Well, I never thought I’d be posting anything Oprah-related, but who knew we’d be hearing again from Jim Jones Jr., the son of Jim Jones, the Peoples Temple founder and engineer of the Jonestown tragedy? Jim Jones Jr. lost both his wife and unborn child that day, and seeing him in a forgiving mood on Oprah certainly provides a fascinating footnote to what’s been described (pre-9/11) as the single greatest loss of American civilian life in a non-natural disaster.
Part I of the interview follows, with links below to the other two segments. Never one to shrink from controversy, Oprah follows Jim Jones Jr. with the sister of John Wayne Gacy. You can watch some lesser-quality video of that segment here.
A huge collection of films by “other cinema” pioneer Lutz Mommartz is available at the Internet Archive. Music in the first clip is by a group called The Iceni about whom I can find no further info. Anybody ?
First Lennon’s jewelry, now Abbey Road, the iconic studio whose consoles mixed not only 90% of the Beatles catalog, but WWII British propaganda recordings as well. Purchased by EMI back in 1929 (!) for £100,000, the studio is expected to raise tens of millions of pounds.
Orson Welles has been back in the news lately. First British director Michael Lindsay-Hogg (Brideshead Revisited, Let it Be, The Rolling Stones’ Rock and Roll Circus) will be taking a paternity test to either prove or disprove that he is the only son of the famed director. Lindsay-Hogg is writing an autobiography and wants to put the matter—which has dogged him his entire life to rest one way or the other. Welles’ daughter, Chris Welles Feder has recently published her autobiography, In My Father’s Shadow (which I have, but have not yet read), about growing up with such a monumental, larger-than-life figure as Welles. She told the Guardian newspaper that she has long suspected LIndsay-Hogg might be her brother, “If it does turn out that Michael is my half-brother, it would be delightful. We used to play on the beaches of Santa Monica together all the time and he was my favorite playmate, and I have the fondest memories of him,”
Lindsay-Hogg’s mother was the Irish actress Geraldine Fitzgerald, a star of the Broadway stage who appeared in Wuthering Heights with Laurence Olivier and died in 2005. Married to Sir Edward Lindsay-Hogg, she had begun a relationship with Welles in America during his marriage to Chris Welles Feder’s mother, the Chicago-born actress Virginia Nicholson. The families continued to live side-by-side for some time and the two children became close.
“My memory is that nobody knows for sure whether Orson was Michael’s father. My mother told me that even Geraldine Fitzgerald didn’t know,” said Welles Feder.
And then there is this new documentary, which is a must-see in this Welles-obsessed household. From the Wellesnet website:
In Prodigal Sons, we discover that Welles second daughter, Rebecca, the child of Rita Hayworth (beauty) and Welles (brains), actually had the grandson Welles would have been happy over, but apparently never knew about! Marc was quickly put up for adoption in 1966, shortly after he was born.
The family who adopted Marc were the McKerrow’s of Montana. The father was a doctor (like Welles’ own guardian, Dr. Bernstein) and the mother, a schoolteacher (like Roger Hill). Later Mr. and Mrs. McKerrow had two sons of their own, Paul and Todd.
Paul becomes an accomplished athlete, who later shows an interest in movies, (including a love for the work of Orson Welles). Then, in a bizarre twist that no screenwriter could ever imagine, Paul decides to become a trans-sexual. As Kimberly Reed, she goes on to make movies, her most recent being this documentary!
Meanwhile, Paul/Kim’s natural brother Todd turns out to be gay. Of course while the three brothers, Marc, Paul and Todd are growing up, none of them know that Marc is actually the grandson of Orson Welles. Marc himself only finds out that his real mother is Rebecca Welles, shortly after Rebecca dies, and he then finds out the truth about his famous grandparents.
The ‘only son’ of Orson Welles to take DNA test (Guardian)
Dazed and Confused is thought of as a Led Zeppelin original and Jimmy Page’s dramatic use of the violin bow during his extended soloing made the song a centerpiece of the Zeppelin live experience. But the song actually debuted during Page’s tenure in the Yardbirds, and apparently before that as well. From The Thieving Magpies: Jimmy Page’s Dubious Recording Legacy:
On August 25, 1967 the Yardbirds caught an acoustic act fronted by Jake Holmes at the Village Theatre in New York’s Greenwich Village. Holmes and his two sidemen played a song about a love affair gone dreadfully wrong. The song was called “Dazed & Confused.” It’s often been described as a song about a bad acid trip. Jake Holmes set this author straight in a 2001 interview.
“No, I never took acid. I smoked grass and tripped on it, but I never took acid. I was afraid to take it. The song’s about a girl who hasn’t decided whether she wants to stay with me or not. It’s pretty much one of those love songs,” Holmes explained.
Asked whether he remembered opening for the Yardbirds, Holmes laughed.
“Yes. Yes. And that was the infamous moment of my life when ‘Dazed & Confused’ fell into the loving arms and hands of Jimmy Page,” he said.
Two images taken on 9/11 by a police helicopter during the World Trade Center’s collapse. These images are just part the 2,779 photos newly obtained by ABC News via their filing of a Freedom of Information Act request in ‘09.
Forget “Look Around You” (or don’t, ‘cuz it’s brilliant), this is the real thing: a couple of breathless and highly charming glimpses into the future of music circa late 70’s/ early 80’s featuring composer Suzanne Ciani. I have to say I’m quite smitten with Ciani’s stoney/ laconic/ hair twirling demeanor but not enough to dive into her discography of new age masterpieces. I have the feeling these fantastic clips are all I really need anyway.
Update: much better quality version of the 3-2-1 clip here (embed is disabled)
(which I have, but have not yet read), about growing up with such a monumental, larger-than-life figure as Welles. She told the Guardian newspaper that she has long suspected LIndsay-Hogg might be her brother, “If it does turn out that Michael is my half-brother, it would be delightful. We used to play on the beaches of Santa Monica together all the time and he was my favorite playmate, and I have the fondest memories of him,”
. I have the feeling these fantastic clips are all I really need anyway.