Secrets of the Sideshows: By Joe Nickell. University Press of Kentucky, 2005 Hb, 401pp, $32.95.
Quote: >If you can't resist morbid amusement, wait until someone in your home is about to wake up in the morning. Hold open Joe Nickell's Secrets of the Sideshows to the photo on page 161 of Bill 'Two-Faced Man') Durkes, so it's the first thing they see upon opening their eyes. Watch them recoil in horror at the sight of a man born with such an extreme cleft palate that it separated his face into halves, making him look "like he had been hit in the face with an axe." Before they pull the covers over their head, flip to page 173 and let them have a gander at "Popeye" Perry, a prepossessing black man in a ruffled tux - popping his eyeballs out of their sockets. Women are especially prone to Mr Perry's unique charms, as I can attest, having seen his act many times. According to Nickell, Perry once popped out an eyeball, making a woman faint. He waited until she recovered, bent over, then popped out both eyes simultaneously, making her faint again. At this point one of two things are likely. You’ll either be looking at your last day in the house, or the book will get borrowed and never returned.< Link
monochrom is an art-technology-philosophy group having its seat in Vienna and Zeta Draconis. monochrom is an unpeculiar mixture of proto-aesthetic fringe work, pop attitude, subcultural science, context hacking and political activism. Our mission is conducted everywhere, but first and foremost in culture-archeological digs into the seats (and pockets) of ideology and entertainment. monochrom has existed in this (and almost every other) form since 1993. [more]
