Of course, the fridge is a relatively new home for words. If you prefer something a little more tried and true, you can always visit Letterheady an “an online homage to offline correspondence” (and a sister site to Letters of Note, which was highlighted in an earlier post). Letterheady in an impressive (and still growing) collection of interesting and/or historically important letterhead. It’s like an online museum! Their most popular letterhead? Nikola Tesla’s. They also feature the personal and professional stationery of the likes of Marie Curie, Bruce Lee, Harry Houdini, Johnny Cash, Jean Harlow, and Adolf Hitler (three versions). Definitely worth a look!

Along the same lines, check out this collection of book plates at Dark Roasted Blend. Some of the book plates date back to 1480! You can also check out book plates belonging to (among others) Charles de Gaulle, George Washington, Sigmund Freud, Greta Garbo, and Charlie Chaplin. Fun stuff!

An offshoot of the Reading the Past blog, Reusable Cover Art is a collection of book covers that incorporate the same image into their cover art. Some of the juxtapositions are funny; an image that inspired Chaucer’s Knight’s Tale is used for both an edition of the Canterbury Tales and a smutty historical romance (of which, now that I think about it, Chaucer would probably heartily approve). Others are a little more thought-provoking, as when the same image of a veiled woman is used for novels called Kleopatra and Scheherazade. In fact, the overwhelming majority of the images are of females looking feminine,  which makes Reusable Cover Art not just a curiosity, but a handy opportunity to reflect on how these images are used as a kind of shorthand, particularly when it comes to gender and race.

I dare anyone to resist the charms of Abebooks‘ Weird Book Room, a collection of, well, really weird books. Some, like We are the people our parents warned us against,  just have outrageous titles, but some are genuinely perplexing, like The Manga Guide to Calculus or this week’s Weird Book of the Week, Liberace: Your Personal Fashion Consultant:

Never underestimate a man in hot pants. Liberace, the globally-renowned pianist, swings his closet door open in order to coach you on the fine art of extraordinary dressing for ordinary occasions! Need something to wear to your sister’s wedding? Packing for your next Mediterranean cruise? Shopping for a new car? Rest assured, Liberace has the perfect gold lamé number or full-length cape to suit all of your needs.

Not only can you enjoy dazzling photographs of Liberace in the most outrageous of outfits, but you can also punch these photos out to play with twelve paper dolls in hilarious poses!

Ah, the cultures and subcultures that produced these artifacts! And if you happen to know of a weird book that hasn’t made it into the Weird Book Room yet, you can submit it for consideration, as people across the English-speaking world have done.

Finally, three cheers for the blog Curious Pages: recommended inappropriate books for kids, which features offbeat, out of print, abstract, and sometimes not-for-children children’s books. I was thrilled to see a new edition of The Wizard of Oz illustrated by collage artist Graham Rawle, whom I love (anyone who can create a novel exclusively out of clippings from 1960’s women’s magazines is okay by me). Curious Pages doesn’t neglect the classics; there is a post on Der Struwwelpeter (or Shock-Headed Peter), Heinrich Hoffmann’s 1845 collection of German children’s stories chock full of not-so-subtle messages about the dangers of playing with matches, sucking thumbs, going out in bad weather, etc. A nice reminder that children’s stories and fairy tales have rarely been as safe as we’ve tried to make them over the last several decades.

Reading Wyoming: Pine Bluffs
Tuesday, September 1, 7:00-8:30 PM
Pine Bluffs Branch Library
Women of Mystery series

Craig Arnold Celebration
Wednesday, September 2, 5:00-7:00 PM
UW Art Museum

“As many of you know, English professor Craig Arnold died this spring while hiking a volcanic mountain in Japan. A university and town community celebration in Craig’s memory will be held Wednesday, September 2. All are welcome; if you plan to attend, please do rsvp to Rachel Ferrell at cw@uwyo.edu.”

Reading Wyoming: Medicine Bow
Wednesday, September 2, 3:30-5:00 PM
Medicine Bow Branch Library
Canine Companions series

Reading Wyoming: Lusk
Wednesday, September 2, 7:00-8:30 PM
Niobrara County Library, Lusk
Canine Companions series

Reading Wyoming: Cody
Thursday, September 3, 7:00-8:30 PM
Christ Episcopal Church
Distant Neighbors series

Reading Wyoming: Lander
Thursday, September 3, 7:00-8:30 PM
Lander Library
Living Between Fences series

Fort Bridger Rendezvous
Friday, September 4 – Monday, September 7
Fort Bridger
“The Fort Bridger Rendezvous is a mountain man rendezvous in celebration of the Fur Trade Rendezvous Era that occurred in the Rocky Mountains between 1825-1840. It is one of the largest mountain man gatherings in the nation… Admission for the general public is just $3.00 for everyone 12 years and up. Take a walk into the past on Labor Day weekend. Fort exhibits, mountain man competitions, and demonstrations all weekend.”

St. Stephens Indian Mission 125th Anniversary
Sunday, September 6
St. Stephens
“Beginning with a Mass at 4:00 PM, followed by a pot-luck meal and pow-wow.”

Not Seen Before @ a Theater Near You: Blue Gold: World Water Wars
Sunday, September 6, 7:30 PM
Albany County Library, Laramie
“This annual film series is presented by the Laramie Film Society and the Wyoming Peace, Justice and Earth Center.”

Dubois Museum

Check out the variety of humanities events in Wyoming this week!

Tie Hack Tour, Dubois
Monday, July 27: 7:00 PM
Dubois Museum, 909 W. Ramshorn St., Dubois
Museum Education director leads a driving/hiking tour to tie hack ruins on Union Pass.
Meet at the museum at 7 p.m. and be prepared to carpool.

Summer Film Series: The Good, the Bad, and the Grizzly, Jackson
Tuesday, July 28 & Friday, July 31: 2:00 – 3:00 PM
National Museum of Wildlife Art,  Jackson
Screened in partnership with the Jackson Hole Wildlife Film Festival.

Reading Wyoming: Canine Companions, Cheyenne
Thursday, July 30: 6:30 – 7:30 PM
Laramie County Library, Cheyenne

Explorers Club: Hollywood in Wyoming, Casper
Thursday, July 30: 2:00 – 3:00 PM
Fort Caspar Museum, Casper
Children learn about Wyoming’s past with stories and hands-on activities. Activity is free with admission. Children must be accompanied by an adult.  Admission prices are adult $3, Youth (18-13) $2, Child (12 & under) free. No reservation necessary.

Exhibit Opening: It Takes Weather, Water, and Work: Farming in Wyoming, Gillette
Thursday, July 30 – Wednesday, September 30
Campbell County Rockpile Museum, Gillette
Learn about early and modern farming in the state with this traveling exhibit. Topics such as foods harvested by Native Americans, the state’s arid climate, the importance of irrigation, sugarbeets, and modern farming are addressed through photographs, illustrations, and text. Exhibit courtesy of the Wyoming State Museum.

This past fall, the International Center of Photography hosted the exhibit Bill Wood’s Business, organized by Marvin Heiferman and Diane Keaton (yes, that Diane Keaton). The ICP site describes the exhibit nicely:

Bill Wood’s business was photography—and he produced tens of thousands of images over the course of his career. From 1937 (the tail end of the Great Depression) through the boom years that followed World War II and until his death in 1973, the Bill Wood Photo Company… provided commercial photographic services: using large format cameras, and shooting mostly black-and-white film, Wood offered studio portraits and professional photographs, taken on location. The variety of subjects and situations he captured provide an in-depth photographic record of life in Fort Worth, Texas, a post-World War II American city just hitting its stride.

I especially love this image of a Pontiac convertible filled with a year’s supply of kleenex: your incentive to buy!

Like so many parents, photographer Jack Radcliffe started taking photographs of his daughter Alison soon after she was born. Unlike most parents, though, he turned his photographs into a fine art project. His camera follows Alison as she grows from a small child into a troubled adolescent into a complicated adult. The black and white photographs are lovely and troubling.

Finally, Jamie Livingston’s Photo of the Day serves as a memorial to Livingston, a cinematographer who took  a photograph of something or someone every day, from March, 1979, until his death in 1997. Taken together, the images provide a glimpse into how Livingston saw the world: what mattered to him, what amused him, what caught his eye every day for almost twenty years.

Today’s post is all about Russia. Why? Because I adore the blog English Russia, whose tag line is “Because something cool happens daily on 1/6 of the Earth’s surface.” And what’s not to love? The blog has a quirky sensibility. Awkward English. Images of long lines and emerging punk fashion in Soviet and post-Soviet days. And photos of giant fish at Chernobyl.

Of course, English Russia isn’t the only one documenting contemporary Russia. Photographer Andy Freeburg’s marvelous Guardians series documents the workdays of the little old ladies who guard the art at national museums. His artist statement sounds earnest and sweet–

In the art museums of Russia, women sit in the galleries and guard the collections. When you look at the paintings and sculptures, the presence of the women becomes an inherent part of viewing the artwork itself. I found the guards as intriguing to observe as the pieces they watch over. In conversation they told me how much they like being among Russia’s great art. A woman in Moscow’s State Tretyakov Gallery Museum said she often returns there on her day off to sit in front of a painting that reminds her of her childhood home. Another guard travels three hours each way to work, since at home she would just sit on her porch and complain about her illnesses, “as old women do.” She would rather be at the museum enjoying the people watching, surrounded by the history of her country.

–but the photographs themselves are more than a little sly: many of the women look bored or asleep.

Leaving the quaint old ladies to Freeburg, another photographer, Anna Skladmann, has taken it upon herself to document the lives of Russian children. Wealthy Russian children, that is. Her Little Adults series captures the offspring of the nouveau-riche in their gaudy homes and garish outfits, looking, well, like little adults. It’s creepy. I can’t look away.

First off, if you haven’t seen Garfield Minus Garfield, you are missing out! The site claims it is

dedicated to removing Garfield from the Garfield comic strips in order to reveal the existential angst of a certain young Mr. Jon Arbuckle. It is a journey deep into the mind of an isolated young everyman as he fights a losing battle against loneliness and depression in a quiet American suburb.

Garfield deconstructed and redeemed. I love it. There’s even a book, which displays some of the top posts next to the original strips, if you’re wondering how they came about.

Then there’s Japes for Owre Tymes, written by a self-described “bad-tempered English prof” who procrastinates writing articles on Chaucer by translating comic strips into Middle English. Hard to go wrong, really, especially since her commentary is so darn funny (I’m thinking here of her David Foster Wallace-esque use of the footnote and her evolving argument that Marmaduke is, in fact, the “Antecryst”).

Of course, there are plenty of comics that have long warranted reverence instead of mockery. If, like me, you’ve always meant to learn more about the early history of comics and just never gotten around to it, then Don Markstein’s Toonopedia is made for you. He’s written over a thousand short articles on different cartoon characters so far, and new ones are added all the time. So if you aren’t sure why Little Nemo in Slumberland or Happy Hooligan was such a big deal, Toonopedia’s articles provide a nice thumbnail sketch, with lots of links to articles about other comics, so you can see how they all fit together.

Once you’ve got your bearings, you’ll probably want to check out more of the strips themselves. With articles and info to support the strips themselves, Coconino County is the most comprehensive Krazy Kat site I’ve found, though The Comic Strip Library has a nice collection of Krazy Kat too, as well as almost 500 gorgeous and intricate Little Nemo strips.

April 27, 6 p.m.
Lusk, Niobrara County Library
American Journeys Film Series

April 27, 6 p.m.
Sheridan, Sheridan County Fulmer Public Library
American Journeys film series

April 27, 7 p.m.
Powell, Powell Branch Library
Reading Wyoming

April 28, 7 p.m.
Cokeville, Cokeville Branch Library
Reading Wyoming

May 1-30; Opening reception May 1, 5:30 p.m.
Cheyenne, Civic Center
Grant Program: Sugar Beet Fields to Fields of Dreams: Mexican/Spanish Contributions to America’s Favorite Pastime

May 3, 1:30 p.m.
Gillette, Campbell County Public Library
Humanities Forum: We Are What We Build, by Melanie O’Hara

Forvo bills itself as the largest pronunciation database on the web: their wonderfully ambitious tag line is “All the words in the world. Pronounced.” Their list of word and phrase pronunciations isn’t quite there yet, of course, but it’s growing daily. So if you’ve been wondering how to pronounce that Urdu or Portuguese word you came across, you can browse an alphabetical list to see if it’s there. Or you can post a request, and a native speaker can upload an audio clip of the correct pronunciation to add to the database. And if you see a word request you know how to pronounce, feel free to help out by uploading your own clip.

In a move I never would have expected in ninth grade, quizzes actually got fun when they stopped having anything to do with school. If you think you’re good with accents, try Can You Guess Where My Accent Is From?, a game on the Language Trainers Group website. They’ve filmed folks from various countries reading two lines of Rudyard Kipling’s poem “If” to provide a sample of their accents, and you get to guess which country each reader is from, with bonus points if you can guess the city! (I, for one, am terrible at it.) They’re also setting up new versions of the game, so if you or someone you know has a hard to place accent, and you’d like to try to stump the masses with a couple lines from Wordsworth or Dylan Thomas, you can send in a video of yourself!

Finally, as a handy reminder that foreigners aren’t the only ones with accents, urlesque has gathered a nice sampling of Non-Americans Speaking in American Accents. Some of them are excellent.  Others are cringe-inducing. Either way, it’s not a bad thing to remember that sometimes we’re “them” instead of “us.”

Enter The Museum of Online Museums, a clearinghouse of collections big and small. Sure, they’ve got links to heavy hitters like the Rijksmuseum and The Art Institute of Chicago, but they also feature quirky online exhibits like Toothpaste World, the Gallery of Pulp Paperback Covers, and the Virtual Shoe Museum. Prefer audio collections? Try the Speech Accent Archive or the Locomotive Horn Sound File Collection. My personal favorites are Plan59 (of course), which bills itself as “The Museum of Mid-Century illustration,” and the Condiment Packet Gallery.

Since collage is one of my recent obsessions, I’ve also enjoyed nu-real: a timeline of fantastic photomontage and its possible influences, 1857-2007. I do wish the photomontages were bigger, but I’ve enjoyed scrolling through and reading random entries about the form’s various incarnations.

Finally, if satire is your thing, the Museum of Bad Art (MOBA), whose stated goal is “to bring the worst of art to the widest of audiences,” might just become your new favorite online hangout. The works featured on MOBA, many of which are listed as “acquired from trash,” are accompanied by mock serious interpretations. Here’s the one that accompanies Mama and Babe, right:

The flesh tones bring to mind the top shelf liqueurs of a border bistro. With an astonishing emphasis on facial bone structure, the artist flirts with caricature and captures features of Mamma’s face which remind us of a Presidential candidate. The upright marionettish pose of the babe hints that the early bond between mother and child is as formal as it is familiar. Good old fashioned parental respect is at the center of this celebration of color and contour.

If you think you can top that, you can enter MOBA’s “Guest Interpretator’s Challenge“!

They also sell t-shirts. What more could we ask for?