Thursday 26 April 2018

zupa pamięci (olstagia polskie)


Polish counterpart to Look Around You - well, not exactly (the model perhaps more on the lines of  Poland's Communist-era equivalent to Why Don't You Just Switch Off Your Television Set and Go Out and Do Something Less Boring Instead, rather than Tomorrow's World)

"KrainaGrzybowTV (also known as Mushroomland (or Land of Mushrooms) TV, KGTV, or just Kraina Grzybów) is a Polish YouTube channel, which features a series of 1980’s themed videos revolving around a mysterious place called Mushroomland. The videos (so far) include: Smile Guide (Poradnik Uśmiechu) episodes 1, 2, 4, and 5, several Smile Guide OST videos, and one episode of Mushroom Melodies (Grzybowe Melodie). Six definite characters have been thus far established: Agatha (in Polish, Agatka), Maggie the Squirrel (Wiewiórka Małgosia), Caroline (Karolina), the Jeansman (Dżinsowy Człowiek), Hatszepsut,and Agatha’s unnamed mother.





"Smile Guide takes the appearance of an ’80’s or early ’90’s-era Eastern Bloc children’s educational program which, as the specific video progresses, descends into chaotic madness. Much of its style consists of footage made to look like it was shot on VHS, grammatically incomplete sentences, absurd humor, nostalgic-sounding music (mostly played on synthesizer and designed to evoke Polish television soundtracks from the 1980’s ), and, of course, disturbing imagery.
"The show is hosted by Agatha, a young girl always seen wearing a blue sweater with red flowers on it. She also wears paper eyes over her actual eyes (as do Caroline and the Jeansman). The premise of each episode is that Agatha is going to teach the viewer how to do something grammatically nonsensical (“how to effectively apple,” “how to make from paper”), but this pretense generally gets dropped about half-way through as the video descends into chaos. She is usually joined by Maggie, a talking cartoon squirrel, who acts as something of a co-host. The two generally seem to be friendly, although Episode 2 sees both of them snapping angrily at each other at one point, perhaps to imply everything is not as it seems...."



There was another KGTV series - Grzybowe Melodie (Mushroom Melodies) - but with only one episode




More information

More videos

Thursday 19 April 2018

Thursday 5 April 2018

Concrete












Re-uploaded on request.  I don't have the date etc to hand, I'll add that tonight.

See also: Television and Houses and Homes

Sunday 1 April 2018

The Practical Infant Teacher, Supplementary Volume





1938-ish.  This lot from the section on ART.  The text is worth reading - check the modern ideas about teaching, self-expression, what art is for etc.  I wonder what Michael Rosen would make of it?

Marion Richardson is acknowledged as a major influence: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marion_Richardson


This could be Carel Weight!