Book Review: Uncovered
You might have seen the work of photographer Thomas Allen floating around the weblogs a few months back — he’s the guy who cuts out and arranges pulpy paperback books from the ’50s in surprising and delightful ways. Now some of his work has been collected in a new monograph, Uncovered: Photographs by Thomas Allen. In his intro, celebrity designer Chip Kidd likens Allen’s work to those old Warner Bros. cartoons in which characters pop out of various books covers and have shenanigans with each other — a totally apt comparison. It might sound gimmicky, but his work is actually gorgeous to look at, with carefully considered compositions and a shallow depth of field which creates beautifully blurred shapes around the edges. The figures pictured in the cover art represent the typical fantasy archetype of that era — lots of busty babes and square-jawed manly men — and putting them in this setting makes them appear even more dreamlike. I also get the sense that Allen simply enjoys the variety of visual textures in these musty paperbacks — not just the covers but the spines and the pages. The more “used” they look, the better, with resulting imagery so sumptuous you could just dive into them.
Surprisingly, Aperture chose to bind Uncovered as a board book, meaning the pages are printed on thickish cardboard. An unconventional format for a non-kiddie book, for sure, but I like how it allows you to easily see a photo spread across two pages without the binding getting in the way. Although sporting a nifty die cut, the cover is blandly designed and gives no indication of the depth of Allen’s work. Also, I wish there were a few more photographs, but the ones they did choose to include are excellent.
Uncovered: Photographs by Thomas Allen is available now from Aperture. Buy at Amazon here.
Manga Carta
I had a bit of a deja vu moment while paging through the Geekipedia supplement of the latest Wired magazine. To illustrate the section on manga comics, they scanned a detail from the cover of the 28th and final Rurouni Kenshin volume — which I designed! I am so intimately acquainted with that artwork that seeing it in this context was like finding a picture of your baby in a national magazine.
Two VERY Lovely Girls
Holy pork chops and applesauce! Apparently there was a scorching internet rumor going around last week that, in her forthcoming memoir, Maureen McCormick revealed that she had a brief lesbian tryst with her Brady Bunch co-star Eve Plumb during the show’s production. The story (of a lovely lady) was picked up by such esteemed outlets as The National Enquirer and The New York Post before getting shot down as false by McCormick’s publisher. The jury’s still out on whether Robert Reed and Barry Williams had a torrid affair going.
On a completely different note, I’ve added a little sidebar to this weblog’s front page that allows you to play select songs from my last.fm profile page. And before you say “what does that have to do with The Brady Bunch?”, the playlist does include the Bradys singing their hearts out on “Parallel Lines” (a gem from their vinyl swan song, Phonographic Record).
Horse Mosaic Finished, Yay
Here’s to art projects — even the ones that turn out differently than expected. The ambitious bead mosaic of a horse’s head which I first started last spring is finally finished! Head over to my flickr set to see how the project went along, step by step. Now the big question is how does one hang something like this on a wall? It’s got to weigh at least fifteen pounds.
Best of Times, Worst of Times
By now you’ve probably heard that the New York Times is discontinuing its Times Select subscription service and opening up their digital archives. The coolest part is the free online access to all of the copyright-free articles the paper published between 1851 and 1922. Although Jason Kottke recently posted links to some of the Times’ more notable past articles, the archive’s real fun lies in digging around and finding stories that represented the everyday news as it was 100 or so years ago. Once you get past the arcane writing styles and dense columns of type, it’s interesting to find out that, say, famed actress Maude Adams invented a new method of stage lighting. Fancy that — the Times devoted a whole half a page and thousands of words to that bit of news in 1908.
In my limited browsing I’ve noticed that some stories have a tone of quaint bemusement, others play like an Onion parody of turn-of-the-century reportage. Supposed Corpse Much Alive, printed in the May 12, 1899 edition, sports a little of both:
“Mackie celebrated some event in Irish history with too much ardor and appetite …” Something tells me that this unknown reporter, were he young and alive in 2007, would have a kickass weblog.
Collage Course
Artist Brian Dettmer carves into old books, creating wild and complex three dimensional sculptures around the illustrations (via Design Observer). These are gorgeous, although the bottom two closely resemble some of the termite-ridden stuff we’ve fished out of our garage.
Ernö Rubik’s Breakfast Nook
I kind of like this multicolored floor — real kicky! And you can’t go wrong with Eero Saarinen furnishings. This is actually one of the more subtle interiors from the Your Swingin’ Pad set, assembled by flickr user Miss Retro Modern (via Eye of the Goof).
Book Review: Taking Things Seriously
Back when I worked at the local newspaper, one of the things I confiscated for myself was this ancient metal Swingline stapler which appeared to date from the Kennedy/Johnson era. Streamlined in design, heavy as a rock, painted Industrial Tan and covered in years of grime and scotch tape detritus, the stapler was so out of its element in that modernized office that I just had to adopt it as my own. I proudly kept it on my desk — and when I subsequently had to leave that job it got smuggled home, where it still sits on my desk. Though I rarely have the need for a stapler (much less an ungainly brick like the Swingline), I like to have it around to imagine the chain smoking, rumpled Broderick Crawford type who undoubtedly owned the hell out of it when it was new.
The stapler is a prime example of how we tend to bestow meaning and history onto the most banal and seemingly worthless of objects. With Taking Things Seriously: 75 Objects with Unexpected Significance, Joshua Glenn and Carol Hayes took the idea one step further by asking several semi-known folks (mostly fringe writers and artists) about their favorite objects. The stories they collected are as diverse as the objects themselves: a bath towel, an antique wooden horse, a pine cone, a glass jar, a light bulb, worn plastic toys and mummified food. Although some of the contributors’ stories have a purely nostalgic bent, many of the people chose items that they associate with deeper things like the power of social ties or the utter randomness of life. Some of the stories are funny, others are unexpectedly touching. Admittedly it’s a strange idea to build a book around, but ultimately the project is beautifully executed in boxy paperback form. This would make a good gift for everyone’s favorite oddball.
Taking Things Seriously is available now from Princeton Architectural Press. Buy at Amazon here.
Revisiting Twice Upon a Time
Looks like our pal Ward Jenkins has done it again with a lengthy examination on the forgotten 1983 animated feature Twice Upon a Time in which he interviews animation expert and Twice superfan Taylor Jenssen. Like Ward, I first came across this movie long ago on VHS after reading something about it somewhere (Premiere magazine perhaps?). I also remember being impressed by the film’s uniquely animated paper cutout visuals, but the fact that I don’t recall one iota of the storyline or characters probably explains why it’s never ingrained itself in the hearts of animation fans. The film played like a cross between a slicker version of Terry Gilliam’s Monty Python segments and an overly arty children’s book come to life. In other words, dazzling to look at but a bit vacant. Despite its shortcomings, I wish that Warner Bros. could give Twice a new life on DVD — but after reading Jenssen’s interview I’m not holding my breath. Maybe, in a better world, it could be loaned out to Criterion for a beautifully produced DVD with commentaries and deleted scenes? Just having a little “pie in the sky” moment there.
Now I want Ward to do a post on The Mouse and His Child, another semi-forgotten animated effort from my past. Check it out on YouTube.
Me Japanese Toy I Love You
The preview for Japanese videogame Beautiful Katamari (coming to the Xbox and Wii) is so bizarre that I had to watch it three times in a row. Far as I can tell, the game has something to do with rolling a giant ball onto various objects — but I’m too distracted by the Japanese child narrator and the trippy visuals to notice or care.
Peel Me a Grape
Another weird thing: every time I hear the name “General Petraeus” on the news it reminds me of Rome, the TV series.
It Made Me Chuckle
The Onion: Pitchfork Gives Music 6.8.
Things to Watch While Sick
Yesterday I came down with a bout of sickness — runs, fever, headaches, icky feelings in my gut. I’m feeling much better now, but have you ever noticed that whenever you’re sick and stuck in front of the TV you’ll pretty much watch anything? Well, almost anything — old episodes of Sesame Street were too shrill. Sick TV viewing requires programs that are a bit tasteless and easy to digest, the mushy oatmeal of basic cable. Here’s what I saw:
Tattletales (GSN) — A 1976 episode of the green-carpeted classic had a panel of game show hosts and their wives. Richard Dawson stood in for Bert Convy as host, with Mr. and Mrs. Convy representing the banana section, Bob Barker and wife in the red section and Jack Narz and wife in the blue section. The Barkers won.
Music City News Top Country Hits ‘81 (RFD) — I’m so glad I came across this completely random bit of programming on “Rural America’s Most Important Network.” An awards show with no awards, just a lot of lip synched performances and telepromptered banter from hosts Tanya Tucker and Jim Stafford. Worth it to see Stafford gamely trying (and failing) to get the audience to sing along to “It’s Hard to Be Humble.” I also caught a bit of Penny Gilley’s talk show with some of the worst canned laughter ever put on tape.
One for the Book (TCM) — A slow-paced but enjoyable 1947 comedy recorded during Ronald Reagan day from last month’s Summer Under The Stars film fest. Seeing it reminded me of what blah onscreen presence Reagan had — how on earth did he stay a movie star for so long? On the other hand it did have a couple of plusses with Eve Arden being Eve Arden and an unusually literate script (adapted from the stage hit Voice of the Turtle). Leading lady Eleanor Parker is lovely and appealing, conveying a nice vulnerability while wearing an unfortunate wig with severe bangs.
Kate & Allie (WE) — I’ve been TiVoing these for a while and they reinforce my belief that K&A was one of overlooked treasures among ’80s sitcoms. In its prime, that is. The episodes I saw yesterday were from the dismal final year when the newlywed Allie and Bob moved into that huge, pastel-colored condo with Kate hanging around pathetically like a third wheel. In this case all for the better, since laughing would have hurt my stomach.
Cheaters (G4) — I occasionally record this unapologetically trashy show, hoping for the ones where a married guy gets caught cheating with another dude. No such luck this time.
So Close, Yet So Far
Okay, I’m in a bit of a tizzy since I narrowly missed getting a Tim Biskup “Princess Molecule” signed print like the one seen here. One was listed on eBay, but the auction went through without any bids. So I asked the seller if he could list it again, and he agreed. I immediately placed my bid, excited about my maiden voyage into the world of limited edition signed artists’ serigraphs. Then some jerk outbid me a few seconds before the auction closed.
Another thing I narrowly missed out on getting: the still rare-as-hen’s-teeth Nintendo Wii. Sears.com briefly listed a few for sale last week. I placed one in my shopping cart, but then several factors (vacation coming up, finances still not the greatest) prevented me from completing the transaction. Times like these make me feel so poor, but I’m being sensible and holding out hope that maybe someone will get me one for my birthday (Oct. 8) or Christmas. Only a few more months!
