strange/beautiful.


Yozhik v tumane (Hedgehog in the Fog), 1975

Lately I've been watching Russian cartoons on YouTube. The Soviet Union produced a lot of strange, avant-garde animation during the 20th century. Some of the shorts were based on fairy tales or aimed at children like the beautiful Hedgehog in the Fog, and some of them were more abstract and flat out weird like the repetitive Bolero:



"Every director works as an artist for other directors, who have totally different manners and tastes, in between the shoots of his own films. This gives Russian animators greater flexibility and more varied skills. Russian animation is also very "handmade"--unusual techniques and textures are discovered overcoming technical difficulties. The result, which cannot be recreated on the state-of-the art equipment, often bewilders animators at international festivals."
-This is an excerpt from this article, which discusses Russian animation at length.



There seems to be something a little off about Soviet cartoons, which is what makes them so interesting. They aren't as comfortable as Western animation, with our Mickey Mouses and Betty Boops. Russian cartoons seem to always whisper an underlying lesson, and they are whimsical but at the same time rather creepy, like each cartoon is a dream that borders on a nightmare. In any case, that little Hedgehog movie blows me away. If you haven't watched it yet, do so now!!
(It's in Russian, but the story is thus: The hedgehog is going to meet his friend the bear cub so they can count stars, and he's taking some marmalade with him. Along the way he sees a horse in the fog, and wonders if it would choke on the fog if it fell asleep. The hedgehog then decides to investigate the fog, and adventure ensues.)
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first post of 2007: playful modernism.

I didn't do much to ring in the new year. 12:00 came and went, and I was about to fall asleep watching Grand Hotel when Octavio came in and rousted me. So we left to play drums with some hippies and get drunk at a bar. Then I woke up in the afternoon and watched All Quiet on the Western Front. And blew my nose a lot.

On a completely different note, there is a place in California called The Nut Tree. It began as a roadside fruit stand in Vacaville in the 1920s, and over the years it grew into a sort of mini theme park, complete with an airport, giftshop, restaurant, and even a little train to ride around in. In the 1980s the place closed down, but the signs and buildings remained, and we would frequently drive by them during family visits California.



What made the Nut Tree stand out was its incredible retro style. In 1952 the owners hired former art museum curator Don Birrell as design director, and over the next 10 years he and his design team fashioned the park into the whimsically modern wonderland that most people remember today.



The Nut Tree was like a museum itself, a gorgeous exhibition of modernist trends in design during the 1950s. The atmosphere was playful and elegantly sophisticated at the same time. Bright primary colors illuminated toybox-like architecture, and the glass walls and open areas created a space in harmony with the outdoors. Even the restaurant menus had a cool woodcut-style cover. An article outlining the site's history talks more about the importance of design:

'Excellent design became a hallmark of the dining room. Dansk silverware graced the tables, dishware was specially designed for specific dishes, and guests enjoyed their meal while lounging in stylish Charles Eames chairs. Every dish was presented based on a visual template developed by Don.'

'Don and his coworkers traveled around the world, bringing back new ideas. The Nut Tree Plaza of 1961 featured an ice cream pavilion with its fluted roof and twinkling lights, an idea adapted from similar pavilions in the famous Tivoli Gardens of Copenhagen, Denmark.' -Sabine Goerke-Shrode, The Reporter

In 2006 the park was re-made, re-modeled and re-opened. But the Nut Tree for a new generation retains none of the original's stylistic charm. Don Birrell's Nut Tree featured a color coordinated toystore with playful figurative typography spelling out "TOYS" with animals, and vertically arranged boxes displaying chic Eames chairs. Good design side-by-side with implements of play. The new Nut Tree looks like this:



That's right, folks; it's a shiny new outlet mall. The saddest part is that Vacaville's real factory outlet stores are located directly across the freeway. So if Old Navy is closed, you can drive right over to The Gap in the Nut Tree and not miss a beat. Who needs a beautifully constructed ice cream pavilion when you can go to a Cold Stone, plugged in between a Banana Republic and Victoria's Secret? All this while you enjoy dull "Mediterranean colors" and "wide walkways" that lead you back to your store-front parking space, so you can drive your SUV over to the bathrooms.

In all fairness, I'm sure the new Nut Tree Village is a nice place to shop. But it saddens me to see a place so lauded for it's design reborn as something so bland. The original site seemed like its own self-contained world; the look and structure of the place transcended its function as a fruit stand/airport, so that visitors felt excited and relaxed by the unique surroundings alone. The new Nut Tree, in contrast, reminds you of the world you live in, the job you work at, and the products you need. The design is purely functional, a means to an end, that end being your dollar.
...Alright, class dismissed.