Stuff and Moonshine

China mourns British man “Old Dry Keith” made famous by his bland sandwiches: This reminded me of Arthur Dent becoming “The Sandwich Maker,” although Keith’s fans appear to have regarded his sandwiches with horror, and him with mildly ironic affection. Thing is, I watched a couple of the videos and those are just perfectly normal sandwiches (albeit on whole-wheat bread). Everyone keeps treating this like a “ha ha British food is terrible” story, but I think it’s more a “everything is exotic to somebody” story.

Meanwhile, for an actual UK eccentric, Ivor Cutler: Whose works could also be quite beautiful. His fans included the Beatles, who cast him as the bus driver in Magical Mystery Tour.

a_t_rain, Ceremonies for Civil Wars 


A particularly delightful goth xmas tree.

COVID cases are going up here, who could have predicted it when Ford reopened the schools? I sent my MLA an email, saying that I know as a member of the opposition her power to encourage a return to lockdown is pretty much nil, but was there anything I can do to push Ford?

Also Turkey is going after the Armenians, and I’ve no idea who to write to about that.

As I left work today and was walking towards the bus stop, I thought I heard bagpipes in the distance. Eventually turned out to be a leaf blower, but it had a real drone-and-chanter sound going on.

On a happier note, This was a few years ago, but someone did a gallery show of lovingly-created toys and collectibles from some alternate universe in which the movies of John Waters were mainstream family entertainment. Divine fashion dolls! The Desperate Living tea set! Boxes of Double Trouble Crunch!

I was bored the other day and browsed the Old Navy website for a bit. The return of ‘90s fashions now appears definite; like, “I expect to see jewel-toned velvet slip-dresses paired with Doc Martens by next spring” definite. I’ll be disappointed if I don’t, even. I’ll even accept palazzo pants, but I draw the line at crocheted lace tunics and/or Juliet caps.

In related news, I may have given myself a haircut again and styled it into a flip. It wasn’t just the Old Navy ‘nineties vibe; I’ve been looking at a lot of short David Lynch videos and reviews of Twin Peaks: The Return, and I began craving a retro look. My opinion of Lynch himself: I don’t think he’s being pretentious, or trolling: I think he’s basically a kid with a jar, who’s eager to show you the cool bug he found. Sometimes literally. 

You know those internet recipes people complain about, where you have to scroll through twenty paragraphs of anecdote to get to the actual recipe? At least when Lynch does this, he walks you through the majority of the recipe in the first half of the video, and then, once the quinoa is nicely simmering, he goes outside for a smoke break and tells you about the trip he took to Europe as an art student in the mid-1960s. Also, he’s David Lynch, so in his hands the simple act of buying a soft drink in Yugoslavia becomes a surreal, gothic adventure involving “frog-moths” and mysterious, beautiful coins and paper currency. Why was he making a cooking video in the first place? Apparently he just really likes quinoa.

ETA— I forget why I was looking up Mary Astor on Wikipedia, but she had one roller-coaster of a life: I’d hadn’t know she flew for the Civil Air Patrol, or that she wrote five novels. Also, he parents sound absolutely awful.

Somebody’s enough of a fan of Night Ride/Night Walk (1980s Global TV late-night filler show that consisted entirely of downtown-Toronto street footage scored with smooth jazz, like a noir film without characters or plot) that they’ve not only created a YouTube channel, they’ve been making their own new episodes.

Brief fanfic for Night Nurse (1931): Take Me for a Ride

The True Story Behind Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler and Her Mixed-up Files About the author, her kids, the Met and a disputed Leonardo. Also shows a clip from the 1970s movie with Ingrid Berman.

Der Kaliber, Mullner, 1828. While looking for a different early work of detective fiction (that turned out to be Mlle. De Scuderie by Hoffman), I came across refences to this work in which, as the title suggests, the resolution turns on proving the fatal bullet could not have been fired from the suspect’s weapon. Google books has a preview of the first half, and it’s a weird read, because on the one hand – well-constructed murder mystery, with forensics and everything, over a dozen years before Poe; and then on the other, it’s totally a work of German Romanticism, with characters who threaten to kill themselves every few paragraphs. Basically imagine CSI meets The Sorrows of Young Werther. The Jewish heroine is cool, the rather fetishy way the story treats her, less so. Still, I’d love a look at the rest of the story.

Malpertuis AKA Legend of Doom House (1971) While looking at tumblr-user idlesuperstar’s review of the real and fake noses of Orson Welles yesterday (happy birthday!), I saw mention of this Belgian fantasy-horror film in which... Orson Welles is a bedridden occultist trying to trap the Greek gods in human form? According to idlesuperstar, Welles’ nose in this one is F for Fake.

Someone made a chamber opera of the Tiger Oil Memos; although I'm not sure “cold efficiency” is the right term for a boss who once wrote: “Do not speak to me when you see me. If I want to to speak to you, I will do so. I want to save my throat. I don’t want to ruin it by saying hello to all of you sons-of-bitches.”

https://books.google.ca/books?id=aRD87w_kObIC&pg=PA9&lpg=PA9&dq=the+caliber+m%C3%BCllner&source=bl&ots=y0UnqwZ9LP&sig=3VVswEo3CrUbGCxN69FW_SqMsU8&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwins4n2z_TaAhVK7oMKHap-CCYQ6AEwAHoECAkQAQ#v=onepage&q=the%20caliber%20m%C3%BCllner&f=false

https://idlesuperstar.tumblr.com/post/83818808876/f-for-fake-a-study-of-orson-welles-film-noses
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malpertuis_(film)

http://scottleemusic.net/tigeroilmemos.php

http://www.lettersofnote.com/2010/08/tiger-oil-memos.html