Cesar Romero as the Joker and Lee Meriwether as Catwoman/Miss Kitka (remember, Jul-Newms was washing her hair, so a former Miss America stepped in as kitteh-lady) in the 1966 film version of Batman.
Dearest and weirdest old friendohs with common interests — they are a Thing!
Ghost post; I’m pubbing it up with the Cappy right now. Woohoo!
Super-busy day, y’all. Lunch with Special K and then the Cappy is in town tonight!!!!! Eeeeee! Haven’t seen each other in two years. It’s going to be so wonderful. So here’s some Wednesday for your Wednesday and I am mainly outie for the rest of the day. Love!
Mrs. Firkins: Mm. Well. Wednesday brought in this picture. Uh, “Calpurnia Addams?”
Morticia: Ah! Wednesday’s great-aunt Calpurnia. She was burned as a witch in 1706. They said she danced naked in the town square and enslaved the minister.
Mrs. Firkins: Really?
Morticia: Oh, yes. But don’t worry. We’ve told Wednesday: “College first.”
Roddy McDowall and Francine York, Batman, “The Bookworm Turns,” Season 1, Episode 29. Original airdate April 20, 1966. Well, that’s inauspicious. Shit.
I hate to come off as a down-at-the-mouth grump on the topic of love. I am a romantic. Here is the Bookworm and his lady, the lovely librarian Miss Lydia Limpet, and may I add that I rooted like gangbusters for this pair to win?
via Batman villains database — I love clunky contraptions on men’s heads. I find it so fucking cute. I really do.
In fact, I remember pretty strongly wanting him for myself (girls like a boy who reads!), but I rightly understood Miss Limpet having him was almost the same thing. Later, when I figured out he was in Planet of the Apes, I was even more impressed, but, being a fickle little girl, I soon made way for other crushes, like Matthew Broderick and the Great Mouse Detective — shut up, because that could work — to the point that, when I stayed at La Posada Hotel in Winslow, Arizona several years back and was given the “Roddy McDowall room,” I merely remarked that I’d “once thought he was cute,” and meant nothing more by it.
Interestingly, after his role as the Bookworm in the live-action television series, McDowall continued to wreak villainy in the DC world. He voiced Jarvis Tetch/the Mad Hatter for both Batman: The Animated Series and The New Batman Adventures, as well as performing him in a brief cameo for the late ’90s animated Superman.
In the original television series, the Mad Hatter was played by David Wayne. More on the Mad Hatter another day cause he was really depressed as a character and had some killer-great deadpan lines, even though no one matches King Tut in my estimation for the male villains’ comedic value. But back to love, because that is what I’m trying to prove is probably more important than trivial details of cartoons and old lunchbox-selling serials.
No, I can’t stop talking about it. Okay, because I’m looking at his page on the imdb to make sure I had the dates and titles right and it ends up Roddy McDowall was also the Breadmaster on Edlund’s masterwork The Tick, which is of grave emotional significance to me, and, moreover, had cameos on Darkwing Duck, Quantum Leap, and mother-effing Gargoyles. Also, he was monumentally in to photography and experimental camerawork. So, holy hell, I was smart to have a crush on him as a kid and now I’m going to have to get back to Roddy McDowall another day; he’s obviously been far more of an important thread in my life than I ever could have possibly understood … y’all please excuse me because Roddy McDowall has just now blown my mind.
Finally, according to authorities on these matters, the Catwoman outfit regularly worn by Julie Newmar appears to have been “upcycled” and worn by Francine York (who played librarian Miss Limpet on Batman) for the Lost In Space episode “The Colonists.” Also, in looking for pictures of her, I stumbled across a page where a woman had collected a bunch of pictures of famous Virgo women and though I always claim to put almost zero stock in that stuff, I have to say that they/we all have the faces of birdlike closet freaks who are too shy to smile with our lips parted but rock straight-up crazy do-me eyes despite our distrust of other people — to say nothing of the number of patron saints in her gallery of too-close-to-home horror. Good thing I think that’s largely bunk, or the unnerving similarities might have me concerned that my chakras weren’t aligned with the downward dog position of my chi and I’d have to bury a peeled potato under a full moon or some shit.
Truly the end of this post. Moving on for my own sake.
Zooey Deschanel and Joseph Gordon-Levitt in (500) Days of Summer (Mark Webb, 2009).
“Tom meets Summer on January 8th. He knows almost immediately she’s who he’s been searching for. This is a story of boy meets girl. But you should know up front, this is not a love story.”
(Summer is the consummate Virgo. Anal in both senses and an overanalytical, old-fashioned, misanthropic commitment-phobe, to boot.)
Pretty much, Nancy Boy. He is the opposite of Summer — oh, noes, but Tom loves her so much, what will happen next?! Can these crazy kids work it out when all the odds and Summer’s lack of romantic soulful feelings to Tom are against them??? Actually, SPOILER, it does not pan out. Major spoiler, really. The ending is optimistic but also underlying it is a cheap joke by its creator, which on reflection aptly typifies the reality of love, doesn’t it?, so I take that back as a criticism; now that I think about it, it almost makes me like the stupid joke more. The complaint I have heard most often is that this movie is good except for them breaking up. I dig what you’re saying but to me it’s like when people complain about the fact that Jo and Laurie in Little Women did not get together — that’s how the world is, sometimes you think a thing should go a way, and it doesn’t, and that’s amor fati; i.e., part of the plan too big for you to understand, for now. I think that’s what makes it good.
Screencaps from this movie are everywhere, but these nifty subtitled ones come courtesy One Day, One Movie. The soundtrack is pretty darned good, too, although I am aware there’s been a weird backlash against it. I’m not good at worrying about people’s opinions of what is cool or not cool within my weird range of musical tastes (she says as George Jones follows The Cardigans which followed Pink Floyd on her iTunes playlist — I truly never know what to expect), so I still strongly advocate you buy or illegally download the soundtrack. At least go to my previous post somewhat related to this issue and get Zooey’s cover of Nancy Sinatra’s “Sugar Town”.
Gillian “Agent Scully” Anderson sez…
You’re only given as much as you can handle at any given time. Whether it’s true or not, it gives you the strength.
The fears that live inside of us, whatever they are, and however they manifest, prevent us from living our highest potential, as individuals, and as contributors to the human race. If we consciously and vigilantly transmute those fears through compassion for others, and for ourselves, we will know what it is to live a peaceful existence on this planet.
I truly believe that we can overcome any hurdle that lies before us and create the life we want to live. I have seen it happen time and time again.
All images by superfly photographer [John] Rankin [Waddell] for the UK edition of GQ, probably via some combination of littleredhead, xphiles, and fuckyeahgilliananderson on the tumblr.
Click to read it large. “Is there a spell to become a mermaid that actually works?”
Don’t knock it ’til you’ve tried it: Daryl Hannah in Splash (Ron Howard, 1984).
Do you understand why I am bringing this up?
Some turbulence this week to start the year, which is not a thing I seek or enjoy. I’d like to find a cave to hide away for at least a hundred days, but all I can do is slog through. I will not be pulled by the current toward the drowning deep waters of self-pity and away from solid ground, self-improvement, and good spirits. Today this song, together with the support of my friends and family, is the sturdy field of underwater reeds that are keeping me in the shallows. Cling and inch along with me.
St. Vincent – Human Racing
Romeo, where’d you go?
It’s been years and still no sign
But I’m keeping hope alive
Juliet, how’ve you been?
You look like death
like you sure could use some rest
from this place
Still from Romeo and Juliet (Baz Luhrmann, 1996). Every time this scene begins I want to stop them.
Human racing
and the faces of people
who pound at your door
They’ll always want more
they’ll want more
Still from Romeo and Juliet (Baz Luhrmann, 1996)
Hummingbird, what’s the word?
Are you still your mothers child
or have you found yourself a flower?
Flower child, you’re still wild
Under a harvest moon
can we eat of all the fruits of our youth?
Tell the truth now
Your heart is a strange little orange to peel
What’s the deal?
What’s the deal?
Mary, dear, how you feel?
Are you lost without your lamb?
You know I think I understand
Little lamb, what’s your plan?
Greener pastures in the sky?
it’s a shame you want to die, know why,
Just to find
you’ve been blinded
to the greenest of pastures
they’re right here on Earth
For what it’s worth,
you’re not the first to break my heart
For what it’s worth,
you’re not the first to break my heart
you’re not the first to break my heart
For what it’s worth,
you’re not the first to break my heart
Thank god for the grace of my dear friendohs who help me keep whatever semblance of sanity I have, and I know that with their help and my own determination, I will only improve in my outlook.
Coco Rocha as a naïad in Numero, looking like the glorious intersection of Our Lady with Ophelia and Bollywood and the Llorona. One of my favorite pictures ever.
The good thing about nearness to the bottom is that it’s such a known factor. When you can kick your legs and your knees keep striking the sand, then you know which way is up and truly only better can follow.
I believe that I will surface. I don’t think that giving up is failing, it’s just that I’m not ready to let myself quit.
CBR’s Kelly Thompson has named Kate Kane, Batwoman, the #1 Female Comic Character of the Decade.
Art by J. H. Williams with color by Dave Stewart. Kind of a Kahlo-influenced Dia de los Muertos sugar skull vibe, somewhere between a prayer card and an xray, gruesomely awesome and totally apropos genre of art especially given her gal is Renee Montoya. This cover art + me = Total. Love.
The rest of the list is singularly amazing as well. It includes Cassie Cain as Batgirl, honorable mention for Det. Renee Montoya as The Question —Kate Kane’s sweetheart— and a shout-out to Detective Deena Pilgrim from the Powers world (I have always favored the idea of Retro Girl better than the actuality of Deena and her unmasked heroism, personally, ever since I shut myself in the bath one day following a fight with my husband and read Who Killed Retro Girl? until the water got cold, and I continually peruse Powers in the hope of seeing Pilgrim take on that intriguing mantle one day, but so far no go).
Renee Montoya, formerly one of Gotham’s Finest, now The Question.
Additionally, Thompson gives a glowing enough account of a “Micchone” heroine from Walking Dead that I’m actually willing to give a zombie comic a spin, so give the article a read if you’ve got some loose bills left over from Christmas folding money and are looking for new things to read.
“Hurt me.” And I thought I had Daddy Issues? Cropped from a scan by scans daily’s gallery from Batgirl 49-50 when Cass done got fired.
Super fat-bat-thanks to Peteski, aka nevver on the tumblr, who is always hooking me up to badass shit that brightens my day.
Jim Gordon and the Bat toast to a happy upcoming year for you and yours. I do too.
All you can do, all you can ever do, is keep going forward.
Lot’s Wife, 1989. David Wander.
As soon as they had been brought outside, he was told: “Flee for your life! Don’t look back or stop anywhere on the Plain. Get off to the hills at once, or you will be swept away.”
The Lord rained down sulphurous fire upon Sodom and Gomorrah (from the Lord out of heaven). He overthrew those cities and the whole Plain, together with the inhabitants of the cities and the produce of the soil.
But Lot’s wife looked back, and she was turned into a pillar of salt.
Genesis 19:17-23, 26.
It’s good to learn lessons from the past, it’s wise not to pretend it never happened, but I am concerned that too much auld lang syne will fuck your world apart, you know what I mean? So take it easy on yourself with the nostalgia today. I am going to try.
Art by Ahren Hertel from his MFA thesis project “Forward,” exhibited at the University of Reno April 13-24, 2009.
“Her animal friends,” via bunnylicious; all other pics via creepmachine.
Many more pictures from the exhibit here and here.
Photograph by Justin Sullivan
Hertel became known for his surrealist paintings with childlike and cartoonish characters, but the work that forms his master’s thesis is in a much more realistic style while still being recognizable as his. (“‘Forward’ by Ahren Hertel art reception.” Sullivan, Justin. April 16, 2009. Metromix Reno.)
You can also find Mr. Hertel and pictures of his work on the myspace, where he links to some of his past gallery shows and lists “History, things decaying,” and “alley ways with tons of fire escapes” as his general interests. Sold!
Bonus mega high-res portrait of nearly-lifelong obsession, Patron Saint and role model Sherilyn Fenn as Audrey Horne in Twin Peaks:
Garbo vamps.
Flesh and the Devil, 1926. Directed by Clarence Brown, based on the play The Undying Past, a translation by Beatrice Marshall of the 1894 German play Es War (“It Was”) by Hermann Sudermann.
Starring Greta Garbo as Countess Felicitas von Rhaden, later Mrs. von Eltz; John Gilbert, her real-life lover and one-time fiance as mistreated hero Leo von Harden; and Lars Hanson as Ulrich von Eltz. Gonna relay the brief plot via some killer screencaps. Enjoy.
At the crux of this silent melodrama is a love triangle aggravated by protagonist Leo’s continued desire for Felicitas, the adulterous wife of his best friend Ulrich — who married Felicitas after Leo’s duel with her first husband resulted in Leo’s being stationed in South Africa for five years — and author of his misery.
Supporting players are Barbara Kent and George Fawcett as Ulrich’s younger sister, who begs Felicitas to stop trying to have both her brother and his friend, as it can only result in yet another duel, and sage Pastor Voss, who has known both men all their lives. But the real star, of course, is Garbo and her face. Everyone else kind of fades in to the background.
The action begins with a ball where recently-trained soldier Leo first meets Felicitas von Rhaden, who he’d glimpsed briefly leaving the railway when he arrived in town. Felicitas also remembers the eye contact and throws him some more smoky glances. Stealing away from the ball with Leo, she conveniently does not mention she has a husband, so when Count von Rhaden catches them getting up to sexytimes in her bedroom, Leo has no choice but to accept the Count’s challenge to duel him.
Question for discussion: Would you seriously die for some chick you met at the train station even when you just had empirical evidence thrown in your face that she was lying by omission about being freaking married, so you knew there was a pretty good chance she was a skank? I mean, is her honor really more important than your life? What is wrong with boys? Anyway, Leo wins the duel and kills the Count.
For his trouble, Leo is sent to a remote army post in South Africa, but Felicitas stays in his thoughts, as evinced by these two, above and below, gorgeous pre-fancy FX stills. For me, simple cinematographic tricks of the early films are far more beautiful, haunting, and multi-dimensionally resonant than a thousand unnecessary CGI lensflares. (Dreamworks, write that down.)
Leo arrives home to find that, in his absence, Felicitas has married Ulrich, his best friend since childhood, who once became Leo’s blood brother with his little sister Hertha as a witness, and who was supposed to be keeping an eye on Felicitas for Leo while Leo was “out of town.” In Ulrich’s defense, having sex with a woman is a really good way to keep an eye on her while also taking time for fun. I mean, you can’t be all work and no play.
Felicitas is still all-up-ons, which obviously causes great conflict for Leo, who is still no great shakes at hiding his feelings. (He also continues to suck at not fooling around with married chicks.) Meanwhile, Ulrich’s little sister Hertha has caught on to her sister-in-law’s game and tries to intercede with Felicitas, seemingly to no avail. Leo goes to Pastor Voss for advice, who tries to counsel him against pursuing a relationship with Felicitas.
The pastor suggests that Felicitas is not the innocent pawn that love-goggled Leo perceives her to be, but instead is an active agent of temptation, perhaps even a metaphorical vehicle of Satan, a lying symbol of the falseness of a life lived away from a strong moral code.
Leo doesn’t totally cotton to the idea that the love of his life is just a jezebel who enjoys hurting men for sport, but Pastor Voss reminds him of the ruin she has wrought in his life already, forcing him to kill a man, sending him in to exile, and coming between Leo and Ulrich, his friend since boyhood. The pastor says, “I christened you separately, but I’ve scarcely seen you apart since.”
Mulling over the idea that Felicitas is not-so-blameless in this game of love, Leo flashes back on some particularly creepy and un-Christian moments in which he has caught sly-eyed Felicitas.
(It’s amazing the clarity that comes with celibacy.) This seems to actually get through to Leo, who it ends up has a capacity for outrage after all.
He goes and angrily confront Felicitas, taking her to task for the trouble she has caused him, seemingly for her own amusement, as she has specifically told him she will not leave Ulrich and that she wants to have her husband and Leo for a lover, too. When she doesn’t recant or apologize, Leo furiously goes for the throat.
Ulrich busts in to find Leo throttling his wife. Felicitas orders him to shoot Leo immediately — probably hoping that he will, and Leo won’t have the chance to explain why he was mad. Ulrich instead challenges Leo to a duel the next evening on a sort of sandbar-cum-island in the middle of their village’s lake called the Isle of Friendship, on which they used to play as boys.
Hertha, Ulrich’s sister, comes and begs Felicitas to stop the duel, but she will not. Finally, Hertha prays to God to soften her adulterous sister-in-law’s heart, and suddenly Felicitas looks guilt-stricken, gets all bundled up, and rushes out in to the freezing Winter night. This is cross-cut with scenes of the men preparing to duel, but finding themselves unable to even raise their guns and aim at one another because of their lifelong friendship. They realize this high-class hooker has basically wrecked them emotionally, and conclude that they would both be better off well-shot of her. They are friends again.
What’s been going on with the finally-redeemed Felicitas in the meanwhile, who’s been hurrying out across the ice to the Isle of Friendship as the men rekindle their love for one another and realize how worthlessly she has behaved? Mmm. Spoiler alert.
Bad girls finish last. Some releases further hammer this point home by showing a final scene in which the loving younger sister, Hertha, is on a carriage preparing to move to Munich, and Leo comes chasing after it to stop her. (Implying they will now hook up, because she is sweet and patient, and wants the best for everyone, instead of being kind of a whore, and now Leo and Ulrich will be brothers for real.)
Final thoughts: Boys, stop taking back your dreadful same old bitchface ex-girlfriends and tolerating their bullshit. Find a new bitchface and get embroiled in new bullshit!
Paging Dr. Freud.
Welcome to the monkeyhouse, Dick Grayson.
“Batman & Robin # 10,” by Frank Quitely.
And just as I was about to bring the guitar crashing down upon the center of the bed, my father woke up, screaming, “Stop! Wait a minute! Stop it, boy! What do you think you’re doing? That’s no way to treat an expensive musical instrument.”
And I said, “Goddamn it, Daddy! You know I love you. But you’ve got a hell of a lot to learn about rock and roll!”
— Meatloaf, “Wasted Youth,” Bat Out of Hell II.
The Cat and the Bat girl do get up to some games, too. These cats and bats: it is kind of a Thing.
“Who Wants Saving?”
Pictures are part of the set “Cat Woman” by Sharon K Cooper, aka sosij on flickr.
“After A Night on the Tiles.”
Please note the Catwoman mask in Gidget’s hands. Hilarity. Also, where the where did those wonderful panties come from because I don’t have them yet and that is an Inexcusable Crime that I want to remedy as fast as possible.
“Holy Smokes.”
My wardrobe of Batclothes is ever-growing thanks to the combined efforts of Hot Topic and the Target little boys’ department, but without Nancy Droop* panties it is clearly still gross in lackage (I will never be done building my collection, and I hate it very much for the vain, materialistic, juvenile freak that it makes me, but I can’t fight it … it’s too deeply ingrained).
*(one of these days I will have to comb back through the journal and see how many insult-nicknames I have called Batgirl/Barbara Gordon by this year alone.)
I would be remiss to leave religion to the boys. Feast your eyes on baked goods and some Latter-Day Saint ladies, ladies, ladies in the “Hot Mormon Muffins” 2010 calendar!
A new calendar pokes fun at what its creator [Chad Hardy] calls a stereotype of Mormon mothers as homemakers from another era. “Hot Mormon Muffins: A Taste of Motherhood” features 12 mothers who claim membership in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and each month has a muffin recipe. (“Hot Mormon Muffin Calendar Debuts.” Dobner, Jennifer. Dec. 21, 2009, AOL.com news.)
Leticia, Hot Mormon Muffin of December
In the words of Laurel Thatcher Ulrich, “well-behaved women rarely make history.” Historically, change has come from those who have dared to challenge the status quo. These twelve women are doing just that. The Mormon mothers who “bare their testimony” on the pages of the Hot Mormon Muffins calendar are women who are comfortable enough in their own beliefs, and independent and brave enough to take a stand for what they believe in regardless of what others may think. (“Meet The Muffins,” on the calendar’s official site.)
It would appear likely that the 12 moms (ranging in age from 26 to 53) appearing in “Hot Mormon Muffins” will have to watch out.
At least one of the models has already expressed her defiance. Tami Roberts, 35, of Idaho Falls, Idaho, said she did the calendar, in part, because she wants her 3 daughters to “know that everybody is not the same and it’s OK to make your own choices.”
Roberts read about the “Men on a Mission” calendar last year, and decided that she wanted to be a part of the new project after reading about [calendar creator Chad] Hardy’s punishment [of excommunication from the Mormon church].
“That made me mad, I did not agree with that,” the cover model said. “The pictures are tasteful, and it’s fun. I don’t see why people can’t have a sense of humor. I just don’t think it’s a big deal!” (“Hot Mormon Muffins Calendar Features Sexy Mormon Moms, Muffin Recipes,” October 26, 2009. Zimbio.com)
See? Not all LDS people are crazy-go-nuts. It’s just a few standouts that give the rest a bad name! (I’m looking at you, weirdo Twilight-writing crazy cat-lady, whatever your name is — I’m not taking the time to Google you.)
Swing by the Mormons Exposed website to pick up your own copy — I may have spilled some of the “hot mormon” half of the beans, but you don’t see a word of the recipes, so hopefully that will entice you. You can also buy the “Men On A Mission” 2010 calendar, a sort of male counterpart to “Hot Mormon Muffins.” Ai!
Orrrr you can buy this shirt in “Polygamy Pink”:
Yeah, I guess I can see where Chad Hardy got in some trouble, but a sense of humor never killed anyone (except people who die of overdose on ether … as they say in Radioland Murders, it’s a slow, painful, uuugly way to die (then everyone laughs).)
I guess the only compunction of guilt I have for putting this post together is that I wonder what Orson Scott Card thinks of all this … I would hate to picture him shaking his head and saying, “I am so disappointed in you, Elizabeth.”
Oh, man, now I’m super-bummed! You can rock me to sleep tonight.
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