I got an advance copy of Ladies & Gentlemen: The Rolling Stones on Blu-ray yesterday from the publicist for Eagle Rock Ent. and I must say, it’s probably the best longform Rolling Stones performance on the market or that we’re ever likely to see.

Originally shot on the 1972 USA tour in support of the Exile on Main Street album, during four separate shows in Ft. Worth and Houston, Texas, the film was shown theatrically in midnight screenings throughout 1974. The “QuadraSound” four-channel magnetic soundtrack required a a 3300-watt sound system to be delivered on a truck to the cinema which was run by professional sound engineers who tailored the mix according to how big the venue was (and also how full the seats were). The releasing company, Dragon Aire Ltd. had four of these systems touring at once.

The 1972 North America tour was the Stones at the absolute pinnacle of their powers as live performers—as even Mick Jagger admits, they could be a pretty sloppy live band at times. Here, with a setlist culled from their best albums, (Beggar’s Banquet, Let It Bleed, Sticky Fingers and Exile on Main Street) they really putt their shoulders into it, clearly full of piss and vinegar to spare . It’s just a great Rolling Stones performance, full stop. If you are a fan, this is exactly what you want.

This film hasn’t really been seen (except for an Australian VHS release that’s been widely bootlegged) in about three decades, so the experience of these performances hasn’t been devalued by constant repetition on Vh1 Classics. Aside from that, let’s not forget the presence of virtuoso guitarist Mick Taylor (arguably the best musician ever to play in the band). And it sounds very, very good in the newly remastered 5:1 surround. (I’m a little less sold on the picture, which looks fine, but has that slightly jagged looking quality that always results from a 16mm film getting blown up to 35mm).

All in all, I’d say that if you are “so inclined” that this should be a definitive “buy,” fanboy. I didn’t feel that way about the recent Exile on Main Street reissue in the least, but this DVD, especially on Blu-ray, really can’t be beat.
 
Here’s a somewhat murky—but asskicking—clip of “Happy” from the film.
 

 
“Don’t be dumb! Rapture comes!” Deeply ridiculous Fundie wack-a-doo and YouTube end-times prophet, William Tapley, aka the Third Eagle of the Apocalypse, aka the Co-Prophet of the End Times, fires up his Casiotone in an outdoor setting and performs his latest “hit,” a jaunty lil’ number called “Doom & Gloom.”

“Please don’t dread Armaged!” Trust me, listen to this one.

More William Tapley madness on Dangerous Minds

 
It’s a time of the year even better than Christmas in the Metzger household, as my comedic heros, the legendary Firesign Theatre will once again be playing a three-day residency in Los Angeles, Oct 21,22,23, at the Barnsdall Gallery Theater and performing my personal favorite album of theirs, I Think We’re All Bozos On This Bus, in its entirety. YES!

Later this week, on October 8, the “4 or 5 crazy guys” will be performing at the Marin Center Showcase Theater, San Rafael, CA and Oct 9, at the Golden State Theatre in Monterey, CA. Don’t miss them if you are in the area(s)!!!

Get tickets at Firesign Theatre.com
 

“I want a loud answer to this question… Who’s your favorite clown?”

“CHRISTINE!”

She claims not to be a witch, but is there any truth to the rumor that Delaware Senate candidate, Christine O’Donnell’s father used to portray Bozo the Clown on Philly TV? Apparently so, but the zany, anti-masturbation Republican wacko’s dad was only an unofficial Bozo. Has someone been padding his resume, too?

The New York Times called Daniel O’Donnell and got the scoop:

“Who told you I was Bozo?” he wanted to know.

“Your son,” I said, at which point he confirmed that yes, he was Bozo, but not an official, full-time certified Bozo, more of a part-time Bozo.

“To be an official Bozo, you had to go to a special school in Texas,” explained Mr. O’Donnell. He never did. Instead, he was asked to fill-in for the official Bozos whenever they would have to travel out of the Philadelphia area for acting gigs.

“They would leave, I would come in and work for two or three weeks, whatever, until the regular Bozo came back,” Mr. O’Donnell said. “I was the fill-in Bozo.” He worked out of a local station in Jenkintown, Pa., he said, adding that station employees did his make-up and hair. He would also do remote appearances, got to supermarkets, meet kids, sign autographs and ride around in the Bozo Mobile. His son Daniel was his assistant.

Send In the Clowns — and the Truth Squad (New York Times)

 
Actually, she’s YOU! I guess this does make her a witch. I knew it!

(via Adam Wade)

 
File under “Ya think?”: the country’s baddest-ass comedienne provides a different perspective on the horrible uptick in bullied LGBT suicides…
 

 
Over the past few decades, Scotland has had a flourishing of incredibly talented and original writers and artists for Marvel and DC Comics. Out of Glasgow, comes this fabulous posse of talent, Jamie Grant, Frank Quitely, Gary Erskine and Dominic Regan, who are based at Hope Street Studios.
 

 
Via The Comics Journal and with thanks to Scheme Comix

The Residents’ 1976 version of The Stones’ Satisfaction is nearly everything the better known version by Devo from a year later is not: Loose, belligerant, violent, truly fucked up. A real stick in the eye of everything conventionally tasteful in 1976 America. Delightfully painful to listen to thanks to Philip “Snakefinger” Lithman’s completely unhinged lead guitar and mystery Resident member’s menacing vocal, this is a timeless piece of yellow plastic.
 

 
Check the B-side and a demented live version after the jump…

The “Percolator” was a distinctive early 90s “line dance” craze, but one you might never have been exposed to unless you lived in, say, Boston, DC, Chicago or Detroit. Major Lazer’s animated music video, an hommage to “It’s Time for the Percolator” features cartoon stand-ins of Michael Jackson, Darth Vader, the couple from American Gothic and even physicist Stephen Hawking, who gets ejected from his wheelchair by an Avatar character. Woah!

Here, dancers on Detroit’s The New Dance Show (which I loved as a teenager) demonstrate how it’s done.
 

 
Hear the original track after the jump…

 
Good question. Might the advent of our omnipresent always on, mobile, remote-controlled, all apps all the time, text-messaged technological mode of existence be having some unintended consequences for our children? If your kid is great at video games and knows all about Snooki and J-Wow, but can’t tie her own shoes, is this progress or… the “devolution” prophesied by Devo and the movie Idiocracy?

This is one of those posts where you simply paste it up and stand back to avoid the shrapnel hitting you. Oldsters, youngsters, middlers… duke it out amongst yourselves in the comments.

Beth J. Harpaz, writing in the Anchorage Daily News:

Many kids never learn to do ordinary household tasks. They have no chores. Take-out and drive-through meals have replaced home cooking. And busy families who can afford it often outsource house-cleaning and lawn care.

“It’s so all laid out for them,” said Maushart, author of the forthcoming book “The Winter of Our Disconnect,” about her efforts to wean her family from its dependence on technology. “Having so much comfort and ease is what has led to this situation - the Velcro sneakers, the Pull-Ups generation. You can pee in your pants and we’ll take care of it for you!”

The issue hit home for me when a visiting 12-year-old took an ice-cube tray out of my freezer, then stared at it helplessly. Raised in a world where refrigerators have push-button ice-makers, he’d never had to get cubes out of a tray - in the same way that kids growing up with pull-tab cans don’t understand can openers.

But his passivity was what bothered me most. Come on, kid! If your life depended on it, couldn’t you wrestle that ice-cube tray to the ground? It’s not that complicated!

Mark Bauerlein, author of the best-selling book “The Dumbest Generation,” which contends that cyberculture is turning young people into know-nothings, says “the absence of technology” confuses kids faced with simple mechanical tasks.

But Bauerlein says there’s a second factor: “a loss of independence and a loss of initiative.” He says that growing up with cell phones and Google means kids don’t have to figure things out or solve problems any more. They can look up what they need online or call mom or dad for step-by-step instructions. And today’s helicopter parents are more than happy to oblige, whether their kids are 12 or 22.

“It’s the dependence factor, the unimaginability of life without the new technology, that is making kids less entrepreneurial, less initiative-oriented, less independent,” Bauerlein said.

Read more: Are we raising a generation of nincompoops? (Anchorage Daily News)

 
Jeppe Kolstrup’s uncut promo ‘030’ for Danish surf & flamenco rockers, The Good The Bad.

Who says sex doesn’t sell? We’ll soon find out when the band release their debut album ‘From 001 To 017’ on the 25th October. The release will tie-in with a series of gigs across Europe. Check here for details.
 

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With thanks to Felicity Lamb

 
Today seems as good a time as any to post this clip of the great Peggy Lee, with the diva seductively singing the easy-listening standard, “What Are You Doing The Rest of Your Life?” in 1970. Surely one of the greatest love songs ever written.
 

 
And the Beefheart mania continues in the Laner household: Long a treasured possesion of mine, this is a very amusing promo only interview LP conducted by one Meatball Fulton in July 1969. There are other poor quality versions of this floating around the innerwebs including this link to the full, unedited thing which is in the blasted RealAudio format and alas wouldn’t play for me, but this pristine copy is straight from my personal copy of the LP. Enjoy !
 

 
Much more Beefheartian wisdom after the jump…

 
Wonderful and thought-provoking essay at The Chronicle of Higher Eduction website from Nation/New Republic contributor, William Deresiewicz about not boxing yourself and your life into what others think you should do with your short time on this planet. You will only ever get one life, so live it wisely, but of course, that’s easier said than done and Deresiewicz counsels constantly questioning the choices you’ve made and not being afraid to face up to what your heart desires.

This was adapted from a talk delivered to a freshman class at Stanford University in May, 2010 and comes near the end. Absolutely worth reading, no matter if you are a student or a senior citizen. A straight life and a job or career is not for everyone and Deresiewicz, while not exactly saying “fly your freak flag high,” offers much to ponder here for iconoclastic and creative personalities who might be pressured to conform:

In A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, James Joyce has Stephen Dedalus famously say, about growing up in Ireland in the late 19th century, “When the soul of a man is born in this country there are nets flung at it to hold it back from flight. You talk to me of nationality, language, religion. I shall try to fly by those nets.”

Today there are other nets. One of those nets is a term that I’ve heard again and again as I’ve talked with students about these things. That term is “self-indulgent.” “Isn’t it self-indulgent to try to live the life of the mind when there are so many other things I could be doing with my degree?” “Wouldn’t it be self-indulgent to pursue painting after I graduate instead of getting a real job?”

These are the kinds of questions that young people find themselves being asked today if they even think about doing something a little bit different. Even worse, the kinds of questions they are made to feel compelled to ask themselves. Many students have spoken to me, as they navigated their senior years, about the pressure they felt from their peers—from their peers—to justify a creative or intellectual life. You’re made to feel like you’re crazy: crazy to forsake the sure thing, crazy to think it could work, crazy to imagine that you even have a right to try.

Think of what we’ve come to. It is one of the great testaments to the intellectual—and moral, and spiritual—poverty of American society that it makes its most intelligent young people feel like they’re being self-indulgent if they pursue their curiosity. You are all told that you’re supposed to go to college, but you’re also told that you’re being “self-indulgent” if you actually want to get an education. Or even worse, give yourself one. As opposed to what? Going into consulting isn’t self-indulgent? Going into finance isn’t self-indulgent? Going into law, like most of the people who do, in order to make yourself rich, isn’t self-indulgent? It’s not OK to play music, or write essays, because what good does that really do anyone, but it is OK to work for a hedge fund. It’s selfish to pursue your passion, unless it’s also going to make you a lot of money, in which case it’s not selfish at all.

Do you see how absurd this is? But these are the nets that are flung at you, and this is what I mean by the need for courage. And it’s a never-ending proc ess. At that Harvard event two years ago, one person said, about my assertion that college students needed to keep rethinking the decisions they’ve made about their lives, “We already made our decisions, back in middle school, when we decided to be the kind of high achievers who get into Harvard.” And I thought, who wants to live with the decisions that they made when they were 12? Let me put that another way. Who wants to let a 12-year-old decide what they’re going to do for the rest of their lives? Or a 19-year-old, for that matter?

 
Read the entire essay: What Are You Going to Do With That? (The Chronicle of Higher Education)

 
This morning, on Yoko Ono’s Twitter feed, I learned of this very cool art project she did in memory of John Lennon in Iceland in 2007. I’m surprised this one slipped past me before, because, admittedly, I am a Yoko freak. I own some of her art (including a “Box of Smile” from 1971), and I’ve… just always loved her and admired what she has stood for in her life and in her various artforms (and I am not alone here among the Dangerous Minds crew, either. Mr. Laner feels pretty strongly about Yoko, too). Take a look at this for a moment—it’s really spectacular—and consider sending your own prayers and wishes into the universe this coming Friday—which is the day John Lennon was born, 70 years ago—when the project “lights up” again this weekend.

Send your wish to the Tower by email: wish@IMAGINEPEACE.com or by Twitter: @IPTower

IMAGINE PEACE TOWER is an outdoor work of art conceived by Yoko Ono in memory of John Lennon. It is situated on Viðey Island in Reykjavík, Iceland. The artwork was dedicated to John by Yoko at its unveiling on October 9th 2007, John Lennons 67th birthday.

IMAGINE PEACE TOWER symbolizes Lennons and Onos continuing campaign for world peace - which began in the sixties, was sealed by their marriage in 1969 and will continue forever.

The words IMAGINE PEACE are inscribed on the Well in 24 different languages.

IMAGINE PEACE TOWER is composed of a tall shimmering tower of light that will appear every year and be visible from October 9th (Johns birthday) until December 8th (the anniversary of his passing).

In addition, the Tower will illuminate from Winter Solstice (December 21st 28th), on New Years Eve (December 31st) and the first week of spring (March 21st -28th). It is lit from 2 hours after sunset until midnight, and until dawn on New Years Day.

On 9th October, John Lennons birthday, Yoko Ono asks the people of Iceland to join her and many others across the rest of the world in praying for peace and stability.

At 8pm, as IMAGINE PEACE TOWER is illuminated on the island of Viðey, in Reykjavik, Iceland, she asks everyone to join together and let the power of light and prayer become a collective expression of the desire for peace and harmony on our planet.

Dear Friends,

Please join me not only in remembering John on October 9th but also in spreading the message of peace. This is something that was so important to John - the fact that we could all work together for the positive good of our planet. He would have loved how we are all mobilizing ourselves in thought and in action.

It’s time for Action and the Action is PEACE!

with love,

Yoko Ono