Well no wonder she looks so great at 54! She had a sunscreen regimen going on back then.

I don’t know who the guy is, though. Anyone?

 
Frank Zappa discussing television, sin and language on Canadian TV show The Day It Is in 1969.

“If you end up with a boring miserable life because you listened to your mom, your dad, your teacher, your priest, or some guy on television telling you how to do your shit, then you deserve it.” ~ Frank Zappa.

Amen, brother.
 

 
The 1983 documentary UK/DK: A Film About Punks And Skinheads features some great live performances from The Exploited, Disorder and The Adicts, among others. It does a solid job of capturing the tail end of the British punk scene as it was being supplanted by hardcore and the pop elements in the music replaced by something faster, more aggressive and humorless.

Featuring lively interviews with band members, journalists and fans… and lots of Crazy Color and mohawks. One of the better documentaries on the subject I’ve seen.

Exploited – Fuck The USA
Vice Squad – Stand Strong Stand Proud
Adicts – Joker In The Pack
Blitz – New Age
Business – Blind Justice
Adicts – Viva La Revolution
Varukers – Soldier Boy
Chaos UK – No Security
Disorder – Life

The Damned provide comic relief.
 

 
If Visiting Kids strike you as Devo-esque, it’s probably because this late 80s surreal spin on “The Partridge Family” was founded by Mark Mothersbaugh’s wife at the time, Nancye Ferguson, and included Bob Mothersbaugh and his daughter Alex, and Devo drummer (their fourth) David Kendrick. Mark wrote some of the tunes for the group and Bob Casale produced the Visiting Kids’ only album, which was released in 1990 on New Rose (it’s extremely rare).

Here’s Visiting Kids singing the appropriately titled “Nepotism” with Bob Mothersbaugh sounding more than a little like Fred Schneider on vocals.
 

 
More Visiting Kids after the jump…

 
Jason Weisberger over at Boing Boing directs us to an amazing flickr photostream of high resolution behind-the-scenes photos from the set of the Batman TV series. The quality is outstanding.

Eartha Kitt has never looked more purrfect.
 

 

 
More after the jump…

Skatedater, one of the best skateboarding films ever made, has finally popped up in a decent color version after years of bouncing around the ‘net in terrible looking transfers.

Skaterdater is a short film that was released in 1965. It was Produced by Marshal Backlar, and written and directed by Noel Black and was the winner of the Palme d’Or for Best Short Film at the 1966 Cannes Film Festival. It was also nominated for an Academy Award in the Best Short Subject category. First prizes in international film festivals including Moscow and Venice.

The film tells a story with no dialogue. The surf rock-esque soundtrack was composed by Mike Curb and Nick Venet with Davie Allan and the Arrows playing “Skaterdater Rock” .
It was the first film on skateboarding. It was distributed theatrically, both domestically and internationally, by United Artists. It was reviewed extensively, including “Time Magazine”.

The skateboarders were members of the neighborhood Imperial Skateboard Club from Torrance, California. Their names are Gary Hill, Gregg Carrol, Mike Mel, Bill McKaig, Gary Jennings, Bruce McKaig and Rick Anderson. Most of the action shots were taken in Torrance, Redondo Beach, Palos Verdes Estates. The final shot was Averill Park in San Pedro.” Wikipedia.

These young dudes have some classy moves and an almost Zen-like grace. I lived in Southern California for awhile as a kid and this brings back some memories.

If you dig the soundtrack, you can stream all the tracks here.
 

 
Thanks Jimbo

 
Meet Copenhagen-based entrepreneur Bobby Ågren aka “Retro Bobby” who owns a vintage gaming and toy shop where,“you can buy, sell or trade old games from the ‘70s ‘80s ‘90s and in the meantime get a haircut.”

Apparently, Retro Bobby is a master at giving an Eastbound & Down “Ivan Dochenko” mullet.
 

 
Via Nerdcore

 
Film-maker Jules Nurrish filmed and edited this homage to Gilbert and George’s dance sculpture Bend It. With Los Angeles-based performance artist and body builder, Heather Cassils and London-based performance artist and musician, Anat Ben David, who together perform their own version of the famous dance. Neat.
 

The birthday boy is also this year’s Record Store Day Ambassador. Fulfilling his diplomatic duties, Iggy visited Sweat Records in Miami.

“As Record Store Day Ambassador for 2012, I feel like a representative from some exotic jungle full of life and death and sex and anger, called upon to wear a leopard skin and translate joy to the world of the dead.

A person should have a personality. You won’t get one dicking around on a computer. It helps to go somewhere where there are other persons. Persons who are interested in something you are. That’s how a record store or any shop that’s got some life to it should work. It’s not about selling shit.

I got my name, my musical education and my personality all from working at a record store during my tender years. Small indie shops have always been a mix of theatre and laboratory. In the 50s and 60s, the teen kids used to gather after school at these places to listen free to the latest singles and see if they liked the beat. You could buy the disc you liked for 79 cents and if you were lucky meet a chick. Clerks in these places became managers, (like Brian Epstein), label heads, (Jac Holzman) and Faces on album covers (like me).”

I spent part of Record Store Day at Waterloo Records where I met and had a chat with Garbage. Shirley Manson looked absolutely stunning. I bought the Grinderman Remix album and a compilation of rare gospel music. With the exception of running into Garbage, it was a day like any other in that everyday for me is Record Store Day. I tremble at the thought of not having Waterloo to visit and hang out in. There’s nothing like the smell of vinyl in the morning. And you can’t shake Shirley Manson’s hand at Amazon.com.
 

 
Legendary actress, Fenella Fielding takes on John Lydon’s “Rise” and wins.

This is one of the many brilliant tracks from the recently re-released Savoy Sessions, a fabulous collaboration between Ms. Fielding and David Britton, owner of Savoy Books, author of the banned comic (and novel) Lord Horror and “the last man in the country to be jailed under the 1959 Obscene Publications Act”.

Britton approached Fielding in 2002 to record extracts from J. G. Ballrd’s novel Crash. At first, Ms. Fielding demurred, but Britton’s persistence paid-off and a thrilling creative partnership began.

Fielding recorded Britton’s La Squab, as well T. S. Eliot’s Four Quartets, and selection of work by Collette - which Ms. Fielding had originally performed on stage in 1970.

Ms. Fielding is perhaps best known for her role as Valeria, the delightful, kooky vamp to Kenneth Williams’ Dr. Orlando Watt in Carry on Screaming, which tends to greatly over-shadow her legendary career in theater and revue. She was hailed by Noel Coward and Kenneth Tynan as one of theater’s greatest actresses, her performance as Hedda Gabler was described by The Times as “one of the experiences of a lifetime”. She was a versatile comedy actress and had performed in a series of successful comedy revues, including Pieces of Eight (co-starring Kenneth Williams, written by Peter Cook and Harold Pinter), and her celebrated one-woman show at Cook’s Establishment Club. Ms. Fielding also provided the announcer’s voice for The Village, in Patrick McGoohan’s The Prisoner. And if this weren’t enough, she was adored by Frederico Fellini.

In 2006, Britton invited Fenella to a studio in Rochdale, where she recorded a selection of popular hits - including PiL’s “Rise”, New Order’s “Blue Monday”, Kylie Minogue’s “I Can’t get You Out Of My Head”, and even Robbie Williams’ “Angels” - re-interpreting them through her own unique and distinct style, which Kim Fowley described in 2009:

Her Succulent/Velvet-Blue-Saloon vocal tones made me believe I was having Naked Lunch in a Berlin bubble-bath, next to Marlene Dietrich… Somewhere in Berlin, circa 1928–1932.
Hence, we have a message in an aural bottle, from a 21st Century, Axis Sally/Tokyo Rose: Fenella Fielding.

Bring on the smelling salts! Then give me the Silver-Spoon and Golden Needle, so I can blend into the Wonder-Word Void, where Ms Fielding must surely reside.

Fenella’s delivery of the following titles places me squarely at the foot of her bed, on my knees, in a position of worship!

Find your copy of Fenella Fielding’s The Savoy Sessions here.

Here then, for your delectation and delight is the beautiful Ms. Fenella Fielding and “Rise”.
 

 
Bonus video clip of Fenella in the Studio, plus taster clips, after the jump…
 
With thanks to Robert Conroy