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!
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!
If you haven’t checked out WEBoggle, the online version of the popular Hasbro game lately (or at all), then now is a good time to do so. Evan Simpson, the creator and administrator of WEBoggle, has recently added a second board to keep it from breaking. Yay!
He’s also now blogging here, where can tell him how much you are addicted to his game and why you think “poo” should be an acceptable word. Also, he is now accepting donations to keep the site running. We should all give him money.
Admit it – just the sight of this board makes your heart rate speed up a little. One of the great advantages of WEBoggle over regular Boggle is that you can enter as many guesses as you like, and you won’t get punished for guessing words that aren’t really words (like “poo”). This makes the game a bit more of a frenzied affair than the physical version. And unlike the physical version, there are no noisy letter dice to rattle around in a plastic container, only to have them all land on their edges and in need of extra adjustment before you begin playing.
By the way, my WEBoggle name is “silly bean.” (Anyone else brave enough to share their secret WEBoggle addict name?)
Sunday will be my first wedding anniversary with John. It’s been an incredible year of discovery and fun, and I can’t wait to have many many more with him.
Since this is more or less a knitting blog, I thought I’d share how my knitting-nerdiness expressed itself last year on our wedding day:
All of the flowers – bouquets, boutonnieres, and center pieces – were knitted. I made over 200 of them, based on a pattern for a flower brooch from a 2004 issue of Knit.1. I think the months of obsessive knitting took my mind off the other stressful planning details (with which we also got a lot of help from family and friends).
In any case, the wedding was a hit, and I’m thrilled to say that so is the marriage!
This little tree has a big squirrel problem.
He’s got nothing against squirrels per se – in fact, some of his best friends are squirrels. Thing is, these particular squirrels are obsessed with the gym. They’re constantly talking about their spinning class, day in and day out, while the tree would rather discuss politics.
It’s not like they’re even that fit – they eat tons of nuts that go right to their squirrelly little thighs.
The finished piece is about 6 inches tall, and each full squirrel is about 1 inch long.
Now as seen on the Craft blog – thanks, Nat!
Here’s another great artist participating in the upcoming show I mentioned last week.
Marcus Oakley makes inviting pictures of ’70s musicians, talking animals, and still life. In addition to showing his artwork in our gallery, we represent him commercially at CWC-i. He’s worked with lots of awesome people over the years, including Paul Smith.
One of Marcus’s biggest influences is the music of the Beach Boys, as he discussed in this interview with Mary Jo Matsumoto. Lyrics from their songs often find their way into Marcus’s artwork, and he had their music played in the background during his last solo exhibition.
I admire the way that Marcus’s style is folksy, but not so cutesy, which makes it stand out among much of the nature-centric art that is everywhere these days.
Marcus actually has his own solo show going on right now in London (details here), so if you’re in the area, please check it out!
Update: Read an interview with Bonney about her stash!
While we’re on the topic of my lovely mother-in-law, and while we happen to be visiting my in-laws for the 4th of July holiday, let’s take a peek at her awesomely huge yarn stash:
Viewing this stash is like walking into a gothic cathedral: it inspires those in its presence to renew their belief in God (or knitting, as it were).
The room itself is sort of separate from the rest of the house, and may be the quietest place I’ve ever been. Thanks to the yarn, it has recording studio-worthy soundproofing, so it’s just you, the yarn, and that unsettling sound of the blood rushing through your head.
Bonney has been collecting this yarn for years, bravely taking in stride her family’s varied remarks about it. Personally, I can’t help but feel honored to be in the presence of all this fiber. At the same time, I like the lived-in quality of the stash room – it reflects the way that Bonney actively uses her stash as a resource and inspiration, instead of an untouchable Museum of Yarn.
Though if she wanted to, I think she could start charging admission.
I feel obligated to say that this isn’t all of Bonney’s yarn. The living culture that is her yarn stash has long since spread down the stairs, and into several other rooms, where it’s started growing baby yarn colonies.
It’s easy to make fun of someone who has such an obscenely large collection of yarn, but really, aren’t you just deeply jealous? Not me, because I get free yarn!
