Culture Archives - Interesting Ideas

Ernie Bushmiller's Nancy views some modern art

August 22, 2024 Bill Swislow

Ernie Bushmiller: Master of Modern Art

Ernie Bushmiller loved making fun of modern art in his Nancy & Sluggo comic strips, but it turns out he was a master at creating the very art he ridiculed. When people talk about Bushmiller’s artistry they’re usually referring to things like his formal simplicity, the perfection of his line and the compellingly odd proportions in his cartoon universe. When they talk about surrealism and Ernie Bushmiller, it’s usually about the absurd goings-on, like all the times he broke the fourth wall and had his characters speak to him, the inexplicable geography and out-of-place factories, the martians and ghosts that

April 24, 2024 Bill Swislow

Zakopane Cemetery

This cemetery is well worth the trip to Zakopane, the town’s other virtues aside. It’s not huge, but its mix of folky and modernist memorials — sometimes combined in a single monument — makes it an artistic treasure. Back to Poland index page

April 24, 2024 Bill Swislow

Polish Churches

It’s no surprise that deeply Catholic Poland has churches aplenty. What’s remarkable is the duality of its wooden country churches — many of them UNESCO World Heritage listed — and the splendor of the baroque religious palaces in the cities. More remarkable is that those old country churches, their modest exteriors beautiful enough, often feature some of that baroque splendor inside. Back to Poland index page

February 19, 2024 Bill Swislow

Booth Tarkington — Good Enough

I got interested in Booth Tarkington via the credit Orson Welles gave him at the end of his Magnificent Ambersons film adaptation. As spoken with Wellesian richness, there seemed something enchanting about the name behind this powerful story. Even in its studio-truncated form, Welles’ Ambersons was, well, magnificent, and I wanted to understand the source of this masterpiece that was both visually stunning and highly literate. A good deal of Tarkington remained in the movie, particularly the way he used bittersweet nostalgia to set up a cold-eyed assessment of advancing modernity. I proceeded to read dozens of his books. Between

January 8, 2024 Bill Swislow

Bizarre Bazaars

$35.00 The book of weird, befuddling and just plain embarrassing business names. Here are 600 fabulous head scratchers. Description The roadside is littered with ordinary places bearing odd names — sometimes very odd. Here are 600 fabulous head scratchers, funny names for stores and businesses ranging from Armegeddon Carpet Cleaners to Sam-n-Ella’s River Club. Additional information Weight 9.8 oz Dimensions 10 × 8 × 1 in Publisher interestingideas.com (March 03 2021) Pages 92 Illustrations 149 ISBN-13 978-1034551157

January 6, 2024 Bill Swislow

The Evil Nice

It’s dangerous to say it, but nice people are a nuisance, constantly imposing their values and preferences on others. And they usually get their way. Because they are extremely aware of their own feelings, though, nice people come off as highly sensitive. That makes it seem obligatory to treat them with tender regard. Who wants to do or say anything hurtful to someone so pleasant? It doesn’t matter how impervious they actually are to the feelings of others (especially others deemed not-so-nice) or how imperious they are in asserting their own point of view. Deference is due the nice lest

December 10, 2023 Bill Swislow

Leave It To Beaver Poetics

Gee Dad. Gee Wall.Gee Beave. Get lostShrimp. Come onEddie.When I was a kid —I guess kids aren’t sposed —Boy are you gonnaMaybe you shouldTell Dad.Oh Ward, do youthinkWe should? June,Get it.Have you seen the Beaver?No Ward, IThoughtHe was with you.Mrs. RayburnI Lied to you aboutthe note. BesidesI don’t knowLarry. BeaverI’m ashamed ofDad, why do the Beaver, what have youdoneto your hair?Ward, don’t you think you are harsh on the boys?June, they have got to learnHave youYes JuneSeenThe BeaverTheodoreMy name isWhen I wasCleaverBoy Wally, how doGrownups?Now Beaver(1979) Back to Leave It To Beaver Lies

July 28, 2019 Bill Swislow

More of the Sweetest Song

If you like the Sukiyaki song (Ue o Muite Aruko) as much as I do, check out this playlist from WMBR in Cambridge, the MIT radio station. On his Subject to Change program, Patrick Bryant goes deep with multiple versions of one song. As readers of this site know, Sukiyaki has been covered dozens of times by artists all over the world since its 1961 release in Japan. Bryant tracked down a swell selection for his July 28, 2019, show and it’s worth a listen if you see this during the two weeks the audio remains available. Alternatively, you can

May 20, 2018 Bill Swislow

My Last Days Of Vinyl

This week I completed my decade-long record-digitization project, having ripped around 675 vinyl LPs, 150 78s and 1,100-plus 45s. First record ripped, on Dec. 8, 2007: a 78 rpm disk of Milky White Way / Bread of Heaven by the Angelic Gospel Singers, followed by I Can’t Stand Myself When You Touch Me and several other vintage James Brown albums. Last record ripped, on May 19, 2018: A 7-inch record with uplifting public service announcements for young people from the Wayout project, circa 1980s. Immediately before that: three square-dance records complete with calls. I didn’t exactly save the best for

Ruth Norman, aka Uriel, the Unarius Society, with flying saucer models

March 5, 2018 Bill Swislow

Review — Jim Shaw: The Hidden World

Jim Shaw: The Hidden World, edited by Marc-Olivier Wahler. Koenig Books, London, 512 pages, 2014. ISBN: 978-3863355845. Hardcover. Jim Shaw’s collection of religious, political and cultural ephemera, published in 2014 as an exhibition catalog, makes for a great book, especially if your collecting interests align with Shaw’s, as mine not coincidentally do.