Anyway, onto what I wanted to say:
It's odd how sometimes a phrase or combination of just a small number of words can be so appealing. Three humerous ones came to mind, all in the form <adjective> <noun>, from three different artists, which seem somehow to say something about their entire canon.
The best known of the three I have in mind was coined by David Bowie (tour & video1983): SERIOUS MOONLIGHT.
An earlier example, was by John Cooper Clarke (from Valley of the Lost Women, 1978): IMPORTANT CIGARS.
And there's (at least) one by Joanna Newsom that stands in this exalted company (from This Side of the Blue, 2003): IMPOSSIBLE BIRDS.
I did a quick google of these three word pairs, and discovered something surprising. Bowie's would appear to be an original - and has been used by a recent film - and how could it have been otherwise? Clarke's only appears elsewhere in the context of cigar collectors, describing items that would be 'important' to their collections, rather than in the way that he uses it, "the men with important cigars". But there was a 2002 reference to "impossible birds" in a blog that I've copied below, because it's funny.
http://everything2.com/title/impossible+birds
(idea) by lara68 Tue Oct 08 2002 at 22:22:37
It's a little early to be celebrating Dia de Los Muertos, but I've been thinking about it a lot in the process of getting ready for upcoming exhibitions at the Main Street Museum in White River Junction and the art gallery downstairs from my studio. So here's a little altar for my grandmother.
Her name was Margaret, but she preferred to be called Eleanor. She was an excellent cook and an avid gardener, and I learned a lot from her in both of those areas. She was the wife of an Episcopal priest, and the daughter of missionaries. "The iron fist in the velvet glove," my mother called her. She could be very stern, when necessary, but I saw more of the velvet than the iron. She would often give me a little squeeze as she walked past me, and call me her nice girl. When I had a splinter, as I often did when I was young, she was the only one I wanted to take it out. She was that gentle. More than anyone else in my life, she made me feel loved.
She and Grandpa lived in Rhode Island, in a house that he had built less than a mile from the beach. We spent a lot of time there in the summer. One lazy afternoon, after lunch and naps, she shared with us a list of impossible birds that she had come up with. It made me look at her in a whole new way, sort of like when she confessed to me after my parents' divorce that she had always liked my father.
If she were still alive, she would be approaching her 92nd birthday. Anyway, here's the list:
•Bleary-Eyed Hangover
•Double-Breasted Seersucker
•Electric Crane
•Exorbitant Gas Bill
•Extramarital Lark
•Furtive Nutsnatcher
•Gimlet-Eyed Titwatcher
•Horizontal Bedthrasher
•Lesser Stench
•Red-eyed Crosspatch
•Rosy-Breasted Pushover
•Vested Interest
•Weekend Bat
So that's one each from the 'seventies, 'eighties, and noughties. Any other suggestions?