davidsharpe

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Anthony Bourdain in the early 70s with Henry Diltz' portrait of Grace Slick at Woodstock on his wall

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Dave Jordano - Coffee Break, Detroit (1972)

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Eda Kaban, 'Town of Cats'

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𝗠𝗔𝗥𝗞 𝗥𝗢𝗧𝗛𝗞𝗢 in his 53rd street studio, New York, 1954 📸 by © Henry Elkan Artwork © 2005 Kate Rothko Prizel and Christopher Rothko.

(from my instagram)

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Civil society has collapsed completely.

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Muhammad Ali - Gordon Parks

Nudes & Noises

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Vivian Maier

Chicago

nd

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Marianna Rothen

Marianna Rothen (1982) is a Canadian artist who is based in New York. After becoming a model as a young teenager, Marianna spent several years traveling, working and documenting the experience through photographs. Influenced by the need to reclaim her own image, Rothen now uses her photography and films to explore and deconstruct conventional conceptions of female beauty and gender politics. Using a mix of traditional photographic processes with digital media she creates images that evoke a sense of mystery and discomfort.

Rothen has made three bodies of work, translated in photo books and films, in which the development of her vision of patriarchy and empowerment are addressed. In the first series, Snow and Rose & other tales (2014), she constructed a richly resonant dream world where empowered women are free to be themselves in an environment entirely without men. Shot in a retro style, the images revel in natural unselfconscious nudity and contagious smiling confidence.

In her second body of work, Shadows in Paradise (2017), Rothen builds up a subtly different mood, where uncertainty and insecurity reenter the psychological terrain and introspection takes hold. While Rothen’s women still inhabit an all-female domain, there is much more implied tension. We voyeuristically watch as the scenarios start to unravel. Scenarios where the realities and perils of life intrude on the idyllic freedoms of the setting we saw in Snow and Rose & other tales.

In Mail Order (2018/2019), Rothen’s third body of work, men are introduced for the first time. They are literally objectified, turned into objects, one semi-fictional woman’s projected idea of masculinity and maleness. As she does in all her series, Rothen features in her own work. Though her character is alive, she is just as fake as the men; her gender is as much a performance as theirs. The crucial difference is they are not human. Rothen, as photographer, and Rothen, as model, wields no actual power over these male dolls, no actual men are exploited for her play. She suggests what it is like to be a woman who is looked at by men and who is powerless; whose identity is puppeteered by the patriarchy. The dolls start to become ridiculous, risible. They have no depth, no story – like so many of the female leads in Hollywood films. As a former fashion model herself, Rothen’s own experience in front of the camera also shapes the way she inhabits and examines this position. By staging these absurd situations, she strongly criticizes the fact that people are still products of patriarchy. This makes her work an important advocate of women’s empowerment. 

Shadows in Paradise

(titles above photographs)

Eclipse, 2016

Donkey Skin, 2015

Shadows in Paradise, 2015

Risky Business, 2015

Still Life, 2015

Betty and Veronica, 2015

Betty and Veronica #2, 2015, diptych

Thinking Ability, 2015

Robbers, 2015

Mirror, Mirror, 2015

Beside Herself, 2015

Persona, 2015

Sister, 2015

Sister #2, 2015

Minor, 2016

Mrs. Dubinbaum, 2015

Pins and Needles, 2015

The Hot Spot, 2016

Whiskey Nose, 2016

She, 2016

20/20, 2016

Fear of Fear, 2016, diptych

Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye, 2016

Dark Spring, 2016, diptych

Zig-Zag Girl, 2016

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“Collect books, even if you don’t plan on reading them right away. Nothing is more important than an unread library.” ― John Waters

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Ralph Eugene Meatyard

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snoopy of the day

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Hail Satan, Baby!

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MAJOR MATT MASON - MAN IN SPACE

Major Matt Mason, Mattel’s Man in Space.  This is an original 1966 release, as the straps on his space suit are blue.  All subsequent versions of the figures had black straps.

Mattel took full advantage of young Americans’ fascination with the space program by releasing the Major Matt Mason line of astronaut action figures in 1966.

Sgt. Storm on the Space Sled, a flying jet ski-like personal transport.

There were initially three color-coded 6-inch astronaut figures in the line: Major Matt Mason was in a white space suit, Sgt. Storm was in a red space suit, and Mason’s civilian scientist buddy, Doug Davis, wore a yellow suit.  In 1968 a fourth astronaut, African-American Jeff Long, made the scene in a blue spacesuit.

Long’s addition to the line was a bold move on Mattel’s part, as the astronaut program at NASA during that time was lily white.

Astronaut Jeff Long, who appeared nearly 20 years before Guion Bluford became the first black American to orbit Earth.

The figures were a rubber-like body over a thin wire armature - similar to the Gumby and Pokey toys - with molded plastic heads.  The wire armatures and pliable bodies made the figures extremely posable.

All four astronauts lived and worked on the Moon, which was pretty darn cool.  The coolest thing about the Major and his crew, though, was that - initially, at least - all their equipment was based on actual designs and prototypes developed for the space program.

Doug Davis, first civilian on the Moon.

And boy, was there a LOT of equipment and accessories: a flying Space Sled, a Cat Trac one-man tractor, a moon suit, a Space Crawler that used rotating “legs” instead of wheels, and a whole bunch more up to and included a  multi-storey Space Station play set (although it really was a Moon Base).

The Space Station play set in all its glory.

The Space Station was modular, and you could make it taller or shorter by adding or subtracting pieces of the red pylons.  The idea was for kids to have several Space Stations of varying heights, because Major Matt Mason had a ziipline accessory that enabled him to travel between them.

The Moon Crew in their color-coded spacesuits.

In fact, there were so many gadgets and accessories that, even with mid-1960s prices, I’m sure many parents would have had to take out a second mortgage in order to afford them all.

Doug Davis wearing a specialized back pack while riding his Space Sled.

Unfortunately for me, the only accessory I ever received was the rather prosaic Cat Trac.  It wasn’t as exciting as the Space Sled, or as zippy as the Jet Pack (there were a few different versions), or battery-powered like the Space Crawler.  Nevertheless, I used my imagination to make the most of it.

The Cat Trac: looked cool at first glance, but it was only a hollow piece of molded plastic.  Would’ve scored much higher on the coolness scale if the tracks at least moved.

The Moon Suit, based on an actual prototype developed by Grumman.

The Space Bubble was essentially a rickshaw on the Moon: One man did all the work while another just relaxed in the back.

The Space Crawler, the creme de la creme of the Major Matt Mason transport toys.  This guy crawled along at a pretty decent clip, and due to its “legs” it could cover some rugged terrain.

It wasn’t long, however, before someone at Mattel became bored with the relatively realistic theme of the Major Matt Mason line.  Their solution: introduce science fiction elements to make things more exciting.

Captain Lazer, mysterious alien friend to Major Matt Mason and crew.

The first was the introduction in 1967 of Captain Lazer, who was so different from the rest of the line that there is speculation that he was intended for another line of figures entirely, or acquired from a Japanese company (his helmet reminds me of the Toei tokusatsu hero Captain Ultra, which was airing in Japan at the time).

Captain Lazer was 12 - almost 13 - inches tall, towering over Mason and the other astronauts.  His body was made of hard plastic  The head rotated at the neck, the arms rotated at the shoulders, and the legs rotated at the hips, but that was the extent of his articulation.  He had battery powered glowing red eyes and chest plate, as well as the laser pistol that was attached permanently to his hand.  There were attachments that connected to the pistol to change its appearance.  All in all, he looks like a pulp magazine or Golden Age comic book version of a space hero.

Good guy alien Callisto.

Evil alien Scorpio.

Then there were the aliens Callisto and Scorpio.  These were both in scale with the astronaut figures, and came with various gimmicks and accessories.  Callisto, listed as Mason’s friend from Jupiter, had a rubber and wire armature body.   Scorpio was an evil alien had battery-powered glowing eyes.

A first edition version of the good Major.

The astronauts’ equipment became typical science fiction props, like the Firebolt Space Cannon, assorted hand-held weapons, the Super Power Set (think Ripley’s exosuit cargo loader from Aliens), and the Gamma Ray-Gard (a projectile firing toy).

Major Matt Mason even got his own Big Little Book.  This is the only surviving piece of my MMM collection.

I had a lot of fun with the few Major Matt Mason toys I had, as did everyone I knew who had some.  There were, unfortunately, two major problems with the figures that reduced their enjoyment and playability factors.

First, the wire armatures were extremely thin and broke within a matter of days. The wire would then stick out through the rubber body, poking you in the hand every time you picked the figure up.  Meanwhile, the limb the wire was attached to would flop around uselessly.

Second, the paint on the rubber bodies began to flake off almost immediately, exposing the black base.  I remember finding paint flecks all over my hands and clothes each time I played with the figures.  At a price in 1966 of around $2.37 (approximately $22.00 today), the figures weren’t inexpensive, and I know my folks couldn’t afford to replace them.

Sadly, just as America lost its interest in the space program due to severe problems at home (the Vietnam War, Watergate, the oil crisis, rampant inflation), so did kids lose interest in Major Matt Mason.  Mattel cancelled the line abruptly in 1972 and never looked back.

Nevertheless, the Major and his crew have remained favorites of that generation.  Tom Hanks has been trying to get a Major Matt Mason film made for years.

And the Major was a big hit with NASA.  He reportedly been to space as a crew member on several missions of the space shuttle, including Senator John Glenn’s shuttle mission in 1998.  Heck, I wouldn’t be surprised if you found him somewhere on the International Space Station.