In 1983 Dennis Hopper went to Rice University in Houston, Texas ostensibly to screen his latest film Out Of The Blue. But little known to anyone, other than Hopper and a handful of his buddies, he had another agenda entirely. While he did indeed screen his movie, Hopper had actually come to Houston to blow himself up.

After screening Out Of The Blue, Hopper arranged to have the audience driven by a fleet of school buses to a racetrack on the outskirts of Houston, the Big H Speedway. Hopper and the buses arrived at the speedway just as the races were ending and a voice was announcing over the public address system “stick around folks and watch a famous Hollywood film personality perform the Russian Dynamite Death Chair Act. That’s right, folks, he’ll sit in a chair with six sticks of dynamite and light the fuse.” 

Was famous Hollywood personality Dennis Hopper about to go out with a bang?

Hopper apparently learned this stunt when he was a kid after seeing it performed in a traveling roadshow. If you place the dynamite pointing outwards the explosion creates a vacuum in the middle and the person performing the stunt is, if all goes according to plan, unharmed.

After bullshitting for awhile with the crowd and his friends, a drunk and stoned Hopper climbed into the “death chair’ and lit the dynamite.

Rice News correspondent describes the scene:

Dennis Hopper, at one with the shock wave, was thrown headlong in a halo of fire. For a single, timeless instant he looked like Wile E. Coyote, frazzled and splayed by his own petard. Then billowing smoke hid the scene. We all rushed forward, past the police, into the expanding cloud of smoke, excited, apprehensive, and no less expectant than we had been before the explosion. Were we looking for Hopper or pieces we could take home as souvenirs? Later Hopper would say blowing himself up was one of the craziest things he has ever done, and that it was weeks before he could hear again. At the moment, though, none of that mattered. He had been through the thunder, the light, and the heat, and he was still in one piece. And when Dennis Hopper staggered out of that cloud of smoke his eyes were glazed with the thrill of victory and spinout.

In this video footage shot by filmmaker Brian Huberman, we see Hopper in all his intoxicated glory before and after his death defying stunt.

Huberman on the film clip:

The large guy making the sign of the cross is the writer Terry Southern and the jerk threatening to blow up my camera is the German filmmaker, Wim Wenders.

Here’s a piece of history folks.
 

 
Watching these Kodachrome color tests from 1922 actually took my breath away for a moment. I felt as though time had stopped and I’d entered a dream. The colors are so sensual I felt like devouring them, inhaling them like opium. This stunning footage is archived at the George Eastman House and is an early test of the Two-Color Kodachrome Process.

In these newly preserved tests, made in 1922 at the Paragon Studios in Fort Lee, New Jersey, actress Mae Murray appears almost translucent, her flesh a pale white that is reminiscent of perfectly sculpted marble, enhanced with touches of color to her lips, eyes, and hair. She is joined by actress Hope Hampton modeling costumes from The Light in the Dark (1922), which contained the first commercial use of Two-Color Kodachrome in a feature film. Ziegfeld Follies actress Mary Eaton and an unidentified woman and child also appear.

Read more about these gorgeous moving pictures here.
 

 
I’ve seen and heard of some pretty out there tribute bands in my day. For instance, there was a lisping Elvis impersonator who (literally) sang for his supper in a fast food place. He was quite good, but when he sang “Suspicious Minds” the folks eating at the tables near him got their food sprayed with spittle. (As we watched him sing, Lux and Ivy from the Cramps walked past the place and waved to him).

Then there were the fake Beatles I tried to hire for an event who came with their own Linda and Yoko in tow, who fawned all over their personal “Lennon” and “McCartney”—they even had a manager named Brian whose only qualification seemed to be that he was from Liverpool. And named “Brian.” They kept asking me if I knew of any labels that might want to give them a record contract (“No” I told them, honestly). 

I also saw a Velvet Underground tribute band in Tokyo, complete with Nico (although Moe Tucker was played by a boy!).

But one band that seemed immune to the tribute band treatment was John Lydon’s Public Image Ltd. Until now, that is! A group formerly making the rounds in the UK doing a Sex Pistols tribute act decided to think outside the (metal) box and do a PiL panto as well, morphing in the process from The Sex Pistols Experience to Public Imitation Ltd.!!!

As someone who saw the original PiL line-up (post Jah Wobble, but with Keith Levene and Martin Adkins) in 1983—a life-changing experience for me as a teen (I decided then and there to not go to college)—I was expecting the worst, but this guy can actually do a better Lydon in 2010 than Lydon himself can, take a look:
 

 
I’m new to Bob Log III but I’m catching up. Bob plays a mean slide guitar while singing dirty ass songs through a telephone receiver glued inside of a motorcycle helmet. He also accompanies himself on kick drum and hi-hat cymbals. His set list includes crowd pleasers like Big Ass Hard On, Wag Your Tail Like a Dog In The Back Of A Truck, Clap Your Tits, I Want Your Shit On My Leg and his big hit Boob Scotch. While a cult item in the States, Bob is huge in Japan… I’m not kidding.

Once you get past the shock appeal of his song titles and stage show, the fact is, Log is a mighty fine slide guitarist who’s earned the respect of other musicians, including Tom Waits who describes Mr. Log thusly:

And then there’s this guy named Bob Log, you ever heard of him? He’s this little kid — nobody ever knows how old he is — wears a motorcycle helmet and he has a microphone inside of it and he puts the glass over the front so you can’t see his face, and plays slide guitar. It’s just the loudest strangest stuff you’ve ever heard. You don’t understand one word he’s saying. I like people who glue macaroni on to a piece of cardboard and paint it gold. That’s what I aspire to basically.

With his foul-mouthed humor and grimy blues vibe, Log reminds me of a cross between The Fugs and Captain Beefheart with some R.L. Burnside thrown in.

Here’s a few clips of Bob Log III in action.
 

 
More filth, including the totally amazing Clap Your Tits and some wild footage from Japan, after the jump…

 
Zombies have civil rights, too, you know: Minneapolis city attorney’s office has decided to pay seven “zombies” and their attorney $165,000 after they were jailed following a street theater protest. From the Star-Tribune:

The payout, approved by the City Council on Friday, settles a federal lawsuit the seven filed after they were arrested and jailed for two days for dressing up like zombies in downtown Minneapolis on July 22, 2006, to protest “mindless” consumerism.

When arrested at the intersection of Hennepin Avenue and 6th Street N., most of them had thick white powder and fake blood on their faces and dark makeup around their eyes. They were walking in a stiff, lurching fashion and carrying four bags of sound equipment to amplify music from an iPod when they were arrested by police who said they were carrying equipment that simulated “weapons of mass destruction.”

However, they were never charged with any crime.

Via Common Dreams /Thank you Michael Simmons!

 

 

 
Plenty more hi-res images to scan over at Stanley Kubrick - Deserving of Worship.

 
During the early 60’s, The Ventures were one of the most popular bands in the USA. But their American success was soon overshadowed by the British Invasion. They went from being huge hitmakers to yesterday’s papers practically overnight. So they went to Japan where, for awhile, they were as big as The Beatles. The Japanese nicknamed the group ‘The Beloved Invaders’ and called their sound ‘teke teke’ music. They were the Godzillas of the surf guitar.

I have several theories as to why The Ventures were big in Japan, most of them having to do with the sound of Mosrite guitars, koto music, Zen and radioactive sea-dwelling monsters.

Don Wilson who formed The Ventures with Bob Bogle in 1958 recalls touring Japan:

We played in downtown Tokyo, in a big place that holds 3,500 people. They were lined up around the block, about five abreast. We played three shows, one after the other. People were still trying to get in. We played in Yokohama and Osaka, the big cities. Had I known we were that popular, I would’ve asked for more money!

Earlier this year The Ventures received the illustrious Order Of The Rising Sun Award from the Japanese government honoring their contribution to Japan’s musical culture.

Here’s footage from The Beloved Invaders documenting The Ventures first tour of Japan. After suffering through decrepit looking bootlegs of this film, it was a thrill to come upon some pristine looking footage. And the sound is awesome.
 

 
Go on, have a guess!

Thank you (I think) Jose R. Mejia!

 
Beatnik chicks rule. Phillipa Fallon and Vampira move imaginary furniture in the coffeehouses of our minds.

Two groovy clips from High School Confidential and The Beat Generation.

The words to ‘High School Drag’ (the poem in the HSC clip) were written by B-movie screenwriter Mel Welles who seemed to have the right credentials for writing bop prose, “I was an expert on grass in my day…”  Welles also wrote hep talk for hipster royalty Lord Buckley.

Swing with a gassy chick.
Turn on to a thousand joys.
Smile on what happened, or check what’s going to happen,
You’ll miss what’s happening.
Turn your eyes inside and dig the vacuum.

Vampira went on to have a full-blown TV and film career, but what happened to the exquisite of Phillipa Fallon? She only made two films after High School Confidential, which is hard to believe considering the indelible impression she makes in that brief moment when the planets aligned and beatific angels kissed the foreheads of teenyboppers everywhere as Phillipa laid the beatnik gospel upon us. Ms. Fallon should have been a mega-star.

Check out the rat Vampira is cuddling while she versifies.

 
After the jump, Dennis Hopper as a beatnik in a 1964 episode of Petticoat Junction and the full text of the poem ‘High School Drag’ in all its glory.

 
Danny & Annie is a sweet animated love story courtesy of NPR’s StoryCorps project. It beautifully tells the tale of Danny and Annie Perasa, a couple from Brooklyn who speak of their 27 years together. What a wonderful piece this is! It should be nominated for an Academy award (and win). Be warned, you ARE going to cry watching this.

Directed by the Rauch Brothers.

Via Videogum

Photo by Albert Fernique. Collection from the New York Public Library.
 

Photo by Albert Fernique. Collection from the New York Public Library.

Truly amazing photos of the Statue of Liberty being constructed over at How to be a Retronaut. I diggity.

(via Mister Honk)

 
This country is fucked up beyond repair. There’s an IQ stratification that’s as obvious at this juncture as oil and water not mixing. On one hand you have a bunch of know-nothing, pitifully stupid Republican morons who revere Sarah Palin, Glenn Beck, Fox News, meanness, mindless racism and IGNORANCE. On the other hand you have smart people, Democrats and nearly 100% of all non-whites. Am I missing ANYTHING?

I used to think that the jingoistic Tea bagger-types would eventually just burn themselves out and overstay their welcome, before dispersing again. I’ve revised that opinion, they aren’t going anywhere. How can a 21st century democracy function when the dumbest 20% of the nation’s electorate is cohering into such an easily manipulated voting bloc? Be afraid, very, very afraid. No good can come of this, none.

Look deep into this man’s eyes. What do you see there?

Via Charles Johnson at Little Greenfootballs. Photo by Paul Gentile

 
Dangerous Minds patron saint Brian Eno has signed with the revered and generally high-quality UK label Warp in order to bring us a new collection of well, I don’t know exactly since there are no previews or samples, sorry. It’s called, charmingly enough, Small Craft On A Milk Sea. Eno’s last high profile release was 2005’s Another Day on Earth, a fine album that, ahem, I also was lucky enough to contribute to. If this new one is anywhere near as good as that, I’ll be a happy Eno fan indeed. You’ll also note, as is de rigeur for your higher profile artistes these days, that there are a few different and increasingly more expensive/elaborate packages available including the ultimate: a limited edition of 250 LP/CD package which will include a unique, signed by the man screen print and a golden ticket inviting you to visit and eventually inherit Eno’s candy factory (OK, I made that last part up).
 

 

 
The Kinks live, raw and rocking at Le palais de la MutualitÃ, Paris France April 24, 1965. At this point in their evolution, The Kinks were a killer garage band covering American r&b , The Kingsmen’s version of Louie Louie and mutations of Johnny B. Goode. While back in the States, garage bands were covering You Really Got Me.

The crowd goes nuts.

 
As far as I’m concerned religion is nonsense but this preacher takes it to a whole new level of silliness. And his congregation is eating it up.

Source: Dallas public access TV circa the 80’s.