By 1937, surrealism was in its second decade as a movement. Its artists and filmmakers were making inroads into London and New York galleries, and becoming media stars. The surrealist bug also bit on the West Coast, and underground gatherings like the Hollywood Film and Foto League screened European avant-garde films regularly.

Such gatherings attracted politically minded actor Harry Hay and Works Progress Administration (WPA) photographers Roger Barlow and LeRoy Robbins. After seeing a magazine ad for a short film contest, these jokers sprung into action, making Even—As You and I, a short depicting themselves as broke filmmakers who cobble together clichés from their fave avant-garde films into a dorky film-within-a-film spoof called The Afternoon of a Rubber Band. In a “D’oh!”-style ending, the three realize they’ve missed the contest’s midnight deadline.

A damn clever little underground film moment. Hay—the curly-haired guy in the group—would go on to become the godfather of gay activism, founding the Mattachine Society in the early’50s and the Radical Faeries in the early ‘70s.
 

 
Check out part 2 after the jump!

 

 
All You Need Is Love from zed1.
 
(via Wooster Collective)

 

 
Goats in Trees
 
It’s goats in trees! Goats in trees! Goats in trees! Goats in trees!
 
(via Daily What)

 
Something deeply silly from Buck Rogers in the 25th Century, which ran on U.S. TV from 1979-1981. Evidently the disco music of 400 years from now will be a sort of fusion of The Residents and Weather Report. I never would have guessed !

 
Thanks Ned Raggett !

 
Well this is a new comic concept for me:

Frustrated by societys failure to protect its most vulnerable citizens, Foreskin Man has taken up the fight agains male genital mutilation.

Aided by the power of his technologically advanced plasma boots, Foreskin Man flies above the city to hunt down criminals who cut the genitals of innocent boys.

It is the dawn of a new era. Circumcisers, beware!

Foreskin Man
 
(via Nerdcore)

 
This is what what happens when a fairly decent pop tune gets wedded to an absolutely horrible video. Safety Dance was a big hit back in the early 80s. I remember dancing to it at New York City’s Peppermint Lounge. And on the basis of the song alone, one could assume that the band performing it might be pretty groovy.

But in the era of MTV, for every star that was created, there were several that were sacrificed on the altar of a shitty video. Case in point : Men Without Hats.

The Safety Dance video looks like a cross between an ad for a Renaissance Fair gathering and a female hygiene deodorant…with a coked-up midget and an obnoxiously blissed-out hippie chick who seems to have wandered in from a Grateful Dead concert. No wonder Men Without Hats quickly became men without hits.

 
This is hilarious: A Republican congressional candidate and his wife are caught on videtape taking down his opponents signs, by his opponent’s son! Brilliant!

From The Pensacola News Journal:

The video showing District 1 candidate Greg Brown and his wife, Jennifer, removing Doug Broxson’s campaign signs has led to a Santa Rosa County Sheriff’s Office investigation.

The campaign shenanigans happened Saturday night when Broxson’s son, Jason Broxson, hid an infrared video camera, often used by hunters to track game, in some bushes at state roads 87 and 89, north of Milton.

Minutes after the camera was deployed, the Browns happened by and removed [the signs]. Jason Broxson hid in some bushes and watched as the couple took the signs.

“Honestly, we just got lucky that he happened to show up right then,” said Kevin Brown, Broxson’s campaign manager. “Lord only knows the odds of that.”

Kevin Brown, who is not related to Greg Brown, said the camera was set up because Broxson was having problems with his signs being stolen and vandalized.

 


Mark Fredrickson

 
Or is it genius?
 
(via HYST)