In February 1967, just a few weeks after the first Human Be-In, Timothy Leary, Allen Ginsberg, Gary Snyder and Alan Watts discussed how to “drop out” and radically change society in an hour-an-half interview recorded on Watts’ houseboat. In amongst the naive hippie shit, there are parts of this that are as relevant today as they were back then.
South Alamo Drafthouse movie theater, Highball bowling alley, and the strip mall their located in, replicated in a video game that was playable at kiosks at this year’s Fantastic Fest. If you’ve been to Fantastic Fest you’ll recognize these venues.
I grew up watching Joe Pyne and marveling at his bitter rants. He was the template for Fox News and geek journalism.
Lewis Marvin was a stone cold freak who happened to be very very rich. He was the heir to the Green Stamps fortune and with his inheritance established the hippie community Moonfire in Topanga Canyon. Moonfire was at the epicenter of Southern California’s new age scene, drawing a mixed bag of rock and rollers, actors, groupies and wandering flower children. In this clip, Pyne attempts to scramble Marvin’s already scrambled signals. Pyne, an ex-Marine, was notorious for his loathing of hippies, beatniks and pinkos. He was the Bill O’Reilly of the sixties…without any intellectual pretense.
Witness Marvin as he boldly confronts Pyne and the screaming tomato.
Joe Pyne locks horns with Anton LaVey after the jump…
Coming attraction for Otto Preminger’s sixties psychedelic misfire Skidoo. Credits sung by Harry Nilsson.
Skidoo is a mess, but it’s still fun in the way a car crash without serious injury is fun. And the soundtrack by Nilsson is totally groovy.
Watch the movie in its entirety after the jump…
‘Vampire’ - unreleased and unfinished track from Public Image Ltd’s 1981 album Flowers of Romance.
Spurned on from a rumor Publishers Weekly overheard at the Frankfurt Book Fair, David Bowie’s website has confirmed that he’ll be publishing a coffee table book cum object d’art called Bowie: Object.
Bowie: Object is a collection of pieces from the Bowie archive, wherein, for the first time, fans and all those interested in popular culture will have the opportunity to understand more about the Bowie creative process and his impact on modern popular music.
Bowie: Object features 100 fascinating items that give an insight into the life of one of the most unique music and fashion icons in history. The book’s pictorial content is annotated with insightful, witty and personal text written by Bowie himself.
Designed by Barnbrook, Bowie: Object is simply and boldly designed and each of the objects is photographed in a clean, contemporary style.
Below is one of the objects that they strongly hint will be in the book, a Kirlian Photographic Device that Bowie was given by Dr. Thelma Moss at the Dept. of Parapsychology, UCLA, in 1975. There was a picture of it contained in the Station to Station tour guide memento. If the aim of this book is to show Bowie’s impact, not only on music, but culture in general, then this is a very good example.
Why you ask? To give you a personal (and very small) example of the multitude of ways David Bowie has influenced little old me, when I was 10 years old and Bowie was the guest on Dinah Shore’s afternoon talk/variety show, he was able to invite Dr. Moss on as a guest as well. Moss demonstrated the ability of the Kirlian device—a high voltage electric field “camera”—to basically take snapshots of plant and human “auras.” Because Bowie was fascinated by this wild new science of Kirlian photography, then, hey, so was I and—this is true—I built a home-made version of the Kirlian Photographic device for a grade-school science fair!
It was made with a battery, a wood base, some wires, a metal plate and used 2” by 2” film, which was placed under the plate, and sent a jolt via the battery to expose the film. Now, granted, at that age, I wasn’t testing the “before and after” side-effects of snorting cocaine on my aura (see above) like Bowie was—-I used leaves and my thumbprint—but still, you can see clearly in this stupid example of how I, a little kid at the time, saw David Bowie as this like, larger than life cultural avatar of the newest and coolest things around. I must say, I’m really looking forward to this book!
And if you haven’t heard, there is a brand new, just released massive 5 CD/3LP/DVD collector’s box (two different ones, actually) of Bowie’s monumental 1976 album, Station To Station
Below, A shit hot version of Station to Station’s “Stay” performed on Dinah! in 1976.
Don’t test the Jolly Boys: l-r Derrick “Johnny” Henry, Albert Minott, Joseph “Powder” Bennett
Bernard & boys, they’ve got yr techno right here. Gravelly-voiced Jamaican singer Albert Minott and his majority-septuagenarian group the Jolly Boys have eaten rock ‘n’ roll and new wave for lunch.
For over 55 years, the Jolly Boys have played a style of music called mento, which—much like Trinidadian calypso—dates back to the late-19th century, before ska, reggae and dancehall became Jamaica’s predominant styles. As with most things Jamaican, mento is simultaneously soulful, sweet and rugged.
Minott and his crew—including original members Joseph “Powder” Bennett on maracas, Derrick “Johnny” Henry on marumba box, Allan Swymmer on percussion, and Egbert Watson on banjo—have just released an album of covers called Great Expectations, produced by Jon Baker and Dale Virgo.
Tracks include versions of Iggy Pop’s “Passengers” and “Nightclubbing”, the Doors’ “Riders on the Storm” and the Rolling Stones’ “You Can Always Get What You Want.”
After the jump: the Boys’ take on Amy Winehouse’s “Rehab”…
“Don’t fear your asshole or you will never uncover its powerful secrets.”
Might have been my favorite clip from the insanity of the Everything Is Festival at Cinefamily in Los Angeles last month. This guy is so earnest. This brought the entire house down.
