Quay
I look for serendipity where I can find it. MetaFilter has a thread up tonight pointing to a video by Jan Svenkmejer for the Stranglers
Another kind of music video | MetaFilter. This is interesting enough on its own, but most discussions of Jan Svenkmayer bring up the Quay brothers at some point. The Brothers Quay - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (the name they used for their work) are also stop motion puppeteers and experimental filmakers. I was trying to sell my niece, Nicole, on the Brothers Quay over the weekend. I hadn't thought to go looking on YouTube for their films. Somehow I just didn't figure they would be there. But everything is on YouTube now. It's hard to explain what the Brothers Quay do to someone who hasn't already seen any of their work already. Gilgamesh; a little boy-creature doll rides around in circles on a toy tricycle. It's named Gilgamesh, it refers to itself as a reduction of the Epic of Gilgamesh. I take them at their word. It is a quest of some sort. That it is a paleo-mythic quest follows without much additional duress. I came across their work first years ago when PBS showed Street of Crocodiles, which is taken from the Polish writer Bruno Schultz's book
The street of crocodiles [WorldCat.org] mostly from the story the Tailor's Dummy (I had that book once, but lent it to someone). PBS doesn't show much of this nature anymore. Frankly PBS strikes me as really falling down on the job recently. It's unlikely that they will attempt to broadcast the Quay's most recent movie
The Piano Tuner of Earthquakes (2005) when it becomes available. This is how I got into the discussion with my niece. When I see that movie I'll come back and write about it.
The two pieces pointed to in the MetaFilters thread were the videos they did for
His Name Is Alive. I recommend Are we still married? After that you're on you own.
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