Chuck Patch, photographer

"Millionaires Club, Chicago, 1973. SP Salon Entry for "Best Friend" I was 20. I had waist-length hair in a ponytail and sideburns almost to my chin. I walked past them three times before I had the courage to ask for their picture. They looked quizzical, asked why, I don't remember what I told them, then they TOOK OFF THE GLASSES! I said, "um, I really like the sunglasses, could you leave them on?" and they looked at each other and complied."
Click image for large view at source.

"Black and White pictures taken mostly between 1971 and 1989. Scanned from prints that are looking as if they might not stand the test of time ..."
A really beautiful and fun set called 'Old Silver' uploaded to Flickr by photographer Chuck Patch. (via gatsu gatsu)

Vinyl sniffers

This will be a long post..

And it's not about vinyl fetischism. Errm, I think.

I invited some of my favorite blogging friends to this smörgåsbord of vinyl album aromas.
Not all responded. I can understand that. Weird and hard assignment, eh?...

I wanted to know what their favorite vinyl record smells like (and I'm talking about the actual vinyl smell). I asked them to take out their favorite album - to kick back in a favorite place - to relax. And then, smoothly, pull out the record and inhale the fragrance. What did come to their minds? Was it a good aroma? Was it bad? Where did all this take them?
So many question... So little time....

Some of the responses i received were long and explicit and some others were short and precise.
And some others didn't have a clue. Or did they!?

I thank you all for playing along. It was good fun reading all your thoughts on this matter.
[Note: those who haven't responded to this assignment yet should know that there is still time to be added to the bunch]

"... The majority of records are pressed on black vinyl. The colouring material used to blacken the transparent PVC plastic mix is carbon black, the generic name for the finely divided carbon particles produced by the incomplete burning of a mineral oil sourced hydrocarbon. Without this, the record would be transparent and would show the dirt collected in the grooves, the scratch marks and other damage to both sides of the record. Carbon black also increases the strength of the disc. ..." [Quote from Wikipedia]

Ralf, The Cartoonist:
-Peter Thomas, Raumpatrouille (first edition from 1966): smells like
an old book; a bit damp.

---

P-E Fronning of Martin Klasch:
-I'm guessing I'm not much of a vinyl sniffer (I've also got a bit of a cold) but I gave it a shot. The favorite vinyl of the hour over here at Martin Klasch is Brother Jack McDuff's "Something Slick!" (Prestige, 1963).

The smell wasn't bad. Was it good? Well, not really. The word that sums up the experience is "dust". The smell of bookshelves and old pocketbooks. As I really tried hard to get something else, something plastic faintly emerged in the background. The smell I expected to find was that of cigars, martinis, olives, womens perfume and organ grinders sweat. But no such luck!

---

Michelle of Tiny Bubbles:
-I chose the Who's Quadrophenia, a big sprawling gorgeous double album. I went through this very long phase, where I wanted to be a mod (I was a member of the Who's fan club!) and dressed accordingly. I cut off all my hair and dyed it red. This record changed my life, I listened to it constantly and watched the film religiously. When I took the records out of their sleeves today, I smelled the ocean and saw the waves crashing on the shore, I heard traffic and the sound of engines, for a moment the whole world was black and white and grey.

---

Keith Milford of Old Haunts (and other fancy places):
-OK, my favorite album of all time is a tough one, but I'll go with the 1979 Varese Sarabande release of the DAWN OF THE DEAD soundtrack by Goblin (VC 81106). Very close behind would be my PHANTASM soundtrack LP (VC 81105) by Fred Myrow and Malcolm Seagrave (released by the same label in the same year), and my beloved 1970's SOUNDS TO MAKE YOU SHIVER record on the great old Pickwick label. I sniff all three albums regularly.
But DAWN is my #1 for a lot of reasons I won't bore you with. My favorite movie of all-time, my favorite record of all-time.
So let me smell it.
Dude, it smells like my youth! And midnight movies, Halloween, fake blood, and weekend monster flicks on TV! THAT'S the stuff this LP has always represented to me. I got it at an impressionable time in my young teen years (late '70s early '80s) when girls, zombies and horror movies were all I thought about (and not alway in that order).
I can also still smell the warm, sweet electrical heat wafting from my overused little Kmart record player, as I spun DAWN all day and all evening, over and over and over, warming my vinyl platter like toast. Man, and that soothing little droning buzz my Kmart special would hum when I switched it on or the record ended. Sure miss those days.
The record's back in the sleeve now (yes, that original clear one it came with from varese, thank you) and back in the same old beat up jacket I sat and stared at for so many hours as a kid, just waiting to be played again. Or smelled. I'll probably do both.

---

Andrew Abb of gmtPlus9 (-15):
-I'll be sniffing Les Baxter's La Femme by Franck Pourcel and His French Strings (Capitol T-10015, 1956). I picked it up at a used record shop a few years back. It's in prime condition, stored in a non-scratching plasticizer protective anti-static sleeve.
The exposed vinyl smells like a mohair suit - a mid-to-late 60's mohair suit. I picture a very mod mohair suit perfect for clubbing in swinging London, lounging around the aparto in go-go era Tokyo, or smoking French cigarettes and reading the Times in a cafe in Soho.
Very odd.

---

Lee Hartsfeld of Music You (Possibly) Won't Hear Anyplace Else :
-Well, I have a number of favorite albums and can't narrow them down to a single title (pretty original, no?). However, it occurred to me just now that I do have a favorite vinyl smell--namely, the scent of Mercury vinyl from the Fifties and Sixties. Let me sniff one of my favorite Mercurys--Dance Date with David Carroll (Mercury Wing 12106).

And, I smell....

Well, almost nothing, unfortunately. At the moment, my head is stuffed from allergies, and my olfactory functions are impaired. But there's a tiny trace of that classic Mercury scent--a fresh smell that reminds me of vinyl waiting to be played for the first time. And of shrink wrap recently unsealed. Reason being, my love of the Mercury scent goes back to a group of Classical LPs I bought circa 1969 in a Toledo discount store. Consequently, a good whiff of Mercury vinyl has me hearing portions of "Mephisto Waltz" and/or "Invitation to the Dance." As they sounded on my family's one-speaker hi-fi set around 1969. How could I have forgotten these things?

I'd never given any of this much thought. Now that I have, I'm not sure what to do. Except admit that I'm a vinyl sniffer and keep on sniffing vinyl, secure in the fact that it's not illegal. Yet. That's what I'll do.

---

Michele Ballerini of popartx:
...let say one of my fav albums "Drop Out With THE BARRACUDAS" (1981)

and it smells like, letme think.......like the nylon stockings of Cicciolina when she just made a foot-job at dawn to some obscure/unknown (in front of her the males were all zeros) 1970s pornostar (uahuah!)

---

Juan Les Pins of {clausmosercom}:
-IAORA TAHITI

One of the first records I remember listening to as a child was "Iaora
Tahiti". Not the eponymous one by Mouse On Mars, of course, but the
legendary album by the Orchestre Arthur Iriti (probably the only record
this Orchestre ever released, I have yet to find another one). For a child,
this was just the perfect music: A very loud men's choir hollering sweet
melodies (it's a cool for a child to discover that it is possible to
holler and be sweet at the same time), backed by rhythmic
guitar strumming and some frantic percussionists drumming away on every
piece of wood within reach. There must have been many wooden things within
reach when they recorded that album.

And I still remember the text on the back cover. It's one of those
completely useless things I tend to remember, while I always keep
forgetting stuff I'm supposed to know. Ask me the birth date of Jesus
Christ, and I am lost. But I'll always remember silly little things like
the funny typos on the menu list in an Italian restaurant I've been to
years ago. Or, for that matter, what was printed on some obscure 70's album
with Tahitian folklore. And when a mail by Mr Dante Fontana popped into my
inbox asking me (and a couple of other bloggers) what kind of associations
and memories I might have when sniffing the smell of my favourite piece of
vinyl, I instantly thought of Iriti's album. It must have been one of the
very first stereo records ever, at least the blurb on the cover went to
great length in explaining what a brilliant invention stereo was and that
people should buy this record for the sheer innovation of it alone. I don't
remember the text verbatim, but I'd swear by the necklace of any Polynesian
beauty that the final argument went something like: "Now that stereo is
around, all that's left to invent is a method of capturing the fragrance of
the flowers in the dancer's hair onto vinyl."

Needless to say that in my six-year-old brain I could think of all kinds of
wonderful and, most of all, smelly things which might be captured onto
vinyl and released whenever you played it back. For example, I had very
cunning ideas of which kind of records I'd put on whenever my sister
entered the room. Unfortunately, as promising as the prospect on the Iriti
album sounded, no one really came along to release any of these records, at
least not during my childhood, when I would have needed them most. I picked
up some scratch-n-sniff records by punk bands later, but the olfactory
effects of these were very unimpressive, to say the least, and tended to
fade away quicker than you can say "stale and putrefied stench of a
beer-soaked leather jacket worn the night before in a club where everyone
smoked cheap Eastern-bloc cigarettes".

So that's maybe why I never really bothered about what vinyl actually
smells like and I'm a bit wary of trying to sniff it out today. Because,
you know, since those childhood days I have my own ideas and fantasies
about what the aroma of an album should be like. And they are mostly set
off by the music or the cover design, and I'd rather not lose these kinds
of fantasies. Take the first Gallon Drunk album: I always want it to have
the fragrance of the cherry blossoms decorating the backdrop, and I'd
probably be depressed if I'd find out that the actual smell is much closer
to that of the girl's nylon costume after a particular long and arduous
work-out session.

Although, come to think of it, that might be a very interesting aroma as
well ... Some things are best left to the imagination.

---

Frank of Earnest Little Cartoon Guy:
-The album I decided to press my nose upon is a prized possesion: Some family band calling themselves 'The Red Birds' (from Michigan) recorded The Red Birds Sing and Play Your Favorites, partly before a live audience - during a cattle auctionering event . I am guessing it's from the sixties. It's mostly country and the kids sing too and Mom reads a letter to her mom. There is one swinging song, Black Eyed Susan, sung by son Danny that's an all time favorite of mine and if I knew how to rip from albums to PC or had the equipment I would - and post it but alas. The rest of the songs are so-so but the fun, home-made flavour still makes it somehow one hundred and eighty procent fabulous.

OK enough already because this is about smell right?
Well nothing happened! I pressed my nose so deep in the grooves I could almost hear a melody but my mind (blank) just stayed that way: blank. No light bulb moments, no fire works, no flashbacks (at all) )to days gone by when vinyl was precious to me. Yep that's right, some vinyl is still very precious to me (like that Red Birds LP) but I gotta say I am all for CD's (and DVD's) nowadays. U-huh. The only thing I am a bit nostalgic about maybe is that getting music wasn't that easy as it is now with the Internet and all and though I am totally and very gratefully loving everything I've downloaded and am downloading and I am often blown away by the sheer amount of great, great stuff that's out there to grab, I'll always remember with acute fondness how my younger brother and me in our teenage days drove our bikes all the way to the nearest town with a decent music store to buy just one, just one piece of vinyl and how we would celebrate that buy a whole weekend long.
(But wait a minute... doesn't that make me sound much, much older than I want to sound? Errr.. Yes.)

---

Stuart from 20 Jazz Funk Greats:
-yeh, now i'm sat here smelling a record and the guy who walked past is giving me a really funny look through the window.

i have a cold, def leppard's pyromania smells like plastic.

i'll keep trying...

now i inhaled too much too fast, i think i'm hyper-ventilating, this is like poppers.

ok, headache has gone - one last try...

nope, fuck all of the plastic except the destinct smell of, erm, plastic.

The inner sleeve smells like the glue u get in junior school.
The album sleeve smells like the girl Rose who gave it me but thats about it.

---

MadCatJoey of On The Flipside:
-As all my vinyl was purchased in thrift stores and garage sales, they all have that old cardboard smell. I picked up a copy of "Surfin' with the Ventures" and I was sadly disappointed to find that it didn't smell like the sea. Nor did Frank Sinatra's Ring-a-ding-ding smell like a nightclub.

---

Kurt Benbenek of Houseplant Picture Studio:
-Take a whiff...

I hate to disagree - well, actually I love (or live) to disagree - but it's NOT usually the *actual* vinyl
record that has the often-interesting, nose-catching aroma (unless it's been left in a damp place and
there's grey-green mold growing in the scratches and grooves...and the smell of THAT
is pretty much a standard "slight urinating out-in-the-woods" smell) but it's the combination of
factory inks, cardboard stock(s) and insert(s) OTHER THAN THE VINYL that are the true
nostril-arousing pop-culture-historical-artifact-culprits.

Most of my LPs (though, sadly I have not many LPs anymore...LPs are really heavy...
plus I sold most of my records to a couple of clueless and/or evil guys back in April of 1996
when records held little value...they've probably put all my records on eBAY by now
and are millionaires...aah, life is cruel! But, HEY I've got my health AND hundreds-of-thousands of mp3s
on numerous hard drives that I won't live long enough to play!) are stored in boxes for a big move...

BUT (just off the top-of-my-head) I seem to recall that my vinyl copy of Zappa
and the Mothers "One Size Fits All"

(1975 on Discreet...the album which has "Inca Roads" on it
where I first heard Johnny Guitar Watson...thanks, Frank!) has a very rich, satisfying smell going on.

That insane Cal Schenkel artwork (all over the "One Size Fits All" package)
is printed with slick inks... and it's printed on REAL HEAVY cardboard (check it our for yourself)
so that it'll never go anywhere (the artwork, that is) till the end of recorded time.

On an aroma-related note...Zappa's song "Stink Foot" (has the word "stink" in it) was on
the album "Apostrophe" which was originally-released on similarly-heavy, ink-saturated
cardstock back in 1974 (pre-disco, pre-9/11, pre-ABC TV's "SuperNanny")

Zappa and the Mothers' "Overnite Sensations" was ALSO released (in 1973, the year before
Richard Nixon left office in shame) on the same smell-heavy, ink-saturated heavy cardstock.

PLUS - those three later Zappa (Warner Bros?) albums with the Gary Panter artwork on the
covers also had a collective "unique" smell ("Sleep Dirt" etc...those were the ones that sort of were "Lather")
- probably (once again) due to the fact that Panter's striking art was printed in a highly-saturated
and inky way on slick and pungent stock (sounds logical to me...)

It's funny that at the same time (mid-70's...before the sharp, scary rise of global Capitalism)
RCA was releasing really cheap, poorly-printed, often UN-smelly LP packages (all of those
David Bowie RCA releases come to mind...the ones where the vinyl is super-thin..."Pin Ups", etc)
Zappa was releasing HEAVY AND SMELLY vinyl LPs in package sleeves that could deflect 22 caliber bullets!

By the way, you might want to carry along a copy of one of those Zappa albums
the next time you're in Southern California...flak jackets don't come cheap)

A lot of the early period Elvis Costello vinyl LP
packages (This Years Model, Armed Forces, Get Happy,
Taking Liberties) also emitted strange aromas...all of those
records used fancy, saturated ink colors and slick inner sleeves.
All of that ink and paper tends to reek for a while after leaving
the quiet environs of your average corporate-controlled album
packaging factory.

In fact, a lot of over-hyped and often-pointless New Wave/Punk albums in the
late 70's (such as the ones released by Costello) were packaged in smelly,
4-color RGB saturated formats...the Sex Pistol's album package
for their sprightly 1977 freshman release ("Nevermind the Bollocks Here's the Sex Pistols")
was pretty much nothing but a bucket of day-glo ink poured over some
foul-smelling cardboard slats.

All that ink and cardboard reeks a lot...so matter how you slice it (or safety-pin) it.

As everybody knows, LPs (especially double gate-fold items)
purchased at swap meets, thrift shops and garage sales tend
to send out strong "historical scents" - this is most likely
because records like these have been kicked around
a lot (kind of like Richard Nixon was) and have encountered
many different and/or unusual "vintage" storage atmospheres.

I tend NOT to stick my nose into swap meet, thrift shop or
"vintage" garage sale record sleeves because (simply put) some
of them smell quite bad...and darn it, I have roses out
there to stop and smell!

What sane record collector would want to stick their nose into an album and
smell "the smells" of old, dead Aunt Minnie's old putrid, rancid old
basement in Poughkeepsie? (where she not only kept her nephew's
old discarded Foghat, Nick Gilder and Rick Derringer albums,
but it's also where she kept her old, cracked pickle jars and rusty, used
cat food cans...as well as her collection of old fire-damaged TIME magazines
that she'd been saving since the summer of 1968... the time of the
violent Chicago Democratic Convention riots)

These days, if I want to get a real "nose rush" I simply go to a
big, modern magazine stand. There are enough mind-altering and/or toxic,
chemically-enhanced ink and paper smells at your average Borders
or Barnes 'n' Noble to propel one into a personal psychedelic
"voyage" - it's no wonder so many customers hover in that section
while clutching their over-priced, double-Latte' cappucinos.

Yep, it's true...a lot of records smell!

---

MrBaliHai of Eye of the Goof:
-When I was a teenager living in Los Angeles, my best friend and I were big fans of Dr. Demento's brand of cool and strange music, and we listened to his show religiously every Sunday night. When we were seniors in high school, my friend somehow hooked up with a horribly unattractive woman who constantly tried to seduce me. One night, she called me up and asked me to help my friend move her to a new apartment. I didn't want to go, because I knew that she would try to put the moves on me, but he was my best buddy, and was madly in love with this evil creature, so I decided to lend a hand for the sake of our friendship. But when I got there, I discovered that he had left town to take care of a family emergency, leaving me alone with this horny harpy. She tried plying me with wine and pot to get me into bed with her. I refused to cooperate. Finally, knowing that I was hooked on bizarre music, she offered me a copy of "Way Out West", an album by Mae West and a pick-up called Somebody's Chyldren, if I would do the nasty with her.

I gratefully accepted it, and told her that I wanted to put it in the trunk of my car for safe-keeping before we made sweet, sweet luuuurvvv. I drove off, of course, and didn't come back. When my friend got back, she told him that I'd tried to seduce her, and she'd kicked me out of the apartment! He didn't talk to me for months. Anyway, I still have that album, and listen to it often. The band grinds out awesome garage-rock cover of Beatles songs while Mae tunelessly tosses out her trademark double-entendres and shrieks like a grandma who just won at church bingo. You can see a scan of the cover and listen to a couple of song clips at Frank's Vinyl Museum.

When I open the sleeve and inhale deeply, this album hits me with the stale odor of a fading career, accompanied by peppery guitar notes and overtones of celebrity vanity. I'm left with an aftertaste of something elusive...a smell I can't quite put my finger on. Suddenly it hits me, it's the scent of desperation and lust exuded by an aging Hollywood sexpot who realizes that her best years are behind her, and a teenage Jezebel who's trying to lure her boyfriend's best pal into her web of deceit.

---

Rev.Frost from Spread the Good Word:
-I took my original Kajagoogoo err sorry, Link Wray first Lp and....holy shit, I smell nothing except maybe a smell of coffee and cigarette (maybe it's because I AM drinking a coffee and having a fag :)Ok stop kidding Rev. It brings me to a safe world where Britney fuckin' Spears doesn't exists, where you can sleep all day listening to records (the only work you have to do is basically change the side), where you can hang out with a bunch of friends drinking beers every single day, and where girls fall in love with you just because you have some fabulous blues records.Hell yeah, that's the smell of a vinyl.

---

JKS of Unpleasant.org:
-I had a hard time picking my "favorite" record, but eventually I chose "Rock Bottom" by Robert Wyatt, because it's the first vintage LP I remember buying as a kid and the first time I realized there was a whole world of music out there that I wouldn't hear on tapes or CDs. Apart from the fact that most of my records smell like somebody's basement, the vinyl itself has a very very faint, sort of "warm" chemical smell-- it reminds me of the way my Grandfather's 1960's-era hi-fi would smell after a few hours of use, once its electronic innards had warmed up (he still uses that stereo, btw.)

---

Johnny of Stationsvakt:
[transl. from Swedish] -Well, I've got millions of album favourites. But I chose Peter Gabriel's second album (what's the title?) - the one with "games without frontiers" and that stuff. Now I will sniff: Hard. The only thing that comes to mind is some memory of kid parties and childhood. but there is also a delusive smell of throw-up. Yes! Vinyl actually smell of vomit in some way.

---

John of Tofu Hut:
-Though my lovely lady and I do indeed have vinyl round the house and more CDs than anyone could shake a banyan tree at, I do all my listening in MP3 format. In an attempt to seriously address your question, I opened up my computer and stuck my snoot deep in its innards. Apparently my favorite music smells like pineapple and pork and this is not good news, as it suggests that I've spilled my Chinese take out into my PC. Actually, my favorite music is now smelling strongly of smoke and melting plastic and asdl;kafjsdiaj

---

Sebastian (that's me!) of PCL LinkDump:
-I am having a sniff of "Bringing It All Back Home" (Bob Dylan).

It's not my super-favorite album - but the most radiant one i've got on vinyl (I got my top favorite album on CD: John Coltrane's "A Love Supreme").
Hm. Strange. A very vague fragrance of soap. A rather sweat aroma. And there's a little bit of shining new leather boots in there I can tell. Leather and soap. Not much more. And, yes, it's that smell of vinyl I love. I know this aroma. It's like spring air.

African Movie Posters

Some imaginative and colorful African Movie Posters. (via Martin Klasch)

Eleanor Davis

Eleanor Davis: Comics and Illustration. (via RaShOmoN)

Bold Bollywood

Turbanhead points to this saucy YouTube clip involving some Bollywood "actors" trying to get it on without losing too much of their clothes. They are doing very well. I'd say NSFW.

A Sunday Afternoon at Jo-Jo's

Pastor McPurvis is back from a short (and hopefully refreshing) break with 'A Sunday Afternoon at Jo-Jo's' - The Standing Ovations featuring Rhonda Lee.

Enough!

When you start a blog you of course want an audience or at least some readers appreciating your posts. I know I did. I wanted to share my interests with kindred spirits and maybe reach a few not so kindred but open minded ones. And I think I have done just that.
I am spending A LOT of time trying to make this blog a nice experience for everyone interested. Sometimes I am doing a good job. Sometimes not so good of a job.
What's also important to me is to have fun and to stick to the concept I always had here. Pop Culture Links. High and low.

But today I'm grumpy and a little bitter. For the moment this blog has around 1000 hits per hour.
Yes, you heard me - T H O U S A N D hits per H O U R.
I should be proud. Or at least a little happy.
But I'm not.

For the first time in the history of this blog I've decided to delete an entry (I can't hyper link to it cause it'll not be there any more). But it involved a dead bear and a naked pop star giving birth.

I will not tolerate that PCL LinkDump forever will be linked to that trashy pop singer. There was nothing wrong with the entry. It just got burning hot.

I like to think of the readers of PCL as more or less sophisticated, open minded and classy. The audience I am getting hit by now is more or less perverted narrow minded people who will never come back. It's like the tsunami of deadbeats.

I have deleted the actual post to avoid it being indexed by the search engines in the future.

Sorry for this outburst.

/Z aka Sebastian

Updated: I think I have to clarify myself: There was nothing wrong with the entry with the link to Daniel Edwards piece of art. I enjoyed it. I thought it was great fun.
What I didn't like was the kind of attention this blog got. There was several not so bright comments as well as several not so clever emails in my in-box. And, as I said a tsunami of people consisting of either horny school boys or moralists with several white spots for art, happenings and/or art performances swooshing through this URL like it was a hot knife in butter (over 13 000 hits yesterday before I deleted the post - today it's back to good old 1800). That is not the attention PCL is striving for. I do not regret posting the link. I just happen to misplace it. Ok?!
:-)

Emma Summerton

Emma Summerton, photography. (Note: perhaps not entirely safe for work) (via dadanoias)

45s

The 45s are definitely underrated. No party is good without them. (NSFW)
Dusty's "The Look Of Love" to the right (that'd be her left). Nice choice, lady!

MP3 in Cell Block No. 9

The Tututtaret Trio (These nordic chicks have played in the leading hotels and night clubs throughout Finland) at Unpleasant.org.
"Ghost Rider" and "Frankie Teardrop" are still chilly guys. At The Of Mirror Eye.
The Electrostats - "21st Century Kenya" at Funky16Corners.
"Riot in Cell Block Number 9" at Keep The Coffee Coming.
3 tracks from Mark Isham's score to The Hitcher at Score*Blog.

Chicken Curry & His Pop Percusion Orchestra

Ok, so you didn't get the Umiliani album below - so what!! You can buy it here. And besides there are always "new" great stuff coming your way anyway. PCL covers your needs. Bet on it!

Whoops says: "Yet another El Chicles in disguise LP and who can resist a band name like this one. ...
... 7 groovy originals with funky titles like “Ghetto groove”, “Drums go nuts”, “The snake”... and 3 covers, notably Gato Barbieri’s “Last Tango in Paris”. "

Chicken Curry & His Pop Percusion Orchestra - Stereo discotheque.
Note: More El Chicles at Space Debris and over at Sounds of Champaign.

Piero Umiliani : L'Uomo e La Citta

Piero Umiliani : L'Uomo e La Citta. Just go get it! To qoute Kristof at Space Debris: "... A rarity of Italian cool that reflects life in the city in all its rich variety."

Updated: File not available anymore.

"Lost" gene Hackman film unearthed.

A montage of screenshots.

Conelrad reports: "A couple of years after his scene stealing performance as the piggish Norman in Robert Rossen's LILITH (1964) and mere months before his first Academy Award-nominated role as Buck Barrow in Arthur Penn's BONNIE AND CLYDE (1967), Gene Hackman brought his considerable, Broadway-honed acting skills to a 16mm, 22 minute U.S. government Civil Defense instructional film dynamically entitled COMMUNITY SHELTER PLANNING (1966). When CONELRAD first learned of the existence of this film in 2000, we launched a no-holds-barred effort to locate it. After a six year search in which we annoyed scores of government archivists, public librarians and private film collectors, we are very pleased to announce that we have finally obtained a print of this elusive motion picture. ..."

Continue to read about this "lost" Gene Hackman film over at Conelrad: Community Shelter Planning: "Lost" Gene Hackman Film Unearthed.

Two video clips from COMMUNITY SHELTER PLANNING are available for viewing at Conelrad's YouTube page or at Google Videos: Clip 1 & Clip 2.

"The first of two clips from a Cold War 'relic' unearthed from the "Golden Age of Homeland Security" - "Community Shelter Planning" starring Gene Hackman as Civil Defense Regional Officer Donald Ross. The 22 minute training film was made by the Office of Civil Defense/DOD, a forerunner of FEMA and the Department of Homeland Security. The film does not appear in the actor's filmography... "

Thanks Ken!

Down By the Riverside

Sister Rosetta Tharpe performing "Down By The Riverside" on the Chicago-based television show TV Gospel Time, sometime in the early to mid-Sixties (via WFMU's Beware of the Blog)

Aperitivo Radio Show

The aperitivo cookbook is the corprorate template of the aperitivo corp.. Learn & practice our scientific method to become a great chef.
The Aperitivo Cookbok.

Popcorn sacrament

Last night my sister and I watched I Heart Huckabees. In case you haven't seen it, it's a quirky comedy that espouses a lot of Buddhist thought.

I love movies. And, I love religion. Before my life melted into a pile of dissatisfied goo, I studied both at university. A lot of people found it an odd combination, but to me it makes perfect sense.

There are a few of reasons why film and spirituality are a natural fit. Movies are ubiquitous and easily digestible. Some may argue that movies dumb down important religious concepts, and they'd be right. How can you not? You've only got two hours to impart something - it's going to get diluted. That's not necessarily a bad thing. At worst, someone gets a brief bit of inspiration and moves on, at best, they're inspired to investigate a concept further. People nowadays, to overgeneralize for a moment, are busier and more easily distracted. We're used to quick cuts and sound bites. A two-hour movie is a lot more palatable to many than a thick, esoteric book. Also, today's society seems to (I have no data - just trust me!) consume music, tv, and music more than books. So, what's wrong w/ finding a bit of God there?

Art has always been a natural expression of people's concept of the divine. Painting, plays, music - it's always been so. Movies combine those forms of expression - sight, sound, music, beauty.

I read books, I meditate, but I also get my divine fix from music and film and tv shows. The pain and joy felt by God's angels in Wings of Desire, the silly wonder of Alanis Morissette as God, smelling flowers and doing a handstand to reveal tartan shorts under a designer dress in Dogma, the advice to not ignore the color purple, lest you piss off God in The Color Purple - moments of cinematic transcendence.

What are yours, and why?

"the Percy Trout hour!"

Super-Fizz-Sugar-Pop
from all Over the Globe!

Monday Night 3-27-06
8pm to 10pm (EST, USA)

WRFL 88.1fm
Lexington, Ky.

LISTEN ONLINE:
http://wrfl.uky.edu/Pages/listenNow.php

Dee-lirious

"... These twelve tunes are are sure to enliven your next roller-rink-themed cocktail soiree. ..." says jayKayEss of Unpleasant.org about: Lenny Dee - Dee-lirious.
After listening to the charmingly scratchy "Caravan" sample I'm quite sure he's right. Maybe next weekend...

Martti Mykkänen

Process Junkie presents some beautiful works by Finnish graphic designer Martti Mykkänen.

Week 54 - Oddities, Dezurik Sisters

The Dezurik Sisters are probably more well known as the Cackle Sisters, a more apt name when describing their singing style. They didn´t release many commercial recordings in their day, only three 78s on the Vocalion label in the late 1930s. Quite lovely.

15. Dezurik Sisters – I Left Her Standing There (Vocalion 4616-A)
16. Dezurik Sisters – Arizona Yodeler (Vocalion 4616-B)
17. Dezurik Sisters – Sweet Hawaiian Chimes (Vocalion 4704-A)
18. Dezurik Sisters – Guitar Blues (Vocalion 4704-B)
19. Dezurik Sisters – Go To Sleep My Darling Baby (Vocalion 4781-A)
20. Dezurik Sisters – Birmingham Jail (Vocalion 4781-B)


Earlier posts by HTMPL Prod. in the Oddities mp3 project: Week 50/51 - Week 52 - Week 53

Updated Nov. 5th 2006: The Dezurik Sisters tracks (and much more) can be found at the entry for the Oddities, mp3 comp.

Liberty Meadows

It's very possible this link has been posted before but I don't think posting again will hurt. Not entirely safe for work:

Liberty Meadows

Buck Owens' gone.

A tribute post at Awesomeometer including some of his more memorable songs.
Here's the obituary from BBC News.
See Buck at YouTube performing "Tiger By the Tail" (1966)
Also listen to BenT's favorite Buck Owens' track: "(It's A) Monsters' Holiday" .

Updated: See Buck Owens Country Music Hall Of Fame Induction (from 1996 when he was inducted by his friend Dwight Yoakam) at YouTube

Joe Williams & Count Basie

"Memories Ad-Lib" by Joe Williams & Count Basie available thanks to Chasradio.

Exenogenesis

Out of this world. Weird spoken mumbo-jumbo at WFMU's Beware Of the Blog.
(S)Exenogenesis.

Updated: It looks like he has a website: XXenogenesis.

Britney Spears naked on all fours, Scientology and Bottles of Rum.

That pretty much sums up this blog lately (besides I wanted to have a post with a title like that).

What about a Scientology supergroup?

"... Just as depressing as the news that Bart Simpson is a Scientologist, or more accurately Nancy Cartwright who voices him, is that some of the group's more unlikely acolytes are much-respected musicians. Advocates of the creed include the until now impenetrably cool Beck, funk pioneer Isaac Hayes and, at one stage, lovers' favourite Van Morrison, who devoted an album to founder L Ron Hubbard in the 1980s. Hip-hop pioneer Doug E Fresh, Chaka Khan and Courtney Love, who thanked the church in the sleevenotes of her America's Sweetheart album, are also followers. Even Leonard Cohen flirted with the alien creed when he was feeling even less sunny than usual in the 1990s. ...
...
it surely can't be long before the Hubbard fundraising initiative produces a Scientology supergroup. Given the pedigree of the musicians who've given their hearts to Hubbard's starship troopers, it might be a pretty good album. Certainly it'll be the oddest record since the the Carpenters' Calling Occupants Of Interplanetary Craft, which the sugary duo laid down for World Contact Day."
Cult musicians, article in The Guardian. (via Linkfilter.net)

Dance Music From Indian Films

As Lellebelle puts it: "... 100% lo-fi, which adds to the eerie and almost tribal atmosphere on this remarkable Bombay sampler."
Dance Music From Indian Films.

Surfink

What is he building in there? Tom Waits may have asked. I do not have to aks - I fink I know!
Joe of Menooshea explains everything step-by-step.
How to build Ed Roth's classic Surfink.

The Secret History of Rum

"... As its record shows, Bacardi is the original multinational. Its trademark is now held in Liechtenstein, one of the most secret and secure banking centers in the world, which contrives to be "offshore" in the middle of the Alps. However, while attending to business, the Bacardi family has never missed a chance to get its own back on Castro. Bacardi clan chief Juan Pépin Bosch brought a touch of the old connection between buccaneering and rum back to life in 1961 by buying a surplus US Air Force B-26 Marauder medium bomber in order to bomb a Cuban oil refinery. Later he was the money behind a plot to assassinate Castro. For many years Bosch was a major financier for the Cuban American Lobby and a major litigator who brought the United States to the verge of trade wars with the rest of the world. The technique has been to lobby legislators to exercise their anti-Cuban prejudices, regardless of general principles of international or indeed domestic law, and then to pay lawyers to implement the resulting legislation.
Bacardi was spurred into action when Castro's government went into partnership with the French liquor giant, Pernod Ricard, to market the renowned Havana Club internationally. Even though excluded from the US market by the embargo, Pernod was able to sell 38 million bottles of Havana Club in the first few years. In anticipation of an end to the Cuban embargo, it was gearing up for big sales in the United States. This was a challenge both political and commercial to Bacardi, which set to firing retaliatory legal broadsides and to the rediscovery of its Cuban roots.
Bacardi, wherever it is made, had for some decades tried to bury its Cuban origins, but in the 1990s it went into reverse. Its labels began to mention prominently that the company was founded in Santiago de Cuba in 1862 while eliding mention of where the rum was actually made currently. In 1998, "rum and Coke" or "Bacardi and Coke" suddenly became known as a Cuba Libre again. To match the myths, various stories were circulated to celebrate Cuba Libre, claiming that it had been invented by an American in 1898 to celebrate the American victory over the Spanish in Cuba. ..."

Yep, The Secret History of Rum (the essay is excerpted from Ian Williams's Rum: A Social and Sociable History of the Real Spirit of 1776, published in July by Nation Books.), is in many levels as exciting as the fluid itself. (via Bifurcated Rivets)

The Little Shop Of Horrors

"... I love the musical but nothing compares to the original 1959 Roger Corman film version! It is amazing and features great performances from Jonathon Haze, Jackie Joseph, Dick Miller and a then-unknown actor by the name of Jack Nicholson. The soundtrack is by Fred Katz and is jsut as amazing as the film itself! ..."
Dartman's World Of Wonder brings us The Little Shop Of Horrors OST . [IMDb]

More Playboy Cartoonists

"And this time, be more careful!"
by Doug Snyed.

ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archive Project Blog brings us 2 more Playboy cartoonists: Doug Snyed and Phil Interlandi. Note. Not Safe For Work.

Always...

The QuickTime party experience here. (via videos.antville.org)

MP3 Killed The Radio Star

Brigitte Bardot does "La belle et Le Blues" at BlowUpDoll.
"Video Killed The Radio Star" as done by Mini-Pops at The Record Robot.
Hound Dog Taylor is Gonna Send You Back to Georgia. All this and more "news" on the Hound Dog at SqueezeMyLemon.
The Cars at a PLAGUE of ANGELS.
Trees Lounge has arrived in Kansas.
A lot of Body & Soul at A Best Truth.

Stephen Berkman

The photography and installation art by Stephen Berkman. (via BoingBoing)

Ansel Adams' Lost Los Angeles

The Newsy Again
Click it for slightly better view at Flickr.

"... I was running a search in the Los Angeles Public Library's immense online collection of photographs when something in a record caught my eye, the name "Ansel Adams." The image attached to this record was of a parking lot with a cars jumbled together around a prominent No Parking sign.
I don't normally associate Ansel Adams with parking lots or small format images at all. Like you, Adams means the classic evocation of the great American wilderness in photography to me. It never crossed my mind that he had photographed any of the cities of men, much less Los Angeles. But there it was. ..."
Ansel Adams' Lost Los Angeles Found, a set at Flickr uploaded by Gerard Van der Leun. (via MetaFilter)

Psiu!...

"... Funky, jazzy and soulful in equal measure and provided by such luminaries as Erlon Chaves, Ivan Paulo, Antonio Adolfo and Nonato Buzar with arrangements by Roberto Menescal. Sold?", says Quimsy about:
Marcos Samm - Psiu!... at Quimsy's Mumbo Jumbo.

The Latin Jazz Quintet

Felipe Diaz & Eric Dolphy - The Latin Jazz Quintet available at Hamhead's Basement.

Updated: There seems to be problems connecting to that blog. Maybe it is gone.

Blum Blum

Cartoon Brew points to this rare piece of animation. The name of the film is "Blum Blum" (learn more about it by reading Cartoon Brews Amid Amidi's earlier posts about it), and was animated by Duane Crowther who later was on the animation team for The Beatles movie "Yellow Submarine". Brenda Lee Peggy Lee sings. (Thanks, Bruno! I was dazed and confused. But I sure got Lee right. Now, didn't I?! ;-))
Blum Blum.

Koen Hauser

'Diorama Encyclopaedia - Kosmoz No. 3' (2003)

Koen Hauser - Photography. Digital manipulations. (via Conscientious)

Cyndi vs Madonna poll closed.

Click image for better view.
Cyndi 72%
Madonna 28%
(total votes: 79)

Really a landslide!

La Linea

La Linea 01

A few of CAVA's (Osvaldo Cavandoli) super classic animations of La Linea [Wiki-entry] (in Sweden known as "Linus På Linjen"). La Linea 01 (the one uploaded above) and also 02, 03 and 05. Enjoy! (I know I always do :-)) (via We-Make-Money-Not-Art)

Christina Lindberg Interview

Kevin Gilvear interviews Christina Lindberg for The DVD Times: Looking for Mushrooms with Christina Lindberg. It's a quite lengthy and informative interview. Good reading. (via Cinema Strikes Back)

Here is an excerpt when they are talking about 'Thriller - En Grym Film' (Thriller: A Cruel Picture'):

...
[Kevin Gilvear]: OK, well I’ll ask about that in a moment, but I just want to get to the other famous scene in the film – the gruesome eyeball scene. Now I’ve heard the rumour that a real corpse was used for the shot where you have your left eye gouged out. So I’m curious of course. How was that achieved? Is there any truth to the rumour?

[Christian Lindberg]: Yes, it’s true. It was a young girl that had committed suicide and Vibenius, he used one of the biggest hospitals in Sweden. And they made it you know. They just put some mascara on the eyes.

[KG]: That’s quite shocking. How did he actually get the body? Did he just walk in, ask for permission?

[CL]: Probably with some kind of permission from a doctor or something like that. I really don’t know how he could, and I have been asked by many people connected with this situation and everyone says that’s just the way it was.

[KG]: It makes you wonder about the poor girl’s family.

[CL]: Yes, but you can’t really see that it’s a different girl.
...

Earlier posts on Christina Lindberg here at PCL: Here and Here (not much to find there though I'm afraid..). Just saying this because "Christina Lindberg" is the No. 1 way to find this blog through the search engines (excluding of course varieties of "PCL LinkDump", "PCL" and "Linkdump" etc.). Stats like that makes me proud.

Updated: A while ago I started a Yahoo group dedicated to Christina Lindberg images. Not that much there yet. Join if you got something to share (or just want the eye candy...). It's an adult group of course.

Let's celebrate.

'Ain't It Always the Way?' Comic By Kenn Minter.
Or say hello to the man himself over at his blog: Do the Placebo.

Any help for the material girl?

The Cyndi vs Madonna poll ends tomorrow around this time. You've got approximately 24 hours to pull Madonna up from the bottom of that dark well Cindy has throwed her into while whistling "Girls just wanna have fun".

Heaven Blues

"... What we have here is simply the best release from an obscure sixties french Library label named "Rythm and Blues", it is an excellent Psyche/A go go LP with lots of groovy tracks (and to be frank some cheesy ones too). ..."
The Heaven Blues - "Rythm and Blues vol.10" Rythm and Blues at Whoops.

Updated(March 20th): the RapidShare download server for this share seems to be down at the moment. Check back later I'd suggest.

Wangechi Mutu

'Ectopic Pregnancy' and 'Complete Prolapsus of the Uterus', both 2004
Click images.

From the 'About' text: "Kenyan-born Wangechi Mutu has trained as both a sculptor and anthropologist. Her work explores the contradictions of female and cultural identity and makes reference to colonial history, contemporary African politics and the international fashion industry. Drawing from the aesthetics of traditional crafts, science fiction and funkadelia, Mutu’s works document the contemporary myth making of endangered cultural heritage. ..."
Wangechi Mutu - Selected Works (via Vigna-Marú)

Ron Hicks

Ron Hicks (at Arcadia Fine Arts). Here's the gallery.
Painting displayed here to the left is 'The Lady In Red". Click it for slightly better view at source.
More Ron Hicks paintings can be found here. (via RaShOmoN)

Nothing compares

A tribute to Sinéad O'Connor's Nothing compares to you U video at Machinima Movies

I've been eaten by snow

Therefore, no column this week. However, as a lame follow-up to last week's column about the eternal Madonna and Cyndi Lauper smackdown, here's a nice piece on how not all gay men love Madonna.

the Lost Art of Eephing

"The eccentric Southern tradition of "eephing" is best described as the hillbilly equivalent of the hip-hop human "beat box" vocal style -- a kind of hiccupping, rhythmic wheeze that started in rural Tennessee more than 100 years ago. ..."
Jennifer Sharpe in NPR about Jimmie Riddle and the Lost Art of Eephing (via Sharpe World)
Don't forget to enjoy the audio samples. That is if you want happiness.

Week 53 - Oddities, globetrotting

We’re doing a bit of globetrotting this week. Leroy Anderson, the spawn of Swedish immigrant parents to the US, churned out classics like Sleigh Ride, Blue Tango, Lazy Moon and dozens of others. Here he shows off his skills with the typewriter. Then there’s that first single released by Rhino, a forever appealing song of advice.

'Go to Rhino Records' EP - Wild Man Fisher.
Click it for large view.

While were in the US might as well check out Brooklyn with Matteo before watching the morning glory of Deutschland and then there’s those English boys. A bit of friendly advice from Donna Lynn (Capitol, 1964) to you girls out there. Don’t let your boyfriend get a beatle haircut cause you might be in for a bit of heavy competition then:
My boyfriend got a beatle haircut / Oh unhappy day / My boyfriend got a beatle haircut / Now I can't chase the girls away / Once he was mine all mine alone / We'd talk all day on the telephone / Now we can't his phone is busy / All the girls keep asking where is he.

10. Leroy Anderson – The Typewriter
11. Wild Man Fischer – Go To Rhino Records
12. Matteo – Brooklyn USA
13 Tom Astor – Hello Guten Morgen Deutschland
14. Donna Lynn – My Boyfriend Got A Beatle Haircut

>Download (all 5 tracks zipped) at Rapidshare or,
>Download (all 5 tracks zipped) at zShare or,
>Download (all 5 tracks zipped) at YouSendIt.

Earlier posts by HTMPL Prod. in the Oddities mp3 project: Week 50/51 - Week 52

The Twilight Zone

Marty Manning - The Twilight Zone. Now available at Planet X.