In Support of Whimsy

I felt a little despondent last night.
bink and I keep coming up with new twists on the herring costumes, and each new idea requires several more hours with the duct-tape and scissors to make something that, in the end, looks like it's out of a grade school play.

Well, not bink's herring bones, which I'm holding here (right); they're a beautiful piece of design. I want to mount them on the wall when we're done filming.

While I was googling "herring skeletons" for bink, I came across this photo, below, of prehistoric herrring--their fossils are from Fossil Butte, Wyoming--fossils in the area were discovered during the construction of the Union Pacific Railroad in the 1860s).

Aren't they lovely and graceful?
They remind me of a Roman floor mosaic.

____________________________________________________________
It's true that making costumes for fifteen people is maybe a bit much; but this morning I was undespondentized when I came across a youTube of this 1955 recording, below, of Alexander Calder [links to Whitney site] putting his circus toys in motion.

Toys? Art? Special effects? What's the difference?

I'd seen this movie about twenty years ago at a local art museum and never forgotten it.

Thinking of how much work Calder must have put into this, I am ready to get back to cutting out strips of seaweed.
Maybe I'll go buy myself some red tennies like Calder's later too, as reward for my labors on behalf of whimsy.



BELOW: Alexander Calder and His Circus, Paris, 1929. By Andre Kertesz.

Ah, and here is Calder's 1944 mobile, Fish. From the Hirshhorn Museum.


And one more fish: The Roddenberry Trek Fish, from Gene and Majel's son Eugene:
"It's not about Creationism. It's not about Darwinism. It's about the future!
The TREK FISH simply says we can continue to discuss our origins but, as a species, should focus on what is to come."

I might even stick one on my car, if I had a car.
(Another sci-fi Jesus fish stake-off here.)