Way to Ruin a Reputation

Some people just dont understand satire. But im glad the German people do. because this is hilarious. Artist Ottmar Hoerl poses 3D models in provacative ways artistically. This particular installation uses facist gnomes. The only issue I have is somehow, gnomes have become synonymous with the easily manipulated and/or persuaded to hatred. But, I guess this isnt really that big of issue, since the image of the gnome is being used as a vehicle for good and not evil.

There are other worse protrayals of gnomes in society. A few examples are GnomeWatch, a watch dog group that has found a scapegoat for British domestic failures in gnomes and therefore spreads propaganda to discredit these gentle people (of course this is completely ridiculous), and this little site about gnome mutilation, totally sick, and very unfunny! and lastly... Harry Potter!

Thats right, Harry Potter, that lovable series of children's novels of a young wizard who defeats an unsurmountable evil masquerades as an innocent fantasy tale, but is really a 7 book anti-gnome rant. Gnomes are described as common garden pests that, much like grubs, or beetles, eat away at plants and root systems. These gnomes are also described as not very smart either, for when it is made obvious that someone is there to exterminate them, they "storm up to have a look" instead of staying in the ground, safe.

I guess it is better, then, to have gnomish representations symbolize and satirize an age of oppression, fear, ignorance, and brutality then be shown as idiotic pests, or public enemy number one. Check out more of Hoerl's installations and work at his website. 

Gremlins Never Shower

So, the topic this time is Gremlins. In case you don't know, or lived in a box during the '80s, Gremlins can be gnomish creatures bent on causing meyham. Actually, they probably have nothing to do with this blog at all, except I want to write about them, and its my blog.

A few things about gremlins:  contrary to popular contemporary beliefs, the gremlins depicted in the 1984 Joe Dante film arent exactly from the same gremlin mythos popularized during World War 2, from which the name entered the lexicon. To demonstrate, let me sum up the movie: kid recieves a strange looking pet with the instructions to not feed after midnight, or get wet.  

So of course, during the movie these rules are broken and the cute little furry gremlin-thing turns into an evil lizard that likes to smash stuff and light things on fire. The movie synopsis uses the word "hijinx" to describe the events of the movie. The phrase "disaster ensues" would be more appropriate.  I think it more accurately portrays the smashing and burning, raping and pillaging. The word hijinx would never be used in the summary for a viking, pirate, or gangster movie. Jason never committed hijinx on Friday the 13th.

The 1940s gremlin mythos is thus: The Murphy's law of "if something can go wrong, it will", or the acronym SNAFU (situation normal, all fucked up) is explained by these little creatures that hide in machines and break things. Sabotage by small unseen demons MUST be why shit goes wrong. There is no water involved, no caretaker regulations, no condemnation of midnight snacking. Its just ugly little, often invisible, monsters that sabotage technology for there own personal enjoyment of creating chaos.

The painting I've included above is from the Collier's magazine article "What every Pilot should Know" by Quentin Reynolds in 1942. Painted by Gustaf Tenngren, it shows gremlins riding a plane into ruin.

Roal Dahl (before his other cool-ass books like Witches, and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory) wrote a book for Disney in 1943 called The Gremlins. Dahl created two genders of gremlins, the widgets and the fifinella. The fifinella would be used by WASP of the US airforce as a uniform patch.

Looney Tunes designed gremlins for two cartoon shorts. One is a cartoon showing gremlins taking down Hitler and his luftwaffe. The other is a gremlin battling Bugs Bunny (and of course, losing). When I was in high school, I used this character as a symbol on my hardhat when I did construction one summer.

The last cool portayal was in the cartoon the Real Ghostbusters. These gremlins retired from destroying aircraft, and moved to sabotaging automobiles at a plant in Detriot. It took me awhile, but I found a picture. This was a good show. No one makes cartoons like that anymore. It was well written, clever, production value was good. The show was not dumbed down for a younger audience, and still was appropriate enough to be shown on Saturday morning. It also didnt rely on support from a toy line.

Speaking of gremlins...  the AMC made a cheap car called the gremlin in the 70s.  Probably not a good plan to name your product after a mythic superstition known to make machinery malfunction.  From what I hear, the AMC Gremlin lived up to its namesake.  

My point today is...  the 80s ruined alot of things, Rock music almost didnt recover, hairstyles got stupid, but with regards to this post...  the films the Gremlins and Gremlins 2 damaged the perception of a cool old-school cultural symbol.  Goddammit '80s!