Skater Fly by Nicholas Hendrickx

Man, that last post about Bug Memorials turned out to be more depressing than I thought. I found the antidote in the form of these photos by Belgian photographer Nicholas Hendrickx. You could call it maybe X-games for Houseflies.

Biker Fly by Nicholas Hendrickx

Hendrickx quotes Samuel Butler for his life’s manifesto: “All animals, except man, know that the principal business of life is to enjoy it…” A couple years back Hendrickx illustrated this principle by posing dead flies in the midst of very life-affirming activities. No Photoshop here.

Scooter Fly by Nicholas Hendrickx

In light of this weekend’s death in my family, I must try harder to incorporate Butler’s words into my own life. Bailey lived for love; she lived life to enjoy it. And she probably would have gone bat, bat, bat with her furry white paws til Mr. Fly disappeared under the couch til we moved houses…

P.S. After featuring a Courtney Love video in a post about a Chinese sex doll factory, I received a request to do more musical pairings. So in that spirit, click through and play the embedded track while you gaze upon these T-type flies. If you grew up at the same time I did, the title of this post probably clues you in on what’s to come. I honestly did not remember how embarrassing this video was. But the song’s still kinda catchy, right?

A Moth Remembered

Bug memorials: because even life’s tiniest tragedies affect someone or something out there.

A Wasp Remembered

The Carmichael Collective, who recently brought us subversive street art and the anatomy of a piñata staged four funerals: a moth, a wasp, a fly and a roach.

A Fly Remembered

Click through for a video of A Roach Remembered. I get a little teary around the 20 second mark. No joke.

As a follow up to the binge-drinking Crap Stink Splasher CrappyCat duo, Van Beater keeps it alcoholic with today’s release: Oh Schnapps: Poison Plum edition.

Oh Schnapps! Poison Plum finds its protagonists involved in the following situation:

CrappyCat and FlunkMonkey shove off for a Multidimensional Schnapps Tasting tour. The first flavor on the tour is Poison Plum schnapps. This is a plum based, fruity schnapps. The ingredients include plums, fermented heads of lost travelers, a dash of poison pink berry to add a sweet & smooth finish, and a trapped spirit to serve our thirsty friends. 100% proof … of life beyond death.

This CrappyCat.com exclusive is an edition of 125 two-piece sets including a signed, stamped and numbered Poison Plum screen print. All that and a hangover for only $35 (shipped) in the USA.

The set is available today through Friday, May 18th at 2PM EST / 11AM EST. After that, they’re gone. Doesn’t this just make you want to buy a broken-down mini-fridge and collect the entire CrappyCat mini-series inside of it?

A San Francisco Academy of Art student named Bej created this KAWS-inspired clock for a package design assignment. She calls it Dissection of a Klock and says: “My clock design was inspired by KAWS studio’s Dissected Companion. I used OriginalFake as my project’s parent company.”

This is strictly a one-off student project, but with the way the American economy is going and the market for bootlegs in China, hey, maybe she’s onto something.

Click through for more images of the KAWS clock and packaging.

My love for Philadelphia’s Mütter Museum is no secret, and now there’s a great opportunity for those of you who also love the Mütter, preservation of oddities or skulls in general to help the Hyrtl Skull Collection.

You can help conserve and preserve one of the 139 Hyrtl skull by becoming a sponsor for an annual subscription fee of $200. Your contribution will help offset initial costs associated with the cleaning, repair, and remounting of your chosen skull. Additionally, your subscription will be acknowledged as part of the skull mount in the permanent Hyrtl Skull Exhibit in the Mütter Museum. The subscription period for this initiative will begin July 1, 2012 and end December 31, 2013.

I’m glad I’ve gotten to see this collection in person. I can’t really describe in words how cool it is, but I’ll try.

There are so many different ways by which you can view the skulls, and for my fellow collectors out there, every angle is intriguing. Maybe you’re purely interested in the visual form (and deformities) of the skulls. Or perhaps its from whence the skull comes that piques your curiosity. For me, it’s both, but the real banger is the STORY.  Wherever possible, the Hyrtl Skull Collection includes descriptive information about the person to whom the skull belonged. A small placard plainly tells you who they were and how they died.

This means (if you were so inclined), you could choose to adopt the skull of an 18-year old Romanian child murderer who died by execution. Or a 19-year old Serb who hanged himself because of unrequited love. Then there’s Araschtan Gottlieb over in Prague who swallowed a potassium cyanide tablet because his mistress wasn’t faithful!

Maybe one of you Occupy people feel something for Alessandro Zaccarella, an Italian bandit (with a “notably short cranium”), who was shot by police in the Abruzzi Mountains. On the other hand, if you’re pro-police, you might be moved by Gianbattista Tozzi, a female police officer who was stabbed to death at age 24 in Florence, Italy.

There are some INCREDIBLE stories here. In a comparison you never thought you’d hear, I’ll say that these skulls are similar to the best children’s toys: they provide just enough information for your imagination to make up the rest of the story.

Mütter Museum Save-a-Skull: Geza Uirmeny

Naturally, “the popular skulls” were adopted first. I’m talking about Geza Uirmeny, who “lived to 80 without melancholy” and his toothless skull (above) just looks really jolly. Less happy was Andrejew Sokoloff, who died from self-removal of his testicles by way of membership in Scopzi, a Russian sect that believed in castration. From castratos to those who actively used their gonads: Francisca Seycora, age 19, was a “famous Viennese prostitute” who died in the hospital of meningitis.

I have left out mentioning my favorite skull of the bunch because I am wavering on, please excuse the pun, pulling the trigger. It would have been a, once again my apologies, no brainer if not for one of our cats passing away this weekend with significant end-of-life care expenses.

But I encourage YOU to click here and view the Hyrtl Skull Catalog. Give someone a skull as a gift! Magazine subscriptions are so 1990s, and everyone knows those name-a-star-after-you offers are about as real as Miss Cleo‘s psychic abilities.

To save a skull, contact development@collegeofphysicians.org. Do it!

In December of 1948, Look magazine ran this gender-dividing personality quiz to ascertain how masculine or feminine you are. It begins with “You can be a real he-man and still like to make a cheese souffle.” It is now 2012, and I know plenty of men who love the color pink and tons of women wielding power tools. Despite this, I’m still not sure if a gun was held to my head that I would be able to pick between the 1948 recreational choices of “You’d like to go crabbing” or “Dancing suits you more”. What about YOU?

If you enjoy taking quizzes, my future of designer toys quiz is still open for voting through this Friday.

ᔥ How to be a Retronaut

Mrs. Missao and Fukumaru © Miyoko Ihara

It has been a tough week here with the passing of our beloved cat, Bailey. Thank you to all who have shared their memories and thoughts with us. Now it’s my turn to share something I found that fills me with hope and happiness. Miyoko Ihara is a Japanese photographer who has been chronicling the loving relationship between her grandmother, Mrs. Missao, and her cat, Fukumaru.

Mrs. Missao and Fukumaru © Miyoko Ihara

I first became aware of Ihara’s photos on the great website, We Make Money Not Art. After viewing the images in black and white, it was a wonderful surprise to find that Fukumaru is a lucky cat, not just because of his great relationship with Mrs. Missao, but also because he has different colored eyes (or what we like to call “David Bowie eyes”).

Mrs. Missao and Fukumaru © Miyoko Ihara

The photos have been shown in an exhibition, and I believe there is also a book (if someone can help with translation and provide a link, please leave it in the comments). Here is Ihara’s statement about the series:

“We’ll never be apart!” says the grandma to her little cat. Both of them live in a tiny world, with dignity, with mutual love. Still today, under the blue sky, Missao and Fukumaro work in the fields and in these natural surroundings, where they shine like the stars.

This little glimpse into their “tiny world” is a total joy. You can see their love for each other and how Grandma, still working the fields at 85+, has a wonderful sense of humor.

Mrs. Missao and Fukumaru © Miyoko Ihara

Click through for a handful of my favorite photos.

Mrs. Missao and Fukumaru © Miyoko Ihara

Mrs. Missao and Fukumaru © Miyoko Ihara

Mrs. Missao and Fukumaru © Miyoko Ihara

Mrs. Missao and Fukumaru © Miyoko Ihara

Mrs. Missao and Fukumaru © Miyoko Ihara

If you’re scrolling really quickly through this blogroll, you might mistake this post as being the same as the previous one. But you’d be dead wrong. Whereas the Photoshoppery in the last tumblr is all about subtraction and death, The Kitten Covers are additive and celebratory. Yes, I posted about these Kittenized Album Covers last year, but there’s been a whole bunch of great new ones since then, including a few of my favorite albums. How can you argue with Blondie kittenized? Sue me; I felt like looking at The Beastie Boys as cats today.

LIVE (I See Dead People) was a tumblr by Jean-Marie Delbes and Hatim El Hihi that currently appears to be as dead as its subjects. But for one clever, technically proficient and morbid bender, the duo used Photoshop to remove dead musicians from their own classic album covers. The Ramones are the saddest! R.I.P. everyone.

Relentless at Oh No! Doom Gallery in Chicago

Relentless, a four-man show featuring the artwork of Tyler Coey, Yosiell Lorenzo, Brent Nolasco and Matthew Ryan Sharp, opened this weekend at Oh No! Doom Gallery in Chicago.

Matthew Ryan Sharp and Yosiell Lorenzo

The four artists are part of the M. Collective, and Sharp and Lorenzo were in attendance. Relentless features paintings, sculptures, mixed media work & hand painted signage. Available artwork can be purchased online here.

Sickling Eye paintings by Yosiell Lorenzo

Click through for a look at some of the work.

Turtle Green Wounded Sickling by Yosiell Lorenzo

Heathen by Yosiell Lorenzo

Happiness Loves Company by Brent Nolasco

Bliss by Brent Nolasco

Disappearing by Matthew Ryan Sharp

Absinthe by Matthew Ryan Sharp

Energy Green by Tyler Coey

Tear by Tyler Coey