Happy Kitty Bunny Pony: A Saccharine Mouthful of Super Cute

Book Description

From turn-of-the-century novelties and Depression-era distraction, through wartime comfort, to Hello Kitty and Jeff Koons, cuteness has thrived in the fertile soil of American modern-age media and pop culture. What is it about fluffy bunnies with bows, baby ducks splashing in puddles, kittens snuggled in baskets, and little lambs on their way to school? Happy Kitty Bunny Pony celebrates America's "cult of the cute" in all its campy, kitschy, ironic glory.

With more than 200 images from the print and advertising archives of the Charles S. Anderson Design Company, this collection is an amazingly rich testament to America's fascination with cute things. The hilarious commentary by Mystery Science Theater 3000 host Mike Nelson, spiked with fun and curious facts, bits of sarcasm, and dry and not-so-dry wit, is as surprising and bizarre as the images themselves. So go ahead and join the fun-everyone from art students to your grandma is already shouting the cult-of-the-cute battle cry: "Happy Kitty Bunny Pony!" AUTHOR BIO: The Charles S. Anderson Design Company is ranked by Graphis magazine as one of the world's 10 most influential design firms. Their clients include Ralph Lauren, Warner Brothers, Coca-Cola, Levi's, and Nike. Michael J. Nelson, an actor and writer, was the head writer and on-air host of the legendary television series Mystery Science Theater 3000. He is the author of Mike Nelson's Movie Megacheese, Mind Over Matters, and the novel Death Rat.

Customer Reviews:

Funny and Handy.......2007-09-17

This is a funny book, but the humour for me is a bonus, I really bought the book to use for reference and inspiration.
It's super kitch photos are mixed up with some other cool & crazy pages of graphic design.

I just knew it.......2007-06-08

I picked it up, unknowing, thumbed through it for a minute or two, and thought "MST3K." But without the cleverness.

The lethally sweet pictures are cute (ever notice that "cute" is a four-letter word?) and added captions funny enough, for the first two pages. Maybe three. Then I started wondering, "OK, I got that joke - what's next?" There is no next, just the same joke again and again.

At one point I was hospitalized and on heavy painkillers. I tried to watch the Flintstones, but turned it off when I couldn't follow the plot. If you know someone in that state, for medical or recreational reasons, they'll experience all of the book's humor for the first time again and again. They'll love it. That's not me, though, at least not today.

-- ww

Dry humor for the weiner joke masses........2007-01-30

Mike Nelson of MST3K fame was a better writer than a host. I liked him on MST3K, but he really made an imapct when he was crafting the jokes as opposed to delivering them. Here, we see his brilliant, wry humor in all its glory. This is a rip on every marketing image so sickly sweet that it makes you physically ill. I would recommend you do some Sudokus as well as other brain excercise first: An IQ of 115 or higher is recommended to catch the funniest bits he delivers. That could also explain why my wife lughed harder than I did. Hmm. Back to the Sudoku academy, I guess.

Not as sweet as it seems.......2007-01-17

Because of others' comments I checked this out from the library instead of rushing to buy it like I was tempted to do. The images are of course super cute, but I found the ironic comments to be annoying distractions, and the whole book is much more shallow and dissatisfying than I expected. If you're looking for a real book of advertising and pop culture iconography steer clear! Instead check out some of the books put out by Taschen like "1000 Extraordinary Objects: Colors by Taschen." Happy Kitty Bunny Pony is more on the level of teenage girls who like the sarcastic cuteness of Emily the Strange and Happy Bunny.

Pukey Sweet.......2007-01-05

Ok, I just have to say that this book is by far the cutest thing I have ever seen. It is very funny and a good converstaion piece for your coffee table. Lots of pictures to keep those "non-readers" happy and plenty of comedy throughout. Keep it up Pop Ink!

The Craftster Guide to Nifty, Thrifty, and Kitschy Crafts: Fifty Fabulous Projects from the Fifties and Sixties

Average customer rating:

great fun!
Extremly Happy!
This book makes me happy!
Fun and Fabulous!
Wonderful book

The Craftster Guide to Nifty, Thrifty, and Kitschy Crafts: Fifty Fabulous Projects from the Fifties and Sixties
Leah Kramer
Manufacturer: Ten Speed Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Decorating | Crafts & Hobbies | Home & Garden | Subjects | Books

General | Crafts & Hobbies | Home & Garden | Subjects | Books

General | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books
Similar Items:

AlternaCrafts: 20+ Hi-Style Lo-Budget Projects to Make
Super Crafty: Over 75 Amazing How-to Projects!
Bazaar Bizarre : Not Your Granny's Crafts!
Kitschy Crafts: A Celebration of Overlooked 20th-Century Crafts
Generation T: 108 Ways to Transform a T-Shirt

ASIN: 1580087477

Book Description

You'll find no die-cut teddy bears, cross-stitched friendship plaques, and ducks painted with bonnets in THE CRAFTSTER GUIDE. A hip collection of easy-to-make, fun-to-wear, and stylish-to-display crafts from the fifties and sixties, it features 50 projects culled from vintage craft publications, including more than 10 new retro-inspired projects. This unabashedly tacky craft compendium includes clear instructions, tools and techniques, and enough irony to fill a popsicle-stick purse.

Customer Reviews:

great fun!.......2007-04-19

I love looking through this book and getting inspired--the writing is so fun and the design overall is just so kitschy-cool! All the projects I've made from it turned out great, and I've had so much fun going through it and choosing what to do next.

Extremly Happy!.......2007-04-19

Great book and great new projects to try out! Thing you would have never though of and intresting new ways to spice up things you may have tried before!! Must own by anyone new to crafting or an experienced one!

This book makes me happy!.......2007-04-19

If you want a fun book with lots of kitschy crafty history than this is the book for you! I have made a lot of the crafts and the instructions are easy to follow with no hassle. I would highly recommend this book.

Fun and Fabulous!.......2007-04-19

This book is chock full of fun and fabulous projects for anyone. The kitsch factor is high - these crafts will surely bring a smile to your face! I have found the instructions clear and easy to follow, and the projects have inspired a few kitschy brainstorms of my own!

Wonderful book.......2007-04-19

I love this book! It has fun projects and great easy to follow instructions. If you love kitschy crafts this book is for you!

Average customer rating:

To have bad taste, you must first have very good taste.
from the 'LESS IS A BORE' school of decorating
Kitsch Deluxe

Kitsch Deluxe
Lesley Gillilan
Manufacturer: Mitchell Beazley
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Architecture | Professional & Technical | Subjects | Books

Decorative Arts | Design & Decorative Arts | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

General | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

General | Crafts & Hobbies | Home & Garden | Subjects | Books

General | Interior Design | Home & Garden | Subjects | Books

Decorating with Funky Shui: How to Lighten Up, Loosen Up, and Have Fun Decorating Your Home
Pad: The Guide to Ultra-Living
Pad Parties: The Guide to Ultra-Entertaining
Kitsch in Sync: A Consumer's Guide to Bad Taste
Just Above the Mantelpiece: Mass-Market Masterpieces

ASIN: 1840007168

Book Description

It’s fun, it’s fanciful, it’s kitsch! Celebrate the art of cool imitation, fantastic escapism, and nostalgia for late 20th-century populist culture that lies at the heart of this lighthearted and contemporary design style. These 18 fabulous spaces are aimed at those who want to create a feeling of irreverence and fantasy in their homes while still maintaining a semblance of style and glamour—and the extraordinary and exuberant interiors include those of Zandra Rhodes in London and Pierre et Gilles in Paris. A riot of a book, packed with vivid colour, humor, extravagantly themed décor, and inventive low-budget ideas, Kitsch Deluxe is an essential read for devotees of the wacky, weird, and wonderful.

Customer Reviews:

To have bad taste, you must first have very good taste........2005-03-15

Just because my funds are a bit low, I checked this book out of the library, but I WILL be purchasing this book after seeing first hand how great it is. I'm not sure if some other people were looking for some kind of great literature here or not, but it is what it is; a book showcasing kitsch homes. I was afraid the book, PAD (my Bible) was the only book to show off such inspirational rooms; but Kitsch Deluxe gave me a whole new range of rooms to drool over and become inspired by. There was only one room in the Kitsch Deluxe book that was in my PAD book. I don't seek to copy any of the rooms I've seen, but instead see bits and pieces I might be able to incorporate into my own ideas. Kitsch Deluxe isn't really giving you a history lesson and I think for one, trying to give kitsch a history is just a waste of time. You like it, you like it. It's tacky, it's glam, it's Vegas, it's fun, it's so many different things. The book isn't a how to, it's just presenting some great homes and a little bit of why the owners decorated the way they did. I'll be purchasing this one soon and flipping through it's well worn pages for ideas.

from the 'LESS IS A BORE' school of decorating.......2003-11-17

KITSCH DELUXE by Lesley Gillilan, with photography by Dave Young, is an eclectic crazy colorful cavalcade of a coffee table book as well as a stunningly fun and informative reference work on collecting kitsch and tasteless popular culture. It also gives new-comers a great introduction into various themes of kitsch , as well as showing the more advanced collector some extraordinary interiors in the real homes of the truly tasteless. From Elvis to Big Eyed Art to Jayne Mansfield to Barbie and Barbarella, this book wil help you discover those areas of bad taste and camp, that you wish to explore. The lavish pictures are in your face, from the truly hideous to the divine, lush cool cocktail lounge style to trailer park treasure. The book also includes a directory of shops, cool online sites, museums and architecture of interest.
Today, sadly, most of the best books on the subject of Bad Taste are now hard to find. The classics 'KITSCH: An Anthology of Bad Taste' by Gillo Dorfles (1968), 'KITSCH' by Jacques Sternberg (1971), 'KITSCH-IN-SYNCH' by Peter ward (1991) and the fabulous 'The ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BAD TASTE' by Jane & Michael Stern (1991) an invaluable source, are all out of print. But help is at hand with '20th CENTURY POP CULTURE' by Dan Epstein (1999), 'THE BOOK OF TIKI' by Sven A. Kirsten (from Taschen 2000), 'Just Above the Mantlepiece' by Wayne Hemingway (2000) see my review, 'BEATSVILLE' by Martin McIntosh (2003), 'BIG EYED MASTERS' by Megan Besmirched (2003), and of course this style guide you're reading about....... 'KITSCH DELUXE'.
This book also includes bizarre chapters on the homes of true eccentrics like artists Pierre et Gilles, fashion designer Zandra Rhodes and Tom Bliss (from the 'less is a bore' school of home decorating). Its a book for those wanting to relive their childhood with no rules, for those willing to create their own Valley of the Dolls or Elvis's Tiki Room at home. Enjoy. (Nov. 2003)

Kitsch Deluxe.......2003-10-18

Disappointment. Just another coffee table book. Writing is shallow, nothing is new from other Kitsch books. Best part of writing is on the dust cover. Color pictures are colorful, but all Kitsch books have been already used these pictures. Nothing is fresh looking. If you are looking for a coffee table book to cheer up your room, it is OK. Just not for me. Or don't be fooled by the dust cover writing, which sounds like little more than other Kitsch books.

Tropical Kitsch: Media in Latin American Literature and Art

Average customer rating:

Tropical Kitsch: Media in Latin American Literature and Art
Lidia Santos
Manufacturer: Markus Wiener Publishers
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Popular Culture | Social Sciences | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

General | Social Sciences | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

Media Studies | Social Sciences | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

General | World | History | Subjects | Books

General | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

Caribbean & Latin American | History & Criticism | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 1558763546

Book Description

Review of the Spanish Edition: "Santos takes a keen look at the way mass culture has influenced artistic production in Latin America during the past 40 years. Santos maintains that the use of kitsch, camp, and cursi ("ostentatious") devices by certain writers and artists in the form of mass media products like romance novels, radio and telenovelas, tangos and boleros, and `40s and `50s U.S. films, has helped them surpass realism…. Santos explores the social and political implications of art, music, and literature by using theoretical frameworks of cultural studies and queer theory. The author provides a detailed table of contents with extensive notes, a bibliography, a discography, an appendix with song lyrics, and b&w images. This ambitious and fascinating work is also a wonderful read. In addition to being an academic, Santos is a creative writer with two books of short stories published, and her writing skills are fully in place here. A significant contribution to the study of Latin American literature and art, queer studies, and cultural studies, this book is highly recommended for academic libraries and bookstores." —Criticas

Artificial Kingdom, The: A Treasury of the Kitsch Experience

Average customer rating:

Mesmerizing
Excessive Rodney
The Artificial Kingdom: A Treasury of the Kitsch Experience
cultural history and philosophy collide

Artificial Kingdom, The: A Treasury of the Kitsch Experience
Celeste Olalquiaga
Manufacturer: Pantheon
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | History & Criticism | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

General | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

Popular Culture | Social Sciences | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

Aesthetics | Philosophy | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

Look Inside Entertainment Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books

Look Inside History Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books
Similar Items:

To Have and To Hold
This Is Not a Pipe (Quantum Books)
On Longing: Narratives of the Miniature, the Gigantic, the Souvenir, the Collection
I Like You: Hospitality Under the Influence

ASIN: 0679433937
Release Date: 1998-12-01

Amazon.com

If you thought kitsch was as simple as sweatshirts embossed with sparkling kittens or flamingo snow domes, think again. Celeste Olalquiaga has gone well beyond Webster's definition of "pretentious bad taste," and devotes more than 300 pages to the subject. Her thesis?

Kitsch is the ability to surpass essential belongings and rest in more superficial ones, to create an imaginary landscape through accumulation and camouflage, and to crystallize the continuous movement of life in the permeable disguise of fantasy.

The Ph.D.-wielding Rockefeller and Guggenheim award winner postulates that the Victorian era and the industrial revolution of the late 19th century were the grandparents of kitsch. People stuffed their homes with fantasy-themed tchotchkes to fill the "existential emptiness brought about by rapid industrialization." From "petrified nature" and "melancholia artificialis" to "vegetable jewelry" and "parlor oceans," The Artificial Kingdom covers every historical nuance of tackydom and leaves no postmodern paperweight unturned.

Book Description

The Artificial Kingdom is the first book to provide a cultural history of kitsch, an immensely popular aesthetic phenomenon that has always been disdained as "bad taste," or a cheap imitation of art. Proposing instead that kitsch is the product of a larger sensibility of loss, Celeste Olalquiaga shows how it enables the momentary re-creation of experiences that exist only as memories or fantasies. Simultaneously exposing and celebrating this process, Olalquiaga gives us a bold, trenchant analysis of what and how we see when we look at kitsch.

Tracing its beginnings to the nineteenth century--when industrialization transformed nature into an artificial kingdom of miniature scale--Olalquiaga describes the at once exhilarated and melancholic atmosphere where kitsch came to life. In an arresting mix of theory and anecdote, she examines objects from both the past and the present, probing the fluid boundaries between reality and fantasy, and finding in kitsch a phenomenon as relevant to our own time as it was to the era that made it a massive experience.

Customer Reviews:

Mesmerizing.......2003-11-23

I don't find this book derivative of Benjamin so much as openly drawing on him. Olalquiaga doesn't ape his work on kitsch - she applies it intelligently to her own research. Artificial Kingdom struck a deep chord with me. I concede that it is not the most rigorous examination of the kitsch experience possible, and some chapters are separated by intermissions of glazed ruminations that haunt the analysis and reverberate beneath it with personal conviction. But this is what I appreciate most about the book. You could do worse than recall in your reader Bachelard's reveries on the poetics of space. Olalquiaga's passage describing Rodney's marine home crystallizing around him into a glassy temporal suspension is as beautiful as anything by the sources from which she appears to draw her models.

Excessive Rodney.......2002-08-03

At times silly in the worst academico-critical way (the Nautilius in Vernes' Leagues is 'uterine'), and rather derivative of Walter Benjamin. However, charming, good fun, but check out Svetlana Boym's (lopsided) 'The Future of Nostalgia' along with it, if you get a chance.

The Artificial Kingdom: A Treasury of the Kitsch Experience.......2000-10-04

This is the most original work of non-fiction I have ever read. The author is able to write at great length about very unpromising subjects--such as snow-globes or the emotional significance of dust--with a sort of piercing intelligence that allows her to uncover beauty and meaning where others might see only bad art. Although frequently humorous, the book never ridicules kitsch; rather it discusses deep-seated human needs, and then shows how kitsch is an attempt to satisfy them. I read this book over a year ago, and I still find it to be a source of inspiration.

cultural history and philosophy collide.......1999-09-06

This brief, souvenir-inspired history of kitsch is also an ornate, brooding meditation on memory. In "trading the life of the memory for its cultural fossil," Olalquiaga reveals the origins of Atlantis in popular culture, of snow globes (the earliest said to feature Marie Antoinette with parasol), of aquaria and their folly-like porcelain castles, and notes that both Colette and Eva Peron amassed large collections of glass paperweights. Relating her feelings about a failed love affair and the redemptive qualities of Rodney, a hermit crab trapped inside her favorite paperweight, the writer transcends her anonymous epigram, "Styles die, only kitsch survives."

The Artificial Kingdom: On the Kitsch Experience

Average customer rating:

kitch, art, and celeste olalquiaga
I never got the book

The Artificial Kingdom: On the Kitsch Experience
Celeste Olalquiaga
Manufacturer: University of Minnesota Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | History & Criticism | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

Neoclassical | Schools, Periods & Styles | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

General | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

Popular Culture | Social Sciences | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

Aesthetics | Philosophy | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

jp-unknown2 | Specialty Stores | Books

All Titles | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books

Arts & Photography | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books

Nonfiction | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books
Similar Items:

Kitsch and Art
On Longing: Narratives of the Miniature, the Gigantic, the Souvenir, the Collection
Pop Art (Movements in Modern Art)
This Is Not a Pipe (Quantum Books)
To Have and To Hold

ASIN: 081664117X

Book Description

From her pet glass-globed hermit crab Rodney to the Victorian era's Crystal Palace, Celeste Olalquiaga offers a meditative look at the origins of kitsch and what kitsch tells us about the conflicts between the real and the artificial, tradition and modernity, nostalgia and melancholy. Olalquiaga artfully traces this form to the mid-1800s and establishes kitsch as a sensibility of loss-a yearning for objects to help recapture the past-and explains how these artifacts respond to a deep-seated human need for meaning and connection with nature. The Artificial Kingdom beautifully elucidates this aspect of culture as an attempt to recover what industrialization has destroyed.

"Ingenious, fascinating, and melancholic." Peter Woolen, London Review of Books

"Olalquiaga finds an explanation of the modern-age question: why the subject of an artwork can seem more alive in representation than in life." New York Times Book Review

"Stunning. A potent, incantatory exploration into the emotional resonance of kitsch." Art Papers

Celeste Olalquiaga is an independent scholar who has received Rockefeller and Guggenheim awards. She is the author of Megalopolis: Contemporary Cultural Sensibilities (Minnesota, 1992). She lives in Paris.

Customer Reviews:

kitch, art, and celeste olalquiaga.......2006-05-04

I think this book is a must read for anyone making objects or conceptual art. It has insight into the ideas of kitsch and the experience of the object. I find it hard to make sculpture without refering to some of the ideas celeste inplies.

I never got the book.......2005-10-19

HELP!

I went to the post office for an investogation, because your records show delivered, but I never got this book!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Average customer rating:

a review by a fellow painter
Odd Nerdrum is a man.
Odd Nerdrum's Kitsch: The Brilliant Lie.

On Kitsch
Jan-Erik Ebbestad Hansen , Sindre Mekjan , Dag Solhjell , Jan-Ove Tuv , and Odd Nerdrum
Manufacturer: Kagge
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | History & Criticism | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

General | Artists, A-Z | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

General | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books
Similar Items:

Odd Nerdrum: Themes
Jenny Saville
Odd Nerdrum: Postcard Book
Painting People: Figure Painting Today
Classical Drawing Atelier: A Contemporary Guide to Traditional Studio Practice

ASIN: 8248901238
Release Date: 2001-08-02

Book Description

Kitsch has long been viewed as fine art's poor relation, aping its form while failing utterly to achieve its depth of meaning. In On Kitsch Odd Nerdrum and others discuss the meaning and value of kitsch in today's world, and its relationship to art. For the first time in this volume, English-speaking fans have the chance to read the writings of Odd Nerdrum, Norway's most famous contemporary artist, or kitch painter, as he would refer to himself. This printing of a variety of writings by Nerdrum and others includes speeches, essays, and humorous pieces such as "The Kitch Questionnaire," and "Kitch Aphorisms." This book is an opportunity to discover the thought process of one of the world's most unique and compelling artists.

Customer Reviews:

a review by a fellow painter.......2007-02-26

This collection is brilliant...
It will be invaluable to anyone sincerely interested in intellectually challenging the current post-modernist status quo when it comes to the "state of the Arts" today. The essays revolve around the controversial persona of the Norwegian painter Odd Nerdrum and for the bigger portion are written by the artist himself as a kind of treatise or "theoretical manifesto"(...he would laugh at the pomposity of this term) where the meaning of "kitch" (from German - "bad taste") finds a surprisingly sympathetic alternate evaluation and an interesting point for discourse emerges.
Who is the judge and what has been judged in Modern Art? According to whose criteria? What happens when "the Modernes" become the decisive majority and dominance of "acceptable modern taste" is established? Is Art for Art's sake or is it Art for Art theory's sake?
... Some similar questions to ponder here..

Besides, for anyone who is new to or has not had the opportunity to witness Nerdrum's art, this book might be a valuable insight into the spirit that's behind this modern master's paint brush.

O.K... I admit, I am biased.

Odd Nerdrum is a man........2002-02-28

"On Kitsch", is a seashell when held to the ear revels romantic insights of this twentieth century painter, Odd Nerdrum. The Norwegian painter's masterful and detailed view of the modern art world is only surpassed by the crafstmanship he performs with his eyes and hands. Through interviews, speeches, critiques, drama and humor he explains why he is NOT an artist and insists that the avant garde was right in casting him out of the modernist's scene. Odd Nerdrum's battle for sensuality and longing for eternity pitted him against the Goliath that we knew as modernism; Odd Nerdrum is still alive, modernism is dead. Long live, "On Kitsch"!

Odd Nerdrum's Kitsch: The Brilliant Lie........2001-10-03

"On Kitsch" functions as a manifesto for Nerdrum's peculiar philosophical and aesthetic beliefs about painting. It is a grand statement, albeit often a contradictory one. Many questions are raised: how can he on one page declare that kitsch is not about morality or great ideas, and then on another page state firmly that kitsch "serves life" is "something extraordinary that demands a great deal", and is concerned with "eternity"?

It seems to me that Nerdrum is trying too hard to convince us of things that we could accept with less aggrandizement. That is, he wants us to enter into the sensuality of material, to love craftsmanship and technical proficiency, to break with over-intellectualization and to allow eternity to be seen in the temporal. I agree with much Nerdrum has to say about modern art and art education. I believe he is a master painter and I believe he has a valid point of view that needs to be read by art students the world over (if only to counteract some of the bunk that we are taught). I don't, however, agree with him entirely. Many of his notions involve lacking logical bases and copious semantic juggling. I don't believe (as he vehemently states) his work is agnostic or amoral; quite the contrary. I think it begs the question of causal-morality and God-consciousness.

But you can mull these things over in your own mind after reading this book. It's great, and a God-send to those of us who know and love Nerdrum's work and want to delve deeper. "On Kitsch" provides the ideological background for everything the man has done, and gives keen insights that are certainly not accepted on art school campi around the world.

Customer Reviews:

Scary pictures you'll love.......2003-10-22

This book reminded me of my Grandma's old copy of the Betty Crocker cookbook. I always found the hypersaturated photos of jello molds, chicken liver appetizers, and roasted suckling pigs amusing, yet very unappetizing. Her cookbook had almost completely fallen apart, so I cut out the pictures (like the ones in this book) and put them on my frige. Of course, people didn't get the humor in it. When I found this book, I was pleased to see that others were fascinated with cooking trends and food advertising in the 50's and 60's.

I give the book 3 stars only because there is hardly any text, and I would have liked an discussion about kitchen kitsch. I have the book on my coffee table and people always seem to get a kick out of the hilarious ads and photos of weird entrees. I still like to page through it for a laugh.

Hold the mayo!.......2002-08-30

Was vintage food advertising really this garish? Yes it was, according to Karel Ann Marling in her book `As Seen On TV: The Visual Culture of Everyday Life in the 1950s', advertisers deliberately made food garish and bright and forced a contrast between objects and backgrounds. For instance, a pink and white cake would be placed on a green satin tablecloth. There are plenty of examples like this in `Kitchen Kitsch', either paintings (a chance for commercial artist to use even brighter colors) or photographs.

The majority of the illustrations come from the forties and fifties. My favorites are the paintings of jello, turned out from a mould, streamlined with highlights and looking just like Emerald City from the movie, `The Wizard of Oz'. Not only pictures of food but recipe book covers, can and box labels, period ads and more. All the pictures are in color and as this is a Taschen `Icon' book there is no text or information about the pictures but editor Jim Heimann has created a fun book about yesteryears grub.

If you have the stomach for it have a look at `The Gallery of Regrettable Food' by James Lileks. His book has very similar pictures but he uses them to write some very funny and biting text about food fads of the fifties and the book is a treat to look at as well.
.

Kitsch in Sync: A Consumer's Guide to Bad Taste
Average customer rating:

Hilarious, and beautifully written.

Kitsch in Sync: A Consumer's Guide to Bad Taste
Peter Ward
Manufacturer: Plexus Publishing (UK)
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Sociology | Social Sciences | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books
Culture | Sociology | Social Sciences | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books
Consumer Guides | Reference | Subjects | Books
General | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books
Similar Items:

Kitsch Deluxe

Decorating with Funky Shui: How to Lighten Up, Loosen Up, and Have Fun Decorating Your Home

ASIN: 0859651525

Amazon.com

While it commences with a somewhat weak prehistory of kitsch in the 19th century, the light style and deceptively glib analysis of this slender volume are a perfect complement to 20th-century trash culture. In what is essentially a history of mass-produced tackiness, Peter Ward provides insightful commentary on how good taste becomes officially bad when its audience changes. He also catches the sense of humor of Jeff Koons, who appears just a few pages past the Bay City Rollers, a juxtaposition I'm sure Koons would enjoy. Kitsch in Sync is worthwhile for its novel take on '80s new romantic music and for the illustrations of the postwar culture of disposable and ugly home furnishings.

Book Description

Ever since the arbiters of taste first took their mothers' flying ducks off the walls of their suburban semis and displayed them proudly alongside their Bauhaus furniture, or chuckled knowingly at the musical toilet rolls in each other's bathroom, kitsch has become part of the style-setter's anti-style.

Peter Ward explores the global culture of kitsch and charts a course through the shallowest waters of trivial bad taste that encompasses all aspects of life - from fashion to furnishings, art to artefacts, through movies, TV, pop and personalities.

Customer Reviews:

Hilarious, and beautifully written........1998-09-12

I recommend this book to all people with a sense of humor. It isn't a dry sociological document. The author takes great pleasure in writing about the subject and manages to be tongue in cheek without sounding elitist. A little good kitsch is good for you!

Average customer rating:

Shell Shock: Conchological Curiosities
Patrick Mauries
Manufacturer: Thames & Hudson
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Architecture | Professional & Technical | Subjects | Books

General | Fashion | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

General | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

General | Crafts & Hobbies | Home & Garden | Subjects | Books

Books:

Books Index

Books Home

Recommended Books