Bahamadia "Tru Honey Buns (dat Freak Shit)" video/prod. DJ Premier

Above: True honey buns wanna have fun

Lest my beat-head friends think I have forgotten them in a punk daze, here's a little Bahamadia video. This is a slow funky number called Tru Honey Buns. I first heard it on a mix tape a friend of mine made in '96, and inspired my getting back into hip hop after years of post punk listening. Produced by the legendary DJ Premier.

Tru Honey Buns - Bahamadia video 15 MB .mp4 file

Artist: Bahamadia
Song Title: True Honey Buns (Dat Freak Shit)
Album: Kollage

I'm reclinin' out West - maxin at da ress pressed to see my cutie that
I call to come caress me desperate pooh unavailable da check dis - not
into masturbating yo cuz that's some other shit since I had hit a dry
spell I figured I'd manicure my nails den out da blue I'm interrupted
by the bell it was Kia talkin bout Dia c'mon let's bounce tonight
Wu-Tang performin at da Fever and I got backstage passes - vip status
da after party's at the Marriott we in the night like Gladys cool I
can do wit dat give me 45, so I can wash da pussy cat a marinade da
body hop in mizarahi tighten up dah afro and turn to superhottie tell
you what I'll hit you up soon as I'm ready when I see your Mitsubishi
out front we jettin'
(chorus)
Arrived at da club like 11:45 - scenery was live - mob like a 3-2
center outside fly riders da whole shabang you know how Philly hang
come time nah get extravagant while I was side tracked by the glamour
and the glitz key was chattin' wit a bouncer telling him we on nah
list within a split second we escorted through conjestion routine
friskin' metal detection all's clear as air - no question so we
grabbed at the bar and head towards da dance section wit no hesitation
we breeze to the back in the green room where the celebrities was at,
that's when nah propaganda began to emerge star stud events must
trigger hoochie alerts cuz Kia went berserk, diggy low at first subtle
body language actin'like a flirt tongue stickin out wit da' baby doll
pout talkin' all loud I'm like what's dis all about ... -mono-
Here come tha' raw maneuver luew-der than imagined Kia aimin' for
attention strivin for it with a passion slips out her sarong starts
dancing in her thongs like a bootie song was on I said sis you know
you wrong (see) you tha' reason nigs be screamin' bitches, hoes and
tricks I'ont believe you goin' out on nat Adina Howard shit don't you
dig these niggaz think you hotter than tha' sun even if they talk to
you they wanna hit & run if you skeemin' on nah cream boo you ain't
gettin' none you played from nah door wit dat nut shit you done den
she gone look at me and say yo chill whatever, I thought you was my
peeps I said I thought you was together your actions bounce on all
these chicks in here like a reflector I'm tryin nah school you sis you
its plain that you don't know no better - I'm not da one to judge so
do what you gotta do but it ain't what you do its how you do it...
Chorus
True honey buns wanna have fun un-like a chick who settle for da hit
and run, yeah to all tha girls do what you gotta do but it ain't what
you do its how you do it...

SF Sketchcrawl: Alcatraz

Above: Military Chapel and Post Exchange/Officers' Club

Today I did 2 new things: visit Alcatraz, and attend a Sketch Crawl. A Sketch Crawl is a bunch of people getting together and drawing. When I heard of it earlier this year I thought it was a great idea, and I'm glad I got a chance to experience it. I also met Illustrator Tadahiro Uesugi whose work I love. I had a great time and I look forward to the next one.

My drawings and photos in a Flickr set
Sketchcrawl.com for info on sketch crawls
What is a Sketch Crawl?
Sketch Crawl group on Flickr

UXA "Death from Above" video Mabuhay Gardens 1978

Above: Dee Detroit and UXA, March 21, 1978

One of the most famous punk clubs in San Francisco was the Mabuhay Gardens, which was a Filipino restaurant by day and a music club at night. This is a video of the unfortunately obscure band UXA (United Experiments of America) performing their song "Death from Above" at the Fab Mab. This is part of a longer video called "Louder, Faster, Shorter" which also features the Avengers, Dils, Mutants, and Sleepers. The concert was a fundraiser for striking Kentucky coal miners. More on UXA. UXA .mp3s and Merch. Mabuhay Gardens today.
Buy an original UXA flyer.

UXA "Death from Above" 24.4 MB .mp4 video file
UXA "Death from Above" 5.7 MB .mp3 file

On meeting Lord P. Vickers Ridley-Tree, Baron of St. Amand, and being driven home by him in a taxi

Above: Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree as Hamlet

The other day I was listening to a lecture about Oscar Wilde. The speaker mentioned that one of Wilde's contemporaries was Max Beerbohm, the critic and essayist. Last night, inexplicably, I was driven home in a cab by a descendent of Beerbohm's-a man who, moreover, is apparently a Baron.
As outlandish as it may seem, I did some research, and it seems that my driver, Lord P. Vickers ("Vick") Ridley-Tree, is the son of the late Lord Paul Ridley-Tree (obituary, scroll down), a southern California Philanthropist who supported a wide range of charities. His origins are:

He was born to Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree and [ed. Actress] Muriel Ridley in New York on December 29, 1917 while his parents were on an extended tour of the United States. His father passed away when Paul was only three months old. At the age of seven Paul was sent to school in Washington state until he graduated from college.

Now, do a quick search of Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree, and you'll come across 16 portraits in the English National Portrait Gallery. Here's one I like from another site. Beerbohm Tree was a successful victorian-era actor and theater manager, who founded the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in 1904.

So, Beerbohm Tree's grandson, Lord P. Vickers "Vick" Ridley-Tree, is a charming guy, tour guide, Anthropologist and one time Peace Corps member. He operates "Mountain Man Tours" in the Bay Area. His number is (415) 637-6220.

NYPL Digital Gallery Gem: American Slave Trade Print, 1822

Above: Portraiture of domestic slavery in the United States.

More on this image
More from the book

"American slave trade; or, An account of the manner in which the slave dealers take free people from some of the United States of America, and carry them away, and sell them as slaves in other of the states; and of the horrible cruelties practised in the carrying on of this most infamous traffic : with reflections on the project for forming a colony of American blacks in Africa, and certain documents respecting that project. "

by Jesse Torrey, Jun. Physician, London, 1822

More from Jesse Torrey
Burning of Capitol Seen as Divine Judgement

Illustration Friday 8: Night

Above: My eighth entry for Illustration Friday.
Click here for larger

Pencil, Pen, Watercolor

Screamers "122 Hours of Fear" Video San Francisco Punk 1978

Above: Tomata du Plenty Screams!

The Screamers were an intense punk band operating out LA and SF in the 70s.
Fronted by performance artist David Xavier Harrigan, aka Tomata du Plenty, they had their own thing going on: ARP synths, horror movie keyboards, a confrontational front man, and plenty of attitude. Reference points are Suicide, Iggy, Joy Division, and the growl/bark of later hardcore bands. This is a video of Screamers performing their song "122 Hours of Fear" (mislabeled here as "22 hours of fear"- thus losing a full 100 hours of fear). I believe it is from 8-29/9-3-78, Target Studios, Oakland, CA The video quality isn't bad considering its age, and the erratic blurring and color shifts add to the total feel. Tomata's look here is even reminiscent of Rimbaud.

Screamers get name checked, but are hard to actually hear due to their short career. Singer du Plenty later on became an artist, and died of AIDS in 2000.

122 Hours of Fear 20 MB .avi file
122 Hours of Fear 5.5 MB .mp3 file

Here's a Screamers concert video

Lyrics to 122 Hours of Fear

122 Hours Of Fear
(Taken from a headline in the Los Angeles Herald-Examiner.)

"Be quiet or be killed!"
he said.
In front of you and in front of me.
He made the pilot get on his knees.
Made him crawl, made him whimper,
Made him cry out for his mother.

Wow! What a show!
122 Hours Of Fear.
Wow! What a show!
122 Hours Of Fear.
122 Hours Of Fear. (x2)
122. (x4)

"You better shut up and listen!"
he said.
Danger, danger, danger, Mr. Schumann
We are in a hurry, Mr. Schumann
What are the odds, dear Jorgen?
Am I disturbing You?

Wow! What a show!
122 Hours Of Fear.
Wow! What a show!
122 Hours Of Fear.
122 Hours Of Fear. (x2)
122. (x4)

More Screamers Lyrics
Screamers Discography
Screamers Articles

If anyone can find the original LA Herald article that inspired the song, or send me some Screamers music that would rule

Alcatraz Sketch Crawl #5 Sunday 11/13!

Above: 2004 Kyoto Sketch Crawlers

Bay Area People!

Worldwide Sketch Crawl #5 is about to happen. As E. Casarosa writes in the Flickr Sketch Crawl group:

This coming sunday !!! Don't forget .... and if you're in the San Francisco area come join us to SketchCrawl Alcatraz !
you can buy ferry tickets on line here
www.blueandgoldfleet.com/index.html

we are taking the 11:45 ferry ... sunday the 13th!!

see you there !

e

I've got my ticket and I can't wait to go! Check out Enrico's work. I have his comic book "Sketch Crawling" and it is charming.

More about Sketch Crawl

Silent Actress DNA Unholy Resurrection

Above: Some of the DNA you can buy online.

Not sure if this is a joke, or art, or a real company, but The Bone Trade is apparently collecting bits and pieces of the remains of legendary Silent Movie Actresses so that you can buy their DNA (which-excuse me, belongs/belonged only to them, right?), and clone a Jean Harlow or Lupe Velez for your own uses. Marlene Dietrich's hair probably isn't too hard to come by, more impressive is what appears to be Theda Bara's eyelash, but who kept a bit of cloth stained by Evelyn Brent's blood? And how does one get permission to exhume and then remove various bone fragments from Barbara Lamarr? If this company is going around and A) Obviously not getting permission from the actual deceased people to remove/collect parts of their remains, and B) Not getting permission from their descendents to do so, aren't laws being broken? There's something creepy about keeping human remains in your home, but even more so about pulling a "Pygmalion/Frankenstein" (Frankensteinmalion?) to bring your ideal dead actress back to life.

I am interested in recreating the physical body of a given historical person, but clearly there is no method to resurrect a specific personality, talent, or the cultural environment the person grew up in-which hopefully would be a large part of their appeal. Do we really want a Greta Garbo with a California accent and no acting ability? Well, I'm sure some people (guys?) would, but I wouldn't. In addition, several of these ladies had issues: a pregnant Lupe Velez took an overdose of Secanol, Mary Astor attempted suicide with sleeping pills several times, Alice White was dogged by sex scandals, and most bizzarely, Olive Thomas:

While doing film preparations mixed with a vacation in Paris, France, she and her husband went out for a night of entertainment at the famous bistros in the Montparnasse Quarter. Returning to their room in the Hotel Ritz at around 3:00 in the morning, an apparent drunken Olive Thomas Pickford accidentally ingested a large dose of mercury biochloride which had been prescribed for her husband's ongoing venereal disease. She was taken to the American Hospital in the Paris suburb of Neuilly, where her husband and former in-law Owen Moore stayed by her side until she succumbed to the poison a few days later. A police investigation followed and her death was ruled accidental.

Perhaps not the best specimens to revive?

Collection and veneration of human remains has a long history in western culture-but the aim was more to have a memento of a holy person than to say "Hey, let's clone some St. Francis of Assisi's!" This is probably due to the aformentioned impossibility of cloning metaphysical traits rather than physical ones. After all, who'd want to clone a dusty old saint when you could clone a hottie like Louise Brooks?

The trade in Corporeal Memorabilia aka the "Bone Trade" is a quiet but popular hobby.


(via Metafilter)

Japanese TV Meat Helmet Morning Musume show

Above: Beware the Lizard!

Ok, let me get this straight: Let's put a bunch of jpop gals under a platform, with only their heads sticking out, with meat attached to their heads, and then have a lizard run around and nip at the meat. Right. Oh, and we'll also have Christmas decorations on the set? Sounds like a winner! And it is!

"That's not a gameshow, it's a segment from a music/entertainmenment show. all those girls are in one girl band, with a bunch of members, called morning musume. they're the same girls from the clip of the group of girls getting scared and crying when a girl jumps out from under the t.v. when they're watching 'the ring'.

if you think japanese t.v. is insane, you should watch some of their music videos. morning musume is a group of girls with an ever changing cast run by a single producer, named tsunku, who used to be in a ginormous boy band himself. morning musume are all over in japan. you can watch their t.v. shows, shop at their stores, go see the touring childs subgroup (mini moni), watch them in gazillions of commercials (they have an especially catchy pocky jingle), and even play their ps2 and gba video games. they're insane." - John Morley

Watch the Morning Musume Clip


via Boing Boing

Library of Congress Prints & Photographs Online Catalogue

Above: A Midsummer Night's Dream

Here's another great online image repository. Some of these images are really high resolution. Kind of crappy interface, but many jewels here. Theater Posters, early color composite photos, this type of boxer, as well as this type. There are glimpses back in time, El Muchacho de Benecia, the creepy, the Women's Auxiliary Typographic Union (?), Classic Illustration "The Evil Eye", American Heroes, a 1909 NYC Police "Rogues Gallery", Child laborers on the night shift, Open all Night.

Bauhaus: "Lagartija Nick" on Top of the Pops 1983 .avi

Bauhaus: "Lagartija Nick" on Top of the Pops 1983 12.2 MB .avi

Lagartija Nick
Move his way
Nice and Slow
Paint it all black
Let the humorous glow
He feels like sacher-masoch
And the fire below
Is licking at his lips

Cracks the whip
Come on crack
Crack the whip

Swallowing flames
Sinking in the snow
He enjoys feeling pain
He enjoys peeling slow
Lagartija Nick
It's no dumb show
Your name's on his whip

Crack the whip
Come on crack

A code of play
A nocturn rite
In the cruel garden of dark delights
Sixteen cages crawl in line
Desire is a heady wine

Come on crack
Crack

All in pain
It's no dumb show
Fire below
Is licking at his lips
Swallowing flame
Crack

This song title spawned a band.

Clipping Corner: Burroughs Kills Wife, September 8, 1951

Click for full article.

Illustration Friday 7: Broken

My seventh entry for Illustration Friday. Topic: Broken
Click to see larger

Cimetière du Père Lachaise Map 1965 Paris France

Above: Nécropole. Click for full map

The Cemetery of Père Lachaise in Paris may be the most famous cemetery in the world. I scanned this map in from a 1965 Michelin Guide. Here's a clickable map where you can see a more updated list of who is buried where. Section 56 holds Jacques Louis David, Proust is in 85, Amedeo Modigliani in 96. Stretching back to the middle ages, Heloise and Abelard, the tragic lovers, are near the entrance in section 7. Interestingly, Jim Morrison is nearby in section 6-one can only imagine the conversations these neighbors would have had.

Wikipedia entry on Père Lachaise

The Freesound Project: Audio Samples Database

Above: Freesounds running through my mi-i-i-i-i-i-i-i-nd

from the Freesound site:

The Freesound Project aims to create a huge collaborative database of audio snippets, samples, recordings, bleeps, ... released under the Creative Commons Sampling Plus License. The Freesound Project provides new and interesting ways of accessing these samples, allowing users to

• browse the sounds in new ways using keywords, a "sounds-like" type of browsing and more
• up and download sounds to and from the database, under the same creative commons license
• interact with fellow sound-artists!

We also aim to create an open database of sounds that can also be used for scientific research. Many audio research institutions have trouble finding correctly licensed audio to test their algorithms. Many have voiced this problem, but so far there hasn't been a solution.

Sample samples:

drone | radio | shortwave
Ambient sounds from the River Ain Valley, France
Hardcore Hip Hop Drums
Male peeing (foley sounds of a garden hose)a
Tape anomalies
Virtual Theremin
Disgusting Noises
Street Recordings in the early morning
Arp 2600 waveforms
and the most popular sample: rbh thunderstorm.wav

Samples Remix Tree

Sample Packs

Ladies and Gentlemen, start your samplers.

Bowie and Burroughs Rolling Stone Interview, 1974

Above: Halloween Jack and the Junkie

Great interview from Rolling Stone magazine in 1974, Burroughs and Bowie.

Burroughs: Could you explain this Ziggy Stardust image of yours? From what I can see it has to do with the world being on the eve of destruction within five years.

Bowie: The time is five years to go before the end of the earth. It has been announced that the world will end because of lack of natural resources. Ziggy is in a position where all the kids have access to things that they thought they wanted. The older people have lost all touch with reality and the kids are left on their own to plunder anything. Ziggy was in a rock-and-roll band and the kids no longer want rock-and-roll. There's no electricity to play it. Ziggy's adviser tells him to collect news and sing it, 'cause there is no news. So Ziggy does this and there is terrible news. 'All the young dudes' is a song about this news. It is no hymn to the youth as people thought. It is completely the opposite.

Burroughs: Where did this Ziggy idea come from, and this five-year idea? Of course, exhaustion of natural resources will not develop the end of the world. It will result in the collapse of civilization. And it will cut down the population by about three-quarters.

Bowie: Exactly. This does not cause the end of the world for Ziggy. The end comes when the infinites arrive. They really are a black hole, but I've made them people because it would be very hard to explain a black hole on stage.

Burroughs: Yes, a black hole on stage would be an incredible expense. And it would be a continuing performance, first eating up Shaftesbury Avenue.

Bowie: Ziggy is advised in a dream by the infinites to write the coming of a starman, so he writes 'Starman', which is the first news of hope that the people have heard. So they latch on to it immediately. The starmen that he is talking about are called the infinites, and they are black-hole jumpers. Ziggy has been talking about this amazing spaceman who will be coming down to save the earth. They arrive somewhere in Greenwich Village. They don't have a care in the world and are of no possible use to us. They just happened to stumble into our universe by black-hole jumping. Their whole life is travelling from universe to universe. In the stage show, one of them resembles Brando, another one is a Black New Yorker. I even have one called Queenie the Infinite Fox.

Now Ziggy starts to believe in all this himself and thinks himself a prophet of the future starman. He takes himself up to incredible spiritual heights and is kept alive by his disciples. When the infinites arrive, they take bits of Ziggy to make themselves real because in their original state they are anti-matter and cannot exist in our world. And they tear him to pieces on stage during the song 'Rock 'n' roll suicide'. As soon as Ziggy dies on stage the infinites take his elements and make themselves visible. It is a science fiction fantasy of today and this is what literally blew my head off when I read Nova Express, which was written in 1961. Maybe we are the Rodgers and Hammerstein of the seventies, Bill!

Beat Godfather Meets Glitter Mainman

Rolling Stone, February 28, 1974, by Craig Copetas

Feliz Dia De Los Muertos!/Happy Day of the Dead!

Above: Posada's Calavera of the Female Dandy [Calavera de la Catrina]

Happy Day of the Dead! Day of the Dead by photogapher Mary Andrade.

Recipe for Pan de Muerto (Bread of the Dead)
How to make sugar skulls.
Sugar Skull molds.

Calavera (Skeleton) Prints by José Guadalupe Posada
Eat, Drink and Be Merry...

• #288 Calavera of the Newspapers [Calavera de los Periódicos]
• #299 Calavera of the Zapatistas [Calavera Zapatista]
• #302 Calavera of Huerta [Calavera Huertista]
• #303 Calavera of the Artists and Artisans [Calavera de Artistas y Artesanos]
• #307 Calavera of la Adelita [Calavera de la Adelita]
• #308 Calavera of the Dandy [Calavera del Catrín]
• #313 Calavera of Don Juan Tenorio [Calavera de Don Juan Tenorio]
• #314 Calavera of the Purring Cat [Calavera del Gato Morrón]
• #322 Calavera of the War of the Intervention [Calavera de la Intervención]
• #323 Calavera of the Female Dandy [Calavera de la Catrina]
• #324 Calavera of Don Quixote [Calavera de Don Quijote]
• 
  From Posada Printmaker to the Mexican People ©1944 by the Art Institure of Chicago
  
  See also Posada's Popular Mexican Prints from Dover.
  

David Bowie Quiz

Which David Bowie are you?

David Bowie in "The Image" 1967 short film/Luv Ice Cream spot with Ridley Scott and Alan Hawkshaw

Above: Bowie's first film appearance

Back in September 1967, David Bowie starred in a short film called "The Image" alongside actor Michael Byrne, directed by Michael Armstrong. Armstrong, perhaps hopped up on too much Cahiers du Cinema, described it as "a study of the illusionary reality world within the schizophrenic mind of the artist at his point of creativity." This kind of grand statement is, not surprisingly, not fulfilled in the movie, which lurches about confusedly searching for depth, but instead ends up locked in a self-conscious trance. One thing that is good about it is Bowie's performance as a man come to life out of a painting who haunts the artist who created him. The artist repeatedly attacks Bowie, who, zombie like, revives inexplicably. Bowie's stage presence and moody posturing inject life into this film without dialogue. In 1983, Bowie described "The Image" as

"an underground black and white avant-garde thing done by some guy. He wanted to make a film about a painter doing a portrait of a guy in his teens, and the portrait comes to life, and in fact, turns out to be the corpse of some bloke. I can't really remember all the plot, but it was a fourteen-minute short and it was awful."

Bowie earned 30 pounds for his acting services, and in 1973 the movie was shown between porn movies in a London cinema, in an attempt to cash in on Bowie's rising stock.


Perhaps the NME said it best:

"Gasp with horror as your hero gets murdered, not once, not twice, but five times. Gasp with astonishment as he gets up entirely unharmed. Wonder with puzzlement how his acting career ever survived the carnage"

Also included is a short clip for Luv ice cream (lyrics to theme song), which like this movie, went nowhere. Surprisingly, 2 interesting people were involved in this spot: director Ridley Scott, and legendary "library music" composer Alan Hawkshaw.

Besides appearing in the Lyons Maid Luv ice-cream lolly TV commercial, David also appeared as a member of the band singing "Luv, Luv, Luv". The commercial was shot at 7 Eccleston Square in London on 22nd January 1969. The director of this commercial Ridley Scott is the older brother of Tony Scott who directed David in the feature film 'The Hunger'.

The band who recorded the track were called Mint. The song 'Luv' was written by Alan Hawkshaw and Ray Cameron, the single 'Luv / Simone' was released on the Tangerine label (Tangerine 14) in 1969.

This obscure track appears on the compliation CD We Can Fly Volume 4 Psychedelic Obscurities - 25 Psych Rarities 1966-1971.

Coincidentially Alan Hawkshaw performed on keyboards for David on the BBC Session in 1968 for John Peel In Top Gear. Recorded and broadcast in May 1968.

The ice-lolly was launched in England on May 12th 1969. Luv was a lolly similar to Fab aimed at girls 10-15 years. Three quarters covered in chocolate and hundreds and thousands (i.e., "sprinkles") and costing 9d. The product was backed by TV advertising and opportunity to collect a set of picture pop stars. additionally there was a range of other promotional material such as wall charts and T-shirts.

About 60 per cent of Lyons Maid production of ice cream was produced at Bridge Park. They handled just about every variety in the Lyons Maid range and many well-known lines were made exclusively there, for example Luv, Zoom, Orbit and Super Sea Jet lollies..."

(From David Bowie Wonderworld Trivia Corner)

(Thanks to Pegg's The Complete David Bowie for info)

The Image (GB 1967 dir. Michael Armstrong) +
Very early promo film for Luv Ice cream (75.5 MB .avi file)

alan hawkshaw