Ben Shahn’s maypole

Something puzzling me on V-E Day on May 8 last week: no one seems to have noticed that Ben Shahn‘s Liberation is a French maypole scene. I believe from the MOMA@NY blurb that it draws on a Cartier-Bresson image, but if it’s a maypole it must surely be celebrating the end of the war in…

Zardá, a design company that can’t spell “design”

“Day bay day” is another marvellous discovery among many: Zardá is a company that is investing day bay day during forty years, and developing their own systems and mechanics, manufactured enteredly for our company, guaranteeing a prolonged use without defects or demages. Our intention has been desing transformable forniture in which their functionality, design and…

Chopin in Marinated

The celebrated composer is being softened up in absolutely beastly fashion down at the excellent El casareño inglés‘s local. Long after the Chinese have learnt the OED by heart, Spanish bar proprietors will continue to torment the harmless drinker.

En pelota

Stark naked, or wearing a curious garment?

Return of the demon barber of Calais

Such was the worldwide stir caused by my revelation that the Sweeney Todd story is at least a century older than previously thought that I know many of you will be impatient to read this new story of sinister stylists across the water. It’s from a French tutor, Méthode rationnelle suivant pas à pas la…

For sale, Arthur Pryor’s trombone

A snip at $250K, via Dave. The photo of Jake Burkle reminds one that, for all their Portuguese ukelele folk hero trappings, Sousa and his people were essentially industrial pioneers. Amusing detail, from William L Bird, “Better Living”: Advertising, Media, and the New Vocabulary of Business Leadership, 1935-1955: Arthur Pryor’s son, Arthur, was hired by…
Jake Burkle, trombone engineer

The demon barber of Calais, a 17th century Sweeney Todd

I believe the current early chronology of versions containing all the basic motifs is as follows: Joseph Fouché was a politician and administrator, and the delightfully wicked creator under Bonaparte of something vaguely resembling the modern police service. According to PBS, he wrote in something called Archives of the police of a series of murders…