Das Tagebuch Murnaus

On Friday at Kevin and Crystal's house party the Gothvickers who are on LJ (most of them anyway, shadesofwinter was otherwise occupied) found ourselves talking about our online journals and various bits of LJ life, including where we got our user IDs. I tried to explain briefly where I stole mine, here are some more details, excerpted from the Mail-Art Encyclopedia (http://www.sztuka-fabryka.be/encyclopaedia/items/lieutenant_murnau.htm): ( Read more... )
However, I didn't rip this off randomly - "Lt. Murnau" is only one of several personae I have appropriated during the 17 years I've been sporadically involved in mail art, fake and multiple identities, and other pranks usually funny only to myself. (I was a real live lieutenant in the army, too, once upon a time.)

If you can't amuse even yourself, then what's the point?

Anyway, that's my expose for today. I would like to do more with "Lt. Murnau" as a cover identity for different projects - perhaps one day he could open for Hackfleisch.

I got the machine back from the gallery yesterday and set it up in my office, to trap the unwary (though more and more people are learning that it is a Bad Idea to go into my little corner of the office without some very well-defined and short-term request, and that they must not get distracted by anything they may see or hear while there).

Here is a brief video of the machine in action, demonstrated by my co-worker Nadine.

I remember my sister and I pretending we were Bugs and Daffy and dancing in front of the TV when that tune came on.

Uh, when we were 5 and 7 years old, I hasten to add...

But I am kind of excited about tonight, the "Carnival of Destruction". My old mail-art friend Anna is in town for the show, and tomorrow there is an Artist Trading Card (ATC) session at the gallery where we will reclaim some of the smashed junk and make new stuff out of it.

The last two nights after supper Aki and I have been sitting at the dining room table making ATCs and larger art cards to trade or sacrifice to the "Atsu Massager". His little cards are great. He was using a set of small rubber stamps of simple geometric shapes I had to build up into houses, bridges etc. and adding interesting captions. His images are full of movement and imagination, they are all one-offs too. Meanwhile, mine are static and multiple, though I am trying for different effects.

The show goes until midnight, I will be there early and tend the machine. Maybe I'll leave when I run out of drawings for the machine to eat. Damn, should have brought my aquarelle crayons for on-the-spot inspiration.

Anyway, maybe I will post a picture of the machine later.