Author Archive | Mark A. Rayner

Performance art gone horribly right

Transcending IronyAll of the critics agreed. Hans Feckenbruke’s performance piece, “Transcending Irony: post-post-modern capitalism in the Western World, from the top of the Chrysler Building, as seen from the perspective of consumers on the ground,” was a spectacular — if messy — achievement.

“I’ve never seen an artist commit so completely to his work before. He didn’t even flinch as he approached the pavement,” Filmore Snoot told this photographer.

“It’s a shame he wore those tennis shoes, though. It undercut the whole commentary.”

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Alltop is always undercutting their commentary. Thanks to Foxtongue for finding this pic. Originally published March, 2009.

The Evils of Commerce

Mama Tao's portable geishaIn Sohunglo, Chugoku Prefecture, (just down the road from Hiroshima) the geisha house of Okiya Yumyum made the best of a bad situation by introducing the art of contortion to their young shikomi trainees. No longer would wealthy men have to wait while their geisha tiptoed their way to the gig in their ridiculously restrictive clothing. Now they could be carried.

In time, the art of the geisha was corrupted, and many of the women no longer performed the traditional role of geisha — a cultured presence to smooth out the rough edge of scotch-swilling businessmen with classical music and dance — and instead became prostitutes.

It was about this time the Mama Tao Consortium took over the Okiya Yumyum house, and introduced The Portable Geisha Delivery Service — when it absolutely, positively has to “be” there overnight.

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Alltop is always “there” overnight. Thanks to Foxtongue for finding this disturbing and sad photo. Originally published March 2009.

The Tradition Continues

The Tradition ContinuesKarl Wangsness had decided to honor his Norwegian heritage by having his own version of a Viking Funeral.

The car was an admirable substitution for a longship, and he was able to fit enough food in there to see him through the journey to Valhalla. He’d also managed to procure a canister of Bovril and a large can of mead, so he was covered for drinks.

Naturally, he wanted to take his wife with him, but she refused to be buried alive.

That made the two gallons of lubricant kind of superfluous, so he just left it on the sidewalk.

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Alltop is a form of social web lubricant. Originally published February, 2009.

[From the Toulouse Le Grandfig Necrobiblia collection.]

Austria, 1912

The Uber-Musik Boys

Though they outsold the proto-fascist jazz stylings of The Pillage People four-to-one, the Über-Musik Boys never quite managed to make the big time. Even though they started the whole Lederhosen Thrash scene, most of them had to take on menial jobs milking goats and persecuting small animals to make ends meet.

Young Adolf, in particular, was embittered.

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Some members of Alltop are also bitter. Thanks to Foxtongue for finding this pic. Originally published, February 2009.

[From the Toulouse Le Grandfig Necrobiblia collection.]

Beach Babes of Vision

Misunderstood Genius

Greta

Greta “The Fallopian” Webcastico was ahead of her time. Not only was she the finest beach accordionist in the tri-state area, Greta was the first composer to create music designed to be played in counterpoint to the dulcet tones of molting seagulls eager to eat your French Fries.

The truth was, Greta was the ONLY beach accordionist in the tri-state area. That said, Arnold Schoenberg was intrigued by her ideas and incorporated them into his 12-tone masterpiece, “Variations on the Key of Bleeding Ears.”

Jenny Buxom, beach babe and safe sex enthusiastTime her of ahead

Jenny Buxom was also a forward-thinking beach babe. Nobody was sure if her claims that she had been to the Land of the Future was eccentric whimsy, or if her radioactive bikini (which she’d picked up for a song at the Atoll-must-go sale) was causing a her synapses to misfire.

Whimsy or not, she was serious about any prospective beaux putting on “the suit” before hanky-panky.

She called it safe sex.

Dieter called it delectable. Particularly when she stood on his air hose.

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Alltop is also ahead of their time. Thanks to Foxtongue for finding these pics. Originally published in February, 2009.

[From the Toulouse Le Grandfig Necrobiblia collection]

Lucinda at the Laundrette of Shattered Hope

Lucinda was a dreamer.  She was also stuck in a clothes dryer.Lucinda was a dreamer. Someday, she knew that her Mom would return with the waffle iron and say she was sorry; perhaps even share her delicious recipe for Translucent Liquid Essence of Bran.

She watched as Betsy came back to the Launderette of Shattered Hope, carrying a sack full of soiled turnips that she liked to cook in the dryer next to Lucinda’s (on fluff for about an hour, and then ten minutes on high heat).

Some of the other inhabitants of launderette didn’t like the sound the turnips made as they bashed around inside the genuine Tagmay industrial-strength dryer (and cappuccino maker), but it made Lucinda think of tumbling bags of cats, and furnishings, and a time when she wasn’t sitting in a pool of her own sweat.

Oddly, it made her yearn for the days when her Mom would make potato-flavoured expectorant. That Betsy!

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Alltop enjoys properly dried turnip. Originally published October 2006.