Archive for May, 2013

Happy Vesak Day!!

Sunday, May 26th, 2013

As Vesak Day fell on a Friday this year, we had a great long weekend! Finally, some fun for one and all!!

Thursday night my band played a concert at Lucky Plaza. It went off quite okay, although the crowd was very small.

Friday I woke up not-so-late, we were heading off to Pulau Ubin with our friends. We got there and found queues around the ferry terminal to get out to the island; apparently, there’s a serious temple on Pulau Ubin, so the ferries can’t get the people there fast enough on Vesak Day, the one day a year where there’s some serious traffic to Pulau Ubin, Singapore’s most remote point. Oh well – wWe gave up our plan and headed off on long walking tours, with long pit stops in the cafes around the place. The kids had a great time watching the fishermen catching stuff, and exploring. We also saw some hornbills flying around in the trees – nice!

Later on we headed back to our place to chill out and eat some dinner as the kids played.

Saturday I had some surprises for Naoko and Zen, heh heh, namely our evening plans. In the afternoon I took Zen to a modeling shop so that he could buy his Tamiya cement and the Battleship Yamato, then off we went to our next-to-final destination – Kallang Theatre where his favorite performer, Sungha Jung was playing. This 16-year-old is a YouTube sensation and is really doing very well with his tours and album sales. Great stuff! Yes, that’s right – Aerosmith was playing the same night, but we saw Sungha Jung instead. Zen was not so enthusiastic at first, but got more into it later on, burning out a bit at the end. Oh well. After that we went and had some great chili crab at No Signboard in Kallang, getting back near midnight and sleeping in until 8:30 the next morning.

Sunday we did a lot – Zen did homework and guitar practice, then he and I went swimming. Finally, I went off to do an errand: get some printouts and copies. Ouch. Naoko and Zen went to softball in the afternoon while I watched The Wizard Of Oz special features. Boring…

Here are some pics of the weekend.

Zen and friends at Changi beach

Zen and friends at Changi beach

Naoko and Yuko at Changi Beach

Naoko and Yuko at Changi Beach

Find the crab!!

Find the crab!!

Curious at the beach

Curious at the beach

beach monitor

beach monitor

teh tarik at Mr Teh Tarik

teh tarik at Mr Teh Tarik

funky Zen

funky Zen

Zen building his new model ship - battleship Yamato

Zen building his new model ship - battleship Yamato

Welcome to Singapore

Saturday, May 25th, 2013

Sadly, you often see scenes like this in Singapore.

Let's just block the entire sidewalk with a meaningless sign meant for motorists

Let's just block the entire sidewalk with a meaningless sign meant for motorists

This is a zebra crossing, but we don't want any pedestrians to use it.

This is a zebra crossing, but we don't want any pedestrians to use it.

Megalomania Live at Platinum!!

Thursday, May 23rd, 2013

My band MegalomaniA played live at Platinum Music World Disco Bar on May 23rd, the eve of the Vesak Day long weekend, and here are the videos. Oh Lord yeah!!

The whole show:

Lord Of This World

Dirty Woman

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Happy weekend

Sunday, May 19th, 2013

We had a great weekend, and got a lot done. I also managed to play catch ball and go swimming with Zen both mornings, and also played a lot of guitar, focusing on scales and soloing.

On Saturday, Zen did his homework, we went swimming and played catchball, then headed downtown to see School Of The Arts (SOTA), where Zen may study his junior high school and high school years, if he’s accepted into either the music or theatre streams. We sat in on three seminars and learned a lot about the programmes, and got a great tour of the school, including the rooftop, and the canteen, and the music rooms. Wow! It’s a great campus, right in the heart of the downtown, full of lots of enthusiastic people. We also ran into friends of ours, whose daughter has just started the school and just loves it.

After that we had a nice dinner at Chili’s, and headed home by cab. Tried to watch The Wizard Of Oz, but Zen fell asleep near the middle. Watch the rest tomorrow.

Sunday we woke up, did homework and other studies, and hung around listening to music. Zen and I went swimming and played catchball again, hanging out a bit with Alejandro, Pilar, and baby Inez, then headed back. I wrote a lot on the blog, which was good fun, then practiced guitar all afternoon. We had a nice dinner and tried to finish Wizard Of Oz in the evening, but it malfunctioned on us. Darn!

Check out the cool nasi lemak Naoko made with Japanese ingredients:

A Japanese version of nasi lemak!

A Japanese version of nasi lemak!

When we went to the pool on Saturday, Zen and I found a baby coconut in a strange position next to the concrete, we’ve adopted him! We hope he likes our home, because he’s awesome!!!

Our coconut!

Our coconut!

Here are some views of SOTA:

Singapore, from SOTA

Singapore, from SOTA

Singapore, from SOTA

Singapore, from SOTA

Singapore, from SOTA

Singapore, from SOTA

Singapore, from SOTA

Singapore, from SOTA

Strange Tales, and Strange Tales II

Sunday, May 19th, 2013
ST

ST

Strange Tales – I’ve been reading a lot of comics from the library recently, but it hasn’t been since I discovered Michael Allred that I had as much fun reading one as I have with this latest version of Marvel’s Strange Tales, where the Marvel editors invite a whole bunch of indie cartoonists to try their hand at re-telling some Marvel tales, with great results!! I only recognise a few of the names, such as Peter Bagge of Hate fame, here having a go at several pages of Spider-man and the Hulk tales, while Max Cannon (of Red Meat fame) turns in shorter, more surreal (if that’s possible) entries. Funnily enough, several of the artists pick MODOK as one of their subjects. Thank Crom there is a second volume, which I’m going to read next.

In the opening pages Nick Bertozzi has fun making jest of Uatu, The Watcher (and who more deserving of being made fun of), giving this sort of a “What If?” feel to it – in particular referencing Issue 32 of that series, which was the joke issue; his one-page episodes appear throughout the book, and the one where he’s sharing a cell with the Leader is pretty funny. Paul Pope takes on the Inhumans, with a spotlight on Lockjaw, who never seems to get fed because there’s always some enemy (the Molecule Man, Annihilus, Maximus…) distracting the Inhumans from opening the can of dog food for the poor mutt!!! Hilarious, and great art. Molly Crabapple tells some sort of weird Victorian wedding between John Jameson and Jennifer Walters with weird Wuthering Heights overtones. Nice, though, and very moody and surreal, with plenty of character development in just its four pages. Junko Mizuno tells a pretty funny kawaii story of Spider-man and Mary Jane moving to a town of real spiders, all of whom outclass and out-do Spidey. Funny. Dash Shaw, with impeccable style, tells an interesting and rather funny story of Dr Strange fighting Nighmare. Nice! Jim Rugg’s “Hell Is For Robots”, being a pairing of Garrett (cyborg ex-super-agent) and an under-played Machine Man taking on bikers is stylish and very cool indeed. Nick Bertozzi’s “And Call My Lover MODOK” is an act of sheer genius, showing our psychopathic creature and his ladies in 1974, 1983, 1995 and 2003. Great final panel.

Tony Millionaire’s old-time drawings of Iron Man fighting Baloney-head is pretty weird, and just gets stranger as Dwight Eisenhauer comes into the picture (there are some outlandish German puns going on here too – the writing is not as strong as the art here, and a bit trying-too-hard-to-be-weird, something which a few entries suffer from, actually). Kikuo Johnson’s drawings of Alicia Masters trying to get a job are great, and really well-written. Jim Ruge’s story of Brother Voodoo is near-conventional, and his rendering of a comic from the 1970s is really good (complete with bad colour printing even). Johnen V’s tale of “MODOK and me” is also freaky silly weird, especially with MODOK’s decaying mini-me in tow and a little bit of Galactus at the ending. Max Cannon’s Fantastic Four (now named the Unfortunate Three), and his alternate version of a doomed Spider-man, are short, sharp shocks. Great stuff. Jacob Chabot’s tale of the men of the Fantastic Four growing moustaches is pretty funny (especially seeing the Thing’s chia mustache). Matt Kindt’s tale of the Black Widow taking on an international assassin is pretty good – it’s near-conventional in its story-telling, but the art is pretty wacky. Michael Kupperman offers a strange tale of metal-clad anti-hero Marvex, a Marvel hero I’m not really aware of… Sakai does a cool Edo era samurai Hulk, who of course commits seppuku at the end (yes – very weird). Corey Lewis does a technicolor tale of Longshot and Dazzler taking on Sentinels that is very pretty, but like all Longshot stories full of “who cares about this lunatic anyway?” moments. Well, obviously Lewis does…

Jeffrey Brown speculates about what kind of practical jokes the Fantastic Four might play – a stylish and funny episode. Jay Stephens provides great art and dialogue as he depicts the Beast fighting Michael Morbius, the living vampire, who’s now convinced that he’s a real vampire. Chris Chua provides a freaky doodle that I cannot figure out for the life of me. No ideas even who’s appearing in it. Jonathan Jay Lee’s Punisher tale is very dark and beautifully drawn. Kupperman provides another tale, this time of the Avengers rumbling with each other for stupid reasons, the punch line is a Hostess ad parody (remember those that came near the end of Marvel comics? I’d always read them, even thought hey were so lame). Maybe one of the best ones in the book. Paul Hornschneider offers a very cool tale of Nightcrawler meeting Molecule Man, being held captive and forced to join a weird philosophical conversation with the angst-ridden super villain intent on exploring the stinky dimension Nightcrawler teleports through. Becky Kloonan – great, dark art, tells a story of Namor and Reed Richards fighting King Crab; Doctor Doom, Namor’s roommate, is also not far.

The last 45 pages of the book are Peter Bagge’s “The Megalomaniaal Spider-Man” and “The Incorrigible Hulk”. He does a great job telling a freaky tale of Peter Parker, an angst-ridden 60s kid, coming to grips with his Spiderman-ness, before selling out (great sequence of Peter trading witty repartees with his adversaries, but betraying self-doubt in the thought balloons); 15 years later, Parker is the head of Spider-man Inc and a total Ayn Rand-inspired monster. Everything is turned on its head in this one, and it’s a pure joy to read, especially the twist ending that is a real lift! Nice use of a Gwen Stacey who is never sacrificed to the Green Goblin. Unfortunately, the Hulk tale is not so good, with Bruce Banner and the Hulk both having to contend with randy groupies that are trying to suck the life out of our hero in both of his forms. Still a good read, though.

Not all of the stories are good – James Kochalka’s recurring Hulk black felt tip marker-drawn stories are kind of crappy (there are a few of them spaced throughout the book and none of them are any good, actually), and Johnny Ryan’s “Marvel’s Most Embarrassing Moments” could have been better (as could his two-page tale of the Punisher teaching a kid to get good grades – yawwwwn). There are some silly entries (a dark “Fed Up With Man” by M Kupperman featuring the Sub-Mariner, a silly pickle jar-meets-Hulk story by Perry Bible Fellowship, and a gross “The Blue Hair” featuring Wolverine and Beast” that looks great visually at least swith its use of baby blue and black-and-white pencils) and a weird doggy-world Spider-man tale by Jason. Oh well.

ST2

ST2

Strange Tales II – More of the same stylish and weird interpretations of Marvel myths by heroes of the underground comix scene (this time around focusing more on the Silver Surfer, and hardly at all on MODOK or the Hulk as they had in the first installment), albeit a bit less fun than the first Strange Tales. Naturally, to keep consistency (and to retain one of the best parts of Strange Tales), Chris Sanderson carries on with the weird tales of The Watcher, one-pagers interspersed throughout the book (Uatu and his little buddy go to a strip bar, they hang out in the park with dogs, Uatu gets a lobotomy…). Nice. There’s a “deep” and gory tale about Logan and his relationship with pain, and his relationship with women – no small crossover here (and we also get a similar, but less good, tale of Logan heartbreak in the hot dog tale that comes up later on in the book). Gene Luen Yang takes on the Fabulous Frog-man’s son and his goofy antics (probably Marvel’s lamest “super-villain”). Frank Santoro does a strangely childish cosmic Silver Surfer tale, another tale shows Kraven the Hunter hunting for a date to the prom (funny, playful, naive), then there’s a weird colorful tale of the Dazzler getting in touch with her inner rock goddess. Shannon Wheeler does a very cool retro Red Skull in an Amazonian village (he’s gone eco-warrior), Kevin Huizenga draws nutty simple Logan vs Silver Surfer panels, , and Jeff Lemire draws one of those “Marvel tie-in with our human history” by showing old Mounties in the forest taking on what might be a Wendigo, but which is actually… Swamp Thing? Episodes like this are good because they’re well-drawn, they’re semi-serious, but ultimately they do no more than gratuitously wallow in Marvel lore, I love it.

“Meanwhile… in the park!!” by Johnen V is really very silly – a heartbroken Wolverine gorging on hot dogs, an encounter with the Sentinels, silly… Nicholas Gurewitch does a funny two-pager about Magento offering his services to Galactus (nice art – stupid gag). This is followed by the best stories in the whole book, two Love And Rockets-style tales by Gilbert Hernandez, with his patented Archie-like take on adult themes: this time we get Iron Man teaming up with Toro, the sidekick of the original Human Torch (remember the Invaders?) taking on the Leader, followed by a weird little tale of the Space Phantom trying unsuccessfully to crash the girls’ beach party. Great girl politics, and a nice revival of one of the weirder Marvel characters form 50 years ago (he originally appeared in Avengers #2. Nice X-Men adventure by Jeffrey Brown showing the X-Men taking on the Sentinels, even as Scott and Jean have relationship problems. Weird. Mr Sheldon, whoever he is, does a very cool Ghost Rider-with-friendly-muttonchops that is pure Lemmy. “I’m the rebel son of Satan, Hell nor Heaven ain’t my friend”. Nice Spiderman adventure with Paul Maybury, “Little Lies”, where Peter demonstrates one of the lesser-told aspects of Spider-man’s life – how he explains away all of the cuts and bruises he gets fighting Vermin, Sandman, Doc Ock, etc. Beautifully-drawn, a real treat. The ever-weird Tony Millionaire takes on Thor, explaining how he lost his hammer, lost his powers, and had to resort to selling Thor Brand Pickled Herring at the crumbling Coney Island amusement park to wandering Danes. Of course, he can easily get it back by taking on Mud-O and Can Man. Nice. A weird “Wolverine and Power Pack” adventure by Maya and Sam that results in Logan going to Japan to learn to control his animal nature. Then Farel Darymple tells the “You Won’t Feel A Thing” tale which is, as he describes it, “a ridiculous retelling of the firs encounter between the stoic Silver Surfer and one very stressed-out Spidey.” Between the panel we see the message “I copied this entire page from John Buscema and ‘How To Draw Comics The Marvel Way’. I apologize if anyone finds it offensive. There is no disrespect intended. Please don’t be mad.” Beautiful drawings, boring story. Modok is back finally in “Crisis – In The Lair Of Modok” by Jon Vermilyer, that shows a crazy Ant Man flying up Modok’s nose. It’s pretty gnarly… Terry Moore tells a silly story of a young Thor and “How Mjolnir Got Its Strap.” Ho hum. James Stokoe tells a cool (and well-drawen story) about a bunch of Skrulls playing poker with the Silver Surfer as their planet gets devoured by Galactus. Cool art!! A story by Benjamin Marra that involves US Agent being hired to do a hit is sheer insanity.

Government agent: It’s a terrorist who’s been genetically spliced with the DNA of a velociraptor!! And if that weren’t enough, he has a nuclear warhead strapped to his back!! We call him the Terror-saur!!
US Agent: Sounds like a real nerd.

US Agent is some sort of Captain America mercenary who’s a heartless killer. Nice. Tim Hamilton does a cool Machine Man story, as he takes on a Michael Morbius (The Living Vampire) who’s allied himself with Baphomet. Great story, great art. Kate Beaton tells another funny, “cute” story about Rogue absorbing the powers of a kitten when she smashes Professor X’s favorite vase (why would Professor X have a favorite vase anyway?). “Oh Rogue! How can I stay mad at youuu…?” The Left Hand of Boom” is a cool story by Dean Haspiel (great art!) of Woodgod, the Sentinels, Alicia Masters and the Thing. And a game of stickball. T Cypress shows what happens when some comic book fans call Luke Cage’s Heroes-For-Hire hotline (1-555-HERO). Cool! Badass!! Michael Deforge shows young mutants getting in trouble, also quite grisly. “Fantastic… Before” is a well-drawn story about a young Reed Richards, pre-Sue Richards, chasing girls with his buddy Ben Grimm. Eduardo Medeiros tells a funny tale of Spidey, with the Juggernaut calling up to Aunt May to find out if Spiderman can come out to play. Harvey Pekar gets the last story, “Harvey Pekar Meets The Thing”, a well-drawn and textured tale of New York, showing the Thing catching up to Harvey, having a conversation on the side of the street about employment, job security, Jewish neighborhoods (who knew that The Thing’s Jewish?!?!) and other mundane matters. Very nice indeed.

I wonder what it would take to get Michael Allred onto one of these crazy adventures!

Here are some images from Strange Tales

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Sunday morning, Sunday afternoon

Sunday, May 12th, 2013

It was a great and beautiful day today. How great and beautiful you ask? It was… THIS great and beautiful:

Sunday morning view

Sunday morning view

Sunday morning view

Sunday morning view

Sunday afternoon view

Sunday afternoon view

Sunday afternoon view

Sunday afternoon view

Here’s a new pic of Naoko and Zen before they go off for softball.

Naoko and Zen, happy mother's day!!

Naoko and Zen, happy mother's day!!

TAB 2003

Sunday, May 12th, 2013

I don’t know why I’m feeling sentimental, but today I came across the original ad for The Asian Banker job that I applied to in 2003, probably in June or July that got me the job I held for eight years. Wow. It was never easy, but it got me to where I am today. Hooray for boobies!!!

TAB job ad 2003

TAB job ad 2003

My big bad The Wizard of Oz page

Sunday, May 12th, 2013

TWWOO

TWWOO


The Wonderful Wizard Of Oz, by L Frank Baum, illustrated by Robert Ingpen – We all know the movie so well, we never really think about the original book by L Frank Baum. Have you read it?

This revisit of the classic, published in 2011, comes a few years before Oz The Great And Powerful film, which didn’t really do all that well in the theatres, but, according to my 11-year-old, was a wonderful tale anyway. I tried to get him to read the “sequel” to this non-L Frank Baum prequel to The Wizard Of Oz, but he lost interest quickly, so I read it myself. I’m glad I did.

This book comes with a very good intro to L Frank Baum (I never knew he was born into a life of fortune, but lost everything and had to hustle and write to make ends meet). The book is quick and easy to read, this version comes in a large, durable, and highly-illustrated hardcover version. It’s full of finished drawings and sketches, with at least one classic drawing – of the woodcutter being transformed slowly into a tin man – really jumping off of the page.

TWWO2

TWWO2

The story mainly follows what happens in the film, with some additional adventures thrown in.

There’s a great sense of adventure and purpose – Dorothy collects companions one after another, everyone is kind to each other and helps others, with the exception of a few evil people who do the opposite. Nice pictures of Oz’s balloon, and great adventures as the lion gets his own kingdom, the tin man his own, and the scarecrow his own – may they always rule with magnanimity and wisdom. Of course, there’s always the weird adventure in the dainty china country, and the land of the weird little Quadlings.

But the best parts are when we learn just who our four adventurers are, and what motivates them.

“All the same,” said the Scarecrow, “I shall ask for brains instead of a heart; for a fool would not know what to do with aheart if he had one.”

“I shall take the heart,” returned the Tin Woodman; “for brains do not make one happy, and happiness is the best thing in the world.”

There are also some surreal moments, like when the cowardly lion attacks the three travelers before befriending them:

“When [my claws] scratched against the tin it made a cold shiver run down my back. What is that little animal you are so tender of?”
“He is my dog, Toto, ” answered Dorothy.
“Is he made of tin, or stuffed?” asked the Lion.
“Neither. He’s a – a – a meat dog,” said the girl.

Funnily enough, we get the sense before our adventurers reach Oz that the lion is not so cowardly, that the tin man has a heart, and that the scarecrow has brains. It’s a conceit, and so is the wizard. Only the witches have power – not sure why – and there are beasts and strange creatures; there are even tacked-on adventures, such as the visit to the kingdom of the china dolls… really not sure why that’s included in the tale, as it’s totally superfluous. At least it’s not all a dream, as we read about Dorothy falling asleep and waking up.

The illustrations are beautiful. There’s a two-page sweep of a cyclone in Kansas, Dorothy with her new silver shoes (the garish scene of her house crushing the Wicked Witch of the West is not played up at all), the cowardly lion looking very lion-ish, the raft over the river, a two page spread of the giant poppies that nearly do them in, the four faces of Oz, Oz as a seven-eyed creature, the release of the flying monkeys, and many others.

Now, let’s see what the movie’s like…

TWoO

TWoO

The movie comes with some pretty good bonuses. On Disc one there are several: there’s a highly-truncated tour of an illustrated version of the book, which doesn’t serve to do much other than to show how different the book and the movie are. It’s nicely animated to spice things up. We are reminded that the Wicked Witch of the East wore silver (not ruby) slippers.

There’s an 11-minute documentary on the restoration of the film, from the original camera negative, but also with lots of preserved and archival materials, at 300 megabytes per second.

A feature called “We haven’t really met properly” gives bios of all the actors. Frank Morgan (Francis Wupperman) as The Wizard/Professor/Cabbie/Guardsman/someone else, nearly lost the role to WC Fields (that would have been interesting…). Hollywood was a small town then, and he appeared in a film with Margaret Hamilton/Miss Gulch in “Saratoga”, and in other films, such as Tortilla Flat (oddly enough, Frank Morgan and WC Fields rented the same home, later owned by Lily Tomlin). He got several Oscar nominations. Ray Bolger as the Scarecrow, almost turned the film down when they wanted him for the role of Tin Man. Great dancer with long skinny legs, “The Hardy Girls” in 1946 dancing with Judy Garland. Burt Lahr as the Cowardly Lion, a regular stage guy but who later did film and television. Jack Haley as the Tin Man, had been in Vaudeville and Broadway, also with Margaret Hamilton (Miss Gulch), his son later married Judy’s daughter Liza Minelli. Billie Burke, as Glinda the Good Witch Of The South, was 54 years old when she acted in The Wizard Of Oz – born in 1885, she’s had an interesting life, and later married a zillionaire. She’d acted with a young Judy Garland in “Everybody Sing.” Ironically, “Margaret Hamilton was adored by anyone who met her, especially children and little animals.” Charlie Grapewin, Uncle Henry from Kansas, made more than 100 pictures between age 60-82, including The Grapes Of Wrath and They Died With Their Boots On, and The Good Earth. Also a playwright and novelist – his first film was in 1900. Clara Blandick as Auntie Em, she had been born on an American ship in Hong Kong harbor!! Was in a 1921 comedy, Wise Girls. Toto was a terrier bitch named Terry, probably the most recognisable animal performer of all time. Was painfully shy, famed animal trainer Carl Spits drew him out. He was Spencer Tracy’s pet Rainbow in the thriller Rainbow in 1936. He was also in The Women, worked with Frank Morgan in Tortilla Flat in 1942. Passed away in 1944.

There’s also a “Music and effects track”, which cuts out the dialogue, and the “Original mono track”. This is all that’s on Disc One.

On Disc Two, the Special Features Disc, we get “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz: The Making of a Movie Classic” (50 minutes), “Memories of Oz” (27 minutes), “The Art of Imagination: A Tribute to Oz” (30 minutes), “Because of the Wonderful Things It Does: The Legacy of Oz” (25 minutes), “Harold Arlen’s Home Movies” (five minutes), “Outtakes and Deleted Scenes” (14 minutes).

“The Wonderful Wizard of Oz: The Making of a Movie Classic” is a cool documentary about the movie. “More people have seen it than any other movie – over a billion of them. It’s probably the most beloved movie made in any language.” You get a glimpse of the macho Spanish version (the lion roaring), the French version (“lions and tigers and bears”), the German one (showing the witch – of course, it’s German), Angela Lansbury narrates. “Those who created this work came as close to perfection as anyone could ask” (barf!!). “Backstage there was confusion, chaos, and often danger.” Producer Mervyn LeRoy talked about how the budget of $2,600,000 was a lot for the time, he was nearly fired for spending so much. The three guys were sick of being full of make-up. Jack Haley hated it – hard work, not fun at all, nothing funny about it. No residuals, but immortality, the guys say on the Mike Douglas show. Directed by Jack Haley Jr, this documentary was created in the summer of 1989, the 50th birthday of the film, when Macy’s “Tap-Oz-Mania” was the record-breaking biggest tap-dancing sensation.

In 1939, Walt Disney’s success with Snow White inspired Louis B Mayer to create an MGM version of such a film, hence buying the rights to Oz. LeRoy was under pressure to cast Shirley Temple for the film, thought it would be too much for her (here the filmmakers get an ironic shot of Temple saying “there’s no place like home.” Judy Garland’s big voice and greater age helped her get cast over Shirley Temple. LeRoy and Mayer were convinced that this movie could make her a star. The documentary includes the voice of Judy Garland briefly talking about the film, as well as the voices of her daughters Liza Minelli and Lorna Loft talking about how their mother loved making the film.

The casting of the wicked witch was controversial – they didn’t want a slinky and seductive witch like what was in Snow White; because Fields had haggled endlessly over his salary as Oz, he lost it to Fank Morgan who got to play the Wizard, Professor Marvell, the Doorman, the Cabbie, and the Guard. Scenes of Bert Lahr’s Vaudeville films show what a nut he was – totally off the wall. Ray Bolger angry to be cast as the Tin Man, wanted desperately to be the Scarecrow; fought with Louis B Mayer and got it. “Recently discovered in the MGM vaults, it raises the question: how long is too long?” Judy danced with Buddy Ebson in “Broadway Melody” in 1938 (there’s a clip), still under contract to MGM; he was happy to be the tin man, but he had a living nightmare from the aluminum dust that coated his lungs and nearly killed him – the result was the worst personal and professional disaster he ever endured, replaced by Jack Haley, on loan from 20th Century Fox, his make-up now changed from aluminum powder to aluminum paste.

The documentary tells tale of L Frank Baum, and how by 1938 over 10 million Oz books had been sold. The screenplay had 14 writers and five directors, although the screenplay was attributed to three writers. Noel Langley changed Dorothy’s shoes from silver to ruby, made the hired hands the three companions of Oz, and gave Dorothy the line “there’s no place like home.” Luft and Minelli talk about Judy Garland’s version of “Somewhere Over The Rainbow”. The Song was cut after the premiere, because it seems to slow down the film, but it is restored later (good thing too). Directors are changed; one came in, told Judy Garland to lose the curly wig and make-up, and look more like a little pig-tailed girl from Kansas (good call).

Victor Fleming did most of the work on Wizard of Oz, before being called into Gone With The Wind to finish that off (!!!), so King Vidor was called in to finish The Wizard Of Oz (!!!).

Over 100 little people came into MGM, “the singer midgets”, freelancers from Vaudeville and circuses all over the land. A lady midget was given the role of the bearded coroner dude. Five weeks while costumes were made for all of the midgets, while rehearsals were done, make-up done, and all sorts of crazy make-up continuity.

A whole section on the special effects of the films. The tornado was the toughest one, but it was built out of muslin that was moved around. Harold Arlan composed backstage home movies. Burt Lahr’s costume was 90 pounds, but a nervous guy who was always moving, he couldn’t eat anything or he’d get gas… Margaret Hamilton got burned badly by the flames when she got dropped down into the “disappearing pit”, she had burns on her face and hands from the copper in her make-up. The munchkins were all over the place, hiding under benches, in bushes, coming down stairs… Drinkers! Working six days a week, 5:00 AM to 6:00 PM. Judy Garland and Mickey Rooney are at the opening of the film in New York (it’s not explained why Mickey Rooney is involved). The film lost money in its first week, against stiff competition from Gone With The Wind. Bob Hope was the MC for the Oscars, a ramshackle affair compared to today’s choreography.

“Memories of Oz” is yet another TV special that includes quotes by John Waters, as a cult member, talking about “the most mainstream cult of all.” Good job synthesizing the movie into a three act structure. Daughter of Bert Lahr, Jane Lahr, giving the zeitgeist of 1939 – a cyclone approaching, a fascistic witch with her awful soldiers. Hitler at that time had been cast as the wicked witch, England was the (cowardly) lion.

At that time there was state-of-the-art matte backgrounds. The sepia-coloured world changing to Technicolor was original. Many of the munchkins are interviewed, each of them in costume, lots of discussion of the Munchkin scene.

“I’m the only child in the audience who always wondered why Dorothy ever wanted to go back to Kansas,” says John Waters. ‘Why would she want to go back to Kansas and that dreary black-and-white farm, with an aunt who dressed badly and seemed mean to me, when she could live with winged monkeys, magic shoes, and gay lions. I never understood it.” Munchkin voices were recorded at a certain speed, perhaps unusually slow, were sped up to gain that strange texture. Nice moments interviewing choreographer Donna Massin. Great vaudeville in “Flying High.” Cowardly Lion was a leo!! He was shy, serious, had a great sense of humour that he didn’t show all the time.

The “I’ll miss you most of all [Scarecrow]” line refers to a possible sub-plot that Hunk and Dorothy were having an innocent romance, that was later jettisoned.

Buddy Ebsen interviewed – “why not give Judy a chance?” They gave Judy a chance and she became a superstar.

The munchkin actors were fascinated with Judy Garland, she was interested in them too. A great view of the Judy Garland Dorothy doll, they made hers the same as the Shirley Temple movie. There’s an archivist’s view of the recycling of the Wizard Of Oz movie props – the Witch’s hourglass, Munchkin costumes, Mrs Gretsch’s basket, Munchkin houses, the tornado. The movie didn’t turn a profit until 1949.

“The movies you should re-make are the bad ones, not the good ones,” says John Waters. “It’s actually blasphemy to re-make that movie, and I would root for the failure of any production that would do so in any form!”

“The Art of Imagination: A Tribute to Oz” (30 minutes), is another documentary; it starts off talking about how in those days Louis B Mayer ruled over 180 acres of MGM city, eventually providing a bit of zeitgeist). Randy Newman, Peter Jackson, Sean Astin, Howard Shore (a different movie linked to his name each time he appears), John Dykstra.

It was a fantastic gamble for MGM at the time. It was a gut-level decision. “If I Only Had A Brain” had been written two years earlier. “If I only had the noive,” a very Brooklyn accent. A lot of classical music would have been heard at the time, they used Mussorgsky in the castle, and people would have been familiar with it at that time. They had a complex system of lip synching to pre-recorded music. The cornfield backdrop was 25 ft high, and 400 ft long, painted over three weeks by 13 artists. Discussion of the “Surrender Dorothy” effect. Commentators often wear green to their interviews (Peter Jackson, etc). Narrated by Sydney Pollock.

“Because of the Wonderful Things It Does: The Legacy of Oz” (25 minutes) – Television catapulted it over the top in 1956, with Judy Garland’s daughter and a collector, they scheduled it before Thanksgiving. They waited three years to show it again, because more than once a year was too often, after that they’d play it once a year – that was part of the magic.

Celebrities like Carole Henson, of the Jim Henson company. Influences on Star Wars, with the awards ceremony, the hairy fighter, the girl and the man, the mission. Significant in ET – it’s Oz in reverse, the fantastic creature comes to normalcy and dealing with normal people and finding a place home. The ruby slippers were the highest-paid item on auction when MGM emptied the archives, and they ended up in the Smithsonian institute, where they regularly have to replace the carpet in front of it because it’s so heavily-viewed.

“Harold Arlen’s Home Movies” is “16mm footage [made] during the portrait sittings of the film and visits to the set” by the film’s composer. The pieces are incredibly funky – there’s the cowardly lion mugging for the camera, the wicked witch of the west cackling gloriously, the scarecrow posing with his favorite crow, which at one point feeds him a piece of straw and then sits on his head, Judy Garland, the resplendent 16-year-old, the Scarecrow without his straw hat mugging with Judy, scenes in the Emerald City. Make-up people helping out on the yellow brick road, stage hands – crazy stuff!! I watched it several times, just stunning stuff!

In the “Outtakes and Deleted Scenes” section, we get “If I Only Had A Brain”, “If I Only Had A Heart”, “Triumphal Return to Emerald City”, “Over The Rainbow”, and “The Jitterbug”. There was a deleted dance to “If I Only Had A Brain”, where there’s a wonderful extended bit that was cut because the studio thought the film was getting too long, where the scarecrow finds a piece of his straw stuffing that a crow flew off with, he flies through the air, does the splits, Toto rolls over a pumpkin that rolls through his legs and knocks him in the air, he bounces off of the rubberized fences, runs off in reverse – it’s nutty (and the best thing on either disc!!!!!). Buddy Ebson fell ill to aluminum poisoning, but they run a track of how Buddy Ebsen pre-recorded the song, and there are stills of him doing the scenes, as well as dressed up as Winky guards. The “Triumphal Return to Emerald City” had different sounds, and a huge choral sequence that has been lost, but from which stills remain. A reprise of “Over The Rainbow” was to appear when a tearful and scared Judy Garland was locked in the witch’s castle, sobbing and now clearly regretting ever wishing she had once wanted to be far from Kansas (over the rainbow is now, ironically, meant to be Kansas). Recorded live on the set with piano accompaniment (orchestra was to be added later). Covered by stills and test frames only. “I’m frightened, Auntie Em, I’m frightened!!” “The Jitterbug” number was a huge production that was cut from the movie after the first preview, despite taking five weeks to prepare and “tens of thousands of dollars to prepare, rehearse and film”; the jitterbug was a creature that had been under orders from the wicked witch to sting actors and “sends them into a jivey swing dance in the haunted forest.” We only see movies Harold Arland made during a camera rehearsal, with also stills of the stars. Basically, it’s a musical number never heard in the original film!! Arland’s shots of the rehearsals look like they were taken clandestinely, who knows why, and we only see the stars from between the rubbery horror-trees, manipulated as they were by stage hands. Nice.

And of course, how can you write about The Wizard of Oz without writing about Dark Side Of The Rainbow, the game when you sync the film with Pink Floyd’s “Dark Side Of The Moon” album, with its prominent rainbow-influenced cover. I did watch it (by starting the music with the third roar of the MGM lion at the beginning); the experience is underwhelming to say the least, but there are some great moments of overlap, such as all of “The Great Gig In The Sky”, when Dorothy feels the coming of the cyclone, rushes home, and is then lifted up into… the sky; also, the first beat of “Money” begins when she opens the door and sees the Technicolor world of Munchkinland. Nice. During “Us And Them”, there’s a great point where the lyrics say “which is which”, and you get to see the two witches confront each other – great pun. There’s also great interplay with the lyric “the lunatic is on the grass” as the scarecrow dances about.

Vodka Spoiler

Sunday, May 12th, 2013
VS

VS

Vodka Spoiler – Vodka Spoiler is the studio project of some friends of mine from Japan, Shane and Ken and who knows else, and Arkansas is their cool little outing initial experimental offering. The band gives us 13 songs of pure rock bliss, mixed with some cool electronics like in the opening tune “Intro”; this blends with “Sacrifice”, a decent rockers”, while “1000 Virgins” is more whiney punk, with a singalong chorus sung by Shane that has some wicked bass going for it. Nice. The title track “Arkansas” is like a fast-moving Cure song (yes, there are some) that is full of bass, and has this weird echoing strangled vocals from Shane. “The Prospect” is more like angular Pavement stuff, with some nice surf guitar, it chugs on and on in well-produced alternative-ness. “Resolve” is a cool prog rock song that starts off as as a bummed out little groover with a nice bass feel, but ends up as another type of song, with wild space flights throughout, getting wilder and wilder; unfortunately, the drum sound is very splatty and sounds somewhat programmed (it may not be). “Manipulation Acumen” is a pretty darn cool little folk rocker.

Somehow the band saves the big guns for the second half of the recording, or Side B. “Smirk And A Shudder” is a very cool, plodding, dark number that really fills the gaps, sort of like a slumbering, menacing Alice In Chains number, maybe. “Darwin Was Wrong” is a very cool grungy rock number that just slays in all ways. “Compassion Fatigues” is cool and poppy in a heavy way, grinding on and on in a sort of lumbering manner. Nice transitions in the latter part of the song, the longest on the release. “Uncle Volt” is a groove-rocker that pops perfectly. “Araya” is pure punk grind, and very different from anything else on the album. Oh Lord yeah!! The final song “Sentinel” is pretty mellow, starting off with simple guitar chords, before building up with some electronic beats and some groovy atmosphere, it’s one of the best songs on the album with some hair-raising vocal blur that notches the grind a half-beat slower than it should be and just blocks the heart. Shane’s vocals are a wall of sound that just clobbers you. Wow, this album sounds great!!

You can only buy the songs on Bandcamp, so check it out now (there’s a nice touch with the Bandcamp songs – nearly every song comes with a different “cover”, and some of them are really beautiful).

The Dead Boys live DVD, and Cheetah Chrome’s autobiography

Sunday, May 12th, 2013

So I went to Japan in December, my friend Matt gave me Cheetah Chrome’s autobiography, since he knows I like reading rock autobiographies. Thanks, Matt! Then, when Matt and a bunch of friends were bouncing around some Kobe music shops and I came across the Dead Boys Live! at CBGB 1977 DVD I knew that fate had intervened and I bought it. So now I can catch up on my Dead Boys!!!

CCADBT

CCADBT


Cheetah Chrome, A Dead Boy’s Tale, by Cheetah Chrome – I’ve read a bunch of rock autobiographies, and this is one of the better ones. Cheetah, despite being a bad rock ‘n’ roll burnout, seems to have the memory of a nun, because he gets very detailed about his childhood, his teenage years, and his years as a falling-down drunk guitar genius with The Dead Boys at their height. Wow!

A lot of the details from this book also come out in Please Kill Me as well – the beatings, the ODs, the rock and punk alliances and famous NYC anecdotes – but it’s nice to hear them in Cheetah’s words, including subtleties like how he didn’t get along with Patti Smith or her entourage, and other points. Growing up in Cleveland, Ohio, the bastard son of an older single mom (she was 40 when CC was born, compared to someone like Axl Rose, whose mom was 16 when he was born) and blessed with bright orange hair and the name Eugene probably wasn’t easy. Sure he has a genius IQ (like Axl Rose) and a great knack for music, and adding in the support of a great and understanding (albeit racist) mom things probably could have been worse.

Great story how he tricked his first bassist into joining his group… by convincing him the aspiring guitarist that he really needed to trade his guitar in for a bass. The first song they played was “The Little Black Egg” by The Nightcrawlers (which sounds like “The Crying Game”).

Those earlier episodes are interesting because they show the method to his commitment to getting a band together, and how he went about it (a lot of other books gloss over these details, especially the “method” part).

Again, there’s that zeitgeist thing that you get when you read rock autobiographies and they talk about the musical inspirations of their era:

I don’t think that I listened to anything but the Stooges and the Velvets until the Stones’ Let It Bleed came out later that year.

Wow… those were the days!

Cheetah Chrome talks about loving Mott The Hoople, and how Bowie saved that band by writing “All The Young Dudes” for them (sadly, this is the only Mott The Hoople song that I know – I need to look more into them, given that CC likes them better even than Bowie). There’s a funny anecdote about how CC finally got to meet his idol, Ian Hunter of Mott The Hoople, but then pissed him off by drunkenly flirting with Ian’s daughter! It even got written up in Creem magazine!! Great stories about CC getting in fights in school, confronting cops who were beating people up, CC living on the wrong side of the law, trying out new drugs, smoking (continuously until 2005), selling drugs at one point, drinking booze, tormenting his poor mother (who, bless her soul, always supported him).

The book is full of great anecdotes, like the time that one of the band guys dared CC to pull Mark Mothersbaugh’s jockey shorts down when he came out in his shorts and Booji Boy mask during Devo’s performance of “Jocko Homo”, risking the ire of the hopping bunny rabbit fans that were Devo’s early devoted following.

Booji Boy began the “Are we not men? We are Devo!” chant, and the fan club was in full bunny rabbit overdrive, hopping for all they were worth. Then I leaned forward and pulled Booji Boy’s shorts down around his ankles. It was hilarious, at least to me and Fuji, and we were laughing our asses off.

The next thing I knew, we were being kicked and punched by the entire bunch of bunny-hopping nerds, who had suddenly turned into vicious, killer wolverine nerds in a split second. They weren’t really landing any good punches or kicks, but they were clobbering us with little wussie ones. We looked at each other and I yelled, “Down!” We both dropped to our knees and began crawling out toward the bar, getting kicked a couple of times, but making a good escape.

When we stood up at the bar, we realized that they hadn’t even noticed we were gone, and were still kicking and punching each other! I looked over and spotted the other Dead Boys, who were in hysterics watching the whole thing. We stood there laughing, watching this until the song was finished and things calmed down.

The next song was the only one I liked at that time, “Mongoloid,” during which Booji Boy honored me by singing “Cheetah is a mongoloid.”

In the spring of 1977, the band began looking for gigs outside of New York City, and they looked towards Toronto. “Toronto became one of our best cities, and it’s still one of my favorite places to play. When we reunited in late 1979, it was the first place we played, even before New York.” He also said “the punk scene in Toronto rivaled the one in New York, with bands like the Viletones, Teenage Head and the Diodes, and we shared a stage with each of them at some point.” At one gig they were showered in hundreds of dollars of Canadian currency, no one knows why. Stranger things kept happening in Toronto, such as “partying a bit with Phil Lynott and Brian Robertson from Thin Lizzy, who were recording in town and came to the show”. Wow!

The band was always messing around, and there’s a great Neil Diamond gag – when they both shared the Holiday Inn and Neil (“Mr Diamond”) and his entourage pissed them off with a lot of grandstanding; at the end of the Dead Boys’ show they announced to the crowd that there’d be an after-gig party… and gave directions to Neil’s floor; hilarity ensued as thousands of punks showed up on Neil Diamond’s floor looking for fun.

It also got pretty raunchy on tour:

Stiv and this girl he had picked up invited me to go with them to a club where she worked. This girl was not much to look at – a really curly blonde sort of afro deal, bright red lipstick, beady eyes, acne. But Stiv had had about fifteen shots of Amaretto, his drink of choice for getting plastered, so he hadn’t noticed, and she had money and a bunch of coke, so we thought what the hell. At some point she got named the “Whistle Pig” by the rest of us.

I talked Stiv and his girl into join back to the hotel. I jumped in the shower to give them some privacy, and when I came out, I was greeted by the spectacle of Bators, naked except for his T-shirt and socks, pumping frantically away on this girl, who had her legs back somewhere around her ears and was making noises I can’t describe.

Having nowhere else to go, I did a few lines, poured some Rebel Yell, and settled into bed with the TV on and a magazine, trying to block out the event taking place about four feet away. It wasn’t easy. Then there was a knock at the door, and it was Zero, who was just seeing what we were up to. I pointed over my shoulder and Jimmy’s eyes lit up, so he grabbed a beer and sat on the end of my bed to watch Stiv have sex with this beast. This was fun for a little while – we gave him suggestions and critiqued his style, applauded his better moves – but sex can be pretty lame if you’re not the one having it.

I was just about to suggest we get out of there when Stiv pulled out of the chick, leaped up with this enormous hard-on, and whirled around and began thrashing things. He grabbed a lamp and threw it; he picked up a chair and tried to put it through the window, but it wouldn’t break. He ran over and pulled the nightstand off of the wall it was bolted to, then knocked over the table, and for the finale he wrestled the TV (which was about twice his size) off its mount on the dresser and onto the floor, with whatever program was on blaring the whole time. Then he whirled around again, stood back from the end of his bed, still with this enormous hard-on, and did a perfect swan dive back onto the Whistle Pig, who let out a scream I felt sure would get us evicted and arrested. They went right back to where they had been, not missing a stroke.

Wow!

Then there was the time they took a fire hose into the elevator with them and went down a few stories till it stopped, another time CC tied all the doors to each other with fishing wire, or the time they attempted to learn how many towels could be flushed down the toilet before it backed up; or the million other pranks they pulled, like Stiv Bators pissing on the ice cubes in the ice cube machine (of other floors than the one they stayed on… maybe).

At times you wonder why his memory is so accurate on certain occasions: “We had time for a short nap before the limo came to pick us up and take us to some record store on Hollywood Boulevard for an in-store appearance.” I wonder what was so memorable about that particular nap!

Eventually, Cheetah’s book moves out of his “goofy punk action” to his “casually hanging out with celebrities action” (and somewhere along the line graduating from “heavy drinking and pill popping” to “regularly using the hardest drugs). “One night when we were playing at CB’s, I was introduced to Lou Reed. We got on fine, and I sat at a table in the back talking with him and his bass player, Moose.” Lou wanted to produce the Dead Boys second album, and Cheetah was keen on it, but they got someone that didn’t do them justice. Too bad (even though “Ain’t It Fun” is a great song, and that is on the second album, how bad can it be?!?!?!). Cheetah gets into a lot of crazy stories about life in Miami as they were recording that album.

The lounge at {our studio] Criteria was very cushy, and when I walked in the first time to grab a Heineken, the first person I saw was Andy Gibb standing there smoking a joint. He sort of began to hide it, until he realised I wasn’t whoever it was he didn’t want to see it. He smiled and offered me the joint, so I took a hit and we introduced ourselves. Stiv came in a bit later, and his eyes got wide seeing me and the teen heart throb sitting on the couch, smoking and laughing like old friends.

Andy became my regular smoking buddy while we were there. He was a really good guy, even though he was on a short leash between his brothers and their manager Robert Stigwood. When we did some photos with them after the album was done, Andy tried on Stiv’s leather and commented on how he ‘wished Mr Stigwood would let me get one.’

The other Gibb brothers wandered in periodically, as they were at the peak of their Saturday Night Fever fame and owned one of the studios at Criteria for their own personal use. They were really pretty cool, very down to earth and friendly. I had always loved their early stuff, so I didn’t hold their disco success against them as long as I didn’t have to hear any of it. Maurice and Robin in particular had some good stories about the 1960s. They were curious about our stuff and would stop in to say hello and listen to us a bit practically every night.

The Dead Boys and the Bee Gees! Surreal!! But Cheetah shows a propensity to hang out with all sorts of interesting people, most of whom you wouldn’t associate with punk rock. That’s just the kinda guy he is (although he does seem to hate Meatloaf, for some reason – hey, Meatloaf’s okay, isn’t he?). Of course, John Belushi also became one of his great friends, even to the point of slamming him against the wall and telling him to quit heroin; CC is always kind and respectful to Belushi, but fairly wry when he notes that Belushi himself died of a heroin and cocaine overdose.

Cheetah takes time to agonize over the casual murder of a beloved guinea pig, an incident that was described in Please Kill Me. Jeez, man, it was just a guinea pig!

Interesting recounting of New York encounters with Sid Vicious and Nancy Spungen and hanging out with them and all of the anarchy in their messed-up lives. He also talks of playing in Ronnie Spector’s band, and hanging out with Mick Jagger and Keith Richards in Electric Lady studio (Jagger was in his full beard phase and looked like Grizzly Adams, CC passed him in the hall without even recognising him, ha ha…). He eventually became a drug buddy of Anita Pallenberg and spent a lot of time at her squalid mansion on Long Island. There are also great stories of playing in Nico’s band! She ripped him off, but he doesn’t hold it against her.

I find it funny just how often rockers mention the film Spinal Tap in their autobiographies, and Cheetah doesn’t let us down:

We had a real spinal Tap moment getting over to the club before the first show. Geoff told us that we were supposed to take the elevator to the basement, where there would be signs guiding us to a door that came out backstage next to our dressing rooms. We ran through it once in the afternoon the day before the show and it was easy enough, but after some beers and a few lines, it was a maze. We had brought our guitars without cases, and we wandered in circles, just like in the movie, until finally someone opened the door from the club side and came looking for us.

A hilarious admission from Mr Punk Rock and his trip to Disneyland.

After standing in line forever to get in, and managing to get past a giant Minnie Mouse trying to hug me without killing it, we proceeded to go on every ride in the place, and I have to admit I had a fucking great time!

He liked, it, that is, except for two things: Space Mountain (scared the hell out of him) and the It’s A Small World ride that is a well-known shrine to kitsch and bad taste.

When I recovered from [Space Mountain], we went on to Pirates of the Caribbean, the Submarine Voyage (where, I swear to God, Bators farted as soon as we were trapped, pissing off everyone on board), and onto the dreaded It’s A Small World.

It was dark by now and I was tired, and after about five minutes of that damned song, I was ready to kill everyone in the place and then myself. I fantasized about running amok, kicking little Chinese and Romanian dolls in their little native costumes everywhere, stomping on little Dutch people, tearing the heads off of tiny Polynesians and burning their hooches, and then finding wherever that fucking song was coming from and blowing it up real good! After endless verses and many bad jokes that I’m sure scared the parents in the cars behind us, we stopped by the gift shop where Stiv bought me a Mickey Mouse spoon to cook my dope in, and then we went home. I heard that goddamn song in my head for the next three days. The horror…

There’s a funny anecdote about the Dead Boys playing with their fill-in guitarist George Cabaniss after CC had quit the band. “I went to see the Dead Boys when they did a show near the city and was appalled to see this George guy wearing a flannel shirt onstage.” He says this without irony, or mentioning grunge at all!

And, like so many others, CC has a good Kenneth Anger anecdote:

One weekend Kenneth Anger came out and brought copies of the films Lucifer Rising and Invocation Of My Demon Brother, among others. He was a really cool guy, and I really liked him, but I sort of pissed him off when we were watching one of the movies. There was a scene of him walking around a candle like three hundred times in fast motion wearing a wizard costume of some sort. It was hilarious and I couldn’t help but crack up. He shot me a look that had me worried about getting carried off by Succubi or something, but we talked later and I apologized, explaining I just hadn’t expected the wizard’s suit.

He sent me a few strange things in the mail, like bizarre bondage books, some involving enemas and water sports. He also came to a gig at Max’s one night with Anita.

A lot of the book is centered around the death of Stiv Bators – it’s the episode that opens the book, and it is the ghost hanging over the last part of the book.

We did Stiv’s memorial at the COntinental Divide (now the Continental), which was a long, sad evening during which Johnny Thunders and I were so fucked up it was absolutely pitiful. I barely remember that night and cringe a bit when I see the video of it on YouTube. Christ, I’m glad I don’t take drugs anymore.

Overall the book is a great read with a lot of interesting moments. Cheetah Chrome is a pretty good writer and storyteller, and you do get a sense that he’s hit all of the bases.

TDBLACBGB1977

TDBLACBGB1977


Dead Boys – Live! at CBGB 1977 – A great document, originally recorded in 1977 for prime time TV, the recording was revisited in 2004 and released with a few extras. The footage shows the band floodlit and in full swing, rocking outrageously, although the main antics are limited to lead singer Stiv Bators, going through his calculated monkey boy antics, and Cheetah Chrome, snarling and prancing in lead guitar mode. At the end, drummer Johnny Blitz spazzes and kicks the drums away from him, bowling them over.

Stiv’s antics are pretty gross, and in some cases pointless. He removes his ugly white coat (to reveal a black cutoff shirt and red necktie) and throws it into the audience, he blows his nose on a bloody snotrag and then eats it, he pours a beer down his pants, he dribbles a mouthful of beer (while rubbing his throat to “ejaculation”), he sticks a piece of gum on the floor and then stands up so that it forms a line to the ground, he spazzes and arches and stretches and rolls all over the floor. Nice.

The quality of the video is pretty good, but in parts it all breaks down (like in “Revenge”, which is all dark, and gives us plenty of shots of Stiv’s elbow, or nothing, and “High Tension Wire”, where the footage is messed up with lots of freezes of blackouts – it’s also chopped off early); there are also a few recycled scenes, like one of Cheetah that makes it look like he’s nodding out on smack (but more likely he’s in a guitar ecstasy). “Flame Thrower Love” is an awesomely great rock song – I’d never heard it before, but I’m in love!! “I Need Lunch” is a great, somewhat poppy song, and the band finishes with “Search And Destroy”, which given the response of the crowd (and of viewers like me, watching it nearly 40 years after it was filmed) sort of only serves to demonstrate that The Stooges wrote much more powerful songs than the Dead Boys did.

Given that the footage can be seen on YouTube, the extras are definitely good enough to make this worth buying just for their sake (you will also be able to pump it through a good DVD sound system). There are six minutes of interviews with the whole band, plus an unnamed roadie, that are pretty awesome. We get to see how bad Johnny Zero’s skin was, but also how articulate he is about the philosophy of “today’s punks”. Stiv is a bit more out there, although he tries to justify his anarchism by saying “what we’re doing is helping” by giving people indoor places to vent their anger by breaking bottles, or watching a band do something similar. Drummer Johnny Zero has great, well-attended hair for a punk. “If it’s still going a year from now I’ll be happy.” According to an unnamed roadie “I believe they’ll be the number one new wave band.” There’s a great 8-minute 2004 interview with a bald Cheetah Chrome where he puts things into perspective, talking about how good the band was, and how there was no one better… except maybe the Ramones (give credit where credit is due). Regrets? “I wish we’d been around longer to make sure that Limp Bizzkit didn’t exist, but well [sighs] … they do.” Will there be a Dead Boys reunion? “There”ll only be one more reunion, and it’s not going to be on this planet.” He also plugs the Sensational Alex Harvey Band as his first real musical and punk inspiration (in his book he mentions that “Meeting [Alex Harvey] was one of my high points, and I still carry one of his guitar picks in my wallet for luck.”). There’s a 10 minute interview with Hilly Kristel, their manager, and the owner of CBGBs, who talks for 10 minutes about the band, how they came to him, what they were on the scene, how they self-destructed due to drugs, and how very polite they had been at first. A nice 30-second promo for the band’s second US tour that uses footage from the show. A bizarre 7-minute performance of the Steel Tips (who are they?), doing some sort of performance piece – a fat greaser, a little school girl, a guy with firecrackers in his shirt that pretends he’s just been assassinated in a drive-by shooting, and a Zappa-esque falling-down guy singing. totally weird. Nearly two minutes of comments from the director, who just goes on about how wonderful they were, and then two minutes of camera shot from the drummer’s point of view as the band goes through “Sonic Reducer” (although it’s the music to “All This And More” that is playing. Something’s not right here…

Oddly enough, Cheetah Chrome doesn’t mention this event in his book…

If you want to watch just the concert part of it, here it is!