Let's make happy
Archive for July, 2007
Swimming Lemmings
Jul 14th
40 little lemmings dive off a cliff, only to swim back up on shore and dive off again.
What a silly, exhausting routine!
But everybody’s got to have a job, right?
The piece measures about 10 inches wide by 6.5 inches tall. Each lemming is about 1 inch long.
I Am Officially a Business!
Jul 12th
Today is my birthday, my third one ever to land on Friday the 13th!
I don’t have so much planned for the day, but my devoted husband already gave me my gift: official Mochimochi Land business cards! Aren’t they cute? They’re printed on a lovely card stock with a lovely matte finish. And I think the rounded corners are perfectly mochimochi!
Thank you, Sweetie!
Now I just have to go out and find some people to give them to….
Gargle is Here!
Jul 11th
Coily, the Creepy Brainwashing Spring
Jul 10th
John’s friend Sam directed us to the funniest video ever today.
A Case of Spring Fever is apparently a promo film made in 1940 by the Jam Handy Organization. It follows one man’s unlucky encounter with “Coily,” a sinister industrial mascot that is out to prove—in a voice that is both screechy and crotchety—that life would be unlivable without the magic of coiled bits of metal.
The first half of the 8-minute video is like a really annoying, mundane episode of The Twilight Zone, which then seems to drive our hero to Asperger’s syndrome in the second half. I recommend that you watch it twice, because it just gets much funnier the second time around.
Thanks, Sam!
Pee-Wee Inspiration
Jul 10th
I’m being very inspired these past few days by Pee-Wee’s Playhouse.
For those of us who were kids in the late ’80s, this was the highlight of Saturday mornings – it wasn’t until I saw that slowly-building claymation intro that I knew the weekend had begun. Once the show was pulled from the air in 1991, weekends ceased to begin anymore and it was time to grow up.
Watching the show again on DVD, over ten years after I’d last seen it, was a little scary (what if it just kind of sucks in 2007?), but there was no need to worry. Pee-Wee is even more brilliant seen through grown-up eyes. The show won heaps of Emmys, after all, and had an amazing cast and crew.
There is so much to be said about the show, but let’s stick to the set. The set of Pee-Wee’s Playhouse is truly a study in anthropomorphic genius. Pretty much every inanimate object was made animate, including the floor, which is something I’ve never seen since. I’m having a difficult time trying to find a good photo of the set, but here is a miniature version that was apparently sold back in the Pee-Wee heyday (pretty cool in itself):
I remember that as a kid, my favorite part of the playhouse was the refrigerator. Whenever anyone opened it, we caught a glimpse of all kinds of mischievous ingredients dancing, singing, or getting married.
There’s something about claymation that is so much more enchanting than plain animation or computer-made stuff, and it’s even cooler now that it’s rarer. Also claymated in the playhouse were a family of dinosaurs and the Penny cartoons.
Also, seeing Pee-Wee’s animated ants again has inspired me to make a knitted ant farm. I can’t wait to make it.
I could go on and on, and I haven’t even gotten around to any of the main characters.
Anyway, about a year ago, Paul Rubens was saying that he had plans to make two more Pee-Wee movies, one of which was to begin production early this year. I so hope this will happen. We miss you, Pee-Wee!
