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Dear Puffin,
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
Dear Puffin,
As you know, I’m kind of an art nerd. Hence my obsession with poster designs and stuff. I’m also deeply enamored with mashups. I love the idea of combining two totally unrelated but somehow complimentary things. So this was right up my street: Modern Renaissance, renaissance portraits of modern celebrities (although plenty of these stray far fat away from the renaissance). Some of them don’t really work- either they’re too photohopped, or the expression isn’t right, or whathaveyou. But there is an awful lot of awesome hanging around in there, and I’ve picked a few of my favorites. I chose some because they were just plain cool, some because the execution was especially good, and some just because I liked them. But go poke around in the galleries, there are tons and tons more to see. So the challenge: merge the faces of modern celebrities with the kind of art you’d see in a museum.
Challenge accepted! (Click on each image to see the original)
General Neil Patrick Harris, by Katdamage; based on Goya’s portrait of the Duke of Wellington. Neil Patrick Harris, if you ever read this, I hereby demand that you have a copy of this made, put in a gilt frame, and displayed proudly in your home. Normally that would be an Alex Rodriguez level of douchery, but in this case sir, rock on.
King Connery I, by MarcusAurelius; based on the portrait of King Edward VII by Sir Samuel Luke. It is a goddamn shame that this is not, in fact, reality. King James Bond? Oh I think so. See also King Connery VIII.
Mr Bean, aka Rear Admiral Sir Bean, by potikare; based on the portrait of Vice Admiral Horatio Lord Nelson, by Lemuel Francis Abbott. See also Sir Horatio Wilson. Yes it’s Owen Wilson, yes it’s awesome.
Harrison Ford, by oilcorner; based on the Portrait of John William Mackay by Alexandre Cabanel.
Jack Nicholson is a mother fucking badass, by Toothfairy; based on ”Self-portrait of the artist in the guise of a mockingbird“ by Joseph Ducreux. And yes, this also came up as the fisticuffs meme. Remember this one?
Save Us Gary Oldman!, by Silkenfairy; based on Portrait of a Knight of Malta, by Caravaggio. See also, this.
This makes me uncomfortable on a lot of levels. Ozzy, by Carol Coelho.
Hugh Laurie, by Mandrak (yes, again. He did a lot of these). Based on a self portrait by Jaques-Louis David. This is just really really good.
Johnny Depp by Ziaphra; based on Willem Coymans by Franz Hals. I feel like this could very well be an accurate depiction of Johnny Depp’s life.
Robin Williams, by mandrak; based on Albecht Dürer’s portrait of Jakob Muffel.
On the left: Kevin Bacon, by mandrak; based on Gilbert Stuart’s portrait of George Washington. On the right: George Clooney, by Silentjonny;
The Death of Mr Bean, by Stadsman; based on The Death of Marat by Jaques Louis David. In some ways I think this is the best of the bunch.
I will leave you with this…. picture.
Justin Bieber, by Scott Cecil, who has a really sick sense of humor. I need some eye bleach immediately! Based on Bia de Medici, by Angelo Bronzio.
I put a couple more interesting pics behind the cut. I hope you like these Puffin. You’d better, since this post took forever to write.
Love
MacGuffin
Other posts tagged as art
Christopher Jonasson’s Photography: A Guessing Game
Art Nouveau Slave Leia, sinful Disney princesses, and more
Dear Puffin
What do you suppose these are photographs of? Try to guess. They’re by Norwegian photographer Christopher Jonasson, and they sure are beautiful. Can’t guess?
I thought they were planets.
My dad thought they were pearls.
David thought they were old lightbulbs.
My mom thought they were old marbles.
Everyone was wrong. They’re old frying pan bottoms! You can buy prints from his website here. These are so cool! I want to frame these and hang them in my kitchen.
Love
MacGuffin
Other posts categorized as art:
Created Equal: Mark Laita’s Diptych Photography
Food for Thought: The Value of a Dollar Project
Dear Puffin
I know you are a big fan of urban exploration, so I think you’ll get a big kick out of this book, which was written by an urban explorer, as well as the making-of video that the author made. Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children incorporates vintage photos, not just as illustration, but as integral elements of the plot. How does this tie into urban exploration, you ask? Well, like all the best children’s books, the story involves a huge ramshackle house on an island on the other side of the world. And the author, being a conscientious sort of fellow, went to Belgium to find just the right house. Incidentally the author’s name is Ransom Riggs, which may just be the perfect name for a children’s book author.
A mysterious island. An abandoned orphanage. And a strange collection of very curious photographs. It all waits to be discovered in Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children, an unforgettable novel that mixes fiction and photography in a thrilling reading experience. As our story opens, a horrific family tragedy sets sixteen-year-old Jacob journeying to a remote island off the coast of Wales, where he discovers the crumbling ruins of Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children. As Jacob explores its abandoned bedrooms and hallways, it becomes clear that the children who once lived here—one of whom was his own grandfather—were more than just peculiar. They may have been dangerous. They may have been quarantined on a desolate island for good reason. And somehow—impossible though it seems—they may still be alive.
Mr Riggs seems to be quite the urban explorer. There are a bunch of smashing pictures (see them all over at Mental Floss) of his trip to Poveglia in the Venice Lagoon, which has at various times been a quarantine and burial site for victims of the Bubonic Plague, leading to claims that the soil is 50% human ash, and more recently an institution which was either a mental hospital run by a mad butcher who went insane from guilt and threw himself off the roof, or a perfectly nice rest home for the elderly. Stories differ. Here are a few of my favorite shots, but I recommend reading the whole article, the story is worth it.
Heres another collection, this time of Bombay Beach in California:
Bombay Beach may be the most famously depressing place in California; the poster child for the post-apocalypse. On the edge of the dying Salton Sea, an enormous body of water half the size of Rhode Island and so salty and polluted that by 2030 no fish will be able to survive in it, there is a town. There are several towns, actually, along the Salton’s 70+ miles of rancid coastline, but the most intact, the most iconically awful, is Bombay Beach.
He even made a video about it, which Roger Ebert gave a thumbs up to. It’s freaking creepy.
Here are some pictures of the Mojave Air and Spaceport. (It’s a spaceport! A real spaceport!!!)
The Mojave Air and Spaceport, as it’s officially known, isn’t just a graveyard for inactive planes. It’s an active airport, home to one of the nation’s only civilian test pilot schools, and most famously the place where Space Ship One was developed and performed the first privately-funded human spaceflight in 2004. But it also functions as a giant parking lot for hundreds of jets owned by dozens of different entities, from major airlines to private individuals. If an airline doesn’t anticipate needing some of its planes for an extended period of time, it’s much cheaper for them to park those planes in the desert and have maintenance crews check them out once every few weeks than to keep them active.
I hope these will tide you over till we can launch an adventure of our own.
Love
MacGuffin
Dear Puffin
I have heard a heartwarming report that this billboard actually exists somewhere in Fort Wayne, Indiana:
These folks (a great Facebook group btw, definitely worth following) seem to think that it is real and not photoshopped. And Puffin, I can’t adequately express the depth of my hope that this is real. After all, Mike is a past winner of the Asshole of the Month award here at MacGuffin and Puffin. Unfortunately, until I get some sort of verification, I can’t quite make myself believe it. Some cursory googling has revealed bugger all. (Also it sure looks photoshopped…..)
Does anyone know if this is real? Let me know here, on twitter, or on tumblr.
Edit: for those who are interested, this, this, and this are some of the reasons that I think Mike Pence and his ilk should be tarred and feathered and run out of town.
Love
MacGuffin (who would very much like to have 20 minutes alone with Mike Pence in a dark alley.)
Dear Puffin
I found something cool today. It’s a series of paired photographs from Mark Laita’s collection Created Equal. What he’s done is juxtapose photos of polar opposites (the baptist minister and the Klansmen, for example) while also showing their similarities.
In America, the chasm between rich and poor is growing, the clash between conservatives and liberals is strengthening, and evil and good seem more polarized than ever before. At the heart of this collection of diptychs is my desire to remind us that we are all equal, until our environment, circumstances or fate molded and weathered us into whom we have become.
Some of the pairings are delightfully funny, like this one, titled Fur Trapper/Woman With Dog. (Frankly, while the trapper is totally BA, that lady scares the living daylights out of me. She looks predatory. I’ll bet she eats shredded credit cards for breakfast)
Or this one, Mariachi Band/Elvis Impersonators (I feel like if you just retitled it Mariachi Band vs Elvis Impersonators you’d have the makings of a really good comic strip)
Or how about Astronaut/Alien Abductee
Others are interesting and yet quite amusing, like Polygamist/Pimp.
And others are simply very very revealing of something, although I’m not exactly sure what.
Company President/Janitor
Bank Robber/Deputies
Homeless Man/Real Estate Developer
Somehow I find these utterly fascinating Puffin.
Much love
MacGuffin (with a hat tip to Andy Sullivan, who originally found these)
Dear Puffin
These days some of us cannot jet off to foreign lands, so armchair traveling must suffice. Although urban exploration is also a good option. I make quite a habit of armchair traveling. In fact I may or may not actually purchase travel books for places I will never ever go.
Today’s armchair journey is to Iceland, and the Blue Lagoon spa and resort. I’ve been lusting over this place for ages. It’s technically a clinic for people with skin disorders, because the natural seawater and the silica in the stone do something beneficial to skin. Or something. But anyone can stay there and I mean….. look at it….
On the website they describe it thusly:
The heart of Blue Lagoon’s operation is at the Blue Lagoon, Iceland’s most unique and popular attraction. Guests enjoy bathing and relaxing in Blue Lagoon geothermal seawater, known for its positive effects on the skin. A visit to the spa promotes harmony between body, mind and spirit, and enables one to soak away the stresses of modern life. The spa’s guests rekindle their relationship with nature, soak up the scenic beauty and enjoy breathing the clean, fresh air.
I don’t give a damn about the wishy washy harmony of body and spirit stuff. I just want to go swimming in this thing.
See the rest behind the cut
Dear Puffin
I have made a wonderful discovery! Shaun Usher, the man behind Letters of Note and Letterheady, has a new tumblr called Scaffoldage. He describes it as a “niche photo blog” about “skeletal archiporn” and frankly it’s amazing. I’ve poked around for a while and these are my faves:
There are tons and tons more. Such beautiful images from such mundane materials Puffin. I’m inspired, I really am.
Love
MacGuffin
Dear Puffin
Despite rumors to the contrary, I am still alive! My brain, however, has not not yet recovered, so rather than launching into my new rant about reproductive rights or my collective bargaining health care conspiracy theory (I will fill you in later Puffin but spoiler alert: I’m pissed at everyone except Antony Weiner) I will instead drop an awesome-bomb on you in the form of assorted Doctor Who stuff. Am I excited about the new season, which starts on Saturday? You bet! Will I be able to watch it? Of course not.
This is an AMAZING Dalek propaganda poster, by the fantastic Francesco Francavilla.
This is another one which was actually produced by the BBC themselves. Of course, it was a tie in to my least favorite episode ever. Honestly, Victory of the Daleks was awful. But the poster is good, and can be downloaded in hi res here. You can also get it as a tee shirt from, sigh, Hot Topic, which I refuse to link to.
Here is a Skaaro Institute of Extermination mug that I obviously need to own.
These are some minimalist Doctor Who posters from Etsyer Geekasms.
This one has a bit of a German/Weimar Republic feel to it. From deviantartist LycanLauren.
These are a series of Doctor Who travel posters, or the closest thing I can find to them. Follow the link to find a few more. With all the crazy worlds the Doctor visits you’d think there would be tons of awesome posters, like Steve Thomas’ wonderful Star Wars advertising posters and Middle Earth travel posters. But this seems to be pretty much it.
This is from the vault, and I may or may not already own the first one, but they’re still my favorite things ever so I will continue to blog them every couple of months until I grow up a bit and stop feeling the urge to show off. From Bill Mudron. Purchase info is here.
This is a fantastic French Tom Baker era poster. Unfortunately it’s a terrrrrrible quality pic. From flikr.
Next we have a mild riff off the Social Network’s extremely repurpose-able poster. From tumblr.
And this is just to settle an argument I’ve been having with certain truly stupid male relatives. Karen Gilliam is HOT, ok? End of story. Pics or it didn’t happen? Fine. From a photoshoot for Marie Claire. (I know at least 3 people who are going to need to change their trousers after looking at this.) Her legs alone warp the space time continuum.
This is a Tardis infographic. Click to embiggen and make it, you know, legible and stuff.
Next there is this great design from the wonderful Krystin, who also made the image that we sort of stole for our blog header. Hope that’s ok Krystin…..
And to finish off I present you with possibly the most impressive thing I have ever seen. A Tardis cake that is a) incredibly pretty and accurate and b) is bigger on the inside!!!!! How is that possible???? Well, as far as I understand it, the cake-engineer (I don’t even know who this person is, but I want them to be my friend forever) did something clever with mirrors to make the inside seem bigger than the outside. Puffin I cannot even cope with awesomeness of this magnitude.
That is a CAKE! WhatisthisIdonteven…..Look at the detail!
I am flabbergasted Puffin. Flabbergasted. I hope the season premier is awesome enough to live up to all this crazy coolness. Watch it for me.
Love
MacGuffin
Other geek stuff roundups:
My obsession with Tron Legacy, including TRON CAKE,
More minimalist Doctor Who posters,
Thor roundup, because May 5 is way too far away,
Poster art roundup 1 (Ghostbusters, Naria, Tron etc)
Poster art roundup 2, movie posters as icons and some Formula One stuff
Poster art roundup 3, Back to the Future and more
Vintage Star Wars posters by Steve Thomas
Check out the poster art tag or the category in the drop down menu to the left. Also, please submit stuff! I love nerd-phenalia, so drop stuff in comments, send it to tumblr, whatever. I’m always looking for more.
Dear Puffin
As April drags interminably on, stubbornly resisting the transition to spring, and as my thesis drags similarly on, stubbornly failing to magically transition from draft to completed magnum opus (seriously, the damn conclusion simply refuses to materialize out of thin air. What is with that?) my thoughts turn not only to beer and television, but also to the amazing movie season that starts at the beginning of May. Pirates of the Caribbean 4, The Hangover 2, X-men First Class, The Green Lantern, Harry Potter, Captain America, and even the one about which I am most frightened, Tinker Tailor. Which is my favorite book/bbc mini series ever and if they screw it up I will kill them.
My friend Tim has a post on This or That claiming that Thor will “hammer home the suckage”. I’m sorry Tim, I love you, but you are so so so wrong.
These are the main US posters. The first one doesn’t work, I feel. The text clashes too much with the faces underneath, and the spacing is off. The second one may have many flaws, but I can’t articulate them because Chris Hemsworth.
This one, on the other hand, is pants-wettingly awesome:
Go behind the cut for production stills, all the trailers and general fangirliness, including a bonus Bender/Thor mashup poster.
