WELL DONE SNICKERS. WELL DONE.

I appreciate a good pun as much as the next guy, so I was already a fan of the new Snickers ad campaign, which includes the phrases:

"File for Workman's Chompensation" and "Pledge Sigma Nougat" 

I am very much my father's daughter. However, the advertising wizards who conceived of these ads took it to a whole new level with this riff on the classic "Dr. Z" subway ad. They deserve a standing ovation for this one. Seriously.

A POLITE SUGGESTION FOR HERMES

Can you guys please start making these? Thanks!

In Response To ROOMS

VHS OF THE WEEK: TENEBRE

The only positive thing about insomnia is that you can be pretty productive. Granted, you'll go through the next 24 period in a half-dream trance state, but at least you can feel good about accomplishing things while youre not sleeping. Like watching awesome horror movies.

My movie of choice at 4:17 last night was Tenebre, Dario Argento's extreme gore masterpiece. It was released in the US under the secondary title "Unsane"- but seriously censored due to heavy violence. In the UK it was banned and classified as a "Video Nasty".

Which would probably make anyone want to see it.

Added bonus- Goblin did the soundtrack, and though it may be blasphemous to some die-hard Suspiria fans, Tenebre is their best song ever.

THE OBLIQUE STRATEGIES

My friend sent me a link to this the other night at 5am. I think we need a deck of these at the VC HQ, in times when mental breakthroughs are needed. The new 5th addition is out. I'd try to describe them, but it seems pages have been written on every possible meaning. Gregory Taylor on rtqe.net has been doing a lot of work on The Oblique Strategies.

Here's how he describes them:

The Oblique Strategies are a deck of cards. Up until 1996, they were quite easy to describe. They measured about 2-3/4" x 3-3/4". They came in a small black box which said "OBLIQUE STRATEGIES" on one of the top's long sides and "BRIAN ENO/PETER SCHMIDT" on the other side. The cards were solid black on one side, and had the aphorisms printed in a 10-point sans serif face on the other.

The deck itself had its origins in the discovery by Brian Eno that both he and his friend Peter Schmidt (a British painter whose works grace the cover of "Evening Star" and whose watercolours decorated the back LP cover of Eno's "Before and After Science" and also appeared as full-size prints in a small number of the original releases) tended to keep a set of basic working principles which guided them through the kinds of moments of pressure - either working through a heavy painting session or watching the clock tick while you're running up a big buck studio bill. Both Schmidt and Eno realized that the pressures of time tended to steer them away from the ways of thinking they found most productive when the pressure was off. The Strategies were, then, a way to remind themselves of those habits of thinking - to jog the mind.

It is not clear from any sources I've run across whether the cards were explicitly intended to be oracular at the outset - that is, whether or not Peter Schmidt and Eno necessarily saw them exclusively as a "single instruction/single response" kind of "game". The introductory cards included in all three versions of the first versions of the Oblique Strategies suggest otherwise. It seems clear, also, that the deck was not conceived of as a set of "fixed" instructions, but rather a group of ideas to be added to or modified over time; each of the three decks included 4 or 5 blank cards, intended to be filled and used as needed.

GOTH GOOGLE

Blackle. The goth google. Saves energy by keeping the screen black. It is awesome.

ROOMS

i'd like to be in any of these rooms. even Lemmy's.









. 

I LIKE THIS ART

DENISE KUPFERSCHMIDT

http://www.papermountains.net

i like this art. found it late night while getting lost on the interweb. amazing ethereal and mystical graphics. 

HEDI

Hedi Slimane was the visionary behind Dior Homme until 2007.
Now he takes the most beautiful photographs. His portraits are really incredible, beautiful and sensitive, but his still lifes are just something else. You can spend hours going through his blog, these are just six of sixty-five (mostly) abstract images I pulled, there is endless inspiration. They look like textiles and paintings and drawings and memories.

Give yourself some time to look through HERE!

DECORATE YOUR HOUSE

WOODSTOCK HANDMADE HOUSES (paperback)
by Robert Hanley, David Ballantine, Jonathan Elliot

My dear friend Anna showed me this book a while back when I was visiting her cottage up in Woodtsock. She found it at a local church sale for a few dollars. The next few hours were spent in a heavy trance, we were glued to the magical and and make-shift decorating genius that the book has to offer. It's truley one of the best interior books I've ever seen, so unconventional it's just plain weird. It covers all sorts of authentic ways to create shelter. Domes, wood, converted churches, dreamcatchers, yurts, stained glass, fingerpainted details, and fiber art galore. You can find it on Amazon.com...used.

VHS OF THE WEEK

From now on, We'll be posting VHS OF THE WEEK. The new category will include old favorites, new favorites, or free VHS tapes we find on stoops.

Our fist post is featuring "Putney Swope" by Robert Downey Sr.
VC loves Downey. He is known for his many underground cult classic oddities, including Pound (1970), Chafed Elbows (1966), and Greasers Palace (1972), among others.

Putney Swope is a classic, and in our New Media crazed environment it feels more relevant then ever.

We are very happy to add that Downey is the one celebrity that has attended consecutive Vena Cava shows, since the early days. We are always honored to have him and his lovely wife. If we could have a male muse, it would be Robert Downey Sr.

BONE MARROW SNACK

A wonderful appetizer of bone marrow at Minneta Tavern. I wish we saw Marrow more often on menues, it's a delicious treat left over from the Dark ages.

Marrow will go down wonderfully with a drink from the Stork Club Bar Book. You can prepare the Marrow at home (bones can be collected from a local butcher).  The Stork Club Bar book can be found on Ebay. It's one of the most historic Bar Books, recalling the days of Liz Taylor, Ernest Hemigeway, Charlie Chaplin, and Barbara Stanwyick.  The book suggests elegant conncoctions with witty names for morning, afternoon, and night.  How about a Commando Cocktail, a White Lady, a Zombian, a Schnorkel, a F.B.I. Fizz, or an Astor Painless Anesthetic? A little Hollywood nostalgia, booze, and bones are the way to go next time you feel the pangs of hunger. 

The Stork Club Bar Book 

by Lucius Beebe

Rinehart & Company, Inc. New York

 

TUNES!

Look!

Over on the sidebar! Our new edition to the blog is a big mix tape.

From now on we'll be sharing some of our favorite songs with you,

switching it up a few times a month.

Here are four from both of us to get the summer going.

EVIL DEAD 2 TATTOOS

Really nasty/amazing fake tatoos. These are a total relic from the 80s found in a sticker dispenser in a bowling alley in Brooklyn. These look like leftovers from the special effects makeup dept. from Evil Dead 2. My favorite is the "borg" tatoo that has a motherboard underneath a gaping wound. That technology is priceless.

The music is also excellent- Evil Dead by Death, from Scream Bloody Gore.

SUMMER

GARY COLEMAN VS EMMANUEL LEWIS

In regards to a recent fiery and polarizing debate about who was cuter in their heyday: Gary Coleman (Arnold on Diff'rent Strokes) or Emmanuel Lewis (Webster),

Id like to announce that Im defecting from team Lewis and am now aligned with team Coleman.

While the footage of Lewis dancing with MJ is pretty killer, I have to say- this short video of Coleman really sealed the deal.

Below are both so you can argue with your friends and loved ones:

CRYSTALARIUM

Our Crystalarium Fall 2009 collection is shipping to stores next week!!!

 The collection was inspired by Crystal formations at the natural history museum. Just as different layers of minerals create different crystal forms and colors, we used materials of varying texture- velvet, metallic fringe, tie-dyed wool, rainbow sequins, holographic leather, chain, mohair and chiffon, to create varying layers of translucence. Our new prints include a photographic print of rainbow obsidian and a handrawn stalagtite print.