Childhood movie-going usually falls into two categories: Movies you want to see and do, and movies you REALLY want to see but are forbidden to.  Along with Equus and The Exorcist, Alan Parker‘s Midnight Express, for me, fell into that later category.  Drugs, Turkish prisons, male-on-male rape?  No way was I gonna talk my preteen self into that one.  That isn’t to say, though, that I couldn’t get my hands on the Giorgio Moroder soundtrack—something I played obsessively, and still hear faintly whenever I’m (not infrequently) trying to jump a wall. 

Moroder went on, of course, to even greater fame with Blondie, Donna Summer, even Japan.  The 70s synth icon turns 70 (!) next Spring, and still lives in Italy, where he scored most recently of all things the soundtrack to Leni Riefenstahl‘s last film, the marine documentary, Impressionen Unter Wasser.  You can find an excellent assortment of Moroder-related videos, here.  Or simply play the below video a few times and find a wall or two.

(via Nerdcore)

Goddamn these are great!  Sculptor Adam Beane says, “The excellent art directors I’ve worked with have been instrumental in my growth as a sculptor, a communicator and a businessman. They have frequently allowed me to push projects beyond expectations and as a result, I have become known for dynamic compositions, action poses, nuanced drapery work and my ability to capture likenesses with expressions.

Adam Beane

Thanks Christopher Paige!

Peter Lorre, Peter Lorre, you can trust him, he’s a brick, he’s a brick! (From Pat Fish.)

OK. If you watch this video, you’re going to have some mental hurdles to cross. You’re going to have to cope with the fact that, yes, that guy with the Aretha Franklin voice belting it out like he grew up singing gospel in a Harlem church… yes, that guy DOES look like a 13-year-old who just beat you at Magic: The Gathering. And then, if you’ve never heard of this band before, you’re going to wonder why. Because Karl Wallinger and World Party recorded some of the best singles of the last three decades, and still, STILL, nobody knows. That might be why, when you watch the second video, which might be almost, impossibly, an even better song than the first, you’ll notice that Mr. Wallinger apparently switched hobbies from Dungeons and Dragons to alcohol. Where is this guy? How was he so awesome? Will he return to save us?

 
Meet Su Tissue, n?ɬ

Here’s a website dedicated to the hottest women in classical music.  Beauty in Music says, “Beauty exists in music and the universe. Humans will never know what existed before the Big Bang, but we do know what exists after the explosion.” 

Feel the hotness!

Beauty in Music

Thanks Wilson Smith!

Our friend David Pescovitz at Boing Boing posted this hysterical video of Henry Rollins mashed up with The Techno Viking.

Many think Bj?ɬ?rk’s album Debut was, um, her debut album. But it was not. Oh no.

Actually, Bj?ɬ?rk dropped her first jams back in 1977, when she was 11. And it was awesome. The album even charted. She throws down awesome covers of songs like “The Fool on the Hill” in Icelandic to beats that would put Disco Duck himself to shame. I mean, she’s Bj?ɬ?rk. She’s an international treasure. Even the album she did when she was 11 is better than anything most musicians will ever even be able to think about possibly doing in their whole careers.

But oh no, it is not to be heard. For the Goddess of Iceland hath decreed you may not buy or hear it. Apparently she deliberately keeps it out of circulation or popping up in the press. Which is a shame, because it’s a great album, but if that’s how she feels, than so be it, and far from me to suggest that it might be available on the Internet, especially not here. All hail Iceland and its Pixie Goddess.

There’s no consensus on exactly when “Bombin’” came out.  IMDb says 1988, but other sources say between 1985 - 1987. Who knows? Whatever the year, “Bombin’” is a treat!

Scratchworx says:

First shown on Channel 4 in the UK, Bombin’ chronicles the journey of NY artist Brim through the UK media, as well as meeting a young Goldie, who in turn travels to NYC to meet Afrika Baambaata. This was filmed at the times of the Birmingham riots and shows the parallels of life in the inner city on both sides of the Atlantic.

Bombin’ on Flicker

(via Nerdcore)