Writer, critic and translator, Fernanda Pivano interviews Jack Kerouac on Italian television, 1966. Kerouac is more than a wee bit shitfaced.
Pivano was known for her insightful and freewheeling interviews of American beat writers, including Ginsberg, Corso, Bukowski and Burroughs. She had a knack for getting on the wavelength of writers being one herself. And she enjoyed drinking with them. Her published interviews with Bukowski are worth seeking out. Her longstanding friendship with Hemingway certainly prepared her for dealing with a bunch of drunk poets.
He’s back! Tommy Wiseau, the seemingly brain-damaged and horribly inept auteur behind the cinematic atrocity, The Room, return with The House the Drips Blood on Alex.
With TW at the helm, this one is bound to really suck, too! Featuring iJustine! Here’s a sneak preview:
“Hey, Johnny, What are you rebelling against?”
“What’ve you got?”
It’s the famous riposte from Marlon Brando in The Wild One, a line that sent a tremor of fear through the British establishment. Strange to think now, but back in 1954, The Wild One was considered such a serious threat to British society it was banned by the Board of Film Censors for 14 years.
You see, those thin-lipped, blue-pencil censors believed Marlon Brando and his band of slovenly bikers would give youngsters “ideas on how to brutalize the public.” This was hyped response to the fact the film was loosely based on a real event, when a band of bikers took over the town of Holister in California in July 1947, during the Gypsy Tour Motorcycle Rally. Around 50 people were arrested, mainly for drunkeness, fighting, reckless driving, and disturbing the peace. Sixty people were injured, 3 seriously. Even so, it’s hard to see how the chubby Brando and his non-sensical mumblings could have inspired anyone into revolt.
Afterall, austere 1950s Britain, with its food rationing and shell-shocked, ruined cities, wasn’t Technicolor America, something John Lennon found out when he visited his local cinema to see Bill Haley and his Comets in Rock Around the Clock. Lennon had heard how riots and revolution were taking place at the film’s screenings. However, instead of seat slashing and fighting in the aisles, the nascent Beatle was dumbstruck to find his generation watching the film in silence.
If it did cause any rebellion, then it was a revolution in the head of a young English poet called Thom Gunn.
On motorcycles, up the road, they come:
Small, black, as flies hanging in heat, the Boy,
Until the distance throws them forth, their hum
Bulges to thunder held by calf and thigh.
In goggles, donned impersonality,
In gleaming jackets trophied with the dust,
They strap in doubt–by hiding it, robust–
And almost hear a meaning in their noise.
Adorable Goldie Hawn Barbie doll designed by Mattel in 2009. She’s absolutely as cute as a button, just like Ms. Hawn was back in her Laugh-In days.
Barbie® doll as Goldie Hawn pays tribute to a beloved star from the classic and controversial variety show, Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In. This doll wears a checkered bikini inspired by one famously worn by Goldie the go-go dancer in “The Mod, Mod World” segment. The wacky body paintings, also part of Goldie’s costume, are re-created in great detail. Barbie® doll as Goldie Hawn joins the Blonde Ambition™ Collection, a series celebrating the blondes we love and admire!
One of the oddest parcel post packages ever sent was “mailed” from Grangeville to Lewiston, Idaho on February 19, 1914. The 48 1/2 pound package was just short of the 50 pound limit. The name of the package was May Pierstorff, four years old.
May’s parents decided to send their daughter for a visit with her grandparents, but were reluctant to pay the train fare. Noticing that there were no provisions in the parcel post regulations specifically concerning sending a person through the mails, they decided to “mail” their daughter. The postage, 53-cents in parcel post stamps, was attached to May’s coat. This little girl traveled the entire distance to Lewiston in the train’s mail compartment and was delivered to her grandmother’s home by the mail clerk on duty, Leonard Mochel.
Now that’s what I call finding a loophole. At least they didn’t put her in a box.
Unavoidably, I am reminded of Lou Reed’s short story of poor Waldo Jeffers, hapless protagonist of “The Gift” by the Velvet Underground.
Dear Friends, just a reminder that the legendary comedy troupe, Firesign Theatre will be performing at the Barnsdall Gallery Theater in Los Angeles this weekend, doing their classic album I Think We’re All Bozos on This Bus (my personal favorite) in its entirety.
Get tickets for Friday here and for the Saturday night performance, here.
Apocalyptic footage of a sudden and violent dust storm encountered in Mali, West Africa by a National Geographic cameraman who was there to film elephants. This is an epic WIN for Mother Nature. Wow!!!
Unless Congress extends “Tier V” unemployment benefits in the 4 days between the time they return from the election and before their Thanksgiving recess, nearly 2 million American families face immediate poverty and homelessness. Over the summer—thanks to the Republicans, natch—it took 50 days to get the last extension. The matter of these extensions needs to be removed from the political process and pronto. The extensions should be automatic, as per the Stabenow bill proposed by Michigan Senator Debbie Sabenow (D) (and blocked by a single Republican), at least in states with unemployment above 8% (which of course means double that in the REAL WORLD) and exempt from “pay as you go” rules.
It’s infuriating and just… nauseating to watch rich, sanctimonious, and supposedly Christian politicians wage class war against the poor in this country. Please sign this petition, and encourage your friends and family to do the same. Post this on your Facebook page, on your Twiiter feed, everywhere you can.
Extended unemployment insurance benefits expire at Thanksgiving—a very cold turkey for millions of Americans already facing the devastation of long term joblessness.
Unemployedworkers.org is launching a campaign to SAVE THE LIFELINE—we need to push Congress to renew the benefit extensions.
The unemployed desperately want to work. They would much rather have a job than benefits, but the jobs lost in the crisis just haven’t come back yet. Until we create jobs, we can’t just throw millions into homelessness and onto public assistance
There are dozens and perhaps hundreds of people for every job opening. Clearly, the odds are firmly stacked against unemployed Americans.
As one astute YouTube commentator wrote:
“Just vote Republican if you want to see maximum unemployment, ever-widening wealth imbalance, and an American 3rd world country. This isn’t rocket science folks. Without job creation funded through taxation, America is doomed. By 2012, teabaggers will be begging for Socialism.”
The late great Stooge Larry Fine meets the late great Stooge Ron Asheton as photographed by either Michael Tipton or Jimmy Recca at the MGM country retirement home in Calabasas,California circa early 70’s. That’s Larry’s granddaughter in the photo also. The story of this unlikely, but poetically perfect friendship is documented in the excellent book Please Kill Me: The Uncensored Oral History of Punk (An Evergreen book).
Collection of Rich Dorris, much thanks to Heather Harris and Kim Retro Kimmer Maki !
