|k| clippings: 2015-12-01 — scumblebums in clown cars

WORK

"A skillful comedian could coax a laugh with tiny indicators such as a vocal tic (Bob Hope’s ‘But I wanna tell ya’) or even a slight body shift. Jack E. Leonard used to punctuate jokes by slapping his stomach with his hand. One night, watching him on The Tonight Show, I noticed that several of his punch lines had been unintelligible, and the audience had actually laughed at nothing but the cue of his hand slap.

These notions stayed with me for months, until they formed an idea that revolutionized my comic direction: What if there were no punch lines? What if there were no indicators? What if I created tension and never released it? What if I headed for a climax, but all I delivered was an anticlimax? What would the audience do with all that tension? Theoretically, it would have to come out sometime. But if I kept denying them the formality of a punch line, the audience would eventually pick their own place to laugh, essentially out of desperation. This type of laugh seemed stronger to me, as they would be laughing at something they chose, rather than being told exactly when to laugh."

—Steve Martin
—from Born Standing Up: A Comic’s Life

WORD(S)

scumble /SKUM-bəl/. verb or noun. To soften the colors of a painting or other work of art by applying a thin coat or layer of opaque or near-opaque color. The effect of this process. Scumble is a frequentative (a form expressing repetition) of the verb scum (in its older sense meaning to clear, to skim), whose origin is unknown.

“‘Eschew surplusage,’ snapped Twain, that anti-European, anti-Catholic pinchfist from the American midwest, with his unlovely spray of scentless botanicals. Blink the incidentals! Fract that chicken! Scumble that depth-of-field! Rip off that wainscotting! Slubber that gloss! Steam down those frills!” (Alexander Theroux)

“But this wasn’t that flat, affectless Pop thing, the Brillo box, the soup can. If anything, it was the opposite: a stop-sign whose unique scumble of urban grit—whose peeling green pole, textured upon the canvas, whose reflection of morning light near a river in summer—made William want to cry.” (Garth Hallberg)

“I felt secretly sure any other teacher would kill all that was strangest and most luminous in her playing. That scumbled virtuosity of the nonnative speaker wouldn’t survive her first real lesson.” (Richard Powers)

“In this preliminary report on infinite consciousness a certain scumbling of the essential outline is unavoidable. We have to discuss sight without being able to see.” (Vladimir Nabokov)

WEB

1. It’s OK to just look at the phenomenal pictures. » Chronicling Depression With Photography

2. I’ve thought about Stan Alcorn’s article on (not) viral audio for a long time. Now Digg is revisiting the piece and the conversation is (sometimes) fascinating. » Can Audio Go Viral? Sometimes!

3. Speaking of immensely satisfying audio, the wonderful Frank Delaney is reading from and, with great insight, digging into Ulysses one 5-minute bite at a time » RE:JOYCE

4. Or there’s always nature’s constant soundtrack… » Someone Put Giant Megaphones in the Woods So You Can Listen to the Forest

5. Today in 1903 Edwin S. Porter, a former cameraman for Thomas Edison, releases ► The Great Train Robbery, the first narrative film. A western filmed mostly in New Jersey, the film pioneered many techniques including jump cuts, panning shots and even the first example of gunshots being used to force someone to dance. Just a bit over 11-minutes long, it’s hard to overstate The Great Train Robbery’s place in film history and its influence on every generation of film to come.

WATCH/WITNESS

A wonderful short film from 1947 on fore-edge and reverse fore-edge book painting that includes showing an artist painting them » Fore-edge Painting 1947 - Unusual Occupations Series.

REPRISES/RESPONSES/REJOINDERS/RIPOSTES

• Reader T. makes my day: “Thank you for bringing Mr. Childers to my attention. Also the Cassini footage. Actually, all this stuff. An uberous dose of knowledge for sure.”

• Reader W. has a tardigrade update: “Some of the clamor might be interested in this followup on the aliens in our midst: The tardigrade genome has been sequenced, and it has the most foreign DNA of any animal.”

I welcome comments, suggestions, thoughts, feedback and all manner of what-have-you. Just press ‘Reply’ or email to: clippings@katexic.com.

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