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Friday, August 26, 2005

Friday Round-Up: August 26, 2005


Another weekend is upon us and that can only mean one thing, stout readermonkeys-- another J.E.I. Friday Round-Up. Your opportunity to take a high-level view of the Journal in its blessed entirety.

Released back into the wild this week: part six of Jimmy Olsen's Secret Files, '80s movie poster misfires, another slap in the face to our favorite eBay artist, a whimsical collection of figurines from our favorite 16th century fire 'n' brimstone painting, a reasonable explanation from 700 Club skipper Pat Robertson, and another quartet of J.E.I.-approved sites, all cleared for your tender eyeballs.

As always, there's more to come (maybe even a little over the weekend). So come on back now, y'hear? Saaa-lute!

Advertising
As authentic as anything else we do.
Bad Art
We don't know a lot about art but we know what we hate.
Correction
A.K.A "Please withdraw your lawsuit."
Editorial
Opinions are like bellybuttons: a useless deforming scar.
Ephemedia
Nifty graphics, sounds and video guaranteed to crash your computer.
Feature Articles
Finally, some meat on this bone.
Food Of The Gods
Would that we could eat like them.
For Sale
Caveat Emptor. Seriously.
Hot Or Not?
Celebrities ridicule the insecure. Fun.
Illiterature
Because reading is fundemental.
Lost & Found
Uniting keepers and weepers.
Lost TV
Untold tales of the glowing glass teat.
News
Stop the presses.
Poetry
There once was a girl from Nantucket...
The Savage Breast
Music, not boobs.
Science!
What she blinded us with.
Seal Of Approval
Sites that don't suck so much.
Storytime Corner
Once upon a time... .
A Thousand Words
What a picture is worth, depending on exchange rates.
Watercooler
Intercepted communications amongst the staff.
Wish List
Or, as Black Flag said, "Gimme gimme gimme."

Insania Fragilis, Fectum Dubitabilis!

The J.E.I. Seal Of Approval XII


It's time again for The Journal of Ephemeral Inspiration to make that Sophiest of Choices, the selective awarding of our useless J.E.I. Seal of Approval.

So have a look-see, and don't forget to tell 'em we sent you. It won't get you special treatment, but we do like having our name thrown around with the bouncers.

  • DeMoulin Bros. & Co. Catalog
    We're still trying to figure this one out, but we're pretty sure it's way cool. Best we can tell, this is a 1930s company who's purpose was to supply various fraternal lodges everything they needed to perform their secret rituals of hazing and humiliation. Even if you don't appreciate the weirdness, the typography and design are outstanding. Props to Boing Boing for the discovery.
  • TV John Langworthy
    TV John used to have a cable access show in Washington DC, which he really should consider reviving, or at least selling on DVD. We could never do justice to his genius, so we'll let his site copy do the talking: "He is a multimedia personality who has recorded more than 2,000 songs, songs that came to him in dreams. He is, of course, TV John. Who can forget his legendary concerts at Joe's Record Paradise, performing on trampoline, in his stylish Robin Hood suit?" That about says it all.
  • Superdickery
    If you've been reading our series, The Secret Files of Jimmy Olsen, you already knew (even if Jimmy doesn't)-- Superman is a dick. Thankfully, Superdickery has the proof-- dozens and dozens of comic book covers depicting the Man of Steel's selfish and cruel ways.
  • Guitar Shred Show
    You can't go wrong with interactive Flash animation based on a quasi-Asian (quasian?) philosophy of speedmetal guitar shredding. Can Mr. Fastfinger win his duel with the Devil's accordion? You've got to try it to find out.

Well done, all. Insania Fragilis, Fectum Dubitabilis!

Also in this series...

News: Pat Robertson Surprised At Fuss, Sets Record Straight


VIRGINIA BEACH, VA - Religious broadcaster Pat Robertson insisted Wednesday that he did not call for the assassination of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, despite comments broadcast on his program two days earlier.

"I didn't say 'assassination,'" Robertson said Wednesday on his Christian Broadcast Network show "The 700 Club" about remarks reported by The Associated Press and other media outlets.

"I said our special forces should 'take him out.' 'Take him out' could be a number of things... there's a lovely Red Lobster restaurant near my offices, and I'd be honored if President Chavez would be my guest. Not as a date, of course, just as friends."

"There are a number of ways of taking out a dictator from power besides killing him. I was misinterpreted by the AP, but that happens all the time. Still, no one seemed to get their panties in a bunch when we sic'd that hooker on Swaggart. It's a double standard."

But a video of Monday's telecast shows that Robertson's exact words were: "You know, I don't know about this doctrine of assassination, but if he thinks we're trying to assassinate him, I think that we really ought to go ahead and do it. It's a whole lot cheaper than starting a war, and I don't think any oil shipments will stop."

He continued: "We have the ability to take him out, and I think the time has come that we exercise that ability. We don't need another $200 billion war to get rid of one, you know, strong-arm dictator. It's a whole lot easier to have some of the covert operatives do the job and then get it over with. How could you possibly misinterpret what I'm saying as advocating an illegal act of war on a sovereign nation?"

Here are a few other comments Robertson feels the media twisted:

"The Islamic people, the Arabs, were the ones who captured Africans, put them in slavery, and sent them to America as slaves. Why would the people in America want to embrace the religion of slavers?"

"Just like what Nazi Germany did to the Jews, so liberal America is now doing to the evangelical Christians. It's no different...More terrible than anything suffered by any minority in history."

"When lawlessness is abroad in the land, the same thing will happen here that happened in Nazi Germany. Many of those people involved with Adolph Hitler were Satanists, many of them were homosexuals – the two things seem to go together."

"The feminist agenda is not about equal rights for women. It is about a socialist, anti-family political movement that encourages women to leave their husbands, kill their children, practice witchcraft, destroy capitalism, and become lesbians."

"You say you're supposed to be nice to the Episcopalians and the Presbyterians and the Methodists and this, that, and the other thing. Nonsense, I don't have to be nice to the spirit of the Antichrist."

"I know this is painful for the ladies to hear, but if you get married, you have accepted the headship of a man, your husband. Christ is the head of the household and the husband is the head of the wife, and that's the way it is, period."

"[Homosexuals] want to come into churches and disrupt church services and throw blood all around and try to give people AIDS and spit in the face of ministers."

"[Planned Parenthood] is teaching kids to fornicate, teaching people to have adultery, every kind of bestiality, homosexuality, lesbianism – everything that the Bible condemns."

When the AP called Robertson on Tuesday for elaboration, spokeswoman Angell Watts said Robertson would not do interviews and had no statement about his remarks. On Wednesday, Watts did not respond to two telephone messages, three pages and a fax seeking further comment.

On Tuesday, the State Department called Robertson's remarks "wack."



Also in this series...

Thursday, August 25, 2005

Wish List: Hieronymus Bosch Pooping Devil-Bird Action Figure


Screw Hummel. If you want a tough-as-nails figurine that will also stimulate your art-school sensibilities, you can't go wrong with the Hieronymus Bosch figure set.

Pictured at right, Devil on Night Chair depicts Ol' Scratch himself, his cauldron-wearing glossy black-eyed avian embodiment hungrily gobbling condemned souls while perched on a stilted commode. The figure unfortunately does not include the pit-pooping aftermath (as shown in the original painting, see below), but the message is clear: sinners are in for a world of suck.

As for the painting, please open your textbooks...

Bosch, Hieronymus: The Garden of Earthly Delight

Bosch's most famous and unconventional picture is The Garden of Earthly Delights (c. 1504; Triptych, plus shutters; Oil on panel; Central panel, 220 x 195 cm; Wings, 220 x 97 cm; Museo del Prado, Madrid) which, like most of his other ambitious works, is a large, 3-part altarpiece, called a triptych. This painting was probably made for the private enjoyment of a noble family. It is named for the luscious garden in the central panel, which is filled with cavorting nudes and giant birds and fruit. The triptych depicts the history of the world and the progression of sin. Beginning on the outside shutters with the creation of the world, the story progresses from Adam and Eve and original sin on the left panel to the torments of hell, a dark, icy, yet fiery nightmarish vision, on the right. The Garden of Delights in the center illustrates a world deeply engaged in sinful pleasures.


For a ginormous look at the complete painting, click here. The detail is amazing and horrifying. If you're on dial-up, make due with the wee graphics below. And for chrissakes, get broadband, it's 2005.






Also in this series...

Tuesday, August 23, 2005

Bad Art: Bumble Bee & A Blue Flower


We admit it, we love Skree-ation's "art;" the more inept and derivative the better. Skree must paint, Skree must sell... Skree clearly has a muse (though we suspect that muse may well be William Hung).

Underneath its Pollyanna-esque surface, "Bumble Bee & A Blue Flower" clearly depicts a classic Marxist struggle between the proletariat and bourgeoisie. The worker bee toils day in and out to support its socialist hive; while amongst its basking peers, the means-of-production-owning flower stretches eagerly toward the bee, yearning to exploit and ultimately consume the insect. The bee lurches back in desperate self-preservation; but like post-Reagan globalism has proven, the steamroller of capitalism cannot be turned; our hero is doomed.

However, the green would go perfectly with out new divan.


Also in this series...

Monday, August 22, 2005

Ephemedia: First Draft Marketing II


It's time for more couldda shouldda wouldda, or as we call it here at The Journal of Ephemeral Inspiration, First Draft Marketing.

This round of horrible ideas comes from the 1980s. Think of the millions in tickets lost and careers dashed had these clunkers made it out of the gate. Pity... we could have all been spared the last two decades of Julia Roberts.

















Also in this series...