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Stone Glory, a film by Jirí Lehovec

It’s that city again. Stone Glory (1938) is a 10-minute documentary by Jirí Lehovec that’s like a cinematic equivalent of the photos of Karel Plicka. Lehovec shows many of the same streets and buildings as Plicka but has the advantage of motion, and there are several shots taken with the camera mounted on a vehicle driving through the narrow lanes. Glimpses near the end of marching soldiers are an ominous reminder that the Second World War was only a few months away.

Previously on { feuilleton }
• The Face of Prague
• Josef Sudek
• Karel Plicka’s views of Prague

Of cards and calendars

Ex-calendars.

Last weekend I was preparing to upload a set of new calendar pages to CafePress when I discovered that the wall calendar option I’ve been using there for years is no longer available. In place of the portrait calendar with square artwork pages there’s now a landscape-oriented calendar with artwork pages that are wider than they are tall. This is fine for people wanting to print their photos but it’s useless to anyone whose work is predominantly portrait-oriented. The square page was never ideal but with a little adjustment I could usually tailor a few things to fit the ratio; I also produced the two Alice in Wonderland calendars (above) especially for the square pages.

So that was the end of that. Suggestions from Twitter sent me to Zazzle where I’d forgotten I already had an account, required some years ago when I had to complain to the company about someone selling products featuring my artwork. Zazzle have a better range of calendars but none have square artwork pages. Zazzle does, however, offer more options for page layout than CafePress so after some playing around I’ve found a compromise which allows for square artwork to fit the portrait page (half of which is filled with the days of the month) with some slight overlap from the dates grid. This will be made more apparent when I’ve uploaded everything at the weekend. I may do the same with the older calendars but it’s a lot of work uploading these things, and at the moment I have more important things to do. One consequence of all this turmoil is that if you’ve ever bought one of my CafePress calendars you now have something of a collector’s item since these things are unlikely to be seen again in that form.

Breaks the ice at eldritch parties.

So having set out a stall at Zazzle I can now start selling other things there, something I’m looking forward to since they have a different range of products, and the back-end is a lot better than CafePress. I’ve stuck with the latter since 2001 but their site has always been awkward to use, with things malfunctioning or not working at all. Earlier this year I tried putting playing cards on sale featuring one of my Cthulhu designs; this seemed to work at first, unlike attempts to make similar cards using other artwork, then the shop page vanished for some reason. As a test I’ve done the same thing at Zazzle with immediate success. Expect more announcements along these lines in the near future.

The Face of Prague

More from the city of the alchemists. I downloaded The Face of Prague (1951 or 59) several years ago but never posted anything here since many of the photos are lacking Karel Plicka’s skill at framing an architectural view. But here’s a selection of shots anyway. The book has text in English and French by Jiri Körber, while the photographs are credited to M. Kucera. As usual with this kind of photography, I favour the moodier images and enclosed spaces.

Continue reading “The Face of Prague”

Josef Sudek

Untitled (1967).

A post at MetaFilter about Czech photographer Josef Sudek (1896–1976) led to these pictures. After linking to another post about Sudek five years ago I’d subsequently forgotten about him so it was good to be reminded of his work, not least for the views of Prague. Sudek is featured on this page with his contemporary, Karel Plicka, still my favourite of the photographers of that magical city.

St Vitus Cathedral, Prague (1928).

Seashell (1953).

Previously on { feuilleton }
• Karel Plicka’s views of Prague

Avalon cowboys

And speaking of The Charlatans, these three posters by Rick Griffin stand out for me for the way they show the name of the headline group running across the set when placed together. Serial prints weren’t unusual among the San Francisco artists but this is the only example I’ve seen that works in this manner. The posters were promoting three concert sessions at the Avalon Ballroom, San Francisco, from May to July 1967. The photography by Herb Greene adds to the attraction of this series; the combination of lighting, sepia tint, and the group’s apparel gives a more convincingly antique effect than similar attempts by other bands. For a taste of The Charlatans’ music, Alabama Bound is featured on my fourth psychedelic mix.

Previously on { feuilleton }
• The Seed
• Art that transcends
• Fillmore sealife
• San Francisco angels
• Family Dog postcards