What's so funny about Peace, Love and...Dioramas??

What’s so funny about  Peace, Love and…Dioramas??

This piece was originally published February 9, 2009

I'm fairly certain that no dictionary definition is needed here for exactly what a diorama is.

Well, just in case there is one person who isn't quite sure, or isn't familiar with The Simpsons episode, Lisa's Rival, here are two simple ones:

1) A three-dimensional miniature or life-size scene in which figures, stuffed wildlife, or other objects are arranged in a naturalistic setting against a painted background.


2) A miniature, three-dimensional scene, often depicting a historical event.

From childhood on, we have all seen and experienced firsthand the modern day examples of dioramas. Be it via the often creepy and slightly upsetting versions, at least that's what comes to my mind whenever I am viewing say, a taxidermist fueled fest such as the kind of wildlife diorama found in a museum of science or natural history setting – teachers, scientists and tourists just love 'em – or the ones created with ever so cool toys that you want to touch, covet, take home and place into your very own fake grass and plaster over chicken wire creation.

R.I.P. Lux Interior: Inimitable frontman for The Cramps

R.I.P. Lux Interior: 

Inimitable frontman for The Cramps

 

This piece was originally published February 4th, 2009

Lux Interior, singer for The Cramps, died today.

The Cramps were formed in 1976 by Lux along with his wife, guitarist Poison Ivy, and together they made some of the coolest green slime Z movie sounds ever heard. 

The Cramps merged rockabilly, shlock horror, drive-in trash and underground punk rock into a voodoo stew that few others could even hope to attempt with such singularly perfect results.

Simply put, he was among the most greatest of all frontmen to have ever appeared on a stage.

Dig the old new: The incredible forgotten world of 78 rpm records and sounds

DIG THE OLD NEW: 

THE INCREDIBLE FORGOTTEN WORLD OF 

78 R.P.M. RECORDS AND SOUNDS

 This piece was originally published January 26th, 2009.

VHS vs Beta? Blu-ray vs ?? Format wars have been around for a long, long time and exact dates, details and the inventors are often very difficult to pin down. So keeping this in mind, The Mystery Box brings you a look at the format known as the 78 rpm vintage record - which prior to the dominance of vinyl 33 1/3 rpm lp's and 45 rpm singles, was king of the record industry - followed by two essential ways to hear the strange and fascinating world that is contained on these black, shiny portals.

Jeeves' triumphant return to an alarm clock near you

JEEVES’ TRIUMPHANT RETURN TO 

AN ALARM CLOCK NEAR YOU

This piece was originally published January 15th, 2009.

An alarm clock for people who hate alarm clocks, getting up in the morning, and not having enough scratch to afford a good personal man-servant to roust you in the a.m. with freshly squeezed orange juice.While you may not have the life of leisure bestowed upon young Bertie Wooster, you can at least pretend that you have his valet, actually THE valet of valets, Jeeves, in your constant employ thanks to Voco U.K. and their Stephen Fry, Jeeves alarm clock.

P.G. Wodehouse's memorable character Jeeves, as voiced by the inimitable English actor who will forever be Jeeves in my mind, Stephen Fry, is available to awaken you each morning from those evenings of far too many Brandy and Sodas. A nice improvement over their older Jeeves clock, which was housed in lowly scullery maid plastic and contained (sigh) only a mere 50 sayings - disgraceful! This Jeeves alarm clock features wooden housing and 150 different witty ways to say get up - each managing to make you extremely amused (not to mention a tad guilty) enough to listen. You can pick from either the "Ahem…Good Morning, Sir" or "Ahem…Good Morning, Madam" versions (at my household, we have one of each). It really does help roust my girlfriend at a brutal 5:30 a.m. each day to embark on her miserable train commute, by hearing the initial bird singing followed by a line such as "Good Morning, Madam...I'm so sorry to disturb you, but it appears to be morning. Very inconvenient, I agree. I believe it is the rotation of the earth that is to blame." The two versions each sport a different faceplate (Sir version with Roman numerals depicted here).

So while this newly improved clock does not perhaps provide an actual Jeeves at our bedside with his tray of special miracle hangover cure, it goes a long way towards bringing a smidgen of mirth to the dreaded morning wake up routine that we lower class yobs must sleepily endure.

Bee Gees' Odessa - 40th Anniversary rerelease

BEE GEES’ ODESSA – 

40TH ANNIVERSARY REISSUE

This piece was originally published January 13th, 2009.

Today marks the 40th anniversary of the release of the Bee Gees' lavish Baroque double lp pop masterpiece, Odessa. To anyone unfamiliar with the '60s work from the Bee Gees, think not the '70s disco or '80s & '90s soppy gloss. 

Throughout the decade, their most prolific period, the Brothers Gibb crafted some of the most creatively insightful, ambitious and majestic music to rival anyone of the time. Not to mention, having hit single after hit single. 









Odessa, their sixth album, would be the apex of their work together - a double album covered in red flock velvet for the first pressing, heavily orchestrated, and loosely based on the concept of a ship lost at sea. 

Originally titled An American Opera. the title was changed to  Masterpeace then settling on Odessa. 

The plan was to be a concept album and theatrical rock opera (coming out 2 months before The Who's Tommy). After Odessa, the Gibbs fortunes took a downward spin, and they would never again be as creative as this or their earlier work. They would bounce back with a run of some hits that mirrored their earlier work again, but they would also splinter off into solo projects and eventually find their gigantic resurrection as disco icons and mainstream middle of the road performers.

Reprise /Rhino Records puts their usual magical touch to this release by not only replicating the red flocked cover, but by including 3 cds worth of music and extra materials to create a superb deluxe version box set of this previously little know gem. Outstanding in every way possible.

What's Inside The Mystery Box?

WHAT'S INSIDE THE MYSTERY BOX?

Hello and welcome to The Robert Jaz Mystery Box!

What's in store with this first column? Well, only some groovy graphics and a small back story. I enjoy introductions, formalities, a little pleased to make your acquaintance...or as I would really like to think of this - an apéritif.

The Mystery Box is a gimmick that has been used by savvy magicians throughout magic's history as a catchall trick which could vary in design, presentation and purpose. We are all enticed by both what is in, and what could possibly be pulled from "the box". Similarly, I've used The Mystery Box for several projects I've worked on over the years. Having never been comfortable in my life with pigeonholing or staying within one medium, category, or theme, and like my own interests and collection of pop culture ephemera - I'm more than happy to once again provide this catchall title to my ever growing morass of tangential discoveries, interests and findings from either the here and now or the historically fantastic past. In other words...Huzzah!

A Mystery Box advertisement from the 2009 – 2013 run of columns.

I once hosted a weekly film series which I called The Mystery Box Film Festival. While this was a weekly series and not actually a festival as usually assigned to film gatherings, I merely wanted each once-a-week showing to be a very very special EVENT (secretly, I also liked confusing people while getting a grant for it). At the same time my film selections were freed up to be whatever I felt like showing - from the often dreaded contemporary "critically acclaimed," which usually meant a dreary turnout and equally depressing pretentious film, to fantastic silent greats; schlock z grade nonsense (huge turnouts); student Godard wannabes from the nearby universities (ok, huge turnouts but everyone was unhappy by the end of the evening); vintage comic book serials (Ford Beebe anyone?) and subtitled surreal masterpieces such as a personal fave, Bunuel's Simon of the Desert. Like the, now fewer and fewer, original repertory arthouse cinema, we all had variety, laughs, a low budget education and an all around great meeting place to exchange creativity with our fellow punters.

In another use of The Mystery Box, while I was I working at a weekly free arts and entertainment newspaper, I used the old "grab bag" idea which I loved from childhood. My dad would come home from work with a simple unmarked paper bag he'd bought at a large area department store - usually around the holidays - and give me a few per week. These bags often held small toys, candy and other cheap novelties, but the thrill of not knowing what would be in one and receiving such an unknown, really filled me with immeasurable delight. For my newspaper Mystery Box project, I ran a weekly ad attached to my column, which said that if a dear reader would write to me or send me anything they wanted - creatively speaking that is - I would return to them a large envelope judiciously filled with things: rubber stamp art; doctored photos; trinkets and goofy thank you letters. This proved to be a very fun and rewarding experiment for senders on both sides that never led to any hatemail, bad vibes or distasteful mail. I also recently became friends with someone years after the fact, that sent in to me as a kid for the freebies, and is now accomplishing many great artistic things as an adult - well, I'm just glad they finally erased my name off their chalkboard that reads "Cheap Bastards of My Youth: Who to Whack Next."

It is with a fondness for these past forays that I will now be continuing my newest Mystery Box in column form for this site. I will as always, unpredictably open this grand and decorously laden box, dip in, and pull out anything that seems worthy of sharing. I will also attempt to make wisps of smoke appear magically from my fingertips and infuse some guffaws, snickers and and/or chortles into my writing only because I really enjoy the words guffaw, snicker, and chortle.

Due to the rapidly speeding by nature of writings on a site such as this, I will also attempt to create columns or entries that can be easily accessed from my side link and hopefully ones which will still be of some interest long past their sell by date. Please feel free to post comments, or contact me either at RobertJaz@gmail.com or through this fine site.

Many thanks to you for reading this.
Til next we meet again, and in the words of the great Groucho Marx, "Those are my principles. If you don't like them, I have others".