“'All right,' said the Cat; and this time it vanished quite slowly, beginning with the end of the tail, and ending with the grin, which remained some time after the rest of it had gone.”
Lewis Carroll's famous passage about the sly existentialist Cheshire Cat is well known; his one about the Asthmatic Kitty is less so (apparently it was due to appear in the aborted Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland sequel Alice: Back 2 Wunderland, Yo!):
“‘Achoo,’ said the Kitty, and this time it slowly exited the room chronically convulsing and coughing up colloid and some uncooked macaroni, a Hershey's Kiss wrapper, and a string of used dental floss that he had scavenged out of the kitchen garbage earlier in the day while his master was cooking up grilled cheese. It dragged its inflamed bronchial airway and arse out the door first, like it was getting ready to keel over and croak. Its departure was marred by a long stop for rest and water, some spasming, and a couple of puffs on its broncho-dilating inhaler. Finally, it disappeared from the room; upon leaving, it tried to muster up the effort to smile, but all that resulted was a rank and rancid kitty fart that was anything but cute and coy and that remained waaaaaay too long for anyone’s liking.”
Ah yes, pity the storied Asthmatic Kitty of yore, but do not for one minute turn a sympathetic eye toward the superb label that shares its peculiar moniker. Asthmatic Kitty -- home of Shapes and Sizes, Castanets, Half-handed Cloud, and “someone named Sufjan” -- would never put on such a degrading display. The imprint spins class, as evidenced from its super strong vinyl and CD releases -- and now its DVDs. The first-ever Asthmatic Kitty DVD is called Encyclopedia Asthmatica, Volume 1, and as you would expect, it is cobbled together with the care and love that is synonymous with the close-knit group of musical friends.
The visual compendium has box art and stop-animation menus designed by do-no-wrong fine/video artists Zack and Gala Bent, a performance by the think/dance collective to the music of Half-handed Cloud, stop-gap music arrangements by the truly talented Rafter (Roberts), and videos and live performances featuring appearances by a good amount of the AK roster of bands, artists, friends, hangers-on, and most certainly a YouTube video contest winner thrown in for good measure too.
The DVD is set for release March 4 but is available for a limited, slightly cheaper pre-order price through Secretly Canadian here.
Aaaccchhhoooooommmeeeooowww:
1. Bunky - “Hippopotamus (live, SXSW 2005)”
2. Bunky - “Baba”
3. Bunky - “Space Alien”
4. Castanets - “A Song Is Not the Song of the World”
5. Castanets - “Smallest Bones”
6. Castanets - “Good Friend, Yr Hunger (live, SXSW 2007)”
7. Half-Handed Cloud - “You Wouldn’t Embarrass Me Would You?”
8. Half-Handed Cloud - “Tongues Possess the Earth Instead”
9. Half-Handed Cloud - think/dance collective performance
10. Liz Janes - “Jesus Is a Dying Bed Maker”
11. Liz Janes - “All the Pretty Horses”
12. My Brightest Diamond - “Freak Out!”
13. My Brightest Diamond - Live at Northsix
14. My Brightest Diamond - “Dragonfly”
15. My Brightest Diamond - “Gone Away”
16. My Brightest Diamond - “Magic Rabbit”
17. Rafter - “Adventurers”
18. Rafter - “ZZZPenchant”
19. Rafter - “Gentlemen”
20. Rafter - “Hope”
21. Rafter - “Monsters”
22. Rafter - “Encouragement”
23. Shapes and Sizes - “Teller/Seller”
24. Shapes and Sizes - “Jinker/That Fat Hand”
25. Shapes and Sizes - “Can’t Stop that (Sinking) Feeling”
26. Sufjan Stevens - “Jacksonville (live, Calvin college 2007)”
27. Sufjan Stevens - “Palm Sunday Tornado Hits Crystal Lake”
28. Sufjan Stevens - “The Undivided Self (for Eddie & Popo)”
29. Sufjan Stevens - “The Vivian Girls Are Visited in the Night by Saint Dargarius and His Squadron of Benevolent Butterflies”
30. Sufjan Stevens - “Put the Lights on the Tree”
31. The Curtains - “Go Lucky”
32. The Curtains - “Spinning Top”
