A look at some of the deranged Christianist leaders supporting the prayer and fasting event Texas Governor Rick Perry is sponsoring along with the American Family Association, the anti-gay/anti-Islam/anti-modern world far-right religious organization that hates pretty much everybody except other Christian white people. It’ll be the Woodstock of wingnuts this August in Houston!

Earlier this year, Rick Perry asked all Texans to pray it would rain for three whole days to relieve drought conditions and halt raging fires. Maybe Texans didn’t pray hard enough, because it didn’t work. Now he wants the entire country to get together, as Americans, to pray to the invisible man in the sky so that he will solve our nation’s seemingly intractable problems! Sounds like a plan to me. Not a very good one, but a plan nevertheless.

This video was put together by Right Wing Watch but it almost plays like it was cut by one of the Everything is Terrible collective. No wonder young people are leaving religion behind in record numbers. I just pray Perry never holds an elected office higher than governor of Texas.
 

 
The Patti Smith Group in Stockholm October 1976.

Things kick-off with Patti passionately stating her mission as a poet and punk rocker, which includes some words to live by from Franklin D. Roosevelt. The interviewer is popular Swedish radio and TV personality Lennart Wretlind. And then we’re off to a concert at The Konserthuset where the group does killer versions of “Land” and “Time Is On My Side.”

Patti tears it up!
 

 
I love this new deadpan music video for “Cigarette Duet” by creepy/cute New Zealanders, Princess Chelsea.

Listen to it just once, and you’ll have a very hard time getting this catchy, witty number out of your head. Taken from their debut album, Lil’ Golden Book, which their label Lil’ Chief describe as “the soundtrack to an old Disney movie meets Kraftwerk fronted by Enya in a 60s production of Les Mis… set in space.

Order a copy of Lil’ Golden Book from Lil’ Chief Records.
 

 
Dante at ModCinema recently sent me a another volume of his fantastic 2-hour Colorspace compilations exploring the “mod” aestheitic of the 60s/70s.

As I wrote before about the first volume: “Professional graphic designers and design snobs will love it.” One of the ultimate DVDs to leave on at a party. Colorspace Vol 2 might even be better than than its predecessor and that’s a hard act to follow:

Modcinema presents its second two hour compilation of vintage movie trailers, music, and TV ads exploring 60’s/70’s pop culture. This volume features appearances by Raquel Welch, Marianne Faithfull, Soft Machine, Jane Birkin, Cher, Ronnie Bird, Serge Gainsbourg, Nancy & Lee, Johnny Harris Orchestra, Michel Polnareff, Tammi Terrell, Annie Girardot, Shocking Blue, Françoise Hardy, The Carpenters, Anna Karina, and Los Bravos. Fabulous 60’s fashions by André Courrèges, Mary Quaint, Paco Rabanne, choreographed dancing and so more! Plus it comes with cool artwork!

Video quality is A+. Order a copy of Colorspace Vol. 2 at ModCinema.com

Below, one of the treats in store for purchasers of Colorspace Vol. 2, Lee Hazelwood and Nancy Sinatra sing “Some Velvet Morning” on her 1968 NBC TV special, Movin’ With Nancy.
 

 
February 9, 1960

Dear Mr. Bergman,

You have most certainly received enough acclaim and success throughout the world to make this note quite unnecessary. But for whatever it’s worth, I should like to add my praise and gratitude as a fellow director for the unearthly and brilliant contribution you have made to the world by your films (I have never been in Sweden and have therefore never had the pleasure of seeing your theater work). Your vision of life has moved me deeply, much more deeply than I have ever been moved by any films. I believe you are the greatest film-maker at work today. Beyond that, allow me to say you are unsurpassed by anyone in the creation of mood and atmosphere, the subtlety of performance, the avoidance of the obvious, the truthfulness and completeness of characterization. To this one must also add everything else that goes into the making of a film. I believe you are blessed with wonderful actors. Max von Sydow and Ingrid Thulin live vividly in my memory, and there are many others in your acting company whose names escape me. I wish you and all of them the very best of luck, and I shall look forward with eagerness to each of your films.

Best Regards,
Stanley Kubrick
 
Via Letters Of Note

 
Narrated by the legendary John Peel and based on music writer Peter Frame’s extensive rock and roll family trees, this 1995 documentary features some tasty interviews with members of The NY Dolls, Patti Smith, Blondie, The Ramones, Television, Talking Heads, Richard Hell, Jayne County and more.

If you’re like me, you can’t get enough of that New York punk rock.
 

 
Hitch is a graduation project made by Felix Meyer, Pascal Monaco, Torsten Strer, at the University of Applied Sciences and Arts in Hannover. Hitch is:

The Ultimate Hitch Cookbook, an animated book containing the recipes for Alfred Hitchcock’s classics. It’s made for Hitchcock enthusiasts and every other couch potato out there.

 
With thanks to Maria Guimil
 

 
I started off with the Famous Five, The Man from U.N.C.L.E., Gerry Anderson, Edith Piaf, Spiderman, Geoff Love and Big Chief I-Spy.

Big Chief I-Spy was Charles Warrell, a retired headmaster who started a series of spotter’s guides in the mid-1950’s called I-Spy. There were some forty volumes, which were intended to encourage young British children to take an interest in the outside world.

Each book focussed on one subject - I-Spy Creepy Crawlies, I-Spy Birds, I-Spy Working Vehicles, I-Spy Trees, I-Spy Wild Flowers, you get the picture, pocket books with various things to “spy”, with pictures, information and a few dotted lines to be filled with where you saw them. 

Once all the contents had been marked up, the book was returned to the Big Chief (c/o his address at “Wigwam by the River”), who then sent you a feather and an order of merit. The I-Spy books lasted from the 1950s-1980s, and hundreds of thousands were sold to enquiring youngsters. In 1991 they were relaunched by Michelin, and again in 2009.

I’ve always thought it probable that the I-Spy books led to a generation of youngster taking greater interest in their environment, who then went on to become involved in various ecological or political groups. Charles Warrell died in 1995, at the age of 106, which suggests an active mind keeps you young.

The publisher and writer, Callum James uploaded these original I-Spy covers onto his website Front Free Endpaper, which is worth dipping into for its interesting book collections.
 

 

 
Via Front Free Endpaper