"Hey, a soul can't be bought, nor can a soul be sold."
—Thompson Twins, "Shake It Down," Queer

Who could count how many musicians have sold their souls for unearthly talent?  The violinist Paganini was rumored to have made such a contract, and the blues guitarist Robert Johnson famously bragged that he had.  We’re by no means suggesting that either the British pop band Thompson Twins or the German soul/electro singer Billie Ray Martin sold their souls for their exquisite musical abilities.  (If we were indeed privy to such diabolical secrets, we’d be all the less likely to whisper them about!)  We merely call your attention to the unconventional personage who accompanied each band on stage.  Wearing a large hat that obscures his face, this archetypal figure in black looked nothing like the rest of the band.  Exuding aloofness and confidence, this maverick appeared to be some sort of "puppet master,” pulling the band’s strings even as he manipulated his own bass or steel guitar.  In the case of Thompson Twins, the mysterious figure even brazenly shape-shifts, his shadow growing larger and smaller as he performs behind a massive screen.  Of course, two different musicians played out the role of the hat-wearing figure in black; while their identities are known, it is the archetype they played out that is in question.

Figure One: the bassist in black (right) looks nothing like the zany members of Thompson Twins in this 1985 Liverpool performance.




Figure Two: The bassist looms over the band.  Here he is seen in enlarged shadow form.




Figure Three: Another view of the mysterious bassist looming over vocalist Tom Bailey.




Figure Four: Shapeshifting from behind a screen, the enigmatic bassist repeatedly changes size.




Figure Five: Behind Billie Ray Martin sits Mr. X, his face always hidden by his incongruous cowboy hat, in this 1995 performance on the "Later With Jools Holland” television program.




Figure Six: What archetype is this mysterious figure playing out, performing a pedal steel guitar in an electronic dance band?

Here we document two more of his mysterious incarnations in 1972.

by antmoose

From A Surrealist Dictionary by J. Karl Bogartte:

GLANCE: A bitter tasting fungus often used for catching shadows.

Southwest Airlines was envisaged not with a paper airplane (as Hollywood might lead you to believe) but rather on the back of a napkin.  (See this BusinessWeek article for a picture of the doodle.)  It could be said (though it won't be) that the napkin's flexibility has "rubbed off" on the company, not to mention elegance, durability, absorbability, and stain resistance.  Speaking of napkins in Hollywood, it appears that an uncanny look-alike of former Senator John Edwards has written a book about napkin doodling.  (Surprisingly, and some might say disappointingly, the book is printed on regular paper.)

by : Damien

"The Sumerian epic of Gilgamesh might be the oldest piece of literature we have; it has lost nothing of its original freshness.  Gilgamesh for Apes is an attempt to translate it into the pictorial language used by American and Japanese  primate centres teaching language to great apes."

Which is funnier: “whiskers” or “mutton chops”?

Clue:  This is according to Jonathan Caws-Elwitt and Laurence Sterne.

Answer:  mutton chops. Mr. Caws Elwitt explains: “In a room full of ordinary words, I feel that ‘whiskers’ would most likely be the life of the party. But the triumph of ‘mutton chops’ is, I think, overdetermined, given the inherent silliness of both of the two individual words; the synergistic effect of their combination; and the conceptual silliness of describing facial hair with reference to a food.” (The answer is in black text on the black background. Highlight it to view.)