It snowed for the first time today. Just a light flurry that lasted maybe 5 minutes, but snow nonetheless. Today is also the 30th anniversary of the Jonestown massacre. There’s a great documentary put out by PBS on DVD called Jonestown: The Life & Death of Peoples Temple. I highly recommend it. Below is actual NBC News footage from the day after the massacre, Nov 19, 1978. Crazy stuff…
To lighten the mood I’m including an awesome reggae song from 1978:
The Gladiators-Stick a Bush
Abandoned dairy facility in Georgia 
Still watching those goddam puppies. I also just finished watching Bloodlust!, a B&W drive-in horror film from 1961.
The story revolves around a group of 4 dipshit teenagers who explore a mysterious island only to discover it’s inhabited by a wealthy madman who hunts people for sport, then stuffs the bodies as trophies! Trophies! Ok, not so original. This story’s a blatant rip-off of The Most Dangerous Game written in the 20’s, and numerous films have been made based on this premise, but what really sets this apart from your usual crap-tastic 60’s schlock is the suprising amount of gore in the film. I almost got a Texas Chainsaw Massacre vibe from it, especially from a scene where the villian’s mute mongoloid henchman is cleaning a human skin in preparation for stuffing. Another surprising scene is when one of the heroines “performs” a judo move on a henchman (I quote “performs” as it is obviously a male stand-in wearing a dusty-looking blonde wig), throwing him into a tub of acid. What follows are numerous shots of the screaming henchman as the flesh burns from his face, a truly gorey scene even by today’s standards. I’d include a clip from the film, but it’s a little too obscure for Youtube, so instead here’s Ice-T as a homeless man being hunted by Rutger Hauer & Gary Busey in 1994’s Surviving the Game , another barely-veiled take on The Most Dangerous Game. Get a load of the final 2 lines in this clip. Hilarious.
I’m getting a kind of hillbilly feeling from this post, so I’m giving you some of Porter Wagoner’s best songs, and a little video of the old guy, who died last October.
Porter Wagoner-A Satisfied Mind
Porter Wagoner-Hundred Dollar Funeral
I got absolutely nothing done today because of this:
I’ve been thinking about music alot lately, even going as far as opening old files of unfinished songs I started years ago. I haven’t written music in 2 years, and I’m finally starting to feel ready to open that door again. I’ve always looked at my music as something that I had to completely immerse myself in, leaving no room for anything else, but now I see that maybe I was approaching it all wrong. I’m going to try to work on both music & art, which is something I never would have done 3 years ago. No grand concept album ideas for now, just songs. I’m not gonna include any MP3’s of my old DownFaster music right now. I want to start fresh. Instead here’s Mogwai’s awesome album closer from Young Team. It’s over 16 minutes long.
Mogwai-Mogwai Fear Satan
Some of my favorite songs with no particular connection:
David Bowie-Port of Amsterdam B-side from the Ryko relase of Pin-Ups
Radiohead-Polyethylene from Airbag/How am I Driving? EP
Tortoise & Bonnie Prince Billy-Love is Love
> Name: matt relkin
> Email: rsquare14@hotmail.com
> Date: 11/1/2008 8:54:00 PM
>
> This question is in regards to the Cape Cod Potato Chips bag design. Over the “i” in “potato chips” text, a seagull can clearly be seen flying with a Cape Cod chip apparently being held in his webbed feet. Seagulls feet are webbed for the specific purpose of walking efficiently on beach terrain, and they have no ability to carry anything with their feet. Have you ever had a seagull swoop down on your beach picnic and fly away with a chip clasped firmly in its webbed foot? This is an impossible feat (no pun intended) and I would love an explanation from your design research team. Please help stop the spread of seagull misinformation. I look forward to your response & thank you so much for your time.
Topic: Product Complaint
Product Name: Cape Cod Potato Chips
City or Town Where Purchased: new york
CTS Notification
From: cts@capecodchips.com
Sent: Mon 11/03/08 10:08 AM
To: rsquare14@hotmail.com
The chips actually started out as the ‘i’ in chips and during one of our changes somebody - probably some land locked person - thought it would be cute to have a seagull carrying a chip. During all the years I have been here only a hand full of people have noticed this mistake. I think the worst thing is when people think the bird is an eagle.
I’m going to send you some coupons for the good catch. Please let us know if you have any more observations.
Thank you,
So i guess I can be expecting some lame potato chip coupons in the mail.. I should have elaborated on the reason seagulls have webbed feet, paddling in water, etc… Now that I’m getting back to painting, I’m thinking more about my influences, and I keep coming back to Fantastic Planet (La Planète sauvage) from 1973. Directed by René Laloux from the book Oms en Série by Stefan Wul.
It just seems so mind-blowing to me that artists, human beings, created this utterly alien world, from the creatures to the dwellings to the landscapes.. Rolond Topor was the primary artist & designer for the film. The sheer imagination on display always leaves me in awe and in envy. As I paint more landscapes and try to instill a sense of otherworldlyness into my work, I am constantly coming up short. I hold Fantastic Planet as a high water mark, an example of the power of the artist to take the viewer to a completely unfamiliar place, and to challenge their understanding of what can or can not be. In order to create the perfect symbiosis of sight & sound, this completely alien world called for an equally alien soundscape, and that’s where Alain Goraguer came in. He created the fascinating soundtrack that accompanies the film, and I’ve included some tracks that are my favorites. My affection for 70’s soundtracks precedes me.
Alain Goraguer-Maquillage de Tiwa
America is back!!!!
5 November 2008
So a few weeks ago we had our final plumbing inspection at Zodiac (thats what the new bar is called) and we failed. Apparently we had the wrong sized toilets. I’m serious. The bowls were too small, so we had to replace them with elongated bowls, I guess for sanitary reasons so people don’t rub their junk all up on the inside of the bowl. So that whole fiasco has put a delay on the opening, as we’ve had to reschedule our next inspection, but we’re hoping for this month. To help pass the time we’ve been devising new & sinister ways to torture Peewee. This is my recent personal favorite, the rubber-glove finger booties.
BeepBeep Gallery is having a winter group show that I’ve been invited to take part in, so I’ve started a new painting and am excited to get back to my art. The construction of the bar has taken up so much time & energy that I feel quite disconnected from the person I was a mere 2 months ago. I plan on continuing with the black towers/monoliths/tentacles mythos, and I’m looking forward to getting some more pieces started.
This past weekend I was at Glasslands and there was this crazy video collage playing on the screen that I couldn’t take my eyes off of. I found that it was the work of another local artist by the name of Donald O’Finn. Go to his site and check out some of his videos. They’re truly beautiful works of art. Check this out…
I’m ending today’s post with a song that has no real connection to anything other than it’s always been one of my favorites. Dark-Eyed Sailor by Steeleye Span from their 1970 album Hark! The Village Wait.
Steeleye Span- Dark-Eyed Sailor
Don’t forget to vote for Obama today.