In the weeks to come, we’ll be exploring the world of Nick Zedd. I chose to start with Electra Elf & Fluffer . It forces one to retain their patience through occasional banal dialogue that is salt and peppered with nuggets of hilarity, clever wit, sarcasm, super gross stuff, and insanity.
The premise of the show is a classic civie by day, superhero by night scenario. Electra Elf, played by Rev Jen, is an elven superhero. Her sidekick Fluffer is a talking Chihuahua with radioactive pee that paralyzes her enemies. To say the show is low budget is an understatement. (Which is brilliant!) Overlays of dogs licking over a beaver shot, sea monkey monsters, goth band divas that try to take over the world, traces of a very Tim and Eric style in technique and humour way before Tim and Eric.
It’s available on DVD and it gives one the sensation of watching a brilliant show that you and your art star friends made. It’s difficult to believe that someone else made it. Why didn’t you make this, and watch at home with your friends?
My favourite segment to the show is the “One to Grow On” segment that happens at the end of some of the episodes.
The 1987 documentary on the life of Robert Crumb, underground comics pioneer, 60s icon, and the quintessential Dirty Old Man. Written by the man himself, it lacks the distance from its subject that made Terry Zwigoff’s Crumb more of a revelatory study in neuroses and emotional trauma and instead puts you squarely in the middle of Crumb’s gonzo world of misogyny and self-loathing and in that sense it is a much better illustration of Crumb the Artist as opposed to Crumb the Man.
There are those who get off on seeing other people dress up like anthropomorphized nightmares and there are those who get off on watching other people exercise; but I would venture that the segment of the population who enjoys both is rather small. This is what I tell myself when watching a video of what appears to be a blue possum on an elliptical machine. I tell myself this as she glances back at the camera in what I assume is an attempt to look coy and as the camera focuses on the ponderous, metronome-like pendulum swing of her tail. I tell myself this but it doesn’t make me feel any better.
This anti-pornography film from the 1960s left me with one very obvious, and troubling, conclusion: I am deeply envious of the wordsmithery of morally conservative propagandists. From his terse, esoteric pronunciation of bestiality, to his description of a “flood-tide of filth” — a description that calls to mind great, towering waves of briny genitalia — in terms of oratorical outrage, George Putnam is equal parts Shakespeare and Don King. Listening to his ode to a young, female sex toy, he paints a picture of sleazy, corrupted innocence that far exceeds any photograph. His insights are pointed, “[...]very few blind people join the nudist colonies,” he notes; his logic flawless. It was only when he described the irreversible effects of pornography that I realized why man-on-top missionary style sex did not excite me and why I insisted that my girlfriend participate in elaborate, 80s themed cos-play. Suddenly forcing her to dress like Jem or one of the My Little Ponies made perfect, if horrible, sense.
Yet, Putnam remains humble throughout. “In this ad, the titles of the magazines and their table of contents speak more eloquently than I about the tremendous problem here presented,” he says, before uttering the words “Sexual sadism. Strange flagellation cults” with a gravitas that would drive Morgan Freeman mad with jealousy. Oh George, you sell yourself short. Who else could speak of homosexuals as an evil “species” without coming off as a completely ignorant, hateful bigot? Who else could retain their composure while narrating over scores of photographs of female breasts covered by bars so large that one would think these women were in possession of the most freakishly huge areolas to be found on this planet, Earth? Not I!
Towards the end of the clip he quotes Pitirim A. Sorokin — the famed sociologist and author of, among other works, the hysterical and reactionary The American Sex Revolution — as saying that the newsstands of the time
[...] depict the world as a sort of human zoo, inhabited by raped, mutilated, and murdered females and by he-males, outmatching in bestiality, cavemen and out-lusting the lustiest of animals. Male and female alike are hardened in cynical contempt for human life and values.
Part of me wishes these two gentleman had been able to see some of the more interesting corners of the internet, if only to have been able to see their brains leak out their ears. In fact, Putnam is still alive and has, at the very least, changed his opinion on homosexuals. Someone should sit him down in front of 4chan before it’s too late.
Mrs. Habersham was not what one would consider a prude, surely her extensive collection of scandalous knee length frocks — which exposed not only her ankles, but the salacious curve of her calves — could attest to this fact; and yet she could not help but feel that Mr. Habersham’s carpentry fantasies were, perhaps, a bit outside of her comfort zone.
Our deepest apologies, dear readers, for having fallen down on the job as of late in regards to one of our most sacred traditions. Needless to say, we are filled with a great sense of shame and assure you it will not happen again. If, in the future, one of us is unable to fulfill their obligations our newly acquired team of Korean animators will leap into action, producing original cartoons for your enjoyment, although in all honesty I personally cannot guarantee this. You see, by “team of Korean animators” I actually mean a Korean family that Eliza met — and subsequently forced into her windowless van — while running errands at Home Depot. They have tried to reason with her, explaining that they are involved in other professions, the father is a salesman for a lighting manufacturer and his wife works as a bank teller. The children are, well, children.
Eliza would hear none of it however, either assuming that they were lying or under the impression that all people of Korean descent have an innate ability to animate. The rest of the staff has done their best to ignore the situation, knowing full well that once Miss Gauger has set her mind on something, one has little chance of ever changing her opinion. It is for this reason that we do nothing when she insists that her aforementioned van has the ability to travel through time or that Qais is, in her words, “a spy sent by space Turks to steal her chocolate secrets.” Regardless it has been uncomfortable, the tired and nervous familial unit has taken up residence in our break room where they were horrified to find only four items : coffee, tea, pipe tobacco, and squid chips. It would be worse when they found out that these items were our sole sources of sustenance. The children, unsurprisingly, did not take well to the tobacco. Perhaps we should send out for food.
Ah well, I’m sure they’ll be fine, besides it’s cartoon time! Click through, loyal Ectomites, and witness their triumphant return!
P.S. Also, remember that if you visit the YouTube page for a particular video you have the option to watch it in high quality. Especially well suited to the anime.
Ecthomo is our answer to interior design and fashion writing, an attempt to bring Ectomo into the home if you will; brought to you by Octobee’s very own sequin-bedecked dandy. If you can recline luxuriously on it, wear it, lust after its aesthetic, or resent the wealthy that can afford it, then on Ecthomo it belongs.
The ability to pull up stakes and move as the mood strikes is nearly a necessity for those of us keeping pace with the frenetic rhythms of the 22nd century. Yes, we do harbor an appreciation for the finer things in life, but usually only so long as they can be broken down into their component parts and hastily shuffled from briefly occupied dwelling to briefly occupied dwelling with relative ease.
Today we bring you several pieces of furniture that provide just such convenience, starting with the Casulo. Created by German designers Marcel Krings and Sebastian Mühlhäuser as part of their dissertation at the Köln International School of Design, the Casulo is a stroke of modular furniture genius measuring 31″x47″ at it’s most compact. Fully disassembled (a process taking about 10 minutes with two people and requiring no tools) it provides a bed, desk, bookshelf, smallish wardrobe, and a little storage for the bits you’ve picked up in your travels.
For minimalist neo-nomads a single Casulo would surely suffice; add a second to the mix and nearly all your needs are met, leaving a bit left over with which to get inventive. Sure, It’s a bit flimsy looking and not everyone wants to stare at chartreuse furniture everyday, but it’s an amazing conceptual starting point and the refinement of the idea in the process to market will surely result in a fantastic piece.
Hit the jump for more Ecto-approved hyper-functional, modular designs.
In sheer defiance of the World Wide Web Consortium's will, Ectomo was designed using a non-web-standard font. Luckily, it is included in the excellent font pack released by the H.P. Lovecraft Historical Society, which can be freely downloaded in Mac and PC formats here. Ectomo should still look fine without it, though.
