A few days ago, I posted here about disco singer Monti Rock III, the first queen I ever saw on TV when I was a kid, and I mentioned that he had not really crossed my mind in a very long time… then coincidentally, yesterday, Robert Coddington, Nelson Sullivan’s archivist (who I wrote about here), gave me a copy of a short film by D.A. Pennebaker titled You’re Nobody Till Somebody Loves You. Who should turn up in this obscurity? Well, Monti Rock III, that’s who, then working as a celebrity hair stylist (he did the bridal party’s hair). A young Richard Alpert (AKA Ram Dass) and jazz great Charles Mingus also turn up in the film.

And Mrs. TImothy Leary? Well, after divorcing the High Priest of LSD—their marriage lasted about a year—the high fashion model then known as Nena von Schlebrügge married Buddhist scholar Robert Thurman. Their daughter, actress Uma Thurman, was born in 1970.

Here’s how Pennebaker describes the Leary nuptials:

This movie is something of a mystery. Timothy Leary was getting married to a model named Nena Von Schlebrugge up in Millbrook, New York at the Hitchcock house, where Leary had been carrying on his hallucinogenic revelries for the past year or so after leaving Harvard. It was rumored that this was going to be the wedding of the season, the wedding of Mr. And Mrs. Swing as Cab Calloway put it.  Blackwood took me downtown to meet Monte Rock III who was singing at Trudy Heller’s but who was also a very pricey and off-the-wall hairdresser and was in fact going to be doing the bride’s hair.  Nena’s brother, Bjorn, known as the “Baron” was a friend of the Hitchcock’s, as was I, and the idea of going along and filming the wedding seemed not unwarranted. I’ve always wanted to film someone getting married.

So we drove up in Monte Rock’s ancient Buick, Diane Arbus, an editor from Vogue whose name I can no longer remember, and of course Monte Rock, his fingers covered in rings. Close behind, Proferes and Desmond filmed us as we drove, up the Taconic and through the gates of the Hitchcock mansion.

There were Hitchcocks and friends and relations of Hitchcocks, the Baron and his court, a score of models, and Charles Mingus playing a lonely piano. Even Susan Leary fresh out of jail.  It was indeed an amazing wedding, and for all I know, an amazing marriage, although someone later told me it was over before I’d even finished editing the film.

After Nena divorced Leary she married a Tibetan scholar, Dr. Robert Thurman and her daughter Uma is Uma the actress.  Dick Alpert became his own guru, Baba Ram Dass and achieved a sainthood of his own.  Monte Rock III left Trudy Heller’s and went out to Hollywood and became famous for his line in the John Travolta movie, Saturday Night Fever, when as the disco DJ he exclaims, “I love that polyester look.” Charles Mingus got thrown out of his loft and sadly perished, and in time the Hitchcock house itself burned down, or so I’ve been told.  The mystery is that we never filmed anyone actually getting married.

D A Pennebaker, 1964, 12 min., b&w

 
Part II after the jump…

Hamburgers = Heroin!

A commercial made to raise awareness in a current social epidemic and to draw attention to those whom the artists believe are most responsible in a bid to drive discussion and action to reverse the downward trend.

(via TDW)

 
Via this isn’t happiness

Pedro Antonio Marín, alias Manuel Marulanda o Tirofijo, right, and Jorge Enrique Briceño Suárez, alias “Mono Jojoy” in happier times.

Jorge “Mono Jojoy” Briceño, the military chief of the rebel Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) a narco-trafficking Marxist group that has been fighting the government since the 1960s, was killed yesterday during a military raid.

Colombia’s President Juan Manuel Santos told Associated press that Jojoy’s death was “the most crushing blow against the FARC in its entire history” and that for his fellow countrymen, “[...] it is as if they told New Yorkers that Osama bin Laden had fallen.”

The 57-year-old joined the FARC as an illiterate teenager and spent his entire life in the jungle. At one point his 11,000 thousand man force ruled half of Columbia, making him—by some measure—the world’s most powerful narcoterrorist..

Since his death yesterday, something interesting has come out about the way the US-backed Columbian military found the rebel leader, in El Mundo:

He suffered from diabetes which, combined with the rigors of the life in the jungle, had caused painful injuries on his feet. That was the reason why he had to order a new pair of special boots. And that was when Operation Sodoma started and his death begun.

The guerrilla command sent a message asking for these special boots, which was caught by Colombian intelligence. The Colombians were able to intercept the boots and rig one of them with GPS circuitry. When Mono got them, his fate was sealed.

The Colombians made sure that he got the boots and started to track the GPS signal. They knew exactly where he was, and that’s when they decided to launch the attack against the base.

57 aircraft, jetfighter and helicopters, attacked the complex with fifty bombs, preparing the way for the Colombian ground troops, who took over the camp with little opposition. In fact, only one of their explosives-sniffing dog died in the attack.

Soon after arriving to the camp, the Colombian commandos found Mono Jojoy’s body, along with other members of the FARC’s elite.

Via Gizmodo

 
Apparently this stuff really drives the ladies wild:

Unique among all the essences ever devised by man or created by nature, STASH emanates from a plant long recognized for its aphrodisiac qualities. Its romantic bouquet imparts an aura of closeness only dreamed of between man and woman.

Make every moment count. Enjoy the mystery and enchantment captured in the romantic bouquet of STASH… the secret one. A great gift idea for him that will turn you both on!

(via Nerdcore via copyranter)

 
Lorenzo the parrot, a drug dealers best friend. The bird is the word.

 
The late animation genius, Art Clokey, the creator of Gumby, describes his experiences in the sixties when he was given LSD by his psychiatrist. From the Emmy award-winning documentary, Gumby Dharma.
 

Via Planet Paul

 
He doesnt appear all that chastened, tho…

(via Sticky’s Soup)

 
I don’t smoke pot, but after watching this, I’m seriously considering eating some.
 
Via Nothing To Do With Arbroath

 
(via Das Kraftfuttermischwerk)