As some of you reading this might recall, in the old Disinformation TV series, I devoted the next to last episode entirely to the topic of the potential for harm that easily available Internet porn, in particular the extreme variant called “gonzo porn,” might have in store for an entire generation of (mostly) young males. The piece left the question open ended, but it was clear that neither I, nor most of the people I interviewed (including porn actresses and producers) had any hope that much good would come of adolescent males spending their free time having images of violent sex seared onto their eyeballs at the point of orgasm. And besides that, what were they learning about human sexuality at the hands of twisted psychopaths like Max Hardcore and Rob Black? That their girlfriends would like them to invite 10 of their friends over for a session of tender love-making or perhaps that shoving a girl’s head in the toilet during sex was a suave move?

Well, the verdict is starting to come in that we’re—literally—raising a generation of… wankers. An entire generation has had their sexual fantasies hijacked by this stuff. This quite good 2007 BBC documentary Teens Hooked on Porn, is a disturbing look at what’s happening to Internet porn addicted kids. The pimple-faced young men portrayed in this documentary, sad to say, are going to have no idea what to do with a real girl when they have the chance. And frankly, what girl would want anything to do with them?

As you watch this, imagine their lives at 25, 40 and well beyond. It ain’t a pretty thought…
 

 
Thank you Paul Gallagher!

 
I’ve spent so much time with this record already, I nearly forgot that this is the day it officially makes its way into the world. Be kind, world ! Actually folks have been extremely kind so far. Prefix mag via KCRW posted up a lovely piece yesterday and there’s a podcast with songs from my shady past and present as well as a pretty good and casual phone interview at Most People Are DJs. And of course, as you doubtless already know due to that flashing ad down there, you can buy your own CD or colored vinyl LP (see above) directly from my superb label, Hometapes.
 

Brad Laner - Eyes Close from Josh Laner on Vimeo.

 
Dangerous Minds pal Jesse Merlin says, “Sit! Stay! Play undead!”

Thanks, Jesse!

 
My North San Fernando Valley compatriot Will Wiesenfeld, a.k.a. Baths is currently conquering the music world with his melodically strong and sonically
fascinating tunes. Here’s his first proper video, directed by Young Replicant , wherein a dying samurai is revived by I dunno, the members of Animal Collective ? It hardly matters when the music is this creative.
 

 
Video: Baths: “Lovely Bloodflow” (pitchfork)
 
Previously on DM:
 
BEAT STAR BATHS REMIXES L.A. UNDERGROUND LEGEND BRAD LANER
 
WHO IS BATHS?
 
DANGEROUS MINDS RADIO HOUR EPISODE 1

 
Hysterical GIF from Mark Frauenfelder over at Boing Boing. Brilliant!

 
In 1983 Dennis Hopper went to Rice University in Houston, Texas ostensibly to screen his latest film Out Of The Blue. But little known to anyone, other than Hopper and a handful of his buddies, he had another agenda entirely. While he did indeed screen his movie, Hopper had actually come to Houston to blow himself up.

After screening Out Of The Blue, Hopper arranged to have the audience driven by a fleet of school buses to a racetrack on the outskirts of Houston, the Big H Speedway. Hopper and the buses arrived at the speedway just as the races were ending and a voice was announcing over the public address system “stick around folks and watch a famous Hollywood film personality perform the Russian Dynamite Death Chair Act. That’s right, folks, he’ll sit in a chair with six sticks of dynamite and light the fuse.” 

Was famous Hollywood personality Dennis Hopper about to go out with a bang?

Hopper apparently learned this stunt when he was a kid after seeing it performed in a traveling roadshow. If you place the dynamite pointing outwards the explosion creates a vacuum in the middle and the person performing the stunt is, if all goes according to plan, unharmed.

After bullshitting for awhile with the crowd and his friends, a drunk and stoned Hopper climbed into the “death chair’ and lit the dynamite.

Rice News correspondent describes the scene:

Dennis Hopper, at one with the shock wave, was thrown headlong in a halo of fire. For a single, timeless instant he looked like Wile E. Coyote, frazzled and splayed by his own petard. Then billowing smoke hid the scene. We all rushed forward, past the police, into the expanding cloud of smoke, excited, apprehensive, and no less expectant than we had been before the explosion. Were we looking for Hopper or pieces we could take home as souvenirs? Later Hopper would say blowing himself up was one of the craziest things he has ever done, and that it was weeks before he could hear again. At the moment, though, none of that mattered. He had been through the thunder, the light, and the heat, and he was still in one piece. And when Dennis Hopper staggered out of that cloud of smoke his eyes were glazed with the thrill of victory and spinout.

In this video footage shot by filmmaker Brian Huberman, we see Hopper in all his intoxicated glory before and after his death defying stunt.

Huberman on the film clip:

The large guy making the sign of the cross is the writer Terry Southern and the jerk threatening to blow up my camera is the German filmmaker, Wim Wenders.

Here’s a piece of history folks.
 

 
Watching these Kodachrome color tests from 1922 actually took my breath away for a moment. I felt as though time had stopped and I’d entered a dream. The colors are so sensual I felt like devouring them, inhaling them like opium. This stunning footage is archived at the George Eastman House and is an early test of the Two-Color Kodachrome Process.

In these newly preserved tests, made in 1922 at the Paragon Studios in Fort Lee, New Jersey, actress Mae Murray appears almost translucent, her flesh a pale white that is reminiscent of perfectly sculpted marble, enhanced with touches of color to her lips, eyes, and hair. She is joined by actress Hope Hampton modeling costumes from The Light in the Dark (1922), which contained the first commercial use of Two-Color Kodachrome in a feature film. Ziegfeld Follies actress Mary Eaton and an unidentified woman and child also appear.

Read more about these gorgeous moving pictures here.
 

 
I’ve seen and heard of some pretty out there tribute bands in my day. For instance, there was a lisping Elvis impersonator who (literally) sang for his supper in a fast food place. He was quite good, but when he sang “Suspicious Minds” the folks eating at the tables near him got their food sprayed with spittle. (As we watched him sing, Lux and Ivy from the Cramps walked past the place and waved to him).

Then there were the fake Beatles I tried to hire for an event who came with their own Linda and Yoko in tow, who fawned all over their personal “Lennon” and “McCartney”—they even had a manager named Brian whose only qualification seemed to be that he was from Liverpool. And named “Brian.” They kept asking me if I knew of any labels that might want to give them a record contract (“No” I told them, honestly). 

I also saw a Velvet Underground tribute band in Tokyo, complete with Nico (although Moe Tucker was played by a boy!).

But one band that seemed immune to the tribute band treatment was John Lydon’s Public Image Ltd. Until now, that is! A group formerly making the rounds in the UK doing a Sex Pistols tribute act decided to think outside the (metal) box and do a PiL panto as well, morphing in the process from The Sex Pistols Experience to Public Imitation Ltd.!!!

As someone who saw the original PiL line-up (post Jah Wobble, but with Keith Levene and Martin Adkins) in 1983—a life-changing experience for me as a teen (I decided then and there to not go to college)—I was expecting the worst, but this guy can actually do a better Lydon in 2010 than Lydon himself can, take a look:
 

 
I’m new to Bob Log III but I’m catching up. Bob plays a mean slide guitar while singing dirty ass songs through a telephone receiver glued inside of a motorcycle helmet. He also accompanies himself on kick drum and hi-hat cymbals. His set list includes crowd pleasers like Big Ass Hard On, Wag Your Tail Like a Dog In The Back Of A Truck, Clap Your Tits, I Want Your Shit On My Leg and his big hit Boob Scotch. While a cult item in the States, Bob is huge in Japan… I’m not kidding.

Once you get past the shock appeal of his song titles and stage show, the fact is, Log is a mighty fine slide guitarist who’s earned the respect of other musicians, including Tom Waits who describes Mr. Log thusly:

And then there’s this guy named Bob Log, you ever heard of him? He’s this little kid — nobody ever knows how old he is — wears a motorcycle helmet and he has a microphone inside of it and he puts the glass over the front so you can’t see his face, and plays slide guitar. It’s just the loudest strangest stuff you’ve ever heard. You don’t understand one word he’s saying. I like people who glue macaroni on to a piece of cardboard and paint it gold. That’s what I aspire to basically.

With his foul-mouthed humor and grimy blues vibe, Log reminds me of a cross between The Fugs and Captain Beefheart with some R.L. Burnside thrown in.

Here’s a few clips of Bob Log III in action.
 

 
More filth, including the totally amazing Clap Your Tits and some wild footage from Japan, after the jump…

 
Zombies have civil rights, too, you know: Minneapolis city attorney’s office has decided to pay seven “zombies” and their attorney $165,000 after they were jailed following a street theater protest. From the Star-Tribune:

The payout, approved by the City Council on Friday, settles a federal lawsuit the seven filed after they were arrested and jailed for two days for dressing up like zombies in downtown Minneapolis on July 22, 2006, to protest “mindless” consumerism.

When arrested at the intersection of Hennepin Avenue and 6th Street N., most of them had thick white powder and fake blood on their faces and dark makeup around their eyes. They were walking in a stiff, lurching fashion and carrying four bags of sound equipment to amplify music from an iPod when they were arrested by police who said they were carrying equipment that simulated “weapons of mass destruction.”

However, they were never charged with any crime.

Via Common Dreams /Thank you Michael Simmons!