In 1967, Scott Mckenzie’s “San Francisco (Be Sure to Wear Flowers in Your Hair)” was a clarion call to young kids who, like myself, were isolated in the soul numbing suburbs of America. Yes, the song is naive and somewhat corny, but in its day it really was an anthem for a generation of disaffected white kids looking for something beyond the high school walls. It worked for me.

By the time I arrived in the Haight Ashbury in 1968 the Summer of Love had passed and the neighborhood was gradually becoming a cattle yard for runaways. Tourist buses clogged the streets, sightseers were everywhere and kids with no money were spare changing and ripping off weekend hippies by selling them bogus drugs. I spent most of my time on Hippie Hill in Golden Gate Park reading books of poetry that I’d borrowed from City Lights Bookstore in North Beach (thanks Lawrence).

The flowers of the counterculture were starting to wilt, but it was still a great time for a rock and roll fan to be living in San Francisco. I was going to concerts at the Matrix and The Fillmore seeing Traffic, The Incredible String Band, Eric Burdon and War, It’s A Beautiful Day, Albert King, The Dead (who I’ve never liked, now or then) Big Brother and The Holding Company, Country Joe and The Fish, The Peanut Butter Conspiracy, The Jefferson Airplane, Quicksilver Messenger Service - a shitload of music, both great and not so great. But even the not so great stuff was still mindblowing to a 17 year old kid from Falls Church, Virginia.

For the record, I never wore a flower in my hair.

Here’s a seldom seen video from French TV of Mckenzie singing his big hit written by John Phillips.
 

 
Imagine walking down the street and seeing this! Pretty great, huh? 

(via Das Kraftfuttermischwerk)

 
Training 101: Learn How to Make Cash4Gold Hate Your Guts.

Best part of the letter:

Your petition for an ‘ungreased, backdoor; Hammertime lovemaking session’ with our telemarketer’s Carol and Tracy is feral and preposterous.

Read the larger Cash4Gold letter here.

(via Fasels)

 
I have a liking for 1950s sci-fi monster films - Them!, Tarantula, The Beast from 50,000 Fathoms, you get the idea, that’s why I’m rather enamored with this fun little promo for electronic Dutch duo Baskerville’s track “Reloaded”, in which “a scientific experiment goes terribly terribly wrong.” It was written and directed by Marieke Verbiesen and the puppet design is by Neeltje Sprengers. You can keep the music, just gimme the fabulous monsters.
 

 
One Hundred and Eight
Hundred and Eight One
and Eight One Hundred
Eight One Hundred and…you get the picture.

One Hundred and Eight is an interactive wall-mounted Installation made German designer by Nils Völker. The display mainly consists of ordinary household garbage bags, which are selectively inflated and deflated in turn by a two colling fans.

Although each plastic bag is mounted stationary the sequences of inflation and deflation create the impression of lively and moving creatures which waft slowly around like a shoal. But as soon a viewer comes close it instantly reacts by drawing back and tentatively following the movements of the observer. As long as he remains in a certain area in front of the installation it dynamically reacts to the viewers motion. As soon it does no longer detect someone close it reorganizes itself after a while and gently restarts wobbling around.

 
Hey, it’s a new video of psychedelic impressionism by my bro, Josh Laner for another song from my recent LP, Natural Selections. The song itself, entitled Brain is a collaboration with my long time friend, the wonderful Canadian singer/songwriter/producer Jordon Zadorozny. Stop, look and listen, won’t you ?
 

 
Extraordinary: A cute kid with a speech impediment has his own… racist talk show! That’s right, meet ten-year-old Andrew Pendegraft, host of “The Andrew Show,” a presentation of White Pride TV, who also produce a Ku Klux Klan TV show and a show for white teenage girls. I should probably mention that all of these shows are hosted by just one family. Yup, that’s right, Andrew’s mother, Rachel Pendergraft (who produces the shows) is the daughter of Thomas Robb, the Klan’s “national director” (the term “Grand Wizard” has been retired. Too many negative connotations, I suppose!). Father and daughter host the KKK show and Rachel’s daughter (Andrew’s sister) hosts the teen girl racist show. That’s three generations of cracker white trash talent on display here!

Is it wrong to laugh at this? Is it wrong to laugh at a child’s sincere efforts to hone his hosting skills in the hopes that he’ll one day be a marquee star on Fox News? Am I heartless for posting this here for your amusement? Is it even funny in the first place?!?! What the fuck??? I mean, this kid even has his own GREEN SCREEN… and, of course, ADULT PRODUCTION HELP. Christ is this fucked up… but still oddly funny.

But the sad thing is that these videos are going to follow this poor kid around for the rest of his life. His idiot mother might as well have just tattooed a swastika on his forehead for all the help she’s giving him starting out in life.
 

 
After the jump Andrew the racist kid asks “Has Justin Bieber ever kissed a black girl?”

 
Directed, written and acted by teenagers Charlie Davis, David Williams and Jimmy Robinson, 1967’s The Jungle chronicles the exploits of Philadelphia’s 12th and Oxford street gang. It is amateur film making that transcends its limitations and achieves a certain rough artfulness.

With its starkly poetic black and white cinematography, urban rhythm and streetwise jargon The Jungle recalls Shirley Clarke’s The Cool World and the Beat-era improvs of Cassavetes’ Shadows. The fact that theThe Jungle holds its own against some of the periods more legendary indie films makes it somewhat disappointing that none of the people involved with the production of the film went on to make more movies.

There’s little info on the internet regarding The Jungle, but the I found the following comment from Youtube compelling:

This film (The Jungle) was shown along with slide shows of dead teens on slabs in the 70’s in schools around Philly to try to stop the gang violence at that time. In the early ‘70s, Philly led the nation in gang-related deaths at around 40 a year.

Death Row inmate, Philly gang member and writer Reginald S. Lewis recalls the Oxford Street gangs:

I saw the 70’s usher in the era of blackploitation flicks such as Superfly, The Mack, Come Back, Charleston Blue, and even slickly packaged Hollywood gangster movies like The Godfather. This was also an era that bred hustlers-turned-authors IceBerg Slim and Donald Goines, and some of the most ruthless true-life gangsters this country has ever seen.

In my hometown, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, vicious black street gangs seemingly ruled every inch of the black community, and it was a dangerous time to be a young black teenager living in the treacherous terrain of the urban wilds. My parents did all they could to keep my two older brothers and me from being drafted into the notorious “12th & Oxford Street Gang,” one of the largest, fiercest black youth gangs in the history of Philadelphia.

The Oxford Street gang had well over 500 members, divided into gradations and ranks, according to age. There were the “Pee Wees,” “The Midgets,” “The Juniors,” and “The Seniors,” and “The Old Heads.” There was also 8th & Oxford, 15 & Oxford, and “Uptown Oxford Street,” which was 20th Street, and beyond. These divisions boosted the ranks into thousands.”

Teenage wasteland, Philly-style.
 

 
Part two of The Jungle after the jump…

Tonight’s feature presentation, ladles and gentlespoons, is Frankenstein, Edison Studios’ 1910 production of Mary Shelley’s novel The Modern Prometheus. Directed by J. Searle Dawley and starring Augustus Phillips, Mary Fuller and Charles Ogle as the monster.

This was the first ever movie production of Frankenstein, filmed over 3 days at the Edison Studios in the Bronx, New York. For many years it was thought this film was lost, only a few lobby cards, stills and posters were thought to exist, that was until the early 1950’s, when a print of the film was purchased by Alois F. Dettlaff, a movie collector from Wisconsin. However, Dettllaff didn’t realize the rarity or value of his latest possession until the 1970s, when he had it preserved on 35mm. Though the film had deteriorated, it was still viewable, and had its original caption cards and beautifully hand-tinted sequences.

This version of Frankenstein differs from Shelley’s novel but does touch on some of the themes implicit in her novel. The one thing that has always struck me about Shelley’s tale is the absence of love. It is pointed to throughout the narrative by negatives, from the very creation of the monster, to its lack of a name, to Frankenstein addressing it as “hideous”, “loathsome”, “deformed”. Though the doctor may feel pity for his handiwork, he cannot look at it without seeing “the filthy mass that walked and talked,” which fills him with “horror and disgust.” Talk about absentee fathers.

The creature having failed to win the love of his creator, seeks it in the outside world, when this fails, he realizes he must he have Frankenstein make him a partner. The doctor reluctantly agrees, and starts his preparations on the isle of Orkney. Unfortunately, for the monster, Frankenstein has a change of heart, fearing a world populated by monstrous off-spring, and destroys his second creation. When this happens, you know it’s going to end in tears, as the monster claims vengeance on his maker.

In this film version, the snaggle-toothed monster with the Russell Brand hair is similarly desperate for love, and behaves as a jealous lover for Frankenstein’s affection. But what is more intriguing is the suggestion the monster is not so much real but an element within Frankenstein’s nature, an idea Mary Shelley may have agreed with, for who is Victor Frankenstein? other than a portrait of her husband Percy Bysshe Shelley, and the monster? But a metaphor for their love?
 

 
Artist Will Sweeny makes the leap from designing club flyers, t-shirts and illustrating graphic novels to animation and the result is gorgeously psychedelic.

This video has been selected for the Guggenheim Museum’s YouTube Play biennial of creative video. The inaugural event showcases the most innovative online video from around the world and the judges including Stefan Sagmeister, Darren Aronofsky, Takeshi Murakami and Laurie Anderson.

Directed by Steve Scott.

Music: Birdy Nam Nam’s “The Parachute Ending”
 

Via bigactive.com