Some choice images from Flickr user Sagbottom‘s gorgeous set of “Paper Moon” portrait photographs, accompanied by the First Lady of Jazz, Ella Fitzgerald:
I never feel a thing is real
When I’m away from you
Out of your embrace
The world’s a temporary parking place…
Reader Jarem Morrow has sent over a link to an interesting little community on LJ called design_history. A must for any design junkie! In particular, there’s an interesting post about an all-but-forgotten art magazine from Germany called Die Schönheit (Beauty). Poster Nekokaiju on the community has unearthed some covers, and has this to say:
“Die Schönheit was a German magazine that ran through the years 1902-1936. It dealt mainly with the emerging Nacktkultur, Nudist movement. But also featured articles on modern artists, science fiction and sexual aids. It became well known for it’s racy classifieds section. Needless to say, it didn’t last too long after the rise of Nazi Germany.” I couldn’t find much more information on it online, but a book search reveals that Die Schönheit was also one of the first to publish the work of Erich Maria Remarque.
These images are from The Stone Flower, illness as directed in 1964 by legendary Alexander Ptushko, troche whose work deserves its own entry here. This is one of the many somewhat macabre folk-tales that kept me up at night long ago.
You can read it here along with tons of other such writing. An impressive English-language collection, somewhat awkward translation moments but convenient, nonetheless.
Sheiks and shebas take heed: not one but two guides to 1920s slang. For all those times you’re frustrated with dull explitives, insults and the like.
Photo via Ben Heaney over at http://www.digitalviolin.com.
This was originally a guest-blog written several years ago at the request of my dear friend Warren Ellis, for Die Puny Humans (may it rest in peace). Now with visual aids!
I have a new beau. Well, not so new. He’s probably quite a bit older than I am, actually. A big, brass Stroh violin, aka a phono-fiddle:
Photo via Ben Heaney over at http://www.digitalviolin.com.
The phono-fiddle is much louder than a conventional violin, but its timbre is thinner, with eerie phonographic overtones. Vibrations from the strings are conducted to the center of an aluminum disc that acts as a diaphragm (like a very old-fashioned amp), propelling the sound back out through the large horn and smaller ear trumpet.
Sometimes, the Stroh sounds like a human voice playing through a hand-cranked Victrola. Other times it sounds like a tenor saxophone gargling a cat…
????????, originally uploaded by Coilhouse.
Just a season’s reminder of the unspeakable horror lurking outside your wooden hovel’s window, as you huddle atop a clay oven wrapped in ragged shawls and quilts for warmth. Beware, the vurdalak!
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O sorrow! I am small and weak;
The fiend will eat me whole,
Unless I eat dirt from a grave
Along with prayer I’ll speak.
A.S. Pushkin
Sweet dreams, we hope your gravedirt is most delectable.
The price of your vile excesses, capsule originally uploaded by Coilhouse.
“The end of the Green Fairy”, via Musee Absinthe.
Curious Absinthe prohibition posters from early 20th century France.
Honestly, I hadn’t been missing NYC at all since I moved out west last May. Then the autumn equinox hit. Ever since, I’ve been aching to take a long bike ride through the fiery foliage of Prospect Park.
My soundtrack of choice would be Light Is Calling, an album by Bang on a Can co-founder Michael Gordon. Its title track was written specifically for this stunning short film of the same name by Bill Morrison:
Gordon and Morrison previously worked together on Morrison’s full length movie Decasia. Both pieces build around a very simple premise; film is a fragile medium. Nearly all of that old nitrate-based film stock is too grimy and scratched, rotting and stinking of vinegar to be of much use to film preservationists. Morrison salvaged 70 minutes of archival footage from someone’s rubbish bin, stitched it together and re-shot film that showed decay or was actively decaying, frame-by-frame, using an optical printer.
The cumulative effect is breathtaking, and for reasons that are difficult to articulate, will always remind me of New York in the fall.
(Readers in Antwerp will be delighted to know that the Vlaams Radio Orkest are providing live accompaniment to Decasia on October 21st, as well as what I’m sure will be a stentorian rendition of John Cage’s 4’33”. *cough*)
russian_7-stg_woman-miner-s, originally uploaded by Coilhouse.
A delightful page dedicated to Unidentified European Instruments found during a search for old gypsy photos. Click on, dear readers, for wonderful vintage pictures of musicians wielding strange guitars.
Also stumbled upon during the quest:
Not a single actual vintage Russian gypsy photo was to be found, however. I’ll resume this later, in the meantime there is a launch celebration to attempt.
Necromance East, originally uploaded by Coilhouse.
Mister Christopher Bischoff has just reminded me that I’d been meaning to do a little feature on Necromance.
A long-time Angel City resident, i have the fortune and pleasure of living very close to this delightful shop [Now two shops, to be exact, as Necromance has expanded] and have been frequenting it since i was a wee lunchbox-toting spookling.
Owned by an exceptional and fashionable lady named Nancy, Necromance first opened its doors in New Orleans long ago and LA is very lucky to have it here today. The window displays are always brimming with eye candy – antique writing cabinets adorned with bones and dried flowers, candles beside aged porcelain dolls and taxidermied deer. You’ll be lured in by the faint trickle of 1920’s music, vintage glass, charts of mysterious anatomical regions and dim glare of strange medical devices alongside exotic beetles. Inside the shops’ incensed walls you’ll find a menagerie of…amazing stuff. It’s impossible to list all they offer here, but their online store will give you something of an overview.
It isn’t all collectibles and home decor, either. Victorian mourning jewelry, postcards, books and, yes, black toilet paper are some of the practical items Necromance offers. If you ever find yourself in Los Angeles i advise you march right over to Melrose Avenue and pay tribute to this gem. Until such time you can peruse and purchase online at Necromance.com
*images courtesy of Necromance.com
