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Abbie Hoffman and Jerry Rubin debating the future of America in 1986
11.11.2013
02:52 pm
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Watching this debate between Abbie Hoffman and Jerry Rubin from 1986, I was struck by how little has really changed since the late 80s despite the fact that, to Rubin’s way of thinking, we’ve had two “yuppie” Presidents in the White House. Hoffman’s vision seems more prophetic in light of the Occupy Movement, but I see the truth to be somewhere in the middle of their opposing points of view.

Despite his emphasis on maintaining a healthy body, no amount of good health helped Rubin. Ironically, the law-abiding straight-lace yuppie was killed in 1994 while fucking the system, run over by a car in L.A. as he was jaywalking. Hoffman gave up the good fight and committed suicide in 1989. The future they speak so passionately about in this debate was not theirs to further impact, though both had done their fair share starting in the Sixties. From founding the yippies, mobilizing the march on the Pentagon, leading the charge in Chicago in 1968 to inspiring John and Yoko’s sleep-in, there’s no question both Hoffman and Rubin managed to change the world we live in. Abbie’s style of guerrilla theater, activism and peaceful dissent was very much alive in the past few years on the streets of American cities like New York and in Europe, Turkey and during the Arab Spring movement. Rubin’s concept of revolution from within the system is less vivid and harder to measure. I don’t think it works for the most part but I’m still voting.

The debate took place in Canada. Rubin and Hoffman make their points with lots of energy and Hoffman is of course quite funny. The first couple of minutes has an appropriate musical intro,  “I’d Love To Change The World” by Ten Years After.
 

Posted by Marc Campbell
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11.11.2013
02:52 pm
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‘That pimply faced sack of demon seed’: ODB’s apocryphal ‘Mister Ed’ audition recording
11.11.2013
02:34 pm
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This is one of those weird by-ways of entertainment culture that will probably never be cleared up entirely. In 2005 an mp3, apparently of Ol’ Dirty Bastard’s audition tape for the role of a rebooted TV series of Mister Ed, surfaced on the essential “Beware of the Blog” run by the great free-form Hoboken, New Jersey, radio station WFMU.

Mister Ed, of course, is part of the grand tradition of ridiculous TV shows from the early 1960s, when people would watch anything, it seems. Mister Ed was a CBS sitcom about a talking horse that ran for nearly five years, just like My Mother the Car was about a talking car. What’s for sure is that there was such a reboot in the works around 2004. It was the project of Drake Sather, a standup comedian whom I vaguely remember who tragically committed suicide not long after Ol’ Dirty Bastard died of an overdose. The series was in the pipeline at FOX—Sherman Hemsley beat out ODB for the role of the equine rapscallion (assuming ODB ever tried out for the part).

So what is this, exactly? We can only hope that it’s what it appears to be, an authentic audition by Ol’ Dirty Bastard for the role of Mister Ed. If it is, we can only applaud Sather and company for thinking out of the box—if only this series existed! Alternately, there are two other possibilities—either ODB and his crew were messing around, having fun or else it’s someone else. If it’s someone else, then that person gets the genius points, whoever he is.

ODB’s down-tempo, basso profundo approach to the part is inspired, He appears to flub a line, replacing “hoof” for “boot,” which makes it all the more amusing. I’m going to have these lines in my head all day: “Lawman, what we donna do about Dakota? ... Dude, I read the emails…. Let’s not get all familiar on the first date…. I seen WNBA teams with more game, than that….”

I think, I hope, I pray it’s legit—I think it’s ODB.
 

 
Via The World’s Best Ever

Previously on Dangerous Minds:
Ol’ Dirty Bastard’s FBI file in its entirety
The day Ol’ Dirty Bastard helped save a little girl who was trapped under a car

Posted by Martin Schneider
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11.11.2013
02:34 pm
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‘Hear My Train A Comin’: Watch new PBS Jimi Hendrix documentary while you still can
11.11.2013
12:39 pm
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The latest documentary in the PBS American Masters series, My Train A Comin’ takes an in-depth look at the life and career of Jimi Hendrix. The two-hour long film uses heretofore unseen concert and home movie footage along with family letters, drawings and private photographs to tell a well-rounded story of the great rock guitarist who tragically died at the age of 27 in 1970.

Paul McCartney, Noel Redding, Mitch Mitchell, Billy Cox, Eddie Kramer; Steve Winwood and ZZ Top’s Billy Gibbons are interviewed, as are three of the most influential women in his life: girlfriend Linda Keith who introduced Jimi to his manager Chas Chandler, Faye Pridgon who lived with Hendrix for four years in the early 60s (until he coldcocked her with his guitar after seeing her accept a peck on the cheek from another man) and Colette Mimram, the fashion designer who helped Hendrix create his signature stage look.

If you go directly to the American Masters website, there are plenty of great extras and outtakes. They don’t always leave these videos up forever on the PBS website, so you might not want to wait too long before you watch this.
 

Posted by Richard Metzger
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11.11.2013
12:39 pm
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Lou Reed’s final interview: ‘My life is music’
11.11.2013
11:35 am
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During a photo shoot in September to market a model of Parrot Zik headphones that were tuned by Lou Reed, the late rocker gave one of his final interviews and it’s very… moving. I don’t know how else to describe it.

Ostensibly, Reed’s only talking about sound and sonics but the elegiac tone to the conversation gives much away. It seems pretty apparent that Reed knew he wasn’t long for this mortal coil and there is a sweet side of the legendarily cantankerous musician on display here that was very seldom seem in public.
 

 
Via TPM

Posted by Richard Metzger
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11.11.2013
11:35 am
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John Lennon’s school detention sheets go up for sale
11.11.2013
11:14 am
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lennonreport.jpg
 
He wasn’t the messiah, he was just a very naughty boy.

John Lennon’s school detention sheets, detailing the Beatle’s bad behavior in class, will go up for auction, where they are expected to sell for between $3000 and $4000.

The reports list a series of incidents from Lennon’s time at Liverpool’s Quarry Bank School between 1955 and 1956, when he was in Class 3B and Class 4C. Lennon’s crimes include “fighting in class,” “talking,” “silliness,” “shouting,” “shoving,” having “just no interest whatsoever,” and (most interestingly) “sabotage.” On one occasion Lennon received three punishments in a single day.

The detention sheets were rescued by a teacher, who had been requested to burn the reports in the 1970s, but when he spotted the name “Lennon,” he kept them thinking they might have some pop cultural importance.

Bidding for this and other Beatle memorabilia will take place on November 22nd, at TrackAuction.
 
lenreponort.jpg
 

 
H/T The Guardian
 

Posted by Paul Gallagher
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11.11.2013
11:14 am
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Colorful sports uniforms for hip artists like Warhol and Basquiat
11.11.2013
10:27 am
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Andy Warhol, number 28
Andy Warhol, number 28
 
I know perfectly well that these shirts are little more than a quick grab at fashion trendiness, but I like ‘em anyway. The whole idea of a French firm assigning American sports jerseys to various iconic creative people (none of whom would probably be able to tell apart a catcher’s mitt from a hockey stick) seems pretty witty to me.

These come from a French fashion outfit called LES (ART)ISTS, who say that these designs were inspired by “American football jerseys,” which seems fair enough.

The regular T-shirts are €45 ($60), and the flannel versions are €99 ($133). Actually, they seem to have only the b/w version (such as the KAWS one) on their site. I prefer the more playful and colorful ones, they strike me as much more clever and engaging.

The odds are that the numbers were chosen more or less at random, but I can’t help reading meanings in (busted, I’m a sports fan). WARHOL 23 makes sense for anyone who knows who Michael Jordan is [Update: DM reader “ThatGuy” points out that Warhol is 28 on all three shirts], and beyond that, I admire the use of rather high numbers. In baseball high numbers are generally used for scrubs who don’t play, the types who make it to spring training and then don’t make the squad. If we’re talking football, the numbers have specific meanings—for instance, a number in the 80s means you’re a wide receiver, anywhere from 50 to 79 means you’re either a lineman or a linebacker, and so on.
 
Keith Haring, number 58
Keith Haring, number 58
 
Haruki Murakami, number 62
Takashi Murakami, number 62
 
Damien Hirst, number 75
Damien Hirst, number 75
 
Jean-Michel Basquiat, number 60
Jean-Michel Basquiat, number 60
 
See the rest of the jerseys after the jump…...
 

READ ON
Posted by Martin Schneider
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11.11.2013
10:27 am
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Happy Birthday Neil Gaiman
11.10.2013
07:33 pm
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leingaiman.jpg
 
Happy Birthday Neil Gaiman, the multi-talented author of novels, comics, plays, films and essays, born today, November 10th, in 1960.

Few modern writers have had as much of an impact, or as devoted a following as Mr. Gaiman, whose work has entertained, enlightened and inspired readers with his incredible stories and ideas.

I came to Mr. Gaiman through 2000 A.D. and then The Sandman comics, before picking-up on his TV series (co-written with Lenny Henry) Neverwhere. Then through his stories to the novels, Stardust, Coraline and American Gods.

There are many things to be learnt from Mr. Gaiman, but I always liked this line from The Graveyard Book:

”If you dare nothing, then when the day is over, nothing is all you will have gained.”

Happy Birthday Neil Gaiman!
 

 

Posted by Paul Gallagher
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11.10.2013
07:33 pm
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‘Do you really need that second helping?’ Shameware to help you with your diet!
11.10.2013
12:29 pm
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Intervention-ware
 
It’s difficult to understand who the market for this product is—dishes and mugs that the owner will presumably use every single day, with shaming slogans in a bland typewriter font. Their maker is Fishs Eddy, a perfectly reputable purveyor of dishes and glasses and so forth based in New York with a bent for making whimsical and retro tableware—I’ve bought items from them myself. They have a fantastic line of baseball-themed plates, mugs, and glasses as well as this charming skyline-themed stuff.

You can see the dinner plate, side plate, bowl, and coffee mug for yourself on this page. Fishs Eddy calls it “intervention-ware”—I’m calling it “shameware.” The side plate says in big type, “Big mistake.” It seems to come from a slightly different set from the others, which all use stronger and smaller type. The plate has four slogans, one of which is “For the love of god stop eating.” And so forth. Since coffee doesn’t really fit into the dieting paradigm, the mug just tells you you’re being obnoxious.

These products are clearly intended for gag value, as it’s almost impossible to imagine anyone buying this or giving this dinnerware as a present—if so, the purchaser/recipient is probably defining a whole new demographic of ultra-ironic über-hipster, but it’s so “on the nose” that even that crowd wouldn’t like it, no?
 
Intervention-ware coffee mug
 
Intervention-ware side plate
 
Intervention-ware plate
 
Intervention-ware bowl
 

Previously on Dangerous Minds:
Patti Smith porcelain plate

Posted by Martin Schneider
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11.10.2013
12:29 pm
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Fab footage of Rod Stewart and The Faces live at The Marquee Club in 1970
11.10.2013
12:23 pm
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Here’s some fine looking and sounding footage of The Faces performing at the Marquee Club in London in December of 1970. Filmed for German TV, the production is pro in every way. With a film crew on stage and shooting a matter of inches from Rod Stewart’s pretty face, you get a perspective on the lead singer formerly only seen by his dentist. For a Brit, his pearly whites are in extraordinarily good shape.

The set list:
Devotion
You’re My Girl
Flying
Too Much Woman
Maybe I’m Amazed
Gasoline Alley
Around The Plynth

Ron Wood - guitar, Kenny Jones - drums, Ronnie Lane - bass guitar, Ian McLagen - keyboards.
 

Posted by Marc Campbell
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11.10.2013
12:23 pm
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Lost Manhattan: Amazing home movie footage of New York City in the 1970s
11.10.2013
12:03 pm
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While much of what we see in this bittersweet time capsule still stands, there are scenes of a once vital part of New York City that has vanished. I refer to the footage of the Garment District. Hard to believe that only a few decades ago Manhattan was one of the fashion production capitols of the world. Clothing was actually being made in giant lofts not far from Times Square. It was an amazing scene of streets cluttered with migrant workers pushing rolling racks hung with freshly-made dresses that swayed seductively as they passed pastrami-scented delis jammed with kibitzing garmentos. Sidewalks teemed with Hasidic men in funereal three-piece suits and black hats made of rabbit fur while high above in the cathedrals of fashion sewing machines chugged metallically. Jazzily. Music of the shears.They call them Singers for a reason.

It’s all gone now. A whole American industry and culture disappeared like dinosaurs in the tar pits of progress. A song no longer sung.

I bought many fine sharkskin suits from factories in the Garment Center in the late Seventies. My favorite one by far had super narrow lapels, 13 inch pegs and was lime green with silk paisley lining. Years later, I ripped that suit to shreds on the stage of The Ritz during a set with my band. I was drunk and I regret having destroyed that lovely piece of American craftsmanship - handmade by some old cat with a sewing machine in a darkened loft surrounded by hundreds of yards of shimmering silk.

I turned my obsession with vintage threads into a business. I spent my days in the Garment District going through warehouses of unsold merchandise or digging through the stockrooms of stores like Bond’s (which later became a music venue where The Clash would have their famous seventeen day residency). I scored skinny ties at $15 a dozen and sold them to boutiques catering to punks and new wavers. I found factories that made women’s leather gloves, pop art handbags, plastic costume jewelry in neon colors and day-glow fishnet stockings. I bought em all, blew off the dust, and made bucks from clients like Trash And Vaudeville and Patricia Field. Before I knew it, I had a 2000 square foot space in the farther reaches of the West Village packed with low couture grooviness. I was getting visits from the owners of stores in London and Paris. They wanted American style made in America. The sleek pimped-out suits, cockroach killers with Cuban heels and white Naugahyde go-go boots made in the Bronx, Queens or Manhattan were far hipper than the shit strolling down the runways of Europe.

Believe it or not, there were hundreds of these small factories and wholesalers in NYC. On 39th street I found an ancient showroom/warehouse stocked with hundreds of dozens of wraparound sunglasses - the kind Marcello Mastroianni wore in 8 1/2. They ended up on the shelves of some of the most expensive stores on Madison Avenue. That score alone covered my rent on East 27th street for an entire year. I was a high school dropout turned instant fashion mogul.

The fruit of American labor didn’t stop on Fashion Avenue. Downtown there were huge storefronts filled with close-out merchandise. On Chambers Street I discovered more than a thousand pairs of patent leather fuck-me pumps made by a company called Sapphire and bought every trashy one of them for a buck a pair. Most of those candy-colored high heels ended up in Fiorucci along with a few hundred paper dresses with op-art prints I found at a junk seller near Wall Street. Manhattan was crazy mad with this kind of stuff back then and it was usually pretty cheap.

It was possible to dress cool for next to nothing in clothing made right where we lived. We were the fashion equivalent of locavores. You could dress sharp on the proceeds of an unemployment check and still have enough cash to pay the landlord, buy some blow and get drunk at the Mudd Club. But more importantly, fashion could identify who you were in the same way as a uniform tells people what branch of the military you’re in. Yeah, we wanted to look cool but we also wanted to make a statement. In that respect, fashion could be political. It could shake up the status quo. Outside of New York, L.A. or London, dressing in a certain way could come at a price. A sharp-dressed man or woman could stir up some shit in the hinterlands. It could actually be dangerous.

I got into fashion not for the money. Money was a by-product of doing something I dug. I got into it because I wanted to outfit the future rockers of America with gear that would align them with a musical movement that, at the time, was shaking shit up and was something I was passionate about. When I started getting orders for skinny ties and wraparound shades from stores in places like Wyoming and Nebraska I felt part of a revolution. I was selling to small stores in small towns where a kid wearing a skinny tie and spiked hair was taking a chance by expressing who he was on the inside by simply wearing a tie two inches less wide than what was considered acceptable. In 2013 when everyone including your mother has a tattoo, it’s hard to imagine that a tie or a pair of sunglasses could be seen as radical, but they were.  For three bucks a kid in the middle of nowhere could buy a piece of gear that immediately set them apart from the pack. They could announce to the world that they were different while they took the time to figure out just what that meant. Even if it meant nothing more than loving The Ramones or DEVO.

Like love, rock will tear us apart… tear us apart from the humdrum realities of a life where chances are never taken. Fashion, in its purest form, is as clear an expression of intent or philosophy as a poem or song or painting. In 1966, at the age of 15, I pierced both of my ears and stuck two gold hoops in them, scrawled a peace sign on the back of my jean jacket and walked through a shopping mall in Virginia with my pet chicken on a leash. I had no idea what the fuck I was doing I just knew that I had to do it. Someone in that suburban hellhole had to. Sometimes your personal revolution starts with a fashion statement. Sometimes all it takes is a chicken on a dog leash and a pair of earrings.

And it’s still ongoing. I was in a Hot Topic in New Mexico not long ago and I saw a group of Hispanic kids buying Cure and Smiths tee-shirts and a few pairs of bondage pants. It was a big move for them. There are parts of Albuquerque where shit like that can still you get you fucked up. You saw Breaking Bad, right? But these young cats were making the leap out of themselves and declaring what they loved and what they wanted to stand for. I walked over to them, they were probably no older than 16, and simply said “cool” and that was enough to let them know that we were on the same team even though there were was more than a 40 year difference in our ages. I left it at that, though I was tempted to tell them my chicken story and that the people who made the bondage pants they were buying were my best friends and have made millions selling punk rock clothing to kids all across America since 1975. Purists will question the commodification of rebellion. To which I say “fuck that shit!” Punk has always been as much about fashion as it has music. Not every kid can be in a band but every kid can look like he’s in a band. And that’s a good fucking start. 

Anyway, here’s some way cool footage of New City when it was funky, sexy and more than a little bit crazy. These were the days when New York City made more than just money. It made stuff you could hold in your hand, put on your body and tell your story through.

From the YouTube description:

This film of New York City streets, parks, and people was made in the early 1970s by amateur filmmaker Irving Schneider. Includes scenes of Brooklyn Heights, Washington Square and Greenwich Village, the Garment District, Times Square and 42nd Street, and Central Park. Music by John Coltrane.

 

 
Thanks to Jahn Xavier for turning me on to the video.

Posted by Marc Campbell
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11.10.2013
12:03 pm
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