• Miscellany


    • Playboy’s original letterhead is a modernist classic, a bracing reminder of how important refined aesthetics were to Hefner’s enterprise and his notion of the good life. Via Letters of Note, here… a fascinating site that gathers up letters, postcards, telegrams, faxes, and memos of significance and interest. Hat tip @ettagirl, who’s feed on art & culture is well worth following.



    • Via Invisible Oranges, a classically-trained singer and voice teacher critiques five classic metal singers.

      Regarding Iron Maiden’s Bruce Dickinson: …Nothing but admiration for this singer…His diction is easily intelligible, regardless of range… an intensely rhythmic delivery… without losing legato and musical momentum, something a lot of classical singers struggle with, especially when interpreting the many staccato and accent markings that crowd scores by Bellini, Donizetti, etc.

      Ronnie James Dio? …another very fine singer… so naturally resonant. He performs with perfect legato, clear diction, and a consistent, organic vibrancy. He arranges his resonance space to create a shallow snarl without setting up any resistance for his breath. You can tell how healthy his delivery is from the way he moves in and out of brief moments of harmony with the other tracks with impeccable intonation. The whole piece is a must read… here.



    • Besides the classic, sharp, unfussy design of the cover, the photograph bears an uncanny resemblance to Robert McGinnis’ celebrated rendering of Audrey Hepburn for the poster of Breakfast at Tiffany’s, below.



    • I really dig the new New York State license plate. I spent the last week driving abound the better part of western NY and these tastefully classic looking beauts kept popping up. I love, in particular, the re-embrace of the state’s official colors. Uncluttered, universal, distinctive yet free of kitsch they’re everything good government design should be. Not perfect (the arc on Empire State is a bit janky) but still, aces.

      (Unfortunately, they need all the support they can get. Quite a kerfuffle has broken out in thier wake. Originally, adoption of the new design was mandatory, accompanied by a fee - folks went bananas. Once the design was introduced, they went double bananas, castigating the design as plain and ugly. Cue kerfuffle. Sigh.)



    • Black Sheep Antiques, Duanesburg, NY



    • Spotted this uncharacteristically swinging cover art for Anthony Powell’s The Military Philosophers - the ninth in the A Dance to the Music of Time series, a twelve novel cavalcade of mid-20th century English life, manners, culture, etc…



    • Short of the actual detection of extraterrestrial life few things would make me happier than the following news. 2010 is the year of “re-contact” with the mighty Man or Astroman! According to a transmission from MOAM-HQ, after 10 years of cryogenic storage they have have knocked the frost particles off and are properly thawed for live music experimentation. Read the rest of the transmission, here. And remember, fear not - they come as friends.



    • “Check out the eye popping, fantastic type and strikingly modern composition of this old Bob Seger record” is not something I could have imagined proclaiming in a million years, but seriously - check out the eye popping, fantastic type and strikingly modern composition of this old Bob Seger record (larger version, here). And, while you’re at it, take a few minutes to soak in this record’s centerpiece - the epic, wistful, road-weary melancholy of “Turn the Page.”



    • Absolutely astonishing ultra-high resolution photographs of birds by Andrew Zuckerman. A decent overview can be found here, while Zuckerman’s site, here, showcases even more. Also check out his earlier project, Creature, featuring a wider spectrum of wildlife. The detail is breathtaking, and the depth of personality projecting from the animals is downright eerie.



    • For your pleasure, an oddly charming, earnest, hippy-dippy photo recreation of Manet’s The Luncheon on the Grass from an old 1970 photography annual.



    • Gorgeous, elegant cover for Richard Avedon’s 1959 portrait book Observations. Rather than taking it in whole, it rewards a close scan so you can follow the way the letters slice, carve and cordon off patches of creamy white. Easy to appreciate, so hard to pull off.



    • A moment’s rest at the Rochester Institute of Technology, between two immense murals by Joseph Albers meant to evoke the equally brilliant Kodak logo. Aces.



    • Things the Ramones did want to do, things the Ramones did not want to do, things the Ramones did do, things the Ramones told you to do, things the Ramones warned you about doing, things the Ramones did not like, things the Ramones wondered about, and things the Ramones would do next time… over at Electra Luxx’s place, here.



    • Goodbye, and a hearty salute to Grafik Magazine, which folded a few days ago. This cover gallery, here, is a fitting testament to its accomplishment - a cavalcade of top notch design, and an ad-hoc primer to just about every style & mode in vogue since 2003.


    • The first trickle
      of water down
      a dry ditch stretches
      like the paw
      of a cat, slightly
      tucked at the front,
      unambiguous
      about auguring
      wet. It may sink
      later but it hasn’t
      yet.
      – Kay Ryan, The Paw of a Cat

  • Further miscellany, odds & sods, etc., at the Tumblr annex, here.
03.13.2009
Agent Diana Prince
Categories: Miscellany

wonderwoman2

Wonder Woman is really confusing.

Consider the other members of the comic book trinity. Batman: Bruce Wayne, Gotham, detective. Superman: Clark Kent, Metropolis, boy scout. Their essences are schematic. Wonder Woman has been an Amazon and an Olympian. She’s been a god, a mortal, and a mix of both. She’s Diana Prince sometimes, she’s Diana Prince always, she’s never been Diana Prince. She had the invisible plane, gained the power of flight, then gotten the plane back – which I guess she uses when… she…umm… flyes back home? Yes home, which is on the island of Themyscira… or is it Boston, Gateway City, New York? Severe shifts in character and narrative continuity are endemic in comics, sure, but this schizoid blackboard eraser approach is more than a little nuts. It has left her less an icon than a notion of one.

That said, one of Wonder Woman’s most random, and most enjoyable, phases was her 60′s incarnation as a mod boutique owner and secret agent. Pop culture was undergoing a massive collective spy fantasia. Bond movies were at the height of their popularity and surreality. Every flavor of espionage was in vogue – Harry Palmer, Michael Caine’s working class spy, Italian comic book adaptations like Danger: Diabolik and Modesty Blaise, and Dean Martin’s candy colored Matt Helm absurdities. The genre’s high point is probably James Coburn’s peerless set of Flint movies (don’t miss this extended montage of highlights). They all shared a common widescreen Technicolor palette – mod fashions, mid century modern design, a taste for a splashy op art and the occasional dose of the lysergic. On television, Aaron Spelling’s pioneering swinging lady detective series Honey West had just been annihilated by the arrival of a fab new import from the UK – the Avengers.

The Avengers featured the espionage escapades of dapper Victorian John Steed and incomparable hepcat Emma Peel. In Peel, played by Diana Rigg, the genre had found it’s female icon. She was a stone cold fox, a brain box, a wit, and singularly, unforgettably stylish. (Peel’s wardrobe is virtually a case study in 60′s mod fashions – saturated pop colors, geometric patterns and cuts)

Emma Peel became the explicit model for the 60′s manifestation of Wonder Woman. She shed her powers and permanently adopted her mortal alter ego Diana Prince. She opened a fashionable clothing store. She rebuilt her fighting skills under the tutelage of her new sidekick, the wise, blind kung fu sage, I-Ching. The art was fantastic – a perfect blend of 50′s Romance comics, Good Girl Art, and Dan DeCarlo’s Josie and the Pussycats. The result was derivative, obvious, and absolutely delightful. (DC has recently reissued 3 volumes of this era – all are worthwhile, all easily found).