By Mac Cat
Please read Mr. Mozo's overview of the book first...
A few weeks ago I got an e-mail from writer and fellow Gabefan Mr. Mozo, telling me that he sent me a book that Peter Gabriel had wrote the introduction on. Naturally I was interested in anything Gabriel, but I'm also a trivia and general knowledge geek, so I was interested in the book's full contents as well.
At first I was expecting a hit-and-run description of the objects, a la Ripley's Believe it or Not...just name the object and what it's for, and move on to the next object. But not so...Oliviero Toscani and the team of editors do a great deal of putting the objects in full context, talking about who uses these items and why. There is also a great deal of editorializing. If there's any cultural, historical, or moral aspects about the object, you'll get to read about that, too. This makes the book much more than just a little book about things...it's a fascinating global cultural guide as well.
My only problems with this approach is that Oliviero and his fellow editors occasionally have a tendency to overdo it on the commentary. For example in the food section, they can't resist telling you that meat, sugar and anything that tastes good is bad for you, all the while singing the praises of so-called "natural" food and water. Bah, We Here at the Hill say...and I hate getting lectured about what I should and shouldn't eat, so for a week I ate only at McDonalds and drank only sodas, then I wrote Oliviero and told him all about it, just to piss him off.
A slight anti-Western bias can be seen as well...several objects with dubious qualities from Third World countries are praised, whereas many Western objects are told as being bad in one way or another. For example, the editors proclaim a metal Ethiopian "ear spoon" is hard to beat for cleaning one's ears. And on another page dealing with Columbian remedies, they write, "If you have an earache, try sticking an armadillo tail in your ear..." and quoting a Columbian on how one is supposed to heat the tip of the tail, stick in an ear, and "you'll clean your ear at the same time."
But when they describe the q-tip, all they have to say is, "They work rather like the Ethiopian ear spoon, but are less ecologically friendly (after use, you discard the whole tool.)" Come on...for one thing, for all the stuff we throw away, q-tips are hardly an environmental crisis. But the real problem is that sticking hard, pointy things in your ears are a bad and dangerous idea, and would give any any self-respecting ear doctor fits. I think the editors should've mentioned something about that, whether they're popular with Ethiopeans and Columbians or not.
And while the historical/cultural comments give the book some depth, they sometimes get carried away there, too. On one page, someone got so involved in ranting about the 1975 killings in East Timor that they forgot to mention what the "object" of the article was supposed to be.
I must admit that it's the comments and editorials that gives these objects some dimention. Still, they take a back seat to the pictures. Each page is filled with clear, striking photographs of the objects. How striking? For one thing, you'll never look at a box of Legos the same way again. There's one picture of a character named Golliwog that made me gasp and would give editorial writer Leonard Pitts Jr. a freakin' aneurysm. I'm curious how they got some of these models to pose for this stuff (Remember the armadillo tail ear cleaner above? Some poor woman had he picture taken with that in her ear!) I'm not even going to talk about the extentive section on various sex toys...(Note to editor of book: I just sold an additional50 copies for you. Thank me later.)
Anyway, I'd highly recommend this book...it's entertaining and chances are, you'd learn something as well.
Book of Lists Section:
Top 8 Extraordinary Objects the Solsbury Committee Owns that Wasn't Mentioned in the Book but Should Have
8. A lava lamp hooked up to the Clapper.
7. Coffee Shrine
6. Moxie's foutain water bowl
5. Stuffed animal Garfield with a clock in his belly that glows in the dark.
4. AM/FM radio that's shaped like a small computer
3. Peter Gabriel refrigerator magnets
2. Two ancient bottles of Moxie soda pop
1. Pets.com Sock Dog Puppet
Top 14 Extraordinary Objects Listed in the Book That We'd Like to Give to Others
1. To Mercutio: Vegemite
2. To Us: A Neopolitan coffee pot and "Cubical Coffee": coffee that's shaped and works like sugar cubes
3. To Angel: A decorative British Crown teapot
4. To the Real World Multimedia Staff: a case of Kopi Luwak coffee. It's one of the finest coffees in the world that's harvested in Indoesia that sells for $660 per kg! We'd never try some for ourselves, though...we're not worthy of such an extravegance.
5. To Barrie Knight, one of Gabriel's chief Roadies and security guys: Bulletproof underwear
6. To Jimmy Buffett: some flip-flops.
7. To Erica: A teddy bear passport
8. To Phil Collins: A PFM-1 anti-personel explosive mine and a Down-to-Earth Eco-Coffin. (Okay. That was harsh...)
9. To Moxie: Thirsty-Cat! tangy fish-flavored bottled water
10. To Candy: A foot massager that where you press your foot down on several tiny heads that's supposed to represent your bosses. You can even hear them cry out with pain!
11. To Peter Gabriel: Garlic Shampoo. The makers claim that it halts hair loss.
12. To Eve: A portable mass kit. Holds all the equipment you need to hold a sevice on the run. Also, a shrine kit.
13. To the newly-founded South Solsburia Military: Practice grenades
14. To Intruder: An "Intruder Alarm" piggy bank.