Happy Halloween!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

"Bad Mags" underworld trash magazines

Above: The Most Incredible Tabloid Story of the Last Ten Years!

Tom Brinkmann has written a book called "Bad Mags" which looks like a great collection of the most obscure, trashy mags that you'll not find on your corner newstand or at Borders. Mondo Bizzare, Sexploitation, Outlaw Bikers, Occult Sex, it's all here. Luckily Brinkmann also has a website with a lot of cool scans of these trash treasures.

Note: NSFW or squares (NSFS)!

Ron's 60s Music Video Links: Los Shakers de Uruguay

Above: Los Shakers, Uruguay's answer to the Beatles

Found a great archive of 60s videos over at Ron's Video Links. Lots of great stuff here from the big names of sixties pop like the Kinks, and George Harrison, but also more obscure beat and "theme groups" like the spacemen of "Los Spotnicks". The song and video I liked the best was "Break it All" by Los Shakers.

Hugo Fattoruso (gtr.vo)
Osvaldo Fattoruso (gtr.vo)
Roberto "Pelin" Capobianco (bs.vo)
Carlos "Caio" Vila (drms.vo)

It's a shameless Beatles/Monkees ripoff, but a catchy, fun one.
They also starred in a movie called "Escala Musical"

Los Shakers "Break it All" 7.3 MB QT .mov link, rt-click to save

Los Shakers history/Historia de Los Shakers
Comprehensive list of bands from Uruguay

"When the music stops/don't stand there like a fool"

P.S. If anyone can show me how to prevent firefox from crashing right before I post a link, I'd be grateful.

Saturday Mirror Magazine, July 5, 1955 comics

Above: Thank you, Captain Cortal (click on images for hi-res)

Going through my pile of ephemera, I found some cool comics in the Filipino Saturday Mirror Magazine, July 5, 1955. The top comic, for Cortal headache medicine, reminds of of indie comics, esp. Los Bros. Hernandez. The Captain Cortal character was created by Anthony S. Velasquez aka "The father of Tagalog comics". I'm not sure what "singalong, house to house" means, maybe someone out there can explain. The second one, by Elmer Abustan is just goofy, classic 50's style which has now become popular again.

Popol Vuh video and mp3 - Bettina - live on Beat Club, April 24, 1971

Above: Popol in action

The Popol Vuh

Are utzijoxik wa'e

k'ak atz'ininoq,

k'akachamamoq,

katz'inonik,

k'akasilanik,

k'akalolinik,

katolona puch upa kaj.

"This is the account of how

all was in suspense,

all calm,

in silence;

all motionless,

still,

and the expanse of the sky was empty."

from the Popol Vuh's creation story

The Popol Vuh ("council book") is the Mayan book of "The Dawn of Life", a sacred text which contains the creation myths and histories of the Quiche people. The original is now lost due to the book (and people) burning tendencies of the conquistadors, but luckily some Mayan priests and clerks secretly made copies of some of the older hieroglyphic books, but using the Roman alphabet. It is a fascinating book that shows us flashes of the pre-columbian Mayan culture, as if reflected through the broken shards of a mirror.

Popol Vuh is also the name of a 70s German band led by Florian Fricke which provided soundtracks to many Werner Herzog films, including Aguirre, the Wrath of God (an appropriate choice considering their name) and Nosferatu.
Popol Vuh blended the new moog synthesizer with tribal rhythms and drones. Here is a video of Popol Vuh performing the instrumental "Bettina" (apparently named after Bettina Fricke, their Tabla player) on German tv's Beat Club in 1971. Trippy lo-fi video fx, modular synths, fur vests and tablas. Thanks to NoDude at dimeadozen.org for the upload. Enjoy!

Popol Vuh - Bettina - Video - 41 MB .avi file

Popol Vuh - Bettina - mp3 - 4 MB file

The Pin-Up Art of Dan DeCarlo - Archie's Artist

Above: We're not in Riverdale anymore

Dan DeCarlo was the artist who drew the most beloved version of the Archie comics characters (Archie, Betty, Veronica, Jughead, Moose, et al.) The Archie's series is a light-comedy rendition of the whitest, most affluent suburbs of post-war America where the biggest problems that arise are choosing the right dress to go to the prom or having your beloved Jalopy break down. Despite this, or indeed because of this, many people find nostalgia and comfort in the gentle stories of the Riverdale teens. As Jung said "The brighter the light, the darker the shadow" and that's the case here as well. Lurking perhaps over in the next town of "Bachelorville", lurked the hypersexed alter-egos of the snow-pure Betty and Veronica. From 1956-1963, DeCarlo was also drawing Playboy style "Men's comics" for various girlie digests like "Fun House", "Joker", "Laugh Riot", "Zip" and "Comedy". Betty and Veronica sashay and giggle through double entendres and visual gags focused on their buxom bodies. Of course, this humor is often dated and sexist. So why am I writing about it? Well, the drawings. The drawings are goregous. DeCarlo was a master with brush and ink. And I think every man of a certain age has a thing for Betty and Veronica. Fantagraphics has published a collection of over 200 of DeCarlo's pin-ups in "The Pin-Up Art of Dan DeCarlo"


Hi-res scan of the cover

Hi-res scan of the back

Coat of arms of the Lloyds of Stockton

Above: The Medieval Genome Project. Click image for full coat of arms.

Alan Fletcher's "The Art of Looking Sideways" is a constant inspiration to me. It's a phone book sized compendium of Fletcher's lifetime collection of interesting things ranging over most subjects: art, writing, psychology, science, history, literature, etc. The image above is a detail from the coat of arms of the Lloyds of Stockton. Fletcher's caption:

"The custom of inheriting insignia through marriage led to the 323 sepearate quarterings on the coat of arms of the Lloyds of Stockton. These go back to the ninth century, and are a vivid document of inbreeding."

Apparently there was a coat of arms for the Temple-Nugent-Bridges-Chandos-Grenville family that had 719 quarterings!

Illustration Friday 6: Remote

Last 100 visitors to http://audium.blogspot.com by world location

Technical Drawing pointers

Above: Ok, boss, I'll try!

I picked up a copy of Basic Technical Drawing, Spencer/Dygdon, 1980, at the recent SF Library book sale for $2. It looks like an excellent guide to learning how to do the kind of drawing that you can do in Illustrator in 10 minutes, but by hand, in an hour! Anyway, the book contains some funny do's and don'ts. Here's a page of them.

Happy drawing!

She's Goth to Have it - Archie's comics remix

Above: She's in parties.

Great reworking of an old Archie's strip where Betty, in a bid for attention, starts hanging out with the goths down at the coffee shop. Chai, black eyeliner, clove cigarettes...in Riverdale!?

thanks to Boing Boing

original posting (full story)

color corrected jpg (full story)

San Francisco Ghost Hunt

Moving to Pacific Heights a few years ago, I noticed something strange. Some nights when I came home, I would see a crowd slowly moving down my block, led by a mysterious man in top hat and overcoat, carrying a lantern. I was excited when I found out that this was the famous San Francisco Ghost Hunt, led by Jim Fassbinder. Pacific Heights is a stately old neighborhood filled with Victorian homes, and supposedly some restless former occupants, and it just so happens that I moved into a building across the street from one of those homes. The tour takes you to a hotel rumored to be haunted, to California Street, where you may encounter the wandering Flora, or Mary Ellen Pleasant, the "Voodoo queen of San Francisco" (and "Mother of Civil Rights in California")

Not covered by the SFGH, some other interesting sites nearby are a bulding at Sacramento and Webster which Hitchcock filmed (I can't remember which movie), as well as the demolished "Church of Satan", the Old Jim Jones' People's Temple (now a post offfice), and the site of the last known killing by the Zodiac.
I haven't had a chance to go on the tour yet, but it is on the top of my list.

Charles W. Cushman Photograph Collection

Pre-Halloween party group, Central City, Colorado
October 31, 1952

"Charles Weever Cushman, amateur photographer and Indiana University alumnus, bequeathed approximately 14,500 Kodachrome color slides to his alma mater. The photographs in this collection bridge a thirty-two year span from 1938 to 1969, during which time he extensively documented the United States as well as other countries."

There are many gems here brimming with period details and suprisingly early use of color film, including this shot of a girl examining violets, young bathing beauties, a model blinking at the wrong time, hippie girls making wreaths, and a less friendly hippie.

Do They Know it's Hallowe'en animated video

Cool song and great video (embedded quicktime link) from the NAHPI (North American Haloween Prevention Initiative), aka musicians from the Arcade Fire, Malcolm Mclaren, Karen O, Thurston Moore, Peaches, Beck, Roky Erickson, and Smoosh (Lyrics with artist names). A gentle send up of "Do They Know it's Christmas", all proceeds go to UNICEF.

(thanks to Drawn! for the link)

Son of Monster Mash-Up: Halloween Mash-Up Madness!

God, I live for these mixes. Some of the most talented remixers (dj bc, fettdog, and of course, Mr. Fab and his bag-o-heads) have taken a crack at reworking Halloween, and it sounds great. Movie samples, weird noises, and pop songs are sliced and diced mercilessly to create a bloody wonderful mess.

Son of Monster Mash-Up: Tricks, Treats, and Dead Beats

1. Halloween Hassle - Dublxero
2. 2 Turntables and a lot of Monsters - The Fifthhorseman
3. Belalugrange is dead - Pilchard
4. Murder in the basement - Boasty
5. Devil Mix - Dj John
6. Fright Fest II - Fettdog
7. Halloween with Morrissey - Cheekyboy
8. Hokus Pricey - Mr. Terrible
9. FrankenBooted - King of Pants
10. Antichrist (EOTMC mix) - Thriftshopxl
11. Don't cross tehstreams!!11 - Don loves you
12. Skeleton crew on the graveyard shift - Mr. Fab and his bag-o-heads
13. Pump up the creepers - Bug
14. Haunted House of Mash ups - DJ BC
15. We suck young blood (solcofn mix) - Radiohead
16. The Raven - Fettdog
17. Halloweenie - Fukjamum
18. JuxtaPoeCreature - Juxtaposeur
19. U Should Be The Witch Queen - Voicedude

Horror Movie Double Feature: "Carnival of Souls" and "Daughter of Horror" at Internet Archive

Tonight we have a double feature, courtesy of the internet archive: "Carnival of Souls" and "Daughter of Horror". You can download these two movies and get the halloween fun started early. Daughter of Horror is notable for its score by George Antheil, a well-regarded American composer (though how he got this gig I can only wonder). Carnival of Souls was produced by Herk Hervey, a director of industrial films.

Carnival of Souls (1962)

Mary Henry is enjoying the day by riding around with two friends but everything goes wrong when challenged to a drag race and their car gets forced off of a bridge. The car sinks into the murky depths, and all three women are assumed drowned. Some time later Mary emerges unscathed from the river. She tries to start a new life by becoming a church organist but Mary finds herself haunted by a ghostly figure that instills fear and dread into her. (from Internet Archive)
IMDB listing

Daughter of Horror aka Dementia (1955)

As the narrator invites us to explore the horrors of an insane mind, a young woman wakes from a nightmare in a cheap hotel room. We follow her through the skid-row night and encounters with an abusive husband; a wino; a pimp and the rich man he panders for; a flashback to her traumatic childhood; violence; pursuit through dark streets; dementia. Filmed in film-noir style throughout; only the narrator speaks. (from IMDB)

IMDB listing

Internet Museum of Flexi/Cardboard/Oddity Records

Above: Count Chocula Goes to Hollywood

Posting the Halloween record mp3s reminded me of the great Internet Museum of Flexi/Cardboard/Oddity Records, which has tons of related images and sounds from flexi-discs, novelty records, and kids' 45s. Some are interesting, like the Skippy self-amplified record, and some are fresh, like He Pioneers Electronic Music, many are just bizarre like the Sounds of Self-Defense or Chun King. Also, this is on the WFMU site, which is one of the best radio stations in the country-and also online.

The Haunted House and Other Spooky Poems and Tales mp3s

Special Halloween treat for all you Audium readers around the world. I present: "Selections from The Haunted House and Other Spooky Poems and Tales". I've digitized all the tracks into mp3s and scanned the cover too. This is a pretty "high-culture" kid's record, including work by Langston Hughes, Goethe, Theodore Roethke. It's also interesting to think of all these authors having written spooky or macabre pieces. I bought this 45 in a thrift store in Honolulu several years back. As the ballpoint pen on the back attests, it once belonged to an "Anne Wong". The record was released by Scholastic in 1970, and contains selections from a book of the same name.

"Selections from The Haunted House and Other Spooky Poems and Tales"

The Haunted House (by Vic Crume) 1:14
Winter Moon (by Langston Hughes) 0:18
Sir Roderic's Song (by William Schwenck Gilbert) 0:29
A Young Lady from Glitch (by Tamara Kitt) 0:10
Ruth and Johnnie (by Anon.) 0:14
A Skeleton once in Khartoum (by Anon.) 0:12
It Isn't the Cough (by%2

Nicholson Baker's The World on Sunday - the colorful world of the turn of the century newspaper

Above: "The Bathing Girl of 1900" / Hy Mayer, "The Plunk Family at the Paris Exposition" New York World, Sunday June 3, 1900

The World on Sunday: Graphic Art in Joseph Pulitzer's Newspaper (1898-1911) by Nicholson Baker and Margaret Brentano, which is a goregous collection of charming, vibrant, and strange artwork from the oversized Sunday pages of the New York World ca. 1900. Author Nicholson Baker, known for novels like Vox and The Fermata, has been on a quest to save the rapidly decaying and disappearing remains of the original printed editions of newspapers, many of which featured fantastically illustrated, lavishly colored Sunday articles on such charming and arcane topics as "W.K. Vanderbilt Jr.'s 'Red Demon,' His New Automobile Weighing 1 Ton with 42 Horse Power, Running 70 Miles an Hour,"and Fun in the Year 2000,".

Many prominent libraries have either scandalously dumped their all their vintage newspaper archives into the trash, and kept no record of their contents, or disposed of them but kept a sadly inadequate memento of their existence. Besides being a visual treasure, hopefully "The World on Sunday" will help encourage overly zealous librarians to preserve this part of our shared cultural inheritance.

Winsor McCay-John Canemaker book reissued

The cover of Winsor McCay : His Life and Art (Hardcover)

Today I flipped through the revised edition of Winsor McCay : His Life and Art, by John Canemaker. Overall it seems well put together, but pretty similar to the 1987 edition. Considering all the work that went into creating the new Little Nemo in Slumberland Splendid Sundays 1905-1910 book by Sunday Press, I'm not impressed. At the least it seems that the artwork newly restored by Sunday Press could have been used in the new "Life and Art" book.
I think I'm a bit more sensitive to this because I recently was reading the slim Mary Blair book that Canemaker also authored, and there seems to be a trend of disappointingly thin content married to high prices (the new McCay book sells for $45, and the Blair book, which clocks in at a mere 128 pages, lists for $40) This doesn't make sense, as Canemaker is the dean of American animation, and as such should have no problem asking collectors and museums to open their vaults for his source material. One last thing: what the hell's up with that cover? The title font screams 1992 computer font, a wholly inappropriate choice for a book about an early 20th century artist. I also think the tilted panels on the cover could have been handled in a more interesting way. I used to work with John in NYU's Animation department, and I do stress that these are all great books--it's just that some of them could have been much better.
Anyway, I did order the Spledid Sundays book at $120 and I can't wait to get it!

Listen to Audiosports - Champagne Jam mp3s!

Above: Champagne Jam by Audiosports

Champagne Jam (2004)

1. Champagne Jam
(27.2 MB MP3)
2. Sweet Honey Sucking Bees
(5.3 MB MP3)
3. Attaché
(2.3 MB MP3)
4. No Question
Beat 2
Lovely and Charming (Live)
(31.3 MB MP3)

(click track names for mp3's)

Champagne Jam is my first album. It shows the range of music I've been making, from Mash ups to abstract improvisations. The first track is a 23 minute mega mash up with a steady beat and some obscure samples. When I played this set live, I was happy to see people breakin' to it. Cool!

The second track, "Sweet Honey Sucking Bees" is an older track I made that combines a Redd Foxx routine, a Japanese Shakuhachi, and a nice beat. Oh, and a spoken word recording of the John Donne poem "Sweet Honey Sucking Bees".

"Attaché" is a little noir piece that I made.

The last track is from a live performance at the Whitebox in San Francisco. These songs are also moody a la DJ Shadow, and also include live noise improvisation.