Trick or Trick!

According to the Presidential Mask Election Predictor Bush masks are outselling Kerry masks 53% to 47%. Since 1980 the most popular Halloween mask has also been the winner of the presidential election.


Should Bush supporters be celebrating? Not really, because if you take into account all of the Frankenstein and Lurch masks purchased by confused swing voters and others, then add them to the Kerry mask sales totals - it's clear that John Kerry will become our next president.

CORRECTION:


[Image from WW.]

The figures are in. A surge of last minute Halloween purchases have put Wizard of Oz Flying Monkey masks ahead of Frankenstein/Lurch mask sales. It's clear that George W. Bush has won his re-election.

Unlike astrology, the Washington Redskins indicator (and the Red Sox curse, for that matter), the Halloween Presidential Mask Election Predictor is here to stay.

Meow versus Woof

[Copyright ©2004 kirktoons.com]

Cats and dogs fighting... just like this farkakt election.

Click to view Kirk Anderson's cartoons full size.

Pinocchia

"Where bad girls grow long noses."
"Tell me lies, tell me sweet little lies."
"Where women and broomhandles have a lot in common."

-- Mottos on Pinocchia.com

The concept is deceptively simple: Female celebrities with Pinocchio noses. Yet, I found myself laughing my ass off.


Apparently, a lot of Internet surfers are laughing just as hard, because the web site has been around for over three years!

Check out the rest of the long-nosed celebrities at Pinocchias.com .

[Graphics and quoted text: © Drachen]

Pop Art or Rip-Off Art?

Pop "artist" Roy Lichtenstein will be forever remembered for enlarging pre-existing "low-brow" comic book images and "elevating" them to the world of "high-brow" fine art. Right. His primary tool was probably an overhead projector.


The original sources were often better drawn than Lichtenstein's rip-offs.


It's a safe bet to say that Roy Lichtenstein's art career was really about "deconstructing" other artists work.

Check out Deconstructing Lichtenstein to view more of the original comic book source images.

[Images from uncredited comic book artists; Roy Lichtenstein; ©David Barsalou 2000]

The Unknown Couple?

[Photo credits: mirror.co.uk; theunknowncomic.com ]

That's a fashion model, name unknown, wearing a bag by the Dutch designers Viktor and Rolf. It's from their current ready-to-wear collection.

Wouldn't she and Murry Langston, The Unknown Comic, just make the cutest couple?

Mazel Tough!

Jews Kick Ass - fine art print by Bruce Reinfeld

Prints and T-shirts of the Jews Kick Ass image, and other fine art prints, are available at mazeltough.com.

[2002 © High Fidelity Dis Co]

Painted Critters

Move the barnyard inside your house with original sculptured animal chairs by artist Pam Foss. You can even commission her to turn your loving pet into a work of art that you can sit on. Check out the rest of the whimsical creations at her Painted Critter web site.

[Copyright (C) 2004 The Painted Critter]

Forbidden Cartoons

Naked Tweety freaks out. [© 2004 Warner Bros.]

Tweety Bird was colored yellow because censors felt the original pink made the bird look nude. Betty Boop’s dress was lengthened so that her garter didn’t show. And in recent years, a segment of Mighty Mouse was dropped after protest groups claimed the mouse was actually sniffing cocaine, not flower petals. These changes and many others like them have been demanded by official censors or organized groups before the cartoons could be shown in theaters or on television.

Read the rest of the description of and purchase Forbidden Animation - Censored Cartoons and Blacklisted Animators in America by Karl F. Cohen.

Click to read about more banned cartoons.

Laugh and Smile... en français

Stripes by René Maltête

"We are who we are only in the eyes of other people and their looks are what make us come to terms with ourselves as ourselves"

-- Jean-Paul Sartre

Lovers by René Maltête

"Christianity has done a great deal for love by making a sin of it."   

-- Anatole France

Absence by René Maltête

"A man without memories is a lost man."

-- Armand Salacrou

[Merci à Antoine de la Vallée]

[Par l'intermédiaire de Rire et Sourire.]

Mac Nostalgia

[© 2003-2004 1bit Mac.]

Feeling nostalgic for the Mac 512 or Mac Plus you bought back in the 80s? Check out this virtual Macintosh environment used as a personal website.

[Via plasticpilots.com]

newsmap

Here's a logical and natural approach to sorting through all the news and information online.

Newsmap is an application that visually reflects the constantly changing landscape of the Google News news aggregator. A treemap visualization algorithm helps display the enormous amount of information gathered by the aggregator.

It's objective is to simply demonstrate visually the relationships between data and the unseen patterns in news media. It is not thought to display an unbiased view of the news, on the contrary it is thought to ironically accentuate the bias of it.

Try it. Launch the page at the newsmap web site.

[newsmap © copyright 2003 - Marcos Weskamp; Google News ©2004 Google]

Born to be Mild

[Photo: D. Orlando]

Heaven's Angels

Last weekend I attended San Diego's Little Italy 10th Anniversary Festa. The popular event was packed. While walking around munching on sausage subs and pizza, I noticed the motorcycle jacket of a festivalgoer in front of me. Its logo was for a Christian motorcycle club. I was amused by it, because the last time I had thought of such an organization was also in the San Diego area, when I first moved there as child with my family from back east. The Holy Spirit Catholic School I attended had a similar club in its parish. It was called Mary's Men - a name I found funny then as a 10 year old, wondering if Robin Hood was a member. I did a quick Google search and found the club to be now nonexistent, but did find the web site for the national chapter of the gentleman's association, in the above photo.


[Copyright ©2004 CMA]

If you have a yen for riding and praying, click to view Christian Motorcyclist Association.

Masking Reality

Rake [Photo by David Hindley]

Madame Kufu's Parlor of Incognita is an incredible collection of handmade, black leather masks.


Messalina

Check out the 8 galleries of masks at the Madam Kufu web site.


Nightwing

Black leather masks aren't just for fetishists anymore. Order your Halloween mask here.

[All masks Copyright John Colby ©2001]

A bargain at $10,000,000.00

Pipe-smoking potential purchasers consider a passing Zeppelin Nt.

From the Neiman Marcus Online Catalog:

Zeppelin Nt

Be the first on your block (or in the world for that matter) to privately own a modern Zeppelin NT.

• A famous first of German ingenuity when it was launched in 1900, the iconic transportation genius of Count Ferdinand Graf von Zeppelin has achieved another milestone.
• Re-engineered with the best new technology, your Zeppelin is the first modern airship licensed to carry commercial passengers.
• It floats with safe, non-flammable helium contained in an inner envelope of high-strength multi-layered material.
• The roomy cabin features panoramic window views of the clouds above and sights below.
• Can comfortably accommodate 11 pipers, a couple of lab assistants, a pilot, and a flight attendant (15 total).
• With its lightweight aluminum and carbon-fiber framework, three 200-hp engines, and swivel propellers, you can take off and land easily, like a helicopter.
• It can achieve 70 knots and has a flight duration of up to 24 hours.
• You'll want to plan ahead for parking; your eight-ton sky gem will be around 230 feet long, 60 feet wide, and 53 feet tall.

Item: Zeppelin Nt

Price: $10,000,000.00

Don't want to pay the extra delivery and handling charges? Then you might consider buying directly from ZLT Zeppelin Luftschifftechnik Gmblt & Co KG.

View the Zeppelin Nt web cam live from Germany.

[Photo and quoted text: © 2004 Neiman Marcus]

The Big and Small World of TK Slusser

The Fortress by TK Slusser

"Caught between the water and the clouds"

TK Slusser's paintings are a wonder to behold - dreamy, ethereal, even otherworldly, until you notice the tiny house or castle in the background. Her paintings have their own special, super-wide angle vision of the world, yet they focus on its small aspects.


The Farlight by TK Slusser

At times, TK's paintings are like visions of Irish-laced landscapes blending their cumulous fog into craggy California shorelines, quite breathlessly actually. If you haven't noticed, that's a lighthouse in the distance!


Across the Causeway by TK Slusser

When I look at the Slusser's paintings, especially my favorite, Across the Causeway, I can almost hear the lonely wail of a shepherd's crude bagpipe melding in with a brooding Rachmaninoff symphony as it echoes across the rough waters. It makes me want to get out of the cold wind, find a pub and down a few pints.

In her paintings, TK Slusser's sky and sea and earth dance together, the blend showing us the truth - that human edifices are just small players in that big world called outside. I can't wait to see what she does with that small world called inside.

To view more paintings by the talented TK Slusser visit her gallery.

[All paintings Copyright ©2004 TK Slusser]

Mangled Manga

[Photo credit: Reuters]

Looks like history is getting covered up again, this time in comic books.

Publisher Suspends 'Rape of Nanjing' Comic

Tokyo. A Japanese publisher will suspend a comic series in its popular weekly magazine after receiving angry protests over its characterization of the 1937 "Rape of Nanjing," in which Japanese soldiers brutally massacred Chinese civilians.

Tokyo-based Shueisha Inc. received nearly 200 angry phone calls and letters protesting its portrayal of scenes of the killings in its comic "Kuni ga Moeru" (The Country is Burning), published on Sept. 22, a company spokesman said Thursday.

-- Reuters, 10.14.04

Read the full story, including the Japan Today coverage. Also check out the lively discussion in the Anime News Network forum.

Whatever happened to Baghdad Bob?

The error page you are looking for does not exist. Actually, it never did.

Yes, those lying, imperialistic dogs have lied to you again. They have told you that you'll find here, but we do not have such a file.

That file is not even within 100 miles of this website. Look around. Do you see the file they claimed was here? No! 

That's right. That loveable nincompoop Baghdad Bob is working for an Internet error page!

See the actual 404 error page and read the rest of his denials, or if you're feeling nostalgic, read Baghdad Bob's original Iraqi War quotes.

[Photo and text quote credit: mircea.com, ©2003 CNN.com and/or ©2003 Aljazeera.net]

Cupping as body art

The practice of using a cup with heat-induced vacuum on sore muscles of the back was a common practice in my parents' home. My Dad was often subjected to this muscle and circulation-rejuvenating process by my Mom. It was quite effective. I had no idea that it was an ancient healing method practiiced all over the world. Apparently, in some circles it's also seen as a form of body art:

First, you massage the skin with a lotion or oil to make it supple and smooth. This helps the cups attach securely and comfortably. A small alcohol torch is made, the air inside one of the cups, called inspirators, is heated then quickly plopped down onto the skin. Cups can be applied alone, or in multiples. They go best onto the flatter parts of the body, and the back, buttocks and chest are popular sites.

As the air inside the cup cools, it forms a vacumn, drawing up a good amount of skin, forming a dome inside the cup.

Remove the cups and voilà... body art! All you need is a wall to hang on.

Read about the body art of cupping, or the healing art of cupping.

[Photos and text quote credit: ReLaCHE]

A haunting suite from ALU

[ALU photo from alumusic.com]

For the last few weeks I've been enjoying the hauntingly sweet world of ALU. No, not sweet like Pollyanna, more like the sweet perfume of dying flowers drying in the dusty window's sunlight of Mrs. Haversham's parlor.
A better turn of phrase to describe ALU's Infomercial Gasmask CD is as
a haunting suite of ethereal music, that touches on elements of classical, jazz and electronica with both an intellectual and emotional sophistication.

Thoughts on some of my favorite tracks from ALU's Infomercial Gasmask:

"Ghostdream" - ALU's voice has the quality of a taut rope being pulled by irresistible forces, simultaneously fraying, unraveling as it also keeps from tearing apart. The tension in the song is relentless.

"Avalon" - An eery cocktail of a song. ALU's otherworldly harmonies are like a siren call, hard to submit to and hard to resist. The piece is one ring down, closer to Lucifer. And oddly cheerful.

"Confessions of an Undertaker" - One of my favorites on the CD, it's a low-key, melancholic pop song. One part Buffy, most parts blues. "Searching for a soul like her own in a graveyard, you hope she finds him."

When I first finished listening to Infomercial Gasmask I thought, "Wouldn't it be delicious irony to see an infomercial selling this very CD." There's talk of an ALU music video in the works. I look forward to seeing ALU's video as much as I look forward to her next CD.

Click to visit ALU's web site to learn more about her and to listen to her wonderful music.

Tears of an artist

Tears by Man Ray

Back in the late 70's I almost moved into a Hollywood studio apartment once occupied by Man Ray. It was located on Vine Street between Sunset and Santa Monica Boulevards. It sounds romantic, but the location at the time and the apartment block itself was more akin to tenement living. I passed. Man Ray's photography and art, however, I never pass. Tears is a photograph that I've never seen before. My first impression was that it was publicity photo of the original blonde bombshell Jean Harlow from the 30s. I was way off - not with the period, the model.

Like the emotive expression of a silent screen star in a film still, the woman's plaintive upward glance and mascara-encrusted lashes seem intended to invoke wonder at the cause of her distress. The face, however, belongs not to a real woman but to a fashion mannequin who cries tears of glistening, round glass beads...

Read the rest of the story at ExploreArt.

[Thanks to Misty of Texas]

[© 2004 J. Paul Getty Trust]

Alien Surgery

[Image credit: alienscalpel.com]

Feeling a little under the weather? Have unusual headaches? Been having weird dreams? Attracted to small, thin people with large heads? Are you finding yourself thinking about implants a lot? You sound like a candidate for medical study by interplanetary visitors. Maybe you should check out Aliens and the Scalpel - "the only website dedicated to the victims of the Alien Abduction Phenomenon."

Be sure to check with your health insurance to see if they cover alien implant removal surgery.

Our national game

The Ballot Box, by Thomas Nast, Harper's Weekly, 12.23.1876

"When people put their ballots in the boxes, they are, by that act, inoculated against the feeling that the government is not theirs. They then accept, in some measure, that its errors are their errors, its aberrations their aberrations, that any revolt will be against them. It's a remarkably shrewd and rather conservative arrangement when one thinks of it."
-- John Kenneth Galbraith

Register to vote!

Read about and view more Thomas Nast political cartoons.

All hail Emperor Norton!

Norton I, Emperor of the United States and Protector of Mexico

Imperialism is easier than democracy. Declaring oneself emperor is easier than a presidential election. Was this early Californian on to something?

At the peremptory request of a large majority of the citizens of these United States, I, Joshua Norton, formerly of Algoa Bay, Cape of Good Hope, and now for the past nine years and ten months of San Francisco, California, declare and proclaim myself Emperor of these U.S., and in virtue of the authority thereby in me vested, do hereby order and direct the representatives of the different States of the Union to assemble in the Musical Hall of this city on the 1st day of February next, then and there to make such alterations in the existing laws of the Union as may ameliorate the evils under which the country is laboring, and thereby cause confidence to exist, both at home and abroad, in our stability and integrity.

September 1859

During his reign, Emperor Norton abolished Congress, removed the governor of Virginia, dissolved the Republic, fired Abraham Lincoln, and banned the word "Frisco" - among his many declarations.


Tomb of Emperor Norton, San Francisco. [Photo: T. Lindner]

Read more about Emperor Norton, also view his Royal Majesty's Archives.

The BraBall Song

[Photo: Ken Duffy]

Over 17,000 bras rolled into a ball and here is a song to
commemorate the event:

"Oh Bra Dee"
(parody lyrics by 'The Titillators'
sung to the Beatle's "Oh Bla Dee")

Oh bra dee
Oh bra dah
Ball goes on bra
La la la la
Bra ball goes on

Emily has a bra ball and it has gotten big.
It weighs over eighty thousand pounds.
The only way to move it is on a heavy rig,
And when it is home it is pretty hard to get around.

[Photo: Robert Ramos]

Oh bra dee
Oh bra dah
Ball goes on bra
La la la la
Bra ball goes on

In a coupla years
they will have to build a bra dome home.
With a coupla baby balls in the yard,
Instead of little lawn gnomes.

Ha ha ha ha

[Photo: Ken Duffy]

Emily has a bra ball and it has gotten big.
It weighs over eighty thousand pounds.
The only way to move it is on a heavy rig,
And when it is home it is pretty hard to get around.

Oh bra dee
Oh bra dah
Ball goes on bra
La la la la
Bra ball goes on...

See and read more about artist Emily Duffy at her BraBall web site.
Also check out her MondrianMobile.

[BraBall sculpture and Website ©2003 Emily Duffy]

Oktoberfest update

A waitress delivers beer at a Munich beer hall [AP Photo]

Oktoberfest Not Quite As Festive This Year

Munich, Germany. Bad weather has slowed the party at this year's Oktoberfest. Organizers blame two weeks of cold, rainy weather for a dip in attendance at the beer-fueled event in Munich, Germany. It attracted about 400,000 fewer participants than last year.

Still, nearly 6 million people downed about 5.5 million liters of beer.

It's probably because of the terrorists - the low-carb terrorists.

[Via Shithappens]

[ClickOnDetroit © 2004, Internet Broadcasting Systems, Inc.]

Sims: The Creepy Side

Will the hot tub creep score?


Yes, because the blond is putty in his hands.

What happened to the brunette?


She's taking a bubble bath, but there's no escaping the creep's son outside her window.

Now that's creepy.

[Screenshots via Christa of LiveJournal]
[Sims ©2004 Electronic Arts Inc.]

Escape from Liberaland

Worried about your kids turning into pinko-peacenik-hippies? Maybe you should give them this fiction book for Christmas.

Help! Mom! There Are Liberals Under My Bed!

In simple text, parents and children follow Tommy and Lou on their quest to earn money for a swing set their parents cannot afford. As their dream gets stuck in Liberaland, Tommy and Lou’s lemonade stand is hit with many obstacles. Liberals keep appearing from behind their lemon tree, taking half of their money in taxes, forbidding them to hang a picture of Jesus atop their stand, and making them give broccoli with each glass sold. Law after law instituted by the press-hungry liberals finally results in the liberals taking over Tommy and Lou’s stand and offering sour lemonade at astronomical prices to the customers.

Whoa! Broccoli with each glass of lemonade? Those dastardly libs will stoop to anything to promote their nefarious agenda!

Book is available at Xulon Press, the world's largest Christian publisher.

[Image and quote text: Copyright © 104 Xulon Press, Inc.]

Painting realism

Bernard Safran (1924-1995) was a high realist painter known for his penetrating portraits.

His many covers for TIME Magazine were seen by millions, and included portraits of Queen Elizabeth, Pope John XXIII, and Presidents Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson and Nixon.

After leaving TIME, Safran painted a sweeping series of works chronicling New York City daily life.

In his late forties he moved his family to a remote farmhouse in eastern Canada, and over the next 20 years created a parallel series of paintings of rural working life.

More of his masterful work can be viewed at the Bernard Safran site.

[All artwork and texts © copyright 1958-2002 Estate of Bernard Safran.]