The Cartoonist

Saturday, October 4, 2003

Technology. Industrial Art Gallery by Sean M. Burke. Again via pennydreadful, via Shitfit. Some illustrations are spare abstract designs, like a modern art mobile or a circuit board. Other illustrations are as lavish and intense as a thousand yards of bright paisley fabric. Sometimes the illustrators seemed to show off how easy they could make it all look; and sometimes they seemed to lose themselves in the busy task of making something perfect but human. My suggestion to you is simply flip thru these pictures, pause on ones that you like, and remember that they each took a few hours to draw so that they could end up so clear and fascinating. 11:54:42 PM     |

Computers. I always wanted one of those. A Commodore PET 2001. Because you could play 'Lunar Lander' on this machine. I never got it, it was too expensive; my first computer was a Dragon 32, years later (Wow! A Centronics parallel-printer port! Well, printers were actually unaffordable in the 80s.). I had to key in the code to get Lunar Lander running. In BASIC. And then save it to a Compact Cassette. Those were the times. Here's the Old Computers Museum. 4:50:32 PM     |

Painting with Light. Jörn Rynio used to be my favourite still photographer when I worked in advertising in Hamburg. And he still is. 10:19:34 AM     |

Dry Bones. The Book of Skulls by William Max Miller. 10:10:55 AM     |

Grimm. Good grief. I didn't know about this. I really didn't know. Amazing. Tsk. Anyway, here it is - online, live and doesn't work in Safari (use Mozilla, Firebird or Camino instead): Deutsches Wörterbuch von Jacob und Wilhelm Grimm. Thanks to ASML and thanks for all of those links at Kaff auch Mare Crisium. Guys, this is great. Carry on. Please. 12:52:14 AM     |

Friday, October 3, 2003

How Bizarre. And how interesting. The web's driving me nuts. All that wonderful and useless stuff out there - here's the Top 100 of Compact Cassettes. Mind you, I still have a few of those. Found while browsing through the Belgian Linkdump site (going through this is sad, isn't it?). 10:10:20 PM     |

Sold Out. Unbelievable. A Sid Vicious Action Figure. Now where's Nancy? 5:41:24 PM     |

Elsewhere. Fantastic, Visionary, and Esoteric Literature in the 1960s and 1970s. Fab: Lots of old book covers again. Via pennydreadful. This is a bibliography of visionary, occult, new age, fringe science, strange and even crackpot works published between 1945 and 1988. Added to the mix are some other works which may relate to them, or at least give a sense of the spirit of the times. The main emphasis is upon works produced between 1960 and 1980, as the subtitle suggests. 11:43:50 AM     |

Autumn Art. Old gravestones in Dortmund's Westpark. Photos by Dirk. 7:44:57 AM     |

Thursday, October 2, 2003

Swordsmanship. Historical Fencing Manuals from the times of the Vikings to the 19th Century. Fantastic. 5:15:56 PM     |

Old Chicago. Wonderful exhibit. Via Coudal Partners. In 1975 the worlds first totally enclosed theme park opened in the Chicago suburb of Bolingbrook Illinois. Old Chicago was something completely new, an amusement park under a huge roof with a mall around it so you could ride the coasters and rides all year round no matter what the weather was outside. 10:08:01 AM     |

The Eye of Paris. Brassai. 9:40:18 AM     |

The Madcap Laughs. Photography by Mick Rock. 9:24:19 AM     |

Wednesday, October 1, 2003

Hey spambots, here's a vicious circle for you. Via Quarsan. And some more: cyxdaxxsh@iwkhyamhuxocaoyopnnj.de, sfvzbt@nlgatb.com, zwhlx@tkayjh.tv, bkzx@ffwmzle.de, krrwzr@kfcnhjrtyachjm.com, ykskr@ydoa.pl, zkktsgwxj@vhlf.jp, avnuftra@amok.es, dbahgt@zvafanxqkede.edu, xzyoo@hmglqypyil.br, jvc@vbgfqizfnxqclhg.dk, hhfkclvjwu@vulpee.ru, ebkfwfl@fhbelgwgvyz.tv, pklxx@sdijyuqmjpaqaewnuhk.de, hwxjsm@axzqrgvtdcfrdqqo.es, vizzxba@ysoxhllhoyjlmghetwvq.ar, cdqvbvnczo@csknzhxw.de, mwpr@sgqdhyoset.eu, sbsfjy@onzvcxvlflnmz.mil, kjrqvtnuo@wqtfcqcxlqvahkuytuom.com 8:15:02 PM     |

There's no Escape from Brussels. May I point my readers to all the fabulous links about Jacques Brel, compiled by Robert? Of course I may. 7:33:27 PM     |

Enough. Alright. I've blogged enough of all of this optical stuff. Here's one last link: Optical Toys. Again ... ! It's fun though. And a couple of links to Muybridge and other things in the bottom right corner. Enjoy. 5:15:44 PM     |

Oh my. I think I've just come across the largest archive of a) Russian Magazine Titles, and b) Soviet, Cuban, Czech and Polish posters. Unbelievable. Unfortunately the posters are not 'clickable' - the 'big' directory is password protected. Anyway, this collection is amazing. Both sites seem to be down at the moment, which is rather sad. 12:23:34 PM     |

Accent on Images. The Language of Illustrated Books. I like that. Nice exhibit. Very nice indeed. 10:27:03 AM     |

Peep Show. Magic Machines: A History of the Moving Image from Antiquity to 1900. 10:11:33 AM     |

Tuesday, September 30, 2003

At the Loch. Armin has put up more of his Scotland pictures, even a quicktime panorama (1.3MB). Fantastic. 6:00:02 PM     |

At the Mountains of Madness. Innsbruck on old postcards. This is from the austrian literature online website, which is fantastic: lots (and I mean LOTS!) of digitised books and documents. 5:48:34 PM     |

Proper Radios. At last. At Gollum's Crystal Receiver World and at Wumpus's Old Radio World. Those Radio collectors surely have funny names. 4:11:23 PM     |

Devices of Wonder. Very nice and interactive exhibition with lots of optical toys. Brilliant. 7:48:40 AM     |

Art & Optics. David Hockney about artists who cheat. 7:34:31 AM     |

A Matter of Perspective. A few references about everything perspective. Interesting: P.Le Dubreuil, La Perspective pratique , Paris, 1642, translated by E.Chambers, undated, c1730. Dubreuil's La Perspective pratique , was first published anonymously, and then fast became the definitive perspective book for architects, artists and other interested parties. The English translation, rich in plates and concise intruction, was given a new introduction by Mr.Hodgson. According to Lawrence Wright ( Perspective in Perspective , RKP London 1983) the book remianed standard until the publication of Pozzo's Perspectiva pictorum et architectorum in Rome in 1693 with a London edition in 1707. 7:22:53 AM     |

Monday, September 29, 2003

Solo. I know, I've blogged this before. So what. Here's the U.N.C.L.E. image archive. 7:20:56 PM     |

Tetzlaff, Alfred Tetzlaff. A bit of fun for my German speaking readers. Pizza, weiß doch kein Mensch, woraus die besteht. Da wird so ein Stück Kuhfladen ausgerollt, dann kommt ein Klecks Tomatensoße drauf und das ganze kostet dann fünf Mark. Und schmecken tut's wie toter Friseur. 12:14:11 PM     |

The Wise Fool. The homepage of Zippy The Pinhead. 10:26:40 AM     |

Zettels Traum. mooDex is a nice little index card based program for OS X. mooDex is like a box of index cards. It can be used for anything from addresses to recipes. The simplicity of mooDex is what gives it it's elegance. 10:18:06 AM     |

Attack of the Posters. Original World War 1 & 2 posters at Meehan Military Posters. 9:25:13 AM     |

Sunday, September 28, 2003

The Prison. Everything about Alcatraz at AlcatrazHistory. Great. Via das kollektiv. 9:25:38 PM     |

Because it's Sunday. The Churchmouse Website, where you will find everything about churches and the Lincoln Cathedral in particular. And don't forget to check out the Stained Glass Gallery, because it's great. And because it's Sunday. I write under the name of Churchmouse on subjects you can read about on this website. My main areas of interest are Ecclesiastical Architecture, Stained Glass, Church Monuments and other Funerary Monuments such as Cast Iron Grave Markers. I live in Lincoln, England which is also the city of my birth. Lincoln is the principal City of the beautiful agricultural county of Lincolnshire and has one of the finest Cathedrals there is. 9:11:33 PM     |

How Strange. Horst has already summed it up nicely, so I'll just repeat his entry here: What's going on here? First, it hit northeastern America, then London, and now there was a huge blackout in Denmark and southern Sweden. All this after decades without problems? Coincidence? And now Italy. I am certainly no fan of conspiracy theories, but I must say: this is very strange indeed. 4:13:02 PM     |