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Poster Boy is the pseudonym of a New York City street artist who converts advertising into something completely different by combining elements into collages.
“His cut and slash mash-ups of subway platform billboards only exist in New York City, but Poster Boy’s artful and funny appropriations of advertising have gotten him attention the world over. The New York Times dubbed him an “anti-consumerist Zorro with a razor blade, a sense of humor and a talent for collage”; the Guardian UK said of his work, it “is witty, web-savvy and economical…and the only materials it requires are chutzpah, imagination and a 50 cent blade.”
A new book featuring Poster Boy’s works called Poster Boy: The War of Art will be published next month. Neatorama has a preview with a sampling of the art today at the Spotlight blog. Link
The original book Chicken Soup for the Soul is 17 years old. There have been sequels published about every topic imaginable -or maybe not. In today’s Lunchtime Quiz at mental_floss, you’ll be given a Chicken Soup title, and you decide whether it’s a real book or an imaginary title. How simple can that be? Not that simple; I scored only 60%. Link
Webcomic artist Giant Hamburger illustrated this children’s book mashup of Winnie the Pooh and the Alien movie series. Silliness ensues when Pooh mistakes an alien egg for a honey pot! Link -via Buzzfeed
The Dresden Codex is an eleven-foot-long Maya manuscript, inscribed on both sides, produced around the beginning of the 13th century. Scholars believe it to be a copy of an earlier book composed between 700 and 900 AD, which would make it the oldest book from the western hemisphere. The contents covers the Maya calendar, mathematics, astronomy, and religious beliefs. See more images from the Dresden Codex and later reproductions at BibliOdyssey. Link
National Geographic shows us a 330-year-old book that describes the fear of what we would call zombies or vampires. De Masticatione Mortuorum, Latin for “The Chewing Dead”, discusses the customs of the time for preventing corpses from rising up and eating the living. A portion is translated to English:
Our Common People attempt to avert the danger of chewing by placing under the chins of the dead a portion of recently excavated earth, lest they perhaps open their mouths and chew on the attached bands…
Others, who do not consider this a sufficiently safe measure, before the mouth of the dead is closed, also place a stone and a coin in the mouth, so that in the event that it begins to chew within the grave, it would find the stone and coin and would abstain from chewing. Which fact was witnessed in its time in a multitude of places in Saxonia by Gabriel Rollenhagen: Book IV Mirab. Peregrinat chapter 20, n. 5 in Kornmann.
The book is part of this Tuesday’s episode of National Geographic Explorer called Vampire Forensics. Link -via Buzzfeed
The British Library has announced that the Klencke Atlas will have its first-ever public showing this summer as part of a map exhibition.
It is almost absurdly huge – 1.75 metres (5ft) tall and 1.9 metres (6ft) wide – and was given to [Charles II] by Dutch merchants and placed in his cabinet of curiosities.
At the time of its creation, it was intended as “an encyclopaedic summary of the world.”
Link. Previously on Neatorama: The [other] Largest Book in the World
John Farrier’s post on Where’s Waldo prompted me to shine the spotlight on another series of puzzle-tastic find-me books that feature actual photographed objects.
The tableau of I Spy puzzles vary between scattered and seemingly similar objects to exquisitely staged snapshots of a closet, and even other worlds. Here’s one.
Photo/Artist Walter Wick came up with the idea of finding hidden objects in plain sight…by accident.
I was organizing screws, paper clips and other odds and ends. As I began sorting, I liked the way the objects looked spread out on my light box. After hours of careful arranging, I took a picture (left). This photograph of odds and ends was the spark that helped inspire the first I Spy book! But that would take another 10 years.
Photo: Walter Wick/I Spy
I Spy an anchor, 2 shovels, plus a sleeping man. Helicopter, knight, and a cooking pan. (That was all mine, anyone care to do better?)
Read more about Walter Wick here, and remember this video from last November? That’s him. And he apparently has a new book series called Can You See What I See? where he writes his own poem hints.
Photo: Gentle Giant Studios
The Star Wars cantina bookend set is currently out of stock, and at a cost of over $150.00 it’s definitely for those with money to burn. Neatorama sells cool bookends for far less. However, this and other examples including Lord of the Rings, Batman vs. Superman, Harry Potter and more can be ogled at Uphaa.
Pandora’s Box Secret Storage – $23.95
Yes, in Greek mythology, Pandora’s box is actually a large jar that unleashed terrible things on mankind. But that didn’t stop us from liking this Pandora’s Box, a secret storage shaped like a large leather bound book.
The Pandora’s box Secret Storage has black felt interior, with magnets to keep the case closed. It will surely keep your personal things secret, hiding in plain sight on your bookshelf. Just don’t store any "ills, toils, and sickness," like the original Pandora’s box, mmkay?
From the Neatorama Shop: Link | See also: Das Kapital Money Bank
On November 15, 1959, Herb and Bonnie Clutter and two of their four children were murdered in Holcomb, Kansas. This crime was later chronicled in Truman Capote’s book In Cold Blood and in four movies. The Guardian takes a look back at the crime, the book written about it, and how the town of Holcomb has dealt with its notoriety for 50 years. Some of the townspeople welcomed the attention; others wish everyone would stay away. Bob Rupp, the last townsperson to see the Clutters alive, and who erected a memorial plaque honoring the family, has his own opinion.
Bob Rupp has a third view. He says he has never read In Cold Blood, nor seen the movies, and never will. But he believes that Capote was unfair to the Clutters, because he left to posterity a memory of them that is dominated by the gruesome manner of their deaths rather than the wonderful accomplishments of their lives. He still thinks about the Clutters often, hence his idea for the memorial.
Link -via Metafilter
It’s no real surprise that Wikipedia has a thorough list of these, but it’s interesting to parse through the many, and find a neat collection of songs and albums that were based on, or influenced by books. Led Zeppelin has a scatological lyric library referencing JRR Tolkien, but let’s see what else is out there.
13. Alan Parson’s Project – The album is called Tales of Mystery and Imagination, and includes interpretations of Edgar Allen Poe’s best, like “The Raven”, “Dr. Tar and Professor Feather”, and “The Cask of Amontillado.” Here’s the awesome “Dream Within A Dream” video. Also by Parsons: “I, Robot” (Isaac Asimov).
12. Rivendell (Rush) – A quiet, thematic representation of the Elf version of a Bed & Breakfast. (Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings, of course.)
11. 2112 (Rush) - Side one* is loosely based on Anthem by Ayn Rand.
10. For Whom the Bell Tolls (Metallica) - Based on the classic by Ernest Hemingway.
9. The Thing That Should Not Be and The Call of Cthulu (Metallica) - These guys really let good classic fiction influence their songwriting. We get not one, but two songs in honor of H.P. Lovecraft’s best character. Also by Metallica: “One”, based on the book Johnny Got His Gun by Dalton Trumbo.
8. The Small Print (Muse) - “clearly alluding to Goethe’s Faust, being sung from the point of view of the Devil to someone selling their soul to him in exchange for, presumably, musical prowess and fame…” source
7. Anthrax Loves Stephen King - As do a lot of bands like Pennywise (It). But Anthrax named one of their best albums Among the Living after King’s character Randall Flagg in The Stand. They also penned a song called “Skeleton in the Closet” based on King’s “Apt Pupil”.
6. Tom Sawyer (Rush) - Wow, Rush. Even “Red Barchetta” is based on a vague book called A Nice Morning Drive by Richard S. Foster. At least Tom Sawyer is pretty well known both as a song and a book. Who can resist the urge to sing along when Geddy Lee croons, “The River!”
5. Tales of Brave Ulysses (Cream) - Psychedelically sums up all you need to know about all the ins and outs of Homer’s The Odyssey. And I quote, “Tiny purple fishes run laughing through your fingers…” (This was actually a lyric inspired by lyricist Martin Sharp’s travels in Ibiza.) But the Sirens are there, so that’s cool.
4. The Ghost of Tom Joad (Bruce Springsteen) - Based on The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck. Henry Fonda and Bruce Springsteen would have had some cool conversations, I bet.
3. White Rabbit (Jefferson Airplane) -Based on Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland. Here’s a nice rendition of that song.
2. Animals (Pink Floyd) - It never actually occurred to me before, but an argument can be made that the Animals album, with it’s corrupt pigs (be they on the wing, or three different ones), dogs and sheep, political overtones… Yeah, it’s definitely based on George Orwell’s Animal Farm.
1. Iron Maiden (Pretty much every song of theirs, ever) - At least a heavy handful. These Brit bad boys of metal must have had some scratched up library cards. Their adaptations include:
On second thought, an honorable mention should be made for Led Zeppelin’s “The Battle of Evermore”, as it pretty much describes the Battle of Pellennor Fields in The Return of the King.
(Iron Maiden illustration by Ado Cedric & Tio Julio.)
*For help with determining what this means, ask a grownup.
From the Upcoming 
ueue, submitted by whitespace.
