Freddie Mercury was a British musician, singer and songwriter, best known as the lead vocalist and lyricist of the rock band Queen. As a performer, he was known for his flamboyant stage persona and powerful vocals over a four-octave range. Mercury was born in Zanzibar in East Africa and grew up there and in India until his mid-teens. He has been referred to as “Britain’s first Asian rock star” and is widely considered one of the greatest male singers of all time. Mercury died of bronchopneumonia brought on by AIDS in 1991. He was born on this day 1946.
Jan Švankmajer is a Czech filmmaker and artist whose work spans several media. He is a self-labeled surrealist known for his surreal stop-motion animations and features, which have greatly influenced other artists such as Terry Gilliam, the Brothers Quay and many others. His feature films include Alice (1988), Faust (1994), Conspirators of Pleasure (1996) and Little Otik (2000). Švankmajer was born on this day in 1934.
Jean-Pierre Jeunet is a French film director. His feature films include Delicatessen (1991), The City of Lost Children (1995), Amélie (2001) and A Very Long Engagement (2004). Jeunet often uses wide camera angles and elaborate camera movements, and makes extensive use of color grading in order to give his movies the desired (often fantastic) ambiance. He was born on this day in 1953.
I have drawn 8-bit Jean-Pierre Jeunet wearing “the third eye,” which is a mechanical monocle from The City of Lost Children. These steampunk-style devices are worn by the Cyclops, a cult of blind religious zealots who kidnap children so that an aging scientist may steal their dreams. The City of Lost Children is one of my three favorite films of all time (the others being Lost Highway and Chungking Express).
Jhonen Vasquez is an American comic book writer, cartoonist and music video director. He was born to Mexican parents, raised in San Jose and is perhaps best known for creating the Nickelodeon’s animated series Invader Zim. Zim is a naïve but psychotic alien who tries to conquer Earth, but is always thwarted in a humorous manner. Vasquez also created the comic Johnny the Homicidal Maniac and its spin-offs, Squee! and I Feel Sick. Many of his creations are geometric in style and gothic in character. Vasquez was born on September 1, 1974.
Ingrid Bergman was a Swedish actress who starred in a variety of European and American films. She won three Academy Awards, two Emmy Awards and the Tony Award for Best Actress. Bergman is best remembered for her starring roles in Casablanca (1942) and Alfred Hitchcock’s Notorious (1946). She is ranked as the fourth greatest female star of American cinema of all time by the American Film Institute. Bergman was born on this day in 1915 and died in 1982 on her 67th birthday.
James Harden is an American professional basketball shooting guard who plays for the NBA’s Houston Rockets. “The Bearded One” was a first-time NBA All-Star in 2013, his first season with the Rockets. Harden played college basketball for the Arizona State Sun Devils, where he was named a consensus All-American and Pac-10 Player of the Year in 2009. He was named NBA Sixth Man of the Year with the Oklahoma City Thunder in 2012 and reached the 2012 NBA Finals. He won a gold medal on the U.S. national team at the 2012 Summer Olympics. In October 2012, Harden was traded to Houston and became the cornerstone of the Rockets franchise. He was born on this day in 1989.
H. P. Lovecraft was an American author of horror, fantasy, poetry and science fiction, especially the subgenre known as weird fiction. Lovecraft’s guiding aesthetic and philosophical principle was what he termed “cosmicism” or “cosmic horror,” the idea that life is incomprehensible to human minds. Lovecraft is the originator of the Cthulhu Mythos story cycle and the Necronomicon, a fictional magical textbook of rites and forbidden lore. Although Lovecraft’s readership was limited during his lifetime, he is now regarded as one of the most influential horror writers of the 20th century. He was born on this day in 1890.
Note: Of course I replaced the head of 8-bit H. P. Lovecraft with that of his greatest creation, Cthulhu.
Orville Wright and his elder brother, Wilbur Wright, were the inventors of the world’s first successful airplane and are considered the “fathers of modern aviation.” The Wright brothers successfully conducted the first free, controlled flight of a power-driven airplane on December 17, 1903. Orville was the more mischievous of the two brothers and was also a champion bicyclist. Orville’s adventurous nature and drive to succeed combined with his brother Wilbur’s research skills to achieve what is considered by many to be the greatest, most influential accomplishment of the 20th century. Orville was born on this day in 1871 in Dayton, Ohio.
Note: Wilbur and Orville Wright resided in Cedar Rapids, Iowa in their youth.
Gary Larson is an American cartoonist. He is the creator of The Far Side, a surreal single-panel cartoon series that was syndicated internationally to over 900 newspapers for 15 years. The series ended with Larson’s retirement on January 1, 1995. His 23 books of collected cartoons have combined sales of more than 45 million copies. In an open letter, Larson famously asked his fans not to distribute his cartoons (which he called his “kids”) illegally on the Internet. He was born on this day in 1950.
I have depicted 8-bit Gary Larson as the red-haired fat kid from his The Far Side cartoons, though Larson is neither overweight nor has red hair. The Fat Kid was one of the many unnamed stock characters that regularly appeared in Larson’s comic, perhaps most famously in the Midvale School for the Gifted strip. When I was in junior high school in the early 1990s, I expressed my appreciation of The Far Side by making a pretty great (if I do say so myself) papier-mâché head of the Fat Kid for a Mardi Gras art project.
Alfred Hitchcock was an English film director and producer. He pioneered many techniques in the suspense and psychological thriller genres. Hitchcock moved to Hollywood in 1939 and became a U.S. citizen in 1955. He directed more than 50 feature films in a career spanning six decades, including Rear Window (1954), Vertigo (1958), North by Northwest (1959) and Psycho (1960). Many of Hitchcock’s films have twist endings and thrilling plots featuring voyeuristic depictions of violence, murder and crime. He is widely regarded as one of cinema’s most significant artists. Hitchcock was born on this day in 1899.
Herbert Hoover was the 31st President of the United States (1929-1933). Born in Iowa, Hoover was an experienced engineer who had made a small fortune in mining. He was the first of two Presidents to redistribute their salaries (JFK was the other; he donated all his paychecks to charity). When the Wall Street Crash of 1929 struck less than eight months after Hoover took office, he tried to combat the ensuing Great Depression with government-enforced efforts, public works projects such as the Hoover Dam, tariffs and tax increases. These initiatives did not produce economic recovery during his term, but served as the groundwork for various policies incorporated by Franklin D. Roosevelt. In 1947, President Harry S. Truman brought Hoover back to help make the federal bureaucracy more efficient through the Hoover Commission. Hoover was born on this day in 1874.
Ramona Flowers is a fictional character in the comic book series Scott Pilgrim and the film adaptation Scott Pilgrim vs. the World (2010) by Canadian cartoonist Bryan Lee O’Malley. Ramona is a 24-year-old American expatriate from New York, a “ninja delivery girl” for Amazon.ca and Scott Pilgrim’s main love interest. She is very guarded about her past in New York before she moved to Toronto. Ramona is capable of traveling through subspace and has seven evil exes who challenge Scott for her affection. She changes her hairstyle every three weeks.
I read and enjoyed the entire six-volume Scott Pilgrim comic series before seeing the movie, but the movie is great too. And I love “Ramona” by Beck. In other music news, I am trying to decide if I should go see Lotte Kestner and Kevin Long play a house show in the Sellwood-Moreland neighborhood of Southeast Portland tonight. I’m very excited that Anna-Lynne Williams scheduled a couple of summer tour stops in Oregon. I have reserved two tickets to the Portland show, but I don’t know if I love Lotte Kestner enough to miss a few hours with my wonderful wife and darling newborn daughter Ramona.
Ramona Quimby is a fictional character in the series of novels by Beverly Cleary. She starts out in the Henry Huggins series as the pestering little sister of Henry’s friend Beatrice, called “Beezus” by Ramona and her family. Ramona was given a larger role in the novel Beezus and Ramona, and the series concentrated on her from kindergarten onward. Ramona lives on Klickitat Street in Portland, Oregon. She likes fairy tales, playing in the park and adventures. She dislikes spelling, perfect Susan and having to play with Willa Jean.
I have some exciting news. My daughter Ramona Mira Cavalier was born on August 5, 2013 at 4:36 a.m., weighing 8 lbs. 8 oz. and measuring 19.5 inches. When she’s a little older, I’m sure we will read books from the Beverly Cleary series with her. I remember Ramona Quimby, Age 8 (1981), the sixth book of the series, with particular fondness. Also, when my wife Heidi was in her mid-20s, she lived on Failing Street in Portland, which is three blocks from NE Klickitat Street. And Heidi’s grandmother lived just two blocks away on Beech Street. In nearby Grant Park is the Beverly Cleary Sculpture Garden. I am lucky to have such a wonderful wife and darling newborn daughter. ♥
Josephine Baker was an American-born French dancer, singer and actress. Born in St. Louis, she became a citizen of France in 1937. Fluent in both English and French, Baker was an international icon, perhaps best known for her infamous banana dance. She was the first African-American female to star in a major motion picture, Zouzou (1934), integrate an American concert hall and become a world-famous entertainer. Baker is also noted for her contributions to the civil rights movement in the United States, for assisting the French Resistance during World War II and for receiving the French military honor, the Croix de guerre.
Note: Baker was offered the unofficial leadership of the civil rights movement by Coretta Scott King in 1968 following the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr., but turned it down.
Space Cat is a children’s book series from the 1950s, written by Scottish author Ruthven Todd and illustrated by Paul Galdone. The third book, Space Cat Meets Mars (1957) introduces Moofa, a female cat with striped red fur and pink whiskers. While visiting Mars, the protagonist space cat Flyball meets Moofa, who is the last surviving Martian cat. She subsists on golden fish from the Martian canals and takes shelter in caves during the frigid Martian nights and red dust storms. Her story continues in the fourth and final book in the series, Space Cat and the Kittens (1958).
Aldous Huxley was an English writer and one of the most prominent members of the famous Huxley family. He is best known for his novels, including Brave New World (1932), and a wide-ranging output of essays, including The Doors of Perception (1954). Huxley was a humanist, pacifist and satirist. He spent the later part of his life in Los Angeles and became interested in spiritual subjects such as parapsychology and philosophical mysticism, in particular Vivekanda’s Neo-Vedanta and Universalism. Huxley is also well known for his advocacy and consumption of psychedelic drugs. He was born on this day in 1894.
Tom Robbins is a bestselling American author. He has written nine novels, and one collection, since 1971. His novels are “seriocomedies,” featuring complex, often wild stories with strong social and philosophical undercurrents, a satirical bent, and scenes extrapolated from carefully researched obscure facts. His 1976 novel Even Cowgirls Get the Blues was made into a movie in 1993 by Gus Van Sant. The Library of Congress states that Robbins was born on this day in 1936, though he claims he was born in 1932.
M.I.A. is the stage name of Mathangi “Maya” Arulpragasam, an English recording artist, songwriter and visual artist of Tamil descent. Her compositions combine elements of electronic, dance, rock, hip-hop and world music. She has released three albums to universal critical acclaim: Arular (2005), Kala (2007) and Maya (2010). M.I.A.’s fourth album, Matangi, is due out this year. She is perhaps best known for her singles “Paper Planes” and “Bad Girls.” M.I.A. is the only artist in history to be nominated for an Academy Award, Grammy Award, Brit Award, Mercury Prize and Alternative Turner Prize. She was born on this day in 1975.
Note: This 8-bit outfit is the sheer polka-dot dress that a very pregnant M.I.A. wore while performing at the 2009 Grammy Awards on her baby’s due date. Also in 2009, People wanted to place her on their annual list of the world’s most beautiful people but she was the first person in the magazine’s history to decline, stating “Mother Teresa was never on the list.”
Ginger Rogers was an American actress, dancer and singer who appeared in film, and on stage, radio and television throughout much of the 20th century. During her long career, she made a total of 73 films, and was best known as Fred Astaire’s romantic interest and dancing partner in a series of 10 Hollywood musical films that revolutionized the genre. Rogers won the Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance in Kitty Foyle (1940) and was Hollywood’s highest paid star of 1942. She was married and divorced five times. During the last years of her life Rogers retired in Oregon and bought a ranch in the Medford area because she liked the climate. She was born on this day in 1911.
Ginger Rogers was one of the celebrities whose picture Anne Frank placed on the wall of her bedroom while in hiding during the Nazi occupation of Amsterdam in 1943. That picture, along with other photos and newspaper cuttings of WWII-era stars and heroes, can still be seen on the walls of the Anne Frank House in Amsterdam. Heidi and I and visited the Anne Frank House, located on the Prinsengracht canal, in October 2012. The experience elicited both fascination and sorrow; the building is charged with strong emotional energy.
Pablo Neruda was a Chilean poet, diplomat and politician. He won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1971. Colombian novelist Gabriel García Márquez once called him “the greatest poet of the 20th century in any language.” During his lifetime, Neruda also occupied many diplomatic positions, served as a senator for the Chilean Communist Party, escaped into exile in Argentina, and later advised socialist President Salvador Allende. In September 1973, Neruda was hospitalized with prostate cancer at the time of the U.S.-backed Chilean coup d’état (the other 9/11) led by Augusto Pinochet. Neruda died suddenly of heart failure, but some suspect the junta had a hand in his death. Neruda was born on this day in 1904.
Note: In 2011, a Chilean judge ordered that an investigation be launched, following suggestions that Neruda had been killed by the Pinochet regime for his pro-Allende stance and political views. On April 8, 2013, Neruda was exhumed, 40 years after his death, to determine if he was poisoned. Last month, a court order was issued to find the man that prosecutors allege poisoned Neruda. Suspects include former CIA agent Michael Townley.
Jean-Pierre Jeunet – No. 663
Jean-Pierre Jeunet is a French film director. His feature films include Delicatessen (1991), The City of Lost Children (1995), Amélie (2001) and A Very Long Engagement (2004). Jeunet often uses wide camera angles and elaborate camera movements, and makes extensive use of color grading in order to give his movies the desired (often fantastic) ambiance. He was born on this day in 1953.
I have drawn 8-bit Jean-Pierre Jeunet wearing “the third eye,” which is a mechanical monocle from The City of Lost Children. These steampunk-style devices are worn by the Cyclops, a cult of blind religious zealots who kidnap children so that an aging scientist may steal their dreams. The City of Lost Children is one of my three favorite films of all time (the others being Lost Highway and Chungking Express).