Coilhouse » Crackpot Visionary

A Muppet Wicker Man

Meredith Yayanos — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 02:53:58 +0000

Oh… um.

Wow. Yeah. So… this exists:

Via Jess Nevins.

That’s the video preview for a full-length comic book mashup of The Muppet Show and The Wicker Man by Paul O’Connell.

It’s… uh…

Well, words seem to be failing at the moment.

Really, what can one say when confronted with something like this, except:

Post tags: Comics, Crackpot Visionary, Film, Geekdom, Horror, Kid Stuff, Puppetry, Silly-looking types, Testing your faith, Uber, Why

“When you cut into the present the future leaks out.” –William S. Burroughs (b. February 5, 1914)

Meredith Yayanos — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 05:18:06 +0000

Yes. Hello. Feb 5th is the date of novelist William S. Burroughs’ birth. Coilhouse should really show the man some love. W.S.B. double feature, anyone?

First, The Cut-Ups, a mesmeric and disorienting experimental piece Burroughs put together with filmmaker Antony Balch (aided by multi-disciplinary art firebrand Brion Gysin and others) in 1966. Over the course of twenty minutes, it plays out in very much the same vein as Burroughs’ literary cut-ups, only with multiple sensory layers of headfuckery. (Read more about the film here / the generalized concept of cut-ups here.)

(Via Scott Spencer.)

Second, a clip from the 1983 documentary Burroughs, wherein the birthday Billy reads aloud and acts out the horrifically funny Dr. Benway passage from Naked Lunch. Co-starring Jackie Curtis as the nurse! (And check out this amazing photo of Gysin, Curtis, and Burroughs together. Dawww.)

“Your mind will answer most questions if you learn to relax and wait for the answer.”
(W.S.B.)

Post tags: Art, Books, Crackpot Visionary, Film, Medical, Revolutionary, Surreal

Cycle-Skating In Paris

Ross Rosenberg — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 17:14:40 +0000

If you were a Parisian gentleman in 1923 looking for the newest thing in personal mobility, you may have had a keen interest in the above: cycle-skating. Essentially small bicycle wheels strapped to your legs, they could be used with or without poles, “ski style”. Perfect for the hip, urban man on the go. Just make sure to hike those trousers up over your knee-highs.

Via Buzzfeed

Post tags: Crackpot Visionary, Faboo, Fashion, Technology, Ye Olde

’80s Explosion: Space Stallions

Ross Rosenberg — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 18:28:12 +0000

Space Stallions, a bachelor film project from the 2012 Animation Workshop, plays like every Saturday morning cartoon from my childhood boiled down into one four minute concept. Created by Thorvaldur S. Gunnarsson, Jonatan Brüsch, Ágúst Kristinsson, Arna Snæbjørnsdottir, Esben J. Jespersen, Touraj Khosravi and Polina Bokhan, it appears to have everything: spaceships, spandex-clad heroes, rainbows, unicorn-shaped hoverbikes, moustaches, and laser eggs. It’s like someone put peyote in your Lucky Charms.

Post tags: Animation, Cosmos, Crackpot Visionary, Kid Stuff, Sci-fi, Television

How Will YOU Celebrate Squirrel Appreciation Day, 2012?

Meredith Yayanos — Sat, 21 Jan 2012 21:42:24 +0000

For three whole years now, January 21st has been officially recognized as Squirrel Appreciation Day.

This momentous occasion offers us the perfect excuse to revisit a somewhat more time-honored form of squirrel appreciation, namely “Gonads and Strife“.

Aaaaannnd WEEEEEEEEEE:

Threebrain, we miss you!

Previous squirrelage on Coilhouse:

Love for Walter Potter
The Royal Ballet’s “Tales of Beatrix Potter”
Beer for Expensive Tastes (ROSS. NOOOOOOOOOO.)

Post tags: Better than coffee, Crackpot Visionary, Events, Flora & Fauna

Vermin Supreme for President, 2012

Meredith Yayanos — Sun, 08 Jan 2012 22:03:53 +0000

The venerable Vermin Supreme is back once again! Last month, he let loose at the Lesser-Known Democratic Candidates Presidential Forum in New Hampshire:

Via Sean Donahoe, thanks!

He wants you to brush your teeth. He wants to control your life. He wants to protect you from the impending zombie apocalypse. Best of all, he wants to give you a pony.

Mah feller ‘merkunz, try to look beyond that gnomish beard, the teetering boot-hat. Mr. Supreme is, without a doubt, the most trustworthy, straight-shootin’ Republican hopeful running for President in 2012.

Remember: “A Vote For Vermin Supreme is a Vote Completely Thrown Away”!

Vermin Supreme glitterbombs fellow presidential hopeful Randall Terry during a debate in 2008.

Post tags: Better than coffee, Crackpot Visionary, Geekdom, Politics, Silly-looking types, Testing your faith

Trent Reznor & Erik Satie: Majestic Angst-Bros of Minor Key Minimalism

Matt Keefer — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 22:59:34 +0000

Editor’s Note: This gem of a submission from writer/proto-ambient scholar/fervent NIN-lover Matt Keefer was discovered several tiers deep during a recent trawl of the Coilhouse slush account. It’s an offbeat and spirited piece, simultaneously comparing and cross-referencing the musical and philosophical kinship inherent between Erik Satie and Trent Reznor, and issuing several preemptive strikes against any and all Would-Be Jaded Hipster Remonstrators. (Also, somehow, on a profound level, it feels like the perfect blog follow-up to that horrifying “Keyboard Cat In Hell” clip Ross just posted). Thank you, Matt. Keep on angstin’ on, comrades.

Trent Reznor is the rightful successor to the great Erik Satie. Don’t let yourself ignore this plain and obvious fact because you are embarrassed of your youth. And no, Trent isn’t disqualified from this lofty inheritance by his perpetual unhappiness. Satie had it just as bad.

In the Spring of 1893, the ever-eccentric Monsieur Erik began a torrid affair with the artist and model Suzanne Valadon. An odd duck in her own right, Madame Valadon kept a goat at her studio to gobble up any of her work that she was unhappy with. After only a single night with Valadon, Erik proposed; the marriage never happened (or if it did, the records of such were later eaten by said goat), but Valadon did move to the room next to Satie’s at the Rue Cortot in Paris. Satie became increasingly obsessed with Valadon, often referring to her as his nanny-goat and filling notebooks with worshipful scrawlings about “her whole being, lovely eyes, gentle hands, and tiny feet.” Indeed, Satie composed his Danses Gothiques as a calmative to restore his composure in the face of the amorous frenzies that Valadon inspired in him. In turn, Valadon painted a portrait of Satie and gifted it to him:

Portrait of Erik Satie by Suzanne Valadon. Who can resist the Pince-Nez? WHO?

Sadly, six months later, the affair ended. One chilly winter evening Valadon vanished, leaving Satie with only his portrait and a broken heart to remember her by. Satie snapped, scrawling in the latter pages of his journals that nothing remained for him “but an icy loneliness that fills the head with emptiness and the heart with sadness.” This is the only intimate relationship that Satie ever had. He would later move to a room in Arcueil and in the 27 years before he drank himself to death, there is no record of anyone visiting his room.

Read the rest of Trent Reznor & Erik Satie: Majestic Angst-Bros of Minor Key Minimalism

Post tags: Ambient, Crackpot Visionary, Geekdom, Goth, Music, Opinion, Testing your faith, Ye Olde

Smooth 80s Whistling Redub

Meredith Yayanos — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 01:29:01 +0000

Last week, Ross posted this choice clip of Ralph “Whistler” Giese performing an unusual rendition of “Georgia on My Mind” on the Kelly & Company talk show, circa 1984.

Now there’s this:

(Via Ariana.)

HAPPY PEANUT BUTTER TUESDAY, Y’ALL.

Post tags: Crackpot Visionary, Memes, Silly-looking types, Television, Testing your faith

Mythical Proportions: Centaur Love in Contemporary America (NSFW!)

Meredith Yayanos — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 23:39:49 +0000

When I initially saw Nadya’s “Hot Human-on-Centaur Action” post in drafts, I just assumed she’d beat me to the punch with this gloriously (and mysteriously) perverted silliness:

Via Douglas, with thanks. And a vague, yet all-pervading sense of awe.

How delightful to realize, no! Apparently, there’s just some redolently centauromachian vapor riding the air currents right now.

Folks, it’s officially CENTAUR WEEK on Coilhouse.

Consider yourselves warned.

Post tags: Animation, Crackpot Visionary, Fairy Tales, Fetish, Geekdom, Sexuality, Silly-looking types, Stroke Material, Testing your faith, Uber, Uncanny Valley, Why

Interpretive Futon Dance Duo

Meredith Yayanos — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 06:05:52 +0000

NO idea what the heck is going on here, or why, but I wholeheartedly approve:

(Via Patrick McCracken.)

Post tags: Better than coffee, Crackpot Visionary, Dance, Japan, Silly-looking types