Don Ho died on this date four years ago and I can’t imagine a better way to commemorate his legacy than sharing this live footage from the early 1990s of Ho singing his classic song “Suck ‘Em Up.” Enjoy now. Thank me later.
Don is definitely in Dean Martin mode on this one.
Sleep with angels forever in your very own custom made Jonathan Ross casket from British company Creative Coffins. The company is “committed to providing a green alternative to traditional wooden coffins” by using cartonboard materials.
Our individually designed cartonboard coffins provide for a more eco-friendly funeral and, most importantly, the range of carefully created styles will help you find a design that truly reflects the personality of your loved one.
Video gaming pioneer Gerald Lawson has died from complications related to diabetes. He was 70 years old.
In 1976, Lawson designed the Fairchild Channel F, the first programmable ROM cartridge-based video game console. He went on to create software for the Atari 2600 in the early 80s.
Lawson was the sole black member of the Homebrew Computer Club, a group of early computer hobbyists which would produce a number of industry legends, including Apple founders Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak. Lawson also produced one of the earliest arcade games, Demolition Derby, which debuted in a southern California pizzeria shortly after Pong.”
In a 2009 interview, Lawson was candid in his appraisal of Jobs and Wozniak: “I was not impressed with them — either one of them, actually.” He was so unimpressed by Wozniak he turned down his application for a job at Fairchild.
In March, Mr. Lawson was honored for his innovative work by the International Game Developers Association, an overdue acknowledgment for an unfamiliar contributor to the technological transformation that has changed how people live.
“He’s absolutely a pioneer,” Allan Alcorn, a creator of the granddaddy of video games, Pong, said in an interview with The San Jose Mercury News in March. “When you do something for the first time, there is nothing to copy.”
Here’s Mr. Lawson discussing Fairchild Channel F and the roots of virtual reality:
Our pals at Network Awesome bring together the varied and disparate artifacts of your favorite geniuses for your trouble-free enrichment. Here’s a swell multi-pronged tribute to visionary composer and inventor Raymond Scott including an interview with Jeff Winner of the Raymond Scott Archives
Jeff Winner is one of the chairmen of the Raymond Scott Archives, founder of raymondscott.com and co-producer of Manhattan Research, Inc., a 2-CD & book set of Scott’s early electronic work. That makes him totally the dude to talk to about Raymond Scott himself. And on top of being a total badass on Raymond Scott-ology, he was a nice enough guy to answer a few of our questions. The conversation goes everywhere - from Looney Tunes to Benny Goodman to Mark Mothersbaugh.
video playlist:
The Raymond Scott Quintette - War Dance For Wooden Indians
The Philharmonicas - Powerhouse
The Raymond Scott Quintette - Ali Baba Goes To Town (1937)
The Raymond Scott Quintette - Night and Day
Raymond Scott’s Electronium: The Restoration
Designs in Music - Dorothy Collins, Raymond Scott on the Bell Telephone Hour
Raymond Scott: On To Something (trailer)
The Sound of Surreal: Interview with Jeff Winner on Raymond Scott
An original painting done by the late Pink Floyd founder Syd Barrett that was stolen from a London art gallery over the weekend has been returned, according to The Wire magazine.
Barrett’s self portrait was from London’s Idea Generation Gallery on Saturday April 9th, right off the wall of the “Syd Barrett Arts & Letters exhibition.” The painting was a gift, done in 1961 or 62, for his then girlfriend Libby Gausden.
Gausden and the gallery offered a $2000 reward and appealed for the safe return of the painting. On the 12th of April, the painting was returned via post to the gallery in perfect condition. You can see some of the now-closed Syd Barrett exhibition online here. Reasonably priced prints from the show are also for sale. I particularly liked this one:
Below, Syd Barrett and Roger Waters try to remain polite in the face of ridiculously uptight classical music critic Hans Keller, after the band play “Astronomy Domine” on BBC’s Look of the Week.
If you like your folkish Americana with a large twist of David Lynch, then Bee & Flower should be right up your deserted stretch of backwoods road. It’s maybe hard to push boundaries in this particular genre, but then I guess that that’s not really the point. It’s more about atmosphere and quality songwriting, and those are things that Bee & Flower have in spades.
The group was formed at the start of the century by the multi-talented Dana Schechter, who up til then had been playing in Michael Gira’s post-Swans group Angels of Light. Since then she has gone on to collaborate with a veritable who’s who of alt-Americana, including members of Sparklehorse, Calexico and The Bad Seeds, not to mention having string arrangements supplied by Jim “Foetus” Thirwell. If a collab list like that doesn’t pique your interest, then truly I fear for your soul. If you’re after more tangible evidence, however, here’s some music:
Bee & Flower - “I Know Your Name”
Bee & Flower - “Homeland”
Bee & Flower - “Green Glasses”
Although Bee & Flower formed in Brooklyn, Schechter now resides in Berlin where the last couple of B&F albums were recorded (2007’s Last Sight Of Land and the upcoming Suspension). Tonight however she and the band will be back in Brooklyn for a one-off, free gig at the Zebulon (258 Wythe Ave) along with four other acts. They will also be giving away copies of their 7” single “Dust & Sparks” to 3 lucky people to help celebrate Record Store Day.
Yes, I said the show is free (the favored price of the next generation) so if you are around be sure to check it out. If you’re not lucky enough to live in Brooklyn or New York, here is a live video of B&F in Berlin from 2007.
Bee & Flower - “Don’t Say Don’t Worry”
For more info on Bee & Flower, this is their official website, and here is band’s tumblr.
From The Telegraph:
Wesley Hosie, 25, found the yellow and red sweet by chance as he and his girlfriend tucked into a 700g jar from The Jelly Bean Factory.
Mr Hosie and girlfriend Jessica White, 24, from Taunton, Somerset, kept the mango-flavoured bean and now plan to sell it on eBay for £500.
Mr Hosie said: “As Jessica opened the jar, I saw her immediately. She was literally lying there staring back at me.”
Tasty!
Andy Warhol and Paul Morrissey are accused of violating child pornography laws in a 1964 film directed by Morrissey called All Aboard The Dreamland Choo Choo. The suit was filed in 2009 against Warhol’s Estate and Morrissey by a lawyer representing the grown children of Richard Toelk. Toelk appeared in the film when he was 14, rolling and smoking what might or might not be a joint, giving himself electrical shocks and plunging a small knife into his leg. It is strong stuff, but how much of it was staged? Toelk died in 1990 so he’s not telling.
Morrissey has said that All Aboard The Dreamland Choo Choo was intended to send an anti-drug message and it was made a year before he met Warhol. The title of the film came from a Shirley Temple song that he would play during the silent film’s screening.
Emily Larish of The Vanderbilt Journal of Entertainment and Technology Law doesn’t think Toelk’s children have much of a case and may actually be exploiting their father more than Warhol and Morrissey ever did:
Assuming the depiction of Toelk in All Aboard The Dreamland Choo Choo can be considered sexual exploitation, if the footage was filmed in 1964, then it could not have been in violation of federal child pornography laws; the first federal laws aimed at child pornography were not enacted until the late 1970s. As for the claim for negligent infliction of emotional distress for damaging the family’s image, it is hard to imagine that many people have even seen the film, certainly not in recent years. Moreover, even out of those who have seen the film, I doubt that many would be able to identify the young boy smoking pot as Richard Toelk, the father of the plaintiffs.
It seems that this family is attempting to do the very thing for which they are accusing the defendants: exploiting the images of a young Richard Toelk for financial gain.
You can read the complaint here
Watch the rarely seen All Aboard The Dreamland Choo Choo and make up your own mind…or don’t. In my opinion the self-torture looks no more real than what you’d see in a mainstream horror movie. The film seems to want to dramatize a young man’s desperate need to feel something, anything, some kind of kick. It’s certainly not porn. And the young actor doesn’t appear to be suffering the kind of pain you’d feel after plunging an Exacto knife in your leg. It looks like theater to me.
Professional and amateur footage captured with cell phones, camcorders and Super 8 from over 200 sources combine to create the kinetic documentary All Tomorrow’s Parties. Compiled by director by Jonathan Caouette (Tarnation), ATP is a tightly edited collage of live performances, interviews and archival movies which captures the D.I.Y. spirit of one of the best and most fiercely independent music fests on the planet.
With performances by Grinderman, Dirty Three , Sonic Youth, Animal Collective, Lightning Bolt, Patti Smith, Portishead, Slint, Mogwai, Grizzly Bear, The Yeah Yeah Yeahs and Iggy and The Stooges.
And for our Spanish speaking friends, it has Spanish subtitles.
Parts two through six after the jump…
For a week in February of 1972 John Lennon and Yoko Ono co-hosted the Mike Douglas Show and America was introduced to macrobiotics, experimental film, bio-feedback, Elephant’s Memory, Yippee prankster Jerry Rubin and Chuck Berry sitting yoga-style watching it all pass before his bemused eyes.
The footage of John and Yoko playing “Johnny B. Goode” and “Memphis” with Chuck Berry is all over YouTube. It’s not included here. The clips that I’m sharing have been less available ever since they went out of print. While not as musically historic as the footage of Berry and Lennon playing together, these conversations with John and Yoko are a charming and inspiring look at one of rock and roll’s great marriages. The love and respect between Lennon and Ono is palpable and you can feel the creative energy that is sparking between them. And their earnest enthusiasm in turning people on to new ways of treating their bodies and brains is testimony to John and Yoko’s continuing journey in raising consciousness, ours and theirs. Their message is refreshingly free of cynicism and rock star jadedness.
Mike Douglas seems genuinely engaged by John and Yoko.
We begin with day two of John and Yoko’s residency, February 16,1972.
Berry and bio-feedback after the jump…
The late Belgian painter Guy Peellaert (1934-2008) was once called the “Michelangelo of Pop Art” for his amazing photo-realist style. Famous for his iconic album covers for David Bowie’s Diamond Dogs and It’s Only Rock and Roll for the Stones, Peeleart was also noted for his legendary million-selling coffee-table book, Rock Dreams, a collaboration with British rock writer writer Nik Cohn. Rock Dreams featured 125 paintings by Peellaert of rockstars ranging from Frank Sinatra to Lou Reed in (often lurid) fantasy settings. It was something you’d see often in head shops in the 1970s. Many of the paintings are owned by Jack Nicholson.
Rock Dreams is a special favorite of mine. I’ve had a copy since childhood that I got from the Columbia House Record Club when I joined for a penny. One day in the late 80s, I came across a huge pile of hardback copies at the Strand Bookstore in NYC for $1 each. I bought the entire stack and gave them out as Christmas presents that year. It’s one of the best art books I’ve ever, ever seen.
Less well-known are Peellaert’s sexy 60s posters for Paris strip club The Crazy Horse Saloon (I used to have a few, but the tube they were kept in got lost during a NYC to LA move) and his books The Adventures of Jodelle (one of my most prized possessions) and Pravda with its title character based on gorgeous Francoise Hardy. (“Jodelle” had been modeled on French pop singer Sylvie Vartan). Below a super cool “Pravda” animation that Peellaert did in 2001 featuring a soundtrack by The Rolling Stones, Missy Elliot and Joy Division.
Even less well-known is the animated opening credits for Peellaert did for 1967’s Jeu de Massacre. (He also did the poster, too, obviously). Revel in New York describes it like this:
Two cartoonists meet a playboy who lives out the fantasies created in their cartoons. He hires them to create a new comic strip. As they work on the new strip, the playboy begins to live it out. Unfortunately, the new strip deals with murder.
Jeff Lieberman, host of TV’s Time Warp and one of the co-directors of OK Go’s time-crunch video for “End Love” is taking advance orders for an optical illusion kinetic sculpture he designed called the Moore Pattern:
I’ve been mixing the arts and sciences for about ten years — I hosted ‘Time Warp’ on the Discovery Channel, to try to get people excited about science, I take scientifically-inspired photography exploring the limits of human perception, and I design kinetic sculptures based on perceptual and physical principles. Moore Pattern is the first piece I’d like to try to manufacture for all of you.
It is a simple play on words: originally made as a wedding gift for my friend Jordan Moore and his wife Emilie, a moiré pattern is a type of interference pattern, generated here by two of the same shape placed backwards and rotating in opposite directions. When seen from far away, it looks as if one shape is moving in an impossible way. Trust me, the video helps…
I find it a meditative and relaxing piece in my apartment, where my test prototype has been running smoothly and continuously for about 5 years; and so I figured some other people might want one as well. Either for yourself, or someone you care about. For a more meditative video of the piece, check the original video.
The entire project is open source. You can see a spreadsheet of all of my expenses, download the 3d drawings, or even the 3d model to make or modify the design yourself.
If I’m going to work on something, I don’t want to artificially limit the number of people that can enjoy it. So, instead of doing a limited edition of a certain number, check this new type of limited edition:
I will make as many as you guys pre-order in the next 60 days, as long as at least 100 of you want one (that’s when the economics become viable). If not, no biggie. They each cost $150. I’d love to make 1000 or 10,000 or 100,000 of em, whatever people want. Let’s do it!
By donating $150 to the campaign you are pre-ordering one Moore Pattern sculpture to be delivered to your door, ready to run in less than 10 minutes.
This work was inspired by the wonderful works of David Roy and Arthur Ganson. More pictures and info available on my site.
This would certainly look good in most homes, he’s quite right. Order yours here.
Thank you, Chris Musgrave!
Dita Von Teese modeling her Wonderbra.
Wonderbra has launched an eye-catching ad campaign and a unique way for women to test their products.
“Everybody jump.”
Via copyranter.
Thrice or more apparently. Blogger NYCisMyMuse posts on YouTube:
I caught three direct strikes to the Empire State Building lightning rod after midnight on 4/13/11 during a severe thunderstorm. I actually saw a fourth direct hit, but sadly wasn’t filming at the time. I’ve never seen so many hits on the ESB in one night. It was ridiculous! But so much fun to watch.
Whoever said lightning doesn’t strike twice was wrong.
