The Outsider Artist's Fake Records

Mingering Mike:

The Amazing Career of an Imaginary Soul Superstar

by Dori Hadar

Between 1968 and 1977 Mingering Mike recorded over fifty albums, managed thirty-five of his own record labels, and produced, directed and starred in nine of his own motion pictures. In 1972 alone he released fifteen LPs and over twenty singles, and his traveling revue played for sold out crowds the world over.How is it that such a prolific musician has gone under the radar for the more than thirty years? The answer is that all took place in Mike's imagination, and in the vast collection of fake cardboard records and acapella home recordings that he made for himself as a teenager in Washington, D.C. in the late 1960s. taken from: http://www.mingeringmike.com/

Week Eighteen, Book Twenty Three

The Invention of Hugo Cabret

by Brian Selznick

Paris in the 1930's, a thief, a broken machine, a strange girl, a mean old man, and the secrets that tie them all together... Welcome to The Invention of Hugo Cabret.

Review: I am not usually a fan of historical fiction, but this story was beyond your typical h.f. novel. Calling this story historical fiction is really selling it short. In my opinion, I think it can also be considered fantasy. I am not one to read fantasy either and for me to love this book from start to finish, it must be worth a read for the fantasy lover too. After I read one nights worth of this book, I ran into my librarian at school and recommended she buy a copy for our collection. I think my students will love this style of storytelling. The illustrations alone are reason enough for picking up this book. Selznick intricately places drawings throughout the book to help move the story along, not to accent the written text. I felt like I was reading two books in one. A definite page turner and a must read for all. I read this book in three sittings and probably could have finished it in one. My reason for trying out this book was due to all the reviews I recently have seen and found out that sometimes the reviews are right. You will not be disappointed.

sites to check out after you read this book:
The Story of the Automaton: http://fi.edu/pieces/knox/automaton/
The Missing Link: http://www.missinglinkclassichorror.co.uk/index.htm

Judging a Book by the Cover

The Spellman Files: A Novel

by Lisa Lutz

I am not a fan of Janet Evanovich's books or the #1 Ladies Detective Agency series, so I probably would not read this mystery/adventure. I love judging a book by the cover and the cover alone on this book is priceless. This book received mixed reviews on Amazon, but 3 1/2 stars in the Picks & Pans Books section of People magazine (By far one of the greatest gossip magazines ever!). If you decide to tackle this one, shoot me a comment.

Drink And Draw Volume 1

Drink And Draw Volume 1

by Dave Johnson, Jeff Johnson, Josh Middleton, and Dan Panosian

Book Description from:

http://www.amazon.com
Drink and Draw Social Club Volume 1 contains the scribblings and scratchings of a large group of artists done strictly at pubs and taverns across the country. The pints and pencil shavings make for some "good times" as they do their best to "keep it real!" Dave Johnson, Dan Panosian and Jeff Johnson have spread to over 1,600 members with splinter groups popping up everywhere. Just recently they were filmed as part of the upcoming MySpace film documentary.

You have to check out these sites:
http://www.myspace.com/meltdowncomics
http://www.meltcomics.com/
http://drsketchydetroit.blogspot.com/
http://comicpants.com/?p=1228

Graphic Novel Turns Movie

Director Zach Snyder's 300 is released today in theaters everywhere. Check out the sites listed below and the original graphic novel for an intimate look at Frank Miller's masterpiece.

Based on the epic graphic novel by Frank Miller, 300 is a ferocious retelling of the ancient Battle of Thermopylae in which King Leonidas and 300 Spartans fought to the death against Xerxes and his massive Persian army. Facing insurmountable odds, their valor and sacrifice inspire all of Greece to unite.

taken from: http://www.apple.com/trailers/wb/300/

sites

Warner Bros: http://300themovie.warnerbros.com/

Yahoo movies: http://movies.yahoo.com/feature/300.html

graphic novel: http://www.amazon.com/300-Frank-Miller/dp/1569714029

Biography

Review: Who is Henry Darger? As I was walking through the local Blockbuster video store, I came across a very strange documentary film. Being the reader that I am, renting the film would have been the easy way out. I could have spent an hour or two viewing and learning about Mr. Darger, but chose to dive into his writings first. I went to my local library and was stunned to find that they did not know who he was nor have any of his writings available. So, lucky for me the librarian was just as intrigued as I and put in a search for Mr. Darger's artwork and writings. We came up with a few selections, but not from any library locally. A few days passed and I received a phone call from the library that they had tracked down some of Darger's work. I was very excited and could not wait to see some of his collages and fantasy writing in print. Wow! The first book was over 700 pages long and the heaviest text I have ever held. This was John M. MacGregor's Darger book and it was beautiful! He analyzes the art, text and man like no one ever before. I especially loved the psychoanalysis in the later part of the book and was motivated to read more of Darger's biography. The second book I previewed was by Darger and Michael Bonesteel. This book was a thinner text filled with a lot of commentary. A week passes and another Darger book comes in for me. This was the strangest of them all. Disasters of War. I like that it was an over sized book because I could really "see" Darger's work clearly for the first time. So who is Henry Darger? You have to check these books and websites to find out. I myself am planning a trip to the Folk Art Museum in NYC to see an actual Darger in person.

books:

Henry Darger: In the Realms of the Unreal

by John M. MacGregor

Henry Darger: Art and Selected Writings

by Henry Darger and Michael Bonesteel

Henry Darger: Disasters of War

by Henry Darger, Kiyoko Lerner, and Klaus Biesenbach

folk art museum:http://www.folkartmuseum.org/default.asp

film: In the Realms of the Unreal - The Mystery of Henry Darger

by Larry Pine, Dakota Fanning, Frier McCollister, and Wally Wingert

A documentary on Henry Darger, visionary artist, janitor, and novelist.

websites:

http://opiumpandamonium.com/realms/

http://outsider.art.org/index.htm

http://www.villagevoice.com/arts/0216,edpark,33952,12.html

http://newyorkcityvoices.org/2004winter/2004winter28.html

http://www.hammergallery.com/Artists/darger/Darger.htm

http://www.edlingallery.com/dynamic/artist_bio.asp?ArtistID=4

http://www.gseart.com/artists.asp?ArtistID=19

http://www.abcd-artbrut.org/index.html

http://www.pbs.org/pov/pov2005/intherealms/index.html

Retold and Illustrated

Chaucer's Canterbury Tales by Marcia Williams

Chaucer's Canterbury Tales are retold in comic book drawings that take readers to medieval England like never before. There is action, dialogue and humorous commentary in the margins and each tale is given its own color scheme and twist to pull in the ages 10 and up audience.

audio cd: The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer Unabridged
original spelling edition: The Canterbury Tales: (Penguin Classics)
by Geoffrey Chaucer and Jill Mann
electronic text:
http://etext.virginia.edu/collections/languages/english/mideng.browse.html
studio recordings: http://english.byu.edu/chaucer

Illustrated Book

Auggie Wren's Christmas Story by Paul Auster and Isol

Review: This is not your typical holiday story and what a relief, since it is February and I felt the need to pick up a Christmas fable. The story takes place around Christmas time at a cigar shop in Brooklyn. It starts off with a dilemma. A writer has been asked by The New York Times to write a story that will appear in the paper on Christmas morning. And the result is a story involving a lost wallet, a blind woman and a Christmas dinner.

This illustrated book is only 37 pages long, but a fun read nonetheless. I happened to come upon this when I was doing some research yesterday in the local library on my latest author, whom I'm obsessing over. I found that he has not only written a ton of novels, nonfiction and poetry, but he wrote a few screenplays. The one that stood out for me was the movie Smoke, starring Harvey Keitel and William Hurt . Which led me to remember another movie that I loved, the follow up to Smoke called Blue in the Face, starring Michael J. Fox and Roseanne.If I recall both movies have great soundtracks.
(click for links) Smoke and Blue in the Face