POSTER EDU-PROPAGANDA FUN

I'm feeling very visual these last few days, no doubt inspired by mah new camera and lenses. The problem is that what I would really love to do right now is take a full month off, holidays be damned (and damn them anyway, really, Black Friday nonsense feh), and do nothing but shootshootshootshoot. Then I'd like another month to do nothing but readreadread, another to writewritewritewrite, and another month to do nothing but make and record music. Then I would like another three months to visit great architectural works, art museums, weird libraries, and vintage instrument shops, then another three months visiting the Top 10 Best Beaches. Then do it all over again.

What I did instead today was more laundry, perused holiday catalogs, talked with a friend about an upcoming party, and pulled some nifty/funny inter-content for you, this time some wonderful old educational/health/war propaganda posters mainly from the mid-20th Century. The look of these posters is so cool -- a mashup of commercial design, fine art, and street art -- and the work from this time remains tremendously influential. So this satistfies my visual lust today, and the content satisfies my humor jones. No going wrong with that: it's free, I don't need to hire a nanny or get a travel visa, and I don't need to rob a bank, just Google Images.

In Russia you need to watch out for jolly guys driving red cars that will eat you if you are in a designated crosswalk.





















Who knew you would have to make posters telling people that flies are bad?




























I'm imagining Hitler calling out, "SHOTGUN!"



























Mmm...War Bones n' War Fat! I thought a "meat dealer" was called a "butcher." Silly me.



























Whether you are an American or a Vietnamese propaganda artist, you know the whole pretty-wife-with-the-cute-baby thing is good stuff.






















Have you ever seen happier Communists? Why, we have barren apartments featuring construction noise, tank decorating ceremonies, schools filled with fresh flowers and ruddy-cheeked youths, and seriously grateful peasants! Life is good!





























I believe this translates to "Watch out where the huskies go and don't you eat that yellow snow."


















There seems to be a lot of interpersonal issues going on in Mexico, all of which can be remedied by staring at waterfalls.





















Texaco wants to remind you to never stop being vigilant, lest a legally-blind bucktoothed and horse-nostriled Japanese soldier stops by.

























I can't really see the purpose of having pearly white teeth when you have no ears, nose, or eyes.


























I keep thinking of a needed Black Flag song here: "VD Party."


























This may backfire -- what guy doesn't like guns and loose women? They have such nice hats.  I'm sure they are just fun gals.


























And finally...Best. Cough/Sneeze. Ever!

1957 TRUE STORY GRAPHICS

I started collecting old magazines a long time ago, probably in my early teens. My mom was a huge garage sale fan, and I would go with her to comb over all the stuff. I'd mainly be looking for records, but it seemed without fail that most would also have stacks of old magazine for sale --LIFE, LOOK, National Geographic, Popular Science -- from about a nickle to fifty cents apiece. I loved them, being a pop culturist, and genuinely enjoyed reading the articles and looking at the cool old photos and ads. Then I would cut the hell out of them with our kitchen scissors to make weird/funny collage art to share with friends or to use to decorate my room, not thinking too much about their future value. It was a lot of fun, and cheap entertainment.

A rarer find would be a "confessions magazine," like True Story. Oh, these are GREAT; they were certainly the media forerunners for the earliest misery purveyors of TV talk show "personal story" like Jerry Springer, Phil Donahue, Oprah, ad nauseum. Good god -- did you know that True Story was first published in 1919 and is still around today? It's had cycles in its raunch/romance content over the years, tied very closely to the bigger political/social trends of each era. The readers of True Story were generally considered to be low-/working-class folks -- you would NEVER admit to buying True Story or have it on your coffee table at home -- but it would be a rare citizen who didn't at least browse through a copy at their local newsstand or grocery store every so often...if no one was looking, that is. People love this stuff.

So today I happened to come across a very beat up 1957 copy of True Story from one of my old garage sale forays. The cover is missing and I have scissored it all over the place, but it still retains quite a bit of content. I smiled, and took some photos for you to enjoy. I think the cuts and tears and yellowing make it all the more artistic and funny. What a world.









































SOMETHING BURNED ON THANKSGIVING

Not the food. Not the house. I steam-burnt the CRAP out of my thumb, and OH MAN, it's hurtin' BAD.





















I should never be let around hot things. I would be thankful for some MORPHINE right about now.

Typing with my left hand is lame, so the best I can do is give you a few pictures from an otherwise-lovely Thanksgiving Day spent with friends, all taken with my brand-new Canon 60D.







































Well, back to the ice pack. Many thanks to our gracious hosts. Happy Thanksgiving!