Hand-drawn xian record and cassette covers from Switzerland

Simulations Publications Inc.

I saw this game in an exhibition about the postapocalyptic and Tarkovsky's Stalker at the Maison d'Ailleurs, the excellent Swiss Science Fiction Museum/Library. Trying to find out more about the game, I discovered the wonderful world of board game geeks, who provide tons of material, e.g. about Simulations Publications Inc., the company behind said game.

"Founded by Jim Dunnigan in 1969, SPI was a publisher of board wargames during the 1970s and early 1980s, when it went bankrupt. SPI also published several magazines, including Strategy & Tactics, Moves and Ares"

All images found on boardgamegeek.com and tacticalwargamer.com. Thanks, board game enthusiasts!
The design of these magazines and some of the titles remind me of library records.

"Early SPI photo from Jim Dunnigan who has licensed this under Creative Commons with permission granted to use except for money-making and commercial purposes. The late game designer John Young is in the middle with a cigarette underneath the poster."

"Early SPI photo from Jim Dunnigan who has licensed this under Creative Commons with permission granted to use except for money-making and commercial purposes. (Unknown person, Dunnigan, Simonsen, John Young, and Marie Fredericks, a graphic artist.)"

The wonderful psychedelic Estonian Folk/Jazz hybrid of Collage

I stumbled upon this interesting looking LP in a charity shop just before Christmas.
Mind blowing.
I'm sure many of you will like it too and luckily someone put the full album here:

snipets

Happy New Year! Here's some advice for 2014 through eight 1-minute "Snipets".
Found at the Museum of Classic Chicago Television.
Previously from this excellent archive: Hooray for Reading!

Smiles are friend makers!


Snipets - "Pride Has Many Faces" (1977)

Snipets - "Smile Gangs" (1980)

Snipets - "Bad for You" (1973)

Snipets - "Family Fire Drill" (1982)

Snipets - "What Will I Be When I Grow Up?" (1980)


Snipets - "Skateboard Safety Rules" (1980)

Snipets - "Take Turns & Share Re-Run" (1980)

Snipets - "New Kid In The Neighborhood" (1980)

gamma films - scatola a sorpresa

That's what the Berberian Sound Studio must have been like with good working conditions and happy staff, before it all went Giallo...

I stumbled upon the name Roberto Gavioli in a 1971 issue of Graphis magazine and was happy to find a promo of his Gamma Film studio in Milan on YouTube. It seems to have been an important studio for animation film, especially for commercials. Check the reel below, especially the last bit, starting at 18:42 minutes, a pop culture exploitation ad for a washing machine if I got that right.



Update: I found some additional information on the first film on the website of the Museum of Industry and Labour in Brescia, Italy, where the estate of Gamma Film seems to be. The film, called "Jack in a box", was made in 1963 to promote the studio complex "Cinelandia". Over 200 people used to work there. It was not only an important animation film studio. Furthermore, many famous Italian bands and musicians recorded there. Sadly, the studio complex is used by one of Berlusconi's TV production companies.

Hooray For Reading

Hooray For Reading was a "series of ten, minute-long shorts created by Field Communications for children. These would air during the commercial breaks on kid's shows and cartoons. These featured kids briefly doing some other activity besides reading (the "hook") and then describing a book they like using a brief dramatization of a part in the story."
I found these in the Museum of Classic Chicago TV on FuzzyMemories.tv, an enormous collaborative archive of off-air recordings of American television.
Here are my favorites from Hooray For Reading:

Hooray for Reading - "Life on a Plastic Planet?" (#7, 1979)

Hooray for Reading - 'Then Again, Maybe I Won't' (#4, 1979)

Hooray for Reading - "The Accident" (#5, 1979)

Hooray for Reading - "The Glad Man" (#1, 1979)

Hooray for Reading - "The TV Kid" (#6, 1979)

WFLD Channel 32 - Hooray For Reading Special (Promo, 1980)

Atelier Etcetera

Various installations made by Swiss group Atelier Etcetera between 1979 and 1983. Atelier Etcetera consisted of Beat Meyer, Franziska Opladen-Oberli and Heinrich Maria "Mirko" Opladen.
Top to bottom:
Dom, Lake Night Festival, Zurich, 1979
Schattenseiten, reopening Berne Art Museum, Berne, 1983
GR-NAGU, Youth Biennial, Paris, 1980
Garnix, Lausanne, 1981
Mobilhome, 3rd Federal Art Exhibition, Montreux, 1981
Sky-Lab II, Schweizerische Plastikausstellung, Biel, 1980

Found in this book:
Igildo G. Biesele, Experiment Design, More creativity through experimental design work - case studies from pratice and training, Zurich 1986
There's more on this book over here (and maybe on this blog as well sometime soon).