Today is International Workers’ Day. Happy May Day comrades!
 

“The few own the many because they possess the means of livelihood of all ... The country is governed for the richest, for the corporations, the bankers, the land speculators, and for the exploiters of labor. The majority of mankind are working people. So long as their fair demands - the ownership and control of their livelihoods - are set at naught, we can have neither men’s rights nor women’s rights. The majority of mankind is ground down by industrial oppression in order that the small remnant may live in ease.”  — Helen Keller, 1911

This is taken from a short essay about Helen Keller’s political activism found at Dorian Cope’s On This Deity blog. It focuses on the parts of her life story that they didn’t teach us about when we learned about Helen Keller in school… Hey, the blind and deaf chick in The Miracle Worker was a commie!

But what the endless accolades and history books almost always fail to mention is that Helen Keller was a militant radical activist. Her views mirrored the likes of the era’s most notorious dissidents – Emma Goldman and Eugene Debs – who were respectively deported and imprisoned for ten years. “I don’t give a damn about semi-radicals,” she infamously proclaimed; indeed, she leaned so far to the left that the FBI kept a file on her for un-American activities. She was a co-founder of the American Civil Liberties Union; a lifelong socialist who campaigned for Eugene Debs’ presidential candidacy; a member of the revolutionary Industrial Workers of the World; a suffragist and crusader for birth control; an anti-fascist (the Nazis publicly burned her books); and a pacifist, who condemned America’s imperialistic motives in both world wars. Having benefited from a privileged background, Helen recognised the social injustices facing those denied the same opportunities – and blamed industrialism and capitalism not only as the root of poverty but also disability-inducing disease. Her anti-capitalist and pro-worker stance was such that at the 1919 Hollywood premiere of a silent film about her own life, she refused to cross an Actors Equity Union picket line and joined the striking workers on their march.

I have to interrupt here. Ponder that last sentence for a moment. THAT is what you call a hero.

In her lifetime, Helen Keller was one of the most recognisable women in the world, and those who flocked to bask in the radiance of her fame were positively scandalised by her beliefs. After publicly supporting the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, admiring the Russian Revolution, and fearlessly lambasting the powerful John D Rockefeller for his role in the Ludlow Mine Massacre (“Mr Rockefeller is a monster of capitalism”), Helen’s radicalism became a source of extreme embarrassment to those who required her to be true to The Myth in order that they might gain:

“So long as I confine my activities to social service and the blind, they compliment me extravagantly, calling me ‘archpriestess of the sightless’, ‘wonder woman’, and ‘a modern miracle,’” Helen bemoaned. “But when it comes to a discussion of poverty, and I maintain that it is the result of wrong economics – that the industrial system under which we live is at the root of much of the physical deafness and blindness in the world – that is a different matter!”

Read the entire essay at On This Deity and watch this amazing footage:
 

 
For better or worse, the primary milieu attributed the gay American man is camp, and gay art can often suffer some typecasting and miscategorization as a result. It’s not like I don’t love camp, and I think campy stuff should be afforded far more dignity than it usually is, but the campy crown can be a little restrictive when art defies expectations. I’ve raved about the song, “Cryin’ These Cocksucking Tears” by Lavender Country for years now, but the cheeky title always seems to conjure (erroneous) images of a queer Hee-Haw novelty act. While Lavender Country is sardonic, and most certainly witty, they’re absolutely devoid of camp. Their self-titled 1973 album is simultaneously brutal and heartfelt.
 

Patrick Haggerty in drag during a 4H play, 1959

Patrick Haggerty grew up on a dairy farm in Washington state, but with a supportive father who allowed him to dress in women’s clothes and try out for cheerleading wearing glitter. After being dismissed from the Peace Corps for his sexuality, Haggerty made his way to Seattle and formed Lavender Country in 1972. The eponymous album was recorded with help from the Seattle gay and lesbian community, and it’s now recognized as the first openly gay country record. It’s been a rare collector’s item for years, but was recently released on North Carolina label, Paradise of Bachelors.
 

Only known band photo

The songs are often overtly political—you can hear it most explicitly in what is arguably the record’s foundational anthem, “Back in the Closet.” Turning a critical eye to the counterculture of the 60s and 70s, the lyrics tell the story of a literal revolution, where feminists, workers, Black Panthers and gay people fight for a new world. They emerge victorious, but after the dust settles, gays are marginalized once again, this time by their so-called comrades. It’s the kind of bitter story-telling that’s just so darned perfect for country music.
 

 
But it’s the aforementioned “Cryin’ These Cocksucking Tears” that I heard first and it remains my favorite Lavender Country song. Haggerty describes it as, “both the boon and the bane of Lavender Country,” with its scandalous title and pull-no-punches lyrics. A lesbian DJ friend of his was even kicked off the radio for playing it. It’s definitely their best-known track since it was up on YouTube years before the re-release of the record, and though Haggerty has since made peace with his most infamous song, it definitely eclipsed his larger artistic project at times . Don’t let the incendiary title mislead you though. With lyrics like, “I’m fighting for when there won’t be no straight men, ‘cuz you all have a common disease, can’t give very much, for loving and such, but you take wherever you please,” it’s a scathing take-down of the worst tendencies of masculinity and as feminist as anything.
 

 
What I can’t stress enough is that Lavender Country isn’t “merely” just a groundbreaking album in terms of gay visibility and explicit politics, it’s a really, really excellent country album. I don’t just recommend it for the novelty of them being the first gay country band—anyone who digs Graham Parsons or Emmylou Harris will find it a beautiful record.
 

Lavender Country’s Patrick Haggerty in 2000 at Seattle Pride
 
Via Pitchfork

 
Artist Brian Dettmer‘s sculptures are made from what he calls “antiquated media.” He’s most famous for his pieces constructed from meticulously sliced up books. The sculptures are created with surgical precision (and they’re pretty damned impressive), but it’s his skeletal work made from audio cassettes that most intrigues me. Both series are based on communicative media, its original value destroyed for repurposing as an artistic medium. I think it’s the passé modernity of the cassettes that I really love.

Books are obviously still around, but cassette technology isn’t even that old, yet it’s been largely retired outside of boutique music labels and niche collectors. It’s compelling to see representational art evoking both death and decay, made from something so simultaneously contemporary but irrelevant. 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 
Via Juxtapoz

 
Canadian prankster Morgan El-Kabong and his partner in cultural sabotage Bonnie Brekelmans have created the Tumblr page “New Yorker High Class Soap,” a collection of New Yorker cartoons (plus one “Garfield”) détourned with literal translations of Asian adult film titles, to goddamn hilarious effect.

There is nothing I can add to this except my vigorous applause.
 

 

 

 

 
More after the jump…

 
A major tragedy of Sebastian Horsley’s early death in 2010 was that are so damned few video recordings of the man by which we can remember him. Even when he was doling out second-hand witticisms or well-told tale,s the artist, writer and self-described dandy was still worth watching as he provided rebellious entertainment in a world that is being slowly homogenized to a lowest common denominator.

Horsley was conceived through the accident of a split condom, after which his mother tried and failed to abort this unwanted fetus. He arrived in August of 1962, but his mother remained distant as did his immensely rich father, who was more interested in public charity and helping prisoners than his family. This may explain Horsley’s later fear of intimacy, though he did marry and certainly fucked a considerable number of women and men during his life.

He lived in Edinburgh during his marriage to the Scottish artist Evlynn Anne Smith, where Horsley worked with the former-hardened criminal-turned-artist Jimmy Boyle (with whom he had a long sexual relationship) at a rehabilitation center for prisoners.

It was not until after his separation from Evlynn and a move south to London did Horsley evolve into the character he had always threatened to become: a decadent dandy, an artist, a wit and a writer. He became notorious for his love of prostitutes and drugs, and was literally barred from entry into America for his book tour on grounds of “moral turpitude.”

In 2000, Horsley traveled to the Philippines where he was crucified in a piece of performance art. He later claimed Jesus had stolen his act, as Horsley had been crucified for his art while Christ had only been crucified for our sins. It was this kind of outrageous humor that endeared him to many, for it disguised the good and sensitive man lounging underneath.

This is Horsley interviewed at the Standon Calling Festival 2008, talking about crucifixion, America, drugs and our only earthly certainty being oblivion. It’s an enjoyable introduction to the man who saw the futility of life as reason to “bring drama, richness and texture into existence.”
 

 
There’s only so much hyperbole one can use when describing music (“rip-snorting,” “mind-blowing,” “tearing-up the house”) before the reader becomes inured and thinks, “Yeah, well, okay…” and moves on to something with more nouns and verbs and fewer adjectives (or just plays the music). However, this early Led Zeppelin concert recorded for Danish TV just six months after their first gig (where they were billed as “The Yardbirds”) deserves every hyperbolic phrase going, as it gives a powerful intimation of why Zeppelin were set to become the greatest live band of the 1970s.

Recorded at the Gladsaxe Teen Club, Denmark, for TV Byen/Danmarks Radio on March 17, 1969, Led Zeppelin perform “Communication Breakdown,” “Dazed and Confused,” “Babe I’m Gonna Leave You,” and “How Many More Times.” Impressive and tight, it is a cracking showcase.
 

 
In 1987 artist/occultist Marjorie Cameron and Kenneth Anger took part in a BBC Radio 4 documentary titled “Ruthless Adventure: The Lives of L. Ron Hubbard.” Bohemian weirdo Cameron was a participant in the infamous “Babalon Working” sex magic rituals conducted by her husband rock scientist Jack Parsons and the future founder of Scientology.

The interview is referenced in Spencer Kansa’s Cameron biography Wormwood Star The Magickal Life of Marjorie Cameron:

In August 1987, Cameron was featured in a BBC Radio 4 documentary entitled Ruthless Adventure: The Lives of L. Ron Hubbard. The decidedly suspect programme was researched and narrated by Margaret Percy, who interviewed Cameron earlier that year at her home. Kenneth Anger also contributed to the documentary and, for a while at any rate, the two appeared to have settled into a brother-sister type of relationship, with all the ensuing ups and downs. They were even talking about collaborating on another film together.

It was Anger who put the BBC researcher in contact with Cameron, and when Percy sat down with her host at her home on Genesee, she could still detect a vestige of beauty in her, despite the wrinkles and ravages of age: “I thought she must’ve been stunning when she was younger,” Percy attests. One standout memory from their meeting came when Percy asked a couple of questions that seemed to make Cameron uncomfortable and on both times, as if on cue, her dove Pax began cooing in the background. “It was an eerie experience,” Percy recalls.

Back in 1969, the British Sunday Times ran an expose on Hubbard’s participation with Jack in The Babalon Working and cited Aleister Crowley as a catalytic influence on Hubbard’s teachings. To counter this claim, Hubbard issued a cover story in which he painted himself as a cloak-and dagger intelligence agent, sent in to the Fleming mansion on South Orange Grove, to rescue his future wife Betty from the evil clutches of Jack Parsons’ black magic ring. This dubious scenario played hard and fast with the facts, yet in the subsequent radio broadcast Cameron, surprisingly, gave credence to this line, musing how Hubbard, “may have been an agent – as he claims.”

In discussions with [the OTO’s] William Breeze she also reconsidered the circumstances surrounding her own initial involvement with Jack: “She would space-out and say, ‘Maybe I was sent in there’ (to Jack’s house on Orange Grove) ‘maybe I was an intelligence drone.’”

It was clear that over recent years there’d been a sea change in Cameron’s view of L. Ron Hubbard, as Breeze explains: “She may have reached some sort of accord with the Scientologists. She was approached by them and knew some people in LA – that’s how she got Jack’s FBI file. She wasn’t down on them and she wasn’t down on Hubbard anymore. She actually liked Ron. She thought he was charming.”

Over the decades, The Church of Scientology had grown into a multimillion dollar empire, boasting movie star converts, but one person whose low opinion of Hubbard had decidedly not wavered, and had only grown more virulent over time, was Kenneth Anger. To a perennial Hollywood-watcher like him, Scientology’s foothold in Tinseltown only added fuel to his ire, and during his own interview for the same radio documentary he made his feelings abundantly clear, describing Hubbard as an “elemental demon.” Even though she’d never been a member of either organizations, Cameron believed that due to her rich history, she had earned a rightful place in the highest echelons of both the O.T.O. and Church of Scientology.

The newly revised edition of Kansa’s Wormwood Star The Magickal Life of Marjorie Cameron has just been published and features over 20 new images, including rare stills of Cameron and Jack Parsons taken from a 1947 home movie that Kansa uncovered. Wormwood Star is now available on the Amazon Kindle for the first time.

Interest in this once obscure artist continues to grow; Fulgur is publishing Songs for the Witch Woman by Cameron and Jack Parsons and “Song for the Witch Woman: The Art of Marjorie Cameron”—the first full-scale exhibit of her work—will be mounted in Los Angeles in October.

Listen to “Ruthless Adventure: The Lives of L. Ron Hubbard” by clicking here.
 
Below, artist George Herms, filmmaker Curtis Harrington and Kenneth Anger discuss Marjorie Cameron in “Cinderella of the Wastelands”:

 
Gregg Foreman’s radio program The Pharmacy is a music / talk show playing heavy soul, raw funk, 60′s psych, girl groups, Krautrock. French yé-yé, Hammond organ rituals, post-punk transmissions and “ghost on the highway” testimonials and interviews with the most interesting artists and music makers of our times…

This week, a special episode dedicated to the Austin Psych Fest, a psychedelic music festival started by The Black Angels in 2008. In the past, the festival has featured Roky Erickson, Spectrum and this years headliners The Zombies (who we featured on Pharmacy #19 ), plus this weeks special guests The Brian Jonestown Massacre…

The conversation comes from three viewpoints: the eyes of the band’s leader and founder Anton Newcombe and past and current members Ricky Maymi and Jeff Levitz We also have White Hills, who are also playing the Psych Fest. The group recently made their screen debut in underground director Jim Jarmusch’s film Only Lovers Left Alive.

 
Setlist:

Intro
Who ? - Brian Jonestown Massacre
Sweet Young Thing - The Chocolate Watchband
See Emily Play - Pink Floyd
Intro 1 /Stereo Freeze - Rx/Jackie Mittoo
Brian Jonestown Massacre Conversation Pt.1 Anton Newcombe
Hide and Seek - Brian Jonestown Massacre
Just Out of Reach - The Zombies
Just Out of Reach - The Jesus and Mary Chain
Neon Jesus - The Crocodiles
Rain of Ruin - Suicide
Intro 2 / Psychastenie - Rx / Serge Gainsbourg
Brian Jonestown Massacre Conversation Pt.2 Ricky Maymi
That Girl Suicide - Brian Jonestown Massacre
Arc-Light - Loop
Mushroom - Can
Intro break 1
Brian Jonestown Massacre Conversation Pt.3 Anton Newcombe
Mary, Please - Brian Jonestown Massacre
Intro break 2
Brian Jonestown Massacre Conversation Pt.4 Ricky Maymi
Telephone - The Black Angels
Intro 3 / Red Reflection - Rx / Spindrift
Brian Jonestown Massacre Conversation Pt.4 Jeff Levitz
Sur La Planche - La Femme
Intro break 3
Brian Jonestown Massacre Conversation Pt.5 Anton Newcombe
Food for Clouds - Brian Jonestown Massacre
7 + 7 Is - Love
Intro 2 / Mathar - Rx
White Hills Conversation - Rx / Dave and Ego
Intro 4 / Coming for You - Rx / White Hills
Outro

Mr. Pharmacy is a musician and DJ who has played for the likes of Pink Mountaintops, The Delta 72, The Black Ryder, The Meek and more. Since 2012 Gregg Foreman has been the musical director of Cat Power’s band. He started dj’ing 60s Soul and Mod 45’s in 1995 and has spun around the world. Gregg currently lives in Los Angeles, CA and divides his time between playing live music, producing records and dj’ing various clubs and parties from LA to Australia.

 
You can download the entire show here.
 
Below, Brian Jonestown Massacre live in Germany, May 2010:

 
If you were active in the Malvern area in western England today (Wednesday, April 30)—you know, up near Redditch, Bromyard, Studley, and Droitwich Spa (none of those names are made up)—you most likely missed a once-in-a-lifetime chance to pay homage to Elvis Presley’s teeth at Beacon Dental Care on Pickersleigh Road (nope, didn’t make that one up either). Elvis fan and licensed dentist Dr. Karen Sutton was expected be on hand. Staff were obliged to “dress up”; “Elvis’ legendary music will be played in the waiting room.”
 

“The King’s Crown”
 
To get technical about it, what was actually on display was a model of Elvis’ teeth along with a “genuine” crown, which has led everyone writing about this to work in a reference to the King’s Crown, har de har har. The crown was made for the rock and roll legend by a Memphis dentist named Henry J. Weiss.

Dr. Sutton insists that the day has a serious message behind it, to raise awareness of mouth cancer (free mouth screenings were available). “Beacon Dental Care is thrilled to have been selected to host the prized object which is on loan for a day,” quoth the doc.

Elvis’ crown was bought on auction in February 2012 for $11,000 by Michael Zuk, a Canadian author, dentist and obsessive collector of celebrity teeth. Wait a minute, Michael Zuk…. I know that name! I wrote about this guy last August ... Zuk had purchased one of John Lennon’s rotten molars for $31,000 and claimed to want to generate a whole new John Lennon from the DNA in the tooth.

So it seems this Zuk guy really is a celebrity tooth collector. What’s next, a “Jurassic Park”-style theme park featuring the cloned denizens of rock-n-roll Heaven?
 

 
via Arbroath

 
The actor Bob Hoskins, best known for his roles in The Long Good Friday, Mona Lisa, Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Mermaids and Twenty Four Seven has died from pneumonia at the age of 71.

Hoskins died in hospital surrounded by his family. In a statement, his wife Linda and children Alex, Sarah, Rosa and Jack said:

“We are devastated by the loss of our beloved Bob.

“We ask that you respect our privacy during this time and thank you for your messages of love and support.”

There was a humanity and warmth about Hoskins that made him incredibly likable—something that can be seen by the current outpouring of condolences on Twitter. I was fortunate to meet Hoskins briefly once, at the premier of his first major movie The Long Good Friday. Having grown-up watching him on TV in the sit-com Thick As Thieves, the educational series On the Move (which was a reading program for adult literacy, but was a must watch because of Hoskins’ removal man), and Dennis Potter’s Pennies for Heaven, where he was unforgettable as a music sheet salesman, Arthur Parker, playing opposite Cheryl Campbell.

Then came The Long Good Friday where he played one of cinema’s greatest gangsters, Harold Shand, an ambitious and brutal villain who falls foul of the IRA. It was the Irish issue that led some fools to boo the film at its premiere in Edinburgh. As I was leaving the cinema, I found myself beside Hoskins and director John MacKenzie as we walked down the stairs and out onto the foyer. He turned and started talking to me as if we were mates who had gone to the cinema to watch the film. He asked me whether I thought the film was pro-IRA? I said “no” and then we talked a bit about the movie and Edinburgh. I was more keen to tell him how great the film and superb his performance, and he was humble and gracious, but deflected the praise by asking where he could find a good pub?

Back then there were fewer TV channels and hardly any inane reality shows clogging up all the air-time. This meant the bar was far higher and the quality of shows undeniably better. That’s how the country was able to see Hoskins as Iago in Jonathan Miller’s BBC production of Othello. It confirmed that Hoskins as an actor could do anything and successfully, which is what he went on to do over the next three decades.

Bob Hoskins was born on 26th October 1942. His father was a Communist, who brought Hoskins up as an atheist. He later said it was his mother who gave him “confidence”:

“My mum used to say to me, ‘If somebody doesn’t like you, fuck ‘em, they’ve got bad taste.’”

Hoskins left school at fifteen and undertook a variety of jobs (including time at a kibbutz, and working in a circus) before accidentally auditioning and winning his first acting role. Hoskins had been accompanying an actor friend for moral support, when he was asked to audition himself. From this first role, he went on to star in a range of television and stage productions, before achieving success with the series Pennies from Heaven and then The Long Good Friday.

During the 1980s he appeared in The Cotton Club, Neil Jordan’s Mona Lisa, The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne, and the film that made him an international star Who Framed Roger Rabbit in 1988.

More recently Hoskins showed his support for young talented film-makers by appearing in Shane Meadows’ Twenty Four Seven and A Room For Romeo Brass. Of course, he also made a few stinkers, but then that’s the nature of cinema. But no matter what film he appeared in, Bob Hoskins’ performance was often the best thing about it.

In 2012, Hoskins announced his retirement form acting after being diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease.

R.I.P. Bob Hoskins 1942-2014

Here’s the first part on the making of The Long Good Friday, written by Barrie Keefe, which starred Bob Hoskins.