Last week The Daily Mail published this article about the home life of Tim Burton and Helena Bonham Carter, no doubt to capitalize on the buzz around the new "Alice in Wonderland", which is coming out Friday. Publicity ploy or not, the article is actually really interesting, and feeds into that "Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous" vein that is a guilty pleasure for so many (including, alas, myself).
It's hard to say what fuels the interest in celebrity culture. Is it a desire to escape the tedium of our own simple existence by focusing on the grander "news" of the celebrity culture? Is it the social satisfaction that comes from collectively "knowing" these individuals in society? Or is it the sick joy we get from seeing these seemingly perfect people fall from grace and become spectacular train wrecks? Maybe a little of each.
This Tim Burton article certainly focuses on the iconic nature of the subject. He is one of the most recognized auteurs of this generation. And by bringing the focus away from his films and into what its like in his house, we are getting a heavy dose of that "behind-the-scenes" magic that makes people feel more connected and included in the world of their idol.
What makes this article such a choice cut of celebrity meat is the combination of normalcy and the fantastic. Why, Helena B.C. and Tim B. are just like us in a lot of ways! But they're also really, really weird.
1. They live in a grand house in London that they've cut in half to make "his and hers" apartments. They each have their own kitchen, and basically have their own little places that are decorated to their own tastes and are conjoined by a grand hall.
2. Their children (ages 6 and 2) have their own grand house down the street where they live with their Nanny.
3. They met while filming the 2001 remake of "Planet of the Apes". Tim Burton apparently found his future-muse to be "most attractive" when she was in character as Ari. A Monkey.
Um, okay....
EDIT: So the paper published a retraction saying that the kids living in a separate house part isn't true. That they, like their parents, share a conjoined loft area. Keep in mind though, the monkey thing still stands!
Its been how many months now (?)and our Wii is still on the fritz. Once Paul called the service line (which incidentally, plays old school Mario tunes for on-hold muzak (awesome!)) and found out our machine was no longer under warranty, it kind of took the urgency out of sending it back. Especially since some games still work in it, and winter is the #1 season for hunkering down with your electronics. We're waiting till we can go outside again, I think, to repair it. I am still really really missing Mario Kart though. Our other games (that work) just aren't the same...
Right now our wii-motes are about as useful, but not nearly as tasty as this sweet chocolate-mote from DigitalChocolates. Hooray for candy that looks like gadgets!
Don't get confused and eat your wii controllers! Also, don't try to play a game with this, cuz it'll melt on you! Also, not work.
I recently rediscovered the "Woman King" EP from Iron and Wine in my CD collection. It's been great to listen to as I drove around in the elements this week. This song in particular, "My Lady's House," makes a good soundtrack for the woods of Hampshire county in a flurry of theatrically fluffy snow.
Paul and I saw this one-man band (Samuel Beam) a few years ago in Northampton and it was really awesome. Hooray for folk rock!
I'm cursing winter weather right now. Looking forward to the end of this nasty cold stuff. The somewhat milder weather had got me thinking about the yard, and the outdoor projects pending for the house. First and foremost, we are going to rip up the weird fence in the back. I also want to put in a fire pit for summer bonfires! Yeah!
I think our landscaping would be much improved too by the addition of these sweet prehistoric-themed lawn sculptures:
I want this tiny 2 -foot t-rex to prowl my tomato plants!
Benches o'bones! This 11 foot tall t-rex is $7,500 worth of magic! How amazing would it be to own this? I bet you I'd be more popular than the Nash Dinosaur Tracks down the street.
Part of my non-profit job is doing volunteer tax prep for people in the community. We ordered reference guide packets for everybody a few weeks ago. These packets, among other things contained Publication 1278. Publication 1278 is a carrying bag for all our Big thick IRS tomes. Yeah...They even have Publication numbers for freakin' bags. Bureaucracy central!
I have to say too, that I was a little bummed that my 1278 was a plastic bag. "Carrying bag" suggested canvas, I thought. But I guess they aren't wasting taxpayer $$$.
Domestic cats are interesting creatures. I've enjoyed living with them these last few years, getting to know their strangely complex personalities. The bossiness and sauciness of the cats I've lived with sometimes really does make me feel like they're tiny humans in fur suits. Its hard to imagine how they could have ever been wild animals.
It turns out, that coming out of the woods and into our living rooms wasn't a human driven choice. A 2007 scientific study has confirmed that cats are one of the only species to have domesticated itself. Instead of being captured and reared, like cattle or dogs, wild cats decided to wander into human society and settle down.
It started when communities began storing their harvested grain in large silos. This brought a hoard of opportunistic rodents, which brought the cats, who after a little while decided that we humans weren't so bad after all, and took to sleeping in our houses and barns and accepting our saucers of milk. How gracious of them, right?
What I think is really cool is that our domestic cats are all descended from these wild cat species that are genetically distinct from say, a feral tabby who ran away from home. Some of these small wild cats are still active predators today. They're like living examples of the environment 12,000 years ago, before man and feline teamed up for zany madcap adventures. But of about 30 subspecies of wildcat, only 5 are recognized today. The rest have been wiped out by habitat loss or hybridization with domestic species. And those 5 subspecies of Felissilvestris all have very small wild populations.
My favorite though, of the surviving wildcat species has to be the Sand Cat (Felis margarita- a cat for parties!).
They're native to the deserts of northern Africa, so unlike many of their genetic cohorts, their habitat is actually expanding. They are also protected in many of the countries that they reside in, not just by environmental mandate, but also by the religious belief that these cats were the companions of the prophet Mohammad and his daughter. As a forefather of your kitteh, this guy doesn't get any bigger than a standard house cat. They are primarily nocturnal and spend their days avoiding the harsh sun underground burrows. The Sand Cat is a master at digging. At night, they use their big ears to listen for rodents and lizards scurrying across the sand. They are also considered to be legendary snake hunters amongst the nomadic tribes of the Sahara.
Sand Cats are also legendary amongst the scientists who attempt to track and study them. Their entire life is built around the practice of being elusive. They have perfectly camouflaged coloring, and are built to skulk low across the ground. Their paws are covered with dense fur, which prevents them from sinking in the sand and makes their tracks are almost invisible. At night, they will close their eyes when light is trained on them, so as to not create a reflection. They also use their superior digging skills to bury their poop, leaving no trace of their presence behind. It's like Sand Cats have the opposite mentality of those early wild species that decided to be our buddies. They just want to stay hidden and free.
I just think they're so beautiful and cool, with those big long ears. Another friend to put in the real life pokemon category.
Ron Ben Israel is a cake decorator from New York City. He's known for making insanely beautiful, high end cakes. His creations are covered with thousands of handmade candy jewels that are made of sugar but sparkle like treasure. The best part is, that these cakes apparently taste amazing too, as the artist prides himself on using only the finest ingredients.
Please ignore the annoying title of this show, and the repeated, gentrified use of the word bling. Skip to 2:16 to get right into it. These cakes are pretty unbelievable. They look like they're right out of a fantastical renaissance feast.
I really love how excited and enthusiastic this guy is about his job. His enthusiasm for disco is also pretty great. I think the one at 6:35 is my favorite. All those gorgeous flowers are hand crafted out of sugar! Wow.
If you've ever been to the Higgins Armory Museum, you've seen that big suit of armor that sits up on the roof. It's a great symbol of the museum and hints at the type of things you'll find if you go inside. I had a handful of guests come up to me when I worked there and express their surprise that the building isn't shaped more like a castle. The distinctly un-castley look of the museum makes a lot of sense though, when you remember that the original museum concept was not just about armor, but an homage to the power of steel. Higgins even had car parts on display and a airplane hanging from the ceiling when the museum first opened.
Anyways. One of my favorite discoveries in the archives was documents about the history of that figurehead. The sculpture was commissioned by J.W. Higgins, and the design was based upon the Worcester Pressed Steel logo. So much so that the original "blueprint" was nothing more than a copy of the logo with Higgins' specifications jotted down on it, seen here:
"2.6 meters tall. 3mm thick iron."
Higgins hired Leonard Hugel to build the weighty project. There isn't a trace of Hugel to be found anywhere on the Internet, so his personal history and accomplishments are completely up for speculation. Hmmm....He's a good dresser? Either way, he probably got stiffed for whatever it was they paid him to do this. Higgins was a notorious miser. In the 50's he repainted the museum exterior for free by requesting samples of silver paint from every paint company in America.
Construction on the statue began in 1930, and museum itself was built in 1931. This shows that this big suit was a big part of the buildings original concept. And now, my favorite picture ever. Hugel with the suit. It really gives you a good feel for the scale of things.
Paul and I saw a beautiful female moose in a field in Gardner yesterday evening. It was really cool. She was massive. I hope she stays off the highways and lives a long majestic life.
She was a lot prettier than the pantomime moose from this old Disney cartoon from the 30's. Mickey's got a gun in it! It really harkens back to a time when hunting wasn't so controversial, before "Bambi" stigmatized the sport for kids everywhere in 1942.
1. Gentlemen Mooses prefer blondes. 2. Goofy and Donald totally got the shaft here. Mickey gets the gun, and they have to dress like a sexy moose. 3. I can't imagine that shooting a gun while you're on stilts is easy. 4. I like that they used the same music from "The Band Concert" for the big exciting fight scene. 5. Goofy at 7:50 made me LOL.
The Olympics are on! I've been catching bits and pieces of it these last few days. I find it kind of frustrating to watch, especially when they spend so much time talking about the weather conditions and the specific athletes, basically turning 75% of the broadcast into a human interest story montage. Just cut to the competition, so I can speculate about obscure sports that only pop up every four years, and arbitrarily pick a team to root for, perhaps based solely on their outfits.
Figure Skating is being put out as the flagship sport of the games again this year, with competition broadcast squarely in prime time. As a kid, I loved watching the skating. It was very dramatic back then, with all that Nancy Kerrigan/ Tonya Harding stuff. I was really engrossed by it, and was actually watching live when they discovered Nancy with the crow barred knee. A few weeks later, I made a giant snowman with my dad and brother and named it Jeff Gillooly, after the obese "bodyguard" Harding hired to rub Nancy out.
Beyond the petty in-fighting stuff, I also loved the creative and masterful performances. My favorite was Scott Hamilton. While others were doing very solemn numbers to Swan Lake, he was doing campy Calypso numbers. His performances had a silly touch of vaudeville to them. He'd hop up on the judges table and flirt with them mid-performance. He would also do full layout backflips, which was so unique and exciting. I would watch these competitions with my dad, who had a huge crush on Kristi Yamaguchi.
Lately though, there's been lots of talk about figure skating's decline in America. We don't have a compelling front-runner for gold at these Canadian Olympics, and the national interest in the sport is falling fast here, while becoming immensely popularity in Asia. This piecefrom NPR blames downfall on the new scoring system that puts more emphasis on technical excellence than on artistry. According to skaters, the new program only allows 10 seconds for creative expression in a 4.5 minute program.
While the artistry and storytelling of skating is important, I can't say I agree that this new scoring system is the culprit. I actually think focusing on the technical perfection of jumps and spins is way more important than the gimmicks of a performance. As much as I loved the clowning of Scott Hamilton, it gets to a point where the focus on a theme distracts from the athleticism. Besides, if you want to make it all about the theatrics, you should watch figure skating's lame cousin, Ice Dancing, where you're not allowed to do any throws or jumps.
Maybe I'm wrong, but I feel like the power of a beautifully executed routine outweighs the storytelling. Take a look at this gold medal performance from Don Jackson in the 1962 Olympics. The artistry is all about the perfection of his execution. There's not a huge storytelling angle, and still the audience gets all worked up after every single jump. "He did it for Canada."
I also really like how excited they get about his triple jumps, because they were so new and novel.
I suppose that the grace of figure skaters is what makes them so captivating. But I don't see why the grace and beauty of their movement can't be assimilated into flawless execution to create a great performance. And if the grading system was really to blame, would skating still be so popular in Japan? I think a grading system that focuses on the athleticism of a sport is better than an arbitrary system open to such subjectivity and personal preference. I also don't think it's going to stop people from creatively expressing themselves in new ways:
Winter keeps on keeping on around here. Even though we were lucky enough to be totally missed by those last two blizzards (You can even see most people's lawns around here), the cold air and wind has definitely kept us in an indoor-centric mode. Reading, video games, and ping pong have been big on our free time to do lists lately. We've also been playing a lot of cribbage.
Cribbage is a game of counting. You get points for certain card combinations, and mark your score with pegs on a board. It was supposedly invented by Sir John Suckling, part time poet and courtier extraordinaire. In the court of Charles I, he was "renowned for his careless gaiety (and) wit", and was considered the greatest bowler and card player in England.
The cribbage board we play on is just a plain rectangle with a simple clockwise loop on it. I'd like to play on this feline inspired, voodoo doll-esque, kitty board for Caturday.
More novelty shaped cribbage boards are here. To quote the seller: "Beware---This cat is watching your every move." I think it comes to life and does dickish cat things if you cheat.
Something new to add to the ever growing category "basically monsters". The "biggest crab ever seen in Britain" is making its way to the UK National Sealife Center. The Daily Mail has dubbed him "Crabzilla".
Just look at the mock cheerful, terrified grimace on that man. Crabzilla is a Japanese Spider Crab, Macrocheirakaempferi, the largest living anthropod species. He is 10 feet long from claw to claw, but will be 13 feet when full grown. His species is the only known living species in the Macrocheira genus, which is pretty crazy. The species is named after Engelbert Kaempfer, a 17th century German naturalist who explored Japan and the Persian Gulf. He is known for bringing Ginkgo Biloba (which had been thought to be extinct) to the western world. You holistic medicine fans out there know who to thank now!
The original article about this crab actually kind of bothers me. It's not like this crab is some new discovery. It's had a formal scientific name for more than 150 years, and is even commonly eaten in Japan. It's also not like this crab was caught in England, which would be weird and interesting. It was caught in it's native habitat and then sold to the aquarium. I dunno. It is definately a noteworthy beast. (I love the fact that it can live to be 100!) But calling it "the biggest crab ever seen in Britain" misleads people into thinking it rose out of the sea at Blackpool.
It's no secret that I think books are really awesome. I love them not only as works of literature, but as works of art. I can't resist an old book with a really beautiful cover, and I think jacket illustrations are actually a great way to judge a book, thank you very much. My interest in the graphic design of books has taken me to The Book Cover Archive, and their extensive galleries of beautiful illustrations. They have a great collection of covers from "War of the Worlds" by H.G. Wells, spanning the 100+ years and plethora of countries the book has been in print.
1899, Cohen Zonen, Dutch
1913, World's Work Sixpennies No. 2, English
1939, Scheltens and Giltay, Dutch
Well, it wouldn't be the 50's without a babe sprawling out helplessly for no reason in the direct line of peril! 1951, Famous Fantastic Mysteries Magazine
1961, Heineman, New Windmill, English
So it was Starfleet all along! 1978, Siglo XX, Spanish
1982, Vivo Press, Netherlands
2002, AST, Moscow
2004, Folio Society, London
You can see them all (over 350!) here. It's really interesting to see the reinterpretations of the story and design motifs change over time and through each culture.
While going through the archive, I found a lot of pictures that had notation attached to them. Some of them listed original publication dates, or the names of the people in the picture. Others had lengthy indexes that directed you to other boxes or files for related source material. This picture (of a Worcester Pressed Steel Airplane Crankshaft, one of their most heavily manufactured goods) had a well-worn half-sheet of paper clipped to it. It read:
"A scientific engineering achievement, a masterpiece of machine design to all who comprehend, expressing efficiency of function and harmony of proportion deeper than surface beauty. Is this art?"
Who knows who wrote this ode to airplane parts, and why.
I love the yarn I used to make this super floppy, super big beret. It's called "It's a Wrap" - Felty strands of nylon wrapped in wool to give it a handspun texture. I've been looking forward to getting to a better yarn store to get my hands on some real handspun goodies, but the beautiful colors and soft feel of this yarn will tide me over till I get the good stuff.
Remember my last attempt at making a hat for myself? I kind of went the opposite direction with it this time. Instead of making a far too-tight version of things, I inaccurately resized this great pattern and made things a slightly on the mammoth side. It's ok though, I really like the way this guy came out, big and comfy.
It's a Super Sunday Hat because I made it mostly during the Superbowl. I actually surprised myself by whipping this out in two days. Sometimes when I'm working on a project, I get so invested in it that I crank it out at an alarming speed.
The game yesterday, by the by, was pretty amazing. Every touchdown that that Saints scored in that second half was so dramatic and exciting. Even a casual football watcher like myself couldn't help but get sucked in by those amazing plays. Good for you Saints. Make Peyton Manning sorry he ever starred in those horrible commercials with Donald Trump.
Cassowaries are 5.5 foot tall flightless birds. They are native to Australia and New Guinea. They have 5 inch long dagger-like claws on their middle toes, and are known for their powerful kick. Cassowaries also communicate with low frequency calls, barely on the edge of human hearing. This is believed to be related to the large, spongy crests on the tops of their heads. In the wild, Cassowaries live to be 40-50 years old. They are also basically monsters.
One of my favorite books when I was little was "Millions of Cats" by Wanda Gag. I always wanted to get a kitten of my own, but was never allowed to have one. My family are staunch dog people, and my dad was very much against owning any animal that pooped in the house. I also think my dad had developed anti-cat sentiment in his childhood due to "Timmy", an elderly cat who liked to relieve himself in people's shoes.
So, in lieu of having a my kitty, I satisfied my feline fascination by reading lots of picture books about them. "Millions of Cats" was written in 1928, and is currently the oldest American picture book still in print. I love the illustrations and the unique, hand written typography. The story is about an elderly couple who decide to get a cat to combat the loneliness of their twilight years. The old man heads off to this magical hillside where "hundreds of cats, thousands of cats, millions and billions and trillions of cats" live, just waiting for somebody to come take them home. Once he gets there, the old man has a really really hard time choosing between all these cats. Each one is cuter than the next. So he figures, "What the hey, I'll just bring them all home with me!" This obviously becomes problematic when he gets back to his little cottage and his wife is all "WTF, I just wanted one cat! Not billions and trillions!" The dawning realization that they could never afford to house and feed all these animals forces the couple to make a choice. To narrow down the field, they ask the cats "Which one of you is the prettiest?" This causes an epic cat fight that forces the man and woman to flee into their house. When the dust settles and yowling ceases, they go outside to discover that all the cats had destroyed each other in the heated battle. The only one to survive is a skinny cat with low self esteem, who did not consider herself pretty and was thus ignored. The couple take her in, and under their care, she blossoms into the ideal pet.
The moral of the story? If you're modest, you won't get destroyed by your ravenous peers. Also, don't let cat's know you're judging them on appearance because they will destroy each other. Also Also, the importance of being decisive!
Even though I finished my internship at the Higgs a couple weeks ago, I'd still like to do a few more posts with some interesting archive pictures. I found this picture to be quite the little enigma: Through scanning a crazy number of pictures from bland sales conferences, I managed to become quite familiar with the faces in this picture. Theses men are the proud sales reps of Worcester Pressed Steel. On the surface this seems to be a nice little photo shoot of them hopping off the "special" bus.
When you flip over the picture, you get this cryptic sales pitch in big block letters:
"Can you recognize your lion distributor salesman in this photograph?
Melrose:
Advertising is now on 30 buses in your area- over 320,000 of your customers see these cards each day. Cash in on mass exposure with Melrose rare diamond 12....TODAY!"
Melrose Rare Diamond 12 is a blended whiskey. I'm not really sure what the point of all this is. What is being sold? Ad space? Shares in a whiskey company? Bus rides? Steel? Photo shoots? And what exactly is the "Lion Brand?"
Thanks to the awesomeness that is the wayback machine, I've been enjoying reading some vintage Alexchiu.com, circa May 2001.
Alex Chiu is the inventor of the magnetic rings, an "immortality device" that stops aging by "enhancing" your body's electrical current. He thinks his invention is going to change the entire world, and compares himself to Thomas Edison, Tesla, and Einstein. He also submits a serious challenge to anybody who doubts the awesomeness of his eternal life invention:
"Who can come up with a health device better than my immortality device? I owe that person 1 million dollars. Print out this page for proof."
Alex also provides a hefty list of testimonies from his valued customers, so you know this product has to work. My favorite one:
"Hey man, it is me the kid that kept calling you and emailin you some nasty shit. Hey, you were RIGHT about the magnets!! Guess what, PLEASE, I am beggin you to forgive my nosiness. Before, I weighed 178 pounds. I had a 21% body fat. Now, I have more muscle, a smaller gut, and I lost 16 pounds in like 1 or 2 weeks. I could not do a situp. Now I can. I could do one pull up. Now I could do 7. Before, I could run 1 miles tops. TODAY, my fourth time I worked out in the last six days. I RAN 3 MILES NON STOP!!!!!! I SWARE TO GOD. I SLEEP BETTER!!! IN SOCCER, I AM SO FAST NOW THAT I OVERUN THE BALL OFTEN!!!!! I SWARE, I THINK IT IS YOUR INVENTION. I CANT CALL YOU BECAUSE I AM FORBIDDEN, MY PARENTS HATE YOUR SITE. BUT I TELL YOU, I WENT FROM NOT BEING ABLE TO RUN 1 MILES TO BE ABLE TO RUN 3 MILES IN JUST A WEEK!!!!!!!! I KNOW YOU THINK IM TRYING TO BOTHER YOU BUT IM NOT!! I SWARE TO GOD HOPE TO DIE IM NOT. INFACT, CAN YOU EMAIL ME BACK ON HOW I CAN WRITE A TESTIMONIAL? IM SO SORRY MAN. THESE MAGNETS WORK, IF THEY DONT THAT MEANS IM SUPERMAN. "
He's gonna live forever!
Since Alex Chiu has made himself immortal with this new innovation, he has some very wise, enlightened opinions about they way people should live, politics, and science. These opinions are best demonstrated with ridiculous comics:
Thanks to immortality rings, humans will stay young and beautiful FOREVER. That means that overpopulation is a real risk. Thank goodness that people will simply grow to resent their deathless children and their horrible money grubbing ways. Annoying peers are the ultimate birth control! The last panel of this one is a priceless work of art. In the realm of world politics, Alex envisions a post WW3 world where global powers consolidate into a giant mega corporation. Alex explains the rationale of corporatizing the global government quite succinctly; " The military leaders, the presidents, the powerful government leaders will all become extremely rich. This is the attractiveness of this corporation idea. Hey! You are not selling your country. You are just saving the world by making peace!"
And in the realm of science, Alex Chiu has gone so far as to define a "New Darwinism" for the 21st century. ("Full of animated GIFs and wonderful graphics. A must read for all scientists!"- Alex Chiu) He covers topics like the reason for different sexes, how animals think, and how chemicals form a cell. Not surprisingly, most of his theories are built around the principles of magnetism. This one is from the lesson "Why can animals crawl, swim, or walk?"
He also discusses "What causes gravity?", "Black hole is not magic" and "How to build a UFO?"
I've sure used a lot of quotation marks in this post, huh?
PS- I noticed that the specific links I provided actually just take you right to the homepage. Apologies, I don't think the wayback machine can do it any other way.
Last night we had people over for the lost premiere, and it was so much fun! The episode was really good, so it's kind of hard to face that this is the last season. On the other hand, it's very exciting to know that we may know all the answers soon. Or maybe not. I dunno.
The party also gave everybody the opportunity to share some Lost themed treats.
Mike and Julie brought these. The peanut butter was a cool touch (especially the "serves two" on the label). A good reminder that Claire still exists and that finding out what she's been doing is important!
Sara made these! Aren't they amazing? Little Oceanic 815's crashed into delicious cupcakes.
Paul and I supplied the Dharma Beer and Mr. Cluck's.
(Kindly ignore the batter smears on the tub plz...) We got the recipe for the chicken, weirdly enough, out of "The Google Story", a book about the search engine company. It was in a chapter about the cafeteria at the company and the awesome chef that worked there. Apparently, this chuggin recipe was beloved by Elvis.
Um, okay....
