beauty most absolute

beauty... beauty in it's purest form...

The Little Girl Giant & the Sultan's Elephant...



... and the finale...



...and kinetic wonderment...



These things make me quiver... make tears spring to my eyes... GIVE ME HOPE. Magick is ours... always...

bigger than klaus kinski

I found some interesting bits yesterday...

* "Oh! Swish!"



*Roll your own...



*This world is not set up to birth many true originals. So let us rejoice in the absolutely singular Klaus Kinski...



*Word on the street is that Idiot Flesh is conducting pre-coital talks to re-form. Excellent, excellent. If I'm not mistaken, this video is from the late-ish 90s. That being true, Idiot Flesh was ahead of it's time... considering the myriad bands I've seen today that attempting to do the same thing (but not as effectively).



*I finally found a playable copy of this Boomtown Rats song I love. And, you guessed, it, I have bit of a thing for Bob Geldof. He's just so damn good at smashing things...



And I leave you with this to brighten your day:



(Thanks to Coilhouse for effectively & enjoyably wasting half my day.)

this memory is just a dead man making trouble

I miss these things...

* the Sick Angels
* snow
* coats & scarves & hats & seeing my breath in the morning
* the brother I never really knew
* my witches
* Jays Upstairs
* the hot springs
* the Blackfoot
* the one & only truly magickal night I've had in Texas
* forest fires in the summer instead of oppressive heat
* Luciano Pavarotti
* my broken trombone that some ner'do-well stole out of the school bus.
* Butterfly Herbs
* walking across the bridge... seeing the water & the sunset & the Wilma & the damn kayakers & the drunks stumbling home drunk at 3 am
* RNK, my beloved partner in crime & ridiculousness
* my two hours of radio therapy every week
* him & him & especially him
* the Montange
* the Aurora Borealis
* Echo Hill
* my favorite long, sparkly skirt that I lost when I broke up with that utter asshole
* karaoke-singing & sticker making with Anna
* a million rock shows with Cassandra
* my two favourite movies that he never gave back
* the Fauxs
* Bowie's hair circa Low
* watching the clouds roll down the mountains
* the Cerentana & the adventures it held
* the cobblestone & ghosts & fried calamari sandwiches & labyrinthine towns & Depeche Mode tribute bars & haunted flats of Spain
* the Union Club
* VSM & his artful, stylish insanity
* Roxy Music with Brian Eno

*And especially this...



dear Missoula, I am coming

pictures at an exhibition

In a truly awesome move, the Smithsonian recently began a flickr stream of 2000 high quality, copyright-free photographs from their vast archives. Three cheers for one of the very few government organizations that makes me not swear off paying taxes all together. Here are some images I found whilst poking around the stream:

The first four are cyanotypes, taken by Thomas Smillie, the Smithsonian's first staff photographer:






Portrait of Felix Nadar (1820-1910), Photographer and Aeronautical Scientist:



The Smithsonian says, "Artists in costume at the Sherwood Studio Building. Identification on front (handwritten): Sherwood Studio Bldg. 58 W 57th St. 1889. (from left to right): Wm. Allen, Sullivant, Robt. Reid, Robt. Van Boskerck, Willard Metcalf, Sam Isham, Harry W. Watrous, Carleton Chapman, Herbert Denman."



Portrait of marine painter Edward Moran:


A beautiful photograph (from photographer R.A. Whiteside) from one of my favourite things, powwow. I can't wait for this year's Crow Fair:

dream baby dream

I love Suicide. They are so very fucking fearless...

to be played at maximum volume

If I meet someone new and they look at my 42 tattoo and cry, "The Answer!", that's a pretty clear indication that this is someone that I will get along with. This goes even double when I tell someone that I love glam rock and they think of this:



and not this:



So imagine my utter joy at finally, after years of pining, making a friend of the ultimate 70's british glitter rock kind. So in honour of my new glam friend Peter Scorcher, I present a programme of glitter rock videos for your pleasure.

To start things off properly, here is the penultimate fantasy of every glam girl (and many a glam boy), Ooo la la Bolan...



The first Roxy record is an excellent primer into the joys of glitter rock:



I love this song. Steve Harley & Cockney Rebel...



Another thoroughly amazing song. Slade...



Always a fun group, The Sweet...



I would be remiss not to include a lovely little bit from Velvet Goldmine. This movie is a certifiable obsession for me. This clip is of the fictional Brian Slade singing one of my fave Roxy Music tunes, 2HB. Extra points to you if you know who is doing the vocals (and I don't mean Jonathan Rhys Meyers)...

In case you were wondering...

... I really really really love the new Portishead record.

Musical tom-foolery

Here is some YouTube tom-foolery of a musical nature... beginning with the best video ever, courtesy the immortal Jan Teri:



Some Swedish wackiness:



From the absolutely epic film Streets of Fire (if you've ever wondered what Willem DeFoe looks like in pleather over-alls, it's the film for you):



This one is actually pretty awesome. In the 80s, Ricky Gervais (of the BBC series The Office and Extras) had a band called Seona Dancing. And, amazingly enough, they were not terrible...



Good ol' Ernie Kovacs:



This one is comedic genius. And watch for the monkey falling off the donkey...



I whole-heartedly love this song. It's Dean & the Weenies from the film Mondo New York:



And I leave you with a special treat. The next two videos comprise the full recording of my beloved Cramps performing live at Napa Valley Mental Hospital. Seriously. PS~ I have a major crush on the guitar player Bryan Gregory (RIP)...

I already have my own TARDIS key...

Oh sweet Jesus, someone please build me one of these:

One day my Doctor will come. I do hope it's David Tennant...

intelligent questions

As I don't yet feel like getting out of bed, I have decided to do this thing I found floating around the internets (I like this one because it was not obviously written by a 14 year old girl and/or a sociopath):

*What inspires your creativity?
boredom, the unexpected and Islamic mosaics



*What is your favorite luxury in life?
swimming in nature (preferably naked, under the stars) & live music

*What is your most prized possession?
I found it on the Oregon coast... a beautiful jet-black stone about the size of a grapefruit with many holes bored thru it from thousands of years of water erosion.

*Who are your style icons?

Greta Garbo



Dolores Costello



Mata Hari



Salomé



and Bolan




*Who would you most like to meet and how would you send the day?
Tom Waits... and it would end up an awful lot like that dream I had last night...

*How would you describe your personal style?
Witch-y but not Goth-y, gypsy but not Stevie Nicks nor Neo-Gypsy-Hipster, tribal but not Burning Man

*What is your idea of earthly happiness?
Being self-sufficient and sustainable.... with a nice view of the mountains.

*What books are currently on your bedside table?
The People's Almanac by David Wallechinsky & Irving Wallace, Houdini!!! by Ken Silverman, The Rum Diary by Hunter S., and Gandhi: An Autobiography.


*What is the one thing in life you can't live without?
music, magick & friends

el diablo en el ojo

People are always saying to me "Do you wear contacts?"... never "You have very pretty eyes." Actually yes, I do wear contacts but this is the natural colour of my eyes. It strikes me as a shame that little bits of plastic have trumped Mother Nature. The compliment is lost.