Irving Burgie was an American songwriter best-known for two songs: “Day-O (The Banana Boat Song)” and “Jamaica Farewell“, both made famous by Harry Belafonte on his album Calypso. I’m interested in the era when traditional folk songs (which are per definition authorless) were appropriated by Western musicians and turned into pop hits. This seems to also have been the case with […]
Pedro Bell was an American artist and illustrator best-known for his work for Parliament-Funkadelic. When I discovered Parliament-Funkadelic in the 1990s, part of the attraction was the visual style and the grand narrative holding the whole project together. This style was just as much due to George Clinton as to Pedro Bell. Bell’s unique album and liner notes contributed substantially to […]
Via the death of Ken Nordine I find out that Henry Jacobs died. Henry Jacobs was an American sound artist and humorist, known for the radio program Music and Folklore, the TV program The Fine Art of Goofing Off (1971–1972) and compositions such as “Sonata For Loudspeakers” (1955). He also invented the fictional characters Sixt Von Arnim, Sholem Stein and Shorty Petterstein. Of these […]
As I was researching my master thesis and examining the tautology of genre, I stumbled upon Sholem Stein’s list of unusual westerns. Luck would have it that the first film on the list, Django Kill… If You Live, Shoot!, is on YouTube, so I watched it. Did it live up to its expectations? Not really. It’s a silly film. Two […]
Alfred Stevens expo at KMSKB The Bath (1867) – Alfred Stevens The Bath (1867) is a painting by Belgian artist Alfred Stevens. It depicts a woman sitting in a bathtub, having cast aside a book she was reading and who is obviously bored. In her hand she holds a pair of white roses. –Sholem Stein
By Sholem Stein The image breakers, c.1566 –1568 by Marcus Gheeraerts the Elder. Marcus Gheeraerts the Elder (c.1520–c.1590) was a Flemish artist associated with the English court of the mid-16th Century and mainly remembered as the illustrator of the 1567 edition of Aesop’s Fables, De warachtighe fabulen der dieren[1]. Gheeraerts’ style resembles that of Pieter […]
RIP Corín Tellado María del Socorro Tellado López, known as Corín Tellado (April 25 1927, Viavélez, Asturias, Spain – April 11 2009, Gijón, Spain) was a prolific Spanish writer of romantic novels and photonovels that were best-sellers in several Spanish-language countries. She published more than 4,000 novels and sold more than 400-million books which have […]
Maurice Girodias @90 In 1934, at the age of 15, Girodias drew the disturbing crab picture seen on the original cover of Tropic of Cancer. The cover states: “Ne doit pas etre exposé en étalage ou en vitrine,” in English that is: “Cannot be displayed in show window.” Ah … the good old “sous le […]
Gun Crazy Dearest Jan, The current state of cult film historiography is perhaps best exemplified by the book Cinema of Obsession. It’s just a pity that it’s rather clumsily written. This could have been a great book in the hands of Greil Marcus or David Toop. Excellent is its selection of films and its four […]
Pierre Bourgeade book covers Contrary to popular opinion, it is entirely possible to judge a book by its cover, anyone inclined not to is a fool. —Sholem Stein