Ramblings and webcomics from LeEMS
“When I get my fams on the cunning shaver who left me with this fakement, I’ll annoint him with the oil of gladness.”
OR: ‘When I get my hands on the cheat who left me with this forgery, I will beat him to a pulp.’
Let’s break it down:
FAMS: Hands. Famble cheats; rings or gloves.
CUNNING SHAVER: a sharp fellow, one that trims close, i.e. cheats ingeniously
FAKEMENT: A counterfeit signature. A forgery. Tell the macers to mind their fakements; desire the swindlers to be careful not to forge another person’s signature.
OIL OF GLADNESS: I will anoint you with the oil of gladness; ironically spoken for, I will beat you.
-all from the 1811 Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue by Francis Grose
La Befana is my new favorite winter holiday figure; somehow it is not surprising that across the world, Italy would be the country to have a benevolent winter holiday witch. Over at GoEuro there is a tidy little article on Christmas traditions around the world.
Aaaaaaaaaand, Spain has a seriously strange and hilarious tradition of feeding a log with a painted face until Christmas and then children beating all the ‘poo’ (presents) out of it on Christmas eve. I kind of want to see the kids in action. I think I wouldn’t be able to stop laughing.
Invariably, when I shop for clothes I always come up with ideas for clothes that I’d like to find, but cannot.
Richard Dadd was in a psychiatric institution when he painted the Fairy Fellers Master Stroke over the course of nine years. The painting is remarkable for the layering technique that lends the figures a type of bas relief. In 1865, after stopping work on, what he considered, the unfinished painting, he wrote a poem that accompanies it called “Elimination of a Picture & its Subject – called The Fellers’ Master Stroke.”
The poem, and the painting really, give me the impression that there is a secret communicated within that is yet to be uncovered. Perhaps it does this to a lot of people, since it does hold a secret in The Witches of Chiswick by Robert Rankin – one of many pieces of literature that refer to it.
Also newly available in my Etsy shop is Levi Levi and the Time Machine, the second chapter of Levi Levi.
Behold, the playasax, a beautiful and strange musical toy from the beginning of last century. The Musical Box Society has a recording of what these strange instruments sound like. I have to admit, for something as strange and fantastic as the Playasax looks to be, I’m kind of bummed that it just sounds like a harmonica. If you, like me, have an affinity for strange and unique instruments, then check out the Rosenberg Library Museum post on these instruments.
Ya’ll knew, right? That Levi Levi is back! New comics are posting on his very own comics site: http://theleemsmachine.com/comics/levilevi/. If you view the Bean in it’s natural state you will see a combined feed of comic pages on the right.
Pretty soon, print versions of Levi Levi and the Time Machine will be available in the shop; stay tuned…
**just in case it doesn’t load for you either: http://www.hark.com/clips/nhlhzkvkgh-wyatt-i-am-rolling
put on a record the other day and heard this…of all the lovin’ spoonful that I have heard, why had I never heard this?