1 January—To celebrate Copyright Law Day, The Monitor is delighted to forgo a protracted disquisition on the complexities of U.S. copyright law. Except to remind readers that a work that enters the public domain does so on 1 January of the year following the expiration of its copyright term. It’s just an official convenience, like all registered thoroughbred horses in the Northern Hemisphere celebrating their birthdays on 1 January regardless of when they were actually born and all registered thoroughbred horses in the Southern Hemisphere celebrating their birthdays on 1 August regardless of when they were actually born.

(And don’t forget that while a work itself may be in the public domain, a performance or iteration of that work may nevertheless remain under copyright protection.)

That allows us to get right to the celebration of Public Domain Day by presenting two classics created in 1929, which makes them officially and conveniently 95 years old today. The first is “Ain’t Misbehavin’,” a stride-swing song with score by Fats Waller and Harry Brooks and lyrics by Andy Razaf (né Andriamanantena Paul Razafinkarefo), written for the musical comedy-revue “Connie’s Hot Chocolates.” And here it is, performed by Fats Waller himself:

The second classic is a surrealist painting executed in the summer of 1929 by Salvador Dali that’s currently on display in the Queen Sofia National Museum Art Center (Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía) in Madrid (Spain, as opposed to Missouri, New Mexico, or New York). It’s the “Face of the Great Masturbator” (“Visage du Grand Masturbateur”—yes, the title is French, not Spanish), popularly known simply as “The Great Masturbator.” And here it is for you to admire and interpret: