So Maurice Sendak died. A little bit of light has gone out of the world, and I’m all the sadder because it was a snarky, asinine, mean old light that really understood how freaking weird children can be.

So I’ve rounded up a few cool Sendak bits and pieces. I’m going to miss the old bastard.

Deviantartist AgarthanGuide made a really wonderful Avengers/Where the Wild Things Are mashup.  Go here for a desktop sized version. It’s based on the Chertoff Mural, which is also lovely.

This great tshirt from Out of Print clothing features the cover of my favorite Sendak book, In the Night Kitchen.

I don’t know where this quote comes from, but I love it.

 Despite being famous for grouchiness, here is an illustrated envelope he sent to a young fan

 This was Sendak’s cover of Rolling Stone from 1976

An extraordinary Where the Wile Things Are cake from here

And continuing our theme of edible eulogies, Anna the Red did some great bento boxes based on Sendak’s work.

An amazing cake by Blue Cupcake

 I really kind of love these Wild Things wall decals. They’d be so great in a nursery.

 I’m sad Puffin

I’m going to go reread The Sign on Rosie’s Door.

Love

MacGuffin

James Hance of Relentlessly Cheerful Art has been at it again, this time with a series of mashups of Up! and Star Wars. I LOVE IT!

Are you ready to choke up a little bit?

And here’s one from his original Wookie the Chew series that I had never noticed before.

I think quotes out of context are some of the best random comedy you can get. Overhearing snippets of conversations is like being privy to people’s sleep talking. Endlessly amusing. Actually, this one time my little brother, the most epic sleep talker of all time, sat up in a tent filled with me, my other brother and 4 of my cousins and snarled the now immortal phrase “fine, lock me up with the sadistic cats!” We still have no idea what he was talking about.

The other great source for strange sentences is parenthood. Parents seem to find themselves saying the weirdest things for perfectly normal reasons.  And artist Nathan Ripperger has really gone to town on that idea. With great results!

As it happens, I think these are generally good advice for anyone. You can see more here.

Two posts in two days Puffin, aren’t you proud?

Love

MacGuffin

Ps: My excellent brother has also updated his blog, go check it out → Attention To Detail

I’m normally not a fan of College Humor. It’s juvenile and usually pretty horrible. But they do occasionally hit one right out of the park, like these travel posters for the lazy, very much in the style of the Steve Thomas work I’ve featured before.

Well done College Humor. Well done.

Love

MacGuffin

Other poster posts:

Yet More Propaganda Posters

Poster roundup: Pixar Posters, Minimal Fairy Tales and Captain Sam the Extremely American Eagle

Art Nouveau Slave Leia, sinful Disney princesses, and more

Hogwarts Travel Posters and (yet more) Star Wars Propaganda

An Implausibility of Gnus

I recently received a coded communique from an agent we had presumed dead. Turns out that Slutbunwalla is alive and well, but lost her login info for the Poor Taste Museum because she is an absentminded moron. So the Poor Taste Museum has moved in with us, for the time being, and will be updating here on MacGuffin and Puffin. Maybe. If I don’t fall off the face of the earth again. Because apparently running two separate intuitive and almost completely automated blogs was too freaking difficult for me to manage. Rolls eyes at self. Anyhoo, take a look at this:

It’s something called the Daddle by Cashel and you can buy it on Amazon for $31.99. You know, if you need an actual SADDLE to ride your daddy with….? Jesus Christ we are going to get so much spam. Because a google image search for ‘daddle’ turns up stuff like this and I’m too scared to actually type ‘daddy saddle’ into google. What will Google think of me??? This is the kind of thing I worry about Puffin. I’m sure Google is judging me. I’m sure of it.

But the Amazon reviews are so awesome!

Please note that this Daddle is Western Style and will not be appropriate for those trained in the English Father Riding Method whereby one holds a rein in each hand and posts the trot. If you are looking forward to father jumping, father fox hunting, father polo or daddy dressage you will not be able to use this Daddle. Western Daddle riders hold the reins with one hand, and sit the trot. The pommel or horn on this Daddle is meant to hold a lariat which is useful when roping cattle or other competing or unruly fathers. ✭✭✭✫✫

I loved the idea of this product at first, but after ordering, I began to have buyers’ remorse. After a few weeks of trying to use the Daddle, I’m afraid that I have still not had success and I think it was a waste of money. No amount of duct tape would keep the cat attached to the saddle while it was on my husband’s back. The instruction manual was no help. To top it off, our neighbors were very upset that the duct tape had left a residue on their cat’s fur, but I couldn’t figure out any other way to secure the cat to the actual Daddle.
I’m afraid I will not be able to recommend this product to others. ✭✭✭✫✫

This one is my favorite:

At first I thought this product was wonderful, but oh how things change. Don’t be deceived by the joyful picture, this is a hazardous product that should not be sold without severe warning. After a long day of being ridden by my children, I was grazing on some nearby greens when my daughter dropped a dish on the ground. It broke and the noise of it spooked me, causing me to rear back and kick my son in the head. Now he talks with a speech impediment and has a wonky eye. I haven’t taken the Daddle off in 3 weeks because I can’t face the reality of what I’ve done. My wife won’t speak to me, I have badly infected rug burn on both of my knees, and I’m malnourished from eating nothing but carrots, although my eye sight has never been better. Damn you Daddle, you’ve ruined my life!!!! ✭✫✫✫✫

Goodnight Puffin. I’m not really sure I’ll be able to sleep.

MacGuffin

I’ve come up with the worst pun in the history of the world.

I hereby hand in my resignation from the human race as penance for this atrocity.

Love

MacGuffin

Here, as promised, is my PETA rant. I shall begin with a question: what the actual fuck is this?

Good heavens, it’s a disembodied vagina-purse. What a perfect example of objectification!

In this case I guess the idea is to demonize the wearing of fur. Apparently this has something to do with the guardsmen’s great big hats in the UK, but whatever, I don’t think it really matters. PETA doesn’t usually need an excuse to trot out a hyper-sexualized ‘awareness campaign’, usually one that bears a suspicious resemblance to soft-core porn.

So fur is bad. Except that huge general statements like that are never, ever, correct. Wearing the skins of animals that were killed for the fur industry? Probably bad. Killing so many animals that the species becomes endangered? Definitely bad. Purchasing animal products of any kind that were obtained inhumanely? Bad. Buying an old or antique fur hat? Probably not bad. Not doing your homework and not knowing where your fur came from? Bad. Fur is just like conflict diamonds. There is fur out there that is just fine for humans to use and which is sourced responsibly, both from an environmental and cruelty point of view. And it sounds like the fur for the guardsmen’s hats is actually sourced pretty responsibly. The pelts are taken from the bodies of bears killed in the Canadian government’s annual cull, which is carried out by native Innuit hunters and which is necessary to keep the bear population at a sustainable level. That’s actually way more responsible than most government programs.

But OK, fine. For the purposes of this discussion, maybe it is better for the already-dead bears to be buried (or burned, or eaten, or whatever) with their skins on. So the message is that animal fur belongs on animals, not on humans. Which is sort of something I can agree with, I guess.

But how the hell did we make the jump to pubic hair?

I’ll tell you how we made that jump. It’s because a waxing salon sponsored the fucking ad.

Wanna know what that tiny text at the bottom says?

Fugly or FURgly? It is no secret that Strip: Ministry of Waxing is against fur – be it on our skin, bags, coats or shoes. Strip have partnered with International animal group, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) for the UNFURGIVABLE campaign in the battle against Fur.

Oh my ever loving lord. That’s actually on a par with Nivea’s most offensive ad ever, which was this absolute gem:

Ladies and black men, we had better get on top of our grooming (which of course translates directly to spending money on beauty products) or else we will be ‘uncivilized’, ‘fugly’, ‘FURgly’, or just plain bestial. Apparently I’m not really human if I don’t run a razor blade over my lady bits. Or let someone else cover me in scalding hot wax and then rip it off.

The ‘battle against fur’? Wow, I really love the implication that shooting and skinning animals for their fur is in any way equivalent to me paying someone $40 to slightly (and temporarily, given that it grows back) alter the appearance of my hoo-hah. Or that the fur that grows naturally on me is in any way equivalent to an entire skin sliced off a dead animal. And if you buy the internal logic of the ad, it’s even worse. PETA clearly thinks that killing animals and using their fur (even if those two actions are not actually in a direct causal relationship) is terribly terribly cruel. So if that’s the case then they really really shouldn’t try to draw a connection between something that is basically a haircut and something that they think is inhuman cruelty.

Of course if that’s your thing, if you prefer no hair down there, fine, whatever floats your boat. Frankly, it’s none of my business what you do with your downstairs. That state of your nether regions is entirely a matter for you, and your invited guests. It isn’t any goddamn business of mine. Or PETA’s.

And I’ll tell you something for nothing. Getting waxed does jack-squat for animal rights.

Love

MacGuffin

Apologies for the radio silence. This employment lark is not as much fun as I was led to believe. Anyway,  hope to be writing more from now on. The republican line up is providing material faster than I can even process it, let alone write about it. And I’m just barely keeping the lid on a simmering rant about PETA, which should be…. interesting.

But as far as today is concerned, take a look at these! Remember the art nouveau Firefly posters I’ve written about before? Well Quantum Mechanix has just released posters of the gentlemen of Firefly. Unfortunately I don’t like them quite as much as the ladies. Some of these seem a little forced, especially when you compare them to things like the Jaynestown poster. But they’re still pretty excellent.

I’ll be back tomorrow Puffin. No really, I will.

Love

MacGuffin

Other posts tagged Art:

(Un)natural Disasters

Firefly and Battlestar go Art Nouveau, a Japanese woodblock cyberman battle and Doctor Who meets Le Petite Prince

Art Nouveau Slave Leia, sinful Disney princesses, and more

Star Wars Propaganda posters, redux. Also Doctor Who, Mad Men, Battlestar, etc

Late Breaking Doctor Who Art News!

It is definitely fall. I know this because it is about 40˚F, raining like hell, and I slipped on a pile of slimy, cold, and above all wet leaves. People talk a lot about how much they love fall. I don’t. I fucking hate fall. I think I see things differently than they do, and I can’t tell if it’s because I’m turning into a crank or because I’m growing up.

Yeah, pretty sure I’m a crank.

Happy birthday Puffin

Love

MacGuffin