You’ve Been Shelled
Out testing the Olympus XA2 I spotted from a stair case (the one shown in first of this series) this strange sight of a truck plastered with papers in the parking lot below. The closer I got, the stranger it was – the papers are photos of a man, at least two different views, with graffiti written in speech bubbles. These bubbles of thought include: “You’ve been shelled” which was on the larger white paper on the windshield, and on the photos “you’re beautiful”, “shel sells shel sells by the shel shore” “Your beard is majestic” “…and I was like ‘Baby baby baby cool'”, “why you gotta be so mean”, “to the window to the wall” “Aaron King of the scrappers” “Don’t stop believing” . “you are a gentleman and a scholar” “so is your son Maximilian”. There is more but the film is a bit too grainy to read them. Could this be an exhibit gone AWOL from the Ministry of Casual Living?
Like most of you guys, or even all of you (I write hopefully, not wanting to feel backwards), my pop culture knowledge is far too shallow to make sense of any of this. I am not completely without resources, and so my research department after diligent digging and with help from Head Librarian Google’s image search feature (which gets better every few months), did figure out that the photos are of Shel Silverstein. He was, until he died in 1999, “an American poet, singer-songwriter, cartoonist, screenwriter, and author of children’s books” at least according according to Wikipedia. I am enough of a cultural backwater to have never heard of him, though I have heard of some of the songs he wrote like “A Boy Named Sue”.
I admire a man that can title an album Hairy Jazz (in 1959 no less) or Freakin’ at the Freakers Ball. Not to mention to write a song called Someone Ate the Baby (Dreadful) with highly esteemed lyrics that go like this (this video has the lyrics recited as poetry, by someone that might be one of the fabulous furry freak brothers grown old, so you might want to check it out as well):
Someone ate the baby
It’s rather sad to say
Someone ate the baby
So she won’t be out to play
We’ll never hear her whiny cry
Or have to feel if she is dry
We’ll never hear her asking, “Why, why, why?”
Someone ate the baby
Someone ate the baby
It is absolutely clear
Someone ate the baby
‘Cause baby isn’t here
We’ll give away her toys and clothes
And we’ll never have to wipe her nose
Dad says, “Aah, that’s the way it goes,
Someone ate the baby.”
Someone ate the baby
What an awful thing to eat
Someone ate the baby
Though, though she wasn’t very sweet
It was a heartless thing to do
The policemen haven’t got a clue
I simply can’t imagine who would go and eat the baby
I simply can’t image who would go and plaster the truck with Shel Silverstein’s likeness, nor why. But it was pretty darned amusing to stumble upon. I hope the truck owner felt the same way. And that you do too.
If this is all some elaborate reference to some cultural something that I really should know about and you already know about, then please note the comments section below is specifically designed for sharing cultural gems, so please enlighten the rest of us.
I hate this dinosaur feeling.
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Olympus XA2, f3.5/35mm lens, Fuji Superia X-Tra 400 film, scanned with Epson V700
burnt embers 
Shel Silverstein’s poetry was a staple of my childhood, and probably most people going to school during the 70s/80s. His children’s poetry anthology “Where the Sidewalk Ends,” (I wish wordpress would let me comment using proper italics so that I wouldn’t have to resort to the incorrect use of quotation marks for a book title) was a favourite of pretty much every kid I knew. He is probably second to Dr. Seuss in terms of famous children’s poets. Now all that said, that’s a bit odd to plaster his image all over a truck. It made for a very compelling post, though.
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Hi GGNB – thanks for letting me know. I was done school by the early 70’s so I must have missed out on his poetry. Or maybe it was not so big in Canada? Maybe you have dated the individuals involved here though – perhaps they are in their mid-late 30s or so.
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They are likely in that age range, yes. I think “Where the Sidewalk Ends” was 1974-1975ish. I would love to find out what motivated this person or persons, though.
Actually much of Silverstein’s poetry is playfully ironic, a bit twisted, even, and quite fun. They were all offered as audio books as well, but I preferred just reading them myself.
A good example is “One Inch Tall”
If you were only one inch tall, you’d ride a worm to school.
The teardrop of a crying ant would be your swimming pool.
A crumb of cake would be a feast
And last you seven days at least,
A flea would be a frightening beast
If you were one inch tall.
If you were only one inch tall, you’d walk beneath the door,
And it would take about a month to get down to the store.
A bit of fluff would be your bed,
You’d swing upon a spider’s thread,
And wear a thimble on your head
If you were one inch tall.
You’d surf across the kitchen sink upon a stick of gum.
You couldn’t hug your mama, you’d just have to hug her thumb.
You’d run from people’s feet in fright,
To move a pen would take all night,
(This poem took fourteen years to write–
‘Cause I’m just one inch tall).
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Thanks for posting that, it does give a sense of his playful silliness. I can totally see why it appeals to kids. The mystery remains about it appeals to adults with access to photocopiers and tape?
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The only fact I recognize is Johnny Cash’s famous song ‘A boy names Sue’. Looks like an installation but why now? Not even a significant anniversary… Clearly none of us is part of the ‘in’ crowd.
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Hi Andy. I think this must have been a private joke. I asked on Facebook to the younger crowd (on average) and none of them came up with anything. I was kind of hoping someone would see it and recognise exactly what was going on, and enlighten me. Perhaps with time.
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Wow! I wish I’d seen this – it’s very entertaining. And that guy’s beard IS majestic.
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Apparently that picture with the beard was on the back of his children’s stories much to the discomfort of some children that did not like the looks of him.
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That reminds me a professor I had who had a similar beard. His little daughter had never seem him beardless, and was scared of him when he shaved it off.
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Words fail me. But your research is good.
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The research department gets some things right.
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I remember reading poems by this guy as well as his cartoons and seeing his children’s books. A weird artist for sure but I did enjoy some of his work. The truck looks more like an art installation instead of vandalism.
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I thought art or art-prank when I saw it. It would be nice to know what this is all about, but I suspect I never will. I put it on FB too, but with little response (so far).
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