Asthma Mural

This is around the corner from my apartment.

I can't say I fully understand the message, but I really like the execution.

Speaking of Cats

There have been a few studies on WW2 bomber mascots, most notable pin up girl nose art.

It would be interesting to see a round up of fire house mascots too.

This Garfield (in a kind of great drawing) is on the fire house on West 4th just off of 6th Avenue.

Color Blast From The Past

I remember running out of middle green paint one Friday morning around 1997.

Chances are Cartoon Colour wouldn't be able to make the shipment for the weekend crew (cel painting -especially on commercials was often a seven day a week affair).

By that time New York Central Art Supply was the only place  you could get the stuff locally.  Pearl Paint still carried black and maybe white.  F&B Ceco carried some other supplies like acetates but even those were in short supply.

So it was a little shocking to see this in Blick on Bond Street.

Maybe they think it's still 1998, it would have been in relatively high demand with Buzzco, Curious Pictures and Michael Sporn Animation all within a few blocks at the time -not to mention NYU's always interesting film animation program.

I wonder how much they Cel Vinyl they sell today and who's buying.

Chicken Loses

1991 doesn't seem that long ago, it's the year I came to college in New York.

Manhattan still had "bad neighborhoods" -a walk down Avenue B was a stroll through an illegal pharmaceutical superstore and there were small scale riots downtown when Dinkins cleared Tompkins Park of squatters -but, on the whole the town probably resembled what the city was to become more than what it had been.

There were still vestiges of absurdity -oddity outposts that represented why we come to big city. 

The seen-it-all cabbie from the movies who bellows "Only in New Yawk!" when, say a schnauzer stiff him with some milk bones for a tip -he's left with less and less to gripe about.

Twenty years ago, a college kid looking for an afternoon's entertainment might have wound up at Chinatown Fair after scouring record bins and before grabbing an ice cream cone.  Before getting to the Dig Dug or Ms. Pacman he would have been greeted by the Tic Tac Toe Chicken.

It was a horrible game.  You dropped in a quarter and played tic tac toe against the bird.  A tie was considered a victory for the hen prompting a carnival game voice to exclaim "Chicken Wins!  Chicken Wins!" while the bird did a little dance.

The bird danced because it stood on a meshed wire floor and little charges of electricity would surge through at the finale.  So the chicken never really won.

One day I stumbled in -probably around 1996, 97.  There was handwritten sign tacked up.  "Game out of order.  Chicken dead."

It was replaced with one of those plastic egg dropping chickens which eventually gave way to one of those claw games or something.

Now the arcade has apparently shuddered for good- possibly to convert into an American Apparel or a Duane Reade or a bank.

New York is no place for weirdos or strategic foul.  It's now a mecca of shoe shopping and inelegant bankers who trample on peculiarities that once fostered genius.

New Yorkers Love Art

Across from the Metropolitan Museum.

Up close and personal.

Other People's Junk

This guy is one of Donald Duck's relatives.

Ludwig von Drake, according the internet.  A creation of Milt Kahl for television, though I would have assumed he was one of Carl Barks' characters.

In the literature he's not an amputee nor do I know what the ant tethered to his jacket is all about.

A nice lead lunchbox with "Pete's Dragon" on it.

And what could this curious box be?

Why, it's a vinyl spinner for the budding "DJ" in everyone!

This guy approves!

Ohio

Been working on this film about Thomas Cole for, like, ever and its nearing the end point.

In making it, it took us on trip to Columbus to photograph the Ohio Statehouse.  Cole was the first architect on the building in 1839.

On the outside, it's an austere Greek Revival structure -in keeping with the 19th Century republic's national identity.

The interior is a bit more lavish.

Which makes you think about the difference between how politicians present themselves, and what they think of themselves.

They do have a plaque to commemorate James Thurber who was a statehouse reporter before making it big in The New Yorker.

The cupola with a domed glass ceiling is something to behold.  I'm not sure what images we're using in the film, so I'm going to horde all the nice photos of it.

Looks Like Mom And Dad Lost The Bet

Here's a reason why kids don't run the world.

Though the 86 Mets (the most loathsome team of all time) logo makes me think it's the doing of year round ballcap wearing adult.

Dora Explorer, Fred Flintstone, Little Mermaid -it's like a Roger Rabbit sequel on wheels.

Bright Lights

Took a trip to Dyker Heights, Brooklyn for their world famous Christmas displays.

World famous, I say, based on the large number of Asian tourists who also made the trek.

Some helped Elmo find his way home.

It's mostly lights, but some traditional manger scenes too.

Some lit up mangers.

Some lit up, Santa free mangers.

Some in the center of lots of lights.

Some simply waiting for their centerpiece.

But it's mostly lights.

Or giant statues.

Or a combination of both.

These folks really like Christmas.

Deer were a common theme.

A few houses did it up with inflatables.

A few just did it up.

 Sometimes it was the details in the design.

I like when they get out of focus.

Or just designy.

And don't overdo it.

But the best are simply clever.

Once and Future Junk

I'll admit, I'm not 100% up on the details of Disney films, but I think there's something a little off about this doll.

I guess she grows into her fins.

If baby Little Mermaid or toddler Little Mermaid don't float your boat, there's the teen four pack.

And if the infantilization of cartoon characters isn't your bag, take a step back in time.

If all else fails, you can get some merchandise from the Fleischer Studio.

Road Trip

A few weeks we hit the highways for a shoot on a project for The National Endowment for the Humanities.

I won't post any of the material used for that until it's in better shape.  These are some things encountered along the way.

Apparently these stores are all over America.  I don't know if they all feature this amazing sculpture of bears battling eagles over salmon. 

Or elephants amongst the shoppers.

Or mammoth taxidermy installations.

Everything's big in West Virginia -or Western Pennsylvania -it's all big.

The president's former office in the Ohio Statehouse.

The soup is out there.

But maybe Michael's Goody Boy would be a better choice...