In addition to being Thanksgiving, today is Terry Gilliam’s birthday, which is plenty in of itself to be thankful for.
Here’s a short compilation of three groundbreakingly weird cartoons by Gilliam that were broadcast on British TV shows The Marty Feldman Comedy Machine and Do Not Adjust Your Set between 1968 and 1971.
“Don the Cockroach,” “The Albert Einstein Story” and “The Christmas Card.”
That he was a genius was undeniable. Even from the little of his work that has survived it can be seen that artist and writer, Bruno Schulz was a genius. He was born in the small town of Drohobycz in 1892, which was then part of Galicia, a province of Austro-Hungary. Schulz lived a quiet, seemingy ordinary life - he taught art classes during the day, and by night dedicated himself to his writing and art.
His first exhibition was held in Warsaw in 1922. By the end of the decade he was writing the stories which would bring him fame, and would lead to the publication of his book The Street of Crocodiles in 1933. By 1938, Schulz was well on his way to becoming an internationally respected author.
This all changed with the Second World War, when Germany invaded Drohobycz in 1941. Recognizing that his life was in severe danger, Schulz began to send as much of his writing and art to his gentile friends across Europe. This included a hand-written copy his unpublished magnum opus The Messiah (allegedly sent to Thomas Mann), the manuscript for which has never been found.
Being Jewish, Schulz was placed under arrest, and was to be sentenced to a work camp or executed. Because of his artistic talents, Schulz was favored by the brutal Gestapo officer, Felix Landau, who was in charge of the extermination of Galician Jews. Landau admired Schulz’s talents, and as he was also in charge of the Jewish labor programs, had Schulz decorate his apartment, painting murals on his son’s nursery room. This position allowed Schultz certain privileges and some protection. It also gave him time to think and plan his escape.
On November 19th 1942, Schulz was walking through the Aryan District to his home in the Jewish ghetto. He walked past the labor exchange at 44 Mickiewicz Street, where the previous year Landau had rounded up 350 Jews and executed them in cold blood. As Schulz reached the corner of Czacki street, leading to the entrance of the ghetto, he was stopped by Gestapo officer, Karl Günther. Günther smiled, placed his Luger against Schulz’s temple, and shot him twice in the head, killing himself instantly.
Günther later told Landau he did it as an act of retaliation, ‘You killed my Jew - I killed yours.’
Today, all we have left of Schulz’ work are his drawings, letters, a handful of short stories, and the novels (or connected stories) The Street of Crocodiles and Sanatorium Under the Sign of the Hourglass. Schulz’s work is beautiful, poetic, dream-like and mythic, and has been described as producing ‘the metaphysical feeling of the strangeness of existence.’ In 1986, the Brothers Quay made their classic stop-motion animation interpretation of The Street of Crocodiles, which compliments Schulz’s tales, rather than gives a literal interpretation.
Bonus documentary on Bruno Schulz, aftter the jump…
In “Donald in Mathmagic Land,” Donald Duck wanders into a magical place where the beauty of the laws of mathematics unfold before him….
Easily one of the best animated shorts Disney ever produced. And you thought geometry was such a Mickey Mouse subject…
Dig the famous voice of announcer Paul Frees as Donald’s disembodied guide through his geometrical journey through Mathmagic Land.
Thank you Stuart Silver, by way of the Psychogeographical Commission
The gajillionaire rightwing Krabbe Brothers—who are obviously not in any way based on the billionaire rightwing Koch Brothers—and their ultra-rich cronies on their never-ending quest to make America safe for the one percent!
Comedy Central’s Gajillionaires stars Rob Corddry, Thomas Lennon, Paul Scheer, Jordan Peele and Riki Lindhome. Written and created by Yoni Brenner.
Thank you Mike Sacks!
Meet Adamson - a dead ringer for Homer Simpson, as published in Icelandic paper Fálkinn in July 1949.
Adamson was created by Swedish cartoonist Oscar Jacobsson, whose work was published successfully around the world. In America Adamson was known as Silent Sam, and had a considerable following. Was Adamson a possible influence on the look of Matt Groening’s Homer Simpson?
More pictures of Homer, d’oh, Adamson, after the jump…
John Butler of The Butler Brothers will be presenting Artificial Indifference: A Seminar on the Ethics and Economics of Drone Warfare, at the University of Glasgow, today, Friday October 19th, at 15:30 in the East Quadrangle Lecture Theater.
John will be speaking alongside Dr. Ian Shaw and Keith Hammond, and the seminar ties in with a one-day exhibition of Butler Brothers’ work also being held at the University.
This is highly recommended for any fans of Butler’s brilliant work, and for his critical analysis of drone warfare.
Previously on Dangerous Minds
Attention all you groovy little fuckers lucky enough to live in the city of Los Angeles… (I just love saying that).
This Friday night, as part of the First Friday Film series at The Dilettante, downtown in Little Tokyo’s warehouse district, I will be presenting “The Monkey Dust Tasting Party,” a screening/party with the evening’s centerpiece being an approximately 75-minute-long highlight reel that I put together (with editor Alex Nicolaou) from nine hours of the demented, outrageous and utterly brilliant BBC Three animated omnibus, Monkey Dust.
Think MTV’s old Liquid Television series or Adult Swim’s edgy cartoon fare, but kicked up a few notches and ultra BLEAK. The Observer called Monkey Dust “the most subversive show on television. The topical animated series is dark and unafraid to tackle taboo subjects such as paedophilia, taking us to Cruel Britannia, a creepy place where the public are hoodwinked by arrogant politicians and celebrities.” Monkey Dust also features n’er do well jihadis, chat-room perverts, kidnappers, drug addicts, sleazy sex, Nazi grandfathers and murder. The soundtrack includes music by Goldfrapp, Boards of Canada, Pulp, Black Box Recorder and Eels.
I think it’s pretty safe to say that the majority of Americans have never been exposed to Harry Thompson and Shaun Pye’s animated TV masterpiece, which is why I am so excited to get to present it on Friday night. In the past, the guest curators at the First Friday Film series have pulled out gems like Belladonna of Sadness and The Apple, but I don’t think anyone is going to be let down by the mind-blowing mayhem that is Monkey Dust. The series originally aired in Britain starting in 2003. Three series of six half-hour episodes were made before the tragic death of series co-creator Thompson from lung cancer in 2005. Only series one was ever released on DVD, although the other two have long been traded on torrent sites.
Now here’s the thing: the Monkey Dust screening will actually start at 9:30, but I strongly recommend getting there early (doors will open at 8:30) because of a “special surprise” (call it “entertainment insurance”) that will await early arrivals. You can chose to ignore my advice and arrive just before the show starts, but you’ll regret it, trust me, when you realize what you have missed…
The Diletantte, 120 North Santa Fe Avenue, Los Angeles CA 90012
The Jetsons, Hanna-Barbera’s futuristic flipside to The Flintstones was launched on this date in 1962 as the very first color TV series on the ABC television network (although it was still seen by most of the nation in black and white).
The series was set in 2062, 100 years in the future, meaning that we’re halfway to flying cars as of today!
Below, in the 1962 episode “A Date With Jet Screamer,” teenage daughter Judy Jetson wins a date with an intergalactic teen idol:
Mason Williams’ baroque-a-nova hit “Classical Gas” is one of my top, top, top favorite pieces of music of all time and this is just fantastic.
From the description on Vimeo:
The “Classical Gas Video,” as it has come to be known, started out as a student film in 1963 entitled “God is Dog Spelled Backwards.” The film was created by UCLA film student, Dan McLaughlin, who used Beethoven’s 5th Symphony as the original soundtrack. McLaughlin’s idea was to bring together the world’s greatest art and the world’s greatest music to create the world’s greatest film. He came damn close.
After seeing the film in early 1968, Mason Williams, writer for the Smothers Brothers and composer of Classical Gas, approached McLaughlin about replacing the music with his (Williams’) composition, a successful Top 40 record at the time. The revamped music video was first shown on the Summer Brothers Smothers Show (the Smos. Bros. summer replacement hosted by Glen Campbell), in June, 1968, and then twice more throughout the year. The video has since passed into legend (some call it one of the very first music videos), while Classical Gas, due in part to the impact of the video, became one of the largest selling instrumental recordings of all time.
As with many others who saw the video at the time, I was just a kid (10 years and 9 months, to be exact) and I was awestruck. The video made an incalculable impression on me, so much so that it’s one of the seminal moments that drew me to video editing. When I’d gotten a bit older, I set out trying to find a copy of the original, contacting CBS, the Museum of Broadcasting in NYC, and libraries around the country. Unfortunately, it was not to be found anywhere.
When the internet got up to speed, I was hopeful that the video would eventually show up online. Again, no luck. Finally I looked into the story of the video’s creation and those involved and it became clear that with all the copyright issues, it seemed unlikely that all of the parties would ever come to an agreement necessary to release it. Realizing this, and finally out of patience after almost 40 years, I assigned myself the task of re-creating it. I found a copy of the original student film, re-edited it for timing to Classical Gas, and the Classical Gas Video was reborn. Give or take a few frames here and there, it is nearly identical to the actual video that aired on the Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour in 1968.
Even though I initially re-created the video for my own amusement, I soon realized that if I had such fond memories of it, others might as well. Before being pulled from YouTube back in the day when they actually enforced copyright infringement, the video had been viewed more than 500,000 times. A true testament to the power of a video that, in its original form, aired only three times over 40 years ago!
It’s just a pity this isn’t a lil’ sharper looking, but it’s still quite wonderful.
After the jump, a clip of Mason Williams performing a stunning live rendition of “Classical Gas” with a full orchestra in 1968…
In this scene from Sunday’s upcoming premiere episode of The Simpsons, Homer casts his ballot for Mitt Romney… because “he invented Obamacare.”