jim henson

Another week shoots past in the blink of an eye, and what have we learned?

1. 'The Queen of Glean,
or the high-life among the lowly'

- Follow the link ⬆ to read a wonderful article that ran in last week's Pacific Sun, the local free-weekly for my old stamping grounds back in California.

I enjoyed the read not just for the personal old-home town flavor of it, and not just because its anonymous writer is an acquaintance who happens to be one of the most enchanting people on the planet, but because it offers a positive and hopeful view of low-rent survival in high-rent times, where "poverty is illegal".

Take a gander!





2. Old news to many, but golly-gosh I sure enjoyed finally getting around to seeing
'No Country For Old Men' at a late show last night. Great performances, great story, amazing tension, and beautifully shot.

I appreciate it when the Coens reward me for finding something to love about everything they do...

3. The 'Robot Chicken' Star Wars Special will finally hit DVD coming up in May.

I'm looking forward...

4. Not to be confused with last month's equally disturbing
Celebrity 'Mouth Eye' Pictures photoshop contest is the 'Inverted Celebrities' pictures gallery that ran at FreakingNews.com a couple of weeks later... ⬇⬇

Fun and freakish and fascinating.

I think it's interesting who remains recognizable and who doesn't, and the most odd may be those who hardly look different.

There's a different view of Angelina Jolie there that puts me in mind of Grace Jones.

I think it's interesting to note too, that an upside-down smile 'reads' not at all like a frown.
It's still a smile. There's a lesson there somewhere.

(Found via CityRag, via Egotastic!)


5. Some sad news, as we say goodbye to
Dave Day Havlicek, the banjo player from The Monks.

He passed away last week, at age 66 in
Renton, Washington.

Fortunately, we can still celebrate the great music he made.
The Monks continue to be hailed as proto-punk pioneers, the first avant-garde rock band, the most badass bar band ever, and more - - and it's all true.

In the mid-sixties this group of American GIs stationed in Germany certainly stood out.

Audiences didn't know what to make of their monastic shaved heads and in 1966 their music was like nothing that had been heard before.

You can check out a very thoughtful article on Dave and The Monks that ran last week in The Stranger out of Seattle.
It includes a pretty amazing video clip of The Monks performing live on German TV. (Thanks KALX.)

- See also: The Monks Official Website

6. 'Falling From Space'
I love this little piece of video. ⬇ It's taken from a fixed camera mounted to one of the twin rocket boosters on the Space Shuttle Atlantis. It shows its view of the separation from the shuttle, then tumbling through space and re-entering Earth's atmosphere as it falls back to the surface. Mesmerizing!

The Plastics weren't around very long as a band.
Officially it was just 1979 - '81, though they'd been making noises prior to that.

Upbeat in sound if not lyrically, and properly new wave with all the right arty credentials - - their spare proto-electronica staccato often found them tagged as 'the Japanese B-52s'.
Being just plain 'fun' helped push the comparison along, too.

The Plastics:
Chica Sato--vocal
Toshio Nakanishi--vocal, guitar
Hajime Tachibana--guitars
Masahide Sakuma--electronics
Takemi Shima--rhythm box



The two tracks shared here are from their first 45, and sound much more raw and stripped-down than the re-recorded versions of these songs that were on the first Plastics LP. ➔

Listen to:
The Plastics - Copy
(Rough Trade 45, 1979)
(click for audio)

Listen to:
The Plastics - Robot
(Rough Trade 45, 1979)
(click for audio)




See also: (click on links)

- A Plastics discography at Rock of Japan.

- A Plastics bio page and discography with extensive info on post-Plastics solo projects.

- From YouTube, The Plastics music video 'Top Secret Man' (as aired on SCTV, with intro from Dave Thomas as Tim Ishimuni).

"She's Hip! She's Mod! She's Boss!"

During the Swingin' Sixties, Harvey comics jumped on a bandwagon and produced their own version of an 'Archie' knock-off marketed towards teen-age readers.

Bunny was a happening young super-model, "The Queen of the In-Crowd", who ran with her own pack of groovy and fashionable friends.

The formula might have borne a closer resemblance to 'Millie The Model',
'Katy Keene', or others of that crowd more so than 'Archie', but with an added dose of the type of fanciful and fetishistic
'playful obsession' scripting found in the other standard Harvey kiddie comics like 'Little Lotta', 'Richie Rich', 'Little Dot' and others.

As with the Riverdale crowd and other 1960's stars of 'teen' comics, Bunny comics managed to give some sort of low-rent fun-house mirror reflection on fads, fashion and pop culture of the era.





(Click on the image to ENLARGE this detail from Bunny #9, ⬇ a friendly jab at
'Archie' comics in the form of a 'Riverdrip' sweatshirt.)

Though you'd never find creator's credits in any Harvey Comics publications, Bunny comics were originally written by Warren Harvey (a son of one of the company founders) and featured artwork by prolific comics illustrator Hy Eisman.

Other artists who worked on the series at different times include Sol Brodsky and Howard Post.

















I've gathered several stories for your perusal from some of the assorted issues I have.
Just click the links and enjoy the read! ⬇⬇⬇



⬅ 'Marc's Happeninged House',
from issue #5 (1968)
⬇

(page 1)
(page 2)
(page 3)
(page 4)
(page 5)
(page 6)
(page 7)












⬅ 'The Zoople Ads',
from issue #6 (1968)
⬇

(page 1)
(page 2)
(page 3)
(page 4)
(page 5)
(page 6)
(page 7)
(page 8)
(page 9)
(page 10)









⬅ 'Orbits With
The Soular System',
from issue #7 (1969)
⬇

(page 1)
(page 2)
(page 3)
(page 4)
(page 5)
(page 6)
(page 7)
(page 8)
(page 9)
(page 10)








⬅ 'Avant-Garde Love',
from issue #10 (1969)
⬇

(page 1)
(page 2)
(page 3)
(page 4)
(page 5)
(page 6)
(page 7)
Plus a text page: Bunny interviews avant-garde film maker Sandy Spicesplice!









⬅ Bunny with little sister Honey in 'The Gloomers Rage',
from issue #11 (1969)
⬇

(page 1)
(page 2)
(page 3)
(page 4)
(page 5)
(page 6)
(page 7)
(page 8)
(page 9)









⬅ Bunny with British rock group The Beagles in 'Lotus Bogus',
from issue #16 (1970)
⬇

(page 1)
(page 2)
(page 3)
(page 4)
(page 5)
(page 6)
(page 7)
Plus a text page: Bunny learns about Yoga, Hinduism and Meditation from Frederic of
The Beagles!





- Please also check out my 'Bunny' flickr set!

Over at flickr I've also gathered images of some of the colorful covers to Bunny comics
(complete with terrible puns), pages of reader-submitted fashion ideas for Bunny and her buddies
(accompanied by a zoovy-licious array of
ultra-mindbashing descriptive adjectives) and a few other bits and pieces.

Follow this link to the flickr set
'Bunny comics: Covers, Fashion Pages, and more!'











See also:
- A Bunny article at
Don Markstein's Toonopedia.

- - and another at Lady, That's My Skull with a link to a flickr slideshow presentation of issue #4's wigged-out 'Yvoorg Nam' story!

- A MASSIVE entry from Scott Shaw regarding issue #12 and some Bunny background at his Oddball Comics site.


- - And PART TWO of *this* post:
'Sooper Hippie, Fruitman,
and Bunny's Back Pages'



ADDENDUM, 2.02.09: Found some more!
From 1967's issue #3, follow link to read a new post - -
Bunny, Queen of the In-Crowd in 'Watermelon Sellin'!