The Cat O’ Nine Tails (1971) is the second motion picture directed by the maestro of the Italian giallo film, Dario Argento. Cat originally had an ending that was cut before it made it to the big screen, and though the footage is now lost, Dangerous Minds has the script pages, which haven’t been seen publicly before.

Argento’s debut, The Bird with the Crystal Plumage (1970), was such a big hit in the U.S. and elsewhere (though not in Italy), that there was demand for a follow-up, posthaste. The Cat O’ Nine Tails was the result, and in addition to being film #2 for Argento, it’s the second in his “animal trilogy” (Four Flies on Grey Velvet was the third). As was the case with Bird, Cat demonstrates the influence Alfred Hitchcock had on Argento early in his career.
 

The director sizing things up on the set of ‘The Cat O’ Nine Tails.’

The story was adapted from the director’s original screenplay, with a title borrowed from an existing novel. Karl Malden, an American character actor familiar to stateside audiences, was a cast as a blind man who has insight into a recent death. He teams up with a reporter to investigate, and then the bodies start to mount. 
 

 
The film’s thrilling climax takes place on a rooftop (shades of Vertigo here). The original cut of Cat concluded with an epilogue, which was subsequently deemed “too American.” So, Argento went back to the editing room, trimmed up the rooftop scene and got rid of the coda altogether. Here, transcribed into English for the very first time, are the script pages for the original ending (click to enlarge):
 

 

 

 
The only surviving image from the epilogue is this German lobby card:
 

 
The script pages and the lobby card are part of the extras included with Arrow Video’s pending Blu-ray/DVD combo of The Cat O’ Nine Tails. This limited edition set will be released on February 20th. You can pre-order it on Amazon or by way of MVD.
 
Much more after the jump…

A postcard with a photo of members of the Scorpions while they were in their teens in 1966. Founding member Rudolf Schenker is pictured to the far left wearing a sweet pair of plaid trousers and a black turtleneck under his button-up shirt.

Most of the images in this post were taken of various lineups of German heavy-metal gods, the Scorpions during their earliest days in the mid-1960s. In this post, you will see a fascinating treasure trove of photos of the band sitting on top of their tour van—an old VW bus with the letters L.S.D. scrawled on it, and candid images of them playing teenage parties. There is no long hair or pulsating chest hair, either. No leather, no studs, no spandex. Instead, we see young versions of the Scorpions looking quite serious at times, wearing proper button-up shirts, plaid trousers, and even *gasp* TURTLENECKS (see above). This post is the equivalent of a proud parent pulling out baby photos of their kid to show to their date before they head off to the prom. And I love it.

I came across the photos via a French Wordpress site called Scorpscollector, most of them are attributed to former Scorpions drummer Wolfgang Dziony. Dziony was with the band until about 1972, or just before they would start to transition from a psychedelic groove machine into a heavy metal band and ruled the 1980s. When they got their start, guitar wizard Rudolf Schenker would trade off vocals with Dziony. The group would also enlist a couple of other vocalists including (according to Dziony) a cat from Berlin by the name of Gerd Andre whom they nicknamed “Jimi Hendric” due to his likeness to guitar hero Jimi Hendrix. Hendric would only hold the spot for few shows in his native Berlin before Hanover, Germany native Klaus Meine would take on the vocal responsibilities sometime in 1969 for the Scorpions—a role he still holds to this day, some 49 years later.
 

The Scorpions playing their very first gig as “The Nameless” in Sarstedt, Germany.
 
In another interesting twist, the liner notes included in a 1997 compilation called Psychedelic Gems 2 provides more history about the younger days of the Scorpions—comprised now of Rudolf and Michael Schenker on guitar, Meine on vocals, Lothar Heimberg (bass), and Wolfgang Dziony on drums. The story goes the boys entered a contest in Germany in 1970 showcasing up-and-coming talent. Apparently, the band played way over their allotted time slot which almost got them disqualified from the contest. As luck and the combination of sheer talent would have it, the Scorpions won and were rewarded with a record contract from CCA Records (the Concert Corporation of Allemania—also, CCA producer Hans Werner Kuntze was part of the judging panel). With CCA they would record two early versions of “I’m Going Mad,” and “Action” which would later be reworked for their 1972 debut, Lonesome Crow.

I cannot lie—I find the discovery of this kind of ephemera very satisfying. It’s sort of like getting ahold of a rare European high school yearbook from a flea market filled with photos of future superstars playing the big dance and acting like the badasses they would soon become, while perched on top of their shitty tour van. In addition to the vintage images of the band below, I’ve also posted a few early singles by the Scorpions that I’m pretty sure you are going to dig.
 

1966.
 

1965.
 

An early lineup of the Scorpions playing a party in 1965.
 
More after the jump…

Artist Keith Haring painting Grace Jones in 1986 on the set of ‘Vamp.’
 
Grace Jones was 36 in 1984 when she, Andy Warhol, Robert Mapplethorpe, and pop artist Keith Haring all converged in Mapplethorpe’s studio in New York City. The reason for the epic get-together was to shoot photos of Jones covered in body paint done by Haring in his distinctive style. The session lasted a marathon eighteen hours during which Jones was photographed by Mapplethorpe adorned by Haring’s body paint, a towering headdress and an ornate “skirt.” Orchestrated by Warhol—who had introduced Haring to Jones a few years prior—Andy had been wanting to feature Jones on the cover of Interview magazine and believed that an artistic collaboration between Haring and Jones would be awesome. And he wasn’t wrong. However, Mapplethorpe and Warhol didn’t exactly click despite Mapplethorpe’s desire to be among Warhol’s ever-growing gang of muses, friends, and hanger-ons. In fact, during the photo shoot, it has been alleged that Mapplethorpe attempted to sabotage Warhol while he was taking photos of Jones by requesting Andy not use his flash in his studio. Meow.

Haring’s handiwork on Jones’ magnificent bodyscape was not the first time he used a live human as a canvas. In 1983 Haring painted Bill T. Jones, the legendary Tony Award-winning dancer, choreographer and cofounder of the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company. This session was photographed by Tseng Kwong Chi, a prominent figure in the downtown NYC art scene.

Getting back to Haring’s work with Grace Jones, he would get to paint the Jamaican goddess more than once, including when Grace performed live at the Paradise Garage before the much-loved gay-club closed its doors. Perhaps most memorably Haring would use Jones’ body as his canvas when she landed the role of Katrina the Queen of The Vampires in the 1986 film Vamp. The look Jones cultivated for Katrina is said to be based on the character played by actress Daryl Hannah in the 1982 film Blade Runner—at least when it comes to Jones’ startling red wig and face makeup. For Jones’ 1986 video for the song “I’m Not Perfect (But I’m Perfect for You),” Haring was enlisted to paint the massive 60-foot white skirt Jones wears in the video. The video also includes time-lapse footage of Haring painting the giant skirt and a brief appearance by Andy Warhol—one of his very last before he passed away three months later on February 22, 1987.

I’ve posted images of Jones “wearing” her famous body paint done by Keith Haring as well as photos of Bill T. Jones looking like her muscular male doppelgänger. You can also watch footage of Grace Jones stripping down to her Haring body paint in a clip from Vamp and the video for “I’m Not Perfect (But I’m Perfect for You).” Much of what follows is NSFW.
 

Jones in body paint and adornments by Haring, photographed by Robert Mapplethorpe in his NYC studio in 1984.
 

Another shot of Jones by Mapplethorpe.
 

A cheeky shot of Haring and Jones.
 
Much more after the jump…

 
Sire’s “Plundering the Vaults” reissue series got to the Rezillos in 1993, as if in karmic compensation for my first year of high school math homework. Sweating over the compass, protractor, and other cheap plastic tools of the geometer’s trade was almost pleasurable with Can’t Stand The Rezillos: The (Almost) Complete Rezillos set to ∞, turning my teenage bedroom into a future-retro outer-space dance party.

Formed in the mid-Seventies by Scottish art students, the Rezillos’ love for comic books, science fiction, and bygone fads reminded me of the B-52s, though the two sound nothing alike. When the Rezillos called themselves a “new-wave beat group,” I think it referred not just to the songs by the Dave Clark Five, Freddie and the Dreamers, and the Kinks in their repertoire, but also to their musical proficiency and well-rehearsed live show. Jo Callis, later of the Human League, wrote most of the Rezillos’ originals (one of which he took with him when he left, along with the rhythm section, to form Shake); his guitar and the incredible bass playing of William Mysterious (né Alastair Donaldson) on Can’t Stand the Rezillos set the group apart from punk and non-punk contemporaries alike. As the Rezillos’ first bassist, Dr. D. K. Smythe, writes of the band’s earliest shows:

In contrast to the laid-back, casual, self-indulgent ethos of rock bands in that era, we were slick, highly professional, well-rehearsed, and offered 60 minutes or so of frantic, non-stop fun rock looking back to the late 1950s.

 

The Rezillos c. 1977
 
Because I’ve spent so much time with the Sire CD over the last 25 years, its deficiencies are plain. Yes, it fit the studio album Can’t Stand the Rezillos, the masterpiece single “Destination Venus,” and the live album recorded at their farewell show, Mission Accomplished… But The Beat Goes On, on a single disc, but at what cost? I’ll tell you at what cost: by doing violence to one of the all-time great punk/wave songs, not once, but twice! In a blood orgy of rapacity, record men amputated the live version of “Destination Venus” that ended Mission Accomplished and sent the album out into the world mutilated. Worse yet, on the single version of “Destination Venus,” there was a maddening dropout at around 1:26. Imagine if the engineer had just decided to wipe his nose with the master tape a minute into “Sonic Reducer” or “I Got A Right.” For this, I paid the MSRP of $13.98? An outrageous and intolerable state of affairs!
 

 
At last, Cherry Red has done the Rezillos proud with a handsome two-CD set, Flying Saucer Attack: The Complete Recordings 1977-1979. In addition to righting the wrongs I have enumerated, it appends the single versions of “I Can’t Stand My Baby,” “(My Baby Does) Good Sculptures,” “Flying Saucer Attack” and “Top of the Pops,” all substantially different from the album tracks; plus the B-sides “20,000 Rezillos Under the Sea,” which is the William Tell Overture played as a surf instrumental with the honking lead sax of William Mysterious carrying the melody, and Lennon-McCartney’s “I Wanna Be Your Man”; plus a few other live and compilation tracks that have never appeared on CD before.

After the split with Callis, singers Fay Fife and Eugene Reynolds continued as the Revillos, who also attained Olympian heights now and then. Minus Callis and Mysterious, the Rezillos reunited in 2002, and released a second album, Zero, in 2015. Go see them when you can.

Flying Saucer Attack will be available on February 23 from Cherry Red and on March 2 from Amazon. Below, the Rezillos play “Top of the Pops” on Top of the Pops.
 

 
More after the jump…

 
Before our indulgent misuse of technology made us a tad brutish and unsophisticated in our relationships with each other, men and women once had a form of ritual quaintly called “courtship” where a chivalrous young man was expected to woo a demure young woman with subtly, attention, kindness, and flowers. Such actions were supposed to signal his honorable intentions, trustworthiness, and his reliability to furnish his intended with all that she might require. (Oh, how many poor women fell into a life of drudgery because of that? I wonder.) Of course, these young men would also have their needs but they could only hint at these through the saving grace of innuendo and saucy humor, which made it possible to say one thing and mean something entirely different!

Exhibit A: A set of American postcards dating from 1905 which depicts a young man and the woman of his dreams. These cards were supposed to show our earnest young man’s burning desire to pop the question and ask his fair lady to marry him. But wait, there’s more… These seemingly innocent-looking cards were also a means by which a randy young git could ask his lady friend for his nazzums, his nookie, his how’s your father, his horizontal refreshment, his whoopie, his you know what, you know, get his end away. Of course, women were far too high-minded, civilized, and ever so polite to even know about such things… But...if ever they did, then they’d know only too damn well what his nibs was on about. Indeed, one of these cards does look like it was specifically meant for use by the ladies to send to their beaus in which our eager young heroine suggests that if her reluctant young man would only ask her to marry him, well, then he’ll get it alright.

Though their intention for sex maybe similar, these little cards certainly make a refreshing change from dick pics and unwanted sexting, but plus ca change...
 

The unsubtle: ‘How about it Kiddo?’
 

The subtle: Ask me to marry you and you’ll get what you desire.
 
More after the jump…

 
Slava Semeniuta is a Russian artist and photographer based in Sochi who works under the name Local Preacher. He says he has a “love [for] everything that looks cosmic,” in particular the bright garish neon colors because “neon colors are colors that are rarely found in nature.” 

Semeniuta uses these neon colors in his pictures, for example, his series of street puddles Wet Neon where he photographed and digitally altered the mirror surface of water to reflect vibrant neon colors or his series The Velvet Mountain in which Semeniuta used a “minimalist” palette of neon colors, mainly reds and blues, to create vibrant, textured images of a mountain peak.

Some of his work will bring comparisons with other neon photographers like Greg Girard’s neon streets—in particular his image of a waterlogged gutter reflecting all the colors of the night, or the erotic neon photography of Robert Babylon.

With his figurative work, Semeniuta focuses on the human body and its relationship to sensation. A bellybutton looks like a whirlpool in a gently undulating sea. A body is mapped by its circuitry of pleasure. He explores its sculptural form in highly stylized, supersaturated, and sensual images using bodypaint and digital techniques. See more of Local Preacher’s work here.
 

 

 

 
See more of Local Preacher’s neon bible, after the jump…
 

A painting by Fabrizio Riccardi from his series ‘Paintings of Pantagruel.’
 
In 1565 Francois Desprez, a publisher, illustrator, and bookseller based in Paris created a series of woodblock carvings The Humorous Dreams of Pantagruel. Historians have noted Desprez‘s strange carvings were commissioned by his associate and fellow printer Richard Breton. Now, it is very likely you have seen Salvador Dali‘s interpretative series Les songes drôlatiques de Pantagruel which the artist produced during the first part of the 1970s. Dali based his series of paintings on François Rabelais’ novel (translated to English), The Horrible and Terrifying Deeds and Words of the Very Renowned Pantagruel King of the Dipsodes, Son of the Great Giant Gargantua. While the great Dali’s take on Pantagruel was wild, it almost pales in comparison to Italian artist Fabrizio Riccardi‘s series Paintings of Pantagruel which Riccardi took on starting in 2008.

Riccardi’s paintings will no doubt bring you to immediately compare his style to visionary Dutch painter Hieronymus Bosch. Most of Riccardi’s images for Paintings of Pantagruel line up numerically with Desprez’s woodblocks from nearly 450 years prior. Riccardi was born in Rome and began his formal artistic training early after relocating to Turin with his family in 1952. There he attended Liceo Artistico dell’Accademia Albertina (or Albertina Academy of Fine Arts) and later the Faculty of Architecture in Rome, though he would leave the institution at the age of 24 in 1966 to marry and start a family. During this time period Riccardi would travel to Belgium, Switzerland, and the U.S. to showcase his work which was quickly embraced by fans and critics alike. I’ve posted an assortment of images from Riccardi’s Paintings of Pantagruel which is quite massive and can be seen in its entirety here. Most of what follows is NSFW.
 

 

 

 
More after the jump…

 
As hard as it is to overstate the significance of Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit” and their Nevermind album, it’s equally difficult to address the impact these releases had on music and culture, without rehashing what has been written before—and I ain’t gonna try! Instead, I’m offering a kind of mini history of “Teen Spirit” in a live setting, including video of two historic performances and one that came during Nirvana’s ascent, which I happened to be present for, with just a smidge of cultural commentary.
 

 
On April 17th, 1991, shortly before Nirvana entered the studio to record what would become Nevermind, they headlined a benefit concert. Organized by Kurt Cobain, the gig was held at the OK Hotel in Seattle. It was during this show, that Nirvana debuted “Smells Like Teen Spirit.” Even in its formative stage, it’s obviously a powerful song. Just watch, as the audience collectively goes crazy, even though few—if any—had ever heard it before. The multi-camera clip embedded below was included on With the Lights Out. For a version with less distorted audio, though it’s from a single camera angle, is missing Kurt’s verbal intro, and lacks any crowd shots, click here.
 

 
Nirvana’s rise really begins on August 27th, 1991, when “Smells Like Teen Spirit” was released to radio. On September 10th, the single went on sale, with Nevermind coming out two weeks later. I was in the audience for Nirvana’s Detroit stop on the Nevermind outing, which took place on October 11th, 1991 at St. Andrew’s Hall. “Smells Like Teen Spirit” was the song of the moment. As was often the case during this tour, the tune was played early on that night (it was song #6). Though it can’t be detected on the recording of the gig, as Kurt played the opening riff, a collective gasp filled the room.
 
Keep reading after the jump…

 
As someone who has spent much of my life seeking out and befriending eccentric people, I’m always delighted to meet a new one. In One Life to Live filmmaker Nendie Pinto-Duschinsky‘s short film on Ernesto Tomasini, I was introduced to the fascinating opera singer who has worked with Coil, Antony and the Johnsons and the great mime artist Lindsay Kemp:

At 15, Ernesto Tomasini won a scholarship to draw for Disney and worked on The Fox and The Hound. Al Pacino took a break from filming The Godfather Part III to see Ernesto perform when he was just 19. Described by Spanish radio as “Maria Callas possessed by Satan,” the “man with the voice of a woman” is currently singing with Shackleton and has previously performed with Antony and the Johnsons, Lindsay Kemp, Coil, Marc Almond, Ron Athey, Bruce LaBruce, and for Oscar-winning film director Alfonso Cuarón in his Children of Men, all whilst starring in operas and musicals the world over. At the end of 2016, he was made an Italian “Sir” and received the keys to his home town of Palermo in Sicily.

One Life to Live gives rare access to Tomasini’s world, where he collaborates with concert pianists and composers Konstantin Lapshin and Othon Mataragas, has daily skype calls with legendary US producer Man Parrish and attends orgies—which he hates—purely as a matter of principle. “It’s keeping balance in the moral compass. The world needs sexual deviance!” agrees Ernesto’s friend Lupe.

The film begins with Ernesto’s masterclass at RADA but becomes “something else.” Films are organisms that spawn an atmosphere of their own.

 

 
In December director Nendie Pinto-Duschinsky‘s latest film On the Ground at Grenfell was screened in Parliament to over 100 MPs, and her work has been featured on the Channel 4 News, ITV News, DAZED, The Fader, The Independent, and The Guardian. Her new documentary was called “‘an astonishing film” by Naomi Wolf and won “Best Film” in the Portobello Film Festival. Nendie has previously worked with Marc Almond and Holly Johnson and her feature film Lindsay Kemp’s Last Dance shot in Japan, has premiered in Australia, Chile and Colombia alongside work by David Lynch and Wim Wenders.
 

 
Israeli artist Ronit Baranga uses white clay and acrylic paint to create beautiful ceramics and sculptures of strange and unsettling things. You may have previously seen her sets of cups and saucers with weird sprouting fingers and blossoming lips that suggest these once passive objects are now seemingly active creations that can scuttle away and deny their original use. The juxtaposition of the functional with the surreal creates a troubling unease.

Baranga has developed her ideas from crockery to children with her recent series Tattooed Babies (2017), in which she made life-like sculptures of innocent sleeping babies whose delicate flesh has been decorated with elaborate tattoos. Baranga believes it is easier for the viewer “to relate to something figurative and beautiful, something sweet and peaceful. It’s easy for you to look at it and relate to it.” Then, on a second look, the viewer is aware that something is not quite right, something deeply unsettling about this beautiful creation. Her intention is to cause a conflict between “attraction and unease.”

I was interested in the gap between the tranquility and absolute lack of awareness on the one hand, and the domineering act that will leave a permanent mark on the other hand. The tattoo as a metaphor for perception, thoughts and understandings that we “insert under the skin” of our children. Content that will become part of their lives forever, even if they are not aware of it now. Content that our parents have tattooed on us.

Born in 1973, Baranga graduated in Psychology and Hebrew Literature from Haifa University in 1997. She then studied Art History at Tel-Aviv University before attending art school at Bet-Berl College, 2000-04. Baranga liked both painting and drawing but it was working with clay that she found the best means for expressing her ideas. Clay offered Baranga something tangible and malleable, something strong and fragile. After art school, she started exhibiting her ceramics in Italy, 2007, and since then has shown her work across the world. See more of Ronit Baranga’s work here or here.
 
See more of Ronit Baranga’s work and devilish babies, after the jump…