TUMBLR
A scrapbook of stuff I'm reading / looking at / listening to / thinking about...
Posts tagged "fathers"
I wrote something on writing post-fatherhood. I don’t think it’s daddyblogging, but it could be. I’m sorry.
Al Hirschfeld’s signature: spot the NINA
We were talking about signatures yesterday, and my wife reminded me of Al Hirschfeld. Wikipedia:
Hirschfeld is known for hiding the name of his daughter, Nina, in most of the drawings he produced after her birth in 1945. The name would appear in a sleeve, in a hairdo, or somewhere in the background. As Margo Feiden described it, Hirschfeld engaged in the “harmless insanity,” as he called it, of hiding her name [Nina] at least once in each of his drawings. The number of NINAs concealed is shown by an Arabic numeral to the right of his signature. Generally, if no number is to be found, either NINA appears once or the drawing was executed before she was born. Hirschfeld originally intended the Nina gag to be a one-time gimmick but locating Nina’s name in the drawings became extremely popular. From time to time Hirschfeld lamented that the gimmick had overshadowed his art and tried to discontinue the practice, but such attempts always generated harsh criticism. Nina herself was reportedly somewhat ambivalent about all the attention. In the previously mentioned interview with The Comics Journal Hirschfeld confirmed the urban legend that the U.S. Army had used his cartoons to train bomber pilots with the soldiers trying to spot the NINAs much as they would spot their targets. Hirschfeld told the magazine he found the idea repulsive, saying that he felt his cartoons were being used to help kill people. In his 1966 anthology The World of Hirschfeld he included a drawing of Nina which he titled “Nina’s Revenge.” That drawing contained no Ninas. There were, however, two Als and two Dollys (“The names of her wayward parents”).
See if you can spot the NINAs above.
(Hint: look to the hair and the gentleman’s lapel.)
Being Real. I’m a real man.
These end-of-American-Elf comics are breaking my heart. The way James has been able to integrate his art and his family life has always been an inspiration to me and made me think I might have a shot at being a decent dad.
John Lennon, househusband: “I’ve been baking bread and looking after the baby.”
From 1973-1975, John Lennon lived what is known as “The Lost Weekend,” a period in which he separated from his wife, Yoko Ono, and spent his time drinking and running around with Harry Nilsson. The story goes that when they eventually got back together, Yoko got pregnant, but since they’d suffered several previous miscarriages, she said the only way she’d have the kiddo is if Lennon agreed to be a “househusband.” He accepted, and from 1975-1980, they switched roles: Yoko tended to their business deals and Lennon stayed at home with their new son, Sean.
In a long, pretty fantastic 1980 Playboy interview, when asked what he’d been doing, he answered, “I’ve been baking bread and looking after the baby.” The interviewer asked, “But what have you been working on?” to which Lennon replied, “Are you kidding? Bread and babies, as every housewife knows, is a full-time job.”
Lennon wrote the song “Watching The Wheels” about this period away from fame:
People say I’m crazy
Doing what I’m doing
well, they give me all kinds of warnings
to save me from ruinWhen I say that I’m okay
well, they look at me kinda strange
surely you’re not happy now
you no longer play the game
In his later years, Lennon struggled with the notion of churning out rock ‘n’ roll product, so his househusband era was also a kind of retreat and sabbatical from the meat grinder. “Rock ‘n’ roll was not fun anymore…I had become a craftsman and I could have continued being a craftsman. I respect craftsmen, but I am not interested in becoming one.”
“I chose not to take the standard options in my business — going to Vegas and singing your great hits, if you’re lucky, or going to hell, which is where Elvis went,” he said. “Walking away is much harder than carrying on.”
A wonderful comic by beatonna:
I sketched this comic about me, my dad, and something we made.
