Just in time for Halloween comes the schlocky and over-the-top video for Aesop Rock’s “Coffee”, from the album None Shall Pass. I’m a big fan of Aesop Rock’s earlier work but his most recent efforts have been less than stellar (I’m looking at you Bazooka Tooth). However his newest, while not up to the standards of, say, Labor Days, was enjoyable with this track in particular being a highlight.
Ah, the theremin. Darling of avant-garde musicians and sci-fi film aficionados, it is the geekiest and most autistic of instruments. Designed by Russian physicist Lev Sergeivich Termen, it is played by manipulating radio frequencies emitted by the machine, making it the only musical instrument that is played without being touched by the musician.
Now, Japanese theremin maker Mandarin Electron has made a hand held theremin contained within a shell resembling a Russian matryoshka, or nesting, doll. When played, the doll appears to be humming.
Theramin purists will, more than likely, turn their up their noses in disgust -or merely shudder- at the site of their beloved, drab box made into a diminutive, colorful doll to be grasped by filthy, prehensile appendages but, really, does it matter? I would hope all three of you could look beyond this peccadillo and enjoy this wonderful example of synchronized, electro-magnetic warbling.
For Halloween, the only jack-o-lantern worth a damn to the career gamer cephalophile: Purple Tentacle from the LucasArts game Day of the Tentacle wildly brandishing his incredible Shrinking Ray. I just played this game the other day, and it brought me back to more innocent, halcyon days… days when I was fascinated with tentacles not based upon their suitability for being gooily crammed up orifices, but because, when mutated, they try to take over the world.
Take a good look my friends. Stare deep into those soulless eyes, mark well that metallic rictus, and bear witness to the phallic proboscis that will surely prove to be mankind’s undoing. May our end be swift and, I pray, devoid of robotic vaudeville.
Have you ever wondered what Hieronymous Bosch’s artwork would’ve looked like had he been a sculptor rather than a painter? Kris Kuksi answers that question.
Make sure you investigate out the closeup shots of his works. The Devil is, quite literally, in the details. Be careful, though: you could end up picking through his works for weeks trying to absorb the sheer density of them. They’re almost like fractals made of bone and Barbie-doll parts and sheer, sticky, sniffable evil.
(Incidentally, Kris Kuksi’s work was previously featured on Ectomo’s parent blog, Table of Malcontents. But it’s so awesome you need to see it again.)
It’s a relative unknown that many women have what is called tetrachromatism, the ability to see four basic colors instead of three. Among the bevy of reasons causing me to lament my broken chromosome is my lack of tetrachromatic sight and the ability to truly appreciate the works of artists like Hattori.
“Mickey Feio” (”Ugly Mickey”) collects together images of Mickey Mouse twisted by artistic bile. I would gladly suffer the horrible, weeping sore that is Disney World if it were represented by the twitching icon pictured above; the avenues running through the Magic Kingdom dotted with Thunderbird guzzling, amputee Mickeys. I’ve never understood the appeal of this character. There are far more expressive, intelligent, and witty creations than this rodent with the voice of a castrato.
I realize that the expression on this tentacled, little doll is supposed to say “Aren’t I cute?”, but it almost appears to say “Why did you do this to me?”
Released in 1985, The Adventures of Mark Twain is the creation of Will Vinton, best known for The California Raisins. The movie is a series of vignettes based on Twain’s stories and his life. The overarching plot of the film is that Twain, disgusted with people and society, boards a riverboat-airship in order to collide with Haley’s Comet and end his own life. He is joined on his terminal adventure by Tom Sawyer, Huckleberry Finn, and Becky Thatcher, who are attempting to convince Twain that life is worth living.
And his giant, jewel encrusted hat. Notice the set expression, the steely gaze, the fatigue lining his visage. The message is clear: it is, indeed, hard out there for a pimp.
Posted on Sunday not through ineffable laziness, but because it’s still Saturday somewhere. Possibly Delaware. Please note that this week we’ve got more than just one embedded playlist, so hit the jump for all the cartoons.
• Our favorite flapper tart with the scrotum-peeling voice, Betty Boop, starts things off by throwing a Halloween Party for the surreal fever dreams popping out of Max Fleischer’s imagination.
• Count Duckula appears to be wildly popular amongst the Ectomo staff, except for me, who’d never heard of him. Needless to say, if you base your cartoon off of the concept of a vampiric anthromorphic duck, he’s eventually going to have to run into Frankenstein…
• I want a scissor puppy of my own. My favorite episode of the wonderful Flash cartoon (and soon to be Nickelodeon series) Making Fiends. If a small, puke-green Bulgarian child has ever been fuckable by sole dint of her voice, that small, puke-green Bulgarian child is Vendetta.
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.
