'Cup Head', which takes major influence from the surreal and occasionally dark, yet appealing and fun spirit of the animation of the 1920s and early 1930s.

I definitely found looking at these old cartoons and what influenced them, as well as the work that would go on to be influenced by it, to be a fascinating look into the history of animation - especially the weird and wonderful world of rubber hose animation, a field which I may take inspiration from in the future.

[the-marx-brothers-will-live-on]

Arthur "Harpo" Marx (born Adolph Marx; November 23, 1888 – September 28, 1964) was an American comedian, actor, mime artist, and musician, and the second-oldest of the Marx Brothers. In contrast to the mainly verbal comedy of his brothers Groucho Marx and Chico Marx, Harpo's comic style was visual, being an example of both clown and pantomime traditions. He wore a curly reddish blond wig, and never spoke during performances (he blew a horn or whistled to communicate). He frequently used props such as a horn cane, made up of a pipe, tape, and a bulbhorn, and he played the harp in most of his films.

Harpo was born on November 23, 1888, in Manhattan. He grew up in a neighborhood now known as Carnegie Hill on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, on East 93rd Street off Lexington Avenue. The turn-of-the-century tenement that Harpo later called (in his autobiography Harpo Speaks!) "the first real home I can remember" was populated with European immigrants, mostly artisans—which even included a glass blower. Just across the street were the oldest brownstones in the area, owned by people like David L. Loew and William Orth.

Harpo's parents were Sam Marx (called "Frenchie" throughout his life) and his wife, Minnie Schoenberg Marx. Minnie's brother was Al Shean. Marx's family was Jewish. His mother was from East Frisia in Germany, and his father was a native of Alsace in France and worked as a tailor.

Harpo received little formal education and left grade school at age eight (mainly due to bullying) during his second attempt to pass the second grade. He began to work, gaining employment in numerous odd jobs alongside his brother Chico to contribute to the family income, including selling newspapers, working in a butcher shop, and as an errand office boy.

In January 1910, Harpo joined two of his brothers, Julius (later "Groucho") and Milton (later "Gummo"), to form "The Three Nightingales", later changed to simply "The Marx Brothers". Multiple stories—most unsubstantiated—exist to explain Harpo's evolution as the "silent" character in the brothers' act. In his memoir, Groucho wrote that Harpo simply wasn't very good at memorizing dialogue, and thus was ideal for the role of the "dunce who couldn't speak", a common character in vaudeville acts of the time.

Harpo gained his stage name during a card game at the Orpheum Theatre in Galesburg, Illinois. The dealer (Art Fisher) called him "Harpo" because he played the harp. He learned how to hold it properly from a picture of an angel playing a harp that he saw in a five-and-dime. No one in town knew how to play the harp, so Harpo tuned it as best he could, starting with one basic note and tuning it from there. Three years later he found out he had tuned it incorrectly, but he could not have tuned it properly; if he had, the strings would have broken each night. Harpo's method placed much less tension on the strings.[citation needed] Although he played this way for the rest of his life, he did try to learn how to play correctly, and he spent considerable money hiring the best teachers. They spent their time listening to him, fascinated by the way he played. The major exception was Mildred Dilling, a professional harpist who did teach Harpo the proper techniques of the instrument and collaborated with him regularly when he had difficulty with various compositions.

In the autobiography Harpo Speaks! (1961), he recounts how Chico found him jobs playing piano to accompany silent movies. Unlike Chico, Harpo could play only two songs on the piano, "Waltz Me Around Again, Willie" and "Love Me and the World Is Mine," but he adapted this small repertoire in different tempos to suit the action on the screen. He was also seen playing a portion of Rachmaninoff's "Prelude in C# minor" in A Day at the Races and chords on the piano in A Night at the Opera, in such a way that the piano sounded much like a harp, as a prelude to actually playing the harp in that scene.

Harpo had changed his name from Adolph to Arthur by 1911. This was due primarily to his dislike for the name Adolph (as a child, he was routinely called "Ahdie" instead). The name change may have also happened because of the similarity between Harpo's name and Adolph Marks, a prominent show business attorney in Chicago. Urban legends stating that the name change came about during World War I due to anti-German sentiment in the US, or during World War II because of the stigma that Adolf Hitler imposed on the name, are groundless.

His first screen appearance was in the film Humor Risk (1921), with his brothers, although according to Groucho, it was only screened once and then lost. Four years later, Harpo appeared without his brothers in Too Many Kisses (1925), four years before the brothers' first released film, The Cocoanuts (1929). In Too Many Kisses, Harpo spoke the only line he would ever speak on-camera in a movie: "You sure you can't move?" (said to the film's tied-up hero before punching him). Fittingly, it was a silent movie, and the audience saw only his lips move and the line on a title card.

Harpo was often cast as Chico's eccentric partner-in-crime, whom he would often help by playing charades to tell of Groucho's problem, and/or annoy by giving Chico his leg, either to give it a rest or as an alternative to a handshake.

Harpo became known for prop-laden sight gags, in particular the seemingly infinite number of odd things stored in his topcoat's oversized pockets. In the film Horse Feathers (1932), Groucho, referring to an impossible situation, tells Harpo that he cannot "burn the candle at both ends." Harpo immediately produces from within his coat pocket a lit candle burning at both ends. In the same film, a homeless man on the street asks Harpo for money for a cup of coffee, and he subsequently produces a steaming cup, complete with saucer, from inside his coat. Also in Horse Feathers, he has a fish and a sword, and when he wants to go to his speakeasy, he stabs the fish in its mouth with his sword to give the password, "Swordfish." In Duck Soup, he produces a lit blowtorch to light a cigar. As author Joe Adamson put in his book, Groucho, Harpo, Chico and Sometimes Zeppo, "The president of the college has been shouted down by a mute."

Harpo often used facial expressions and mime to get his point across. One of his facial expressions, which he used in every Marx Brothers film and stage play, beginning with Fun in Hi Skule, was known as "the Gookie." Harpo created it by mimicking the expression of Mr. Gehrke, a New York tobacconist who would make a similar face while concentrating on rolling cigars.

Harpo further distinguished his character by wearing a "fright wig". Early in his career it was dyed pink, as evidenced by color film posters of the time and by allusions to it in films, with character names such as "Pinky" in Duck Soup. It tended to show as blond on-screen due to the black-and-white film stock at the time. Over time, he darkened the pink to more of a reddish color, again films alluded to it with character names such as "Rusty".

His non-speaking in his early films was occasionally referred to by the other Marx Brothers, who were careful to imply that his character's not speaking was a choice rather than a disability. They would make joking reference to this part of his act. For example, in Animal Crackers his character was ironically dubbed "The Professor". In The Cocoanuts, this exchange occurred:

Groucho: "Who is this?"

Chico: "Dat's-a my partner, but he no speak."

Groucho: "Oh, that's your silent partner!"

In later films, Harpo was repeatedly put in situations where he attempted to convey a vital message by whistling and pantomime, reinforcing the idea that his character was unable to speak.

The Marxes' film At the Circus (1939) contains a unique scene where Harpo is ostensibly heard saying "A-choo!" twice, as he sneezes. It is unclear, however, whether he actually voiced the line, or if he mimed it while someone said it off-camera.

In 1933, following U.S. diplomatic recognition of the Soviet Union, he spent six weeks in Moscow as a performer and goodwill ambassador. His tour was a huge success. Harpo's name was transliterated into Russian, using the Cyrillic alphabet, as ХАРПО МАРКС, and was billed as such during his Soviet Union appearances. Harpo, having no knowledge of Russian, pronounced it as "Exapno Mapcase". At that time Harpo and the Soviet Foreign Minister Maxim Litvinov became friends and even performed a routine on stage together. During this time he served as a secret courier; delivering communiques to and from the US embassy in Moscow at the request of Ambassador William Christian Bullitt, Jr., smuggling the messages in and out of Russia by taping a sealed envelope to his leg beneath his trousers, an event described in David Fromkin's 1995 book In the Time of the Americans. In Harpo Speaks!, Marx describes his relief at making it out of the Soviet Union, recalling how "I pulled up my pants, ripped off the tape, unwound the straps, handed over the dispatches from Ambassador Bullitt, and gave my leg its first scratch in ten days."

The Russia trip was later memorialized in a bizarre science fiction novella, The Foreign Hand Tie by Randall Garrett, a tale of telepathic spies which is full of references to the Marx Brothers and their films (The title itself is a Marx-like pun on the dual ideas of a "foreign hand" and a style of neckwear known as a "four-in-hand tie.")

In 1936, he was one of a number of performers and celebrities to appear as caricatures in the Walt Disney Production of Mickey's Polo Team. Harpo was part of a team of polo-playing movie stars which included Charlie Chaplin and Laurel and Hardy. His mount was an ostrich. Walt Disney would later have Harpo (with Groucho and Chico) appear as one of King Cole's "Fiddlers Three" in the Silly Symphony Mother Goose Goes Hollywood.

Harpo was also caricatured in Sock-A-Bye Baby (1934), an early episode of the Popeye cartoon series created by Fleischer Studios. Harpo is playing the harp, and wakes up Popeye's baby, and then Popeye punches and apparantly "kills" him. (After Popeye hits him, a halo appears over his head and he floats to the sky.)

Friz Freleng's 1936 Merrie Melodies cartoon The Coo-Coo Nut Grove featuring animal versions of assorted celebrities, caricatures Harpo as a bird with a red beak. When he first appears, he is chasing a woman, but the woman later turns out to be Groucho.

Harpo also took an interest in painting, and a few of his works can be seen in his autobiography. In the book, Marx tells a story about how he tried to paint a nude female model, but froze up because he simply did not know how to paint properly. The model took pity on him, however, showing him a few basic strokes with a brush, until finally Harpo (fully clothed) took the model's place as the subject and the naked woman painted his portrait.

Harpo recorded an album of harp music for RCA Victor (Harp by Harpo, 1952) and two for Mercury Records (Harpo in Hi-Fi, 1957; Harpo at Work, 1958).

Harpo made television appearances through the 1950s and 60s, including a 1955 episode of I Love Lucy, in which he and Lucille Ball re-enacted the famous mirror scene from the Marx Brothers movie Duck Soup (1933).[19] In this scene, they are both supposed to be Harpo, not Groucho; he stays the same and she is dressed as him. About this time, he also appeared on NBC's The Martha Raye Show. Harpo and Chico played a television anthology episode of General Electric Theater entitled "The Incredible Jewelry Robbery" entirely in pantomime in 1959, with a brief surprise appearance by Groucho at the end. In 1960, he appeared in an episode of The DuPont Show with June Allyson entitled "A Silent Panic", playing a deaf-mute who, as a "mechanical man" in a department store window, witnessed a gangland murder. In 1961, he made guest appearances on The Today Show, Play Your Hunch, Candid Camera, I've Got a Secret, Here's Hollywood, Art Linkletter's House Party, Groucho's quiz show You Bet Your Life, The Ed Sullivan Show, and Your Surprise Package to publicize his autobiography Harpo Speaks!.

In November 1961 he guest-starred with Carol Burnett in an installment of The DuPont Show of the Week entitled "The Wonderful World of Toys". The show was filmed in Central Park and featured Marx playing "Autumn Leaves" on the harp. Other stars appearing in the episode included Eva Gabor, Audrey Meadows, Mitch Miller and Milton Berle. A visit to the set inspired poet Robert Lowell to compose a poem about Marx.

Harpo's two final television appearances came less than a month apart in late 1962. He portrayed a guardian angel on CBS's The Red Skelton Show on September 25. He guest starred as himself on October 20 in the episode "Musicale" of ABC's Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, a sitcom starring Fess Parker, based on the 1939 Frank Capra film.

Harpo married actress Susan Fleming on September 28, 1936. The wedding became public knowledge after President Franklin D. Roosevelt sent the couple a telegram of congratulations the following month. Harpo's marriage, like Gummo's, was lifelong. (Groucho was divorced three times, Zeppo twice, Chico once.) The couple adopted four children: Bill, Alex, Jimmy, and Minnie. When he was asked by George Burns in 1948 how many children he planned to adopt, he answered, "I’d like to adopt as many children as I have windows in my house. So when I leave for work, I want a kid in every window, waving goodbye."

Harpo was good friends with theater critic Alexander Woollcott, and became a regular member of the Algonquin Round Table. He once said his main contribution was to be the audience for the quips of other members. In their play The Man Who Came to Dinner, George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart based the character of "Banjo" on Harpo. Harpo later played the role in Los Angeles opposite Woollcott, who had inspired the character of Sheridan Whiteside.

In 1961 Harpo published his autobiography, Harpo Speaks!. Because he never spoke a word in character, many believed he actually was mute. In fact, radio and TV news recordings of his voice can be found on the Internet, in documentaries, and on bonus materials of Marx Brothers DVDs. A reporter who interviewed him in the early 1930s wrote that "he [Harpo] ... had a deep and distinguished voice, like a professional announcer", and like his brothers, spoke with a New York accent his entire life. According to those who personally knew him, Harpo's voice was much deeper than Groucho's, but it also sounded very similar to Chico's. His son, Bill, recalled that in private Harpo had a very deep and mature soft-spoken voice, but that he was "not verbose" like the other Marx brothers; Harpo preferred listening and learning from others.

Harpo's final public appearance came on January 19, 1963, with singer/comedian Allan Sherman. Sherman burst into tears when Harpo announced his retirement from the entertainment business. Comedian Steve Allen, who was in the audience, remembered that Harpo spoke for several minutes about his career, and how he would miss it all, and repeatedly interrupted Sherman when he tried to speak. The audience found it charmingly ironic, Allen said, that Harpo, who had never before spoken on stage or screen, "wouldn't shut up!" Harpo, an avid croquet player, was inducted into the Croquet Hall of Fame in 1979.

Harpo Marx died on September 28, 1964, (his 28th wedding anniversary), at age 75 in a West Los Angeles hospital, one day after undergoing heart surgery. Harpo's death was said to have hit the surviving Marx brothers very hard. Groucho's son Arthur Marx, who attended the funeral with most of the Marx family, later said that Harpo's funeral was the only time in his life that he ever saw his father cry. In his will, Harpo Marx donated his trademark harp to the State of Israel. His remains were cremated, and his ashes were scattered at a golf course in Rancho Mirage, California.

[nitrateglow]

Halloween 2017 movie marathon: The Cat and the Canary (dir. Paul Leni, 1927)

“You must have been lonely these twenty years, Mammy Pleasant.”

“I don’t need the living ones.”

Driven to near-madness and physical decline by his greedy relatives, eccentric millionaire Cyrus West dies in his gothic mansion—however, he orders that his will not be read for another twenty years. Two decades come and go, and a quirky collection of West’s living relatives gather at the mansion to find out who gets the money. The lucky heir is the sweet-natured Annabelle West (Laura La Plante), but before she can claim her inheritance, she must be examined by a doctor who will certify whether or not she is sane. If so, she gets the money, family diamonds, and Cyrus’s creepy but big mansion. If not, she gets an extended stay at an asylum and the money goes to a mysterious runner-up heir, whose identity is sealed away in another envelope. Annabelle is decidedly the sanest of the lot of her bizarre relations, which include her nerdy and stammering cousin Paul (Creighton Hale), snobby and suspicious Aunt Susan (Flora Finch), (Forrest Stanley), the suave but mysterious Doctor (Arthur Edmund Carewe), and the chic but catty (Gertrude Astor), but as the night wears on, her nerves are subjected to unexplained disappearances, murders, and being stalked through the night by what could either be a ghost or an escaped madman from the local mental hospital. Whether the origins of these occurrences are supernatural or crime-related, it becomes clear someone wants to drive Annabelle insane and take her fortune, but who could it be?

Horror didn’t become a cinematic staple in the United States until the enormous success of Tod Browning’s Dracula in 1931; however, there were a few key Hollywood films during the silent era which paved the way for the terrors to come. The Phantom of the Opera is the most celebrated of them as it teems with suspense and gothic set design-- and that’s not mentioning Lon Chaney’s iconic monster make-up which left patrons screaming in the aisles. The Cat and the Canary is the second-most influential pre-Dracula American horror picture. While not as embedded in the popular culture as Phantom, it was one of the biggest hits of its day and remains a favorite of silent film aficionados. The cast sports a host of character actors familiar to lovers of 1910s and 1920s Hollywood cinema, and the visuals—oh Lord, the visuals are the true star, pure gothic expressionism mixed with innovative camerawork that should strike down the idea that all movies were “filmed stage plays” before Citizen Kane.

As you can likely see from the plot summary above, the storyline of The Cat and the Canary will likely appear familiar, even creaky, to contemporary viewers. It’s a classic old dark house mystery, with a bevy of strange characters trapped in a menacing setting, freaking out as things go bump in the night. This film and its 1922 stage play source material are often classified as dark comedy, as there is quite a bit of comic relief throughout due to how weird the characters are and how they react to the mayhem around them. However, the horror elements are strong enough to make this more than your standard drawing room murder-mystery: director Paul Leni and cinematographer Gilbert Warrenton create an uneasy atmosphere from the first scenes where we learn about the death of Cyrus West, how he was driven to his grave by his cruel, avarice-ridden relatives. In a symbolic sequence, we see Cyrus in his pajamas dwarfed by large, double-exposed images of cats baring their fangs and swiping at him with large, clawed paws. It sounds corny when I describe it, but the effect it has when you actually watch it is chilling and effective.

After this prologue, we’re treated to a first-person POV tracking shot through the gloomy corridors of the mansion, curtains flapping about in the wind as the camera glides about in the ghostliest manner before we arrive at the safe where the will lies hidden. As you watch this movie, the one motif which resonates throughout is the image of hands. Hands grasping at jewelry or throats, hands tentatively outstretched, hands breaking through locks and windows��even the paws of the giant, expressionistic cats are part of this visual thread. These images help establish the menace of the situation as well as emphasize the greed that motivates so many of these characters. It’s a little bit of a shame that the plot is so basic in comparison to the elaborate cinematography and expressionistic visual symbolism. It isn’t a bad story by any means and there are several suspenseful moments to be found, one just wishes for a bit more meat or a more interesting protagonist to follow.

Even if the visuals and atmosphere are what make the movie for the most part, The Cat and the Canary is nevertheless a fun and spooky romp, featuring good comic performances from its cast. Laura La Plante was Universal’s most popular female star throughout most of the 1920s, though she is mostly forgotten today; this film remains her most remembered role, if only because the image of the clawed hands grasping at her throat as she sleeps is so iconic. As Annabelle, she isn’t given too much to do other than be bewildered and frightened, though her cool blonde style gives her the feel of a Hitchcock heroine in some scenes. Her thin characterization likely stems from the fact that Annabelle is the de facto everywoman character, the one spot of normalcy among these eccentrics. Even so, one wishes she was allowed to be at least a little bit more unique—though it would be hard to compete with the other actors in this movie. If you’re a silent movie nerd like me, then this movie is a practical who’s-who when it comes to character actors. Creighton Hale, a heart-throb of the 1910s who played Prince Charming in the 1916 Snow White which inspired a fifteen-year-old Walt Disney, plays the nerdy love interest Paul. George Siegmann, most known for his villain parts, is a creepy asylum employee who hopes to get someone in a straightjacket before the night is up. Annabelle’s fashionable flapper cousin Cecily is played by Hal Roach regular Gertrude Astor. My choice for best performance goes to Martha Mattox as the dour housemaid, ironically called “Mammy Pleasant” by the other characters. The only inhabitant of the manor for the past twenty years, she is enamored by her late master and spends much of the time almost savoring the discomfort of the frightened guests. The characters are all broad types rather than fully fleshed out beings, but such an approach fits the material.

The Cat and the Canary was not only a big box office hit, but also a huge influence for later filmmakers, most famously James Whale. Whale’s 1932 horror-comedy The Old Dark House replicates the look of this movie down to the eerie image of curtains billowing in a shadowy hallway. Later on, even Jean Cocteau seems to have mined Leni’s film for visual inspiration in his moody 1946 adaptation of Beauty and the Beast. Just watch that scene where Belle levitates down a corridor with billowing curtains and tell me you don’t get flashbacks to The Cat and the Canary! However, it is Whale’s The Old Dark House to which this film is often compared. To watch the two of them back-to-back could be an interesting experience: the humor in Whale’s film is much quirkier, the inhabitants of the eponymous house far more sinister, and the guests possess more depth on the whole, from Charles Laughton’s bitter widower to Gloria Stuart’s vain yet disillusioned socialite. Still, without Leni’s film, that movie might not be the masterpiece of horror-comedy we know and love now. Whale took the lessons he learned from Leni and pushed them further into weird territory. Yet even so, the camera movements and overlapping imagery in this film are sophisticated, in their own way superior to the later movie. Dammit, both are great—let’s leave it at that!

While the general concept may be dated, The Cat and the Canary is still an impressive film. It’s a lot of fun and the granddaddy of horror-comedy classics to follow, from The Old Dark House to the Evil Dead films. If you wonder why people thought sound films were a fad in the late 1920s, then the dazzling cinematography of even genre pictures like this should give you a good idea as to why.

[cryptodictation]

Stay at home: Discs, books and DVDs to distract yourself in isolation

O mail prepared a list with three opes discs, books and DVDs for you to be distracted during the period you stay at home fulfilling the measures in the fight against the coronavirus. Check out!

CD

(photo: Sesc / Divulgao)

COPACABANA – A DIVE IN THE FAILED LOVES

ZUZA MAN OF MELLO CONCEPT WITH VARIOUS ARTISTS. SESC SEAL, 14 TRACKS. AVAILABLE ON DIGITAL PLATFORMS.

The album is a result of the book Copacabana: the trajectory of samba-cano (1929-1958), released in 2017 by Edies Sesc So Paulo and Editora 54. Organized and directed by Zuza Homem de Mello, the CD rene sambas-cano of 13 composers mentioned in the literary work re-recorded by artists of the new generation. The disc has well-known tracks, such as Copacabana (Joo de Barro and Alberto Ribeiro), which gives the album its name, re-recorded by Luciana Alves and Z Luiz Mazziotti; Revenge (Lupicnio Rodrigues), in the voice of Ayrton Montarroyos; and End of case (Dolores Duran), with verse by Luciana Alves. In addition, it has more “B side” songs, such as At dawn (Nilo Srgio), re-recorded by Toninho Ferragutti, and You don't know how to love (Dorival Caymmy, Hugo Lima and Carlos Guinle) by Luciana Alves. It is a great opportunity to relive a unique moment in the history of Brazilian music.

(photo: Ciriguela / Divulgao)

L HOUSE

DE MARCOS ALMEIDA. CIRIGUELA SOUND, 7 MSICAS. AVAILABLE ON DIGITAL PLATFORMS.

Successor to Eu sarau, the album L de casa, by Marcos Almeida, marks the artist's return to the phonographic scenario after three years. In the project, the singer strolls through MPB and rock. Altogether, the disc has seven tracks, all written by the interpreter. Friendship, care and hope are some of the songs' themes. The life celebration sets the tone for What a wave, the only song in which Marcos has partners in both composition and interpretation. On the track, he is next to Baby do Brasil and Paulo Nazareth. The disc also has an instrumental track: Ns.

(photo: Sesc / Divulgao )

WAKE UP LOVE

DE LETRUX, LINIKER, LUEDJI LUNA, MARIA GAD AND XNIA FRANA. SESC SEAL, 18 TRACKS. AVAILABLE ON DIGITAL PLATFORMS.

Inspired by the famous song by Chico Buarque, the album is the result of the union of five Brazilian artists, who, in common, have a strong social discourse. The quintet joined forces in a project conceived within Sesc So Paulo that had the traditional carnival balls as the north and resistance as the main theme. The artists divide their vocals into 18 tracks that dialogue with the current world, although most of them were written in the 1970s and 1980s. Open people (Roberto Carlos and Erasmo Carlos), Let me tell (Ivan Lins and Ronaldo Monteiro de Souza), Extra (Gilberto Gil) and The want (Caetano Veloso). The disc ends with the strong No laziness to make a revolution, poem by Edgar.

DVD

(photo: HBO / Reproduction)

Looking – The first season (Looking, USA, 2014). Michael Lanan's TV series. With Jonathan Groff, Murray Bartlett, Frankie J. Alvarez, Russell Tovey, Ral Castillo and Lauren Weedman. HBO, drama, 200min. Not recommended for children under 18.

Achievements and failures by a group of young gay men move the whole plot, which takes place in San Francisco and divided, in the first season, into eight episodes. Patrick (Groff), a video game consultant, the protagonist, lost among the goals of his love conquests. Augustn is one of the most intense friends, but will soon move to Oakland. In the episodes, a routine of relationships built and shaken, systematically, that includes the company of Dom, a disillusioned waiter, among others, weighs heavily. While there is resignation en route to Augustn, Dom tries the chance of a lifetime by opening a restaurant with Portuguese food. Kevin, a new boss, and Richie, a somewhat disparaging Latino, will cheapen Patrick's head. In addition to good humor, with many acid shots, there is the solidity of a very committed cast.

(photo: DVD Versile / Reproduction)

Edgar Allan Poe in Cinema – Volume 3. Edgar G. Ulmer, Lew Landers, Robert Florey and Gordon Hessler. With Boris Karloff, Bela Lugosi, Vincent Prince, Christopher Lee and David Manners. Four films created between 1932 and 1969, horror, DVD Verstil. Not recommended for children under 14 years.

On two albums, the films Black Cat, The Crow, The Murders on Rua Morgue and The Death of the Undead were reunited. All are classics adapted from the work of Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849). The star Bela Lugosi is in the cast of the first three works, while The Death of the Living Dead (1969) starring Vincent Price and Christopher Lee. Expressionism weighs in the feature films The Black Cat and The Murders: the first shows a couple tortured by Satanists Hungarians, on the other hand, the focus is on experiments involving blood, women and monkeys. In The Crow, a surgeon is slaughtered for unrequited love. The collection also shows the plot of despair printed in a community tormented by a disfigured man.

(photo: Disney / Reproduction)

Dumbo (USA, 2019). By Tim Burton. With Colin Farrell, Nico Parker, Eva Green, Finley Hobbins, Alan Arkin, Michael Keaton and Miguel Muoz Segura. Disney, drama, 112min. Free indicative rating.

For more than 80 years in the cinematographic imagination, Dumbo, Disney's classic animation, has been given a version in the flesh. The big-eared elephant promises to involve the Farrier family, formed by Holt, a war veteran, and his sons Milly and Joe. All are recruited by the businessman Max Medici to take care of the elephant that is scheduled to be a circus attraction. But the problem that abuse and bullying are part of his routine. Created by the duo Helen Aberson and Harold Pearl (illustrator), Dumbo originated in a book. In the original version of Disney's 1941 success, there was an Oscar win for best soundtrack.

BOOK

(photo: Editora Intrnseca / Divulgao)

COURAGE

OF RAINA TELGEMEIER. INTRNSECA EDITORA, 224 PGINAS. AVERAGE PRICE: R $ 29.90 (PRINTED) AND R $ 24.90 (E-BOOK).

Phenomenon of current youth literature, Raina Telgemeier launches in Brazil the book Courage, which had 3.5 million copies sold in the United States. In more than 200 pages in comic book format, the author explores the discomfort of the protagonist, who bears the same name as the writer, as she matures. Fear and anxiety are part of the character's routine and the discussions covered in the work, since, every day, 10-year-old Raina has a new fear. To face this situation, she has the help of her parents and therapist. It is a sensitive book, full of humor and with a current debate, all of which is dedicated to children and adolescents.

(photo: Esdras Gomes / Divulgao)

ONIRA ASHES

BY UMBERTO MANNARINO. ILLUSTRATIONS OF ESDRAS GOMES. PLANET EDITOR, 256 pages. AVERAGE PRICE: R $ 41.90.

A name known on YouTube for his college entrance exams, the Brazilian Umberto Mannarino decided to move into another territory: the physical. From Asira de Onira is the first youtuber book on education that mixes fantasy and philosophical provocations. The work follows the story of a girl who lost her parents in a fire and is forced to rebuild life at her uncles' house, where she finds a secret portal to Onira, a world full of mysteries.

(photo: Editora Pipoca e Nanquim / Divulgao)

THE FOREST OF RETURNED FLOWERS

BY ALEXANDRE CALLARI. EDITORA PIPOCA & NANQUIM, 420 PGINA. AVERAGE PRICE: R $ 69.90.

Alexandre Callari's horror work appropriates H.P. Lovecraft's Cthulhu Myths to create a Brazilian context. Set in the 1990s, the story shows a universe of hybrid environments, with spirits, evocations, mystical rituals, lost races and unimaginable beings. All this through the trajectory of Adam, who decides to take a sabbatical period. The protagonist's refuge is a picturesque city in the countryside of So Paulo. There, played in a plot of bizarre events involving not only the entire population, but also apocalyptic creatures of another dimension.

The post Stay at home: Discs, books and DVDs to distract yourself in isolation appeared first on Cryptodictation.

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[nixontheroad-blog]

Insights about The Grand Budapest Hotel

The Grand Budapest Hotel is considered as a breakthrough of Wes Anderson. In this essay, I am going to take a deeper look into the film regarding genre, tone, director’s point of view, suturing and scenic metaphor.

The Grand Budapest Hotel recounts the adventures of M. Gustave, a legendary concierge at a famous European hotel between the wars, and Zero Moustafa, the lobby boy who becomes his most trusted friend. The story involves the theft and recovery of a priceless Renaissance painting and the battle for an enormous family fortune—all against the back-drop of a suddenly and dramatically changing continent. The story takes places in Republic of Zubrowka 1932 and 1985 with the writer as the narrator and the view point of Zero. The film features some specific themes including Inheritance, Class and Civilized Society, Money and Corruption, War and Refugee, Loyalty and Romance.

The Grand Budapest Hotel is an adventure, comedy and caper. The film is a distillation of the Zubrowkan society and the larger-than-life characters who inhabit it. The humor lies both in the outrageous situations—which are so elaborate and ridiculous that we can't help but laugh—and the dialogue, which develops our preposterous characters and gives us plenty of the bizarre and farcical monologues and non-sequiturs.

The Grand Budapest's plot takes the form of an adventure of a framed concierge and his young friend.They "steal" a painting, are accused of murder, go to jail, escape jail, go to a remote mountain location for a secret meeting and, after chasing and killing a murdering thug, infiltrate their former establishment to retrieve their "stolen" art.

The film is also a caper, a sub-genre of crime fiction usually deal with the planning and stealing of something valuable and a super-charismatic thieves that we end up rooting for. The consequences of the missing Boy with Apple, the false murder accusation, and the prison break are what drive the action of the movie. Of course we're rooting for Zero and Gustave… even if they're not always on the side of the law.

Anderson shot the movie using a variety of aspect ratios. Aspect ratio, in a nutshell, is an image’s width compared to its height. Due to changes in technology over the past 115-odd years of cinema history, different aspect ratios have been popular at different times. The bulk of Grand Budapest is shot in the Academy ratio, which is 1.33:1, 1.37:1, or 4:3 depending on who you ask. It was adopted as the standard format for movies in 1932 — the same year most of the film’s action takes place. All of the 1930’s scenes in the movie are shot in this ratio, which is the same as older tv’s and computer monitors. It’s almost square, and frames content in a vastly different way than more modern, wider formats.

Throughout Budapest, Anderson uses lighting cues to reflect Zero’s emotional associations with different points in the story. The most notable example of this technique comes about forty-five minutes into the film, when Zero finally discusses Agatha’s role in the plot. While the author is explaining, through narration, his dinner companion’s emotional state, the scene’s lighting changes noticeably. Immediately after the cut to 1968, the entire set is brightly illuminated by overhead lighting. The mise-en-scene here is characterized by high-key lighting, and so there are very few shadows visible in the frame.

In The Grand Budapest Hotel, Wes Anderson’s signature film style is well highlighted, especially through his use of color in crafting the mise-en-scéne. Each era and scene had a particular color scheme to help establish the mood for the audience, through the set and costumes. The non-linear nature of the film meant that it could be difficult to follow, and specific color keys were used to aid in distinguishing where the story was at currently. The 1960s had a distinct brown and mustard tone that associated itself with the mellow and dissolving theme of the Grand Budapest being past its heyday. This is in contrast to the pastels and rose colors that are signature of the 1930s hotel. The muted (almost Easter like) hues of the hotel itself, let the brighter more pure colors be reserved for the characters themselves and key objects, like the elevator, highlighting their importance. As the movie progresses and takes a somewhat darker turn so do the colors. Gustave is sent to jail where everything has subdued tones of grey, blue, and brown. The contrast between the world of prison and the hotel is best illustrated when Zero visits in his purple uniform, and even more so with the rose Mendel’s container.

The academy award-winning score for this film, composed by the award-winning Alexandre Desplat, can teach the listener about a few of the key elements to composing a great score. As the song picks up in volume and intensity, the viewer begins to see the hotel as a quirky and eclectic gathering place, quietly set in the mountains of this imaginary Eastern European country. These songs all prominently feature the balalaika, a guitar-like instrument of Russian and Slavic origin. Including this Eastern European instrument plays a large role in creating the movie’s setting and atmosphere. It brings all scenes to life whether they appear in the town, in the monastery, in the wintery estate, or in the ski hill chase scene. Alexandre Desplat uses the film’s score to create a playful atmosphere and develop the film’s comedy while also driving its more passionate moments.

With this film, Anderson undertook some retro methods in the filming process. For instance, he uses miniature models for wide shots of the hotel, an old cinema trick used to create a place without actually having to go on location to film it. Anderson borrows from methods from a bygone cinema in order to create something fresh and unique. Anderson’s dialogue, rhythm, camera moves and editing style creates a near unmistakable tone, at once deadpan and lighthearted. He finds the humor in the mundane elements of life and during moments of crisis. An example of Anderson's quirky sense of humor is the scene in which Gustave speaks to the police who are at The Grand Budapest to arrest him. He goes through their conversation in a courteous way and seems ready and willing to go with them, when suddenly he turns and sprints off. Anderson leaves the camera where it is and allows the action to unfold, thus the frame goes from a medium shot to a long shot of the police chasing Gustave up flights of stairs to apprehend him. It’s simple, but the technique teases out the humor of the moment.

As ever, Anderson's world is created like the most magnificent full-scale doll's house; his incredible locations, interiors and old-fashioned matte-painting backdrops sometimes give the film a look of a magic-lantern display or an illustrated plate from a book. He and the cinematographer Robert D Yeoman contrive the characteristic rectilinear camera movements and tableaux photographed head-on. The film has been compared to Hitchcock and Lubitsch; I kept thinking of Peter Greenaway. It makes the audience feel like giants bending down to admire a superbly detailed little universe: I can't think of any film-maker who brings such overwhelming control to his films. Alexandre Desplat's score keeps the picture moving at an exhilarating canter, and the script, co-written by Anderson and his longtime collaborator Hugo Guinness is an intelligent treat. Watching this is like taking the waters in Zubrowka. A deeply pleasurable immersion.

The film contains numerous scenic mentaphors. One of the most unique things about Gustave is the seemingly feminine care he takes in his own app earance and impression. Not only does he want to look good, however, he also wants to smell good, which is why he wears "l'air de panache." The cologne rather succinctly symbolizes many facets of Gustave's identity: his enduring influence on his environment, his interest in the finer things, and his vanity.

Another mentaphor is the “Boy with Apple” painting. It is a simple, but very valuable painting of a young boy with an apple. As a figure, it can be read as symbolizing Gustave himself; the boy represents Gustave's desire to remain youthful, and the apple represents his desires and pleasures, his artistic refinement and his sexual appetite. As an inheritance, it symbolizes the countess' love for Gustave, for indeed it is her most valuable possession, and it is a very covetable object. By giving it to Gustave and not her own family, the Countess has confirmed that Gustave understood her more than her flesh and blood ever could. The painting represents Gustave and the countess' special bond, and their shared pleasures.

In conclusion, Anderson and his director of photography Robert Yeoman have created not only their most exotic and visually important film, but one of the most visually important films in recent memory. The picture is a perfect example of the symbiosis between visual embellishment and narrative sensationalism.

References:

Bordwell, David, Kristin Thompson, and Jeff Smith. Film Art: An Introduction. 11th ed. New York: McGraw Hill Education, 2017. Print.

Leeds, D. (2017, August 18). Beauty at a Distance: Cinematic Techniques of “The Grand Budapest Hotel”. In Medium. Retrieved from https://medium.com/@davidleeds/beauty-at-a-distance-cinematic-techniques-of-the-grand-budapest-hotel-1a738924cf62

The Grand Budapest Hotel. Dir. Wes Anderson. Perf. Ralph Fiennes and Tony Revolori. Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment, 2014. DVD.

[shanonblackall-blog]

Information About Public Transportation In Athens.

Alexander Graham Alarm has actually decreased in record for developing some of one of the most cutting-edge and helpful modern technologies of his opportunity; the telephone. Greece, Nyc: Found in Monroe Region, the town of Greece is actually certainly not to become perplexed with the country; within this town there are actually much much less tragedies and a lot more humors. Citizens significantly "ask for better civil services" that "respond in real-time, ideally immediately," mentioned Dr. Balakrishnan. Pertinent to that, I've encountered a few other current lists of smart metropolitan areas, based on their Web gain access to, additional reading business innovation, and other features. At times a city is actually named after an individual, despite just how bizarre that person's last name is actually. In some cases they're widely known. This is a truly remarkable city unlike any kind of that you'll view anywhere else and consequently one that you ought to put in the time to visit while you're taking a trip via Arizona. The setting of Tormenter is actually quite unique which is what originally enticed me to it, it's a great break coming from the elder area based free roaming games with the college being actually main the game. The crime rates within this urban area get on the growth making it one of the most awful areas in Michigan to live. With an organisation visa you can easily leave behind Saudi whenever so long as your passport is in your palms. Auckland in New Zealand is rated as the fourth one of the most ideal urban areas to live possessing a premium of residing. A couple of years back in the work-a-day globe, I remember my provider must close down and board up our facility in Mexico Urban area as a result of the confusions that followed elections. Grant additionally claimed the area stays all set to discuss, and noted Arden Hills kept a community conference last Thursday to compile social input about sections of the redevelopment effort. Along with Harvard as well as the Massachusetts Principle of Technology only across the river, Boston ma is one of the country's best taught cities (often phoned "the Athens of The United States"). Each of these parks deliver totally free admission to the general public and make a terrific location for the whole household to certainly not only enjoy and also visit yet also to learn more about our record. Los Angeles, which participated in hold to the Olympics in 1932 as well as 1984, was named Wednesday as a finalist to probably throw the 2016 Summer seasons Gamings. I will love to visit all of them sometime! The urban area spends $11.8 thousand on playgrounds and entertainment, featuring after- institution systems and also youth activities - $100,000 much more than on law enforcement. They ste to unearth something practical coming from layers of past history, life and also opportunities of the Salem Bibi as well as the Empress's Rip. By its nature, nevertheless, considering an educational check out to London could be quite of a difficulty, with the urge to see as much as possible in a restricted time possibly eclipsing the high quality of the knowledge. There is substantial transfer from southerly The golden state in to Phoenix az currently, featuring homes and also business. Once again reinforced the thought that online video activities were actually ending up being significant business, the introduction of therefore many renowned names coming from stage as well as display screen. Each Suppression activities are actually appreciated, however the part two has actually gotten some heat for participating in excessive like the original. The old skins of the elderly, that have actually found so much adjustment in their nation as well as city. For any United States past history fan or even institution aged kid this is just one of the have to see freebies on call in New York City. Faro is completely brand-new label to me. I am not much of a vacationer but in my experience several less recognized areas usually hide several precious treasures, at times they give a lot more than principal cities as well as various other big stars. " Bluebirds Reunited records a really unique time in Cardiff Area's record," he mentions.

[caveartfair]

Explaining Exquisite Corpse, the Surrealist Drawing Game That Just Won’t Die

Man Ray (Emmanuel Radnitzky), Joan Miró, Yves Tanguy, and Max Morise, Exquisite Corpse, 1928. © 2018 Man Ray Trust / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris. © 2018 Sucessió Miró / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris.  Courtesy of the Art Institute of Chicago.

André Masson, Max Ernst, and Max Morise, Exquisite Corpse, 1927. © 2018 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris. Courtesy of the Art Institute of Chicago.

Frida Kahlo isn’t known for her humor. But in 1932, the legendary Surrealist made a little-known, irrefutably funny drawing. In it, a cartoonish depiction of her husband—the macho muralist Diego Rivera—shows off droopy breasts, very large nipples, and legs that teeter uncomfortably on high heels. Instead of a paintbrush, he wields a broom.  

As it turns out, this delightful bit of satire was a product of one of Kahlo’s favorite games: Exquisite Corpse. Participants play by taking turns drawing sections of a body on a sheet of paper, folded to hide each individual contribution. The first player adds a head—then, without knowing what that head looks like, the next artist adds a torso, and so on. In this way, a strange, comical, often grotesque creature is born.  

Kahlo created the caricature of Rivera with her friend and fellow artist, Lucienne Bloch. It was one of several Exquisite Corpse drawings they made together during a trip to New York in 1932 (meanwhile, Rivera was completing his “Detroit Industry” murals back in the Midwest). The weirdest and best drawing of the bunch depicts a miniature head resembling Kahlo’s own, paired with a cleavage-enhancing corset, hairy legs, and a fig leaf from which a peeing phallus emerges.

Jake and Dinos Chapman, Exquisite Corpse (Rotring Club) I, 2000. © Jake and Dinos Chapman. Courtesy of the artists.

Jake and Dinos Chapman, Exquisite Corpse (Rotring Club) IV, 2000. © Jake and Dinos Chapman. Courtesy of the artists.

Amongst her Surrealist counterparts, Kahlo was notorious for her racy, downright erotic contributions to the Exquisite Corpse genre. But like Kahlo, many of the game’s devotees used it to experiment with styles or modes of representation that pushed them beyond their own day-to-day practices. In particular, they were enamored with the exercise’s inherent spontaneity and dependence on chance. As Surrealist poet Simone Kahn, an early adopter of the game, remembered in a 1975 essay, “We were at once recipients of and contributors to the joy of witnessing the sudden appearance of creatures none of us had foreseen, but which we ourselves had nonetheless created.”

Exquisite Corpse was hatched in 1925 by the Surrealists André Breton, Yves Tanguy, Jacques Prévert, and Marcel Duchamp during one of their ritual hangouts on Paris’s Rue du Château. Breton had effectively founded the movement a year prior, formalizing it with his 1924 Surrealist Manifesto. That text called for art that engaged the unconscious by using dreams and automatic drawings as creative fodder. One way of unlocking psychic space, according to Breton, was through games—and he and his cohort were constantly inventing them.

One of their favorites was the old parlor game called Consequences, in which players took turns writing phrases that eventually formed an absurd story (sort of like an early version of Mad Libs). Before long, Breton and his compatriots swapped words for drawings, dubbing the new game Exquisite Corpse, after a sentence that emerged during a round of Consequences: “The exquisite corpse will drink the new wine.”

Surrealists immediately took to the collaborative game. Many of the movement’s practitioners played it regularly, almost addicted to the automatic drawing it inspired.

“The suggestive power of those arbitrary meetings…was so astounding, so dazzling, and verified surrealism’s theses and outlook so strikingly, that the game became a system, a method of research, a means of exaltation as well as stimulation, and even, perhaps, a kind of drug,” Kahn wrote. “From then on, it was delirium. All night long we put on a fantastic drama for ourselves.”

George Hugnet, Yves Tanguy, Germaine Hugnet, Jeanette Tanguy, Exquisite Corpse, n.d. © 2018 Estate of Yves Tanguy / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Courtesy of the Art Institute of Chicago.

Man Ray (Emmanuel Radnitzky), André Breton, Yves Tanguy, and Max Morise, Exquisite Corpse, 1928. © 2018 Man Ray Trust / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris. Courtesy of the Art Institute of Chicago.

For the group, the game opened up new avenues of creativity by tapping into many of Surrealism’s essential tenets. Exquisite Corpse hinged on free play, unpredictability, and collaboration—forces Surrealists routinely used to “[disrupt] the waking mind’s penchant for order,” as the Museum of Modern Art’s curatorial staff has put it.

While the game had rules, they were loose. Players certainly didn’t have to stick to traditional representations of the body. In one 1928 Exquisite Corpse work by Tanguy, Man Ray, Joan Miró, and Max Morise, two kissing heads give way to a single, blob-like torso. One arm is capped by the barrel of a smoking gun; the figure’s pink penis emits a colorful bird. The bizarre creation itself sits on a naked man, clearly struggling under the fleshy, two-headed creature’s weight. Creases in the paper help emphasize where each artist ended, and the next picked up.

Drawing collaboratively provided a release for Surrealist artists, and offered a well of fresh inspiration through their peers. Breton once explained that the game both strengthened the “ties that unify” its players and allowed them “to take our common desires into account.” Similarly, Kahn celebrated the images that resulted from Exquisite Corpse as “unimaginable by one brain alone.”

While the Surrealist group disbanded in the 1930s, Exquisite Corpse stuck. Today, artists continue to use the game as a means to probe the nature of collaboration, partnership, and unfettered creativity. For instance, brothers and artistic partners Jake and Dinos Chapman have used the game to create a series of drawings that simultaneously emphasize their creative partnership, and question the art world’s obsession with individual authorship. They experiment with different drawing styles, for instance, so that it’s impossible to tell which brother made which gesture.

Eric Croes, Cadavre exquis, Chat Santiag, 2017. Photo © Hugard & Vanoverschelde. Courtesy of the artist.

Eric Croes, Cadavre exquis, main , 2017. Photo © Hugard & Vanoverschelde. Courtesy of the artist.

Sometimes the game provides fodder for more ambitious artworks. Belgian sculptor Eric Croes began playing Exquisite Corpse with his boyfriend during a residency in Isola Comacina, Italy. Later, as he told Artsy, Croes transformed the drawings into towering clay totems, which doubled as “a declaration of love to [his] boyfriend.”

And this summer, painter Gina Beavers found herself playing many rounds of the game with fellow artists Peter Schuyff, Austin Lee, and Canyon Castator. “Some of us had just met, so it really functioned as a way to break the ice,” Beavers explained. “It’s a really non-precious, non-competitive way to work, because no one person can claim authorship of the drawing, and the sum of the different styles is often great and can lead to many laughs and bonding.” (The only struggle with Exquisite Corpse, it seems, is figuring out which artist gets to keep the resulting drawing.)

For Beavers, and much like for Kahlo and the original Surrealists, Exquisite Corpse also encourages experimentation—a way to shed patterns of thought or styles on which an artist might rely too heavily. “You are reacting to the energy of the other people working near you and trying to be as free as possible with it,” Beavers said. “You allow yourself to break from whatever your style might be in order to be as inventive as possible.”

Of course, the Exquisite Corpse isn’t only for professional artists. As Kahn pointed out back in 1975, it can open the mind and inspire creativity in anyone who wants to try it on for size. “Real discovery was reserved for those who had no talent,” she wrote. “For it offered them the possibility of creation and thereby opened, permanently, a door on the unknown.”

from Artsy News

[rschristian]

Artists’ Books at the National Museum of African Art   On Art Versed (April 2017)

I recently got back from a short, museum-packed trip to Washington, D.C. for spring break. Do you remember the museum scene from Passport to Paris? It was a little like that, except unlike Mary-Kate and Ashley, I had a blast. Among the multiple Smithsonian institutions I visited, one of my favorites was the National Museum of African Art (not to be confused with the National Museum of African American History and Culture opening this September). The seemingly small but uniquely designed museum first opened its doors in 1964. At the time it was known as the Museum of African Art, located on Capitol Hill in a townhouse that had been the home of Frederick Douglass. In August 1979, the museum became part of the Smithsonian Institution. It is now located on the National Mall (which, by the way, is full of cherry blossoms this time of year, in case you’re planning your own “wanna get away” trip).

Robbin Ami Silverberg (b. 1958, United States) and Kim Berman (b. 1960, South Africa), Emandulo Re-Creation (detail), Johannesburg, South Africa: Artist Proof Studio, 1997 Edition 6/30

Among other exhibits, now on view is Artists’ Books and Africa. The twenty-five books included in the exhibition are either by African artists or feature traditional African themes, and all come from the permanent collections of the museum and the Smithsonian libraries. Through the books, the exhibition explores African history and cultures by embodying collective memory and reclaiming cultural heritage and storytelling. The show features fine art books as well as those employing multiple formats, materials and techniques by predominantly contemporary artists.

Bruce Onobrakpeya (b. 1932, Nigeria), Bruce Onobrakpeya Portfolio of Art and Literature (detail), Lagos, Nigeria: Ovuomaroro Studio & Gallery, 2003, Edition 19/75

The books range in theme from personal narratives to reflections on the human condition. The sprawled out pages of Atta Kwami’s (b. 1956 in Ghana) Grace Kwami Sculpture (1993) resemble the form of a spider, drawing upon the African folklore of Anansi, the mischievous but knowledgeable spider known for his cleverness and skill, to tell the story of the artist’s mother, Grace Kwami (1923–2006), who was also an artist. Each of the book’s “legs” show pictures illustrating Grace’s life, creating a metaphor between the skillfulness of the spider and the creativity of the artist’s mother (my mind immediately went to Maman by Louise Bourgeois).

Atta Kwami (b. 1956, Ghana), Grace Kwami Sculpture, London: Atta Kwami, 1993, Edition 6/32

Another artist, Judith Mason (b. 1938 in South Africa) and poet Wilma Stockenström (b. 1933 in South Africa) use the book to visualize pain, or more specifically, a woman’s pain. In their book, Skoelapperheuwel, Skoelappervrou (Butterfly Hill, Butterfly Woman), Mason uses lithographs of pencil illustrations and collages of torn paper as the background for Stockenström’s enigmatic yet thought provoking words. Written in free verse Afrikaans, Stockenström contemplates the role of women in society, as well as other existentialist themes such as death and the afterlife.  The ripped pages signify a kind of trauma presumably felt by all women, whether from childbirth, intercourse, or menstruation. The poetry is not fully translated into English, but even without textual reference, the message of the powerful and often visceral images is clear.

Judith Mason, Wilma Stockenström, Skoelapperheuwel, Skoelappervrou (Butterfly Hill, Butterfly Woman) (detail), Pretoria, South Africa: Ombondi Editions, 1988, 2010

The versatility of artist books shows how their form and structure often supercede their content. Inspired by the “power to the people” mindset of the 1960s, inexpensive artists’ books referred to as “democratic multiples” are made to be distributed to as many people as possible, and typically convey social or political messages. South African artist Luan Nel’s (b. 1971) piece Paper: An Installation by Luan Nel at the Mark Coetzee Fine Art Cabinet takes the form of a tiny deck of cards. Looking at the cards feels like taking a Rorschach test as the small, ambiguous figures gradually create stories and sequences the longer you engage with them. The images are playful, but also veil the experiences of the artist’s life, addressing his homosexuality, Afrikaans heritage, his upbringing in the strict Dutch Reformed Church, and being drafted by the South African army during the era of apartheid.

Luan Nel, b. 1971, South Africa, Paper: An Installation by Luan Nel at the Mark Coetzee Fine Art Cabinet (detail), Cape Town, South Africa: Mark Coetzee Fine Art Cabinet, 1997

The books are beautiful, surprising, darkly humorous, and at times bizarre. At first glance they seem to be purely aesthetically driven, but each page reveals something about the artist who created it. Artists’ Books and Africa will be on view until September 11, 2016 at the National Museum of African Art in Washington, D.C.

[babylon-crashing]

TEXT:

C-R-I-P-E-S! B-A-B-Y is throwing things me again. D-A-M-N it!