February 4, 2010

Neko Funjatta

The name of this delightful toy is taken from an old kids’ tune, and the Japanese title means, roughly, “I stepped on the cat.” There are all kinds of versions of the song on YouTube, some exceedingly cute, including cartoons! If you just wanna learn how to sing the song and don’t care about aesthetics, try this one. That melody is maddening! No wonder Japanese kids grow up to be insane adults who make a livelihood from manufacturing disturbing novelties.

Anyway, I’m glad my kitty stays indoors. Children can be very cruel.

Photo c/o Bali Hai’s Eye of the Goof.

Rick at 3:44 am

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February 2, 2010

Junky Stuff

I’ve never patronized Apex Electronics and I wouldn’t know what to do if I did. My electronics expertise consists of properly connecting the Roku box, VCR and DVD player so that I don’t freak out everytime I need to switch inputs on the damn television. (Also, I can thread a projector.) However, I’m a big fan of control panels and archaic tubes, wires, machine guts and carcasses of obsolete advancements.

Somehow the promise of some sort of mechanical redemption, untapped technological magic, is hidden in the bowels of a junkheap. I really liked these little 360-degree views of Apex’s store and yard treasures. Drag your pointer over the window in any direction for some fun.

It’s always been a mental struggle to part with ex-devices. If I was to allow the psychosis to roam wild, my apartment would look just like that.

Devo – “Timing X”

Rick at 12:12 am

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February 1, 2010

Parasite

Copyright © 2009 Rick S. Hall.

Peter Peter & Kyed – “Acoustics of Crime”

Rick at 2:47 pm

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January 31, 2010

Tunnel of Love

Here, the pride of Brookline, Massachusetts – power trio Tunnel of Love – covers an obscure blues tune. These fellas put on a great live show. Go to their MyFace page here to see insane live videos and find out where ToL can be seen in person, if they haven’t already broken up due to the immutable physical laws of the universe.

Tunnel of Love – “Hey Joe”

Rick at 5:54 pm

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January 28, 2010

Oh Boy and How

“To be ignorant of what occurred before you were born is to remain always a child.”

- Marcus Tullius Cicero

“In general, people experience their present naively, as it were, without being able to form an estimate of its contents; they have first to put themselves at a distance from it – the present, that is to say, must have become the past – before it can yield points of vantage from which to judge the future.”

- Sigmund Freud

“Life is a dead-end street.”

- H.L. Mencken

Charlie Spand & Blind Blake – “Hastings Street”

(In addition, a fine article about Blind Blake.)

Rick at 2:40 pm

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January 27, 2010

Yes, Chewing!

I love Black Black gum. It’s a dose of explosive mintyness and nourishing caffeine that helps me fuckstart my brain at those times when a cup of coffee would be overdoing it. (Just the gum, though. I tried the Black Black brand candy once and did not care for it.)

It’s occurred to me that for me, Black Black seems to occupy the role for which an Ethiopian feller might use khat. Except that gum-chewing is a filthy habit that sometimes messes up the soles of people’s shoes later on. Khat doesn’t really seem to have much of a downside except that it has a weird foreign name and some Africans find it pleasurable, which always makes certain folk nervous.

My brilliant analogy with khat means the Drug Enforcement Administration will no doubt be arresting my Japanese gum import connection any month now. My only prayer shall be that politicians and powerful drug warriors will continue to not read this blog.

The Moody Blues – “Question”

(Enjoyment of the Moody Blues can be enhanced with a nice blast of caffeine.)

Rick at 3:06 pm

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January 24, 2010

He’s Still Watching

I remember when an average evening might consist of getting fucked up and making fun of the television. Laughing until my lungs hurt. This commercial aired around NYC in the mid-’80s. It resided on some dog-eared VHS tape containing Newmark & Lewis’s peculiar TV jingle that I used to view over and over, like a cocaine lab monkey. I copied it for friends (like Otto Mannix) who appreciated the truly absurd. Often I’d also put the lavishly government-funded “Stop the Madness” celebrity anti-drug music video tardfest on the same cassette; good for hardcore belly laughs back when the shit was contemporary, let alone now. (Especially stoned… I seem to vaguely recall.)

Thirty seconds of “Dick Lewis is Watching” is so densely goofy and action-packed, it’s hard to know where to begin. From its odd conceptual framework (Dick Lewis as a voyeuristic yet benevolent Big Brother, making sure those prices stay low!), to the “street level” 1980s signifiers (rollerskates, cheesy “rock” guitar, boombox, racial tokenism), to its insane vision of an impossibly perky New York City where singing people have spontaneous orgasms about their favorite home electronics retailer, this ad had its manicured finger on the urban pulse of… Dick Lewis?! At least it did until a few years later when all Dick’s stores went bankrupt.

Here’s more great advice: If you want more NY/NJ broadcast ads from that strange era, there’s a nice, tidy selection over here.

SSM - “You’ll Be Glad You Did”

Rick at 11:58 pm

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January 19, 2010

It’s All Right

Times Square, 1970. Photo by Nick DeWolf. (Wonderful archives here.)

Fear – “New York’s Alright If You Like Saxophones”

Rick at 9:37 pm

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Scary House

“Aug. 25, 1968 – at Aunt Ruth’s

An original book titled “Scarey House” with words dictated to Mommy.”

“Ricky captures the mean dragon. He cuts it up and gives it to his Daddy. Now we will all be safe.

The witch does a magic trick and turns the boy into a frog.

The skeleton turns this little boy into a pile of bones.

The snake is going to curl around the little boy.

The bat is going to bite this little boy.

The ghost is going to turn him white.

The buzzard is going to sting him.

The giant eagle is going to make him fly.

The devil is going to butt him.

The swordman is going to cut him up with his sword.

The wild cat is going to bite him and swallow him.

And this ghost is going to turn him white.

This wildcat is going to bite him and swallow him, too.

And this ghost is going to turn him white, too.”

What a strange collection of phobias. Seems little Ricky’s getting harassed by animals, spirits and fictional archetypes at every turn. (...However, note that Ricky was able to deliver the corpse of a captured and vivisected dragon to his Pop, so there’s that. Dragons are such pussies when it comes right down to it.)

Naturally, we are forced to rely upon my mother’s translation of the story. I prefer to think that my original plot was a bit deeper than Mommy has indicated, more delicately expository and rich in psychological nuance.

Note the threatened violence (lots of cutting) and implications of abuse by and to imaginary creatures. This was 1968. If such artwork were seen at a “zero tolerance” public school in 2010, somebody would be getting a visit from Child Protective Services, or worse.

Amazingly, it appears that my biggest (constantly reiterated) fear was being turned white – a bizarre prediction which later did come true!

Dear Mom: Thanks. I sincerely appreciate all the artistic encouragement you gave me as a child… especially in view of the fact that I clearly couldn’t draw for shit! Look at that lousy draftmanship. Really, this kid is a lousy illustrator. No sense of perspective, proportion or the even most rudimentary composition. Hell, I didn’t even spell “scary” correctly.

The Buzzcocks – “Friends of Mine”

Rick at 1:53 am

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January 17, 2010

Road Trip, Y’all!

Outrageous Cherry – “Pale, Frail, Lovely One”

Rick at 8:32 pm

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January 16, 2010

No Regrets

Century-old cemetery, Sonora, CA, December 2009. Photo by Rick S. Hall.

The Walker Brothers – “No Regrets”

Rick at 5:56 pm

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