jim henson

In a previous 'round-up' post from last September I displayed a couple of examples of the amazing artwork of Russian-born illustrator Boris Artzybasheff (1899 - 1965), and provided some links to find additional images online.

I'm pleased to say I stumbled onto one more this afternoon, while spelunking for the first time at a curious and dusty 'time-lost' little used paperback book shop I'd spotted...

The 'RHL Linebooks' were slim little annual publications that compiled the best of 'A Line O' Type Or Two' - - A daily editorial column that ran in the Chicago Tribune.

- - But here, the introduction from the 1929 edition will explain better:

"The first Linebook was published in 1924 and since then it has become a yearly event, looked forward to by a steadily increasing number of people whose morning would not be complete without reading the famous Richard Henry Little’s ‘A Line o’ Type or Two’ in the Chicago Tribune.

"The gay and impish tone of his column, made up of unregenerate laughter at the foibles of men, acid thrust at their follies, philosophy masked in humor, and the steady reminder that few things are to be taken too seriously, pervades these small anthologies.

"And while only a small portion of the paragraphs, poems, and stories written or published by R.H.L. during the year can be included in any year’s book, an effort is always made to put as many as possible of the most popular ones into this permanent form."

That vibrant cover image above bears Artzybasheff's name pretty clearly.

In the cover image below, ⬇ the murky name in that modern block font at the bottom of the front cover (to the left of '1929') could maybe say 'Boris', don't you think...?

(click on image to ENLARGE to overkill proportions)

Yeah, I guess it could just as easily say 'Bolin' or 'Holis' ⬆ or any number of things.
The artwork doesn't quite seem right to be Artzybasheff, either.
It could be Austrian artist Boris Riedel, who'd done an earlier Linebook cover.
Or not...

On the 1930 edition below, ⬇ a name that looks like 'Foy' appears on the back cover, inscribed in the interior of the far left 'mask'.

Anybody - - ?

So far there's not too much I've been able to glean about American newspaper columnist
Richard Henry Little.
Earlier on he'd been a war correspondent, having reported his accounts of the Philippine-American War in 1899, and from Europe during World War I.

Later, back in Chicago, he took over as editor of the 'A Line O' Type Or Two' column after the death of its previous editor in 1921. It featured bits and pieces both written by Little and gathered by him from other sources.

The motto of the column was "Hew to the Line, let the quips fall where they may."

The majority of the quips and observations were certainly topical at the end of the 1920's, but speaking for myself, reading them now I sometimes feel like they've been translated poorly from a different language.

Still, there are plenty of reference points that - - for better or worse - - conjure up an image of the era...

Dobie Gray was the first to have a hit with Billy Page's song,
'The "In" Crowd'.

In the U.S., his vocal version entered the Billboard charts in January of 1965.

The Ramsey Lewis Trio's jazz instrumental treatment hit the charts in July of that same year.

Gray's biggest career hit was 'Drift Away' in 1973, but by the release of his eponymously titled album six years later, his record chart rankings had slid some.

That this copy of the LP is an old promo speaks a bit to the poor sales it received - - which likely had as much to do with faulty distribution and the shaky financial state of the Infinity record label as anything else.

Though it fit in well with the disco era, Dobie Gray's included 'update' of his first big hit received little notice in the U.S., but fared much better in European dance clubs.

From the self-titled 'Dobie Gray' LP (Infinity Records, 1979),
listen to:

Dobie Gray - In Crowd
(click for audio)

See also: (click to link)
- An album review at Allmusic.Com

- The Official Dobie Gray Website

- A 1965 videoclip of Dobie Gray on 'Hullabaloo', lip-synching to his original vocal hit version of
'The "In" Crowd'.

- Click here to view this and my previous 'In Crowd of the month' posts together on one page.

I suppose in the grand scheme it'll be no time before I'm complaining about the heat, but for now this was another week of feeling cold and tired of snow.

But there were bright spots...

1. Early this evening I took one of the dogs out for a trudge right after sunset.

Coming back towards home you could hear the distant honking of migrating geese, presumably headed back to Canada.

It's not uncommon to see passing flocks of geese here, but I looked up as I realized the sound was steadily increasing.

Presently I was treated to the sight of probably a couple thousand geese flying right overhead in multiple staggered 'V' formations. Wave after wave, and as I tried to gauge the width of the flock passing I kept seeing further 'V's way off to the horizon.

It was a special moment. Lots of honking, but in their numbers you could also hear the 'swish' of flapping goose wings become a thrum.

As they passed I turned and watched them disappear to the north, then heard more coming from the south as a second wave of maybe a further thousand flew by in looser formations. Stragglers, I suppose.

The whole event took perhaps 5 minutes or a little longer, but for me it was a little moment of magic in the day. It literally felt like change was in the air. My dog was unmoved.

Yeah, maybe geese aren't your thing either...?

2. ... Then how about Japanese horror comics creator Kazuo Umezu singing a Paul Anka tune on Japanese TV? ⬇ (Via Same Hat! Same Hat!)






























3. Follow this link now to the wonderfully juicy and eclectic Flickr photo sets of El Estratografico!!!

Set the 'slideshow' mode and let the images wash over you...

(Via PCL LinkDump, via unterkayness)


4. FINALLY! IT'S ARRIVED!

The New Pop Music Sound for the 21st century is here at last, and it's only been percolating since 1955!

Head over to Glyph Jockey and have a listen to Trio Shmeed.

⬅ Siblings Werner, Willy and Claire from Hagglingen, Switzerland deliver yesterday's sound of tomorrow - - today!




⤹ 'Yodeling Dixieland' ROCKS!

















5. Regarding his disarmingly illuminating, insightful and humorous 'Rock Band Logos' blog, David Cotner writes:
"On this blahg you will see many hundreds of rock band logos, heavy metal mascots, punk rock logos, classic rock icons, experimental / industrial music emblems, and others.
"By the time you're done, you'll never want to see another skull, cow, or peace sign ever again."

A perfect wall-eyed focus on graphic design and rock history.

(Via Coudal Partners)