Finnish Railways Ad

I think this might be an advertisement for improvements in Finland's Railway System.

On the other hand, it could be the trailer for a new Tolkien-style fantasy involving petrified swamp cherubs, the skinnier younger brother of Colonel Sanders, stone giants that become the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, and the Joker's Mother.


Finnish Railways - New age of trains from Misko Iho on Vimeo.

Cow Festival in Switzerland

Each year the cows of Switzerland get to wear pretty hats.

Read all about the tradition here, then watch a few seconds of video.


Cow Festival in Mels from jillnachtman on Vimeo.

Feruza Jumaniyozova

Fire-breathing, snakes, bongos and beautiful women. It just doesn't get any better than in this video of Uzbekistan singer Feruza Jumaniyozova.

NOTE: if you click on her link, her music begins playing loudly automatically, perhaps not in line with a work environment.

The Comedian Harmonists

The Comedian Harmonists were a German vocal group of the 1920s and 1930s. The vast majority of their songs were performed in their native language. But in the clip below, they tackle an English-language song phonetically, producing a language that does not resemble any on Earth.

Schnappi

I feel bad that my Follies post today was somewhat lame. Therefore, I am making it up to our readers the only way I know how: with some juvenile German "humor."

For more about Schanppi, visit his Wikipedia page.

New CPR Technique

King’s Pathway Hike in Spain

Don't watch this if you're afraid of heights. If I were hiking this, I would have never made it past the sections where the pathway has fallen away entirely. I wonder how many people fall to their death from this path every year? (Thanks, Darren!)

The Elves of Iceland

Maybe the Icelandic banking meltdown can be remedied with pots of elvish gold.

The Isetta

A car designed and built by a refrigerator company? Yes, that was the Isetta.

Eugênio Hirsch

Discovering traces of a forgotten surrealist/pop artist is always nice and weird. That's why I'm happy to present here some data on Eugênio Hirsch--a name I believe will be little-known to English-speaking art-lovers.

I took the liberty of having Google translate his Spanish Wikipedia entry, and then cleaned up the text a bit.

Eugênio Hirsch (Vienna, 1923 - Rio de Janeiro, September 23 2001) was a visual artist of Austrian origin, considered one of the pioneers of Brazilian graphic design.

Eugênio Hirsch was born in Vienna, Austria in 1923. Given the imminence of World War II his family emigrated in 1938 to Argentina, where Hirsch was highlighted as a graphic artist. During his stay in Argentina, he lived in Buenos Aires where he worked for the Encyclopedia Codex. In 1947 he met Monteiro Lobato, who illustrated texts mentioned in the editorial. He also lived in San Miguel de Tucuman where he worked with Lino Spilimbergo Enea.

In 1955 he emigrated to Brazil. Beginning in 1960 he was hired by the publisher "Civilização Brasileira" and in a short time revolutionized the concept and design of book covers, becoming one of the biggest names in this specialty. In 1960 he won the Jabuti Award (highest distinction in the field Brazilian literary and artistic). He was considered a pioneer of graphic design with decisive influence on subsequent generations. One of his favorite quote was "Uma feita layer is to attack, did not to please" ( "A cap is used to attack, not to please"). In 1965 he traveled to the United States where he collaborated with Playboy magazine and then to Europe, but then returned to his adoptive country, Brazil.

Among his most famous works include the illustration done for the novel Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov. He was also recalled for his eccentric personality.

Eugênio Hirsch died in Rio de Janeiro on September 23, 2001.

You can see some of his book covers on this Flickr page. But my favorite is this one he did for the novel Flesh by the great Philip Jose Farmer.




How did I chance upon Hirsch's work? Through this pictorial in Playboy for December 1965. The mildly NSFW totality of the feature is to be found after the jump.



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