matouenpeluche

Breakfast of Champions and The Sirens of Titan

Breakfast of Champions

This is something I drew this weekend. It's a party of nine having a breakfast of champions. I named this drawing that because, well...it looked like they were tucking into something good, and also because I have recently finished the Kurt Vonnegut novel of the same name.

At the risk of having every hard core Kurt Vonnegut fan on the internet bearing down upon my humble blog with righteous indignation, I've got to say that I didn't really enjoy it all that much. I am a Kurt Vonnegut fan though, so I was a little disappointed. The book is sort of biblically written in little chapters and verses that never really met (for me) and there was none of the magical wackiness and bizarre surrealism of my favourites of his like Slaughterhouse Five and The Sirens of Titan. For the record, Vonnegut himself graded Breakfast of Champions as a C, Slaughterhouse Five an A+ and The Sirens of Titan as an A.

Speaking of which, have you read The Sirens of Titan? You really ought to if you like having your mind rearranged by simple prose. It is so, so incredibly wild! It is sci-fi, humour, terror, Greek tragedy and thriller all rolled into one. Some people say it falls short of his best and others say it is his best. I say the latter. Hmmm...I may have to re-read it sometime soon!

Penguins

Penguins = for your viewing pleasure...happy Monday!

 

 

Love part 3 - Questionable opening lines and first dates

Part 3 of my Valentine's Day run up (See posts number 1 and 2 here and here) in which I'd like to offer some assistance to folk who would like to strike up a conversation with that someone special. If you click on the image, a larger version will appear for easier reading.

 

...and then once you've snared that someone special for a first date be careful not to scare them off. Again, click on the image for an easier to read version of the image.

All cartoons by Matt Groening from Binky's Guide to Love.

This post is for all my fellow comrades doing it rough in the trenches. Happy weekend all!

Illustrations by Ronald Searle via The Compleet Molesworth.

Collection

Something else I found in my ignored cupboard (see original post here): my collection of book marks. The avid collector strikes again!

These are a real find! I used to get these at Glebe Books when there was just the one store up by the church. I wonder if they still have them? I never used them as book marks. I used them to decorate various bare bedroom walls I was living in at the time. I have many more too, but these are the nicest.

John Cheever: The Swimmer

First of all, apologies all round for the lack of posts of late. I have been in a bit of a blogging funk. However, I have now made a full recovery and am keen to recommence blogging activity!

So, this morning I was doing a bit of impromptu spring cleaning of a particular cupboard that I have been skillfully ignoring for maybe 4 years. It is full of novels, cartoon books and art books I haven't looked at forever. It was a revelation! I found so many gems and books dear to my heart that I got quite emotional and had to stop half way through and have a sit down. One of the best finds was a book of short stories by John Cheever. It is absolutely enormous at 892 pages and packed with 60 or so stories. If you have not read the works of John Cheever, you could do worse than spend a lazy weekend getting acquainted him.

  In this fine book is one of my favourite short stories ever which was made into an equally fine movie staring Burt Lancaster called The Swimmer. This is how the story begins:

 "It was one of those midsummer Sundays when everyone sits around saying, 'I drank too much last night'. You might have heard it whispered by the parishioners leaving church, heard it from the lips of the priest himself, struggling with his cassock in the vestiarium, heard it from the golf links and the tennis courts, heard it from the wildlife preserve where the leader of the Audubon group was suffering from a terrible hangover."

It is a mystery story (sort of) set in an upper class suburb of New York. Neddy Merrill, the protagonist, appears one day in the yard of a neighbour's/ friend's place which has a large pool. The friends have not seen him in some time and they exchange friendly chat. Ned swims the length of the pool and realises that it would be possible to swim back to his home using the pools of his friends. We then follow him through the back yards and swimming pools of this wealthy neighbourhood. The interactions with his neighbours and Ned's own reflections reveal more and more of Ned's past until finally he reaches his home and all is revealed.  

Anyway, I know what I'll be doing this hot, humid, steamy weekend: taking it easy and reading my rediscovered John Cheever short stories!

Happy weekend all!

Images from here and here.

Bernardo Carvalho

I was surfing the web the other day and I came across the work of Portuguese illustrator Bernardo Carvalho. Bernardo illustrates children's books and owns a design company, Planeta Tangerina, with fellow illustrators Madalena Matoso and Yara Kono. I think he's pretty cool and I look forward to hunting down some more of his work!

 

Images from here, here, here and here.

Holiday Reading Suggestion

I read "Holidays on Ice" in June this year which was appropriate weather wise but not terribly appropriate month wise. David Sedaris, in case you don't know, is the brother of funny gal Amy Sedaris. He writes personal accounts and mini-memoires of his life and experiences. He sometimes writes from the perspective of some ghastly very un-PC individual from time to time too. In "Holidays on Ice" there are several short stories from his own memories of Christmas and also serveral un-PC accounts where he takes on the character of someone dreadful. They are all pretty funny, but the best one is the first true life story called "SantaLand Diaries" where he writes about his time as a Santa Elf at Macy's department store in New York. It's terrifically funny and made me LOL a lot! 

Here is an excerpt from page 33:

"We were packed today, absolutely packed, and everyone was cranky. Once the line gets long we break it up into four different lines because anyone in their right mind would leave if the knew it would take over two hours to see Santa. Two hours - you could see a movie in two hours. Standing in a two hour line makes people worry that they're not living in a democratic nation. People stand in line for two hours and they go over the edge. I was sent into the hallway to direct the second phase of the line. The hallway was packed with people, and all of them seemed to stop me with a question: which way to the down escalator, which way to the elevator, the Patio Restaurant, gift wrap, the women's rest room, Trim-A-Tree. There was a line for Santa and a line for the women's bathroom, and one woman, after asking me a dozen questions already asked, "Which is the line for the women's bathroom?" I shouted that I thought it was the line with all the women in it.

She said, "I'm going to have you fired."

I had two people say that to me today, "I'm going to have you fired." Go ahead, be my guest. I'm wearing a green velvet costume; it doesn't get any worse than this. Who do these people think they are?

Maira Kalman

Behold the wonderful and vividly coloured world of Maira Kalman! A regular contributor to The New Yorker and illustrator of numerous children's books, Kalman has also designed fabric for Issac Mizrahi. Maira Kalman has a selection of her illustrations in her book called The Principles of Uncertainty some of which have been happily made into cards! They are available at Catbird.

I think they are utterly beautiful! The woman is a master colourist, compositionist and humourist! :0)

Below is one of my favourite New Yorker covers she has illustrated.

You can read up on her life here and this is her website which is full to the brim with joyous paintings--> Maira Kaliman.

I hope everyone has a happy and restful weekend!

All images from here via Trendland except the last which is from here.

High Heel Fun X 3

High Heel Fun X 3!

1) Nicholas Kirkwood spring range for 2012.

 
2) High Heel Typeface by Zummi.

 

3) Christian Louboutin's new book.