[colinmartinpwherman.deviantart.com]

video link

A landmark work that pays splendid homage to a forgotten era of seminal American music.

Robert Crumb first began drawing record covers in 1968 when Janis Joplin, a fellow Haight Ashbury denizen, asked him to provide a cover for her albumCheap Thrills. It was an invitation the budding artist couldn’t resist, especially since he had been fascinated with record covers-particularly for the legendary jazz, country, and old-time blues music of the 1920s and 1930s-since he was a teen. This early collaboration proved so successful that Crumb went on to draw hundreds of record covers for both new artists and largely forgotten masters. So remarkable were Crumb’s artistic interpretations of these old 78 rpm singles that the art itself proved influential in their rediscovery in the 1960s and 1970s. Including such classics as Truckin’ My Blues Away, Harmonica Blues, andPlease Warm My Weiner, Crumb’s opus also features more recent covers done for CDs. R. Crumb: The Complete Record Cover Collection is a must-have for any lover of graphics and old-time music.

R. Crumb: The Complete Record Cover Collection

[Boing Boing]

Towel Day is an annual celebration on the 25th of May, as a tribute to the late author Douglas Adams (1952-2001). On that day, fans around the universe proudly carry a towel in his honour.

www.towelday.org

Some of my favorite Douglas Adams quotes:

• “You live and learn. At any rate, you live.”
• “In the beginning the Universe was created. This has made a lot of people very angry and has been widely regarded as a bad move.”
• “The knack of flying is learning how to throw yourself at the ground and miss.”
• “There is a theory which states that if ever anybody discovers exactly what the Universe is for and why it is here, it will instantly disappear and be replaced by something even more bizarre and inexplicable. There is another theory which states that this has already happened.”
• “I may not have gone where I intended to go, but I think I have ended up where I needed to be.”

You will be missed.

From the A.V. Club

Underground comics icon and American Splendor creator Harvey Pekar was found dead early this morning, discovered by his wife Joyce in the Cleveland Heights home they shared. He was 70 years old. There’s no word yet on cause of death, although the police report notes that foul play and trauma did not play a part. Pekar, of course, documented his battle with lymphoma in 1994’s Our Cancer Year but has been disease-free since. Autopsy results are pending.

Clip from American Splendor

Some of my favorite quotes of his:

Links:

Cult comic writer Pekar dead at 70 in Ohio (AP)

American Splendor: The Life and Times of Harvey Pekar [Paperback]

American Splendor (2003) [DVD]