Weekend links 47

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DG-2499 (1975) by the fantastic (in every sense of the word) Zdzislaw Beksinski (1929–2005). See the Dmochowski Gallery for a comprehensive collection of the artist’s work. Thanks to BibliOdyssey for the tip.

• More ICA events: From Animism to Zos: Strange Attractor Salon will be “a series of weekly events, consisting of a talk and a film, exploring some lesser-known intersections of culture, history, mind and nature” running from 10 March–12 May, 2011.

• And on May 10, the London Word Festival presents a Dodgem Logic evening with entertainment provided by contributors to that magazine:

Alan Moore’s reinvigoration of the underground fanzine, Dodgem Logic, comes alive in the non-conformist surroundings of Hackney’s Round Chapel. A night of art, comedy, comment and put-something-back localism. (…) With Robin Ince heading up a colossal stand-up bill, artists Steve Aylett, Savage Pencil, Melinda Gebbie and Kevin O’Neill panel-up to talk about their comic work, while music comes from hyperactive racketeers The Retro Spankees. With an exhibition of artwork from the magazine, and conducted by editor-in-chief Alan Moore.

• Taschen publishes a collection of Dennis Hopper’s photographs this week. The Independent has a small selection here. Also new from Tachen, Alex Steinweiss, The Inventor of the Modern Album Cover.

• Bass Notes: The Film Posters of Saul Bass at the Kemistry Gallery, London.

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DG-2507 by Zdzislaw Beksinski.

While riding through the bustling streets of London from 1603 to 1621, one was liable to hear the shout “Long live Queen James!” King James I of England and VI of Scotland was so open about his homosexual love affairs that an epigram had been circulated which roused much mirth and nodding of the heads: Rex fuit Elizabeth: nunc est regina Jacobus—”Elizabeth was King: now James is Queen.”

There’s more about the private life of the man who gave his name to the King James Bible here.

• Addams and Evil, a Tumblr devoted to the great Charles Addams.

• Hannes Bok again at Golden Age Comic Book Stories.

• Caravaggio’s crimes exposed in Rome’s police files.

• Deserted City, photographs by Kim Høltermand.

• The blue sand dunes of the planet Mars.

• A map of the ghost signs of Chicago.

• The movie title stills collection.

• The pitfalls of e-book buying.

• Life On Mars? (1971) by David Bowie | Uncle Sam’s On Mars (1979) by Hawkwind | Eyes On Mars (1980) by Chrome | Cache Coeur Naif (1997) by Mouse on Mars.

18 thoughts on “Weekend links 47”

  2. Thanks for the Tumblr link (another one!) Pictures of Towers of Silence seldom live up to their name for me, I usually expect something more impressive, Beksinski-esque, even.

  5. LOL!!

    Great links, though. Of course! I’ve seen a number of those Chicago “ghost signs”. Quite a few can be seen whilst riding the El trains, and will probably remain until the buildings themselves are demolished.

  7. I think Elmer Bernstein’s theme is the ideal accompaniment to that title sequence. And the title sequence is the highlight of that film… Lou Reed’s song might be better with something from Andy Warhol’s films.

  8. Another thing re: Saul Bass. One nice thing about those title shots is seeing how precisely his typography is applied. He used Clarendon for those titles and many of the Hitchcock ones, so much so that I always think of Clarendon as “the Saul Bass font”.

    There’s more of his work here.

  11. Grazie! Off to find out more about the good Queen. (I may have to go through religious sections marking out the “K” and supplanting a “Q” on all those KJV bibles:)

  14. Quote:
    It has been said that once you see the opening titles to a film that Saul Bass has done, you can walk out of the theatre because you know exactly what the film’s about: he has shown you the entire thing in the first minute or so.

  15. There’s been a couple of attempts to turn Bass’s hand-drawn lettering into fonts, I think. He designed at least one genuine typeface, something called Rainbow Bass.

    Stanley Kubrick disagreed with special title sequences precisely because they can overshadow a film. He used Bass for Spartacus but that was all, although he did get him to do posters for Barry Lyndon and The Shining. Kubrick’s comment was that the opening shot of a film should be the most interesting thing the audience has seen since they came in the theatre.

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