As you settle in for the night, dear reader, why not instead be whisked away into the FUTURE! Watch, as visionary artists from the 1930s predict what fashion might have been like seven years ago.
I could do with that first number, actually. Zip-off sleeves? Yes. Not entirely sure about the skirt elimination, but I know I’ve got the big hair and questionable footwear well covered. Ooh, swish!
Whether he’s making a girl, an octopus or an old sailor, Scott’s dolls and marionettes have a look of prematurely aged children. Muted colors, shadowed wide-set eyes and ruddy little noses on sullen heads have become his signature. These creatures seem perfect for stop-motion animation – it would be great to someday see a full length feature starring them. I’ll avoid using terms like “whimsical” or “grotesque”- suffice to say I love Scott’s angry delicate characters and am always anticipating the next one.
Scott Radke is an artist in Cleveland, Ohio. Visit him on the interwub at scottradke.com and click beyond the jump for some of my favorite pieces.
I still don’t understand who I am: the first human or the last dog in space. – Yuri Gagarin
It was on November 3, 1957 – fifty years ago today that Laika took flight. Her ship circled the Earth 2,570 times, burning upon re-entering the atmosphere on April 14, 1958. She didn’t see the stars or the moon, as Sputnik 2 was not equipped with windows but she felt, if only briefly, what humanity had longed for so desperately.
Today, I want you to take a moment and think of her out there; stray mutt picked off the streets of Moscow, in her little capsule. Paving the way for us all.
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The cross makes me think of death, but the ivy is life. Sort of the tragic and hopeful, you know.
Ah, Poison Ivy. It had it all – big hair, teen lesbian lust, daddy complexes, public sex, irreparable emotional trauma and even death.
The players
Sylvie Cooper: A pre-Goth introverted high school student [Sarah Gilbert ]
Ivy: miniskirt-wearing, tattooed, broken doll-faced Lolita of a girl [Drew Barrymore]
Darryl Cooper: Sylvie ‘s father, a wealthy lonely man [Tom Skerritt] with a wilted rose as his dying wife [Cheryl Ladd]
The plot
Sylvie meets & swoons over wild Ivy and invites her into her home along with disaster. She can only look on in horror and confusion as Ivy slowly takes over her life.
What reads like a recipe for generic Hollywood fodder, instead focuses on acute loneliness, obsession and despair as much as on Barrymore’s physique and is actually a strangely moving and beautiful film. The acting is just ok, but Barrymore’s portrayal of a love starved teenage desperado is involving and bouncy, and the cinematography is great, with most of the particularly dramatic moments are shot in twilight rain. This movie probably did some goth-o-fying to herds of restless teenage girls in the 90s. Shakespearean high drama, Freudian tension and Fellinian perversion – I can’t help but love it all!
Tokyo’s theme restaurants have been attracting tourists and locals for quite some time. There’s a selection suitable for every mood, kink and outfit – just take a look at this partial list!
Naturally, on our Japan-o-dventure our curiosity and appetites were piqued so we paid some of these fantasy eateries a visit.
The Vampire Cafe is a maze of red velvet and layers of candle wax. Waitresses in tarted up maid uniforms solemnly lead patrons trough crimson corridors across a blood red floor, literally. This floor, likely my favorite part of the decor, is composed of glowing backlit tiles depicting enlarged photographs of blood cells. Customers can choose a banquet table or private curtained booths, maid bells provided. I tried to wish myself back there yesterday – it would be stupendous for a Halloween dinner; appetizers arranged into the shape of crucifixes, rose petals sprinkled across plates, the main course served in, yes, a tiny black casket. And all this triumphantly crowned with a chocolate skull inside my parfait, no less.
victorianbatcostume, treatment originally uploaded by carbonated.
What are you dressed up as?
Halloween is very nearly upon us. While it’s most often misrepresented by items such as this, I refuse to let commercial culture rob me of this treasured holiday’s mystery. ???? ? T??a?? (Hedgehog in the Fog), the eerie masterpiece of Russian animation featured in this post, could have easily been part of the “what made me weird” article – it affected me greatly as a kid, feeding my hungry chimera and igniting within my fevered brain the very spirit of adventure. I like to think this was the exact intended effect.
[kml_flashembed movie="http://www.youtube.com/v/dRsXU4Q6a0Q" width="400" height="330" wmode="transparent" /]
The story is simple: Hedgehog is on his way to pay his friend, the Bear Cub, a visit. They often meet for tea and count stars together. This time Hedgehog’s prepared a special raspberry jam for the occasion. Oh his walk he sees a strange white horse in the evening fog. The fog is so thick that Hedgehog wonders whether the horse would suffocate if it were to lie down in it. The beautiful animation drips with symbolism as the Hedgehog, driven by his curiosity, steps inside the fog and into another world. He’s lost and faced with fear, loneliness, hostility and eventual redemption.
Ever-present in my subconscious, Hedgehog In The Fog is a living dream, an embodiment of fascination with the great Unknown.
What’s Zo Wearing? is syndicated with permission.
A confession: I might have exaggerated about the toga thing last week. While I’m still feeling the draped thing, some amount of clean lines will always appeal to me. Here’s an almost entirely Japan-acquired Z-standard outfit. The price isn’t exactly Z-standard this time but I was on vacation, dammit. On to the super-villain gear, comrades!
By the way of Mister Kris Ether, a collection of jaw-dropping Yakov Chernikov drawings. Doesn’t this one resemble a rocket, ready for takeoff? Yes, this is my future, tovarish Chernikov. Thank you.
From the funny writeup on Dark Roasted Blend: “Only too appropriate for the “Evil Empire”, the colossal palaces and Pantheons would dominate the city, squash the last vestiges of soul, and yet strangely excite in their surreal dark presence.“
