Gobble Gobble Gobble

In honor of Thanksgiving this week, and in keeping with the spirit of sharing delicious, made-with-love meals with your family while learning what really goes into making grandma's famous turkey-shaped cheese ball, I bring you an introduction from one of my new favorite shows. My Grandmother's Ravioli on the Cooking Channel is Mo Rocca at his very best: cracking nudge-wink dad jokes while old people teach him how to cook their specialities. The best episode yet featured Jewish grandmother Ruth Teig showing Mo how to make (and properly pronounce) kreplach. She ate up every food pun Mo served and he relished all of her grandmotherly advice. The above clip is from an episode where Mo was schooled in scones and meatloaf from a benevolent Irish grandmother named Peggy Guiliano who clearly enjoyed taking the stuffing out of her assistant that day. The chef/sous chef interactions are adorable and the recipes are comfort food at its finest. If his program proves nothing else, it demonstrates without a doubt that old people love Mo Rocca and Mo Rocca loves old people. And I love Mo Rocca.

- Cathleen

Memories of My Youth

Lately I've been thinking a lot about when I was little. Specifically, the prominent role that TV played in my life growing up. I attended a preschool that prescribed an hour (or three) of TV time every afternoon, a practice that would be completely unheard of in these days of interactive play. No wonder my memories are clouded with nonsensical theme songs and visions of lumbering puppets. One such show that left a particularly deep impression was Today's Special, a program on Nickelodeon about a mannequin named Jeff who came to life (waaay before Mannequin the movie ever thought about doing it), his dresser/display designer Jodie, an old security guard named Sam, a rhyming mouse they called Muffy (who lived in an AMAZING dollhouse with an elevator!!), and it all took place in the children's section of a department store after hours. My, the hijinks that did ensue! Here's a clip: 

Today's Special "Ice Cream" Part 1

[Part 2 can be found here, and Part 3 here.]

Another real gem was Pinwheel, which was like the Canadian version of Sesame Street. It took place in and around a Victorian house on a quiet leafy street instead of in and around an apartment building on a busy city street. But there were still plenty of puppets and friendly neighbors galore. The opening credits introduce you to all of the characters with a sketchy/drawn effect that I rather liked. They had a fortune teller, a blind mole named Molly, and—just like Today's Special—there was even a mime in the mix! (I guess mimes were really big in the 80s?)

They also featured an international cartoon segment every episode. 

Anyone remember The Rabbit with Checkered Ears?

I wish I could get both series in their entirety on DVD so that I could park my future children in front of their glowing magic for hours on end. 

- Cathleen 

A Simple Song

A Simple Song for a Wednesday. 

With some epic guitar under currents that make me think of The Who. 

But this time it's by The Shins.

Enjoy!

- Cathleen 

Artist of the Week: Hollis Brown Thornton

VHS, permanent marker on paper, 22 1/2"x 30", hbt10-p002, 2010

Hollis Brown Thornton is an artist from South Carolina that I first discovered on 20x200, an awesome online gallery chock full of affordable limited edition art prints. I actually purchased a print of his very cool VHS drawing above as the gift I gave my video-editing hubby on our wedding day this past April.

The tall stacks of videotapes reminded me of the precarious piles that used to collect on the shelf of the entertainment center under our boxy TV set, with titles that told the story of my youth. Dirty Dancing and Footloose shared the same tape, recorded without commercial breaks off of HBO, while Ladyhawke always had to be fast-forwarded through to get to Grease. I cannot think of one movie without the other. Same with Beetlejuice and Back to the Future.  

Osiris Mountain, archival pigment print, available in various sizes on 20x200

My Galaxies, permanent marker on paper,
8 1/4"x 10 1/4", hbt08-p051, 2008, $600

In these drawings, Thornton uses permanent marker to create portraits of defunct technology. I like the striated effect of the magic marker, another vestige of childhood. I especially appreciate the idea that the material itself is not exactly archival; it will fade away (if left in direct sunlight and not framed properly) just like the technology that he so lovingly depicts in his work. 

He works with acrylic paint as well, and also employs a process called pigment transfer in some of his drawings that he provides step-by-step instructions for on his website.

Unsolved Mysteries of the Universe, pigment transfer on paper, 8 1/4"x 10 1/4", hbt10-p056, Edition of 5*, 2010, $100

Toucan Sams, 
pigment transfer on paper 
8 1/4"x 10 1/4", 
hbt10-p061, Edition of 5, 
2010, $100

While I did like the print above, I don’t totally love his manipulations of old family photos. Especially the pixelated paintings that he describes saying, "They represent the idea our physical reality is becoming more and more intertwined with the digital world. There is also a transformation that is almost cartoonish when the image is manually converted to a pixel image, reminiscent of childhood as well as old video games."

I think it’s probably just a personal prejudice of mine, but I’m kind of tired of nostalgia as a subject matter (as well as the idea of revering technology that is becoming obsolete). This definitely became clearer when reading various statements he'd made in my searches on the internet. And I quote:

"It relates to how the beliefs or values of one culture or time period are going to change or be completely obsolete in the future, and how our relationship with reality changes, with reality becoming more and more of a virtual or digital one today."

Sometimes an artist's explanation can really ruin the work for me, either over-simplifying it or being too purposefully vague. But I do love the idea of portraits of old objects as a representation of someone’s interests, as a way to read a life. Then again, I might be reading too much into it.  

- Cathleen

[Photos courtesy of the artist’s website, his Big Cartel shop, and 20x200]