jim henson

Just a few more thises and thats dripping into my puddle of consciousness...

1. Some upcoming new DVDs, announced for release in late October:

- 'The Three Stooges Collection,
Volume One: 1934-1936' - - A 2-disc set from Sony, beginning a conscientious, chronological and cleaned-up series of (hopefully) the complete series of shorts.

No more scatter-shot, public domain, half-assed, colorized B.S. - - Fingers crossed.

- The Beatles' 'Help!' as a 2-disc set w/ lots of extras.
There's also an expensive 'collectors edition' that will include a shooting script, posters and lobby cards, etc.

- From 1973, Lindsay Anderson's 'O Lucky Man' with Malcolm McDowell.

- 'Spike Jones: The Legend' - - Spike and the band on TV in the 1950's. Lots of rarities on 3 discs, plus a bonus CD.

2. The Pastor Chris Oyakhilomen Scam.

I'm far too soft in these matters, so for me the laugh is of the guilty, 'I'm-going-to-hell-for-finding-this-funny' variety.

But you need to check it out if you've not already seen it.

'Scam-Baiter' Robert K. Keller does what he does best at his website, Scamming 419 Nigerian Scammers.

Wicked fun for Wombat Felchers everywhere.

3. The Congress of Wonders.

The continued comparison might do a disservice, but is still apt:
In the late 1960's and early seventies, counter-culture comedy troupe The Congress of Wonders was basically San Francisco's equivalent to L.A.'s Firesign Theatre.

By the time they'd recorded their two LPs for Fantasy Records, they'd gone from being a trio to a duo.

They'd also been on-air personalities in the early days of legendary 'free-form' FM radio station KSAN.

In the photo, left to right: ➔
Richard Rollins (a.k.a. Winslow Thrill)
Howard Kerr (a.k.a. Karl Truckload)

In wandering about the web seeking info on them and what's in print, I found that those two LP's, 'Revolting' and 'Sophomoric' have been made available again on 'limited-edition' CDs.
(click for link)

That C.o.W. site also makes mention of a DVD & CD combo of rarities, live recordings and demos. Hmm...

Further searching led to the 'Pre-Cambrian Music' website of Phill Sawyer, who had engineered and produced those two Fantasy LPs. He's generously provided several full-length audio clips from them, including some previously unreleased tracks.

See also: A gallery of Congress of Wonders photos from the late 1960's (when they were still a trio).

4. Theo Jansen is a Dutch artist and kinetic sculptor.
He has been breathing life into generations of 'Strandbeests' that can roam and survive on their own on the beaches of The Netherlands.

Follow the link to this video clip of a lecture/demo, and try to wrap your head around
'The art of creating creatures', appearing at the TED website.

(Big thanks to MC Eighthgrader for sending along the link!)

See also:
- 'Beach Animals' photos at Loek van der Klis

- More Strandbeests at musecrack.

- Follow this link to several cool 'Strandbeest' video clips at YouTube.

5. Surf's Up!

Since their recent revamp,
Boing Boing has become even more of a grand, time-frittering pleasure point, if that's possible.

I've been avidly surfing a buttload of their links, which - - of course - - in turn lead to further explorations elsewhere.

Case in point:
Boing Boing's recent post on the 'History of the infamous "Daisy" H-bomb commercial' led me back to the stunning and informative CONELRAD: All things Atomic. ("The Golden Age of Homeland Security")

CONELRAD manages to turn one of our lifetime's biggest fear-generators into something fun, beautiful, and inspiring with their breadth of material and coverage.