behind the scenes / unbridaled hilarious excerpts

online

Do I dare share this? It's a zany online interview that was filmed in 2014. It was produced by the school that I was teaching at (University of Northern Iowa) as part of series that was intended to promote faculty expertise, as indicated by the title of What UNI Knows. Other videos in the series were serious and respectful. But somehow mine came out quite differently. As I was being interviewed by the filmmakers, we had a great time, and more than a few jokey moments occurred, with frequent outbursts of laughter. Normally, all those moments would have been cut out, but when the edited version arrived, I was surprised (and admittedly somewhat delighted) that the film producer had left in the moments of hilarity and edited out the serious stuff. Somehow, after all these years, it can still be seen online.

the purposeful use of confusion / invention is

Hans Richter, Dada: Art and Anti-Art (New York: McGraw-Hill, n.d.), p. 145—

One day [German Dadaist artist Kurt] Schwitters decided he wanted to meet [German artist] George Grosz. George Grosz was decidedly surly; the hatred in his pictures often overflowed into his private life. But Schwitters was not one to be put off. He wanted to meet Grosz, so [Walter] Mehring took him up to Grosz's flat. Schwitters rang the bell and Grosz opened the door.

"Good morning, Herr Grosz. My name is Schwitters."

"I am not Grosz," answered the other and slammed the door. There was nothing to be done.

Half way down the stairs, Schwitters stopped suddenly and said, "Just a moment."

Up the stairs he went, and once more rang Grosz's bell. Grosz, enraged by this continual jangling, opened the door, but before he could say a word, Schwitters said "I am not Schwitters, either." And went downstairs again. Finis. They never met again.

Koestler on creativity

Remembering AK

plastic surgeon from Michigan meets the pope

Roy R. Behrens, Bus to Beijing, digital montage (©2004)

Alec Guinness, Blessings in Disguise (Pleasantville NY: Akadine Press, 2001), p. 46—

[In 1958, four days before the death of Pope Pius XII, British actor Alec Guinness was allowed to join an audience with the Holy Father, in a group that consisted primarily of plastic surgeons. Guinness stood “near the end of the line next to a middle-aged American couple,” where] I didn’t grasp what the Pope said to me...but I assumed it was about surgical alterations to the face and not about theatrical make-up; but I did catch every word said by the Americans. They both kneeled to kiss the Fisherman’s Ring, and then the man burst into loud sobs, the tears coursing down his face. The Pope [who was suffering from hiccups] patted him, took his hand, saying the Italian equivalent of “There! There!” and the man grasped his white cassock. The wife explained her husband away with a motherly smile. I imagined her to be a woman who would not have permitted him to buy his own shirts, socks or underpants. “He’s so moved, Your Holiness,” she said. “It is such an honor to meet you. Isn’t it, dear? He’s always like this on great occasions. Aren’t you, dear? Oh, he’s very moved! And just think, Your Holiness—we’ve come all the way from Michigan!” The Pope mastered a hiccup. “Michigan?” “Sure, Michigan.” “I know Michigan,” the Pope said, and managing to free himself from the plastic surgeon’s grip he raised a hand in blessing: “A special blessing on Michigan!” Those were probably the last words of English he spoke. The entourage sped him away from the audience chamber. His private doctor followed, glowering at each of us in turn as he passed.

pus-tilence / the god of war is drunk with blood

Sherwood Anderson in H.H. Campbell, ed., The Sherwood Anderson Diaries, 1936-1941. Athens GA: University of Georgia Press, 1987—

Went with Katy and Mims to a German place in Philadelphia [in 1936]. Danced. It was hot and I took off my coat. They saw my brown shirt and cheered. They thought me a Nazi.

•••

William Blake—

The god of war is drunk with blood,

The earth doth faint and fail;

The stench of blood makes sick the heav'ns;

Ghosts glut the throat of hell!

•••

Anon—

There is a pus on the Presidency.