We Love You So – Where The Wild Things Are – Spike Jonze

Maurice Sendak’s good friend and contemporary, the late James Marshall, wrote and illustrated many popular children’s books in his time, including The Stupids*, a series which depicts the relentless confusion of the always-upbeat Stupid family through a series of comical oddball misadventures. Arguably the funniest of these is The Stupids Die– a title that aroused controversy amongst uptight parents and closed-minded librarians, and made the book a perrenial favorite on “Most Banned Books” lists. The Stupids Die is an altogether innocent celebration of foolishness: revolving around an electrical blackout that the Stupids naturally mistake for the end of it all, the family stumbles around their house in the dark until Grandfather Stupid stops by for a visit:

“Welcome to heaven,” said Mr. Stupid.

“This isn’t heaven,” said Grandfather.
“This is Cleveland.”

“This may sound stupid,” said Buster.
“But I think this is our living room.”

Maurice reveals his deep admiration for The Stupids Die and its controverial title in an interview promoting his posthumous collaboration with Marshall, Swine Lake:

“That’s the only thing I truly envy Jim for,” Sendak laments. “Deep envy. I think The Stupids Die is the best title ever. I can’t forgive him for having that title. I used to tell him that. I bought the original poster for the book, and it hangs in one of my rooms.”

Swine Lake is illustrated by Maurice and based on Marshall’s manuscript about a wolf who hatches a plan to devour a ballet comapny comprised entirely of pigs, only to end up discovering his admiration for the art of dance and joins them on stage. It’s Three Little Pigs meets Billy Elliot. When asked, in the same interview, if the wolf learns a lesson at the end of Swine Lake, Maurice snorts disdainfully and responds: “I never wrote a book where I taught a lesson. And the wolf is going to eat those pigs eventually. He just doesn’t do it in this book.”

* Yes, Marshall’s books served as inspiration for the ill-conceived John Landis-directed 1996 Tom Arnold vehicle The Stupids, but don’t let that ruin it for you– his books share almost nothing in common with that wreck of a movie.

Our favorite rascal didn’t disappear with Where the Wild Things Are. Nope: Max makes one more appearance–just one!–in Maurice Sendak’s reworking of Ruth Krauss’s 1948 classic Bears. 

The book contains just 27 words, and each one is perfect. Seeing Max reappear in a different setting introduces the same thrill as finding a twenty-dollar bill on the street or catching  a Steve Buscemi cameo in a totally unexpected movie. In other words, it’s neat.

Globetrotting British photographer Max Hamilton shot a great little set of portraits called UK Girl Skaters. Skate Witches they’re not– these chicks mean serious business. The bad-ass in the cast is Jenna Selby, rad photographer in her own right and founder of Rogue Skateboards, one of the few skate companies that features an all-girl professional team. From Hamilton’s website:

Skateboarding has always been an activity for everyone, however we mostly ever only hear about male skaters. It was always a puzzle as to why you didn’t see more girls skating or hear about them. I wanted to show that girl skaters exist and that there is a vibrant scene going on that is developing constantly.

Jeanne Detallante is a French artist who recently penned this series of illustrations for the ever-charming CITIZEN K magazine. Notice a relevant theme? I like how the children are perfectly at ease with their magical counterparts, just munching away on bonbons, reading books and scoping out the scenery.

My friend Wyatt spotted this in Tompkins Square Park.

Look at this amazing Wild Things quilt Cassy Lee made. But wait there’s more – she also painted her nursery in full wild glory!

Monsters (loosely interpreted) figure prominently in Taylor Baldwin’s work. His drawings and sculptures feature such visual stimuli as skulls, fossils, ghost figures and an oversized kachina doll updating his personal software.

A young artist currently working out of Provincetown, Massachussetts, Baldwin sources his material mostly by bartering, stealing, borrowing and salvaging from locales both mysterious (a house destroyed by arson) and humble (dumpsters). The resulting works deal cheerfully with themes of mutation, history, material culture and the ebbs and flows of civilization.  These are pieces worth pondering.

From our costume designer Casey Storm

In the late 1970s, Orson Welles developed a pilot for a bizarrely surreal, self-aware 90-minute (!) weekly variety show starring himself, for which he interviewed Burt Reynolds, did magic tricks with Angie Dickinson, played russian roulette, and reunited with his pals from The Muppet Movie: Fozzie, Kermit, and Sam the Eagle. The pilot never aired– probably because it was ridiculously weird, in the best possible way. Check out a clip from The Muppets’ appearance on The Orson Welles Show below, which, due to a combination of overbearing darkness and conspicuously absent audience laugher, falls somewhere on the creepiness scale in between Inside the Actors Studio and the Sunday services of a sinister cult.

Last week we posted a list of the Top Ten Rascals in Literature, with a promise to analyze the results rigorously. In the meantime, we received many pressing questions which we have aimed to address. Here we present to you our results.

Q: Are Rascals more likely to be boys or girls?

A: Good question. You’ll notice that the Top Ten list includes four boys, four girls, one rabbit and one monkey. We conclude that boys and girls are equally liable to become rascals, with animals at a slightly lower risk.

Q: What other characteristics do Rascals typically exhibit?
A: Courage, independence, stubbornness and ingenuity.

Q: What motivates a Rascal?
A: Curiosity, mainly.