Cicada Mania: Pop Culture

Cicada Hats, Mugs, Shirts and other Items

December 3, 2013

Cicada – The Insect Methuselah

Filed under: Film,Periodical — by Dan Mozgai @ 10:19 pm

I picked up a film on 16mm (what they showed to kids in school before VHS tapes were popular) called Cicada – The Insect Methuselah. I would love to see it, but I don’t have a 16mm projector (who does?) The film is presumably about 17/13 Year cicadas. I held the film up to a light, and it indeed features the Magicicada species.

The film was produced by the Moody Institute of Science in 1955, and I assume they still hold the copyright to the film. It is 12 minutes in length.

Update: Roy Troutman contacted us to let us know that this video footage can be found in another video: The Mystery of The Three Clocks, which you can watch here:

The most impressive thing about the video is the anatomical model of the cicada. I wish I had one (but I might have to go back to the 50′s to get one).

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October 11, 2013

Laura Imbruglia’s Cicada Tattoo

Filed under: Australia,Music,Tattoos — by Dan Mozgai @ 10:45 pm

Australian singer/songwriter Laura Imbruglia sent us this photo of her cicada tattoo. Of course, we love it! And we love her music too.

Laura Imbruglia's Cicada Tattoo

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October 3, 2013

Tibicen Cicada Tattoo

Filed under: Tattoos — by Dan Mozgai @ 1:13 pm

Amy Shaw shared a photo of her new photo-realistic cicada tattoo.

Cicada Tattoo

The tattoo artist is Dan Henk.

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June 4, 2013

David Rothenberg, John Cooley and the New York Times

Filed under: Brood II,John Cooley,Music — by Dan Mozgai @ 8:52 pm

It isn’t often that cicada celebrities show up on your Mother’s lawn, but when you have a healthy supply of easily catchable singing M. septendecim, and a cicada website, these things happen.

Last Saturday I met up with cicada researcher John Cooley, Japanese cicada researcher Jim Yoshimura, and musician and professor David Rothenberg at Roosevelt Park in Edison NJ. They were looking for male cicadas to perform with David at a World Science Festival event in the Bronx later that night. New York Times reporter Stephen Farrell was also there to interview David and John, and artist Asher Jay was there to lend David support.

The cicadas in the park weren’t performing well enough, so I directed them to my Mom’s place in Metuchen.

The Metuchen location yielded many screaming cicadas. David collaborated with the cicadas on the spot with his Ani-Moog iPad app, and a clarinet. John Cooley dropped some cicada science for Stephen Farrell’s video camera as well. My Mom served refreshments. Once enough cicadas were collected, the cicada celebrities departed — before leaving David left my Mom an autographed book and CD. Very cool!

Here is the result of the visit: a video article on the New York Times website:

A beautiful day for enjoying the song of cicadas in the suburbs of New Jersey.

Check out David’s book and CD:

June 2, 2013

An interview with Davy Shian of Cicadas: Exotic Views

Filed under: Books — by Dan Mozgai @ 5:51 am

Davy Shian wants everyone to understand and love cicadas, no matter what their current opinion of them is. His graphic novel, Cicadas: Exotic Views, attempts to educate people about cicadas so their views will improve as they grow to understand and appreciate them. The book features both comic illustrations (more like comic strip than superhero style) and photographs.

Here is an interview with Davy Shian:

DC Breaking Local News Weather Sports FOX 5 WTTG

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May 23, 2013

Are you a musician? Do a duet with cicadas!

Filed under: Magicicada,Music,Periodical,Pop Culture — by Dan Mozgai @ 8:51 pm

Update: Here is the show that featured the finished cicada songs: http://wfmu.org/playlists/shows/51182

Are you a musician? Would you go out in the field ( or your yard ) and jam with some cicadas? WFMU DJ Kurt Gottschalk wants you to send him your duets with cicadas!

Visit Send Me Your Insect Duets! WFMU 17-Year Itch Special Forthcoming! to learn more about Kurt’s appeal to musicians.

I want to hear you sing with the cicadas! They’re out in DC and starting to emerge in Jersey. From what I’ve been able to discern there’s little agreement about where they’ll be in NYC.

My friends form the band Blithe Doll are already planning on contributing their cicada collaboration.

Speaking of musicians who have jammed with cicadas, here is David Rothenberg jamming with some 17 year cicadas:

David also has a new album called Bug Music featuring his collaborations with insects!

Last night at the Judson Church in NYC I opened David’s “Richard Robinson: Song of the Cicada (World Premiere), Insect Music, based on the calls, chirps and clicks of various insects” event with a presentation about the 17 Year cicadas. David’s film and music were extraordinary. Here is a review of the event.

Cicada Event

cicadas in Washington Park

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A Cicada Kickstarter: Return of the Cicadas

Filed under: Magicicada,Periodical,Pop Culture — by Dan Mozgai @ 8:29 pm

Want to sponsor what could be the greatest cicada documentary of all time? Samuel Orr has a Kickstarter to fund the production of his 17 year cicada documentary Return of the Cicadas.

Rewards for backing the project include cool stuff like the film (download, dvd or bluray depending on your pledge amount) and a fine art photo print.

Just watch Samuel’s trailer for the film. You will want to back this film after seeing the trailer:

More information about Samuel and the Kickstarter:

I’m a natural history filmmaker and time-lapse photographer (http://www.motionkicker.com/time-lapse/), and have been following and filming the various broods of periodical cicadas since 2007 (there are multiple groupings of cicadas called broods that come out in different years across the eastern U.S.). I’ve got 200+ hours of footage, and am working towards an hour documentary that focuses on the 17-year varieties as well as cicadas in general. This film is anticipated in 2014, and will be broadcast on PBS afterwards.

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April 24, 2013

Cicada Princess Movie completed

Filed under: Cicada Arts,Pop Culture — by Dan Mozgai @ 7:25 am

Update:

I received my Cicada Princess clay cicada that was an actual actor/actress in the movie:

Cicada Princess

And here’s the URL to the movie: www.cicadaprincess.com

Here’s some news for cicada fanatics: the movie Cicada Princess has officially wrapped post production and was and successfully submitted it for consideration to the Sundance Film Festival. Read more about it. Congratulations to film maker Mauricio Baiocchi.

The Cicada Princess is a stop-motion animated movie featuring anthropomorphic cicadas. It was funded via Kickstarter contributions. Visit the Cicada Princess website. Here at Cicada Mania, we’re interested in both real and fictional cicadas.

Cicada Princess from Mauricio Baiocchi on Vimeo.

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March 28, 2013

Cicada Pins and Magnets

Filed under: Cicada Mania,Pop Culture — by Dan Mozgai @ 7:24 pm

One way I have fun during cicada emergences is designing unique cicada buttons. This year I have magnets too.

Cicada buttons and magnets

I have more cicada pins in the store. Check them out.

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March 14, 2013

Some Songs About Cicadas

Filed under: Music,Pop Culture — by Dan Mozgai @ 8:11 pm

Everyone knows cicadas love to sing (the males) or be serenaded (the females).

A lot of people like to write songs inspired by cicadas. If you search online music stores or YouTube, you’ll find hundreds of songs about cicadas, in every genre imaginable including rap, country, rock, folk, dance, parody, classical and experimental.

Here are some of my favorite cicada songs:

Laura Imbruglia sings her song Cicada on a talk show for teens (YouTube Link):

(You might want to skip ahead 20 seconds to when the music starts.)

Attack of the Cicadas Parody (YouTube Link):

Here’s one of my favorite bands, Southern Culture on the Skids peforming their song Cicada Rock (YouTube link):

CICADA Song – SICKA CICADAS by Kathy Ashworth:

Not quite a song, but still very much an audio performance about cicadas: Tessa Farmer and David Rothenberg perform Magicicada in Dublin (YouTube Link):

Do you have a favorite cicada song? Let us know in the comments!

Bonus: Another cicada song send by a reader:

CICADA by Liam Titcomb (YouTube link):

And more:

Seventeen Years (a cicada love song) – Lloyd H. Miller (YouTube Link):

Baby Bug by Samm Bennett:

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