The Life You Save May Be Mine

Here's a good reason not to do a public service announcement on safe driving: cosmic irony. This PSA spot never aired because, shortly after it was filmed, James Dean was killed by a reckless motorist. That's cold, universe.

Louis Wain's Impractical Cats

Dangerous Minds has a really fascinating article on Louis Wain, a Victorian era artist and illustrator whose primary subject was anthropomorphic cats. Art historians speculate that Wain, who spent much of his later years in and out of mental hospitals, was schizophrenic. The article highlights the relationship between Wain's descent into mental illness and the increasingly surreal (well, more so) nature of his feline art.

It's a difficult thing to delineate. For instance, these two pieces, created when Wain was considered "sane":

Are only slightly less crazy than the two following:

Alright. I admit that this last one is batshit psychedelic. It looks like a Tibetan mandala or something.

But who's to say which image more clearly demonstrates a disordered mind: a kitten emanating jagged, multi-hued energy lines or a bunch of cats in top hats and monocles having a tea party on the lawn? Both are pretty weird.

I can't even tell which period this one comes from:

Apparently, Nick Cave (yeah!) is a big fan and collector. So is Tracy Emin (boo!). At the end of the article, there's a link for a very short film on Wain that's well worth watching.

If you know someone with a dual passion for cats and the art of the mentally ill, you should probably tell them about Louis Wain.

Two Weeks

Well, that was unsettling. Not as unsettling as, say, that Aphex Twin video where Richard D. James's face is superimposed on all of those booty shaking bikini models, but pretty disturbing nonetheless. CGI facial distortion effects, smiling white guys in bow ties, church: all things that make me uncomfortable. Thanks for freaking me out, weirdos. Still. Good song.

Every Time She Winked, I Thought It Was Just For Me

A variation on Godwin’s Law states that “a good rule in most discussions is that the first person to call the other a Nazi automatically loses the argument.” This is especially true in the context of political discourse in the United States, which, of late, seems to have settled into a new nadir. Wags and pundits on both sides of the aisle habitually compare one another to “fascists” and “Nazis” in their flaccid attempts to deflate and defame the opposition’s policy positions. It’s lazy, puerile and completely unproductive.

So, theoretically, I should be dismissive of this Hitler-invoking pinko knee-jerk liberal propaganda film (a clip refashioned from the excellent German film Downfall). But I'm not. The portrayal of the Fuhrer as a Palin enamored Republican strategist is puerile, unproductive and radiantly funny. The line “That’s what Alaska gets for electing a MILF and not a Stalin!” alone makes it worthwhile. So, yeah, I’m a hypocrite.