Two Ladies with a Mink – Flip Flop Card from Torma Cauli (Budapest, Hungary)

Torma is sending メールアート(pronounce meeru aaato), how sweet of him. And served with a cup of tea to go, what else could we wish for on a rainy spring evening?

When closed, the card portrays the beautiful Lady with a Mink by Leonardo Da Vinci, on a background of forest. Well, Leonardo wanted it to be an Ermine, but for us it will just be a Mink. I am sure Torma will let us get away with that.

We flip open the top panel, and a more contemporary Lady is holding the Mink. The same sense of peacefulness and composure.

We flip open the lower panel instead, and the original Lady is back, but the Mink is gone and she is wearing different clothes. The flip also unveils the newspaper article about our Lady in the White Blouse. This is where is wish I could read Hungarian, but maybe it is alright to keep a cloud of mystery around her.

Torma, this is a very clever and thoughtful interactive piece. Your genius is highly appreciated at the Manoir aux Visons and this piece will make the joy of MinXus-LynXus. Many thanks for sending!

* Edit: I just HAD to add this Lady with Mink and Veil (Otto Dix) who graced the comment stream on a neighbouring blog. Isn’t she stunning. Thank you TC.

The Six Senses According to Mila – Part II: Sight

 

 

L’accEnt de L’Ambassadeur E (Guivry, France)

Empress Marie Antonette was

   in distress she was

        in dEspair

completement desEsperee

Her accEnts were gone

So many

   letters to write and no

      accents to put on her E

to put on her

A    to put on her

U

un clavier sans accEnt c’est comme

un clavier sans Do Re Mi Fa Sol

    surely over there in Utopia they must

have

 a stash of old accEnts, surely they must

have

Ambassadeur E s’il vous plait il me faut

   des é

il me faut des â

il me faut des è

    des ô beaucoup de ô

But of course ma chère enfant

  take all the accEnts you

          need take a few

çs as well

just make sure you

 don’t

    take a German accEnt

(My apologies again for the lame German punchline. I will try to do better next time)

Merci mille fois cher Ambassadeur E, this is much appreciated, and is no doubt going to be very useful when the Tangerine Oncoming will dawn upon us and we will all be speaking and writing French. With accEnts.

The Six Senses According to Mila – Part I: Taste

MinXus Mail Out, and Request for Utopian Citizenship to Ambassador E [OTM]

I don’t know how the Mink Ranch crew is going to react to this news, but I think it is high time for the Empress to get her Utopian passport. Working for MinXus means permanent exposure to extremely dangerous matters (Toxis in every corner of the dusty trail, secret missions that go badly wrong etc..). An Embassy might come in handy to run to in times of diplomatic trouble. Not so?

Save the MinXus Saturday Night Bunk House Cinema Series

After Dark wall quit (or was he fired? It’s not clear) hosting the Saturday Night Bunkhouse Cinema Series earlier this week, the feature is left without direction and threats of cancelation have been uttered. This is the first and probably only time the Empress is hosting the Saturday Night Cinema Series, so please go get your giant Gulp, sit down and try to watch as much as you can bear.

Worth waiting for. As an appetiser, the legendary scene from Ice Cold In Alex (1958)

The kiss compilation. After last week’s strippers I think we need something torridly romantic. Like kisses. Lots of kisses. This is the final scene from Cinema Paradiso, where director Salvatore comes back to his native village and gets a present from former friend and projectionist Alfredo: all the kisses censored by the local priest (much to the outrage of the audience) back in the days of his childhood’s Sunday Cinema. Maybe the movie played a little too much on emotional manipulation, but those vintage kisses are… quite nice.

Vox Pop. In case you haven’t left yet, a bit of good old British comedy the way we like it. You might need subtitles (no not really).

He says he wants to buy you flowers. And to finish the evening with elegance, a classic moment of French embarrassment. Whitney Houston meets Serge Gainsbourg. I don’t know if he was drunk or not. He might look and sound like a creep but he was nonetheless a genius. A classic of the french 80’s. How embarrassing, though…

You are probably all gone by now…..

Mr Cleanup’s Dial-A-Bin / 8227-8000

* No mink was harmed in the making of this picture

First thing in the morning

That’s what it said on the multi-vit’ juice carton. Minxus’ own way of dealing with trash.

What grows in your garden? – Boekie by Rebecca Guyver (Suffolk, UK)

Yet another lucky mail day at the Moanoir Mamoir Manoir aux Visons. A stunning hardcover boekie by Rebecca Guyver.

A book about gardens, colours, shapes… I almost want to call it “how to grow your own garden”. How to design it with its slopes and ponds and narrow paths.

The book also contains excerpts from a handwritten letter, which makes us think that this is not only about outdoor gardens, it is also about our own inner places.

It is a year since – I missed you that evening – thanks for your sweet thoughts of the Coronation handkerchief – forgive my silence –

Whatever grows in your garden, you need plenty. Plenty of care Round the Farmyard.

And is that a mink glancing over the page? 🙂

Rebecca, walking though these gardens has been a real pleasure. They are still giving out their secrets as I am writing this, a little more with every read. Many thanks and all our admiration for your work, as ever!

Happy Tangerine Little Twig [MinXus how to get shampoo out of your eyes]