Category: Oddities

Strange ephemera for strange ephemera’s sake.

The Literal Coney Island of the Mind

“Dreamland” is an amazing concept for an amusement park attraction based on literal interpretations of Freud’s theories. I’m learning about this from Zoe Beloff‘s exhibition at Coney Island museum (running till July 2010): The Coney Island Amateur Psychoanalytic Society and Its Circle, 1926-72. I’m ordering the book that covers the history of this fascinating group,… Continue reading The Literal Coney Island of the Mind

Late Night with Wax Figures in the Men’s Room

There was a particularly uncanny moment last night on The Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien.  Wait for it: The Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien – Wax Figures, Redux: Creepy Wax Tom Cruise Stalks Wax Fonzie In The Bathroom (removed from Vimeo) The wax/flesh boundaries are blurred in unexpected ways in that video that leave even… Continue reading Late Night with Wax Figures in the Men’s Room

Photoshop Disasters and the Fantasy of Picture Perfection

Photoshop Disasters is a funny weblog that collects flawed design elements in advertisements and elsewhere (like the above image from a Sears Catalog). The accidental amputations, bizarre hands, and other forms of freakish anatomical blunders strike a viewer as uncanny when you spot them in what would otherwise be a “picture perfect” advertisement. We always… Continue reading Photoshop Disasters and the Fantasy of Picture Perfection