Lunedi Lunacy

Napoleon the Pig - Animal Farm
Halas & Batchelor (1954)

Halas and Batchelor Cartoon Films was founded in 1940 by husband and wife team John Halas and Joy Batchelor; over the next 58 years they were to be one of the premiere animation studios in Western Europe.  Their output include 70 propaganda films during the Second World War, children's shows, full length cartoons (the first was Animal Farm in 1954 - unwittingly a propaganda film clandestinely funded by the CIA), musical shorts, educational cartoons and a series based on the popular books of Gerald Hoffnung - he of the Interplanetary Music Festival.

In 1961 they introduced Hamilton the Musical Elephant in two charming little shorts with soundtracks by British jazz great Johnny Dankworth (it was only later that he became the more formal John). 

You have to wonder why the little guy only appeared it two cartoons though perhaps the creators wisely thought there were only so many plot lines you could create for a trumpet playing forgetful elephant.

April 6 -1327: The poet Petrarch first sees his idealized love, Laura, in the church of Saint Clare in Avignon.

Lunedi Lunacy

The good folks at Honest Trailer can always be counted on to take the mickey (and I don't mean Mouse) out of some of the most hyped movies in the Netflix catalogue - I'd post their take on Les Miserables but I'm still wondering how they could make it any more ridiculous than it already was.   So now that they've released a "live action" version of that great classic Cinderella perhaps it's time to re-access the Disney Studio 1950 animated version.  

So all together now:  Blupperty blup slupperty slurp.....

March 30 - 1939: Detective Comics #27 is released, introducing Batman.

Lunedi Lunacy

Now this is fast food:

And I'm just imaging the clean up afterwards.  Thanks to Marc-Aurele for sharing this.

March 2 -1791: Long-distance communication speeds up with the unveiling of a semaphore machine in Paris.

Lunedi Lunacy

 A little bit of musical lunacy to start off a Monday morning.  You have to wonder at the imagination - and technical know-how - that goes into this sort of thing.  Did this lad just wake up one morning and say "I want to do a multi-track vocal of a bit of your old Greig"?

February 9 - 1969: First test flight of the Boeing 747.

Lunedi Lunacy

In Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake one of the highlights - and test of a company's Coryphées - is the brief pas de quatre for the cygnets in Act 2.  It's a delightful little interlude as four dancers imitate (?) the movements of baby swans as imagined by Lev Ivanov's .  It is also one of those moments in ballet that is ripe for parody.  

Yesterday my friend - and balletomane par excellence - Simonetta posted a delightful take-off on this iconic moment in dance.  But first I thought I'd post a video of how it is usually done, here by members of the Swedish Royal Ballet.

And now for one of the most original comic takes on that little dance that I've ever encountered:

I don't know who the four dancers are or what the (obviously) gala occasion was but it certainly starts my week off on a fun note.

February 2 - 1709:  Alexander Selkirk is rescued after being shipwrecked on a desert island, inspiring the book Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe.

Lunedi Lunacy

Offered without comment:

January 19 - 1915: Georges Claude patents the neon discharge tube for use in advertising.

Lunedi Lunacy

After a week off - work, winter and indolence - from posting I thought I'd start Monday off with a lesson in astronomy.



Thanks to Wendy - who was following the directions: second star to the right, and straight on till morning.

January 12 - 1808:  John Rennie's scheme to defend St Mary's Church, Reculver, founded in 669, from coastal erosion was abandoned in favour of demolition, despite the church being an exemplar of Anglo-Saxon architecture and sculpture.

Lunedi Lunacy

Christmastide has always been a time for laughter and when it comes to laughter Bizarro has poked a good bit of fun at the traditions of the Holiday Season.

The Lead Up:

The Big Day Itself:

The Aftermath:

December 29 - The Irish Free State is replaced by a new state called Ireland with the adoption of a new constitution.

Lunedi Lunacy

The one thing you will never see either on here or on my FaceBook profile is either of the HFH dressed up for any reason or season.  Only once have I ever done that and I regret it to this day.  I put a pair of reindeer antlers on our Reesie only because some friends had brought them all the way from Australia. As everyone laughed poor Reese looked so ashamed and hid himself in my lap. I still have the picture and vowed at that point that never again would it happen. 

So we have no HFH Christmasy photos - in fact these two won't even go near the tree - doesn't interest them at all.   But that doesn't meant we can't have some seasonal fun where dachzies are concerned. 

I'm sure all my friends who are owned by dachshunds can identify with this and many other tasks:  

And from any of those morning when the landscape is white with new fallen drifts of snow,  here's a little song to sing as you struggle to put on boots, coats and outdoor paraphernalia.

December 22 - 1894: The Dreyfus affair begins in France, when Alfred Dreyfus is wrongly convicted of treason.

Lunedi Lunacy

Well I'm just happy that the performance of The Messiah I sang in last Friday didn't go for stage effects.

Thanks to Pam for this one.


Sidebar: And on a not at all humourous note - the sound of 399 other voices around me singing this incredible music was a very emotional experience.

December 8 - 1542:  Mary Stuart  is born in Linlithgow, six days later she became Queen of Scots. (d. 1587)

Lunedi Lunacy

I'm not sure how I missed this one. Disney meets Kander and Ebb? Well why not?

November 24 - 1815: Grace Darling, a lighthouse keeper's daughter who was to become  a national heroine in Great Britain is born.

Lunedi Lunacy

My friend Blake was just here for a visit - the HFH were ecstatic to see their Uncle Pervy - and he mentioned a TV programme that he's addicted to: Down Town Chapel. Well something like that - from the sounds of it I am reminded of a wonderful old British series called Upstairs Downstairs which I did so enjoy in the early days of PBS.  The gang at College Humour must watch this TV show also either that or they spied on our dinner at the New Eddie last week!
 

Thanks to my friend Greg for this one.

November 17 - 1810: Sweden declares war on its ally the United Kingdom to begin the Anglo-Swedish War, although no fighting ever takes place.

Lunedi Lunacy

In Oh What a Lovely War director Richard Attenborough captured the lunacy that was the 1914-1918 War.  The bumbling ineptitude of men like Douglas Haig, John French and William Robertson in sending men to certain death using outdated methods of engagement for minimal gains is brought home in subtle and sometimes not so subtle ways.   The Aussie allies in this little clip are not impressed with their Allied Commanders.

November 10 - 1975: The 729-foot-long freighter SS Edmund Fitzgerald sinks during a storm on Lake Superior, killing all 29 crew on board.

Lunedi Lunacy

There was an Old Derry down Derry,
who love to see little folk merry;
So he made them a book,
and with laughter they shook
at the fun of that Derry down Derry.

I'm not at all sure if children still read Edward Lear (I'm sure some must) but I always found his word play enchanting.  He conjured up such pictures of Jumblies, floating Owls and Pussycats, and various old men and ladies of sundry places whose strange habits made for wonderful limericks.

I thought I'd start off my week by revisiting a few of my favourites.  However since I didn't have one of his many books at hand I thumbed clicked through the videos on YouTube and came up with these two very different but fun animations of classic Lear stories.

Well I guess that little tag end answered my question about children still reading Lear.

There is a wonderful website devoted to Lear and his various writings, drawings and creations.  As well they have some fun examples of early limerick books for slightly before Lear's time.

November 3 -  1793: French playwright, journalist and feminist Olympe de Gouges is guillotined.

Lunedi Lunacy

Wumo, the cartoonists formerly known as Wulffmorgenthaler,  have been taking the mickey out of life in general, and the Internet in particular, for the past 13 years.  My friend Vicki sent along a few that hit both my funny bone and, in one or two cases, a bit close to home.

I'm reminded of my first visit to a bar in Roma when I blithely ordered a "latte" - and was presented with a large glass of hot milk.

Our solution - a shower cap over the detectors while we're cooking - it's bad air circulation!  OK?

These guys have obviously driven in Ottawa - a city in which I have almost been killed three times as a pedestrian with the "right of way".

Not just white bread - anything with wheat in it!

And the next two are offered without comment:

More of the wit and wisdom of Wumo can be found by a left click on their signature block:

October 26 -1936: Mrs Wallis Simpson files for divorce which would allow her to marry Edward VIII. thus forcing his abdication.

Lunedi Lunacy

I will admit that at one time I had this this little gem in my collection of cookbooks.  I honestly don't recall if I ever use any of the recipes in it but I know it did disappear on to the table at some charity book sale more than a decade ago.  As I recall I purchased it more as a remind of the way things use to be than the way I intended things to be.  Now when I say "the way things use to be" I don't mean in my mother's kitchen.  Her's was a fairly rigid English meat, boiled potatoes, over-boiled veg menu.  Exotic was using mustard when making a grilled cheesed sandwich.  Canned soup was made for eating as soup not as some sort of sauce, peanut butter was for toast and jello was cubed and served as desert. And miniature marshmallows?  they were not to be seen in Isabella's kitchen.

However that does not mean I escaped the delightful dishes which "will astound your guests" and that could be made from Kraft miniature marshmallows, velveeta cheese, peanut butter or jello.  There was never a church supper or pot luck that did not include some culinary treasure that Bruce Marsh had introduced us to on the commercial break of the Kraft Music Hall or between periods of Saturday Night Hockey. 

The other day I was reminded of those church suppers and pot-lucks when a FB friend posted a truly frightening recipe from the 1950s involving frozen waffles, ham, mushroom soup and probably, I really couldn't bring myself to finish reading it, miniature marshmallows.  And it also brought to mind a William Bolcom song that my friend Ron use to quote when we'd plan pot-lucks in later years.  Unfortunately I couldn't find a really good video of that Boclom-artist par excellence Joan Morris however this version by the lovely lady at Velveteen Lounge Kitsch-en gives us both the aural and visual delights of Lime Jell-O Marshmallow Cottage Cheese Surprise.

And just to tease and tantalize your palate I thought I'd include these two pictures to show you young folk what you missed by not living in those heady days of the 50s, 60s and 70s.

Yes Virginia they really did make jello salads with marshmallows and mayonnaise; and as for that second picture I'm not sure what it is suppose to be but the ad guaranteed that it would impress my husband's boss and get him his promotion.

October 20 - 1943: The cargo vessel Sinfra is attacked by Allied aircraft at Souda Bay, Crete, and sunk. 2,098 Italian prisoners of war drown with it.

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Been there!  Done that!  Have the souvenir coffee mug but the decal came off in the dishwasher.

Thanks to Yannis for this one.

October 13 -1843: In New York City, Henry Jones and 11 others found B'nai B'rith (the oldest Jewish service organization in the world).

Lunedi Lunacy

Back in the days when the pound was worth less than the dollar and my trips to London were frequent I saw all manner of theatre, opera and concerts.  Hotels were inexpensive, tickets were cheap and the stars were out in full force.   Olivier in The Merchant of Venice one night, Maggie Smith in Hedda Gabler directed by Ingmar Bergman the next; Jon Vickers in Otello on Thursday, Lynn Seymour and Mikhail Baryshnikov in Romeo and Juliet on Friday.  And the concert scene was just as varied and I even recall one concert that was declared open by Queen Victoria; or at least Annette Crosbie, who had just appeared in a BBC series of that name, in the guise of that revered majesty.   It was followed by the normal tomfoolery of any Hoffnung concert.  In the tradition that had been set by Gerald Hoffnung himself the mickey was taken out of classical music by some of the well-known musicians of the day.  I only wish I had kept the programme.  I was to see another Hoffnung concert several years later when the Kingston Symphony teamed up with the Master's widow to produce a riotous afternoon of classical buffoonery. 

I've always enjoyed both Hoffnung's cartoon books and the recordings make of the three Interplanetary Festivals in the 1950s-60s.  I wasn't aware of the series of cartoons that had been created by John Halas and his wife, Joy Batchelor based on Gerald Hoffnung's work.

And a left click on the Hoffnung right-hand drive organist will take you the official Hoffnung site:

October 6 - 1945: Billy Sianis and his pet billy goat are ejected from Wrigley Field during Game 4 of the 1945 World Series.

Lunedi Lunacy

Yesterday, September 28, was the anniversary of the day that Thomas Crapper was baptized in Waterside, Yorkshire in 1836.  Perhaps all the water being poured over him from great heights gave baby Thomas the idea that was to revolutionize the lavatory industry and profoundly affect the lives of so many. 

 Flushed with the importance of that event I thought I'd see what was on YouTube about this plumber of some note and notoriety.  I came across this little piece of typical BBC lunacy and thought I'd let Stephen Fry and the panel on QI (Quite Interesting) clear up a little misconception that has been going the rounds for years.

And for those of you who are of puerile mind here is Mr Crapper's ballcock:

While doing my little research project I was astounded by the number of videos out there devoted to potty training!  I can't honestly recall how my parents managed it other than the embarrassing story my mother told at gatherings about how accomplished I was at two.  Amongst the video I found this little Japanese gem - I could only imagine the outrage if this were ever shown on North American TV.  A word of warning to my more sensitive readers that this would be considered NSFW so you might not want to click on it.

Okay everyone:  LET'S GO FOR IT TOGETHER!

September 29 - 1960: Nikita Khrushchev, leader of Soviet Union, disrupts a meeting of the United Nations General Assembly with a number of angry outbursts.

Lunedy Lunacy

Last Wednesday I posted a video of the Vesuvius Ensemble and the story of the marriage of the Guarracino.  As I mentioned the first story-song of this not particularly attractive fish dates from the 1700s and was probably intended as a way of teaching the names of the creatures in the waters of Southern Italy.

Here's an inspired piece of lunacy by Michelangelo Fornaro based on the original song.  He mixes live and stop action to tell the tale of little fish with big amourous aspirations and the trouble it causes in the deep.

And, like the narrator, when it's finished I feel out of breath and in need of a drink.

September 22 - 1910: The Duke of York's Picture House opens in Brighton, now the oldest continually operating cinema in Britain.