Magic Moments

The late 19th Century was a golden age for magic, as performances moved from the street into the theater. Magicians now donned formal attire, and their tricks involved the latest technology of the industrial age. The elaborate shows became a popular and respectable form of entertainment and appealed even to the upper classes.

As all of a magician’s success depends upon illusion, extensive publicity was essential to create hype for the stops of a tour and to promote the latest stunts.

Below are posters for Harry Kellar, Alexander, and Howard Thurston. Images are from the Library of Congress.


Harry Kellar






Alexander “The Man Who Knows”



Howard Thurston

How To Lose Your Virginity

Disney starlets flaunt purity rings while writhing on stripper poles, brothels hold million-dollar virginity auctions, and artificial hymens can be had for $30 on Chinese websites.

What’s behind this strange moment in our culture—what’s the deal with virginity?

How To Lose Your Virginity, a new documentary by Therese Schecter, digs beneath the damned-if-you-do, damned-if-you-don’t double-speak of a society that cynically encourages both virginity and promiscuity. With the same intelligence, diligence and wit she employed in the award-winning I Was a Teenage Feminist, the filmmaker allows the desperately-needed conversation about real-world sexuality to finally take place.

And, how do you lose your virginity? Well, for one thing, you don’t do it alone. The same goes for financing a film. As Schecter so aptly puts it, “We’re on our way to third base—help us go all the way!”

So how about putting out for Therese. Take the “Virginity” pledge, and visit the film’s Kickstarter page to watch a trailer of the film and contribute to the cause.

Also, visit the film’s blog, The American Virgin, for all manner of fascinating, enraging, and comical stuff about virginity and our attitudes towards female sexuality.


Some visuals from The American Virgin blog:

Unfunny T-shirt from Urban Outfiters.

Fashion tips from the Abstinence Clearinghouse

"Virgin with Butterflies" is one of a series of
re-issues of old Harlequin titles.

FIFA World Cup: Viewers Runneth Over

I don’t care how little interest you have in football, there’s no escaping the annual hype of the Super Bowl in the U.S. This year’s game made history by becoming the most watched TV broadcast ever, with 106.5 million people tuning in. Compared to viewership of the World Cup Final, however, the Super Bowl is hardly super-sized. The final soccer match of the World Cup gets almost seven times as many viewers.

Truth is, we in the U.S., just don’t feel the FIFA fever. There are pockets of excitement here and there-- this Barney’s ad for $24 team flip flops, and chocolate soccer balls at Dean & Deluca. Not very impressive given that we consume more food on Super Bowl Sunday than any other day of the year except Thanksgiving.

And the final match is only a small part of the entire FIFA World Cup Finals ...


Expected viewership for the month-long event of 64 games, is to be somewhere around 26 billion. That’s a lot of eyeballs.




Sources: FIFA, Nielsen

Slicko

To see larger images of most of these (they are even more revolting when viewed at a larger size), go to The Big Picture on Boston.com.

AP Photos/Charlie Riedel

Old Goooooooooooooooooal!*

Before everyone gets caught up in this year’s World Cup, I wanted to share these vintage soccer-team photos I bought at the flea market in Buenos Aires.

Something about the strange purplish background and the thickly inked emerald jerseys, made me stop and pick up the clipped-out magazine pageof F.C. Oeste , above. Perfect souvenir, I thought, from a land of devout Soccerites (Maradona, of course, is God). Before I knew it, the dealer--yes, vintage ephemera can be very addictive-- had brought out a 6”-thick stack of El Graphico team pictures for me to look at.

Since I do not work for Ralph Lauren (he's actually more of a rugby man), taking the whole pile was out of the question, so I just tried to pick out a moderate handful. Having little knowledge of soccer (or football, or futbol), my selection was based solely on appeal--an attitude, interesting colors, cute players, or details like the black armbands worn by the Quilmes team, or the two Estudiantes players posing with their kids (bottom photo).

I’ve loaded these images at a larger size than I usually do, so you can click to see more detail.






*Go here for audio/video.

Worldmapper: On the Grid

You may or may not be familiar with Worldmapper. It's a project that originated from the Social and Spatial Inequalities research group at the University of Sheffield, to create maps where geographic territories can be sized according to a whole assortment of other metrics, like population, literacy, income, etc. The resulting graphics are called cartograms and Worldmapper now offers almost 700 of them. Together they provide a fascinating visualization of global issues.

On a recent visit to the website, I discovered gridded cartograms. A uniform grid is imposed on a geographic territory and then each square is sized according to the value of a particular metric. This gridded mapping creates a way more nuanced representation than the traditional cartogram, which assigns a single value for each country. It also allows for analysis within one territory.

Here are some grid-mapped populations. A country like Italy, say, whose population is rather dense throughout, will look very much like its geographic shape, while Brazil (above), has quite a different story to tell.

Lots From the Lot

Here are a few items from the upcoming three-day auction of Hollywood memorabilia, by auctioneers, Profiles in History, June 10-12.

Lot #805 "Wicked Witch of the West" hat from The Wizard of Oz. (M-G-M, 1939). Worn on screen by Margaret Hamilton. Estimate $100,000 - $150,000

A classic, designed by MGM costume designer Adrian (b. Adrian Adolph Greenburg). Read more here and here about the costume designer/couturier who outfitted some 250 films. This guy definitely needs his own post.


Lot #803 Emerald City Prime Minister jeweled gloves from The Wizard of Oz. (MGM, 1939)

These too, are by costume designer Adrian. I love how “gem”-encrusted these are. I can’t wait to see which designer will be reinterpreting these for some future holiday collection …


Lot #637. Alice in Wonderland “Queen of Hearts,” color character design. (Lou Bunin Studios, 1949) Pencil, pen & ink, and gouache on paper by production designer Bernyce Polifka.

There were two Alice in Wonderlands released in 1951. This was the non-Disney production by Lou Bunin Studios which combined stop-motion puppets and live-action. (More here.) We learn from the New York Times review of the “nightmare…put upon the screen,” that “his puppets are ugly and lifeless”, “the sets are uncomfortably tasteless,” and “the Ansco Color in which the whole thing is amateurishly photographed is so muddy, uneven and washed out that it actually tends to nauseate.”

There is now a recently restored 35mm print of the film, and, of course, a cult following.


Lot #786. Original wooden machine gear from the Charles Chaplin film, Modern Times. (UA, 1936) Wooden machine gear painted red over original silver paint that shows through in numerous areas of the piece. Measures 16 in. in diameter x 2 in. wide.

I love this, but something tells me Pottery Barn or Anthropologie will issue the wooden gear as a “home accessory” at some point--probably having something to do with getting-back-to-basics in the economy. Not quite sure I’ll still want it then.