An Arts and Culture Revue
Santa's Mail Bag o All in a day's work.... o And so it begins... o HO! HO! HO! season again o Russian clown says humor with tears led to success o Dagwood's Chicken Hat o A sign of freedom? o Tickles the Clown transformation o Blondie hates clowns o How to Shut Down Boston o
Click "Continue reading..." to see last night's letters to Santa...
Reuters via Yahoo! India News Tue, 10 Jul 2007 11:40 AM PDT
RIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters Life!) - Russia's most famous clown, Slava Polunin, says the key to his success is not his humor -- but his cunning.
I saw Slava's Snowshoe during its final week in New York. It was an amazing experience that took my breath away. It was nearly an hour before I could speak of it without choking up.
The only thing wrong with this comic is that I'd rather see Blondie wearing the chicken hat, because she is, without a doubt, the hottest MILF on the comics page.....
Former teahouse in a park next to the Afghan Exhibition of Economic and Social Achievements in the Shah Shahid district of Kabul. Balloons were illegal under the Taliban, but now balloon-sellers are common on the streets of Kabul providing cheap treats for children.
I am very distressed by this. Blondie is the hottest daily cartoon character working. I'd even do her over Miss Buxley. I'm just very upset at these clowns that gave her such a poor impression with their stereotypical shenanigans. Show her some love...
A bizarre little vaudeville act, vintage 1939, with introduction by Red Skelton.
I love the Internet!
I'd heard of Koko the clown in my studies of film and animation, but I'd never actually seen one until You Tube showed me the way.
This stuff is pure genius. The animation is pretty basic by today's standards and the jokes are cornball, but there's a sophistication to the set up and the interplay between Koko and the artist, the shifting planes of reality. I especially love the laughing gas-induced hallucinations at the end.
I don't watch commercial TV at all, so I've never seen this before. I a spit take all over my monitor.
Another reason why clowns shouldn't drink while in uniform.
This is No. 3 in series of six short Le Payasin films on YouTube. They're pretty weird, and this is the weirdest of all. They look old, but No. 2 features a remote control car as part of the gag (if you want to call it that).
Mostly, they're just one-gag bits, the longest not even a minute. No. 3 has a fun optical gag. The No. 5 and No. 6 are El Payasin moving through a landscape and performing some bathroom function.
I looked in a Spanish-English dictionary and the translation of the punch line (if that's what it is) is "I must release the staple." Hilarious, yes? No.
The dictionary couldn't translate "payasin," however, neither from Spanish nor Portugeus, Italiano or Francaise. "Payaso" is clown in Spanish. That's what they call me at El Mariachi. So either somebody made it up or got it messed up or it's a language that hasn't been discovered yet.
From the IMDB comments on this short film:
Surrealistic computer-generated short is an animated wonder., 27 May 1999
Author: Prozzy from Boulder, Colorado
"Bingo" is the latest entry in the arena of increasingly complex and lifelike computer-generated animations. Chris Landreth sought a subject for a short that would aid in the development of Maya, an animation software package by Alias/Wavefront. He found inspiration in the Chicago-based theater group "The Neo-Futurists" who for years have performed an ever-changing series of 30 plays in 60 minutes called "Too Much Light Makes The Baby Go Blind." Greg Kotis's play "Disregard This Play," in which a man is psychologically brutalized into believing he is a clown named Bingo, became the basis for Landreth's animation.
Bingo expands on the original short skit (a filmed portion of which we see at the beginning) by allowing the innate surrealism of the psychological battering to take on realistic imagery. The bizarre nature of the admittedly thin plot will not appeal to everyone. Several people I know simply raised their eyebrows and looked blankly at me when I asked them how they liked it. But all were impressed by the sheer technical prowess of the animation. Facial gestures, human musculature, lighting and shadows, smoke and haze effects are all astoundingly realistic. And Bingo shows why computer animators strive to create incredibly realistic human characters; not to become replacements for human actors, but to give us believable animated characters that can transform into these strange and surrealistic visions.
Members of the 1955 Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Clown Alley (featuring the likes of Emmett Kelly, Otto Griebling, Paul Jung, Charlie Bell and Prince Paul) perform on a live television special "Christmas with the Greatest Show on Earth" December 16, 1955 from the circus' Winter Quarters in Sarasota, Florida.
Click on the image below for a slide show of pictures from my last night as Santa for the Sharon Woods Holiday in Lights event:
No clue why, but some guy who goes by the screen name Rocky IV has posted a set of photos of people wearing sponge noses. Click on the image to see a slide show:
And so does EL MEU NAS DE PALLASSO:
Just cleaning up from my Santa gig and thought I'd share some of the favorite drawings given to me on the throne*.
I like this one because it seems to be a cut-away view of a chimney with Santa in it. Kinda dark, kinda scientific.
What is that up in the sky? Looks like a fire-breathing penis to me:
This one has blue snowflakes, yellow and black snowmen with flowers on their hats. I think. What's the secret coded message under Gracie's name?
*I know it's just dress-up, but I like the idea of being on a throne.
I like his props.
What struck me most about this next piece is how hairy the dude's knuckles are. See the part where he does face painting.
The Lotion Clown. This is just wrong:
This is a cool old Max Fleischer KoKo the Clown cartoon. I suspect that someone has re-done the music. It sounds too midi-fied to be of the era.
In spite of the quaint animation style, Fleischer was a little ahead of his time in some ways. This one has a great interaction between life action (the artist and the fly) and the animation. I really like the part where Koko takes the pen from the artist and creates his own character.
WASHINGTON - Santa has lots going against him — school-yard rumors, older brothers who think they know the deal and tattle to the young ones, errant price tags, the tell-all Internet and so many Made in China labels it seems the North Pole has outsourced to Asia. Humbuggers everywhere. But no worries. It's a wonderful life for Santa.
Fully 86 percent in the poll believed in Santa as a child. And despite the multiethnic nature of the country, more than 60 percent of those with children at home consider Santa important in their holiday celebrations now.
That's an approval rating President Bush and most in Congress could only dream about these days. (If Santa were a politician, Catholics and the nonreligious would be his base.)
Among the findings:
See the full article at Yahoo! News.
The article doesn't even mention THE FEAR.
This kid's face looks calm enough, but check out how he's clenching his hand:
Maybe the smile's a little cheesy, but you wouldn't think that sweet little girl would be flipping off the camera person. That's how much she hates Santa:
(There was a guy did that in a Journal-News photo once. It was an advertising shot of the employees of a tool rental place. He casually had his hand on his lap, bird extended.)
But Some kids love Santa:
The nose, however, has got to go.
This guy needs to be a little more generous with the make-up.
This was taken at the Toledo Thankgiving Day Clown Parade, which I'd read about and figured that the clowns would be pretty lame. They're not real clowns; they're just clowns.
"Is he a real clown?" the poster asks.
No, he is not a real clown.
He is just a clown.
I like the depth of this face created by the shadowing and the double eyebrow effect.
Click on this image to see a cool slideshow of kids being clowns:
"CARF's Hummingbird Project in São Paulo is constantly and firmly spreading its wings over the community, protecting children at risk from the perils of the streets, drugs, violence and abuse.
"13-year old Ítalo (left) is fifth generation circus artist and already a “master of his trade”. His father, Márcio, together with other circus youth, forms the supporting team in Circus Beija-Flor’s weekly training sessions. Brothers, 12-year old Tauan (Arrepiado) and 13-year old Wesley (Carequinha) are just two of the many kids under their skilled training......and I promise you, that’s no easy task!"
“Clowning is about the freedom that comes from a state of total, unconditional acceptance of our most authentic selves, warts and all. It offers us respite from our self-doubts and fears, and opens the door to joy. And the best part is, we are all already our clowns. They are here inside us, waiting for us to recognize them so that they can come out and play.”
From Philosophy of a Clown by Jan Henderson - Fool Moon Productions.
Here's another slideshow of clowing at a whole 'nother level. Someone apparently had a going-away party at a bar and made everyone wear clown noses.
I like exploring all the different ways people have fun with clowning - but also how perverted and scary they can make it (but we don't need to go there).
Look what my Mommy made for me. It's a cross-stitched image of Mister Ambassador. She took the picture from my Clownflower Alley website.
Technically, not a great clown face...
... but who can resist a smile like that?
A brilliant variation on the "Who's on First" routine with a contemporary flair and political edge:
A clip from the Simpsons in which Homer decides to attend Krusty's Clown College:
I know this look.
From Flickr.com:
I don't know anything about The Duggar Family, but I thought this was pretty funny.
Daluni's handiwork showed up in a recent issue of Cin Weekly.
Megan Witt and Hailey Wagner seem to be enjoying Kids Eat Free night at Beef 'O' Brady's in Liberty Township.
David Sorcher | CiN Weekly
Here are some pix of Daluni and Sweetpea at the Great Miami Arts Jam, held May 21 at the Fitton Center for Creative Arts:
Thanks to Mister Thoms, for the photos....
We made a balloon chandelier for a wedding reception a couple of weeks ago, and though it turned out okay, it didn't turn out like I had envisioned, so I continued to work on the pattern. Last night, I made this out of about 120 balloons. The colors aren't as vivid in these photos as I would have liked. This would look nice in a lighter brighter color, like pink, lilac or white.
