A Feast Of Posters

.
.
.
aNOtHEr dIp INtO ThE mAGpIE mEMOrY pOOoL.

A Smith & Burrows Merry Chritsmas to one and all...

God damn, this snow
Will I ever get where I wanna go
And so I skate, across the Thames
Hand in hand, with all my friends
And all the things, that we planned

My son's eyes in the outline of his hand
And even though I hate the cold
Constant reminder that I'm getting old
Another year draws to its close, entire London slows
When I dream tonight, I'll dream of you

When the Thames ... froze



God damn, this government
Will they ever tell me, where the money went
Protesters march out on the street
As young men sleep amongst the feet
Another year draws to its close, entire London slows
When I dream tonight, I'll dream of you

When the Thames froze

So tell everyone that there's hope in your heart
Tell everyone or it will tear you apart
The end of Christmas day, when there's nothing left to say
The years go by so fast, let's hope the next beats the last
Tell everyone that there's hope in your heart
Tell everyone or it will tear you apart
The end of Christmas day, when there is nothing left to say
The years go by so fast, let's hope the next beats the last aaaaaahaaaahaaahaaa



.
.
.
aNOtHEr FESTIVE dIp INtO ThE mAGpIE mEMOrY pOOoL.

Proper Quotes From Often People

     “Once I was a forty pound weakling. Now I am two separate gorillas.”

Vivian Stanshall

. . . aNOtHEr sLOw sHaG iN ThE seDimEnT oF lIFe.

A Feast Of Posters

. Some delightful line drawings sketched in blue making for an unusual visual
.
.
fAthEr'S tOe nAIl cLipPinGs.

Petit Pierre

One of the greatest short films ever in my humble opinion. A sheer delight of clanking junk and string!



SMALL STONE
The famous' carousel of Petit Pierre "is the jewel in the Fabuloserie , raw art museum located Dicy, small village near Chateau-Renard

For Pierre Avezard, nothing is lost: cans, pieces of metal, wooden stakes, tires. Everything changes once cut, filed, hammered, and planed assembled a wonderful ride. He began building it in 1937 when he was riding cowboy on a farm in the town of Fay to Lodges in the Loiret. He devoted his leisure time to explore landfills. He collected everything that people get rid, it took almost 40 years to overcome. Pierre Avezard, said Pierre Petit (1909-1992) The "Carousel of Petit Pierre" is a work quite exceptional, that is to say a masterpiece comparable to those masterpieces of the Companions of Tour de France. (...) The work of Pierre Petit, a lifetime of work, is a kind of popular song, of romancero, ballad, made ​​by laminations, son of iron, brightly colored paintings, and a snook grinning at the atrocity of his disabled status and as proletarian. deaf and dumb and blind, Pierre Avezard, very small and sickly, was all his life cowboy, lumberjack and a farm in the Loiret. By 1937, he began in the barn of the farm building a ride that allowed him both to distribute the beet to cows and deserving of protection from blows and jeers of his colleagues by hacking a suspended bed beam. In 1955, he sets up a mud house. Then his boss who has granted a small plot of land and a house he built a wooden tower Eiffel twenty-three meters high. Carousels stacked and animated topics are multiplying, the visitors start to rush. In 1970, led by a small electric motor, the work has more than one hundred figures carved and painted metal, with a remote mechanical system that Petit Pierre, perched in a booth, operates with malignancy: water jets on visitors too curious, noisy bombing sheets. (...) Hospitalized after a first attack of hemiplegia, Pierre Petit, however, went every Sunday at Carousel to operate it and welcome visitors from growing. In 1982, a combination of backup avoided the Armoury destroyed by the route of a new highway. (...) However, sufficient funds could not be released by the Ministry of Culture, the Armoury, lack of maintenance, deteriorated and was vandalized by neighborhood children. A whole team of volunteers helped Caroline Alain Bourbonnais and dismantle, transport and restore parts of the Manege who now works in the park of La Fabuloserie. (From the side of Art Brut, Michel Ragon, Albin Michel) Fabulous FabuloserieEn lovers and unusual works of artists Outside the standards, Alain Bourbonnais (1925-1988), architect and designer by profession passion, n ' ceased to collect, gather, accumulate numerous finds: votive offerings, fairground art, folk art, outsider art ... insatiable man, jovial and merry prankster, has created a museum to show its fascinating collection. Thus was born, in 1983, the Fabuloserie. This place, the Fabuloserie, is not a museum in the conventional sense. The visit is conducted with a guide who takes care of us about the artists presentations, we tell the story of their life as much as we reveal the secrets of the works. The visit starts with the garden where you can see the sculptures of Camille Vidal. Characters form a reinforced concrete dreamscape where one crosses Fernandel but Adam and Eve, Professor Nimbus, his wife, his dog ... These figures are imbued with humor in mind of their creator. Equally remarkable is the ride Petit Pierre. This work consists of multiple debris, salvage. Dumb, Little Peter was speaking to visitors through signs, signs indicating hours of operation, the amusing figures. Beyond the playful spirit that comes out, this ride is a real plot, interlocking parts linked by heterogeneous and noisy machinery driven by motorcycle tires. Animated, moving figures: the farmer milks the cow, a man drinks, the fire engine ride ... Every detail is important. This garden reflects the mindset of Bourbonnais, creators of love "popular" invaded by the spirit of invention. Inside the museum, filled with pieces of sculptures, paintings, drawings succeed. The enumeration of all authors is impossible, so they are many. But they include, among others, Verbena, Chichorro, Amate, Podesta, Pesset ... and Francis Marshall. A room devoted to it. It contains a series of characters in grotesque shapes, burlesque. These figures are "jams" dolls stuffed with sticky synthetic fabrics. Sketches tell the story of Mauricette girl a little wan and gourd but oh so endearing. The Turbulents, works of its owner Alain Bourbonnais, end the visit. The titles of these sculptures are crazy: Am I, am I beautiful, Chouchou duplex, Desire whoopee ... As for the carnival figures, Alain Bourbonnais played with them. He climbed up, made ​​them move and live. Celestine, mother of the tribe, with its large size and her breasts forward, leads the viewer. These are sculptures of celebration, laughter, where we imagine the silhouette of their creator with delight the handling, manipulating these machineries. The Fabuloserie is now run by Caroline Bourbonnais, wife of Alain, which preserves and animates mind and soul of the place. The Fabuloserie - Tel. 03 86 63 64 21 Open from April 1 to November 2, Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays from 14h to 18h and daily in July and August from 14h to 18h Website: www.fabuloserie.com

Suicide in the Trenches

I knew a simple soldier boy.....

Who grinned at life in empty joy,

Slept soundly through the lonesome dark,

And whistled early with the lark.



In winter trenches, cowed and glum,

With crumps and lice and lack of rum,

He put a bullet through his brain.

And no one spoke of him again.



You smug-faced crowds with kindling eye

Who cheer when soldier lads march by,

Sneak home and pray you'll never know

The hell where youth and laughter go.

By Siegfried Sassoon

.
.
.
 tHe wAr tO eNd aLl WaRs.

A Feast Of Posters

.
.
.
aNOtHEr fAg EnD iN tHe aShTrAY of lIfE.

Proper Quotes From Proper People

"Who in there right mind would want to be Prime Minister?"

David Attenborough

.
.
.
mORe eMuLSiOn oN ThE pITtEd ceILiNg.

Proper Quotes from Proper People (7 and three fifths)

"Rock journalism is people who can't write, interviewing people who can't talk, in order to provide articles for people who can't read."

 Frank Zappa 

.
.
.
aNOtHEr dInGlE IN tHe DAnglE pOOoL.

A Feast Of Posters

.
.
.
a FIRmeR gRip On THe bEd pOSt.

A Feast Of Posters

.
.
.
aNOtHEr flIp ONtO ThE tRAmpOliNe.

A Feast Of Posters

.
.
.
aNOtHEr slIp oN thE lINo.

Proper Quotes from Popped up People 4

"It's hard to use the English language. I'd rather play a tune on a horn, but I've always felt that I didn't want to train myself. Because when you get a train, you've got to have an engine and a caboose. I think it's better to train the caboose. You train yourself, you strain yourself."

Don Van Vliet (Captain Beefheart)

.
.
.
aNOtHEr dIp INtO ThE mAGpIE mEMOrY pOOoL.

A Feast Of posters

.
.
.
aNOtHEr clIp aBOuT thE bACk oF tHe HeAD.

Proper Quotes by Proper People 3

:
:
:

“I may be drunk, Miss, but in the morning I will be sober and you will still be ugly.”

Winston Churchill

:
:
:


.
.
.
aNOtHEr qUIp FoR pOSteRity'S pLimSoLe.

A Feast Of Posters

.
.
.
aNOtHEr tRiP aRoUnd THe oLd CLoveR.

Proper Quotes by Proper People 2

"Some scientists claim that hydrogen, because it is so plentiful, is the basic building block of the universe. I dispute that. I say that there is more stupidity than hydrogen, and that is the basic building block of the universe."

Frank Zappa (1940 - 1993)

.
.
.
fUrtHEr tRIpS INtO ThE mAMmArieS oF pIE .

Proper Quotes from Proper People 1

A cucumber should be well-sliced, dressed with pepper and vinegar, and then thrown out.

Samuel Johnson

.
.
.
aNOtHEr drIp INtO ThE mAGpIE mEMOrY pILe.

Lewd Lingerie : Foamy The Squirrel

with thanks to Oberon for the E-mail

.
.
.
sCRaPinG dIdDlE fRoM thE dOo DoO dAnG.

A Feast Of Posters

.
.
.
aNOtHEr fIsh CAkE iN tHe PAdDlE

Drink, Anyone?

I hope anyone who reads this will forgive me for posting it in two places at once! After having seen the name of this poetic form, which sounds like a cocktail, I couldn't resist having a little fun with it. It's also appearing on Fridge Soup today, but unless you are already a visitor to the soup kitchen, as it were, this will be of no consequence to you at all! LOL

Double Dactyl

Happily drinkily,

cheekily tiddley,

here's to the toper with

bottomless pit.

Boozily tippleing-

multihysterical-

after the wine has gone,

who gives a shit?

Arthur Ganson

Always nice to discover a new artist you haven't seen before and my partner Hazel found this chap on YouTube recently by accident. We have long been fans of the work of automata and especially people like Jean Tinguely etc. Arthur who is obviously a big fan of Tinguely too and his influence shines through in many of these quirky and inventive moving sculptures.

Wikipedia says -

"Arthur Ganson is a renowned kinetic sculptor. Ganson makes mechanical art demonstrations and Rube Goldberg machines with existential themes. Ganson has held residencies in science museums, collaborated with the Studebaker Movement Theatre, and been featured in one-man shows at MIT Museum, Harvard’s Carpenter Center, the DeCordova Museum, and the Ricco/Maresca Gallery in New York. He has a permanent installation at the National Inventors Hall of Fame. He was a MIT artist-in-residence, and some of his work is on permanent display at the Gestural Engineering exhibit at MIT Museum in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Ganson was born in Hartford, Connecticut in 1955. He received a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the University of New Hampshire in 1978. Ganson appeared as a character on an episode of PBS's animated television show Arthur on December 24, 2003.

The themes of his work explore existential ideas and have been compared to the plays of Samuel Beckett. Some of his machines work to simply oil themselves, other times his extremely elaborate machines do nothing at all. Ganson is the inventor of the Toobers & Zots, a construction toyset of bendable foam pieces in abstract shapes that can be assembled into almost anything."

A Feast Of Posters

.
.
.
aNOtHEr dIp INtO mOthErS sEWinG boX

A Feast of Posters

.
.
.
aNOtHEr dIp INtO ThE mAGpIE mEMOrY pOOoL.

Gaddafi Duck

New animation by my son Archie.

Grangerize

grangerize\ GRYEN-juh-rahyz \ , verb;
1. To add to the visual content of a book by inserting images not included in the original volume, often by mutilating other books. 2. To mutilate books in order to get illustrative material for such a purpose.
.
.
.
aNOtHEr dIp INtO ThE mAGpIE mEMOrY pOOoL.

A Feast of Posters

They knew how to have babies back then. None of yer pain killing nonsense just a good heave-ho and Bob's your Uncle. Gas and Air? HAH!

.
.
.
aNOtHEr dOLlop INtO ThE mAd BRoOm pUDdLe.

Dials (New Improved)

New 8 dial automata that Archie has been working on for his "A" level art project.

The Incredible String Band

Not a band that is or was easy to define. they were in part folk but also physceldeliac rock/pop. They defied convention in the same was as did the Mothers or The Bonzo Dog Doh Dah Band and yet thet were nothing like either. Mike Heron, Robin Williamson and Clive Palmer were the original three but their number waxed and waned with additional memebers coming and going at will. Licorice McKechnie, Rose Simpson,McKechnie, Malcolm Le Maistre, Gerard Dott, Stan Schnier, Jack Ingram,Graham Forbes, John Gilston, Bina Williamson, Lawson Dando and Claire Smith among them.
Their album titles left one scratching ones head with bemusment:

The Incredible String Band (Elektra, June 1966)
The 5000 Spirits or the Layers of the Onion (Elektra, July 1967)
The Hangman's Beautiful Daughter (Elektra, March 1968)
Wee Tam and the Big Huge (Elektra, October 1968)
Changing Horses (Elektra, November 1969)
I Looked Up (Elektra, April 1970)
U (Double album, Elektra, October 1970)
Be Glad for the Song Has No Ending (Island, April 1971)
Relics (Elektra compilation, March 1971)
Liquid Acrobat as Regards the Air (Island, October 1971)
Earthspan (Island, October 1972)
No Ruinous Feud (Island, February 1973)
Hard Rope & Silken Twine (Island, March 1974)
Seasons They Change (Island compilation, November 1976)


I find it both odd and sad that bands like this are no longer relevant in this the 21st century. The times we live in, certainly as far as music is concerned, has regressed as it has become the plaything of impresarios and X-factor fat controllers  Mores the pity.


.

They were thankfully anything but normal as this little ditty illustrates.







.
.
.

A fIDdLing IN tHE biG weE WaM

A Feast of Posters

.

.
.
aNOtHEr dIp INtO ThE mAGpIE mEMOrY pOoL.

Yet More Comic & Curious Verse

Poems selected by J.M.Cohen

In 1959 Cliff Richard was number one in the charts with Living Doll. Was it a coincidence that the year also saw the birth of the Barbie Doll? I think not. Sadly for music, Buddy Holly, Richie Valens and the Big Bopper were killed in a plane crash that year, too. But happily for poetry, this book was published. With its distinctive Penguin cover, designed by Stephen Russ, presaging the “Swinging Sixties” it is for me a veritable treasure chest of comicality, an Aladdin’s Cave of reading pleasure, a cornucopia of chuckles and as such is, in many ways, the same as, although also quite different to, its precursor The Penguin Book of Comic and Curious Verse. Unlike its older brother however, many of the poems were written specifically for the book and therefore it has a much more contemporary (as in 1959-ish) feel.

It contains moral instruction, as in this cautionary story by J.A. Lindon:
My tale begins with Junior Tom
Who made his own Atomic Bomb…

Word play: 

I asked the maid in dulcet tone
To order me a buttered scone
The silly girl has been and gone
And ordered me a buttered scone

Table manners, as in John Betjeman’s How to get on in Society:
Phone for the fish-knives, Norman,
As cook is a little unnerved…

And, in full, in all its glorious and turgid awfulness, William McGonagall’s excruciating Saving a Train:
’Twas in the year of 1869, and on the 19^th of November
Which the people in Southern Germany will long remember…

I bought my copy from a market stall for £3. A bargain. Although not quite as big a bargain as its older brother was. (See my previous entry.) Buy yourself a copy. And if by chance you already have one – take it down from the shelf, blow off the fine layer of dust and treat yourself again to some of the fine, comic and curious treasures that lie within.

Peripatetic

1. Of or pertaining to walking about or traveling from place to place; itinerant.
2. Of or pertaining to the philosophy taught by Aristotle (who gave his instructions while walking in the Lyceum at Athens), or to his followers.
noun:
1. One who walks about; a pedestrian; an itinerant.
2. A follower of Aristotle; an Aristotelian.

.
.
.
aNOtHEr dOlLop oF PUtriD PeE.

Dials

My clever son made these from re-cycled biscuit tins. I just thought I'd share it with you. Its for his "A" level art project.

The Penguin Book of Comic and Curious Verse

The Penguin Book of Comic and Curious Verse isn’t exactly an attention grabbing title. Nor is the cover very exciting, although for we older readers the distinctive pattern does bring a waft of nostalgia. And if you ignore this book you won’t actually be in peril. But this collection of poems selected by J.M.Cohen, and its younger sister, Yet More Comic and Curious Verse, is a veritable treasure chest of chuckles, an Aladdin’s Cave of comicality, a cornucopia of pleasure and er… well… it’s full of good stuff, Much of it comic and the rest, well, at the very least, curious.

There are limericks:
There was a young lady from Wantage
Of whom the town clerk took advantage
Said the borough surveyor:
Indeed you must pay ’er.
You’ve totally altered her frontage!”

Treats from Ogden Nash:
I think that I shall never see
A billboard lovely as a tree
Perhaps, unless the billboards fall,
I’ll never see a tree at all.

There are famous parodies such as Father William by Lewis Carroll:
“You are old, Father William,” the young man said,
“And your hair has become very white;
And yet you incessantly stand on your head –
Do you think at your age, it is right?”
So famous is this spoof, of course, that these days it is much better known than the original.

And poems by the Grandfather of the Pun, Thomas Hood (1789 – 1845):Ben Battle was a soldier bold,
And used to war’s alarms;
But a cannon-ball took off his legs,
So he laid down his arms.

The Penguin Book of Comic and Curious Verse lives on a shelf by my bed and I often dip into it before (never after) turning out the light. The book was published in 1952 – and my version reprinted in 1958. Next time you are passing a second hand book shop, pop in, see if you can find a copy and treat yourself. Mine cost a pound from just such an establishment which I think is amazing value.