Kirk Demarais's Blog, page 11

PAPER AND I

One of the great pleasures of my life is watching old educational films. Recently, I curated a list of films for Reminisce magazine that I consider to be many of the quintessential titles from the Classroom genre. Though it's not one of the commonly noted ones, I made sure to include my personal favorite educational flick, a splendid featurette called Paper and I.

Here's my description:
"In this surreal pick from the Texas Forest Service, a brown paper sack comes to life and indoctrinates a young boy in the origins and value of paper. Watching the boy perplex his parents as he grows obsessed with the bag’s message is more entertaining than it should be. The film turns prophetic when it depicts a world without paper, where newspapers and books are a thing of the past."

The anthropomorphic mascot is such a common trope, but Paper and I takes it to a new plateau as the boy's relationship with the bag (which only he can hear) turns fanatical. The sack is quite literally a martyr for the paper industry. He describes the hellish process of being reduced to chips and getting cooked in the paper mill. Eventually he pleads with Billy to end his life, thus the climactic scene where father, mother and sack are gathered around Billy's bed, enthusiastically encouraging him to over-inflate and destroy his otherworldly friend.

The film has always been suspiciously missing from archive.org and Youtube, but as I researched my project I was thrilled to discover that it has been uploaded to the Texas Archive of the Moving Image! Embedding isn't available but please, I urge you to experience it here.


Incidentally, I once used this film as the basis for a corporate skit of sorts. There was a period during my time as a greeting card designer when I was regularly called upon to provide humorous interludes for meetings, retreats, conferences and the like. Having created dozens of presentations year after year, I eventually decided that I wanted to produce just one with my own entertainment in mind.

One morning I stood before the company's artists, writers, marketers and managers and asked everyone to pay close attention to a film I'd found, with the pretense that it was somehow relevant to our business. Once I pressed "play" they understood the ruse right away, and after a few initial chuckles the crowd continued to politely watch.

As the captive audience gazed at the screen, I stepped back and gleefully watched their faces as I took inventory of that moment in time. I pridefully dwelled on the fact that I had orchestrated a scenario in which my colleagues, my boss, and my boss's boss all sat together in a darkened room on a Monday morning viewing an obscure, fifty-year-old depiction of a paper sack with a face.

Then, as the lights went up and the half-hearted clapping died, I announced that I had a special guest— paper sack himself!  I revealed a brown bag that I had painted to match the star of the film (see photo below), and the crowed seemed to warm up, sensing a punchline to the whole bit. I thanked the bag for coming and asked him a simple question. All eyes looked to the sack, but he wasn't talking. I tried to convince him to speak, but he remained quiet. Unbeknownst to the group, this was my intention. After a few more fruitless pleas followed by uncomfortable silence, I apologized for the confusion, and concluded my presentation.

As the room mustered another round of reluctant applause I left the stage, stepped out of the building, and walked to my car. Once safely inside, I burst into a frenzy of laughter.  The sack grinned from the passenger seat, reaffirming my success.
 

CRACK SHOT!

During my latest trip to LA I visited the Playland Arcade at the Santa Monica Pier for the first time. The first game I encountered was a life-size, western-themed shooting gallery. Instinctively, I took a snap shot, and at that very moment the entire scene erupted with motion and sound. It took me a second to figure out that my flash had simultaneously set off every light-sensitive target in the gallery! Another photo (seen above) confirmed my theory. We got a video of my grand discovery as the staff was making their way over to put an end to my winning streak. Here's the video...

FAMILY SERPENT

 
Two of my favorite things collide: The Family Circus and the ol' Snake Nut Can gag. From the book Quiet! Mommy's Asleep! (1974) by Bil Keane

LAKE BEAST

Lake Beast is an excellent new animated short about a man who investigates a mysterious vision from his childhood. It's the latest work from my friend Vance Reeser who also animated Foot: Phantom of the Forest, the short I co-directed for FunKo. The project has been three years in the making, and was among the very first to get funding from Kickstarter.com. If your day could use an intriguing, eerie story that's filled with atmospheric beauty then I highly recommend watching it. Don't forget to turn up your headphones and hit the full screen button. A pay-what-you-want download is available HERE.


Lake Beast from Vance Reeser on Vimeo.

LINK: ALL ABOUT GAG BOXES

Gag boxes were once a hugely popular facet of the novelty world and yet any information on them has been scarce— until now. Collectors Weekly recently posted a great article on the topic which probably qualifies as the single largest source of gag box knowledge on the entire internet. Read it here!

ALL ABOUT GAG BOXES

Gag boxes were once a hugely popular facet of the novelty world and yet any information on them has been scarce— until now. Collectors Weekly recently posted a great article on the topic which probably qualifies as the single largest source of gag box knowledge on the entire internet. Read it here!

GAYLE HOUSE GHOUL MASK

The enjoyable image seen above is the entire marketing campaign for a sound effects record called The Haunting, a mail-order exclusive released in 1971 by an enigmatic company called The Gayle House. The outreaching specter in the ad is a child-devouring Blood Banshee, the record's antagonist and a rare example of a creature-ghost hybrid. I'm delighted to learn (via Scarstuff) that recently the fabled spook has been adapted into a highly accurate latex mask by independent mask maker, The Devil's Workshop...


For more information check out Devils-Workshop.com.

If you care to listen to the blue-faced one feast on a room full of kids then sit back and enjoy...

KREATURE KID'S HALLOWEEN NIGHTMARE MODELS

Adam Dougherty aka The KreatureKid created a set of unbelievable resin models based on the esteemed Topstone brand monster masks that were available in Famous Monsters of Filmland among other places. These have been out for over a year but they're still well worth celebrating. Dougherty not only imagined appropriate bodies to go with the familiar faces, he turned the creatures loose on Halloween night where trick or treaters must contend with them. The kids themselves are decked out in fantastic costumes from yesteryear and details such as the Hamilton's Invaders helmet, the creature costume and the trick or treat bag are spot-on recreations of the real thing.  It's rare to see the essence of the holiday so perfectly captured.

See many more amazing photos HERE.  I doubt any are still available, but more info can be found HERE.









 








 Oh yeah, Dougherty also created a larger than life size version of the Shock Monster.

CRAZY CHINS KICKSTART

Tim Walsh, the man behind games like Tribond and Blurt!, essential books like Timeless Toys and The Wham-O Superbook, and the highly entertaining Toyland documentary is trying to bring another of his fun ideas to life called Crazy Chins.

"Crazy Chins Movie Maker Kits let you easily make and share hilarious upside-down chin videos online with your smart phone. Each kit comes with a Hollywood-quality chin mask, a portable pop out green screen that covers the rest of your face and a corresponding facepaint pen. Kits are used with our free Crazy Chins Movie Maker App."

Right now Tim and his business partner Chris Abbot are raising money on Kickstarter to fund the project.  Here's their video...


If you'd like to find out more or help fund the fun then visit the Kickstarter page.

CUSTOM BUILT POLARIS NUCLEAR SUB

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The comic book ad for the Polaris Nuclear Sub left a lasting impression on countless readers and collectors, myself included.  Now Fun Blog reader Bryon Stump has built one himself and improved upon the actual product (which I've covered before).  Here it is...



Bryon, who wanted the sub as a kid, but never got one says,
"...a friend asked me if I thought I could construct a cardboard submarine like the one in the ad.  The more I thought about it, the more I thought it might be a fun project. I decided that I would try to make it at least look like the one pictured in the ad and I thought I could at least make it do the things advertised.

This summer, after a few weeks of work, I built my submarine.  It was fun and at least I amused my neighbors.  It really is over 7 ft long and can comfortably seat two children (or one adult).  It fires torpedoes and nuclear missiles (with rubber bands just like the original).  It has a working periscope, portholes, and light up control panels."







Thanks Bryon for sharing your cool creation with all of us, and my hat's off to you for showing us what could have been.  For more info you can contact Bryon here.