Since 1970 French illustrator Jean-Michel Nicollet’s exquisite nightmares have been gracing the covers of science fiction and horror books, the pages of Metal Hurlant magazine and various comic art anthologies.
Nicollet’s early work anticipates the gothic, cyber and steam punk movements that followed years later.
More dark visions after the jump…
Ghostfunk is a Ghostface Killah mashup album by the producer Max Tannone, who describes it thusly:
Released in July 2011, Ghostfunk pairs one of my favorite hip-hop artists, Wu-Tang member Ghostface Killah, with vintage African funk, high-life, and psychedelic rock music.
This is really good, and definitely worthy of a free download. You can get it from Max’s website or directly from this link.
Ghostfunk by Max Tannone
Thanks Tara McGinley!
Robert Mapplethorpe image for The Saint’s “Black Party” 1981 via OrangeMercury.
Thanks to Tony Dunne for the sterling work on this - stitching together various tapes to create a four-and-a-half-hour continuous mix of the DJ Warren Gluck from the closing night of the legendary New York nightclub The Saint in 1988. Tony says:
“There may be slight differences from the originals because of the tape endings. Sound quality could of course be better but the recording was taken from cassette tapes.”
The Saint was a members-only gay club opened in 1980 by New York club owner Bruce Mailman (St Mark’s Baths), and the architect Charles Terrell. It gained legendary status almost immediately, due in no small part to the huge planetarium-style dome over the dancefloor (which hosted massive light shows and also served to hide and amplify the club’s sound system) as well as the notoriously permissive attitude to sex in the club, in the upstairs areas and at special events like “The Black Party”. Unsurprisingly the AIDS epidemic decimated the club’s clientele, leading to its closure in May 1988 (a year after both Studio 54 and the Paradise Garage). The Saint never received the acclaim for its music in the same way the Garage did, despite mixes like this proving it was just as excellent (the music may have been different but gays were raving long before acid house). University of East London lecturer, disco historian and author Tim Lawrence sums it up in his thesis “The Forging of a White Gay Aesthetic at the Saint, 1980-84” (a must read for fans of disco, gay history and New York nightlife):
...whereas historians of dance culture have hailed the Garage’s Larry Levan to be the most influential DJ in the city during the 1980s, the shifting roster of selectors who worked at the Saint have merited barely a single mention—an unlikely scenario given that privileged white groups often receive more attention than disadvantaged subaltern groups. Based on numerous interviews with key protagonists, documentary material held in the Saint’s archive and recordings of DJ sets from the Saint, this article redresses the imbalance by outlining the contributions of Jim Burgess, Alan Dodd and Roy Thode, the Saint’s principal DJs during the opening 1980–81 season, as well as Shaun Buchanan, George Cadenas, Michael Fierman, Michael Jorba, Robbie Leslie, Howard Merritt, Chuck Parsons, Terry Sherman and Sharon White… their collective impact was considerable, even if their very collectivity also meant that each was ultimately disposable.
For more information on the history of The Saint, and the ongoing “Saint At Large” reunion parties, visit Saint At Large.com. But for now lose yourself in Warren Gluck’s awesome final dj set at the club:
The Saint Closing Party - Warren Gluck continuous mix by Tony Dunne
Englishman Graham Bonney was one of the wave of young British performers to make the trip to the famed Star Club in Hamburg, Germany (where the Beatles played several residencies early in their career).
Bonney’s biggest hit was a great number called “Super Girl,” released in 1966. It was a popular record on London’s pirate radio station, Radio Caroline. Although he never made it outside of Germany, Bonney’s had a long show-biz career for a one-hit wonder and is still performing “Super Girl” to appreciative audiences today (It seems like he re-records it every few years. Who cares? It’s a great song and it’s his to milk!).
I’ve always had a really soft spot for this song and actually put this on a mixed CD for my wife when we were “courting” so I was stoked to see this video for it. It’s pure pop perfection and catchy as hell.
Thank you very kindly, Adrian Legg!
Smoking stunts your growth, but this kid goes to where the flavor is.
(via reddit)
Nelson Sullivan was a highly talented and prolific videographer, who documented New York’s art, club and youth scene of the 1980s. His filming style was fluid, raw and breathless, with jump-cuts and in-camera editing, all fabulously complimented the city’s dynamism, as it focussed on luminaries Keith Haring, Michael Alig, John Sex and RuPaul.
Just as he was about to produce his own cable TV show, Sullivan died of a heart attack in 1989. It was a sad demise to such a genuine talent
Back in December 1988, Sullivan filmed Quentin Crisp at the Flaunt It Club.
The Flaunt It Club was another brilliant publicity stunt created by Randy Barbato and Fenton Bailey to promote their disco act The Fabulous Pop Tarts. It was was presented every Sunday night at LImelight NYC and gave other aspiring performers the chance to appear alongside established personalities in a talk show format broadcast, broadcast later that week on Manhattan public access television. Quentin Crisp was the celebrity guest this night, and the event was documented on video by Nelson Sullivan. Robert Coddington edited this from Nelson’s original videotape.
The brilliant Fenton Bailey once pitched a documentary on Nelson, where he described “Nelson’s epic canvas of Downtown” as an:
“...anthropological documentary that takes us beneath the fashionable surface and shows us the reality.
The reality is that Downtown is a tribe, a loose-knit collection of cultural refugees socially bonded by their rather anti-social ambition to make it. Although not an apple-pie Main Street nuclear family, it is an extended family much like a chorus line. Indeed Nelson’s work shows us, in addition to the glorious highs when the show goes on, the individual lows when its all over, the lonely moments of vulnerability. He was able to do this because most of those he filmed were his friends who trusted him, and who - given that Nelson’s camera went wherever he went and was for at least ten years as natural an extension of his body as his arms or legs - simply forgot that the camera was there.
And so the most captivating and poignant part of Nelson’s work is not the famous who have emerged from Downtown, but the people who are left behind and who strive in vain for the limelight. One of them himself, Nelson filmed the wannabees, the never-will-bees and the has-beens. While he captured the glorious orgy of self-invention of those seeking fame and fortune, he also captured the price it often exacted, the despair and self-destruction that followed repeated frustration and failure.
This is Sullivan’s film of Quentin Crisp at the Flaunt It Club, which reveals a delightfully at ease Mr. Crisp, enjoying the company of NY’s young things.
DM’s Richard Metzger writes about Nelson Sullivan here.
Previously on Dangerous Minds
Inside Quentin Crisp’s Apartment
Nelson Sullivan Pioneering Chronicler of NYC Nightlife in the 1980s
Part 2 of Quentin Crisp at the Flaunt It Club, after the jump…
Supercut from the geniuses at Everything is Terrible of Christian “humorist” Barbara Johnson’s uh, “routine” I’d guess you’d call it, about her gay son. The late Mrs. Johnson was the author of Stick a Geranium in Your Hat and Be Happy.
H/T to Christian Nightmares
Crafting With Cat Hair doesn’t hit the shelves until November, but you can pre-order here.
Got fur balls?
Are your favorite sweaters covered with cat hair? Do you love to make quirky and one-of-a-kind crafting projects? If so, then it’s time to throw away your lint roller and curl up with your kitty! Crafting with Cat Hair shows readers how to transform stray clumps of fur into soft and adorable handicrafts. From kitty tote bags and finger puppets to fluffy cat toys, picture frames, and more, these projects are cat-friendly, eco-friendly, and require no special equipment or training. You can make most of these projects in under an hour—with a little help, of course, from your feline friends!”
I can’t wait to get my hands on a copy. Hoping for instructions on how to build a cat hair hammock.
Yeah it looks real and everything, but you’d have to be total knob or P. Diddy to carry this thing around.
The Money Stacks Backpack sells for $50.00 over at Sprayground.
Update: A reader points out that the Money Stacks Backpack reminds him of Cheeky’s Suitcase Stickers. I have to agree.
(via Like Cool)
Everyone meet Internet dancing sensation, Jason. He likes to woo the ladies with his interpretative dance of Gene Pitney’s “Something’s Gotten Hold of My Heart.” I betcha his hypnotic moves work like a charm. Here’s what Jason has to say:
Thank you very much,Youtubers for your comments. I might not do another dance video for a long time. In my next video, I will say something very impotent to you all. I don’t always do dance. what I like to do is crime drama.I will tell you more about that and other things too.
(via Pleated Jeans)