{ feuilleton }

The trip goes on.
Whatever became of LSD?

The Castle of Crossed Destinies (1986).
The Brothers Quay are known mainly for their incredible animated films but in the 1980s they were also working as book illustrators and stage designers. Today’s secondhand find was one of their paperback designs for Italo Calvino, part of a series they produced for Picador when the books [...]

Samadhi (1967).
“Jordan Belson is one of the greatest artists of visual music. Belson creates lush vibrant experiences of exquisite color and dynamic abstract phenomena evoking sacred celestial experiences.” William Moritz
Good things come to those who wait. Following their collection of Oskar Fischinger films, the Center for Visual Music releases Jordan Belson: 5 Essential Films [...]

That which you will miss: Arthur #1–25.
“And till Arthur comes againus and sen peatrick’s he’s reformed we’ll pose him together a piece, a pace.” Finnegans Wake by James Joyce.
Awake, A Wake!
Come celebrate the happy, all-too-brief life of Arthur Magazine with free giveaways and a reading featuring Molly Frances, Oliver Hall, and Peter Relic.
Thursday, March 1, [...]

Here come The Stooges again.
Are you ready for The Weirdness?

Three views of the Ponte Sant’Angelo with St Peter’s basilica in the background and the Castel Sant’Angelo (Hadrian’s Mausoleum) to the right. All from this site, a very thorough guide to Rome’s historic buildings with different views through the ages to the present day. Dover Publications had a book available for a while (now out [...]

The Persistence of Memory (1931).
Forensic scientist uses DNA to explore Dalí’s bizarre genius
Samples taken from nasal feeding tubes could also help to authenticate works
James Randerson in San Antonio
The Guardian, Saturday, February 24, 2007
IT IS LIKE something from a surrealist still life—a hat, glasses, moustache and toilet seat. This is the collection of belongings that forensic [...]

Solitude (?) by Hans Thoma (no date).
A couple more examples of the Flandrin pose. There are other versions around but most are poor copies of the original. Hans Thoma (1839–1924) was a very conventional German artist whose work occasionally skirts the homoerotic, perhaps unintentionally. I may post some of his prints later. He produced [...]

RIP Arthur magazine.
Bad news.

Who is Britain’s greatest living writer?
Good question. The Guardian puts it to the test.

Beautiful work. Via growabrain.
Update: “A study of medieval Islamic art has shown some of its geometric patterns use principles established centuries later by modern mathematicians.” Full story here.
Previously on { feuilleton }
• The Journal of Ottoman Calligraphy
• Word into Art: Artists of the Modern Middle East

NZ fishermen land colossal squid.
“One expert said calamari rings made from it would be like tractor tyres.”

Michelangelo’s ‘David’ (1987).
In a similar vein to the dismembered Soviet monument in the previous post, there’s the sculpture of the late, great Eduardo Paolozzi (1924–2005). The giant head of Invention is especially impressive when seen in situ outside London’s Design Museum, its pieces separated by the words of a Leonardo da Vinci quotation: “Human subtlety [...]

Anyone who’s seen a Soviet film from 1947 onwards will recognise the logo of the Mosfilm studio which featured a model of Vera Mukhina’s Worker and Kolkhoz Woman monument. This 24-metre tall steel-plate statue proved surplus to requirements after the collapse of the old order, like so many monuments of that period. English Russia [...]

Brian Eno at the Baltic Centre.
The Constellations (77 Million Paintings).

Kropotkin in TIME.
Open-source anarchism.

From the latest Arthur email bulletin:
DON’T FREAK OUT BUT…
Something stupid happened to Arthur magazine “Do the Math” columnist/motorcyclist/writer/ “Defend Brooklyn” creator Dave Reeves late last year in Burbank and now he’s being tickled by the Burbank D.A. for fines, probation and even a jailing on some bogus-on-their-face criminal charges. Call it weird, call it harassment-by-cop, [...]

Hey kids! It’s cool to be gay!
Right on. QBoy lends a hand.

Well maybe it isn’t, but the phrase occurred to me a few days ago so I thought I’d try some sketching and see what emerged. In one interpretation of The Call of Cthulhu it’s conceivable that Lovecraft intended his abomination to look like this, given the description of R’lyeh in the story:
Without knowing what Futurism [...]

The Tom Phillips weblog.
Postings by a great British artist.

Another instance of the Flandrin pose, this time by
way of Donald Miller’s photography and artwork.
Elsewhere on { feuilleton }
• The recurrent pose archive

The Singing Citadel (1970).
Michael Moorcock’s Elric books are being prepared for republication by Del Rey in the US next year. I’ve assisted with some minor parts of this preparation, including sourcing pictures from Savoy’s edition of Monsieur Zenith the Albino. (Anthony Skene’s albino anti-hero is a precursor of Moorcock’s albino anti-hero.)
Discussion of the [...]

Guilty Pleasures of Literary Greats.
Drew Friedman rules.

Gilbert & George at the Tate.
And critics still don’t know how to treat them.

Joost beta for Intel Macs.
More web TV.

“Scrotum” is a dirty word.
For some US librarians.

Subodh Gupta’s giant skull constructed from Indian cooking utensils.
From an exhibition at the Eglise Saint-Bernard, Paris, October 2006.
Previously on { feuilleton }
• History of the skull as symbol

Today at 17:21. This kind of view always reminds me of the opening
line from The Hill of Dreams (1907) by Arthur Machen:
“There was a glow in the sky as if great furnace doors were opened.”

There’s no place like home (2006).
Now here’s an artist—Italian, works in NYC—who makes most painters look like they’re slacking. No need to post more tiny jpegs when you can go to his site and see his extraordinary tempest-tossed cowgirls at a larger size. And there’s more oil-on-canvas mayhem at the Stux Gallery, New York.
Elsewhere [...]

Title by John Dee, words by William Shakespeare, narration by Judi Dench and music by Coil; Derek Jarman’s oneiric film/poem is released on DVD, along with two other works.
The BFI releases three Derek Jarman films together—Caravaggio (1986), Wittgenstein (1993) and The Angelic Conversation (1985)—all digitally restored and re-mastered for DVD and each with extensive and [...]

Topple (2006).

Mate (2006).

American artist Thomas Allen constructs witty and clever dioramas using figures cut from the covers of old pulp paperbacks. Probably not the future James Avati and co. anticipated for their paintings but it certainly gives their art a new lease of life. Things have come full circle since Allen’s constructions have been used [...]

Monocle is Tyler Brûlé’s international news magazine which launches today, although it wasn’t available in Sainsbury’s or at the mundane newsagents of South Manchester. Maybe they’re only stocking it at the airport.
I like the cover layout. Black is a surprising choice and the decision to feature a cover photo uncluttered by stray type and a [...]

Attempting to solve one problem with the WordPress theme has only succeeded in raising several others. For now commenting is possible but your comments will be rendered invisible for reasons I’ve yet to resolve. Your indulgence is requested. Thanks.
Update: So the moral of that episode was don’t try and fix anything that isn’t (too) broken. [...]

A 250 guilder note.
Robert Deodaat Emile Oxenaar, aka “Ootje”, was responsible for the design of the Netherlands’ guilders before they were swept aside by Euro blandness in 2002. In an interview with Creative Review he describes how he managed to hide secret references and little jokes in the designs, successfully evading the magnifying-glass scrutiny of [...]

Camp by James Bidgood or contemporary by David Belisle. And while we’re on the subject, let’s not forget Charlie Kaufman’s opening lines for Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind:
“Random thoughts for Valentine’s day, 2004. Today is a holiday invented by greeting card companies to make people feel like crap.”

Pages from Die Stadt (1925), a “novel in woodcuts” by anarchist artist Frans Masereel (1889–1972). See the other ninety-six pages here. And by the same artist, Die Idee.
A pacifist in World War I, he tried to make his art accessible to the ordinary man. His works were banned by the Nazis and widely distributed in [...]

It was a year ago today that I sat down and wrote some words of Charles Fort’s, “One measures a circle beginning anywhere…”, as a headline for the first entry on this page. Some posts over the ensuing year have been more popular than others (and it should be pointed out that the “most popular” [...]

Octopi and squid from Kunstformen der Natur (1899–1904) by Ernst Haeckel.
Celebrate Darwin’s birthday by looking at Ernst Haeckel’s wonderful prints.
Previously on { feuilleton }
• The glass menagerie

The thundering virtuosity of Chris Corsano’s drums lured me out again this evening. The venue this time was the old Sacred Trinity Church in Salford which has been deconsecrated (heathens that we are) and turned into a space for music and other events. A very good space it was too, with subdued lighting and decent [...]