Valentine Mark Herman's Blog (108)

SCRABBLE is one of the world's most popular board games. A game for anyone; family- and people-oriented; timeless; peaceful; social; and a great lockdown activity.It's sold in more than 120 countries, and there are 30 different language available. 150 million sets have been sold worlwide, and…

I am a member of the British-based Dull Men's Club (DMC) – which also includes women, and, indeed, claims to have 35,000 + members worldwide. (membership@dullmensclub.com)…

Yoko Ono was a supporter, but declined to bcome a member, of the early Fluxus movement. She embraced various dAdA ideas.

Her seminal book Grapefruit (1962) contained many references to the use of the mail to advance conceptual art, including the 'Portrait of Mary' below.

There are 28 'Mary's' currently members of IUOMA (including variations on the name…

Hi!

Please look at the Arty Slide International Group which I started in 2012. It was as Mini as I could think of then. We held 2 good Slide Art exhibitions in France. I still have the Arty Slides (somewhere!) that IUOMA colleagues contributed. Bianca has died, alas. I have gained a Stidio and moved to bigger bits of art.

Here is the text that started it all:…

I wonder what is happening to your national mail system?

In my small village in the South of France, there is sporadic delivery of mail. The local Post Office is closed, and people are directed to one about 10 miles away -- but there is a 'lockdown' on almost all travel, and it's far from clear that a trip to this Post Office to send off some Mail Art would be accepted by the authorities (and, if not, would result in a €135/$150 fine).

The only shop that sells stamps in the…

Neil Innes died just before Christmas.

He wrote the music and many of the lyrics for the Monty Python TV series and films.

He also played in a number of groups, one of which -- a group of art school students -- was the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band (which I remember seeing in a three-quarters empty Civi Theatre in Darlington, England, in the 1960's).

The Band was originally called the Bonzo Dog Dada Band, but no one got the reference to Dada, so it was renamed the Bonzo Dog…

1. Heathland Caravan Park, Lowestoft, England -- a remarkably composed Boring Postcard, lots of fields, a bit of sea, but all you can see (if you are in a plane or a helicopter) of the caravans are some white dots

2. Staircase at Hotel de l'Avenir, Heyst-sur-Mer, France -- this hotel obviously had a future as it boast its electric lighting…

1. Workers'Buildings In Plovdiv, Bulgaria, 1965 -- there were lots of workers

2. From the Greek island of Skiathos -- 2 boats and one group of people in the middle of the beach (why are they in the middle of the beach?)…

This is from the introduction to the 'My Passport'  Mail Art call:

A few years ago I formed an association of contemporary art called ASAC, was the first President, organised a couple of international art exhibitions and then resigned. I am about to be thrown out of the association because I am critical of the way it has subsequently developed -- and you would be too. So now ASICK rises from the ashes, and here is a non-poster of it's…

I am having an exhibition in March called 'Carrés/Squares). Everything in it will be...you guessed it...square(ish). 70 different sorts of works are going to e in it, including these square collections of 51/2" Floppy Disks that were very kindly given to me by Katerina a while back. Square Floppys on lil Square canvasses. Mercy Buckets, Katerina!…

I think the number should be FIVE.

Any more, and the occasional photo or two that a person posts just gets lost when another person posts 30 photos, and then another person posts another 30, and then....etc.

Adapting John Lennon's words: "Give photos a chance."

Peace.

This is an appeal for 'SILLY STAMPS'.

What, you might well ask, is a 'Silly Stamp'?

A 'Silly Stamp' is an officially issued postage stamp that, when you look at it, makes you think, "This is silly!''

And then, ''What on earth is going on here? What could its designers have possibly been thinking when they came up with this image?"

"And, given that postage stamps (like coins, banknotes, flags, etc) are important vehicles for promotong national…

Bonjour!

Season's Greetings to y'all.

Great Big Collage #17 is a Special Herman End-of-the-Year Multi-Piece Great Big Collage.

Here it is:

Superbe, n'est-ce pas?

OK, so now you might be asking why 'Sex Bomb Sabotage'? Well look closely in the top left hand corner and you will find this:…

The Family Herman used to go on holiday from the South of Holland (Maastricht) to the South of France (Argélès-sur-Mer). The journey would take about 10 hours fast driving. Cries from the children "Are we nearly there yet, Dad?" would break out before we had even left the drive of our house -- which was only 4 yards long (the drive, that is, not the house). The journey to France would take us through Belgium and Luxembourg before we got to France. I would manage to keep the kids quiet for…

..the Mini.

Car, not skirt.

But he might have invented that too.

What he did say that is 'relevant' (I use the word with some hesitation here) is that "A camel is a horse designed by a committee".

Thank you, Sir Alex.

And now this Great Big Collage (# 15 in the series, in case you have lost count) is about animals -- animals of the "Pushmi-Pullyu" type (supposedly, a gazelle-unicorn cross with two heads) of Dr Dolittle.

I managed to sneak a…

And then, many years later, Coca Cola came along.

And there was Light.

(Or even Lite in some markets)

And there was Zero.

And there was Life

And there was even Cherry Cola, as in.....

"I met her in a club down in old Soho/ Where you drink champagne and it tastes just like cherry cola/See-oh-el-aye cola."

(It was originally Coca cola, but the Coke people wouldn't let the kinks call it that -- but…

Bonjour!

I play (badly) rock'n'roll guitar.

I play (slightly better) the alto recorder.

In France, the recorder is known as the 'flu(^)te à bec'. [The ^ is supposed to go over the u, but I can't seem to manage that].

There is another type of flu(^)te, a 'flu(^)te traversière'. This is a flute -- the type of flute that Wolfgang Amadeus obviously had in mind when he wrote 'The Magic Flute' opera ('obviously' because he didn't mess around with…

Bonjour!

Here we are again.

This one is about bikes -- pedal-type bikes, not motor bikes.

Let's start with the Great Big Collage ...voilà!

And now let me introduce you to some members of my Fan Club Sigean Ladies Bike Club. Here are 9 members of the Club getting ready to go for their Sunday morning…

"My friends all drive Porsches, I must make amends.

Worked hard all my lifetime, no help from my friends,

So Lord, won't you buy me a Mercedes Benz ?":

Thank you, Janis.

Great Big Collage #12 is about cars, mostly British vintage cars -- many of them made by companies, that hélas, no longer exist.

Here's the Great Big Collage in its great big magnificence:…