Top of the World

Ghost in the Machine

What the hell is this...

http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif

... and why does it mysteriously pop up in my posts for NO REASON AT ALL. This is unacceptable, Blogger.

Hatching Monsters

Great article by Charles Baxter in Lapham's Quarterly about P.T. Barnum autobiography

I don't want to quote the entire thing but the entire thing is quotable. So, here is only one of my favorite parts:

In a world in which every truth is fungible, advertising begins to substitute for the news. One of Barnum’s brilliant, almost genius-level aperçus, was that you could create news through advertising, and the advertising itself becomes newsworthy. If you advertise forcefully, the advertised object, even if perfectly vacant and without qualities (think: Paris Hilton), becomes a topic of conversation. Truth value is always trumped by hype, and hype in turn is fueled by controversy. Any news is good news. Barnum discovered that if your show generates angry letters to the editor, so much the better: people will be compelled to see the spectacle for themselves “to determine whether or not they had been deceived.”

Ok, wait, one more:

Wonder is the remnant of religious faith when religious doctrine has proved inadequate to a feverish wish to believe in something, anything. Suppose that prayer has not brought you your reward. You want to put your faith in a miracle. Where is that miracle? You have, after all, been taught to believe. About such longings, Barnum was very shrewd. He knew that spiritual peacefulness, a calm in the soul (we would also call it “self-possession”), was largely missing in the American experience and that this absence derived, as he notes, from “a practicalness which is not commendable.” The citizen has worked hard with little result. He cannot stay calm in the land of milk and honey if no milk and honey has flowed his way. Promises have been broken. Therefore he goes to Barnum’s show with high expectations. Barnum knew that America was a nation of believers who, thanks to their pragmatism, didn’t actually believe in much of anything, although they said that they did. This cultural setup created a variety of believers without anything to believe in, a vacancy that he filled with wonders in his American Museum, housing dioramas, cameleopards, and a miniature model of Niagara Falls with real water.

Barnum was so brilliant, reminds me of kind of Cabaret Master of Ceremonies meets Gordon Gekko. Had diamond sharp insight into less-flattering aspects of human nature and was thoroughly unapologetic about taking advantage. Which I admire. I don't like bullies, you know, predators who prey on innocents (children, animals, schizophrenics, etc). But I've no sympathy for people who let themselves be exploited, who open the door and invite the vampire in. These people practically beg to be lead, to be told, to be taken. Why disappoint.

"It's immoral to let a sucker keep his money." ~ Rounders





Anyway, great article even with slightly perplexing endnote. I read spectacularly fantastic book by Irving Wallace about Barnum some time ago, highly recommended. May log my scribbles about that one a little later.

Haunted Air

There is brand-spanking-new Halloween blog called The Skeleton Key. What a lovely design! Aaaaaand, made me aware of this gem:

Haunted Air (Ossian Brown, 2011): Lost-and-found antique, anonymous Halloween photos. Forward by David Lynch. The Amazon blurble is a bit wordy so this is just part of it,

The photographs in Haunted Air provide an extraordinary glimpse into the traditions of this macabre festival from ages past, and form an important document of photographic history. These are the pictures of the dead: family portraits, mementos of the treasured, now unrecognizable, and others [...] Feeding hungrily on fresh lore, consuming half–remembered tales of its own shadowy origins and rituals, Halloween was reborn in America. The pumpkin supplanted the carved turnip; costumes grew ever stranger, and celebrants both rural and urban seized gleefully on the festival's intoxicating, lawless spirit. For one wild night, the dead stared into the faces of the living, and the living, ghoulishly masked and clad in tattered backwoods baroque, stared back.

Oh, I love this stuff! These masks are so so so much better than any of the plastic prefab stuff today. And I'm not just saying that because I am bitterly disappointed at my inability to fit in any prefab costumes (apparently "Adult Small" is now about four sizes too big for me... jerks.) There is something really beautiful and creepy about old masks. I'm fairly certain Square America had section dedicated to old costuming but the site appears to be momentarily out of order. I know Flick has lots of groups dedicated to this genre (?right word?).

Anyway, here's little video preview of the book (note to youtubers, please do not cut off music abruptly... faaaaaaaaaade away). I can't wait to get this one!



Thanks Skeleton Key! I'll keep an eye on you.

Sam

What a cutie pie. Kids are so adorable when they don't pretend to not be creepy little homicidal hellspawn.

The Snail Factory

My accomplice is brilliantly talented, drop dead gorgeous, stunningly intelligent and has the sexiest voice on the face of the planet. He also makes me laugh all the time. Which makes me the world's luckiest girl.

It is my distinct pleasure to share with ze blawg his wickedly funny comic, The Snail Factory!



I want to make little soft puppets of all of his creatures, they are so adorable!

Brood

After posting about Things in Jars, and discovering my own heretofore unknown squirmishness, Bizzarro very kindly provided link to following video,



My reaction:



Okay. This thing freaks me out. It really does. I have never seen one before. Something about the living baby creatures, LOTS of them, crawling and wriggling and writhing beneath what looks like the world's worst skin condition. There is something parasitic about it. Is it just me?

B says, "Hmm... children coming out of their mother's body... sounds pretty normal to me. :D"

He's right, of course, he really is. Normal. Like this is normal... ;-)



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I don't think I've ever made special blawg entry over a comment but I HAAAAAAD to post that incredible video. Creepy crawly as it is, it is just amazing. Mucho thanks to Bizzarro for clip and comments, I always look forward to seeing his name!

While some of my sentiment regarding frog ew-factor is said a little tongue-in-cheek, I still think it is a thing of exquisite nightmares. It has been a LONG time since some Thing provoked such an intense response in me. And for that it has my utmost respect and admiration. It will, however, not be my next puppy.*

* Highly, highly recommend visiting B's Bazaar where you can read awesome articles like THIS ONE. Because awesome.

(P.S. Photo credit to K., a.k.a. The Best, a.k.a., "the man with the action-packed expense account")

She and Damar

She of SheWalksSoftly is awesome, I visit her site daily, and I'm fairly certain I have already reblogged some of her awesomeness but am in the very bad, cringe-inducing habit of bookmarking stuff at its source without making note of which interweb maverick is responsible for making me aware of awesomeness.

... Running on.

I am absolutely sure I saw this little guy on her blog. He's like the living breathing manifestation of Poe. As interpreted by Lynch.



And if you have not gotten the hint yet, I am trying to tell you to check out her blog. Because awesome.