The Hourly Gift

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Topic

 

”It’s too early yet,’ thought he, glancing at the hairdresser’s cuckoo-clock, and seeing it was only nine.’ — Gustave Flaubert

‘God does not play dice with the world. Yet there is now abundant laboratory evidence that unpredictability reigns supreme at the atomic realm. Newton’s majestic clockwork has been replaced with a cuckoo clock cosmos, hooked up to a random number generator.’ — Albert Einstein

‘I wind my way across a black donut hole / and space that clunks. / Once I saw on a stage, / as if at the bottom of a mineshaft, / the precise footwork / of some mechanical ballet. / It was like looking into the brain / of a cuckoo clock and it carried / some part of me away forever.’ — Elaine Equi

‘Switzerland is a small, steep country, much more up and down than sideways, and is all stuck over with large brown hotels built on the cuckoo clock style of architecture.’ — Ernest Hemingway

‘Wouldst thou be taught, when sleep has taken flight, / By a sure voice that can most sweetly tell, / How far off yet a glimpse of morning light, / And if to lure the truant back be well, / Forbear to covet a Repeater’s stroke, / That, answering to thy touch, will sound the hour; / Better provide thee with a Cuckoo-clock / For service hung behind thy chamber-door; / And in due time the soft spontaneous shock, / The double note, as if with living power, / Will to composure lead, or make thee blithe as bird in bower.’ — William Wordsworth

‘Somewhere a cuckoo-clock, having struck between twenty and thirty, became the echo of a street city, which now entering the mew gave Quid pro quo! Quid pro quo! Directly.’ — Samuel Beckett

 

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Further

Cuckooland Museum
Black Forest Clocks .org
The World’s Largest Cuckoo Clocks
Cuckoo Clock World
Cuckoo Clock Nest
Edible Gingerbread Cuckoo Clock with Internal gears
Cuckoo Clock Hospital
Cuckoo Clock @ Facebook
Cuckoo Bird Sounds

 

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Newbies

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‘Do you want to make those fairy tales come to life, which you might have heard in your childhood days? Well, not all stories can come to life, but the Wildermann cuckoo clock for sure gives the feel of a fairy tale. This wall mountable cuckoo clock is a bizarre mix of modern tech, with it’s red LED display, and old world materials and craftsmanship with the cut wood in the shape of wood forest creatures.’ — this next

 

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‘This interesting project by French artist Stephane Vigny, is a combination of a cuckoo clock and a giant loud speaker. When the bass is loud, the largest speaker on the bottom is released on a hinge-mechanism and catapulted into the room, retreating back to the cabinet when the sound softens.’ — Make:

 

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‘The Long Now Foundation are taking a much longer view than next year, or even the next hundred years. They’re building a clock into the side of a mountain in Texas which will run for 10,000 years. The 200-foot tall clock is being built on a piece of land in the Sierra Diablo Mountains, in West Texas. It will tick once a year, with a century hand that advances once every hundred years and a cuckoo that comes out once each millennium. Carved into the mountain are five room-sized anniversary chambers; the one year anniversary chamber contains an orrery showing our solar system’s planets and the Earth’s moon, in addition to all of the interplanetary probes that we’ve launched during our first century in space. The orrery will run an automatic animation sequence once each year.’ — Gizmodo

 

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‘Struggling actors in Hollywood have a new way to lose their dignity. As part of a new cereal promotion, a 66-foot cuckoo clock has been unveiled in Los Angeles featuring actors in costume as the cuckoo bird, or, in this case, shark.’ — CNN

 

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‘Designer Chris Dimino created a cuckoo clock themed after Stanley Kubrick‘s classic The Shining. Dimino was challenged to create a cuckoo clock in which the clock itself, the cuckoo motion, sound, and the pendulum capture a moment in time fitting these elements to a concept. The solution was the classic moment from The Shining in which Jack Nicholson as Jack Torrance comes crashing through the door wielding an ax. The clock mimics the moment from the film, and every hour Jack breaks through the door and the famous line “Here’s Johnny” plays followed by a scream by Shining co-star Shelly Duvall.’ — Slash Film

 

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‘Dubbed the Nooka Cuckoo by designer Hannes Grebin, this concept cuckoo watch features a digital, Tamagotchi-esque bird that appears on screen to delineate the time. And indeed, its mixture of an angled roof and rounded bottom seems to merge modern design trends with the iconic bird house clock of yore.’ — Yanko Design

 

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‘With themes ranging from violence, to death and even sex, these extreme cuckoo clocks by German artist Stefan Strumbel exaggerate the traditional cuckoo clock with elements of urban art and pop art. Five years ago he decided to stop painting graffiti and concentrated on his art. Strumbel’s clocks, which are based on traditional models but are adorned with grenades and handguns instead of rabbits and antlers, now sell through Galerie Springmann in Freiburg for $1,200 to $35,000 each.’ — Trendland

 

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‘Wind these guns like watches with a key that’s stored underneath the barrels, and when they’re “fully loaded” use your thumb to pull back the safety levers. Then squeeze the triggers. What emerges is not a bullet but the tiny bird, no larger than a cherry pit. It rotates around its own axis, flaps its wings, shakes its tail and moves its two-millimeter beak. It even sings. (Unlike the cuckoo in a clock, it doesn’t tell time.) On May 20, not one but a pair of identical singing-bird pistols, estimated to sell for 20 million Hong Kong dollars to 40 million Hong Kong dollars for the pair (US$2.5 million to US$5.1 million), will go on sale at Christie’s auction of watches. These pistols, which date back to roughly 1820, are attributed to the Rochat brothers, Swiss artisans who pioneered the art of mechanical singing birds.’ — Coocooclocks.org

 

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‘Ben Hagari’s ‘Cuckoo’ is a video and sculpture piece made from a two-story gallery window (Rosenfeld Gallery, Tel Aviv). The video is a cuckoo clock with his eyes looking out of it. Running for twelve hours, the video is projected from sunset to sunrise. Every half hour he says “cuckoo” and a cuckoo bird comes out. The sculpture is a relief with parts made of various materials.’ — BHW

See it in action

 

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Oldie

‘The very first cuckoo clock is attributed to Anton Ketterer of the village of Schönwald who added the famous cuckoo to his clocks in 1738. It is possible that the rooster clocks were Ketterer’s inspiration. It was certainly easier to make a clock go “coo-coo” than making it crow, but it still must have been difficult to develop the mechanism to do this. Ketterer’s answer was the same gadget that is used today; twin bellows that send air through small pipes like a pipe organ. By this time, clockmaking had become widespread in the Black Forest, and folks began to specialize. Some cut gears, others carved the decorations or made the cases, and still others did the painting. Many cuckoo clocks in the 18th and 19th centuries were painted with elaborate scenes on the front of the case. According to one source, in 1808 in the town of Triberg, 790 of the towns 9,013 residents were involved in clockmaking.’ — Salem Clock Shop

 

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Prop

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‘These screenshots shows a cuckoo clock located in Jacques Renault’s (character) cabin in David Lynch’s TV series Twin Peaks. When the clock strikes the cuckoo’s call is heard but the bird does not emerge and the doors remain closed, awakening Sheriff Truman’s (Michael Ontkean) curiosity. After he opens its little doors several chips fall down, one of them is a notched chip from One-Eyed Jacks casino/brothel, providing another clue to Agent Dale Cooper (Kyle MacLachlan).’ — Cuckoo clock in culture

 

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‘Dave Fleisher’s 1937 “Pudgy picks a Fight”, an episode of the Betty Boop cartoon series, undoubtly is the most inspired of the Pudgy cartoons, the nightmare sequence centered on a cuckoo clock being particularly imaginative. Its theme of guilt and imagination running away with it would be revisited by Disney in Donald’s Crime (1945) with equally impressive results.’ — animationreview.com

 

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‘In Roman Polanski’s first short film The Lamp (1959), a doll maker works in his shop in waning winter light, a kerosene lamp beside him, a jumble of dolls and doll parts, whole and broken, surrounding him. There are noises, too: a cuckoo clock chirps the workday’s end. The artisan completes a repair and leaves, shuttering the shop from outside. Back inside, whispering begins. What else is in store for the shop’s seemingly lifeless denizens?’ — IMDb

 

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‘The Wolf’s Head Clock is Pugsley Addams’ favorite clock. Much like a cuckoo clock, on the hour the head pops through the doors and growls to signify the time. Though it is called a wolf’s head, the head appears to be that of a wildcat instead. When Gomez donated it to a charity bazaar, Pugsley was so depressed that he hid up the chimney. Gomez, Morticia, Uncle Fester and Thing all bid to get it back but a Mr. Clayton won the auction for $1100. When he realized it was not a priceless antique, he paid Lurch five dollars to take it. It likes to lick envelopes for Morticia.’ — Fandom

 

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‘Certainly what is most interesting in this Tex Avery’s short cartoon The Cuckoo Clock is its rare immersion in a dark and Gothic universe more associated with the psychological dramas of the previous decade (a mansion, a tortured main character) as with Poe’s short story in which is informally based. Avery’s tone of course is more subordinate to the generic conventions of the cartoon universe of its time, as shown by the fast reorganization from its uncommon prologue to more usual clichés of the cat-search-a bird in a Sylvester-Tweety style.’ — nickmovie

 

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Zack Lerner ‘Cuckoo Clock’ (2006)

 

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‘”In Italy, for 30 years under the Borgias, they had warfare, terror, murder and bloodshed, but they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci and the Renaissance. In Switzerland they had brotherly love, they had 500 years of democracy and peace – and what did that produce? The cuckoo clock.” When Orson Welles spoke these lines as Harry Lime, the charismatic villain at the heart of the film The Third Man, released in 1949, Welles can’t have realised how they would resonate ever after. Graham Greene, who wrote the screenplay, credited the lines to Welles, and it seems clear the actor added them when some extra dialogue was needed while the film was being shot.’ — BBC

 

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‘The Raven (voiced by Mel Blanc): A raven who lives in The Munsters’ cuckoo clock and repeats the word “Nevermore.” When the raven occasionally makes smart alecky remarks, Herman throws objects at him. Sometimes, the raven will come out of his clock, but often only for short breaks, or to flee when frightened.’ — retroland

 

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‘Bananas in Pajamas is an Australian children’s television show that premiered on 20 July 1992 on ABC. It has since become syndicated in many different countries, and dubbed into other languages. The main characters are two humanoid bananas named B1 and B2. Other characters include three teddy bears named Amy, Lulu and Morgan, and Rat in a Hat. The bananas, the teddies and Rat in a Hat all live in the same neighbourhood, a cul-de-sac called “Cuddles Avenue”. The show was performed using human actors in elaborate costumes, in the style of the British Teletubbies or Tweenies. In the show’s early days, the voices of the bananas were provided by the same actors as were inside the costume, but the original actors eventually gave up that aspect of the show and substitutes manned the hot, stuffy costumes.’ — AnimationXpress

 

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‘A Cuckoo clock is a Muggle device that shows the Common Cuckoo and sounds like a bird. The Dursley family owned one, and it was able to give one of the Letters from No One. It started going off in the Prisoner of Azkaban when one of Aunt Marge’s buttons flew off and hit the door, making it go off repeatedly while Marge inflated.’ — Harry Potter Wiki

 

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The Cuckoo Clocks of Hell (2011): “Most people have vanished from the plague…There are a few thousand that still walk the earth……Among them, two outlaws, Harry Russo and Terry Hawkins. Come face to face with one another in a clash that sets them on a road into destiny, to find the heart of America .The lines are drawn and the sands of time are running out fast. Will mankind be saved? We better hope so….Because Harry and Terry are having a good time…………and The Cuckoo Clocks of Hell are coming.”

‘A movie like this is not meant to invoke the same sensation as you would from a “normal” feature film. It’s rooted in crudeness and wacky extremes which carry forth like leprosy of the mind that is infected into your psyche. You might even question the nature of how you came to watch this or how the actors came to perform such atrocious acts on screen.’ — HNN

 

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‘In Rupert of Hee Haw (1924), Stan Laurel as the king has been helped to his feet by the smallest guard you can imagine (Sammy Brooks, a real-life midget actor) in an act of duty. The sound of a cuckoo clock triggers a rather unnecessary reaction from him and he forcibly shoves the tiny guard to the ground by pushing the palm of his hand into his face. It’s both cruel and funny at the same time!’ — Another Nice Mess

 

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Bird

‘This is truly the mother of all cheaters — the female cuckoo bird will not only raid the nest of her warbler neighbor to steal eggs, she then leaves her own eggs behind to replace what she just ransacked. In a true testament of nature vs. nurture, despite being abandoned, the baby cuckoo bird is just as much of a con artist as its birth mother. Thanks to incubating an egg similar in appearance to the other warbler eggs, the baby cuckoo bird blends among the other chicks and is therefore treated and fed like one of the family. You’d think with the baby cuckoo bird’s rapid growth (we’re talking 10 times the size of its foster mother!) the warbler would finally take notice that something is amiss.’ — Animal Planet

 

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Muse

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‘”The Cuckoo Clock” (1932) is a song for piano and vocal by Thomas Griselle and Victor Young. It was recorded in 1934, performed by the soprano Rosa Ponselle and conducted by Andre Kostelanetz.’ — allmusic

 

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Dr Acula ‘The Cuckoo Clock of Doom’: ‘I’ll shank you real ol’ fashion style for the win / that shit is vintage / like us now? / i’m sick of your status quo / your so god damn literal / your kind is a dying breed / like us now?’ — lyricsmode

 

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‘One song that totally stands up for me is “Cuckoo Clock” by Rachel Sweet, one of the Stiff Records mafia in the late 70s and a total Midwestern American girl. Yes, despite the fake British accent on this one. I think it rules. I wish someone besides The Mr. T Experience would cover it.’ — Detailed Twang

 

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‘no description available’ — youtube

 

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‘Video Game Music is Pretty Neat (HQ) #23: Lumines, the excellent and addictive puzzler for PSP and PS2 has had some excellent music as a core part of its game play. Series sound leader Takayumi Nakamura has released a few albums of the music. Opening with the serene “Cuckoo Clock”, telephone dials, electric piano and clock chimes are integrated into break beats that roll off your tongue. It’s a very well choreographed piece and one that sets you nicely into the world of Lumines.’ — Higher Plain Music

 

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‘”Cuckoo Clock” is a single by Italo disco singer Tom Hooker, released in 1986 under the pseudonym Lou Sern (a pun on the Swiss city of Lucerne). Although the song was popular in Italy and in Europe, it was a much bigger hit in the Philippines.’ — Alamin Kay Kuya Dex

 

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The Beach Boys ‘Cuckoo Clock’: ‘We knew it must have been late/ (Tick-tock, tick-tock) / We had no time to wait / (Tick-tock, tick-tock) / I went to light the fireplace / (Tick-tock, tick-tock) / I planned it all this way, and / (Tick-tock, tick-tock) … ‘ — songcoleta

 

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‘American composer Morton Feldman intended Madame Press Died Last Week at Ninety as an elegy for his piano teacher, Maurina Press. I must say that the charm of Feldman’s music usually escapes me, but this is a highly poetic four minutes. A cuckoo clock continually strikes over a slowly shifting texture of block chords, to evoke an innocent, almost Mahlerian vision of eternity.’ — Classical Net Review

 

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‘The Monks’ rhythmic attack is intact on “Cuckoo.” It’s the lyrics and vocals that strike one as eccentric. Burger’s vocal opens the tune, swiping a page out of some outlandish Beach Boys’ songbook. He nails high notes that no male, unless he’s a castrato, should be able to hit. Johnston’s monotonal singing voice tells an odd story about somebody stealing his pet cuckoo. During the bridge, fuzzed-out guitars and booming drums remind the listener that, yes, this is the Monks. Then, Burger reprises the chorus, jarring the listener back to unreality.’ — Liberal England

 

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Outro

‘What is the horror film about an evil cuckoo clock growing insde the walls of a house that takes over the minds of the family living there, all but the son?’ — Anonymous

‘A few months ago I was watching a 50’s black and white movie where a possessed demonic clock is trying to kill a housewife and/or ruin her marriage. The clock is a wall style cuckoo clock with a feminine voice that makes the dog lay in the doorway so the wife will trip over it and break her neck. Anyone know the title?’ — Katie

‘Does anybody know the title of the movie that has the evil cuckoo clock that attaches itself to the fireplace and starts to cause glitches in time, as well as turning the father and daughter of the new family into evil versions of themselves? I think the clock turns the entire house into a cuckoo clock?’ — Ry

‘I’m looking for the title of a film that is famous (infamous) for a scene where a young girl is raped by a demonic cuckoo clock? Can anybody clue me in?’ — George

‘Can anyone tell me the name of this movie a friend of mine told me about where an evil witch claws out of the vagina of some chick and there’s a cuckoo clock where the bird is replaced by a tiny human head that belches blood when it strikes the hour? I think maybe it was Italian?’ — Avra
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p.s. Hey. ** David Ehrenstein, Hi. Well, you’re only six years older then me, but, yes, I think I get where you say you’re coming from, and let’s leave it at that. Everyone, Mr. Ehrenstein’s FaBlog takes on the blown-over southern US border wall in Ehrenstein-ian fashion here. ** Sypha, Hi. I think I’ve only seen a few pix of George R.R. Martin, but the resemblance to Nitsch escapes me. Martin wishes, maybe? I read the interview with Justin yesterday, and it’s excellent! Everyone, Here’s Sypha with something for you to read that I recommend you read. Sypha: ‘Today my blog has posted a new interview with Justin Isis, conducted by Colby Smith (both friends of mine), in advance of the publication of Smith’s essay “Hiccups in Paradise: the Fiction of Justin Isis and Alienation” (which is being put out by Snuggly Books this year). Topics include occultism and magick, Marxist fiction, Neo-Decadence and Post-Naturalism, the perils of craftsmanship and professionalism, and other topics of interest.’ ** _Black_Acrylic, Hi, Ben. Ah, good old Stuart Morgan, excellent writer and thinker. I haven’t read that book, though. I’ll rectify that. Thanks. ** Steve Erickson, I think it will be interesting to find out if BE is ‘the real deal’, by which I guess a mean a lengthily interesting figure, or not. I think it’s very hard to tell at this point. I can imagine that NYC just inherently feels like a dangerous place for a possibly deadly virus run loose. I think we now have two cases in Paris, last I checked. ** Bill, Haha. Glad you dug it/him/them/it. Yeah, I think sticking close to home might be the operative plan until the virus is … I don’t know … not potentially in one’s face? ** Right. Today the blog pays tribute to that wonderful invention best known as the cuckoo clock. Celebrate with it, please. See you tomorrow.