Old Gangsters Never Die

Written and animated by Alan Moore and Lloyd Thatcher. Music by The Sinister Ducks.
(Thanks to Mike)

I'll Have What She's Having.

Thanks to this video, I won't need my daily tab of acid today. (Be warned: Things get a little violent toward the end.)



[via Monkeys4Helping.]

Chicago gang cards

" Every city has its own gang history, part of Chicago's are Gang cards, most prominent in the 70's and early 80's, back in the day when a gang was more of a neighborhood crew then what it is today. Fists, bats, and bottles days, before guns became the norm in the gang. Most of the gangs were just about the neighborhood and hanging out together. Stock art from the printer as well as some hand drawn illustrations were the back bone of many of the cards. Some cards are pretty humorous, with some off the wall illustrations, logos, sayings, and rhymes. They don't make them like they used to... " via we are supervision

It Was 20 Years Ago Today

N.W.A. (Niggaz With Attitude) were a Compton, California-based hip hop group who released "Straight Outta Compton" in 1988 (so what I'm a year off).
This release was a pioneering effort which spurred the onset of Gangsta Rap mentality that the media has grown to love to hate. The FBI and Congress were ready to wage war with the release, particular attention being paid to the single, F**K The Police.

It is one of my favorite records as it reflects the anger of urban youth without the hyperbole of today's pretenders who speak primarily of the bling and only the bling.

An extended version of the album will be released on December 4, 2007, the 20th anniversary of the original album.

As a tribute here's a haunting version of "Straight Outta Compton" sung by Nina Gordon of Veruca Salt fame, stripped down. Enjoy.

Dillinger Days

There were many notorious gangsters of the early 1930s, but few of the names are still as recognizable today as that of John Dillinger. During his brief nine-month crime spree, Dillinger’s daring bank robberies were front page stories across the nation. Many readers hit hard by the Depression and subsequent bank foreclosures viewed him as a Robin Hood figure. His ability to escape from prisons and police raids gave him a larger-than-life image, almost movie star status.

So naturally his very public death on July 22, 1934 near an alley outside Chicago’s crowded Biograph theater started a media frenzy. Hundreds of visitors were allowed to file past the slain gangster’s body in a morgue (the above photo is what began rumors that Dillinger was excessively endowed--it's his arm, OK?), while others out in the streets dipped their handkerchiefs in his pool of blood where he had been shot down by FBI agents. Newsreel filmmakers and photographers were in hand to capture the events, and physicians even made a death mask of the corpse.

Even Dillinger’s father was caught up in the frenzy, presenting “Crime Does Not Pay” lectures across the country with a traveling vaudeville troupe.

There was no shameful quiet burial for the desperado--Dillinger was buried in Crown Hill cemetery in his hometown of Indianapolis as thousands observed his 20 car procession. And Crown Hill, to its benefit, realizing that a Dillinger tour is much more interesting than a tour featuring Benjamin Harrison, the three Vice Presidents or the inventor of the Gatling gun (also buried there), has an event scheduled today for twisted history aficionados like myself. Though I won’t be able to get any great souvenirs from the tour—the Dillinger family took the precaution of encasing the coffin in 3 feet of solid reinforced concrete.