Jack Torrance laffs in your face.

(via the always fun If We Don’t, Remember Me)

 
Drag artiste John Epperson as his glamorous alter ego “Lypsinka” performing at The Tiffany Theatre in Los Angeles, 2001. Lypsinka! The Boxed Set was the winner of the LA Weekly’s “Best Solo Performance Award” that year. This video is a great look at a brilliant performer, really on fire here.
 

 
E=mcFAAABUloussss! Who knew Einstein had such wonderful gams?!
 

Einstein and David Rothman, 1939

There’s actually great back-story to Albert Einstein and those open-toed sandals. The man pictured with Einstein above is David Rothman, and he was the one responsible for selling Einstein the fancy footwear back in 1939. From Chuck Rothman’s “Albert Einstein’s Long Island Summer”:

In the summer of 1939, Albert Einstein spent his summer on Nassau Point, in Peconic, NY on eastern Long Island. My grandfather, David Rothman, was owner of Rothman’s Department Store in nearby Southold.

One June day, Einstein came into the store. Of course, my grandfather recognized him at once. He decided, though, to treat him just like any other customer.

“Are you looking for something in particular?” he asked

“Sundials,” Einstein said in his thick German accent.

Now, Rothman’s has always had a large variety of items—just about everything from housewares, to fishing tackle and bait, to hardware, to toys, to appliances. But no sundials. Not for sale, anyway. But…

“I do have one in my back yard,” my grandfather said.

He led Einstein—who seems a bit bewildered—to the back yard, to show him the sundial. “If you need one you can have this.”

Einstein took one look and began to laugh. He pointed to his feet. “No. Sundials.”

Sandals. Those, he had.

(via reddit)

 
If you’re looking for an unusual way to spend this Valentines Day—and are lucky enough to live in Los Angeles, where it’s presently sunny and in the high 60s—I can’t think of a more unusual place to take your date than to the special My Mondo Valentine screening at Cinefamily:

Anyone hoping to melt faces instead of hearts this Valentine’s day, take note—you’ve found your mutant soulmate in the Cinefamily. Come watch us give love a bad name in another signature Cinefamily Mondo night, in which we plumb the depths of impossibly rare film and video vaults for the craziest love-themed clips on the planet. This mix features everything from misguided educational sex ed films to weirdly romantic TV ads, homemade atrocities to our favorite skeezy “how to score” films! The rapturous proceedings will cap off with the incredible mentally-challenged ‘70s movie-of-the-week romance Like Normal People, starring Linda Purl and Shaun Cassidy. Impress your date with a night like no other, or bring a raincoat and impress yourself!

 
Happy Valentine’s Day!

(via Super Punch)

 
(via Nerdcore)

 
Radiohead is calling its new record, The King Of Limbs, “the world’s first Newspaper Album” (adding “perhaps” as a footnote).

Wouldn’t the first be Jethro Tull’s Thick As a Brick?

Here’s what the fans who pony up $48.00 and $53.00, respectively, for the MP3 and .wav versions of the record will also get this in the deluxe package:

Two clear 10” vinyl records in a purpose-built record sleeve.
A compact disc.
Many large sheets of artwork, 625 tiny pieces of artwork and a full-colour piece of oxo-degradeable plastic to hold it all together.

The Newspaper Album will be ship on 9th May 9th, 2011 but you can download it as of Saturday February 19th.

If you just want the digital download, it’ll cost you $9 for the MP3 version and $14 for the higher quality .wav file. It strikes me as somewhat absurd that there is a $5 buck difference in the price break between the lower quality MP3 version and the lossless wav files which will sound as good as a CD. Does transferring the wavs cost them $5 more dollars per buyer? Um, I doubt it. It’s like Radiohead are actively encouraging their fans here to go for the lower quality way to hear their music. That seems really counter-intuitive to me.

Mark Christensen discusses his new book about Merry Prankster/novelist Ken Kesey, Acid Christ: Ken Kesey, LSD, and the Politics of Ecstasy. Christensen himself, “grew up around the Kesey Chautauqua,” and weaves in incidents from his own life (like arm-wrestling Kesey!) into the narrative, in the process speaking to the notion of how Ken Kesey influenced his own life and values, coming of age within the hippie/counterculture milieu of the Pacific Northwest. Acid Christ is a “sheep’s eye-view of the shepherd,” and an interesting experiment in biography.

 
Originally broadcast in 1986 in the UK, The South Bank Show’s Velvet Underground documentary was directed by Kim Evans with the help of Mary Harron. It contains interviews with Lou, John, Sterling, Moe, Nico, Warhol and lots of early Velvet performance footage, including stuff shot by Jonas Mekas. For hardcore Velvet fans none of this will be new, but isn’t it nice to have it compiled in a visually pleasing package? And for the casual VU fan, this is essential.

John Cale: “The only reason we wore sunglasses on stage was because we couldn’t stand the sight of the audience.”
 

 
Forget about The Grammys, here’s the real deal: The Grimys.

From penthouses to sleaze pits, strip joints and go go palaces of a bygone era, we present The Grimys, 37 minutes of non-stop bump and grind set to a garage rock and psychedelic beat that is guaranteed to blow your mind and set your monitor ablaze with the fires of unbridled passion. Enter the world of the taboo. Explore the desperate alleys where sin lurks in the shadows, lust wears a dress made of twenty dollar bills and rock and roll is the soundtrack to lives lived in the twilight zone between wasted days and wasted nights.

Actually, this is just plain old fashioned fun.

When the Dirty Wurds kick in at the 23:55 point you will be amazed and enthralled by one of the most frenzied displays of go go dancing in the history of the art. Who IS that woman? Her nipples could take an eye out.

Hide the children and put on your raincoats, this is Grind Mix #1. Exposed flesh abounds. You’ve been warned.

01. Congawa - The Zirkons
02. Zebra - The Youngsters
03. Jibba Jab - Tic & Toc
04. Groovy - The Groovers
05. Thunderbird - The Casual-Aires
06. Little Girl - John & Jackie
07. Take It Off - The Genteels
08. Crackin’ Up - Famen
09. Elevator Jam - The 13th Floor Elevators
10. Mr. Man - The Lyrics
11. Gotta Find Her - Pat Farrell
12. Why - Dirty Wurds
13. 1523 Blair - The Outcasts
14. Don’t Lose Your Mind - The Galaxies IV
15. Generation - The Jelly Bean Bandits
16. Joustabout - The Triumphs
17. Trashcan - Ken Williams
18. Drums A-Go-Go - The Hollywood Persuaders