Nothing like a party full of criticism and guilt

Hello D-

I was looking through some of our old letters today. I miss paper correspondance. There is something about the tactile feel of paper and the smell of the ink. There is nobody I know that sends letters anymore, with the exception of my grandfather. We had perfectly opposing handwritings in these letters, your strong block lettering and my looping script.

I noticed how many of them ended with your drawings of robots. You were always so fascinated with that idea. I wish I had photos of the cardboard robot we made. Robots are sort of Steel Frankensteins, aren't they?

There was a time during college when we were both taking too many film classes to actually shoot something, so we came up with the idea to cut our projects from stock footage. We looked through hours of the Prelinger Archives up on the third floor of the arts building. Didn't all the buildings on campus remind you of castles? It was so cold, and it had snowed that sort of fine dust that falls when it's really freezing. The end of February and the wind howling outside.

I cut this:


The Black Skull Presents: A Word To The Wives (2009) from on Vimeo.

That's when I found my favorite video from the 1940's "Leave It to Roll-Oh" a bizarre speculation into the future of AI. They also pronounce the word Robit, which made me laugh.


This of course led me right down the rabbit hole of the Prelinger archives. I got lost for a couple hours in it's recesses. The video below is about a teenagers first dinner party with the most judgmental narrator I've ever heard.

Though I have no issues with the idea that proper manners can alleviate issues, and make social events easier for all those involved, I have to say that it's the narrators tone that really gets me. Soporific and anal to the extreme; a bizarre uninvited guest. An unsettling exercise in paranoia with lines like:

"Betty wonders if she should try Floyd's method of eating the olive."

"Bob sat on his Napkin"

"Betty wonders if she's giving too small a serving of salad."

Trust me, they dwell on the olive question for a long time. The strangest bit is that the narrator NEVER ACTUALLY ANSWERS any of the etiquette questions that he poses.

Be forewarned, some minor frames and pieces of audio are missing.

I'm gonna draw some robots tomorrow...

I hope you're well D.

-Vi

The Ghost in Your Television

Hello D-

 I'm sorry it's been so long between posts. The hurricane was much worse than anyone could have know, and then my grandfather passed away, and then the holidays...it's been a little bit of a tough month... But I am back!

And I have something wonderful to share with you!

 I thought you might find this kind of inspirational and/or interesting and/or woah there.

 The first television show broadcast by W2XAB in New York City (Owned by CBS) was called The Television Ghost.

Essentially each ghost would tell the tale of their murder. But it was just a tight close-up of an actor George Kelting, his face painted white with a towel over his head. Each episode was 15 minutes long. 

No recording of the show was ever made, the only thing that remains are photos and the radio version of the show, which went out on WABC.

 It's thought to be one of the first dramatic television shows in the world. 

A ghost in the machine D.

 Sometimes I think my body is a machine and my mind is a ghost.

Also, is thinking like reading your own mind?

Nice to talk to you again,

 Vi

Happy Creepy Sunday

Hey there D-

It's another lovely Creepy Sunday here in Gotham. With Frankenstorm on the way, and expected to be more than hype we've holed up here in the coven and dedicated ourselves to suck admirable tasks as ---

-Baking A Winter Vegetable Casserole

-Watching The Giant Gila Monster

I remember the good ol' gila monster crawl

My questionable movie taste sparked a desire for some Rat Rod images, and boy do I have a few things to show you. Rat Rods and Hot Rods are fascinating. Not only because of their beauty and craftsmanship, but because of what they represent. There's something so American about custom car culture, especially when it's done by garage enthusiasts.

ok, well I couldn't leave out what probably sparked my whole car obsession. Watching the Munsters.

I''m going to trick out a VW one day, they're good kit cars.

I hope you're safe D. Wherever you are.

-Vi

Masks Behind Faces

 This is a late nite entry D-

I've found more old costume pictures and I had to show them to you!

What is the boy on the right holding in his left hand?

There's Something Weird Going On

This witch was doing the one leg way before Angie

This one is really spooky.

I love these gals.

I debated including this one...but it's just so odd... The swastikas, the one pant leg being shorter that the other. The second kid's costume...what is it? is he/she a potato witch??

.yikes

Gangs all here

Here is a trailer for the only horror movie Ingmar Bergman ever directed...I think I'm going to watch it this week. On the 31st, if the "frankenstorm" doesn't kill us, I'm going up to a movie theater and seeing Nosferatu on the big screen. A live band is going to prove the music...should be killer.

Till 

           next

                                                                              time

-Vi

Halloween is Fast Approaching

Afternoon D-

Here are some odd costumes from other times and places to get your mind running over the possibilities. What have you decided to be? I'm not sure yet, but I am thinking of being St.Sebastian. Is that too gory? How will I find so many arrows? I suppose I could make them.

"HAIL HAIL THE EYEBALL KID"

Beauty and the Beast

Germany, 1920's

1950's Costume Contest in New York City

Germany

She won "most Biodegradable"

Elegance is Timeless

Monmarte, France

Brush Your Teeth OR ELSE

Desire is a Roach

A Lovely Couple

True Love is for Everyone

She appears to be in full Swoon.

Hello D-
                 I'm just blowin' in to tell you:
                               

I've got levitation

Owls and the Faces Behind Masks

Afternoon D-

I hope you're doing well, wherever you are. I missed you especially this morning because I saw something unusual and that always puts you firmly to the center of my mind.

As I was riding the train to work I noticed a young man curled up on one of the smaller subway seats. This isn't unusual in Gotham, the homeless come in all types, but something about him struck me as odd. First of all he was clean and put together, and through you can't see it in this photo, he was sitting on his sneakers which were brand new Nikes...not cheap. I get the impression he was just a kid who partied too hard and chose a bad place to sleep it off. Then I noticed the mask. 

At first glance I could not ascertain what it was supposed to be, but then I noticed the shape of the eye holes, and an indent meant to be a beak.

An owl. Before he ended up asleep on the subway sitting on his expensive sneakers in a black fur hat this kid had been somewhere it was appropriate to be an owl....or to be dressed as one.

In Sicilian folklore Owls are considered to be bad omens and it's not wise to put an image of one in your home. In fact, the Owl is one of the few animals to be represented in cave drawings, and throughout the history of humanity they have been perceived as everything from a symbol of kindness and wisdom to the animal form of a witch.

These concepts and superstitions still pervade to this day. Many people think that the legendary Mothman incident at Point Pleasant West Virginia was actually  the spotting of a rather oversized barn Owl.

England has it's own Owlman in Cornwall. The creature is said to leave behind the crackling sound of static for a few minutes after it takes flight into the air. It was first spotted in 1976, but sightings continue to crop up every few years.

A letter written by Tony 'Doc' Shiels - April 1976: "A very weird thing happened over the Easter weekend. A holiday-maker from Preston, Lancs., told me about something his two young daughters had seen ... a big, feathered bird-man hovering over the church tower at Mawnan (a village near the mouth of the Helford River). The girls (June 12, and Vicky, daughters of Mr Don Melling), were so scared that the family cut their holiday short and went backthree days early. This really is a fantastic thing, and I am sure the man wasn't just making it up because he'd been told I was on a monster hunt. I couldn't get the kids to talk about it (in fact, their father wouldn't even let me try), but he gave me a sketch of the thing drawn by June. There have been no reports, so far as I know, of anybody else seeing the Bird-Man ... even if it turned out to be just a fancy dress hang-glider, you'd think someone else would have spotted him ... but Mawnan is not a place for hang-gliding! I really don't know what to think ... it's as if a whole load of weirdness has been let loose in the Falmouth area since last autumn!" (Phantoms and Monsters)

There are a lot of theories about what it might be, some claim that a church built on ancient Druid leylines is the cause. Most however think that it's probably just an Eagle Owl that has flown out of it's normal hunting areas.

On an even more bizarre note are the tales of the Lechuza, or shape shifting witch caught in Texas that started making the rounds last year accompanied by a rather perplexing photo.

Lechuza are women, or the spirits of women who can transform into a vengeful giant owl. There are many stories and thoughts of Why though. Some versions of the tale state that a Bruja or witch was killed by local townspeople. Some claim that she is the faithful wife of an unfaithful husband whose spirit seeks justice. No matter what she was, as the Lechuza she is deeply dangerous. Often her modus operandi includes sitting in the trees and making the sound of a newborn baby to attract her prey. She then swoops down and carries the victim off to her cave to eat him slowly. It draws certain comparisons to the Hag or Banshee.

Either way, I think that our sleeping friend is safe from Lechuzas. Safe from the people of Gotham is another story.

-Vi

Secrets of the Deep

Welcome Back D-

https://www.facebook.com/MyFWC
Official site for the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission

Seems like it was a pretty big weekend for mysteries and shenanigans in the ocean. First off, a mysterious eyeball washed ashore on Pompano Beach in Florida.

Described as being "slightly larger than a baseball" when it was found it sparked many theories about it's origins. Some of those tossed about on the Florida Wildlife Conservation Commission's facebook where whale, squid, and my personal favorites "a giant squid ripped out a whale's eye" and the ever popular "Lovecraftian horror."

In the end scientific analysis proved it to be the eye of the Swordfish.

http://tinyurl.com/8s3694r

That wasn't the only creepy thing from the deep. On Friday an Oarfish washed ashore in Cabo San Lucas, in Mexico. A secretive, deep-sea species (between 600 and 3,000 feet) these behemoths lack scales and can reach lengths of 30 feet. With their orange dorsal fins and "manes" many people think that early sightings of Oarfish may have help to form the tales of seamonsters and serpents told by mariners all over the world.

It is thought that this is the first Oarfish to wash up on Cabo's main beach.











Yet none of these is as odd as the tale that came out of France. "A woman was attacked by an octopus while aqua biking." Apparently "aquabiking" is the newest fitness trend, but it nobody expected that the marine life was going to try to get in on the action. The octopus wrapped it's tentacles around the woman's legs, holding her tight to the point that she became unable to escape or continue with the class.

Octopus Street Art in Reims, France

They say that octopod are actually some of the most intelligent creatures of the deep. It's made me reconsider eating them honestly. But then is it right to eat pigs, since they are also highly intelligent? When is a creature too intelligent to eat? It seems like an odd line to draw. 

Q: But would I eat a dolphin? 

A: Maybe. I'm not very nice.

I guess to close up I wanted to show you this video of an octopus stealing a guy's video camera. Maybe all octopi are of the criminal class, so then it's totally ok to eat them.

Wait, that's a bad brand of logic. We can't eat criminals...

Sorry I'm going all Jonathan Swift's Modest Proposal on you this early on a Monday.

Brains!

Holy Hell D!

You're never going to believe this! The following images are from a Soviet era Neuroscience laboratory. The lab was seemingly abandoned in a hurry, and most of the equipment and samples remain behind. If this was your brain what would you want them to do with it? Would you want it to be used again for scientific study? Or buried or cremated? Or something else.

I think I'd rather them keep using it for science if it was viable. Unless there is some sort of a brain surplus. I think that isn't likely though.

If you want to see more photos check out this Russian Blog

The Real Frankenweenie

Hey D-

In this Strange video

a team of scientists

kills and revives a dead dog's head

and then a whole dog 

Experiments in the Revival of Organisms

i feel so sad for the dog but I can't look away

Still from Rescued from an Eagle's Nest (1908 dir. Edwin S. Porter)

D-

            I found this movie still and thought you might like to see it. I think that bird looks more like a vulture than an eagle. Look at how hooked it's beak is. Did you know that when vultures eat they get too heavy to fly? So if they're in danger and need to fly off before they are done digesting they have to throw up before take off. Either that or they get nervous before flights like I do.

Man In The Mask

Dear D-

          Isn't this bizarre? I can't find any information on this photo. I'm sure that this is some sort of facial prosthetic.  I think that I find the mask a lot more frightening than the disfigurement. From his face though, I think that man prefers the mask. His address is far more direct in the photo on the left. His mouth is more at ease. The photo on the right, his chin up, almost challenging you... it's more assertive and less happy.



Or maybe

                                        I'm just looking for things

           that aren't there...