July 2007 Archives
G.J. Echterncamp is a young video director and documentary filmmaker. His latest subject is an utterly absorbing movie about his parents, Frank and Cindy.
In the 80s, Frank was a rising new wave pop star in a band called OXO. He was in his early 20s when he married Cindy, a vivacious blond woman almost 20 years his senior. Shortly after they married, OXO broke up. Cindy supported Frank for many years as he worked the club circuit in Florida, to no avail. They both began drinking and drugging. They also had a child, G.J., who grew up under their non-care for most of his life.
G.J. stays behind the camera most of the time as he films his extremely loquacious, alcohol- and drug-addled parents. I'm surprised he survived, as they are both revealed here to be incompetent, narcissistic, and childish. In spite of their odiousness, there is also something endearing about them, which is why this documentary is so good. You want them to do well, to get cleaned up, to get jobs, to stop hating each other. It's hard not to be disappointed when you discover that they'll never change.
I laughed out loud as many times as I shook my head while watching this. Link
(Click on thumbnail for enlargement) *Please*, do your fucking dishes! Thanks!
Previously on Mad Professor:
• Passive aggressive taxi cab sign
I love looking at (ie. studying, meditating on, losing myself in) this collection of old architectural renderings of supermarket prototypes, found by their owner in a photo album purchased at a garage sale. They appear to be from the early 1960s.
Store names are delightfully awkward word-play experiments and made-up sounding. I assume these renderings were used to simply show prospective clients what is possible in the way of modern "Food Mart" architectural stylings.
Granted, they are images of hideous chain stores, harbingers of terrible things to come. But in retrospect and as portrayed here these places seem so quaint and enchanted, wet, moonlit, not overly big-boxed yet, visited by a small handful of sophisticated men in trench coats and their nicely-groomed wives.
Link
Update:
Here's a musical slideshow with the renderings.
I am enjoying Glyph Jockey's cell phone photos of interesting sites in Tijuana. Link
This no-nonsense cabbie wants his fares to know what's what without having to speak to them. Xeni Jardin snapped the photo with her iPhone and added incisive comments in her Flickr stream. Link
(Click on thumbnails for enlargement)
Mister Jalopy gave me this cake of Tio Nacho. It's a medicinal soap made by Bustillos in Mexico.
Take a look at Tio Nacho ("Uncle Tio"). He's undeniably related to J.R. "Bob" Dobbs, the holy figurehead of the Church of the SubGenius, of which I am a devout member. Here they are, side-by-side. Can you deny the resemblance?
It's safe to say that Uncle Nacho was J.R. "Bob" Dobbs' uncle. This fact alone was enough to guarantee my lifelong brand-loyalty to the soap, no matter what was in the box.
Of course I was eager to open it anyway. Could it be that Tio Nacho's active ingredient was the sacred herb habafropzipulops (or 'frop, as it is known in the street)?
J.R. "Bob" Dobbs' pipe bowl is stuffed with this beneficial plant, which, according to Everything2, is
The revered and despised grief-easer of the mountains, the warrior against pain, the healing herb. Whether taken as smoke, liquid, food, or as "Bob's" pills, it, above all other medicinal substances, "spells relief." From the hearty young stalks protruding from the Himalayan snow to the white 'frop-dust that settles on the rim of "Bob's" Pipe, it is the closest thing to the untainted essence of ODIN on Earth. Habafropzipulops is not merely safe, but beneficial -- nay, even necessary -- to bodily health. We encourage our children to partake of it copiously, to their little heart's abundant desires.
Amen to that! The side of the box has a list of ingredients:
Pine tar...................... 1.80 GAfter looking up Resorcinol on wikipedia, I'm certain it is the resin of habafropzipulops. (Please don't email me in an attempt to convince me otherwsie, as my mind is made up on this matter.)
Sulphur....................... 1.80 G
Resorcinol.................... 0.90 G
Neutral Soap
(Sufficient to complete) .... 90.00 G
As soon as I opened the box, I was struck by a powerful aroma, one that was both sweet and burned. I detected hint of cloves and granny perfume. The soap came wrapped in a piece of paper emblazoned with the emblems of various expos dating back to 1880 (Silver Medal winner at the Pan American exhibition in Puebla):
Also of interest was a fold-out instructional pamphlet enclosed in the box. The cover featured a 50s-style cartoon character reading the very same pamphlet, but unlike the famous infinite regression Borden's Dairy Cow logo, the little pamphlet the man was holding was blank. It really should have had the same drawing of the man reading the pamphlet. I was disappointed.
The other illustrations in the pamphlet were excellent, though. I don't understand Spanish, but it looks like Tio Nacho is good for six things:
1. Washing babies. It also makes fun bubbles!
2. Google translates "En la piel cabelluda" as "In the hairy skin." I'm taking this to mean it promotes hair growth. At $1.95 a cake, it's much cheaper than Minoxidol.
3. I don't need Google Translate to tell me what's going on here. This loving couple has contracted a serious skin condition. The fact that they are a couple makes it pretty clear that this particular disease is contagious. Judging by the expressions on their faces, I'd say the girl gave it to the guy, and not the other way around.
4. Itchy Scalp. Now we're talking. If I skip a day of washing my hair, I go out of my mind with itchiness. I often wake up in the middle of the night feeling like my hair is infested with crawling bugs, Charles Freck-style.
5. Dandruff. I use Neutrogena coal tar shampoo to control my dandruff. It works wonderfully, and never in my life have I smelled anything as delightful as coal tar. When I die, I want to be entombed in a tank of it.
6. Excessively greasy hair. That's me! My head is itchy, flaky, and greasy. Please help me, Uncle Nacho.
The soap is brownish red. The color reminds me a bit of Neutrogena shampoo. It's a good color, but wouldn't jet black be the best color for this soap?
Now it was time to put the soap to the test. As soon as it got wet, it released the smell of sulphur. The odor overpowered the other smells it had. It reminded me of the chemistry set I played with as a kid. It's not a bad smell, but after a while it gets to be a little obnoxious. I washed my hair with it once, twice, rinsing it with the coldest water I could stand (cold water rinses out soap better than hot water.)
When I was done. I could still smell the sulphur, but my scalp felt good. I scratched my scalp over a black sheet of paper, and some small flakes fell out. So the soap isn't perfect. Maybe it takes several applications to fully kick in. I'll let you know.
If want to try this product, be sure to heed the warning:
"AVOID GETTIN IN EYES AS IT MAY CAUSE TEMPORARY SMARTING."
Future versions promise to include buddy list management, privacy controls, and the ability to email your chats. LinkJiveTalk for iPhone (alpha) Features:
• Multiple IM networks, multiple accounts per network: AIM®/iChat, MSN®, Yahoo!®, GoogleTalk®, ICQ®, and Jabber
• Automatically reconnects in case of data service disruption, including phone calls, loss of cell coverage
• Real-time chats, quick switch between multiple simultaneous chats, intuitive chat interface: - click to browse, call, or send an email directly from the chat screen
• SSL encryption of all over-the-air data transmission
I've tried out a number of different iPhone protectors/cases/holsters and the Griffin Elan Holster is my favorite so far. Yes, the iPhone has a glass touch screen, and it's remarkably scratch resistant, but I am terrified that it'll get gouged, so I want a solution that offers screen protection when I'm carrying the iPhone around.
The Elan Holster, made of leather and lined with a "no-scratch-lining" covers the screen when not in use. To use the iPhone, you pull it out of the holster. This means while you are using it, it's unprotected. If you're afraid of dropping your iPhone when you are using it, this is not for you.
I like using my iPhone without a cover or rubber sleeve, because it feels good in my hand in its naked form. When I'm done using the iPhone, I slide it back into the holster, which has a clip that can be oriented vertically or horizontally.
My friend said it looked "too old man," for his taste, but I consider that a recommendation. There are plenty of smart old men out there, and they are smart enough to use one of these to keep their iPhone's display from getting scratched. $30 from Griffin
The lurid images and garish colors found on the covers of Mexican exploitation pulps are a source of inspiration to me. Mexican Pulp Art is a 140-page celebration of Mexican pulp novel and comic book covers from the 1960s and 1907s. Published by Feral House, the color reproduction of these images is superb.
The artists who painted these images -- space aliens, three headed reptilian beasts, sexy but dangerous spacegirls in tight catsuits, fire breathing disembodied ghoul heads, demonic children, drug addled hoodlums, animated corpses, and tentacled giant flying eyeballs, etc. -- were clearly having a grand time.
Don't be fooled by the seemingly primitive subject matter -- the backgrounds and overall composition of the paintings are masterful and worthy of careful study. $13.22 on Amazon
