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FRANCIS BACON: PAINTING AND THE MYSTERIOUS AND CONTINUOUS Real painting for Francis Bacon was about a mysterious and continuous struggle with chance. ”Mysterious because the very substance of the paint can make such a direct assault on the nervous system; continuous because the medium is so fluid and subtle that every change that is made loses what is already there in the hope of making a freshgain.”
CHARLES BUKOWSKI LOATHED POTHEADS: ‘I LIKE DRUNKARDS, MAN Charles Bukowski loathed potheads: ‘I like drunkards, man’. Despite being a famously proud drunkard of monumental proportions, author/brawler Charles Bukowski didn’t have a lot of nice things to say about other forms of mind-altering pursuits, especially marijuana. The inebriated bard shares his thoughts on drug use in the interviewbelow
MAGIC MUSHROOMS INSPIRED FRANK HERBERT’S ‘DUNE Anyone who has read Frank Herbert’s classic science fiction novel Dune will have pondered on the inspiration for the book’s fictional spice melange—supposedly the most valuable commodity in the universe. This naturally occurring drug can only be found on the planet Arrakis. The spice is much sought after as it can give users heightened awareness, longevity and the ability to see into the THAT TIME DIVINE AUDITIONED FOR ‘BLADE RUNNER,’ WHILE That time Divine auditioned for ‘Blade Runner,’ while Grace Jones turned it down. In some parallel universe, Oliver Reed replaced Sean Connery as James Bond for On Her Majesty’s Secret Service. Frank Sinatra was Dirty Harry, John Travolta played Forrest Gump and Emma Watson won the Oscar for her performance in La La Land. BARBIE AND KEN DOLLS TRANSFORMED INTO BAPHOMET, JUDAS ‘Baphomet Barbie’ by Argentinian artists Marianela Perelli and Pool Paolini. In 2014 Argentina-based artists Marianela Perelli and Pool Paolini “redesigned” 33 Barbie, Ken and Skipper dolls into various historical religious figures such as Judas, Jesus, the Virgin Mary, Buddha and Baphomet among others. The figures were a part of a show called “Barbie, the Plastic Religion” and as JOHN CLEESE: FOX NEWS VIEWERS ARE TOO STUPID TO REALIZE Earlier this year, the research of Dunning and Kruger was referenced by a relatively unlikely source: John Cleese, the brilliant comedian who famously portrayed one of the single most obtuse and supercilious characters in TV history, Basil Fawlty. Cleese believes FOX’s viewership is too unintelligent to put the proper brakes on their own ‘WEEZY, GET ME SOME LSD’: WHEN SHERMAN HEMSLEY MET GONG Sherman Hemsley, the actor who played George Jefferson, was known to be a huge fan of prog rock, especially Gentle Giant, Nektar and Gong. Hemsley collaborated with Yes’s Jon Anderson on a funk-rock opera about the “spiritual qualities of the number 7” (never produced). Hemsley also did an interpretive dance to the Gentle Giant song “Proclamation” on Dinah Shore’s 70s talkshow STRANGE TRIP: ARTIST TAKES LSD IN 1955, WHILE DOCTOR The study of the psychological effects of LSD was fairly widespread in the United States and the UK during the 50’s and 60’s producing thousands of pages of research. Cary Grant, Federico Fellini and even Bill Wilson, cofounder of Alcoholics Anonymous, all took LSD under very legal psychiatric supervision in the 1950’s. The U.S. Central intelligence agency also conducted thousands of HOW A PRE-FAME STEVE MARTIN AND BACHELORETTE DUPED ‘THE In this adorable 1968 clip from The Dating Game, a very young and dashing Steve Martin competes against two other (super creepy) bachelors for the affection of sweet Marsha Walker, the real-life sister of Martin’s childhood friend, Morris Walker. At this time Martin was a comedy writer for the Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour and had already made a couple of appearances on The Dating Game. RUDE & CRUDE DUDE: ISAAC ASIMOV’S LECHEROUS LIMERICKS Rude & crude dude: Isaac Asimov’s lecherous limericks. ‘No, Isaac, I don’t want to sniff your finger’. Isaac Asimov had some of the scariest sideburns in history. Not since the days of Victorian England, the Wild West or Leslie West’s Mountain has a man maintained a successful career as a writer while weighed down withsuch a
FRANCIS BACON: PAINTING AND THE MYSTERIOUS AND CONTINUOUS Real painting for Francis Bacon was about a mysterious and continuous struggle with chance. ”Mysterious because the very substance of the paint can make such a direct assault on the nervous system; continuous because the medium is so fluid and subtle that every change that is made loses what is already there in the hope of making a freshgain.”
CHARLES BUKOWSKI LOATHED POTHEADS: ‘I LIKE DRUNKARDS, MAN Charles Bukowski loathed potheads: ‘I like drunkards, man’. Despite being a famously proud drunkard of monumental proportions, author/brawler Charles Bukowski didn’t have a lot of nice things to say about other forms of mind-altering pursuits, especially marijuana. The inebriated bard shares his thoughts on drug use in the interviewbelow
MAGIC MUSHROOMS INSPIRED FRANK HERBERT’S ‘DUNE Anyone who has read Frank Herbert’s classic science fiction novel Dune will have pondered on the inspiration for the book’s fictional spice melange—supposedly the most valuable commodity in the universe. This naturally occurring drug can only be found on the planet Arrakis. The spice is much sought after as it can give users heightened awareness, longevity and the ability to see into the THAT TIME DIVINE AUDITIONED FOR ‘BLADE RUNNER,’ WHILE That time Divine auditioned for ‘Blade Runner,’ while Grace Jones turned it down. In some parallel universe, Oliver Reed replaced Sean Connery as James Bond for On Her Majesty’s Secret Service. Frank Sinatra was Dirty Harry, John Travolta played Forrest Gump and Emma Watson won the Oscar for her performance in La La Land. BARBIE AND KEN DOLLS TRANSFORMED INTO BAPHOMET, JUDAS ‘Baphomet Barbie’ by Argentinian artists Marianela Perelli and Pool Paolini. In 2014 Argentina-based artists Marianela Perelli and Pool Paolini “redesigned” 33 Barbie, Ken and Skipper dolls into various historical religious figures such as Judas, Jesus, the Virgin Mary, Buddha and Baphomet among others. The figures were a part of a show called “Barbie, the Plastic Religion” and as JOHN CLEESE: FOX NEWS VIEWERS ARE TOO STUPID TO REALIZE Earlier this year, the research of Dunning and Kruger was referenced by a relatively unlikely source: John Cleese, the brilliant comedian who famously portrayed one of the single most obtuse and supercilious characters in TV history, Basil Fawlty. Cleese believes FOX’s viewership is too unintelligent to put the proper brakes on their own| DANGEROUS MINDS
Dangerous Minds is a compendium of the new and strange-new ideas, new art forms, new approaches to social issues and new finds from the outer reaches of pop culture. Our editorial policy, such that it is, reflects the interests, whimsies and peculiarities of the individual writers. We are your favorite distraction. ‘THE GENUINE IMITATION LIFE GAZETTE’: THE FOUR SEASONS Most people would probably be surprised to find that Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons recorded a musically ambitious concept album in 1969 that was inspired by Pet Sounds and Sgt. Pepper’s. The Jersey boys were all about a doo-wop meets big band Motown sound and songs about girls, so no one expected an album of bold social commentary, complex vocal arrangements, long MURDER, DEATH, KILL! VINTAGE HORROR PULP NOVELS FROM THE The cover of ‘Rock A Bye Baby.’ A horror novel from 1984 by prolific horror writer Stephen Gresham. A huge tip of my hat goes out to the exhaustive blog Too Much Horror Fiction (is there such a thing? I think not) for inspiring this post. Curated by the self-described “neat, clean, shaved & sober” Will Errickson, the site has been cataloging and reviewing vintage horror novels since 2010. BEND ME, SHAPE ME: THE ART OF CONTORTIONISM MAKES A Contortionist ‘Ben Dover’ (born Joseph Späh) striking the ‘Hairpin Pose,’ early 1900s. Dover was one of the 62 survivors of the crash of the Hindenburg in 1937. Optional soundtrack to this post. The art of body contortion can be traced back to the 13th century BC in Greece, Egypt and Mexico until it started to decline in popularity during the Middle Ages. THE LONG-LOST GO-GO’S: ELISSA AND MARGOT Original bass player Margot Olavarria (far left), Jane Wiedlin, Charlotte Caffey, Gina Schock, and Belinda Carlisle The Go-Go’s hit songs from the early ‘80s have been Disneyfied to death over the past decade, but that unfortunate fact doesn’t diminish their influence as one of the most important bands to emerge from L.A.’searly punk scene.
BATTLE OF THE BULGE: CLASSIC ROCK STARS AND THEIR PACKAGES Marc Bolan dressed to the left. Sometime in the 1970s, an intrepid BBC reporter posited the question What is it about today’s pop stars that appealed so much to young girls and boys? After talking to a small selection of very emotional and breathy fans, he soon discovered the answer was music. This didn’t quite satisfy our keen reporter who seemed to be hoping for an answer more akin to TOPICS | DANGEROUS MINDS Dangerous Minds is a compendium of the new and strange-new ideas, new art forms, new approaches to social issues and new finds from the outer reaches of pop culture. Our editorial policy, such that it is, reflects the interests, whimsies and peculiarities of the individual writers. We are your favorite distraction. GRIM VINTAGE CRIME SCENE PHOTOS FROM THE LAPD ARCHIVE An image of Maila Nurmi as Vampira taken in 1955. It is a part of a huge collection of vintage LAPD crime scene pictures unearthed by photographer Merrick Morton in 2014. Fototeka is a large photo digitation service that works in conjunction with the National Film Archive to enhance historically relevant vintage photographs. Started in 2009, the photographic archive has digitized PETER SELLERS AND THE ‘STARK’ TRUTH ABOUT HIS PERVY Stark was regarded in the film world as Sellers’ sycophantic sidekick, who would do anything to brown nose his famous friend. The character actor John Le Mesurier once said of their relationship: “Graham Stark is the only man in London with a flat up Peter Sellers’s arse.”. Some of the strange things Graham Stark did toappease his
JOHN CLEESE: FOX NEWS VIEWERS ARE TOO STUPID TO REALIZE Earlier this year, the research of Dunning and Kruger was referenced by a relatively unlikely source: John Cleese, the brilliant comedian who famously portrayed one of the single most obtuse and supercilious characters in TV history, Basil Fawlty. Cleese believes FOX’s viewership is too unintelligent to put the proper brakes on their own STRANGE TRIP: ARTIST TAKES LSD IN 1955, WHILE DOCTOR The study of the psychological effects of LSD was fairly widespread in the United States and the UK during the 50’s and 60’s producing thousands of pages of research. Cary Grant, Federico Fellini and even Bill Wilson, cofounder of Alcoholics Anonymous, all took LSD under very legal psychiatric supervision in the 1950’s. The U.S. Central intelligence agency also conducted thousands of ‘WEEZY, GET ME SOME LSD’: WHEN SHERMAN HEMSLEY MET GONG Sherman Hemsley, the actor who played George Jefferson, was known to be a huge fan of prog rock, especially Gentle Giant, Nektar and Gong. Hemsley collaborated with Yes’s Jon Anderson on a funk-rock opera about the “spiritual qualities of the number 7” (never produced). Hemsley also did an interpretive dance to the Gentle Giant song “Proclamation” on Dinah Shore’s 70s talkshow THE LONG-LOST GO-GO’S: ELISSA AND MARGOT Original bass player Margot Olavarria (far left), Jane Wiedlin, Charlotte Caffey, Gina Schock, and Belinda Carlisle The Go-Go’s hit songs from the early ‘80s have been Disneyfied to death over the past decade, but that unfortunate fact doesn’t diminish their influence as one of the most important bands to emerge from L.A.’searly punk scene.
HOW A PRE-FAME STEVE MARTIN AND BACHELORETTE DUPED ‘THE In this adorable 1968 clip from The Dating Game, a very young and dashing Steve Martin competes against two other (super creepy) bachelors for the affection of sweet Marsha Walker, the real-life sister of Martin’s childhood friend, Morris Walker. At this time Martin was a comedy writer for the Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour and had already made a couple of appearances on The Dating Game. CHARLES BUKOWSKI LOATHED POTHEADS: ‘I LIKE DRUNKARDS, MAN Charles Bukowski loathed potheads: ‘I like drunkards, man’. Despite being a famously proud drunkard of monumental proportions, author/brawler Charles Bukowski didn’t have a lot of nice things to say about other forms of mind-altering pursuits, especially marijuana. The inebriated bard shares his thoughts on drug use in the interviewbelow
RUDE & CRUDE DUDE: ISAAC ASIMOV’S LECHEROUS LIMERICKS Rude & crude dude: Isaac Asimov’s lecherous limericks. ‘No, Isaac, I don’t want to sniff your finger’. Isaac Asimov had some of the scariest sideburns in history. Not since the days of Victorian England, the Wild West or Leslie West’s Mountain has a man maintained a successful career as a writer while weighed down withsuch a
FRANCIS BACON: PAINTING AND THE MYSTERIOUS AND CONTINUOUS Real painting for Francis Bacon was about a mysterious and continuous struggle with chance. ”Mysterious because the very substance of the paint can make such a direct assault on the nervous system; continuous because the medium is so fluid and subtle that every change that is made loses what is already there in the hope of making a freshgain.”
THAT TIME DIVINE AUDITIONED FOR ‘BLADE RUNNER,’ WHILE That time Divine auditioned for ‘Blade Runner,’ while Grace Jones turned it down. In some parallel universe, Oliver Reed replaced Sean Connery as James Bond for On Her Majesty’s Secret Service. Frank Sinatra was Dirty Harry, John Travolta played Forrest Gump and Emma Watson won the Oscar for her performance in La La Land. BARBIE AND KEN DOLLS TRANSFORMED INTO BAPHOMET, JUDAS ‘Baphomet Barbie’ by Argentinian artists Marianela Perelli and Pool Paolini. In 2014 Argentina-based artists Marianela Perelli and Pool Paolini “redesigned” 33 Barbie, Ken and Skipper dolls into various historical religious figures such as Judas, Jesus, the Virgin Mary, Buddha and Baphomet among others. The figures were a part of a show called “Barbie, the Plastic Religion” and as JOHN CLEESE: FOX NEWS VIEWERS ARE TOO STUPID TO REALIZE Earlier this year, the research of Dunning and Kruger was referenced by a relatively unlikely source: John Cleese, the brilliant comedian who famously portrayed one of the single most obtuse and supercilious characters in TV history, Basil Fawlty. Cleese believes FOX’s viewership is too unintelligent to put the proper brakes on their own STRANGE TRIP: ARTIST TAKES LSD IN 1955, WHILE DOCTOR The study of the psychological effects of LSD was fairly widespread in the United States and the UK during the 50’s and 60’s producing thousands of pages of research. Cary Grant, Federico Fellini and even Bill Wilson, cofounder of Alcoholics Anonymous, all took LSD under very legal psychiatric supervision in the 1950’s. The U.S. Central intelligence agency also conducted thousands of ‘WEEZY, GET ME SOME LSD’: WHEN SHERMAN HEMSLEY MET GONG Sherman Hemsley, the actor who played George Jefferson, was known to be a huge fan of prog rock, especially Gentle Giant, Nektar and Gong. Hemsley collaborated with Yes’s Jon Anderson on a funk-rock opera about the “spiritual qualities of the number 7” (never produced). Hemsley also did an interpretive dance to the Gentle Giant song “Proclamation” on Dinah Shore’s 70s talkshow THE LONG-LOST GO-GO’S: ELISSA AND MARGOT Original bass player Margot Olavarria (far left), Jane Wiedlin, Charlotte Caffey, Gina Schock, and Belinda Carlisle The Go-Go’s hit songs from the early ‘80s have been Disneyfied to death over the past decade, but that unfortunate fact doesn’t diminish their influence as one of the most important bands to emerge from L.A.’searly punk scene.
HOW A PRE-FAME STEVE MARTIN AND BACHELORETTE DUPED ‘THE In this adorable 1968 clip from The Dating Game, a very young and dashing Steve Martin competes against two other (super creepy) bachelors for the affection of sweet Marsha Walker, the real-life sister of Martin’s childhood friend, Morris Walker. At this time Martin was a comedy writer for the Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour and had already made a couple of appearances on The Dating Game. CHARLES BUKOWSKI LOATHED POTHEADS: ‘I LIKE DRUNKARDS, MAN Charles Bukowski loathed potheads: ‘I like drunkards, man’. Despite being a famously proud drunkard of monumental proportions, author/brawler Charles Bukowski didn’t have a lot of nice things to say about other forms of mind-altering pursuits, especially marijuana. The inebriated bard shares his thoughts on drug use in the interviewbelow
RUDE & CRUDE DUDE: ISAAC ASIMOV’S LECHEROUS LIMERICKS Rude & crude dude: Isaac Asimov’s lecherous limericks. ‘No, Isaac, I don’t want to sniff your finger’. Isaac Asimov had some of the scariest sideburns in history. Not since the days of Victorian England, the Wild West or Leslie West’s Mountain has a man maintained a successful career as a writer while weighed down withsuch a
FRANCIS BACON: PAINTING AND THE MYSTERIOUS AND CONTINUOUS Real painting for Francis Bacon was about a mysterious and continuous struggle with chance. ”Mysterious because the very substance of the paint can make such a direct assault on the nervous system; continuous because the medium is so fluid and subtle that every change that is made loses what is already there in the hope of making a freshgain.”
THAT TIME DIVINE AUDITIONED FOR ‘BLADE RUNNER,’ WHILE That time Divine auditioned for ‘Blade Runner,’ while Grace Jones turned it down. In some parallel universe, Oliver Reed replaced Sean Connery as James Bond for On Her Majesty’s Secret Service. Frank Sinatra was Dirty Harry, John Travolta played Forrest Gump and Emma Watson won the Oscar for her performance in La La Land. BARBIE AND KEN DOLLS TRANSFORMED INTO BAPHOMET, JUDAS ‘Baphomet Barbie’ by Argentinian artists Marianela Perelli and Pool Paolini. In 2014 Argentina-based artists Marianela Perelli and Pool Paolini “redesigned” 33 Barbie, Ken and Skipper dolls into various historical religious figures such as Judas, Jesus, the Virgin Mary, Buddha and Baphomet among others. The figures were a part of a show called “Barbie, the Plastic Religion” and as JOHN CLEESE: FOX NEWS VIEWERS ARE TOO STUPID TO REALIZE Earlier this year, the research of Dunning and Kruger was referenced by a relatively unlikely source: John Cleese, the brilliant comedian who famously portrayed one of the single most obtuse and supercilious characters in TV history, Basil Fawlty. Cleese believes FOX’s viewership is too unintelligent to put the proper brakes on their own| DANGEROUS MINDS
Dangerous Minds is a compendium of the new and strange-new ideas, new art forms, new approaches to social issues and new finds from the outer reaches of pop culture. Our editorial policy, such that it is, reflects the interests, whimsies and peculiarities of the individual writers. We are your favorite distraction. TAGS: DREW MULHOLLAND The Guardian referred to artist/musician Drew Mulholland as “the putative godfather” of the psychogeographic rock movement. Mulholland’s idiosyncratic compositional techniques (for that is the right word) include “sampling” the atmosphere of a particular location and incorporating this resonance/mood/memory into hissoundscapes.
THAT TIME HORROR VIXEN CAROLINE MUNRO RECORDED WITH CREAM A few days ago, whilst idly wasting time on the internet, I googled some images of 70s horror vixen/Bond girl Caroline Munro. As you do. Anyway an image of her with huge 80s hair (and Gary Numan!) caught my eye. That led me to a 2019 Guardian article that touched upon a musical project from the mid-1960s, from when she was just a teenager, that might be of interest to our readers. TOPICS | DANGEROUS MINDS Dangerous Minds is a compendium of the new and strange-new ideas, new art forms, new approaches to social issues and new finds from the outer reaches of pop culture. Our editorial policy, such that it is, reflects the interests, whimsies and peculiarities of the individual writers. We are your favorite distraction. MURDER, DEATH, KILL! VINTAGE HORROR PULP NOVELS FROM THE The cover of ‘Rock A Bye Baby.’ A horror novel from 1984 by prolific horror writer Stephen Gresham. A huge tip of my hat goes out to the exhaustive blog Too Much Horror Fiction (is there such a thing? I think not) for inspiring this post. Curated by the self-described “neat, clean, shaved & sober” Will Errickson, the site has been cataloging and reviewing vintage horror novels since 2010. ‘THE GENUINE IMITATION LIFE GAZETTE’: THE FOUR SEASONS Most people would probably be surprised to find that Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons recorded a musically ambitious concept album in 1969 that was inspired by Pet Sounds and Sgt. Pepper’s. The Jersey boys were all about a doo-wop meets big band Motown sound and songs about girls, so no one expected an album of bold social commentary, complex vocal arrangements, long ‘GENIUS IS PAIN!’: NATIONAL LAMPOON’S ‘MAGICAL MISERY TOUR National Lampoon editor Tony Hendra—probably best-known as Ian Faith, the irritable, incompetent manager of Spinal Tap—died yesterday. He’d been diagnosed with Lou Gehrig’s disease in 2019 and was 79. Hendra was an author, one of the creators of Spitting Image and he even opened for Lenny Bruce at the Cafe Au Go Go. He also did the fucking funniest John Lennon parody of all time. BATTLE OF THE BULGE: CLASSIC ROCK STARS AND THEIR PACKAGES Marc Bolan dressed to the left. Sometime in the 1970s, an intrepid BBC reporter posited the question What is it about today’s pop stars that appealed so much to young girls and boys? After talking to a small selection of very emotional and breathy fans, he soon discovered the answer was music. This didn’t quite satisfy our keen reporter who seemed to be hoping for an answer more akin to 1981 DOCUMENTARY ON THE CHELSEA HOTEL: THE VORTEX WHERE IT Dennis Hopper and Terry Southern, Chelsea Hotel 1981 BBC documentary on the Chelsea Hotel and its legendary inhabitants. This is good stuff. Includes footage of Quentin Crisp, Nico (backed up on guitar by my old friend Joe Bidewell), Warhol, Burroughs, Viva, Jobriath (2 years before he died of AIDS), Chelsea manager Stanley Bard and more. MORE COVER SONGS FROM THE MAN BEHIND ORKESTRA OBSOLETE’S Who are these masked men? That was the question many people were asking when a video popped up on their timeline four years ago featuring band called Orkestra Obsolete covering New Order’s “Blue Monday.” Who indeed? Little was revealed about this talented bunch of musos other than they were performing “Blue Monday” to illustrate what a classic synth song would sound like without STRANGE TRIP: ARTIST TAKES LSD IN 1955, WHILE DOCTOR The study of the psychological effects of LSD was fairly widespread in the United States and the UK during the 50’s and 60’s producing thousands of pages of research. Cary Grant, Federico Fellini and even Bill Wilson, cofounder of Alcoholics Anonymous, all took LSD under very legal psychiatric supervision in the 1950’s. The U.S. Central intelligence agency also conducted thousands of CHARLES BUKOWSKI LOATHED POTHEADS: ‘I LIKE DRUNKARDS, MAN Charles Bukowski loathed potheads: ‘I like drunkards, man’. Despite being a famously proud drunkard of monumental proportions, author/brawler Charles Bukowski didn’t have a lot of nice things to say about other forms of mind-altering pursuits, especially marijuana. The inebriated bard shares his thoughts on drug use in the interviewbelow
THE MORBIDLY BEAUTIFUL MEDICAL ILLUSTRATIONS OF DR. FRANK An illustration by Frank Netter done for the Ciba Company during the 1930s. Dr. Frank Netter was a surgeon during the great depression, though as a child growing up in Manhattan, he aspired to be an artist. As it turns out, Netter became both a great artist as well as a doctor and selling his artwork to his professors helped pay for his college education at New York University and two HOW SAM COOKE INVENTED THE AFRO Guralnick was talking about the legendary soul singer Sam Cooke with the great Stax songwriter, singer, and producer William Bell, and of the brilliant and tragic talent behind indelible songs like “Chain Gang,” “Cupid,” and “Another Saturday Night,” Bell rather bluntly asserted that “Sam started the afro.”. YouTube. ShoreFire.
BEND ME, SHAPE ME: THE ART OF CONTORTIONISM MAKES A Contortionist ‘Ben Dover’ (born Joseph Späh) striking the ‘Hairpin Pose,’ early 1900s. Dover was one of the 62 survivors of the crash of the Hindenburg in 1937. Optional soundtrack to this post. The art of body contortion can be traced back to the 13th century BC in Greece, Egypt and Mexico until it started to decline in popularity during the Middle Ages. The start of the 20th century BARBIE AND KEN DOLLS TRANSFORMED INTO BAPHOMET, JUDAS ‘Baphomet Barbie’ by Argentinian artists Marianela Perelli and Pool Paolini. In 2014 Argentina-based artists Marianela Perelli and Pool Paolini “redesigned” 33 Barbie, Ken and Skipper dolls into various historical religious figures such as Judas, Jesus, the Virgin Mary, Buddha and Baphomet among others. The figures were a part of a show called “Barbie, the Plastic Religion” and as ‘WEEZY, GET ME SOME LSD’: WHEN SHERMAN HEMSLEY MET GONG Sherman Hemsley, the actor who played George Jefferson, was known to be a huge fan of prog rock, especially Gentle Giant, Nektar and Gong. Hemsley collaborated with Yes’s Jon Anderson on a funk-rock opera about the “spiritual qualities of the number 7” (never produced). Hemsley also did an interpretive dance to the Gentle Giant song “Proclamation” on Dinah Shore’s 70s talkshow HOW A PRE-FAME STEVE MARTIN AND BACHELORETTE DUPED ‘THE In this adorable 1968 clip from The Dating Game, a very young and dashing Steve Martin competes against two other (super creepy) bachelors for the affection of sweet Marsha Walker, the real-life sister of Martin’s childhood friend, Morris Walker. At this time Martin was a comedy writer for the Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour and had already made a couple of appearances on The Dating Game. BRAIN DRAIN: JOHNNY RAMONE AND HIS BRUSH WITH DEATH AFTER The cover of the New York Post, August 15th, 1983. “I’m all for capital punishment. I think it should be televised.” —Johnny Ramone speaking about his wish for Seth Macklin of the punk band Sub Zero who attacked Ramone leaving him with a fractured skull and near death in 1983. In the year leading up to Johnny Ramone’s near-death-experience in the early hours of August 14th, 1983 JOHN CLEESE: FOX NEWS VIEWERS ARE TOO STUPID TO REALIZE Earlier this year, the research of Dunning and Kruger was referenced by a relatively unlikely source: John Cleese, the brilliant comedian who famously portrayed one of the single most obtuse and supercilious characters in TV history, Basil Fawlty. Cleese believes FOX’s viewership is too unintelligent to put the proper brakes on their own STRANGE TRIP: ARTIST TAKES LSD IN 1955, WHILE DOCTOR The study of the psychological effects of LSD was fairly widespread in the United States and the UK during the 50’s and 60’s producing thousands of pages of research. Cary Grant, Federico Fellini and even Bill Wilson, cofounder of Alcoholics Anonymous, all took LSD under very legal psychiatric supervision in the 1950’s. The U.S. Central intelligence agency also conducted thousands of CHARLES BUKOWSKI LOATHED POTHEADS: ‘I LIKE DRUNKARDS, MAN Charles Bukowski loathed potheads: ‘I like drunkards, man’. Despite being a famously proud drunkard of monumental proportions, author/brawler Charles Bukowski didn’t have a lot of nice things to say about other forms of mind-altering pursuits, especially marijuana. The inebriated bard shares his thoughts on drug use in the interviewbelow
THE MORBIDLY BEAUTIFUL MEDICAL ILLUSTRATIONS OF DR. FRANK An illustration by Frank Netter done for the Ciba Company during the 1930s. Dr. Frank Netter was a surgeon during the great depression, though as a child growing up in Manhattan, he aspired to be an artist. As it turns out, Netter became both a great artist as well as a doctor and selling his artwork to his professors helped pay for his college education at New York University and two HOW SAM COOKE INVENTED THE AFRO Guralnick was talking about the legendary soul singer Sam Cooke with the great Stax songwriter, singer, and producer William Bell, and of the brilliant and tragic talent behind indelible songs like “Chain Gang,” “Cupid,” and “Another Saturday Night,” Bell rather bluntly asserted that “Sam started the afro.”. YouTube. ShoreFire.
BEND ME, SHAPE ME: THE ART OF CONTORTIONISM MAKES A Contortionist ‘Ben Dover’ (born Joseph Späh) striking the ‘Hairpin Pose,’ early 1900s. Dover was one of the 62 survivors of the crash of the Hindenburg in 1937. Optional soundtrack to this post. The art of body contortion can be traced back to the 13th century BC in Greece, Egypt and Mexico until it started to decline in popularity during the Middle Ages. The start of the 20th century BARBIE AND KEN DOLLS TRANSFORMED INTO BAPHOMET, JUDAS ‘Baphomet Barbie’ by Argentinian artists Marianela Perelli and Pool Paolini. In 2014 Argentina-based artists Marianela Perelli and Pool Paolini “redesigned” 33 Barbie, Ken and Skipper dolls into various historical religious figures such as Judas, Jesus, the Virgin Mary, Buddha and Baphomet among others. The figures were a part of a show called “Barbie, the Plastic Religion” and as ‘WEEZY, GET ME SOME LSD’: WHEN SHERMAN HEMSLEY MET GONG Sherman Hemsley, the actor who played George Jefferson, was known to be a huge fan of prog rock, especially Gentle Giant, Nektar and Gong. Hemsley collaborated with Yes’s Jon Anderson on a funk-rock opera about the “spiritual qualities of the number 7” (never produced). Hemsley also did an interpretive dance to the Gentle Giant song “Proclamation” on Dinah Shore’s 70s talkshow HOW A PRE-FAME STEVE MARTIN AND BACHELORETTE DUPED ‘THE In this adorable 1968 clip from The Dating Game, a very young and dashing Steve Martin competes against two other (super creepy) bachelors for the affection of sweet Marsha Walker, the real-life sister of Martin’s childhood friend, Morris Walker. At this time Martin was a comedy writer for the Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour and had already made a couple of appearances on The Dating Game. BRAIN DRAIN: JOHNNY RAMONE AND HIS BRUSH WITH DEATH AFTER The cover of the New York Post, August 15th, 1983. “I’m all for capital punishment. I think it should be televised.” —Johnny Ramone speaking about his wish for Seth Macklin of the punk band Sub Zero who attacked Ramone leaving him with a fractured skull and near death in 1983. In the year leading up to Johnny Ramone’s near-death-experience in the early hours of August 14th, 1983 JOHN CLEESE: FOX NEWS VIEWERS ARE TOO STUPID TO REALIZE Earlier this year, the research of Dunning and Kruger was referenced by a relatively unlikely source: John Cleese, the brilliant comedian who famously portrayed one of the single most obtuse and supercilious characters in TV history, Basil Fawlty. Cleese believes FOX’s viewership is too unintelligent to put the proper brakes on their own ‘MESSER’S CIRCULATING LIBRARY’: THE OCCULT SOUNDSCAPES OF The Guardian referred to artist/musician Drew Mulholland as “the putative godfather” of the psychogeographic rock movement. Mulholland’s idiosyncratic compositional techniques (for that is the right word) include “sampling” the atmosphere of a particular location and incorporating this resonance/mood/memory into his soundscapes. Formerly trading under the name Mount Vernon Arts THAT TIME HORROR VIXEN CAROLINE MUNRO RECORDED WITH CREAM A few days ago, whilst idly wasting time on the internet, I googled some images of 70s horror vixen/Bond girl Caroline Munro. As you do. Anyway an image of her with huge 80s hair (and Gary Numan!) caught my eye. That led me to a 2019 Guardian article that touched upon a musical project from the mid-1960s, from when she was just a teenager, that might be of interest to our readers. ‘GENIUS IS PAIN!’: NATIONAL LAMPOON’S ‘MAGICAL MISERY TOUR National Lampoon editor Tony Hendra—probably best-known as Ian Faith, the irritable, incompetent manager of Spinal Tap—died yesterday. He’d been diagnosed with Lou Gehrig’s disease in 2019 and was 79. Hendra was an author, one of the creators of Spitting Image and he even opened for Lenny Bruce at the Cafe Au Go Go. He also did the fucking funniest John Lennon parody of all time. TOPICS | DANGEROUS MINDS Dangerous Minds is a compendium of the new and strange-new ideas, new art forms, new approaches to social issues and new finds from the outer reaches of pop culture. Our editorial policy, such that it is, reflects the interests, whimsies and peculiarities of the individual writers. We are your favorite distraction. 100 YEARS AGO, SOME PEOPLE WERE REALLY HOSTILE TO THE 1902 Oldsmobile Model R Curved Dash Runabout As with any transformative new technology, automobiles encountered considerable resistance when they arrived on the American scene in larger numbers between 1900 and 1910. There’s no doubt that they were popular—one of the features of American life back then was the birth of dozens of automobile enthusiasts’ “clubs,” a network that BEND ME, SHAPE ME: THE ART OF CONTORTIONISM MAKES A Contortionist ‘Ben Dover’ (born Joseph Späh) striking the ‘Hairpin Pose,’ early 1900s. Dover was one of the 62 survivors of the crash of the Hindenburg in 1937. Optional soundtrack to this post. The art of body contortion can be traced back to the 13th century BC in Greece, Egypt and Mexico until it started to decline in popularity during the Middle Ages. UFO SLIDES FOUND IN FILES LEAKED BY EDWARD SNOWDEN A set of slides showing supposed UFOs have been found amongst the mass of documents released by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden. The three slides were included in a Powerpoint presentation prepared by the British spy agency GCHQ (aka Government Communications Headquarters) that contained 50 uncaptioned images. The images have caused considerable speculation amongst RUDE & CRUDE DUDE: ISAAC ASIMOV’S LECHEROUS LIMERICKS Rude & crude dude: Isaac Asimov’s lecherous limericks. ‘No, Isaac, I don’t want to sniff your finger’. Isaac Asimov had some of the scariest sideburns in history. Not since the days of Victorian England, the Wild West or Leslie West’s Mountain has a man maintained a successful career as a writer while weighed down withsuch a
MORE COVER SONGS FROM THE MAN BEHIND ORKESTRA OBSOLETE’S Who are these masked men? That was the question many people were asking when a video popped up on their timeline four years ago featuring band called Orkestra Obsolete covering New Order’s “Blue Monday.” Who indeed? Little was revealed about this talented bunch of musos other than they were performing “Blue Monday” to illustrate what a classic synth song would sound like without THE SONG CO-WRITTEN BY DEVO AND JOHN HINCKLEY JR., RONALD If you look carefully at the credits for DEVO’s 1982 album Oh, No! It’s DEVO, you will spot a name that doesn’t ordinarily pop up in the DEVO universe or even the music world generally. The name is John Hinckley, Jr., and he is best known to the world as the man who tried to kill President Ronald Reagan in 1981, in a batshit-crazy attempt to win the amorous affections of Jodie Foster THE MORBIDLY BEAUTIFUL MEDICAL ILLUSTRATIONS OF DR. FRANK An illustration by Frank Netter done for the Ciba Company during the 1930s. Dr. Frank Netter was a surgeon during the great depression, though as a child growing up in Manhattan, he aspired to be an artist. As it turns out, Netter became both a great artist as well as a doctor and selling his artwork to his professors helped pay for his college education at New York University and two HOW A PRE-FAME STEVE MARTIN AND BACHELORETTE DUPED ‘THE In this adorable 1968 clip from The Dating Game, a very young and dashing Steve Martin competes against two other (super creepy) bachelors for the affection of sweet Marsha Walker, the real-life sister of Martin’s childhood friend, Morris Walker. At this time Martin was a comedy writer for the Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour and had already made a couple of appearances on The Dating Game. CHARLES BUKOWSKI LOATHED POTHEADS: ‘I LIKE DRUNKARDS, MAN Charles Bukowski loathed potheads: ‘I like drunkards, man’. Despite being a famously proud drunkard of monumental proportions, author/brawler Charles Bukowski didn’t have a lot of nice things to say about other forms of mind-altering pursuits, especially marijuana. The inebriated bard shares his thoughts on drug use in the interviewbelow
THE LONG-LOST GO-GO’S: ELISSA AND MARGOT Original bass player Margot Olavarria (far left), Jane Wiedlin, Charlotte Caffey, Gina Schock, and Belinda Carlisle The Go-Go’s hit songs from the early ‘80s have been Disneyfied to death over the past decade, but that unfortunate fact doesn’t diminish their influence as one of the most important bands to emerge from L.A.’searly punk scene.
WHATEVER HAPPENED TO THE DAVE CLARK FIVE? Although they were one of the top selling pop acts of the British invasion—just under the Beatles with sales of over 100 million records—The Dave Clark Five is little-remembered today. Despite a (belated) 2008 induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the airing of a documentary about them several times on PBS, if you are much younger than say 60, then chances are that you’ve FRANK ZAPPA REALLY LOVED BLACK SABBATH’S ‘SUPERNAUT Ozzy Osbourne backstage at the 1974 California Jam Frank Zappa gave “Supernaut,” the ur-metal monster that ends the first side of Black Sabbath Vol. 4, the number one spot in his list of “faves, raves, and composers in their graves,” published in the June 1975 issue of Let It Rock: ‘Supernaut’: Black Sabbath. I think it’sfrom Paranoid.
RUDE & CRUDE DUDE: ISAAC ASIMOV’S LECHEROUS LIMERICKS Rude & crude dude: Isaac Asimov’s lecherous limericks. ‘No, Isaac, I don’t want to sniff your finger’. Isaac Asimov had some of the scariest sideburns in history. Not since the days of Victorian England, the Wild West or Leslie West’s Mountain has a man maintained a successful career as a writer while weighed down withsuch a
PETER SELLERS AND THE ‘STARK’ TRUTH ABOUT HIS PERVY Stark was regarded in the film world as Sellers’ sycophantic sidekick, who would do anything to brown nose his famous friend. The character actor John Le Mesurier once said of their relationship: “Graham Stark is the only man in London with a flat up Peter Sellers’s arse.”. Some of the strange things Graham Stark did toappease his
THE DICTIONARY WHERE JERRY GARCIA GOT THE PHRASE ‘GRATEFUL In 1965, Jerry Garcia and Bob Weir and Ron “Pigpen” McKernan and Phil Lesh were in a Bay Area outfit called the Warlocks. (Quite astonishingly, the band that would become the Velvet Underground was also operating as the Warlocks at that exact same juncture.) The first show where the band performed as the Grateful Dead occurred on December 4, 1965, in San Jose, at one of Ken Kesey’s THE LOOK OF LOVE: RARELY-SEEN INTIMATE PICS OF FREDDIE Jim Hutton and Freddie Mercury with Dorothy the cat, Munich 1986. The first time Jim Hutton met Freddie Mercury, he told him to “fuck off.” They were in the Copacabana, a gay club in the basement of a hotel in South Kensington, one weekend in late 1983. Jim was at the bar with his lover, John Alexander, drinking from a can of lager. When John went to the lavatory, Freddie pushed his way THE MORBIDLY BEAUTIFUL MEDICAL ILLUSTRATIONS OF DR. FRANK An illustration by Frank Netter done for the Ciba Company during the 1930s. Dr. Frank Netter was a surgeon during the great depression, though as a child growing up in Manhattan, he aspired to be an artist. As it turns out, Netter became both a great artist as well as a doctor and selling his artwork to his professors helped pay for his college education at New York University and two HOW A PRE-FAME STEVE MARTIN AND BACHELORETTE DUPED ‘THE In this adorable 1968 clip from The Dating Game, a very young and dashing Steve Martin competes against two other (super creepy) bachelors for the affection of sweet Marsha Walker, the real-life sister of Martin’s childhood friend, Morris Walker. At this time Martin was a comedy writer for the Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour and had already made a couple of appearances on The Dating Game. CHARLES BUKOWSKI LOATHED POTHEADS: ‘I LIKE DRUNKARDS, MAN Charles Bukowski loathed potheads: ‘I like drunkards, man’. Despite being a famously proud drunkard of monumental proportions, author/brawler Charles Bukowski didn’t have a lot of nice things to say about other forms of mind-altering pursuits, especially marijuana. The inebriated bard shares his thoughts on drug use in the interviewbelow
THE LONG-LOST GO-GO’S: ELISSA AND MARGOT Original bass player Margot Olavarria (far left), Jane Wiedlin, Charlotte Caffey, Gina Schock, and Belinda Carlisle The Go-Go’s hit songs from the early ‘80s have been Disneyfied to death over the past decade, but that unfortunate fact doesn’t diminish their influence as one of the most important bands to emerge from L.A.’searly punk scene.
WHATEVER HAPPENED TO THE DAVE CLARK FIVE? Although they were one of the top selling pop acts of the British invasion—just under the Beatles with sales of over 100 million records—The Dave Clark Five is little-remembered today. Despite a (belated) 2008 induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the airing of a documentary about them several times on PBS, if you are much younger than say 60, then chances are that you’ve FRANK ZAPPA REALLY LOVED BLACK SABBATH’S ‘SUPERNAUT Ozzy Osbourne backstage at the 1974 California Jam Frank Zappa gave “Supernaut,” the ur-metal monster that ends the first side of Black Sabbath Vol. 4, the number one spot in his list of “faves, raves, and composers in their graves,” published in the June 1975 issue of Let It Rock: ‘Supernaut’: Black Sabbath. I think it’sfrom Paranoid.
RUDE & CRUDE DUDE: ISAAC ASIMOV’S LECHEROUS LIMERICKS Rude & crude dude: Isaac Asimov’s lecherous limericks. ‘No, Isaac, I don’t want to sniff your finger’. Isaac Asimov had some of the scariest sideburns in history. Not since the days of Victorian England, the Wild West or Leslie West’s Mountain has a man maintained a successful career as a writer while weighed down withsuch a
PETER SELLERS AND THE ‘STARK’ TRUTH ABOUT HIS PERVY Stark was regarded in the film world as Sellers’ sycophantic sidekick, who would do anything to brown nose his famous friend. The character actor John Le Mesurier once said of their relationship: “Graham Stark is the only man in London with a flat up Peter Sellers’s arse.”. Some of the strange things Graham Stark did toappease his
THE DICTIONARY WHERE JERRY GARCIA GOT THE PHRASE ‘GRATEFUL In 1965, Jerry Garcia and Bob Weir and Ron “Pigpen” McKernan and Phil Lesh were in a Bay Area outfit called the Warlocks. (Quite astonishingly, the band that would become the Velvet Underground was also operating as the Warlocks at that exact same juncture.) The first show where the band performed as the Grateful Dead occurred on December 4, 1965, in San Jose, at one of Ken Kesey’s THE LOOK OF LOVE: RARELY-SEEN INTIMATE PICS OF FREDDIE Jim Hutton and Freddie Mercury with Dorothy the cat, Munich 1986. The first time Jim Hutton met Freddie Mercury, he told him to “fuck off.” They were in the Copacabana, a gay club in the basement of a hotel in South Kensington, one weekend in late 1983. Jim was at the bar with his lover, John Alexander, drinking from a can of lager. When John went to the lavatory, Freddie pushed his wayDANGEROUS MINDS
Dangerous Minds is a compendium of the new and strange-new ideas, new art forms, new approaches to social issues and new finds from the outer reaches of pop culture. Our editorial policy, such that it is, reflects the interests, whimsies and peculiarities of the individual writers. We are your favorite distraction. ‘MESSER’S CIRCULATING LIBRARY’: THE OCCULT SOUNDSCAPES OF The Guardian referred to artist/musician Drew Mulholland as “the putative godfather” of the psychogeographic rock movement. Mulholland’s idiosyncratic compositional techniques (for that is the right word) include “sampling” the atmosphere of a particular location and incorporating this resonance/mood/memory into his soundscapes. Formerly trading under the name Mount Vernon Arts THE MORBIDLY BEAUTIFUL MEDICAL ILLUSTRATIONS OF DR. FRANK An illustration by Frank Netter done for the Ciba Company during the 1930s. Dr. Frank Netter was a surgeon during the great depression, though as a child growing up in Manhattan, he aspired to be an artist. As it turns out, Netter became both a great artist as well as a doctor and selling his artwork to his professors helped pay for his college education at New York University and two TOPICS | DANGEROUS MINDS Dangerous Minds is a compendium of the new and strange-new ideas, new art forms, new approaches to social issues and new finds from the outer reaches of pop culture. Our editorial policy, such that it is, reflects the interests, whimsies and peculiarities of the individual writers. We are your favorite distraction. THAT TIME HORROR VIXEN CAROLINE MUNRO RECORDED WITH CREAM A few days ago, whilst idly wasting time on the internet, I googled some images of 70s horror vixen/Bond girl Caroline Munro. As you do. Anyway an image of her with huge 80s hair (and Gary Numan!) caught my eye. That led me to a 2019 Guardian article that touched upon a musical project from the mid-1960s, from when she was just a teenager, that might be of interest to our readers. PETER SELLERS AND THE ‘STARK’ TRUTH ABOUT HIS PERVY You may not know the name Graham Stark, but you will certainly recognize this stony-faced comic actor from the dozens of British movies in which he appeared, such as the second Inspector Clouseau film A Shot in the Dark, Alfie, Those Magnificent Men in their Flying Machines, The Magic Christian, and Revenge of the Pink Panther. Stark also provided voices for The Goon Show, and ERIC CLAPTON’S DISGUSTING RACIST TIRADE I was only made aware of this speech by Eric Clapton at a 1976 gig in Birmingham, UK, the other day, but It’s truly disgusting. Here’s a relatively short sample (quoted from Rebel Rock by J. Street (1986) and sourced from New Musical Express, Melody Maker, The Guardian and The Times): Stop Britain from becoming a black colony. Get the foreigners out. Get the wogs out. Get the coons out UFO SLIDES FOUND IN FILES LEAKED BY EDWARD SNOWDEN A set of slides showing supposed UFOs have been found amongst the mass of documents released by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden. The three slides were included in a Powerpoint presentation prepared by the British spy agency GCHQ (aka Government Communications Headquarters) that contained 50 uncaptioned images. The images have caused considerable speculation amongst THE INFAMOUS HASHISH FUDGE RECIPE OF ALICE B. TOKLAS Alice B. Toklas and Gertrude Stein were supporting characters in the story of art, literature and culture during the early to mid-twentieth century. Stein was a writer, poet and playwright, who collected and promoted the artists Cezanne, Picasso, Matisse and Picabia; and the writers Hemingway, Ezra Pound and Scott Fitzgerald. Toklas was Stein’s lover, muse, editor, and confidante. WE ALL KNOW ROBERT SHAW WAS A GREAT ACTOR, BUT DID YOU Robert Shaw liked to drink. Indeed, the actor, author and playwright liked to drink a lot. And it often led to some disastrous consequences. During the making of Jaws, Robert Shaw had an alcohol-induced blackout during the filming of that famous S.S. Indianapolis speech. Shaw had convinced director Steven Spielberg that as the three characters in the scene (played by Shaw, Roy Scheider,and
THE MORBIDLY BEAUTIFUL MEDICAL ILLUSTRATIONS OF DR. FRANK An illustration by Frank Netter done for the Ciba Company during the 1930s. Dr. Frank Netter was a surgeon during the great depression, though as a child growing up in Manhattan, he aspired to be an artist. As it turns out, Netter became both a great artist as well as a doctor and selling his artwork to his professors helped pay for his college education at New York University and two HOW A PRE-FAME STEVE MARTIN AND BACHELORETTE DUPED ‘THE In this adorable 1968 clip from The Dating Game, a very young and dashing Steve Martin competes against two other (super creepy) bachelors for the affection of sweet Marsha Walker, the real-life sister of Martin’s childhood friend, Morris Walker. At this time Martin was a comedy writer for the Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour and had already made a couple of appearances on The Dating Game. THE LONG-LOST GO-GO’S: ELISSA AND MARGOT Original bass player Margot Olavarria (far left), Jane Wiedlin, Charlotte Caffey, Gina Schock, and Belinda Carlisle The Go-Go’s hit songs from the early ‘80s have been Disneyfied to death over the past decade, but that unfortunate fact doesn’t diminish their influence as one of the most important bands to emerge from L.A.’searly punk scene.
CHARLES BUKOWSKI LOATHED POTHEADS: ‘I LIKE DRUNKARDS, MAN Charles Bukowski loathed potheads: ‘I like drunkards, man’. Despite being a famously proud drunkard of monumental proportions, author/brawler Charles Bukowski didn’t have a lot of nice things to say about other forms of mind-altering pursuits, especially marijuana. The inebriated bard shares his thoughts on drug use in the interviewbelow
VOICE OF THE DEMON: ‘THE EXORCIST’ AND THE LEGACY OF Mercedes and the Monster (photo illustration by Todd McNaught) It inspired an ocean of imitators and aspects of it seem quaint in the context of the age of digitally effected gore. But almost 40 years after its release, The Exorcist remains a chilling classic that transcended the horror genre due to both William Friedkin’s masterful direction and Linda Blair’s stellar acting. WHATEVER HAPPENED TO THE DAVE CLARK FIVE? Although they were one of the top selling pop acts of the British invasion—just under the Beatles with sales of over 100 million records—The Dave Clark Five is little-remembered today. Despite a (belated) 2008 induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the airing of a documentary about them several times on PBS, if you are much younger than say 60, then chances are that you’ve FRANK ZAPPA REALLY LOVED BLACK SABBATH’S ‘SUPERNAUT Ozzy Osbourne backstage at the 1974 California Jam Frank Zappa gave “Supernaut,” the ur-metal monster that ends the first side of Black Sabbath Vol. 4, the number one spot in his list of “faves, raves, and composers in their graves,” published in the June 1975 issue of Let It Rock: ‘Supernaut’: Black Sabbath. I think it’sfrom Paranoid.
RUDE & CRUDE DUDE: ISAAC ASIMOV’S LECHEROUS LIMERICKS Rude & crude dude: Isaac Asimov’s lecherous limericks. ‘No, Isaac, I don’t want to sniff your finger’. Isaac Asimov had some of the scariest sideburns in history. Not since the days of Victorian England, the Wild West or Leslie West’s Mountain has a man maintained a successful career as a writer while weighed down withsuch a
PETER SELLERS AND THE ‘STARK’ TRUTH ABOUT HIS PERVY Stark was regarded in the film world as Sellers’ sycophantic sidekick, who would do anything to brown nose his famous friend. The character actor John Le Mesurier once said of their relationship: “Graham Stark is the only man in London with a flat up Peter Sellers’s arse.”. Some of the strange things Graham Stark did toappease his
THE DICTIONARY WHERE JERRY GARCIA GOT THE PHRASE ‘GRATEFUL In 1965, Jerry Garcia and Bob Weir and Ron “Pigpen” McKernan and Phil Lesh were in a Bay Area outfit called the Warlocks. (Quite astonishingly, the band that would become the Velvet Underground was also operating as the Warlocks at that exact same juncture.) The first show where the band performed as the Grateful Dead occurred on December 4, 1965, in San Jose, at one of Ken Kesey’s THE MORBIDLY BEAUTIFUL MEDICAL ILLUSTRATIONS OF DR. FRANK An illustration by Frank Netter done for the Ciba Company during the 1930s. Dr. Frank Netter was a surgeon during the great depression, though as a child growing up in Manhattan, he aspired to be an artist. As it turns out, Netter became both a great artist as well as a doctor and selling his artwork to his professors helped pay for his college education at New York University and two HOW A PRE-FAME STEVE MARTIN AND BACHELORETTE DUPED ‘THE In this adorable 1968 clip from The Dating Game, a very young and dashing Steve Martin competes against two other (super creepy) bachelors for the affection of sweet Marsha Walker, the real-life sister of Martin’s childhood friend, Morris Walker. At this time Martin was a comedy writer for the Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour and had already made a couple of appearances on The Dating Game. CHARLES BUKOWSKI LOATHED POTHEADS: ‘I LIKE DRUNKARDS, MAN Charles Bukowski loathed potheads: ‘I like drunkards, man’. Despite being a famously proud drunkard of monumental proportions, author/brawler Charles Bukowski didn’t have a lot of nice things to say about other forms of mind-altering pursuits, especially marijuana. The inebriated bard shares his thoughts on drug use in the interviewbelow
THE LONG-LOST GO-GO’S: ELISSA AND MARGOT Original bass player Margot Olavarria (far left), Jane Wiedlin, Charlotte Caffey, Gina Schock, and Belinda Carlisle The Go-Go’s hit songs from the early ‘80s have been Disneyfied to death over the past decade, but that unfortunate fact doesn’t diminish their influence as one of the most important bands to emerge from L.A.’searly punk scene.
WHATEVER HAPPENED TO THE DAVE CLARK FIVE? Although they were one of the top selling pop acts of the British invasion—just under the Beatles with sales of over 100 million records—The Dave Clark Five is little-remembered today. Despite a (belated) 2008 induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the airing of a documentary about them several times on PBS, if you are much younger than say 60, then chances are that you’ve FRANK ZAPPA REALLY LOVED BLACK SABBATH’S ‘SUPERNAUT Ozzy Osbourne backstage at the 1974 California Jam Frank Zappa gave “Supernaut,” the ur-metal monster that ends the first side of Black Sabbath Vol. 4, the number one spot in his list of “faves, raves, and composers in their graves,” published in the June 1975 issue of Let It Rock: ‘Supernaut’: Black Sabbath. I think it’sfrom Paranoid.
RUDE & CRUDE DUDE: ISAAC ASIMOV’S LECHEROUS LIMERICKS Rude & crude dude: Isaac Asimov’s lecherous limericks. ‘No, Isaac, I don’t want to sniff your finger’. Isaac Asimov had some of the scariest sideburns in history. Not since the days of Victorian England, the Wild West or Leslie West’s Mountain has a man maintained a successful career as a writer while weighed down withsuch a
PETER SELLERS AND THE ‘STARK’ TRUTH ABOUT HIS PERVY Stark was regarded in the film world as Sellers’ sycophantic sidekick, who would do anything to brown nose his famous friend. The character actor John Le Mesurier once said of their relationship: “Graham Stark is the only man in London with a flat up Peter Sellers’s arse.”. Some of the strange things Graham Stark did toappease his
THE DICTIONARY WHERE JERRY GARCIA GOT THE PHRASE ‘GRATEFUL In 1965, Jerry Garcia and Bob Weir and Ron “Pigpen” McKernan and Phil Lesh were in a Bay Area outfit called the Warlocks. (Quite astonishingly, the band that would become the Velvet Underground was also operating as the Warlocks at that exact same juncture.) The first show where the band performed as the Grateful Dead occurred on December 4, 1965, in San Jose, at one of Ken Kesey’s THE LOOK OF LOVE: RARELY-SEEN INTIMATE PICS OF FREDDIE Jim Hutton and Freddie Mercury with Dorothy the cat, Munich 1986. The first time Jim Hutton met Freddie Mercury, he told him to “fuck off.” They were in the Copacabana, a gay club in the basement of a hotel in South Kensington, one weekend in late 1983. Jim was at the bar with his lover, John Alexander, drinking from a can of lager. When John went to the lavatory, Freddie pushed his wayDANGEROUS MINDS
Dangerous Minds is a compendium of the new and strange-new ideas, new art forms, new approaches to social issues and new finds from the outer reaches of pop culture. Our editorial policy, such that it is, reflects the interests, whimsies and peculiarities of the individual writers. We are your favorite distraction. ‘MESSER’S CIRCULATING LIBRARY’: THE OCCULT SOUNDSCAPES OF The Guardian referred to artist/musician Drew Mulholland as “the putative godfather” of the psychogeographic rock movement. Mulholland’s idiosyncratic compositional techniques (for that is the right word) include “sampling” the atmosphere of a particular location and incorporating this resonance/mood/memory into his soundscapes. Formerly trading under the name Mount Vernon Arts THE MORBIDLY BEAUTIFUL MEDICAL ILLUSTRATIONS OF DR. FRANK An illustration by Frank Netter done for the Ciba Company during the 1930s. Dr. Frank Netter was a surgeon during the great depression, though as a child growing up in Manhattan, he aspired to be an artist. As it turns out, Netter became both a great artist as well as a doctor and selling his artwork to his professors helped pay for his college education at New York University and two TOPICS | DANGEROUS MINDS Dangerous Minds is a compendium of the new and strange-new ideas, new art forms, new approaches to social issues and new finds from the outer reaches of pop culture. Our editorial policy, such that it is, reflects the interests, whimsies and peculiarities of the individual writers. We are your favorite distraction. THAT TIME HORROR VIXEN CAROLINE MUNRO RECORDED WITH CREAM A few days ago, whilst idly wasting time on the internet, I googled some images of 70s horror vixen/Bond girl Caroline Munro. As you do. Anyway an image of her with huge 80s hair (and Gary Numan!) caught my eye. That led me to a 2019 Guardian article that touched upon a musical project from the mid-1960s, from when she was just a teenager, that might be of interest to our readers. PETER SELLERS AND THE ‘STARK’ TRUTH ABOUT HIS PERVY You may not know the name Graham Stark, but you will certainly recognize this stony-faced comic actor from the dozens of British movies in which he appeared, such as the second Inspector Clouseau film A Shot in the Dark, Alfie, Those Magnificent Men in their Flying Machines, The Magic Christian, and Revenge of the Pink Panther. Stark also provided voices for The Goon Show, and ERIC CLAPTON’S DISGUSTING RACIST TIRADE I was only made aware of this speech by Eric Clapton at a 1976 gig in Birmingham, UK, the other day, but It’s truly disgusting. Here’s a relatively short sample (quoted from Rebel Rock by J. Street (1986) and sourced from New Musical Express, Melody Maker, The Guardian and The Times): Stop Britain from becoming a black colony. Get the foreigners out. Get the wogs out. Get the coons out UFO SLIDES FOUND IN FILES LEAKED BY EDWARD SNOWDEN A set of slides showing supposed UFOs have been found amongst the mass of documents released by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden. The three slides were included in a Powerpoint presentation prepared by the British spy agency GCHQ (aka Government Communications Headquarters) that contained 50 uncaptioned images. The images have caused considerable speculation amongst THE INFAMOUS HASHISH FUDGE RECIPE OF ALICE B. TOKLAS Alice B. Toklas and Gertrude Stein were supporting characters in the story of art, literature and culture during the early to mid-twentieth century. Stein was a writer, poet and playwright, who collected and promoted the artists Cezanne, Picasso, Matisse and Picabia; and the writers Hemingway, Ezra Pound and Scott Fitzgerald. Toklas was Stein’s lover, muse, editor, and confidante. WE ALL KNOW ROBERT SHAW WAS A GREAT ACTOR, BUT DID YOU Robert Shaw liked to drink. Indeed, the actor, author and playwright liked to drink a lot. And it often led to some disastrous consequences. During the making of Jaws, Robert Shaw had an alcohol-induced blackout during the filming of that famous S.S. Indianapolis speech. Shaw had convinced director Steven Spielberg that as the three characters in the scene (played by Shaw, Roy Scheider,and
THE MORBIDLY BEAUTIFUL MEDICAL ILLUSTRATIONS OF DR. FRANKFRANK NETTER MEDICAL ILLUSTRATIONSNETTER COLLECTION OF MEDICAL ILLUSTRATIONSDR FRANK NETTERFRANK NETTER MEDICAL SCHOOLFAMOUS MEDICAL ANATOMY ARTISTS An illustration by Frank Netter done for the Ciba Company during the 1930s. Dr. Frank Netter was a surgeon during the great depression, though as a child growing up in Manhattan, he aspired to be an artist. As it turns out, Netter became both a great artist as well as a doctor and selling his artwork to his professors helped pay for his college education at New York University and two HOW A PRE-FAME STEVE MARTIN AND BACHELORETTE DUPED ‘THE In this adorable 1968 clip from The Dating Game, a very young and dashing Steve Martin competes against two other (super creepy) bachelors for the affection of sweet Marsha Walker, the real-life sister of Martin’s childhood friend, Morris Walker. At this time Martin was a comedy writer for the Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour and had already made a couple of appearances on The Dating Game. THE LONG-LOST GO-GO’S: ELISSA AND MARGOT Original bass player Margot Olavarria (far left), Jane Wiedlin, Charlotte Caffey, Gina Schock, and Belinda Carlisle The Go-Go’s hit songs from the early ‘80s have been Disneyfied to death over the past decade, but that unfortunate fact doesn’t diminish their influence as one of the most important bands to emerge from L.A.’searly punk scene.
CHARLES BUKOWSKI LOATHED POTHEADS: ‘I LIKE DRUNKARDS, MAN Charles Bukowski loathed potheads: ‘I like drunkards, man’. Despite being a famously proud drunkard of monumental proportions, author/brawler Charles Bukowski didn’t have a lot of nice things to say about other forms of mind-altering pursuits, especially marijuana. The inebriated bard shares his thoughts on drug use in the interviewbelow
VOICE OF THE DEMON: ‘THE EXORCIST’ AND THE LEGACY OFTHE EXORCIST THE MOVIETHE EXORCIST THE REAL STORYMERCEDES MCCAMBRIDGE THE EXORCISTTHE EXORCIST DEMON FACETHE EXORCIST DEMON NAME Mercedes and the Monster (photo illustration by Todd McNaught) It inspired an ocean of imitators and aspects of it seem quaint in the context of the age of digitally effected gore. But almost 40 years after its release, The Exorcist remains a chilling classic that transcended the horror genre due to both William Friedkin’s masterful direction and Linda Blair’s stellar acting. WHATEVER HAPPENED TO THE DAVE CLARK FIVE? Although they were one of the top selling pop acts of the British invasion—just under the Beatles with sales of over 100 million records—The Dave Clark Five is little-remembered today. Despite a (belated) 2008 induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the airing of a documentary about them several times on PBS, if you are much younger than say 60, then chances are that you’ve FRANK ZAPPA REALLY LOVED BLACK SABBATH’S ‘SUPERNAUT Ozzy Osbourne backstage at the 1974 California Jam Frank Zappa gave “Supernaut,” the ur-metal monster that ends the first side of Black Sabbath Vol. 4, the number one spot in his list of “faves, raves, and composers in their graves,” published in the June 1975 issue of Let It Rock: ‘Supernaut’: Black Sabbath. I think it’sfrom Paranoid.
RUDE & CRUDE DUDE: ISAAC ASIMOV’S LECHEROUS LIMERICKSISAAC ASIMOV BOOKFOUNDATION SERIES ISAAC ASIMOVISAAC ASIMOV QUIZ DAILYISAAC ASIMOV BIBLIOGRAPHYLECHEROUS LIMERICKS ISAAC ASIMOVISAAC ASIMOV FOUNDATION Rude & crude dude: Isaac Asimov’s lecherous limericks. ‘No, Isaac, I don’t want to sniff your finger’. Isaac Asimov had some of the scariest sideburns in history. Not since the days of Victorian England, the Wild West or Leslie West’s Mountain has a man maintained a successful career as a writer while weighed down withsuch a
PETER SELLERS AND THE ‘STARK’ TRUTH ABOUT HIS PERVY Stark was regarded in the film world as Sellers’ sycophantic sidekick, who would do anything to brown nose his famous friend. The character actor John Le Mesurier once said of their relationship: “Graham Stark is the only man in London with a flat up Peter Sellers’s arse.”. Some of the strange things Graham Stark did toappease his
THE DICTIONARY WHERE JERRY GARCIA GOT THE PHRASE ‘GRATEFUL In 1965, Jerry Garcia and Bob Weir and Ron “Pigpen” McKernan and Phil Lesh were in a Bay Area outfit called the Warlocks. (Quite astonishingly, the band that would become the Velvet Underground was also operating as the Warlocks at that exact same juncture.) The first show where the band performed as the Grateful Dead occurred on December 4, 1965, in San Jose, at one of Ken Kesey’s THE MORBIDLY BEAUTIFUL MEDICAL ILLUSTRATIONS OF DR. FRANKFRANK NETTER MEDICAL ILLUSTRATIONSNETTER COLLECTION OF MEDICAL ILLUSTRATIONSDR FRANK NETTERFRANK NETTER MEDICAL SCHOOLFAMOUS MEDICAL ANATOMY ARTISTS An illustration by Frank Netter done for the Ciba Company during the 1930s. Dr. Frank Netter was a surgeon during the great depression, though as a child growing up in Manhattan, he aspired to be an artist. As it turns out, Netter became both a great artist as well as a doctor and selling his artwork to his professors helped pay for his college education at New York University and two HOW A PRE-FAME STEVE MARTIN AND BACHELORETTE DUPED ‘THE In this adorable 1968 clip from The Dating Game, a very young and dashing Steve Martin competes against two other (super creepy) bachelors for the affection of sweet Marsha Walker, the real-life sister of Martin’s childhood friend, Morris Walker. At this time Martin was a comedy writer for the Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour and had already made a couple of appearances on The Dating Game. THE LONG-LOST GO-GO’S: ELISSA AND MARGOT Original bass player Margot Olavarria (far left), Jane Wiedlin, Charlotte Caffey, Gina Schock, and Belinda Carlisle The Go-Go’s hit songs from the early ‘80s have been Disneyfied to death over the past decade, but that unfortunate fact doesn’t diminish their influence as one of the most important bands to emerge from L.A.’searly punk scene.
CHARLES BUKOWSKI LOATHED POTHEADS: ‘I LIKE DRUNKARDS, MAN Charles Bukowski loathed potheads: ‘I like drunkards, man’. Despite being a famously proud drunkard of monumental proportions, author/brawler Charles Bukowski didn’t have a lot of nice things to say about other forms of mind-altering pursuits, especially marijuana. The inebriated bard shares his thoughts on drug use in the interviewbelow
VOICE OF THE DEMON: ‘THE EXORCIST’ AND THE LEGACY OFTHE EXORCIST THE MOVIETHE EXORCIST THE REAL STORYMERCEDES MCCAMBRIDGE THE EXORCISTTHE EXORCIST DEMON FACETHE EXORCIST DEMON NAME Mercedes and the Monster (photo illustration by Todd McNaught) It inspired an ocean of imitators and aspects of it seem quaint in the context of the age of digitally effected gore. But almost 40 years after its release, The Exorcist remains a chilling classic that transcended the horror genre due to both William Friedkin’s masterful direction and Linda Blair’s stellar acting. WHATEVER HAPPENED TO THE DAVE CLARK FIVE? Although they were one of the top selling pop acts of the British invasion—just under the Beatles with sales of over 100 million records—The Dave Clark Five is little-remembered today. Despite a (belated) 2008 induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the airing of a documentary about them several times on PBS, if you are much younger than say 60, then chances are that you’ve FRANK ZAPPA REALLY LOVED BLACK SABBATH’S ‘SUPERNAUT Ozzy Osbourne backstage at the 1974 California Jam Frank Zappa gave “Supernaut,” the ur-metal monster that ends the first side of Black Sabbath Vol. 4, the number one spot in his list of “faves, raves, and composers in their graves,” published in the June 1975 issue of Let It Rock: ‘Supernaut’: Black Sabbath. I think it’sfrom Paranoid.
RUDE & CRUDE DUDE: ISAAC ASIMOV’S LECHEROUS LIMERICKSISAAC ASIMOV BOOKFOUNDATION SERIES ISAAC ASIMOVISAAC ASIMOV QUIZ DAILYISAAC ASIMOV BIBLIOGRAPHYLECHEROUS LIMERICKS ISAAC ASIMOVISAAC ASIMOV FOUNDATION Rude & crude dude: Isaac Asimov’s lecherous limericks. ‘No, Isaac, I don’t want to sniff your finger’. Isaac Asimov had some of the scariest sideburns in history. Not since the days of Victorian England, the Wild West or Leslie West’s Mountain has a man maintained a successful career as a writer while weighed down withsuch a
PETER SELLERS AND THE ‘STARK’ TRUTH ABOUT HIS PERVY Stark was regarded in the film world as Sellers’ sycophantic sidekick, who would do anything to brown nose his famous friend. The character actor John Le Mesurier once said of their relationship: “Graham Stark is the only man in London with a flat up Peter Sellers’s arse.”. Some of the strange things Graham Stark did toappease his
THE DICTIONARY WHERE JERRY GARCIA GOT THE PHRASE ‘GRATEFUL In 1965, Jerry Garcia and Bob Weir and Ron “Pigpen” McKernan and Phil Lesh were in a Bay Area outfit called the Warlocks. (Quite astonishingly, the band that would become the Velvet Underground was also operating as the Warlocks at that exact same juncture.) The first show where the band performed as the Grateful Dead occurred on December 4, 1965, in San Jose, at one of Ken Kesey’sDANGEROUS MINDS
Dangerous Minds is a compendium of the new and strange-new ideas, new art forms, new approaches to social issues and new finds from the outer reaches of pop culture. Our editorial policy, such that it is, reflects the interests, whimsies and peculiarities of the individual writers. We are your favorite distraction. ‘MESSER’S CIRCULATING LIBRARY’: THE OCCULT SOUNDSCAPES OF The Guardian referred to artist/musician Drew Mulholland as “the putative godfather” of the psychogeographic rock movement. Mulholland’s idiosyncratic compositional techniques (for that is the right word) include “sampling” the atmosphere of a particular location and incorporating this resonance/mood/memory into his soundscapes. Formerly trading under the name Mount Vernon Arts THE MORBIDLY BEAUTIFUL MEDICAL ILLUSTRATIONS OF DR. FRANK An illustration by Frank Netter done for the Ciba Company during the 1930s. Dr. Frank Netter was a surgeon during the great depression, though as a child growing up in Manhattan, he aspired to be an artist. As it turns out, Netter became both a great artist as well as a doctor and selling his artwork to his professors helped pay for his college education at New York University and two TOPICS | DANGEROUS MINDS Dangerous Minds is a compendium of the new and strange-new ideas, new art forms, new approaches to social issues and new finds from the outer reaches of pop culture. Our editorial policy, such that it is, reflects the interests, whimsies and peculiarities of the individual writers. We are your favorite distraction. THAT TIME HORROR VIXEN CAROLINE MUNRO RECORDED WITH CREAM A few days ago, whilst idly wasting time on the internet, I googled some images of 70s horror vixen/Bond girl Caroline Munro. As you do. Anyway an image of her with huge 80s hair (and Gary Numan!) caught my eye. That led me to a 2019 Guardian article that touched upon a musical project from the mid-1960s, from when she was just a teenager, that might be of interest to our readers. PETER SELLERS AND THE ‘STARK’ TRUTH ABOUT HIS PERVY You may not know the name Graham Stark, but you will certainly recognize this stony-faced comic actor from the dozens of British movies in which he appeared, such as the second Inspector Clouseau film A Shot in the Dark, Alfie, Those Magnificent Men in their Flying Machines, The Magic Christian, and Revenge of the Pink Panther. Stark also provided voices for The Goon Show, and ERIC CLAPTON’S DISGUSTING RACIST TIRADE I was only made aware of this speech by Eric Clapton at a 1976 gig in Birmingham, UK, the other day, but It’s truly disgusting. Here’s a relatively short sample (quoted from Rebel Rock by J. Street (1986) and sourced from New Musical Express, Melody Maker, The Guardian and The Times): Stop Britain from becoming a black colony. Get the foreigners out. Get the wogs out. Get the coons out UFO SLIDES FOUND IN FILES LEAKED BY EDWARD SNOWDEN A set of slides showing supposed UFOs have been found amongst the mass of documents released by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden. The three slides were included in a Powerpoint presentation prepared by the British spy agency GCHQ (aka Government Communications Headquarters) that contained 50 uncaptioned images. The images have caused considerable speculation amongst THE INFAMOUS HASHISH FUDGE RECIPE OF ALICE B. TOKLAS Alice B. Toklas and Gertrude Stein were supporting characters in the story of art, literature and culture during the early to mid-twentieth century. Stein was a writer, poet and playwright, who collected and promoted the artists Cezanne, Picasso, Matisse and Picabia; and the writers Hemingway, Ezra Pound and Scott Fitzgerald. Toklas was Stein’s lover, muse, editor, and confidante. WE ALL KNOW ROBERT SHAW WAS A GREAT ACTOR, BUT DID YOU Robert Shaw liked to drink. Indeed, the actor, author and playwright liked to drink a lot. And it often led to some disastrous consequences. During the making of Jaws, Robert Shaw had an alcohol-induced blackout during the filming of that famous S.S. Indianapolis speech. Shaw had convinced director Steven Spielberg that as the three characters in the scene (played by Shaw, Roy Scheider,and
THE MORBIDLY BEAUTIFUL MEDICAL ILLUSTRATIONS OF DR. FRANKFRANK NETTER MEDICAL ILLUSTRATIONSNETTER COLLECTION OF MEDICAL ILLUSTRATIONSDR FRANK NETTERFRANK NETTER MEDICAL SCHOOLFAMOUS MEDICAL ANATOMY ARTISTS An illustration by Frank Netter done for the Ciba Company during the 1930s. Dr. Frank Netter was a surgeon during the great depression, though as a child growing up in Manhattan, he aspired to be an artist. As it turns out, Netter became both a great artist as well as a doctor and selling his artwork to his professors helped pay for his college education at New York University and two HOW A PRE-FAME STEVE MARTIN AND BACHELORETTE DUPED ‘THE In this adorable 1968 clip from The Dating Game, a very young and dashing Steve Martin competes against two other (super creepy) bachelors for the affection of sweet Marsha Walker, the real-life sister of Martin’s childhood friend, Morris Walker. At this time Martin was a comedy writer for the Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour and had already made a couple of appearances on The Dating Game. THE LONG-LOST GO-GO’S: ELISSA AND MARGOT Original bass player Margot Olavarria (far left), Jane Wiedlin, Charlotte Caffey, Gina Schock, and Belinda Carlisle The Go-Go’s hit songs from the early ‘80s have been Disneyfied to death over the past decade, but that unfortunate fact doesn’t diminish their influence as one of the most important bands to emerge from L.A.’searly punk scene.
CHARLES BUKOWSKI LOATHED POTHEADS: ‘I LIKE DRUNKARDS, MAN Charles Bukowski loathed potheads: ‘I like drunkards, man’. Despite being a famously proud drunkard of monumental proportions, author/brawler Charles Bukowski didn’t have a lot of nice things to say about other forms of mind-altering pursuits, especially marijuana. The inebriated bard shares his thoughts on drug use in the interviewbelow
VOICE OF THE DEMON: ‘THE EXORCIST’ AND THE LEGACY OFTHE EXORCIST THE MOVIETHE EXORCIST THE REAL STORYMERCEDES MCCAMBRIDGE THE EXORCISTTHE EXORCIST DEMON FACETHE EXORCIST DEMON NAME Mercedes and the Monster (photo illustration by Todd McNaught) It inspired an ocean of imitators and aspects of it seem quaint in the context of the age of digitally effected gore. But almost 40 years after its release, The Exorcist remains a chilling classic that transcended the horror genre due to both William Friedkin’s masterful direction and Linda Blair’s stellar acting. WHATEVER HAPPENED TO THE DAVE CLARK FIVE? Although they were one of the top selling pop acts of the British invasion—just under the Beatles with sales of over 100 million records—The Dave Clark Five is little-remembered today. Despite a (belated) 2008 induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the airing of a documentary about them several times on PBS, if you are much younger than say 60, then chances are that you’ve FRANK ZAPPA REALLY LOVED BLACK SABBATH’S ‘SUPERNAUT Ozzy Osbourne backstage at the 1974 California Jam Frank Zappa gave “Supernaut,” the ur-metal monster that ends the first side of Black Sabbath Vol. 4, the number one spot in his list of “faves, raves, and composers in their graves,” published in the June 1975 issue of Let It Rock: ‘Supernaut’: Black Sabbath. I think it’sfrom Paranoid.
RUDE & CRUDE DUDE: ISAAC ASIMOV’S LECHEROUS LIMERICKSISAAC ASIMOV BOOKFOUNDATION SERIES ISAAC ASIMOVISAAC ASIMOV QUIZ DAILYISAAC ASIMOV BIBLIOGRAPHYLECHEROUS LIMERICKS ISAAC ASIMOVISAAC ASIMOV FOUNDATION Rude & crude dude: Isaac Asimov’s lecherous limericks. ‘No, Isaac, I don’t want to sniff your finger’. Isaac Asimov had some of the scariest sideburns in history. Not since the days of Victorian England, the Wild West or Leslie West’s Mountain has a man maintained a successful career as a writer while weighed down withsuch a
PETER SELLERS AND THE ‘STARK’ TRUTH ABOUT HIS PERVY Stark was regarded in the film world as Sellers’ sycophantic sidekick, who would do anything to brown nose his famous friend. The character actor John Le Mesurier once said of their relationship: “Graham Stark is the only man in London with a flat up Peter Sellers’s arse.”. Some of the strange things Graham Stark did toappease his
THE DICTIONARY WHERE JERRY GARCIA GOT THE PHRASE ‘GRATEFUL In 1965, Jerry Garcia and Bob Weir and Ron “Pigpen” McKernan and Phil Lesh were in a Bay Area outfit called the Warlocks. (Quite astonishingly, the band that would become the Velvet Underground was also operating as the Warlocks at that exact same juncture.) The first show where the band performed as the Grateful Dead occurred on December 4, 1965, in San Jose, at one of Ken Kesey’s THE MORBIDLY BEAUTIFUL MEDICAL ILLUSTRATIONS OF DR. FRANKFRANK NETTER MEDICAL ILLUSTRATIONSNETTER COLLECTION OF MEDICAL ILLUSTRATIONSDR FRANK NETTERFRANK NETTER MEDICAL SCHOOLFAMOUS MEDICAL ANATOMY ARTISTS An illustration by Frank Netter done for the Ciba Company during the 1930s. Dr. Frank Netter was a surgeon during the great depression, though as a child growing up in Manhattan, he aspired to be an artist. As it turns out, Netter became both a great artist as well as a doctor and selling his artwork to his professors helped pay for his college education at New York University and two HOW A PRE-FAME STEVE MARTIN AND BACHELORETTE DUPED ‘THE In this adorable 1968 clip from The Dating Game, a very young and dashing Steve Martin competes against two other (super creepy) bachelors for the affection of sweet Marsha Walker, the real-life sister of Martin’s childhood friend, Morris Walker. At this time Martin was a comedy writer for the Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour and had already made a couple of appearances on The Dating Game. THE LONG-LOST GO-GO’S: ELISSA AND MARGOT Original bass player Margot Olavarria (far left), Jane Wiedlin, Charlotte Caffey, Gina Schock, and Belinda Carlisle The Go-Go’s hit songs from the early ‘80s have been Disneyfied to death over the past decade, but that unfortunate fact doesn’t diminish their influence as one of the most important bands to emerge from L.A.’searly punk scene.
CHARLES BUKOWSKI LOATHED POTHEADS: ‘I LIKE DRUNKARDS, MAN Charles Bukowski loathed potheads: ‘I like drunkards, man’. Despite being a famously proud drunkard of monumental proportions, author/brawler Charles Bukowski didn’t have a lot of nice things to say about other forms of mind-altering pursuits, especially marijuana. The inebriated bard shares his thoughts on drug use in the interviewbelow
VOICE OF THE DEMON: ‘THE EXORCIST’ AND THE LEGACY OFTHE EXORCIST THE MOVIETHE EXORCIST THE REAL STORYMERCEDES MCCAMBRIDGE THE EXORCISTTHE EXORCIST DEMON FACETHE EXORCIST DEMON NAME Mercedes and the Monster (photo illustration by Todd McNaught) It inspired an ocean of imitators and aspects of it seem quaint in the context of the age of digitally effected gore. But almost 40 years after its release, The Exorcist remains a chilling classic that transcended the horror genre due to both William Friedkin’s masterful direction and Linda Blair’s stellar acting. WHATEVER HAPPENED TO THE DAVE CLARK FIVE? Although they were one of the top selling pop acts of the British invasion—just under the Beatles with sales of over 100 million records—The Dave Clark Five is little-remembered today. Despite a (belated) 2008 induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the airing of a documentary about them several times on PBS, if you are much younger than say 60, then chances are that you’ve FRANK ZAPPA REALLY LOVED BLACK SABBATH’S ‘SUPERNAUT Ozzy Osbourne backstage at the 1974 California Jam Frank Zappa gave “Supernaut,” the ur-metal monster that ends the first side of Black Sabbath Vol. 4, the number one spot in his list of “faves, raves, and composers in their graves,” published in the June 1975 issue of Let It Rock: ‘Supernaut’: Black Sabbath. I think it’sfrom Paranoid.
RUDE & CRUDE DUDE: ISAAC ASIMOV’S LECHEROUS LIMERICKSISAAC ASIMOV BOOKFOUNDATION SERIES ISAAC ASIMOVISAAC ASIMOV QUIZ DAILYISAAC ASIMOV BIBLIOGRAPHYLECHEROUS LIMERICKS ISAAC ASIMOVISAAC ASIMOV FOUNDATION Rude & crude dude: Isaac Asimov’s lecherous limericks. ‘No, Isaac, I don’t want to sniff your finger’. Isaac Asimov had some of the scariest sideburns in history. Not since the days of Victorian England, the Wild West or Leslie West’s Mountain has a man maintained a successful career as a writer while weighed down withsuch a
PETER SELLERS AND THE ‘STARK’ TRUTH ABOUT HIS PERVY Stark was regarded in the film world as Sellers’ sycophantic sidekick, who would do anything to brown nose his famous friend. The character actor John Le Mesurier once said of their relationship: “Graham Stark is the only man in London with a flat up Peter Sellers’s arse.”. Some of the strange things Graham Stark did toappease his
DANGEROUS MINDS
Dangerous Minds is a compendium of the new and strange-new ideas, new art forms, new approaches to social issues and new finds from the outer reaches of pop culture. Our editorial policy, such that it is, reflects the interests, whimsies and peculiarities of the individual writers. We are your favorite distraction. ‘MESSER’S CIRCULATING LIBRARY’: THE OCCULT SOUNDSCAPES OF The Guardian referred to artist/musician Drew Mulholland as “the putative godfather” of the psychogeographic rock movement. Mulholland’s idiosyncratic compositional techniques (for that is the right word) include “sampling” the atmosphere of a particular location and incorporating this resonance/mood/memory into his soundscapes. Formerly trading under the name Mount Vernon Arts THE MORBIDLY BEAUTIFUL MEDICAL ILLUSTRATIONS OF DR. FRANK An illustration by Frank Netter done for the Ciba Company during the 1930s. Dr. Frank Netter was a surgeon during the great depression, though as a child growing up in Manhattan, he aspired to be an artist. As it turns out, Netter became both a great artist as well as a doctor and selling his artwork to his professors helped pay for his college education at New York University and two TOPICS | DANGEROUS MINDS Dangerous Minds is a compendium of the new and strange-new ideas, new art forms, new approaches to social issues and new finds from the outer reaches of pop culture. Our editorial policy, such that it is, reflects the interests, whimsies and peculiarities of the individual writers. We are your favorite distraction. THAT TIME HORROR VIXEN CAROLINE MUNRO RECORDED WITH CREAM A few days ago, whilst idly wasting time on the internet, I googled some images of 70s horror vixen/Bond girl Caroline Munro. As you do. Anyway an image of her with huge 80s hair (and Gary Numan!) caught my eye. That led me to a 2019 Guardian article that touched upon a musical project from the mid-1960s, from when she was just a teenager, that might be of interest to our readers. PETER SELLERS AND THE ‘STARK’ TRUTH ABOUT HIS PERVY You may not know the name Graham Stark, but you will certainly recognize this stony-faced comic actor from the dozens of British movies in which he appeared, such as the second Inspector Clouseau film A Shot in the Dark, Alfie, Those Magnificent Men in their Flying Machines, The Magic Christian, and Revenge of the Pink Panther. Stark also provided voices for The Goon Show, and ERIC CLAPTON’S DISGUSTING RACIST TIRADE I was only made aware of this speech by Eric Clapton at a 1976 gig in Birmingham, UK, the other day, but It’s truly disgusting. Here’s a relatively short sample (quoted from Rebel Rock by J. Street (1986) and sourced from New Musical Express, Melody Maker, The Guardian and The Times): Stop Britain from becoming a black colony. Get the foreigners out. Get the wogs out. Get the coons out UFO SLIDES FOUND IN FILES LEAKED BY EDWARD SNOWDEN A set of slides showing supposed UFOs have been found amongst the mass of documents released by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden. The three slides were included in a Powerpoint presentation prepared by the British spy agency GCHQ (aka Government Communications Headquarters) that contained 50 uncaptioned images. The images have caused considerable speculation amongst THE INFAMOUS HASHISH FUDGE RECIPE OF ALICE B. TOKLAS Alice B. Toklas and Gertrude Stein were supporting characters in the story of art, literature and culture during the early to mid-twentieth century. Stein was a writer, poet and playwright, who collected and promoted the artists Cezanne, Picasso, Matisse and Picabia; and the writers Hemingway, Ezra Pound and Scott Fitzgerald. Toklas was Stein’s lover, muse, editor, and confidante. WE ALL KNOW ROBERT SHAW WAS A GREAT ACTOR, BUT DID YOU Robert Shaw liked to drink. Indeed, the actor, author and playwright liked to drink a lot. And it often led to some disastrous consequences. During the making of Jaws, Robert Shaw had an alcohol-induced blackout during the filming of that famous S.S. Indianapolis speech. Shaw had convinced director Steven Spielberg that as the three characters in the scene (played by Shaw, Roy Scheider,and
THE MORBIDLY BEAUTIFUL MEDICAL ILLUSTRATIONS OF DR. FRANKFRANK NETTER MEDICAL ILLUSTRATIONSNETTER COLLECTION OF MEDICAL ILLUSTRATIONSDR FRANK NETTERFRANK NETTER MEDICAL SCHOOLFAMOUS MEDICAL ANATOMY ARTISTS An illustration by Frank Netter done for the Ciba Company during the 1930s. Dr. Frank Netter was a surgeon during the great depression, though as a child growing up in Manhattan, he aspired to be an artist. As it turns out, Netter became both a great artist as well as a doctor and selling his artwork to his professors helped pay for his college education at New York University and two HOW A PRE-FAME STEVE MARTIN AND BACHELORETTE DUPED ‘THE In this adorable 1968 clip from The Dating Game, a very young and dashing Steve Martin competes against two other (super creepy) bachelors for the affection of sweet Marsha Walker, the real-life sister of Martin’s childhood friend, Morris Walker. At this time Martin was a comedy writer for the Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour and had already made a couple of appearances on The Dating Game. THE LONG-LOST GO-GO’S: ELISSA AND MARGOT Original bass player Margot Olavarria (far left), Jane Wiedlin, Charlotte Caffey, Gina Schock, and Belinda Carlisle The Go-Go’s hit songs from the early ‘80s have been Disneyfied to death over the past decade, but that unfortunate fact doesn’t diminish their influence as one of the most important bands to emerge from L.A.’searly punk scene.
VOICE OF THE DEMON: ‘THE EXORCIST’ AND THE LEGACY OFTHE EXORCIST THE MOVIETHE EXORCIST THE REAL STORYMERCEDES MCCAMBRIDGE THE EXORCISTTHE EXORCIST DEMON FACETHE EXORCIST DEMON NAME Mercedes and the Monster (photo illustration by Todd McNaught) It inspired an ocean of imitators and aspects of it seem quaint in the context of the age of digitally effected gore. But almost 40 years after its release, The Exorcist remains a chilling classic that transcended the horror genre due to both William Friedkin’s masterful direction and Linda Blair’s stellar acting. CHARLES BUKOWSKI LOATHED POTHEADS: ‘I LIKE DRUNKARDS, MAN Charles Bukowski loathed potheads: ‘I like drunkards, man’. Despite being a famously proud drunkard of monumental proportions, author/brawler Charles Bukowski didn’t have a lot of nice things to say about other forms of mind-altering pursuits, especially marijuana. The inebriated bard shares his thoughts on drug use in the interviewbelow
WHATEVER HAPPENED TO THE DAVE CLARK FIVE? Although they were one of the top selling pop acts of the British invasion—just under the Beatles with sales of over 100 million records—The Dave Clark Five is little-remembered today. Despite a (belated) 2008 induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the airing of a documentary about them several times on PBS, if you are much younger than say 60, then chances are that you’ve FRANK ZAPPA REALLY LOVED BLACK SABBATH’S ‘SUPERNAUT Ozzy Osbourne backstage at the 1974 California Jam Frank Zappa gave “Supernaut,” the ur-metal monster that ends the first side of Black Sabbath Vol. 4, the number one spot in his list of “faves, raves, and composers in their graves,” published in the June 1975 issue of Let It Rock: ‘Supernaut’: Black Sabbath. I think it’sfrom Paranoid.
RUDE & CRUDE DUDE: ISAAC ASIMOV’S LECHEROUS LIMERICKSISAAC ASIMOV BOOKFOUNDATION SERIES ISAAC ASIMOVISAAC ASIMOV QUIZ DAILYISAAC ASIMOV BIBLIOGRAPHYLECHEROUS LIMERICKS ISAAC ASIMOVISAAC ASIMOV FOUNDATION Rude & crude dude: Isaac Asimov’s lecherous limericks. ‘No, Isaac, I don’t want to sniff your finger’. Isaac Asimov had some of the scariest sideburns in history. Not since the days of Victorian England, the Wild West or Leslie West’s Mountain has a man maintained a successful career as a writer while weighed down withsuch a
PETER SELLERS AND THE ‘STARK’ TRUTH ABOUT HIS PERVY Stark was regarded in the film world as Sellers’ sycophantic sidekick, who would do anything to brown nose his famous friend. The character actor John Le Mesurier once said of their relationship: “Graham Stark is the only man in London with a flat up Peter Sellers’s arse.”. Some of the strange things Graham Stark did toappease his
THE DICTIONARY WHERE JERRY GARCIA GOT THE PHRASE ‘GRATEFUL In 1965, Jerry Garcia and Bob Weir and Ron “Pigpen” McKernan and Phil Lesh were in a Bay Area outfit called the Warlocks. (Quite astonishingly, the band that would become the Velvet Underground was also operating as the Warlocks at that exact same juncture.) The first show where the band performed as the Grateful Dead occurred on December 4, 1965, in San Jose, at one of Ken Kesey’s THE MORBIDLY BEAUTIFUL MEDICAL ILLUSTRATIONS OF DR. FRANKFRANK NETTER MEDICAL ILLUSTRATIONSNETTER COLLECTION OF MEDICAL ILLUSTRATIONSDR FRANK NETTERFRANK NETTER MEDICAL SCHOOLFAMOUS MEDICAL ANATOMY ARTISTS An illustration by Frank Netter done for the Ciba Company during the 1930s. Dr. Frank Netter was a surgeon during the great depression, though as a child growing up in Manhattan, he aspired to be an artist. As it turns out, Netter became both a great artist as well as a doctor and selling his artwork to his professors helped pay for his college education at New York University and two HOW A PRE-FAME STEVE MARTIN AND BACHELORETTE DUPED ‘THE In this adorable 1968 clip from The Dating Game, a very young and dashing Steve Martin competes against two other (super creepy) bachelors for the affection of sweet Marsha Walker, the real-life sister of Martin’s childhood friend, Morris Walker. At this time Martin was a comedy writer for the Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour and had already made a couple of appearances on The Dating Game. THE LONG-LOST GO-GO’S: ELISSA AND MARGOT Original bass player Margot Olavarria (far left), Jane Wiedlin, Charlotte Caffey, Gina Schock, and Belinda Carlisle The Go-Go’s hit songs from the early ‘80s have been Disneyfied to death over the past decade, but that unfortunate fact doesn’t diminish their influence as one of the most important bands to emerge from L.A.’searly punk scene.
VOICE OF THE DEMON: ‘THE EXORCIST’ AND THE LEGACY OFTHE EXORCIST THE MOVIETHE EXORCIST THE REAL STORYMERCEDES MCCAMBRIDGE THE EXORCISTTHE EXORCIST DEMON FACETHE EXORCIST DEMON NAME Mercedes and the Monster (photo illustration by Todd McNaught) It inspired an ocean of imitators and aspects of it seem quaint in the context of the age of digitally effected gore. But almost 40 years after its release, The Exorcist remains a chilling classic that transcended the horror genre due to both William Friedkin’s masterful direction and Linda Blair’s stellar acting. CHARLES BUKOWSKI LOATHED POTHEADS: ‘I LIKE DRUNKARDS, MAN Charles Bukowski loathed potheads: ‘I like drunkards, man’. Despite being a famously proud drunkard of monumental proportions, author/brawler Charles Bukowski didn’t have a lot of nice things to say about other forms of mind-altering pursuits, especially marijuana. The inebriated bard shares his thoughts on drug use in the interviewbelow
WHATEVER HAPPENED TO THE DAVE CLARK FIVE? Although they were one of the top selling pop acts of the British invasion—just under the Beatles with sales of over 100 million records—The Dave Clark Five is little-remembered today. Despite a (belated) 2008 induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the airing of a documentary about them several times on PBS, if you are much younger than say 60, then chances are that you’ve FRANK ZAPPA REALLY LOVED BLACK SABBATH’S ‘SUPERNAUT Ozzy Osbourne backstage at the 1974 California Jam Frank Zappa gave “Supernaut,” the ur-metal monster that ends the first side of Black Sabbath Vol. 4, the number one spot in his list of “faves, raves, and composers in their graves,” published in the June 1975 issue of Let It Rock: ‘Supernaut’: Black Sabbath. I think it’sfrom Paranoid.
RUDE & CRUDE DUDE: ISAAC ASIMOV’S LECHEROUS LIMERICKSISAAC ASIMOV BOOKFOUNDATION SERIES ISAAC ASIMOVISAAC ASIMOV QUIZ DAILYISAAC ASIMOV BIBLIOGRAPHYLECHEROUS LIMERICKS ISAAC ASIMOVISAAC ASIMOV FOUNDATION Rude & crude dude: Isaac Asimov’s lecherous limericks. ‘No, Isaac, I don’t want to sniff your finger’. Isaac Asimov had some of the scariest sideburns in history. Not since the days of Victorian England, the Wild West or Leslie West’s Mountain has a man maintained a successful career as a writer while weighed down withsuch a
PETER SELLERS AND THE ‘STARK’ TRUTH ABOUT HIS PERVY Stark was regarded in the film world as Sellers’ sycophantic sidekick, who would do anything to brown nose his famous friend. The character actor John Le Mesurier once said of their relationship: “Graham Stark is the only man in London with a flat up Peter Sellers’s arse.”. Some of the strange things Graham Stark did toappease his
THE DICTIONARY WHERE JERRY GARCIA GOT THE PHRASE ‘GRATEFUL In 1965, Jerry Garcia and Bob Weir and Ron “Pigpen” McKernan and Phil Lesh were in a Bay Area outfit called the Warlocks. (Quite astonishingly, the band that would become the Velvet Underground was also operating as the Warlocks at that exact same juncture.) The first show where the band performed as the Grateful Dead occurred on December 4, 1965, in San Jose, at one of Ken Kesey’sDANGEROUS MINDS
Dangerous Minds is a compendium of the new and strange-new ideas, new art forms, new approaches to social issues and new finds from the outer reaches of pop culture. Our editorial policy, such that it is, reflects the interests, whimsies and peculiarities of the individual writers. We are your favorite distraction. ‘MESSER’S CIRCULATING LIBRARY’: THE OCCULT SOUNDSCAPES OF The Guardian referred to artist/musician Drew Mulholland as “the putative godfather” of the psychogeographic rock movement. Mulholland’s idiosyncratic compositional techniques (for that is the right word) include “sampling” the atmosphere of a particular location and incorporating this resonance/mood/memory into his soundscapes. Formerly trading under the name Mount Vernon Arts THE MORBIDLY BEAUTIFUL MEDICAL ILLUSTRATIONS OF DR. FRANK An illustration by Frank Netter done for the Ciba Company during the 1930s. Dr. Frank Netter was a surgeon during the great depression, though as a child growing up in Manhattan, he aspired to be an artist. As it turns out, Netter became both a great artist as well as a doctor and selling his artwork to his professors helped pay for his college education at New York University and two TOPICS | DANGEROUS MINDS Dangerous Minds is a compendium of the new and strange-new ideas, new art forms, new approaches to social issues and new finds from the outer reaches of pop culture. Our editorial policy, such that it is, reflects the interests, whimsies and peculiarities of the individual writers. We are your favorite distraction. PETER SELLERS AND THE ‘STARK’ TRUTH ABOUT HIS PERVY You may not know the name Graham Stark, but you will certainly recognize this stony-faced comic actor from the dozens of British movies in which he appeared, such as the second Inspector Clouseau film A Shot in the Dark, Alfie, Those Magnificent Men in their Flying Machines, The Magic Christian, and Revenge of the Pink Panther. Stark also provided voices for The Goon Show, and ERIC CLAPTON’S DISGUSTING RACIST TIRADE I was only made aware of this speech by Eric Clapton at a 1976 gig in Birmingham, UK, the other day, but It’s truly disgusting. Here’s a relatively short sample (quoted from Rebel Rock by J. Street (1986) and sourced from New Musical Express, Melody Maker, The Guardian and The Times): Stop Britain from becoming a black colony. Get the foreigners out. Get the wogs out. Get the coons out UFO SLIDES FOUND IN FILES LEAKED BY EDWARD SNOWDEN A set of slides showing supposed UFOs have been found amongst the mass of documents released by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden. The three slides were included in a Powerpoint presentation prepared by the British spy agency GCHQ (aka Government Communications Headquarters) that contained 50 uncaptioned images. The images have caused considerable speculation amongst THE INFAMOUS HASHISH FUDGE RECIPE OF ALICE B. TOKLAS Alice B. Toklas and Gertrude Stein were supporting characters in the story of art, literature and culture during the early to mid-twentieth century. Stein was a writer, poet and playwright, who collected and promoted the artists Cezanne, Picasso, Matisse and Picabia; and the writers Hemingway, Ezra Pound and Scott Fitzgerald. Toklas was Stein’s lover, muse, editor, and confidante. 1981 DOCUMENTARY ON THE CHELSEA HOTEL: THE VORTEX WHERE IT Dennis Hopper and Terry Southern, Chelsea Hotel 1981 BBC documentary on the Chelsea Hotel and its legendary inhabitants. This is good stuff. Includes footage of Quentin Crisp, Nico (backed up on guitar by my old friend Joe Bidewell), Warhol, Burroughs, Viva, Jobriath (2 years before he died of AIDS), Chelsea manager Stanley Bard and more. WE ALL KNOW ROBERT SHAW WAS A GREAT ACTOR, BUT DID YOU Robert Shaw liked to drink. Indeed, the actor, author and playwright liked to drink a lot. And it often led to some disastrous consequences. During the making of Jaws, Robert Shaw had an alcohol-induced blackout during the filming of that famous S.S. Indianapolis speech. Shaw had convinced director Steven Spielberg that as the three characters in the scene (played by Shaw, Roy Scheider,and
___
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‘Tax Scam Records’: Artist Discovers Albums of His Songs Were Released by Shadowy Companies in 197711.27.2020
09:45 am
Topics:
Music
Tags:
Tax Scam Records
Richard Goldman
IN APRIL 2017, WE TOLD YOU THE INCREDIBLE STORY OF THE TALENTED SINGER/SONGWRITER RICHARD GOLDMAN AND THE LPS OF HIS MATERIAL THAT WERE PUT OUT WITHOUT HIS KNOWLEDGE. BOTH RECORDS WERE RELEASED AS PART OF TAX SHELTER DEALS IN 1977. THE ALBUMS ARE TESTAMENTS TO HIS KNACK FOR WRITING AND PERFORMING CLEVER, CATCHY SONGS, BUT IN ADDITION TO NOT BEING ASKED IF HIS WORKS COULD BE USED ON THOSE RECORDS, RICHARD RECEIVED NO FINANCIAL COMPENSATION. FORTY-PLUS YEARS LATER, THESE INJUSTICES ARE FINALLY BEING RIGHTED WITH NUMERO GROUP ’S ISSUING OF _SWEETHEARTS DELUXE_,
THE FIRST AUTHORIZED COLLECTION OF RICHARD’S RECORDINGS THAT WERE INCLUDED ON TAX SHELTER ALBUMS. TO CELEBRATE THE RELEASE, WHICH IS OUT TODAY, WE’RE REPOSTING PART ONE OF OUR 2017 ARTICLE ON RICHARD GOLDMAN AND THE SHADY WORLD OF “TAX SCAM RECORDS.”*****
“Tax scam records” is a phrase that was coined by collectors to identify albums that are believed to have been manufactured for the sole purpose of—get this—_losing_ money. From around 1976 until 1984, a number of record labels were established as tax shelters, with investors putting their money into albums. A financier would invest, say, $20,000 in an LP, and if it tanked, the backer could claim a loss on their taxes, based on the assessed value of the master recording. Technically, the practice was legal, but to maximize the write-off, the appraisal was often grossly inflated—as high as seven figures. The I.R.S would come to question the legitimacy of some of these labels, and accuse those promoting shelters that focused on tax benefits—rather than the music being bankrolled—of perpetuatingfraud.
Anything was seemingly fair game for a tax shelter album, including LPs previously issued as private press records, demo tapes by aspiring artists, and studio outtakes by name acts. Some labels were so brazen, they released albums using material by groups as big as Led Zeppelinand the Beatles.
_Album of Beatles Christmas messages, 1981_ Another issue that caught the attention of the I.R.S., was how little to no money was put into marketing these releases. Over time, collectors came to realize that relatively few copies of individual tax shelter albums had made it into stores. It’s believed that most of the LPs went directly to a warehouse or were simply destroyed. Many of these records are so scarce that only a handful of copies are knownto exist.
Sometimes the artists knew about the release and were compensated, but more often than not, they had no idea. The singer-songwriter Richard Goldman is an artist in which the latter applies. Though getting ripped off isn’t unusual in the music business, his story is a fantastic one—even in the strange universe of “tax scamrecords.”
In late 1970, with dreams of making it in the music business, a 20-year-old Richard Goldman moved from his hometown of New Rochelle, New York to Los Angeles. “I wanted to be Jimmy Webb,” Richard told me recently (other inspirations include witty songsmith, Harry Nilsson; alt-country pioneer, Gram Parsons; and pop titans, the Beatles). His goal was to be a behind the scenes figure, thinking he would have a longer career as songwriter, rather than as a performer, as they tended to have shorter lifespans. But he wasn’t averse to playing his songs in public. Richard became a fixture of the weekly open mic night at the Troubadour, then _the_ hottest venue for singer-songwriters. After one such a set at the club, he was approached by an impressed member of the audience, Sam Weatherly, who became Richard’s manager and producer. Weatherly paid for demo sessions, which enabled Richard to record studio-quality versions of the songs he had been writing. For a session that took place at Sunset Sound, Weatherly brought in a musician by the name of George Clinton to play piano on a few tracks. Yep, _the_ George Clinton.
Weatherly, who was older, “wasn’t just my manager,” Richard says today. “He was like a parent.” Richard would head over to Weatherly’s house often to have dinner, watch football, or play the board game Risk. Weatherly and his wife were like Richard’s westcoast family.
In 1975, Richard recorded at the famed Sound City Studios. He’d actually recorded there a couple of years prior, and was invited back by one of the owners, Joe Gottfried. The engineer for the sessions, Fred Ampel, had taken on the managerial role in Richard’s career. By this time, Weatherly and Richard had drifted apart, though the circumstances are now unclear. Richard was thrilled to be recording again at Sunset Sound. “You knew you were in a very cool place.” Fleetwood Mac were right across the hall, and Lindsay Buckingham caught a playback of one of Richard’s songs, “Sinatra’s Car.” Buckingham expressed his admiration for the tune, noting that the bridge sounded Beatlesesque. He even lent a hand, overdubbing a bit of bass for a particularly tricky section of the track. “It was a thrill to watch,” remembers Richard. “He was ripped on pot but absolutely flawless on bass.” _CONTINUES AFTER THE JUMP…_READ ON▸
Posted by Bart Bealmear|
11.27.2020
09:45 am
|
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What if Derek Raymond’s violent, bleak crime novels were made into a1970s TV show?
11.20.2020
12:19 pm
Topics:
Books
Television
Tags:
Derek Raymond
Adam Scovell
Author and filmmaker Adam Scovell —whose second novel _How Pale the Winter Has Made Us_ was published earlier this year to greatacclaim
—sent
me this wonderful trailer that asks “What if there was a gritty 70s UK TV series based on the black novels of the notorious crime authorDerek Raymond ?”
Adam writes:
> “For some time now, I’ve daydreamed about adapting for the > screen Derek Raymond’s Factory series of novels, following the > unnamed sergeant at A14 or the Met’s Department of Unexplained > Deaths. Raymond’s work was adapted twice in film, both in the > 1980s by French directors. For a quintessentially London writer, his > work didn’t quite translate to Paris no matter the qualities of > those films. Equally, even if a modern adaptation was possible, it > would still have to contend with the vast shifts taken place in > London itself since the novels were written. The shabby, industrial > vision of the capital, so essential to Raymond’s work, would be > difficult to recreate authentically. Instead, I wanted to imagine a > “what-if” vision of Raymond’s brutal but beautiful Factory > novels, looking to British Television produced a decade before he > wrote the first in his series, _He Died With His Eyes Open_. Finding > a range of material in a number of London Weekend Television and > Thames Television dramas, it was clear that there was enough to make > a trailer. In my daydream, I cast Tom Bell as the intrepid sergeant, > and found a wealth of villains, from Brian Glover to William > Marlowe. Archive television of the 1970s is replete with work that > deals with the themes that Raymond would pursue and push into the > realm of the transgressive, so I see a natural fit between > programmes and dramas made in this era and the relentless novels he > would produce in the following decade.” Posted by Richard Metzger|
11.20.2020
12:19 pm
|
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Brian Eno’s ‘Film Music 1976 – 2020’11.20.2020
10:31 am
Topics:
Music
Tags:
Brian Eno
_Portrait of Brian Eno by Cecily Eno_ Brian Eno was creating soundtrack music for films even before he joined Roxy Music in 1971. His first project was a repetitive, proto-ambient score for Malcolm Le Grice’s experimental short “Berlin Horse ” in 1970, but it wasn’t until 1976 that his music appeared in another film, Derek Jarman’s homoerotic _Sebastiane_. Since then Eno has worked with some of the world’s finest directors, including Peter Jackson, David Lynch, Michael Mann, Michelangelo Antonioni, Dario Argento, Jonathan Demme, Danny Boyle, animator Ralph Bakshi, Al Reinert, and several others. The fruits of these several decades of work—which has seen hundreds of his songs used in films, TV shows, documentaries, advertisements and of course the Windows 95 startupsounds —has been
collected together on _Film Music 1976 – 2020_.
The lead track from the album, “Decline and Fall” originally featured on the soundtrack to 2017’s _O Nome da Morte_, (AKA _492: A Man
Called Death_) and that film’s director, Henrique Goldman, was personally commissioned by Brian Eno to make the song’s promo video. Goldman says of the piece: > “Our video juxtaposes two cinematic narratives set in Brazil, one > of the main frontiers in the final battle between Man and Nature. > The first comprises fragments of a drama about the tortured soul of > the assassin portrayed in _O Nome da Morte_, and the second depicts > a magical natural phenomena – the Invisible River of the Amazon > – a meteorologic process on a colossal scale, whereby rainforest > trees continually spray billions of gallons of water into the> atmosphere.
>
> The video is foreboding and suspenseful. Somewhere in the vast > Brazilian landscape, something momentous lurks in the background. An > unforeseen, greedy and merciless force disrupts the divine stream of > life. The same force drives the hitman, who stealthily steps out of > the shadows to kill for money. As rain and fire, fiction and > science, birth and death, nature and civilisation, art, love and > greed continually juxtapose each other, we become aware of the > delicate natural balance that is being severely disrupted by our> civilisation.”
Brian Eno’s _Film Music 1976 – 2020 _ is already out in the UK on double vinyl and CD, with the US release coming on January 22nd. Posted by Richard Metzger|
11.20.2020
10:31 am
|
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Unheard music from Moog synthesizer maestro Mort Garson11.19.2020
05:17 pm
Topics:
Music
Tags:
Moog
Mort Garson
I’ve always been very partial to the whole genre of Moog music. Late 60s and early 70s Moog records sound like white molded plastic chairs look. Fifty years on and those albums still sound futuristic. And totally artificial. To my mind, the sound of analog synthesizers make the perfect soundtrack for one’s aesthetic life, or at least mine. No really, if I go into a record store that has a selection of vintage Moog and exotica albums, I’m drawn to that first. It’s not like there’s many Moog albums I don’t already have, but hope springs eternal that I will find a “Switched On” something or other that I didn’t know existed. My Moog bonafides are deep. Given an opportunity to do a compilation via Sony 20 years ago, I pitched a CD titled _Best of Moog_
and they went for it. (Sadly six of what I considered absolute _must-have_ key tracks were denied. Wendy Carlos actually _hung up on me_ when I requested her cover of “What’s New Pussycat?” and I also had to make do with nothing from Mike Melvoin’s _The Plastic Cow Goes Moog_ and no Mort Garson either—I wanted his cover of “Hair”—which was a drag.) Which brings me to the new Mort Garson compilation, _Music From Patch Cord Productions _, released by the Sacred Bones record label. It’s fantastic, highly enjoyable. If you are already a Mort Garson aficionado, this will thrill you, and if you are new to Garson’s uniquely idiosyncratic work, this collection of sci-fi movie themes, radio ads, robotic disco, a wonderfully kooky stab at aural erotica along with alt versions of numbers from Garson’s 1976 classic _Mother Earth’s Plantasia _, is a decent place to start. It has a nice flow and is sequenced well, as if by a skilled DJ. It finishes up with a stellar Moog rendition of the Frankie Valli hit, “Our Day Will Come,” which _surprise, surprise,_ was actually composed by Garson himself. It comes in a handsome retro package perfectly suited to themusic within.
Apparently the archive of Garson unheard music is vast. Here’s hoping for more volumes like _Music From Patch Cord Productions _. Sacred Bones have also re-released four of Garson’s highly sought-after albums, the movie soundtrack _Didn’t You Hear? _(1970), _Lucifer’s Black Mass _ (1971), _Ataraxia’s The Unexplained _ (1975) and a 2LP 45rpm audiophile edition of Garson’s legendary 1976 album _Mother Earth’s Plantasia_.
Posted by Richard Metzger|
11.19.2020
05:17 pm
|
3 Comments
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Blood, guts, and guns: The indie film ‘Bad Girls’ will blow yourfuse!
11.19.2020
08:51 am
Topics:
Art
Movies
Music
Tags:
South Carolina
Bad Girls
The Theta Girl
Christopher Bickel
Independent film
_‘BAD GIRLS’ poster designed by artist Corinne Halbert. _
South Carolina-based filmmaker Christopher Bickel’s first film, the widely praised _The Theta Girl _, was released three years ago. Bickel recently unleashed a trailer for his second film, _BadGirls
_.
The pandemic’s effects changed everything for everyone, but thankfully, with many of his original cast and crew from _The Theta Girl_, the film is on target to see the light of day in 2021. When the trailer was released, Bickel launched an Indiegogo page to help raise a modest amount of funds to help cover some of the film’s costs, which had a budget of 16K. The response was enthusiastic and, to date, has raised just over $10K. This does not include the cost of distributing _Bad Girls_, as in Bickel’s own words, they intend to stay true to their “DIY punk rock roots.” Here’s a bit from Bickel’s Indiegogo page that echoes this sentiment and helps give you a little insight as to what you can expect from _Bad Girls_: > “Citing influences as diverse as Jack Hill, Russ Meyer, Gregg > Araki, R. Kern, David Lynch, Monte Hellman, Sam Peckinpah, John > Waters, and Robert Downey (Sr.), we have crafted a vision more than > just the sum parts of those influences. More than anything, it was > probably the get-it-done-cheap lessons of Roger Corman that were the > guiding light of this picture. This is a punk rock demo tape of a > movie made for people who love punk rock demo tapes and movies.” If you’re nodding your head because you too love punk rock demo tapes and movies, I get it because I love both of those things too. Also, if Christopher Bickel’s name is familiar to our Dangerous Minds regulars, he spent a few years here as a popular contributor . Since Christopher and I go back a bit, I called him (yes, on the phone) and had a chat about _Bad Girls_. Who knew it would be so much fun to pick the brains of someone who likes to _blow brains up_ on screen? Well, I did. _The bad girls from ‘Bad Girls’ left to right are, Shelby Lois Guinn , Morgan Shaley Renew , and Sanethia Dresch._
DM: When an art form is censored, that inevitably creates an underground movement. Your first film, _The Theta Girl_, utilized a few perceived cinematic “taboos” such as full-frontal nudity and nude scenes with people of all sizes and colors. As the leader of a collective of creative people working to subvert the norm, what did you do in _Bad Girls_ to keep that vibe going? CHRISTOPHER BICKEL: I don’t think there are any taboos left—everything’s been done. When you’re creating something new, you’re drawing from ideas you’ve seen before. If there is anything about this movie that sets it apart from anything else, it’s a different reconstitution. There are some elements that may shock people, but it’s presented in a unique way. DM: The response to the PR for _Bad Girls_ has been exciting to watch. Tell me a little about some of the artists you used to create posters and other artifacts for the film, and how some of their bold visualswere incorporated.
CHRISTOPHER BICKEL: We got really lucky with (poster artist) Ethan Hanson, as he was just a guy I knew from Columbia who was making films, and eventually moved to the West Coast to be a graphic artist. His short film _The Checkout Line_ blew
me away and it’s where I really fell in love with the acting of Jonathan Benton, who I ended up casting as “Rusty” in _Bad Girls_. Hanson’s portfolio is jaw-dropping and his work on the _Bad Girls_ art gives me a Michael Mann vibe. After seeing _The Theta Girl_, we got together, and I offered him some creative advice, and I think contributing his artwork to _Bad Girls_ was his way of saying thanks. It also makes_ Bad Girls_ look like “an actual real movie.” I was introduced to Corinne Halbert by Christina Ward of Feral House and I just fell in love with her work instantly. It really captures the anarchic spirit of the film. _‘Bad Girls’ poster by artist and filmmaker Ethan Hanson. _
DM: You and your crew came up with some creative, special effects for _Bad Girls_. I’m wondering if you might have any behind-the-scenes stories to share about the effects you created for _Bad Girls_. Kind of like along the lines of when Dan O’Bannon paid bonuses to members of his _The Return of the Living Dead _ crew if they would eat calf brains to help increase the authenticity of thezombie scenes?
CHRISTOPHER BICKEL: Well, I knew I wanted a baby to be “accidentally” blown up with a shotgun in _Bad Girls_ so I was trying to figure out how to actually do that. Then I remembered the scene from David Cronenberg’s 1981 film _Scanners _ when they blew up the first scanners’ head (played by unfortunate Canadian actor Louis Del Grande). They eventually figured that getting that kind of effect would need use of a shotgun. So we did the same thing, and I insisted on doing that stunt myself. There’s a definite danger element in a stunt like that. I set up a barrier and cleared the set and we did it. I believe you need to have those “what did I just see?” moments in a film around every ten minutes. DM: You took on a lot of responsibility with _The Theta Girl_ beyond directing it, such as the film’s cinematography, some of the sound/music, the arduous process of editing and providing some of the funding for the film. What was the scope of your “job” this timearound?
Christopher Bickel: In a way, I did way more this time. I didn’t write _The Theta Girl_. But this one I did co-write with Shane Silman . One thing I learned was it is hard to direct and shoot at the same time. You’re either paying attention to the frame or the performance and if you’re too involved with one you’re not paying attention to the other. For _Bad Girls_, I was running a second camera next to my director of photography, Stephen Nemeth, the entire time so we could capture two different angles. So I ended up in the same boat I was in with _The Theta Girl_—doing too much. I always try to follow the Roger Corman lesson, which I believe is something like “do whatever you have to do to get things done in the time you have.” So most times that means wearing a lot of different hats. DM: You had over sixty cast and crew members working on _The Theta Girl_. Did many of them return to work with you on _Bad Girls_? CHRISTOPHER BICKEL: Yeah. At least four actors from _Theta Girl_ returned for this one. I like the idea of having a John Waters “Dreamland” sort of group who come back to work on each project. DM: Did you actually destroy actor and co-writer of_ Bad Girls’_ Shane Silman—as Danny Lucifer’s—house? I have to know! CHRISTOPHER BICKEL: The place that played the part of Danny’s house was filmed using three different houses. Two different interiors and one exterior location. We lit a controlled fire that appeared to burn in a house but wasn’t in an actual house. So, technically that’s four locations. We shot the exteriors of the police siege in the front yard of one of our producers, Stephan. His neighbors were… _not too happy___. I was actually hoping they would call the cops because I needed a shot of some cop cars! If this all sounds pretty great to you, then you clearly appreciate films with a penchant for bloodshed and roving female gangs out for blood. To learn more about _Bad Girls_ or to help support the film (which will get you some very cool campaign presents, like signed Blu-rays, a t-shirt featuring artist Corinne Halford’s incredible _Bad Girls_ design or more, visit the _Bad Girls_ Indiegogo page.
In the meantime, take enjoy some of the stills and promotional images for the film, then turn up your speakers and set up a splash guard while you check out the trailer for _Bad Girls_! _(Above and below) Two vintage-looking ‘Bad Girls’ lobby card done by director Christopher Bickel. _ _The festive-sounding fictional punk band Christmas Tits from ‘BadGirls.’ _
_A still from ‘Bad Girls’ featuring director Bickel as a cop. The film also features several classic cars from Gate Keeper Corvette Gasser owned by Rob Tansey and Shauna Morgan Brown. The pair also did the stunt driving in‘Bad Girls.’_
_Bad Girls SMASH!_
_Actress Sanethia Dresch in action._ _Actress Morgan Shaley Renew in a still from ‘Bad Girls.’_ _The ‘Bad Girls’ trailer_ _Previously on Dangerous Minds:_ THE KILLER UNRELEASED SCORE FOR THE 1982 LOW BUDGET SLASHER FILM,‘UNHINGED’
INDIE FILM ‘I DECLARE WAR’ IS A TEENYBOPPER ‘APOCALYPSE NOW’ BRAINS NOT FISTS: DIRECTOR KHALIL JOSEPH AND SHABAZZ PALACES SALUTE CLASSIC BLACK INDIE FILM ‘SHE’S A PUNK ROCKER UK’: WATCH THE DOCUMENTARY ON ENGLAND’S FEMALE PUNK PIONEERS Posted by Cherrybomb|
11.19.2020
08:51 am
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Richard H. Kirk on ‘Shadow of Fear,’ Cabaret Voltaire’s first new album since 199411.18.2020
07:46 am
Topics:
Current Events
Music
Tags:
Cabaret Voltaire
Richard H. Kirk
_‘Shadow of Fear’ on Mute _ Like a late-night transmission from a long-dormant UHF station, a new Cabaret Voltaire LP is beaming from Sheffield on November 20 to succor Dangerous Minds readers during these trying times. _Shadow of Fear _, the Cabs’ first new release since 1994’s _The Conversation_, is also the first we’ve heard from the band since founding member Richard H. Kirk resurrected the name for the 2014 Berlin Atonal festival and subsequent live performances in happy European cities. I caught up with RHK by phone last week. Despite a historically bad connection, I managed to learn a few things about _Shadow of Fear_, the new incarnation of Cabaret Voltaire, and Kirk’s welcome plans to release two more new Cabs albums and a twelve-inch single next year. An edited transcript of our conversation follows. _Richard H. Kirk (Courtesy of Mute)_ HOW HAS THE LAST YEAR BEEN? Um, pretty boring. I mean, I was lucky, insomuch that I managed to get all of my recording finished just as the lockdown was coming in in England, so, you know, that was something. But pretty much since I finished recording the new album… I’ve got a couple of guys who I work with on the artwork, so next thing I was into that, and then afterwards it was mastering. So it’s been pretty boring, you know? Not particularly nice weather, um, and, you know, now lockdown again. I mean, I haven’t been out of the house since January.WOW.
Well, back in January I got sick with some kind of bug which was suspiciously… it felt like it could be COVID. But I was unwell for about six weeks, and then I finally came back from it, so I just didn’t feel it was advisable to go out. I mean, I’m lucky; I have a garden, so I’m not kind of indoors. I just feel like, over the summer, people went a bit too crazy. They lifted the lockdown, started encouraging people to go to pubs, restaurants, and that’s all kind of kicked back in, you know? It’sstill out there.
I SAW A LOT OF PICTURES IN THE MEDIA OF PEOPLE ON BEACHES. I mean, I’m 64 and also, I smoke, and I figure that I could be a good candidate for illness, so I just have to be patient. They just announced some sort of vaccine today in the UK, but I don’t know whether I believe much of what’s on the news mediaanymore.
YOU’VE ALWAYS BEEN A SKEPTICAL CONSUMER OF MEDIA, RIGHT?Totally, news.
IF NOT FOR COVID, WOULD YOU HAVE BEEN OUT ON THE ROAD THIS YEAR? DID YOU HAVE PLANS TO TOUR? Yeah, I mean, there were a couple of possibilities for Europe. I think one was in the Czech Republic and one in Spain. But in the end, you know, it was October, and I just thought, I don’t think it’s gonna . I’d love to be out there. I get the opportunity to travel around Europe, so, I really enjoy that, but at the moment I’m kind of stuck—stuck in Sheffield. Next year, things might be better, but there’s no guarantee about that. CAN YOU TELL ME ABOUT THE PROCESS OF MAKING THE RECORD? Okay, so, the tracks I started to write back in 2014, when I did the first Cabaret Voltaire show for twenty-something years, and it just built from there, basically. Over a five-year period, I had about three hours’ worth of material that I’ve been using for the live shows. And then in September of last year, I started to assemble it into the album, just making overdubs and removing things generally. Trying to make something that was a live experience into something that could be played as an album and repeatedly listened to. I DON’T WANT TO PRY TOO MUCH, BUT THE BIO MENTIONS THAT YOU HAD COMPUTER PROBLEMS, SO I’M CURIOUS WHAT YOUR SETUP IS. Okay, well, I have like a very old ProTools system on a Mac G4 which is twenty years old, so even my computer equipment is vintage. But I decided to buy a MacBook Pro, and I was gonna get, like, Ableton, or another program called Reaper that’s very cheap and apparently very good. MacBook, and I was just about to order the software, and I noticed that the USB ports didn’t work. So I took the computer to a repair place, and they said that it looked like someone had spilled a cup of coffee in there, into the circuit boards. So I sent it back and got a refund and just decided to work with ... you know, because I’d spent a long time looking into different setups and talking to various people who might recommend some different ways of working, and then I just got fed up, and decided “I’ll work with what I have.” And it turned out goodfor me in the end.
YEAH, I LIKE THIS RECORD VERY MUCH. DO YOU PLAY GUITAR ON IT AT ALL? Sure, there’s quite a bit of guitar on about three or four tracks that spring to mind. Maybe four tracks or something. ARE THERE ANY OTHER LIVE INSTRUMENTS?No. Just guitar.
_Cabaret Voltaire, 2014 (via Mute)_
AND THESE ARE PIECES THAT YOU CAME UP WITH PLAYING AT FESTIVALS, RIGHT? STARTING WITH THE BERLIN SHOW, AND THEN YOU BUILT IT UP AS YOUDID THE FESTIVALS?
Yeah. I was writing new tracks when I usually went to a different place. Also I used a lot of ambient and tonal material in the live shows, like drones, so I kind of kept expanding upon that as well. There was way too much for an album. So apparently I’m okay to mention that there are gonna be two more albums and a twelve-inch single in the new year. OH, THAT’S WONDERFUL! Well, uh, you haven’t heard it yet. The two albums are kind of drones, like sixty-minute tracks, very electronic, no beats, just kinda head music, which was a total contrast to what I did for the first piece. And the twelve-inch single is kind of, not techno, but more dance-orientated, but didn’t really work within the context of _Shadow of Fear_, so I thought it would be nice to make that a separate release just on twelve-inch vinyl. So yeah, there’s more to it than meets the eye. WHEN I WAS LISTENING TO _SHADOW OF FEAR_, I IMAGINED A VISUAL ACCOMPANIMENT TO IT WHEN YOU SEE IT LIVE. IS THERE A VIDEO OR FILMCOMPONENT?
I mean, I used these screen visuals for the live shows, but none of it was synced up. It exists, but not as yet in conjunction with the music, and I think the problem… it’s kind of one thing to do it live, but there’s so much copyright material in there, I think if I tried to release it on a DVD or as a film, I could end up with some legal problems. But I don’t know, maybe at some point in the future, it may be something that could happen, but at the moment it’s just straight-ahead music. YOU ALWAYS HANDLED THAT ASPECT OF THE BAND, RIGHT? DIDN’T YOU CREATE THE VIDEO COMPONENT OF THE LIVE SHOW? Yeah, I mean, that’s one of the things that I did throughout Cabaret Voltaire. Originally it was, like, Super 8 and standard 8 film, and then, in the early Eighties, video. I didn’t make the promos. We worked with a guy called Peter Care who now is based out in Los Angeles, and he made a lot of the long-form videos with us, some we edited, some he edited. But the live visuals always kind of had more to do with what I did. That was a kind of continuation, just with more screens and larger screens. AS A FAN OF CABARET VOLTAIRE, I ALWAYS THOUGHT OF IT AS A KIND OF INFORMATION SERVICE, MAYBE IN PART BECAUSE OF WHAT YOU DID WITHDOUBLEVISION . I
WANTED TO ASK YOU WHERE YOU GO FOR INFORMATION AND CULTURE. Oh my God! I mean, I don’t use social media at all, you know, I don’t have any of my own channels. If I’m honest, I have fun trying to decode mainstream media, i.e., television. I’m still with television and radio, but I do use certain things; I do find the internet useful. But I wouldn’t rely on it for a lot of things. Maybe some years back, you know, it was easier to find some clarity and some truth, but, I mean, what can I say. The last four years of Mr. Trump and fake news hasn’t really helped, shall we say. NO, IT’S ONE OF THE THINGS THAT’S REALLY WORRYING ABOUT A VACCINE, BECAUSE IF A LARGE PERCENTAGE OF PEOPLE IN AMERICA OR THE UK DON’T BELIEVE THE VACCINE WORKS, OR THINK IT’S NEFARIOUS, IT WILL BE MUCH HARDER TO GET RID OF THE VIRUS. Totally, totally. But then again, who knows? Like, they say that this virus originated in bats. You know, we might end up with a load of vampires! People start mutating. But, I mean, they say that the one they have, the one they’re gonna use here, they’ve tested it, and I assume that means at least no one’s died who’sbeen given it.
But yeah, I totally agree with what you’re saying about whether people will trust it. Especially if there are voices shouting loud that you shouldn’t, you know? _‘Chance Versus Causality,’ Cabaret Voltaire’s 1979 film soundtrack issued last year _ THERE’S SOMETHING ABOUT THE EARLY DAYS OF INDUSTRIAL MUSIC—I FEEL THAT YOU ALL APPROACHED MUSIC-MAKING AS A FORM OF _COUNTER-PROPAGANDA_, IF THAT MAKES SENSE TO YOU. DO YOU THINK OF CABARET VOLTAIRE AS STILL HAVING THAT FUNCTION? I think, if not that exact function, then something very similar. Maybe it’s more evident in the live shows. But it’s difficult to explain. It’s nice to ask some questions in there, if you get what I’m saying, without being too specific, too blatant about it.RAISING DOUBTS?
Yeah, that would be a good way to put it. And just, I don’t know, taking the piss out of establishment values. It was a big thing with the Surrealists, and I still hold true to that, you know? RICHARD, DID YOU HAVE ANYTHING ELSE YOU WANTED TO SAY ABOUT THISRECORD?
Not particularly. I hope that it can speak for itself. It’s not a piece of COVID propaganda or something, it’s just about the dark times we seem to have entered in recent years. It’s almost like, especially with the news media, everything seems to be a threat to people of one type or another, whether it’s Al-Qaeda, Islamic State, the coronavirus, you name it, there’s a very long list. I often wonder, why do they do this to us? Why should everybody be scared? I’m a bit relieved that Trump didn’t win another four years, because in England things are—kinda like a right-wing government, and if you look back to the 1920s and what happened in Germany, and the notion that immigrants are scapegoats, and like basically if you create a situation of chaos, then what it needs is a strongman to come in and take charge. And we all know who the strongman was in Germany, we know how that went. So the way this thing has been going, you can’t help thinking about how we ended up with the Nazis, and are we going to end up with them again? But I don’t know, maybe thingsmight change now.
I TOTALLY AGREE WITH YOU. THAT WAS TRUMP’S STRATEGY OVER THE SUMMER, WAS TO TRY TO MAKE THE PROTESTS AS VIOLENT AS POSSIBLE SO THAT HE COULD THEN APPEAR TO BE THE PERSON RESTORING LAW AND ORDER TO THECOUNTRY.
Strange way to do it. IT’S LIKE A PROTECTION RACKET. Yeah. Yeah, totally. And you’ve got a few people in Europe, very right-wing leaders, and I’m just wondering now whether we might see the domino effect now that the main protagonist is exiting stage left,hopefully.
HOPEFULLY.
Well, yeah. I just got some news earlier, and he’s mounting his legal challenges. I mean, I was watching the news over the past couple of days, and they just had this bedraggled figure in a baseball cap swinging at a golf ball on one of his fucking golf ranges. It just looks so sad, you know? All on his own. I don’t know, I don’t think he’s been right since he supposedly had the coronavirus and then they gave him a load of steroids. I think something went a bit astray. I think the guy’s in denial. He needs to do the right thing and let someone else clear up his mess. THANK YOU FOR TALKING WITH ME, RICHARD, I’M A HUGE FAN OF YOUR MUSIC. I HOPE YOU’RE ABLE TO TOUR SOMETIME SOON SO I CAN SEE YOUPLAY.
Well, now that things have changed in America, you might even see me make my way across the Atlantic, you know? I look at a lot of news footage, and those mass shootings, you know, it just seemed at one point, America just seemed, like, very dangerous. I don’t know, maybe I’m just seeing the worst and not the best. You know, and then there’s all the police beating and murdering Black people. I mean, for fuck’s sake, man, you know? IT DOESN’T MAKE YOU WANT TO VISIT? Well, not up until the recent change of leadership. It’s a long time since I’ve been to America. I think 1991 was the last. I think I went to Montreal in the year 2000, but that’s Canada. WAS THAT A SOLO GIG? Yeah, it was. I played at FCMM film festival. It’s really good, a really good festival. I’ve had one or two requests, but the problem is I don’t like to fly. Some guys, they were trying to get me on a cargo boat, but it took like two weeks or something. THAT’S A LONG TRIP. Well, it is on a cargo boat. PROBABLY NOT A LOT OF AMENITIES. No. So, we’ll see. It would be great to get back out and play some more live shows, but by that time I will have written new work anyway, so it would be a combination of existing things from the new album and then a bunch of new stuff. _SHADOW OF FEAR _ IS OUT NOVEMBER 20 ON LP, CD , AND
STREAMING.
Posted by Oliver Hall|
11.18.2020
07:46 am
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Cats and the meaning of life: John Gray on ‘Feline Philosophy’11.10.2020
09:13 am
Topics:
Animals
Belief
Literature
Thinkers
Tags:
cats
John Gray
_‘Feline Philosophy,’ out November 24 in US and Canada_
“Epidemiology and microbiology are better guides to our future than any of our hopes or plans,” the philosopher John Gray wrote nearly 20 years ago in _Straw Dogs: Thoughts on Humans and Other Animals_. Anyone who entered 2020 with hopes and plans has seen these words vividly illustrated. Gray’s work makes a strong case that our species is incorrigibly irrational, and it raises questions about humanist beliefs that should be particularly important for those of us on the political left to consider. Among his books are _False Dawn: The Delusions of Global Capitalism_, _Black Mass: Apocalyptic Religion and the Death of Utopia_, _The Silence of Animals: On Progress and Other Modern Myths_, and _Seven Types of Atheism_. In his latest, _Feline Philosophy _, Gray pursues the deep interest in the nonhuman world that makes his critique of humanism so sharp in fang and claw. Through his reading of Montaigne, Pascal, the Stoics and Epicureans, and Spinoza, as well as literary writers from Dr. Johnson to Mary Gaitskill, Gray considers what cats have to teach us about philosophy and the good life. As I write this, the hardcover edition of the book is #15 on Amazon’s “New Releases in Philosophy ” list and #1 in “New Releases in Cat Care .” John Gray answered a few of my questions about cats by email inOctober.
_John Gray (photo by Justine Stoddart)_ WHILE _FELINE PHILOSOPHY_ RETURNS TO QUESTIONS THAT WILL BE FAMILIAR TO READERS OF YOUR WORK, IT SEEMS DIFFERENT IN SOME WAYS FROM ANYTHING ELSE YOU HAVE PUBLISHED. HOW DID YOU COME TO WRITE THIS BOOK? I’ve been thinking of writing a book on cats for many years. I’ve always wondered what philosophy would be like if it wasn’t so human-centred. Among all the animals that have cohabited with humans cats resemble us least, so it seemed natural to ask what a feline philosophy would be like. My book is an attempt at answering this question, and tries to imagine how a feline creature equipped with powers of abstraction would think about death, ethics, the nature of love and the meaning of life. The book is also an ode to cats, expressing my admiration for their life-affirming capacity for happiness and their courage in living their lives without distractions or consolations. DO YOU LIVE WITH CATS? HAVE YOU ALWAYS? CAN YOU TELL US ABOUT A PARTICULAR CAT YOU HAVE KNOWN? My wife and I lived with four cats over the past thirty years, two Burmese sisters and two Birman brothers. For some years they all lived contentedly together, until mortality began to take its toll on them. The last of them, Julian, died on Xmas Eve 2019 in his 23rd year. He was perhaps the most tranquil of all four, and even when old and a little frail seemed to enjoy every hour of his life. The most companionable was Sophie, who passed away at the age of 13 around seventeen years ago. She was extraordinarily intelligent and extremely subtle in her insight into the human mind, and very loving. WHY DON’T CATS SHARE HUMANS’ CONCERN WITH MAKING THE WORLD ABETTER PLACE?
Because they are happy. Wanting to improve the world is a displacement of the impulse to improve yourself. But cats are not inwardly divided as humans tend to be, and don’t want to be anything other than what they already are, so the idea of improving the world doesn’t occur to them. If it did, I suspect they would dismiss it as an uninteresting fantasy. YOUR WRITING OFTEN DEALS WITH DISTRESSING TRUTHS ABOUT HUMAN BEINGS, SUCH AS THEIR CAPACITY FOR CRUELTY AND SELF-DELUSION. IT CAN BE UPSETTING. BUT I READ _FELINE PHILOSOPHY_ WITH A FEELING OF SERENITY, WHICH I ATTRIBUTE TO CATS’ TOTAL INCAPACITY FOR CRUELTY OR SELF-DELUSION. DOES CONTEMPLATING CATS PROVIDE YOU RELIEF FROM THINKING ABOUT HUMAN AFFAIRS? Cats are a window looking out of the human world, so I suppose that’s one reason I love being with them. I think they also help me look at the human world as if from their eyes, with tranquil detachment and a certain incredulity. DO YOU KNOW OF ANY WORKS OF ART THAT PLAUSIBLY REPRESENT THE MENTAL EXPERIENCE OF CATS, OR ANY OTHER NONHUMAN ANIMALS? I don’t know of any art works that capture the mental experience of cats. Whether literary or visual, they would be very difficult to produce. There are some books that try to enter into the inner world of dogs, the best of which seems to me to be _Sirius_ (1944) by the British science fiction writer Olaf Stapledon. Perhaps the most brilliant book I know that tries to enter into a nonhuman mind is the Polish writer Andrzej Zaniewski’s _Rat_ (1994). YOU SUGGEST THAT CATS’ INDEPENDENCE AROUSES ENVY AND HATRED IN THE PEOPLE WHO TORTURE THEM. IS THIS A CULTURALLY SPECIFIC DIAGNOSIS, OR DO YOU THINK ALL CAT TORTURERS SHARE THESE MOTIVES? By no means all unhappy people hate and envy cats, but I think pretty well all of those who do are unhappy. That seems to be a universaltruth.
I WAS SURPRISED TO LEARN RECENTLY THAT ONE OF MY CLOSEST FRIENDS, WHO IS A COMMITTED VEGAN AND SUPPORTER OF ANIMAL RIGHTS, IS A CAT-HATER. WHEN I ASKED HIM WHY, HE TALKED ABOUT HIS LOVE OF BIRDS. CAN THERE BE MEANINGFUL ETHICAL STANDARDS FOR NONHUMAN ANIMALS’ BEHAVIOR? I can’t speculate as to why your friend feels as he does, but it may be the innocence with which cats kill and devour other living things that offends him. Perhaps he’d like the natural world to conform to human values, which for me would be a kind of Hell. I’m not persuaded that it is the well-being of birds that he cares about. Birds are also innocent killers, after all. The British writer J.A. Baker, who in his shamanistic masterpiece _The Peregrine_ (1967), described ten years of his life attempting to inhabit the life of a falcon, loved the bird partly because it lived according to its natureas a predator.
THE CYNICS TOOK THEIR NAME FROM DIOGENES’ EPITHET, “THE DOG.” WHY HAVEN’T ANY PHILOSOPHERS STYLED THEMSELVES AFTER CATS? That’s a very good question. I don’t know a good answer, but possibly philosophers suspect that cats don’t need them. AS A READER OF YOUR WORK, I AM VERY HAPPY TO HAVE FINALLY GOTTEN A LIST OF TIPS FOR LIVING WELL FROM YOU. ARE THERE ANY PRESCRIPTIVE PHILOSOPHIES THAT HAVE HELPED YOU CONDUCT YOUR OWN LIFE? No, I can’t think of any prescriptive philosophies that have influenced me. In the early Seventies I met Isaiah Berlin, and talked with him regularly until his death in 1997. His value-pluralist philosophy of competing and often incommensurable values strengthened my suspicion of any strongly prescriptive ethics. In recent years I’ve been more and more influenced by Montaigne, whose scepticism about philosophy as a guide to life appeals to me greatly. My ten feline hints for living well are of course meant playfully, as examples of feline philosophy. But they might not do much harm iftaken seriously.
_FELINE PHILOSOPHY _, ALREADY OUT IN THE UK, WILL BE PUBLISHED IN THE US AND CANADA ON NOVEMBER 24. _Previously on Dangerous Minds:_ DM TALKS ‘GODLESS MYSTICISM’ WITH JOHN GRAY, THE WORLD’S GREATEST LIVING PHILOSOPHER Posted by Oliver Hall|
11.10.2020
09:13 am
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Watch the new Half Japanese video ‘Undisputed Champions’ animatedby Jad Fair himself
11.09.2020
02:18 pm
Topics:
Animation
Music
Tags:
Half Japanese
Jad Fair
The legendary Jad Fair blesses us with a new album in 2020. Here’s “Undisputed Champions,” a preview of the upcoming Half Japanese album _Crazy Hearts_, due out on December 4th. The video was animated by Jad himself who says: > “Undefeated, undisputed, undeniable, unstoppable, > Untoppable, unflappable and unquestionably great. > Take a pen and underline the word great. To quote > The Beatles ‘All you need is love.’ To quote me > ‘Damn straight.’ Celebrate the celebration. Bravo > The undisputed champions.” The album will be available on see-through turquoise vinyl and CD. Preorder _Crazy Hearts_ HERE.
Posted by Richard Metzger|
11.09.2020
02:18 pm
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‘The Revolution of Super Visions’: Preview the upcoming JaneWeaver album
10.29.2020
08:59 am
Topics:
Music
Tags:
Jane Weaver
Just one listen and after that, Jane Weaver’s latest, a funky, catchy-as-hell song called “The Revolution of Super Visions” was playing on a loop in my head. Happily so. It’s from her forthcoming album, _Flock _, which comes outnext year.
Jane says:
> “The revolution accidentally happens because so many people > visualise the same ideals and something supernatural occurs. > Everyone is exhausted with social media, inequality and the toxic > masculinity of world leaders contributing to a dying planet.” Lee Mann, the video’s director, tells us: > Our protagonist (played by Matt Raikes aka rapper Burgundy Blood) is > blissfully unaware that he has been lured into a trap at the opening > party of an art exhibition. He is the only male in the gallery and > he arrives as a player, a self made playboy, confident and weighing > up his options but he slowly realises his perceived power is > diminishing as he starts to experience psychic attacks from the > women gathered at the gallery. The idea of psychic attack is based > on occultist and writer Dion Fortune’s book _Psychic > Self-Defense_, first published in 1930. Fortune’s classic book > teaches the art of protecting yourself against paranormal attack, > something our protagonist clearly knows nothing about. Posted by Richard Metzger|
10.29.2020
08:59 am
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‘Sassy Justice with Fred Sassy’10.26.2020
09:45 am
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Current Events
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Fred Sassy
The world-famous, household names behind this don’t want their identities revealed just yet, but it shouldn’t be all that difficult to guess who they might be! Posted by Richard Metzger|
10.26.2020
09:45 am
|
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