.

ANOTHER ONE BITES THE DUST...

2010-12-22T12:32:00.000-08:00

On the morning of Monday, December 20, 2010, at exactly 7:43am, while walking Oliver down Wilcox Ave. just south of Santa Monica Blvd, another body expires out of the El Nido Hotel. I could faintly make out the haze of a ghostly figure floating upwards over the ambulance, into the dark, wet sky. He seemed happy to be out of that body.

NEW PICS OF GOTHIC LOLITA, LA CARMINA & VISUAL KEI SUPERMODEL, YUKIRO!

2010-04-28T20:31:00.000-07:00

Around a month ago, I had the honor of shooting, La Carmina(Gothic Lolita and superblogger) and her friend Yukiro(a visual Kei supermodel) at my studio, Ultrastar. Here are some of the fotos on La Carminas Blog. They were totally professional and awesome to shoot!
CHECK THEM OUT NOW.

http://www.lacarmina.com/blog/2010/04/military-fashion-show-apollo-star-goth-photography-la-carmina-fetish-visual-kei-photoshoot-in-hollywood-ca/

I can finally see a dim light, a few hundred feet ahead...

2010-04-16T18:01:00.000-07:00

I hope it's not an oncoming train, like it usually is.

A trip to the Moon.

2010-04-15T21:12:00.000-07:00

At exactly 7:19pm...
clack clack clack clack......
From inside my office I hear the footsteps of little black heels coming down the sidewalk.
They pass right in front of me, but I can see nothing.
They then pause for just a moment.
Soon follows the jangling of keys.
Quietly, A key makes its way into the slot and turns.
She's home.

It has been exactly one week(171 hours) from right now..

2010-04-11T12:47:00.000-07:00

Utter Despair: depression and hopelessness, usually one that the person doesn't believe that he or she can recover from. Utter despair is sometimes when people give up, because they are down so far that they can't see any way back up. Utter just means the most extreme... so there can be utter bliss, as well as utter despair.
-WikiAnswers

There's a certain part of melancholic depression that nurtures the mind and feeds creativity, and can even turn into inspiration in the most extreme cases. This I have come to enjoy. But sometimes, when you're not looking, it will creep up on you, sting you, and cause extreme mental confusion/pain and sudden violent physical sickness that knows no bounds. This part I have not come to enjoy. But for the most part, I have developed a love/hate relationship with it. -a.s.

When is a Raven like a Desk..?

2010-04-11T12:45:00.000-07:00

Finally I was able to take a mini mental vacation and went to see Disney's 'Alice in Wonderland' in Imax 3d at midnight at Universal. There was one particular part that was completely out of place, kind of ridiculous and from what I would imagine, put into the film to give it a contemporary flavour to the youth generation. It was unforgiveable. Other than that I really liked the visuals. The Imax 3d was insane, but $18 bux a seat. This is when I don't feel bad stealing the saltshaker from the counter to continue salting my popcorn throughout the film. But I returned it after the movie..
Answer(not revealed in the film): Both were written on by Poe.

ever feel so crummy you want a real permanent vacation?

2010-04-09T17:23:00.000-07:00

the saddest girl in the world.

2010-04-09T15:31:00.001-07:00

"She's the kind of girl that used to be a totally natural knockout when she was young, but back then everyone catered to her and gave her whatever she wanted since she was pretty. She got used to this treatment and never went to school or got any kind of decent job. Just living off of mooching from anyone that thought she was cute. Then she got into taking free drugs from all the guys that wanted to fuck her. You can tell that underneath all those age lines, dark circles, and missing teeth from years of drug and alcohol abuse, that she was a beauty. Once....many years ago...a real fucking beauty." -a.s.

Death of a salesman...

2010-04-09T14:50:00.001-07:00

I DON'T BELIEVE IN CELEBRITY WHATSOEVER. IN FACT, I'D BE IMPRESSED A MILLION TIMES MORE BY FINDING A GREAT CUP OF BLACK TEA, THAN EVER MEETING ANY 'CELEBRITY', they're just insecure egoists that need the acceptance and admiration of millions of people they don't know or care about...pretty pathetic if you ask me.

I LOVE TMZ....they're not glorifying Celebrity, they're DESTROYING it. They live to Bust and ridicule Celebrity. How genius is that. Anything or person that lives to soley expose truth in hypocrisy is brilliant.

I prefer reading to television, but when I ABSOLUTELY have to watch, I like smart programming, National Geographic, Jaques Cousteau, Programs on Psychology from the 60s and 70s(Dr, Phillip Zimbardo), Globetrekker with Ian Wright, NOVA, History Channel, plus Cooking shows, Yan can Cook, Americas Test Kitchen, Everyday Foods, Cooking with Todd English, plus anything with Jacques Papin. GUILTY TV PLEASURES: The Original SOUL TRAIN from the mid 70s and SOLID GOLD from the early 80s.

shit for the ears...

2010-04-09T14:49:00.001-07:00

CURRENTLY LISTENING TO: X-Ray Spex, The Quick('77), The Undertones, The Sparks, Gary Numan, Alice and the Bags, Dead Boys, The Stooges, Cockney Rejects, Cramps, The Jam. BUT I'm really a fan of Classical music, from all cultures. Here in North America, the original Classical music was Chanting, drumming and song by the Native people of this country(American Indians). Favourite Composers: For Violin-Niccolo Paganini(Concerto #1 in D), For Pipe Organ-J.S. Bach (Toccata & Fugue in D minor, in particular), for Cello-J.S. Bach (Suite no.1), PLUS these all time favourites: Modest Musorgsky-Night On Bald Mountain, Gershwin-Rhapsody in Blue, Claude Debussy-Claire De Lune(my personal favourite), Saint-Saens (Carnival of the Animals is genius), East Indian Classical Raga and the fusion of Sitar, Tablas and Electronic beats. I love FUZZ guitar, that really FAT 60s/70s fuzzy garage sound, like guitars with the Big Muff or Arbiter Fuzz Face, some 70s Prog Rock and most Rock with Piano(Bowie, Queen, Todd Rundgren, etc.) and 60s Garage, The Nazz, The Easybeats, The Yardbirds, The Seeds, The Smoke, The Sonics, etc...and since I was raised in the 80s, I love all the rare underground post punk new wave bands from that era. I LOVE the Clavinet (an electric Piano from those cheesy 70s love/lounge easy listening AM GOLD songs)(as heard on Captain and Tennille's Love will Keep Us Together). I realize they can be quite cheesy, but who cares....thats the point, its the humor that is produced that is incredible. And a sense of humor is worth more than any superficial pretty face. I'm NOT a fan or a groupie of ANY band, although I respect my favourites for being the classically talented musicians that they are. in fact I usually HATE going to see bands and feeling like I'm just there to worship on them and stroke their insecure egos like the blond bimbo next to me and accept them for their self-imposed "Coolness", get over yourself dude, you're just another wannabe hipster in just ANOTHER DUMB HOLLYWOOD ROCK BAND...ANYONE THAT WEARS A PUNK BAND SHIRT FROM THE MALL IS PRETTY MUCH A TOTAL POSEUR...BASICALLY THEY'RE SAYING.."I DON'T KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT BEING A REAL PUNK, SO I NEED THIS T-SHIRT FOR YOU TO CATEGORIZE ME AND SEE WHAT SUBVERSIVE SUBCULTURE I WANT YOU TO THINK I'M ACCEPTED IN.." CURRENTLY THE MOST OVERRATED T-SHIRTS ARE 'RAMONES' AND 'MISFITS' SHIRTS(Bootleg shirts are available for $5 at the Alley Downtown, which actually makes those particular shirts kind of PuNk..=/)...THE PEOPLE WHO WEAR THESE USUALLY KNOW ABSOLUTELY NOTHING ABOUT PUNK MUSIC.(this doesn't apply to the real punks who know their music history and are the real deal) The only real punks you see out are the ones that wear their own home-made shirts and have their own style. YOU CAN'T BUY PUNK, it comes from the inside.Don't get me wrong...I LOVE music, but real music....not some cheesy cliche band that 'everyone' likes(I fucken hate stupid 'recipe' bands like HIM, that poseur Chemical Romance shit, and all that wanna be punk rock like Blink shit 182, Good Charlotte(WTF??!!), Green Day(Poseur Punk) and all those poseur bands that wear fashions from mall stores and all that emo shit and any crap band that exists soley to cater to stupid underage groupies who feel a need to 'belong' and 'be accepted' by some wannabe subversive clique, after all, HOT TOPIC already ruined and destroyed anything that used to be cool and underground by mass marketing it to every junior wannabe punkster in the country) Be Original. Be Classic. Do your research. In reality I pretty much hate everything that the mainstream likes and thinks has talent. BUT here are a few of my favourite musicians anyways that you probably have never heard of....Pandit Nikhil Banerjee(Sitar Maestro), Ravi Shankar, Shahid Parvez(Sitar), Allah Rakha(Tablas), Andres Segovia, Yo-Yo Ma, Itzhak Perlman, David Bowie, Mick Ronson, Randy Rhoads, Lou Reed, Deuter(german composer), Jason Falkner, ANDOR(on my tops). Lately Ive been getting into making electronic soundscapes on my KORG. I could list a ton of "cool" bands to try to get the acceptance of other people into that same kind of music, but I'm not a cliche, I like what I like....ok.....to quell your curiosity, here are just a few that are in my current playlist...Coil, Chris and Cosey, Psychic TV, Throbbing Gristle, Alien Sex Fiend, Einsturzende Neubauten, Meat Beat Manifesto, Clan of Xymox, Fields of the Nephilim, Switchblade Symphony, the Southern Death Cult, Death Ride 69, Gruesome Twosome, Orbital, Nancy Boy, Klaus Nomi, Japan, Grace Jones, Missing Persons, Vangelis, Giorgio Moroder, Jean-Michel Jarre, Jean Marc Cerrone, and Gustav Mahler. (PLEASE BITE MY TASTE and educate yourself)

On death and dying or 'other random shit that I'm into.'

2010-04-09T14:46:00.000-07:00

My main interests seem to be: Transparencies, film, slide and video projektors, movie cameras, still cameras, fotocopies, video cameras, anything that can emit or produce an image several times over. When I was in high school, I used to sneak out and spend my saturday nights making art on the copy machines at the Kinkos in Pasadena back in '91-'93, before anyone had home computers with good printers. Aside from that obsession, Uhhhhh........I tend to overanalyze things. I read too much. I sleep alot. I am totally a routine person, and I prefer it that way. I am constantly making lists. I prefer writing on paper than typing on a keyboard. I prefer physical and material things from the 60's, 70s & 80s but love the technology of today. I have trouble making simple decisions and take forever to order food when I go to a new place. I always order the exact same thing if I've already been to that place because I know exactly what it tastes like and then there are no surprises.

Random bits: I've been a photographer in this town for 15 years. I invented club photo booths back in the late 90s when I was hired to shoot and put up Glam styled photo booths at all the now legendary clubs, including, Club Makeup, Beat-It, Coven 13, Bang!, Superstarr, Peepshow, Atomic, and countless others. Back then it was much more glamourous than it is today. We did waaay more than just hold up the camera and snap away without even looking at what was in the frame, like the trendy hipster club photographers of today. We had glitter and sequined backdrops and feather boas and scarves for our clubbers to wear. And back then it was much more about being on the foto page of the club for that night than just having another dumb default picture for your MYSPACE dating pool(gross).

I have a passion for photography as well as a passion for creative and truly talented people. I've been a director of short underground movies since 1992.
I despise mannerless bimbos who expect the world to cater to them cause they dress slutty, have brainless bimbo looks that appeal to pathetic loser moronic men and think they can get away with being stupid. In that case, we will fuck you then throw you aside like a dirty rag, and you will love it....because thats what you're projecting to us with your attitude. Then we'll try to throw you in front of the camera for our amusement and entertainment.

I FIND IT IMPOSSIBLE TO TOLERATE PEOPLE WHO AREN'T INTELLIGENT BUT WILL KEEP MY MOUTH SHUT IF THEY ARE PRETTY ENOUGH.(thats not shallow, thats just honest..)AND I detest drunken bimbos who try to come off as intelligent but who clearly have NO IDEA what they're talking about. Actually, sometimes they're funny and entertain me. OK..OK...they're ALWAYS FUNNY AND ENTERTAIN ME.

I love intelligence, manners, class, a sharp wit and genuine self-confidence, when its truly deserved.

WE ARE THE ANTI-ESTABLISHMENT, THE COUNTERCULTURE, WE ARE OUTSIDE THE MAINSTREAM. WE HAVE GIVEN UP ON ESTABLISHED MORES OF OUR CURRENT SOCIETY AND HAVE CREATED OUR OWN, SEEKING A MORE INTELLIGENT WAY OF LIFE WITH TRUTH FREEDOM AND LIBERATION FROM THIS OPPRESSED REGIME. JOIN OUR CULT-THE CHILDREN OF THE APOCALYPSE(referring to the disclosure of a God/higher source, NOT the end of the world).

The following words are things that are of interest to me: The Stones, Aleister Crowley, Psychedelic 60s, 70s UK and NY PuNk, Warhol, 60s New Wave Cinema, 80s New Wave Music, Post Punk, 60s UK Mod, Italian Scooters, European Fashion Mags, Zines, Thrift Shoppe art, Performance Art, 80s & 90s Industrial Musik, Conspiracy Theorism, Backward Masking in music, The Dark Side of Oz, Civil Rights, Environmental Causes, Eastern Spirituality, Gourmet Food and Dining out at exotic dives, 60s Italian Sports Cars and 70s American Muscle cars, the 60s Obsession with Space. Instant anything is cool.

And I respect extroverted people, since I'm not a loudmouth, and I keep to myself alot. I am totally passionately obsessed with food. Just everyday foods, not necessarily Gourmet. I know how to order a sandwich properly from a Subway shop, I like to add spices and condiments to everything, and I can make a ridiculously good hot chai latte tea, from scratch.

to remember me by...

2010-04-09T14:40:00.000-07:00

Messy black hair in the eyes, supertight black jeans, Pointy black Chelsea boots, Black Leather jacket(always), hats, sunglasses, and a 1/2 ton of scarves....I wear this almost everyday. and I like Guns(but I'm NOT a conservative/Repub), Motorcycles, leather jackets, the Occult, Dark religion, indian incense(the hardcore stuff), and 60s & 70s B-movies, and just cool stuff I guess. I have no tolerance for underage poseurs(you know who you are). I need to surround myself with POSITIVE people that are actually doing stuff, have good attitudes and are truly talented in SOMETHING....I can't stand Hollywood types that are too cool for school, do nothing and are self important. I lived that life for years when I was seduced by the the club scene years ago and am SO DONE WITH IT AND OVER IT. I like reality and nice people who are genuine and cool.

I'm not a 'bar guy', in fact I cannot stand ignorant club people(no offense to the handful of close people that I have met in the last 10 years) and that whole bar/club scene, it just began years ago when I was asked by club owners to put on nights at their spaces, probably because of all the creative crazies that I used to hang out with back then that used to convene by the masses. little did I know, it would turn into a 10 year long journey and descent into the darkness of drugs, alcohol and creativity. Fortunately I survived that world. Slightly scathed.

"I don't have inner demons...I hold hands with the Devil every nite...and am at the mercy of the gates of the Afterlife every time I close my eyes."

I currently live in a Loft/Art Studio known as ULTRASTAR that doubles as my photo studio and Gallery. Recently I have become somewhat of a RECLUSE....as I rarely ever leave my studio anymore. I mostly stay in my compound and work and paint and shoot, far into the night, and have visitors over occasionally for high tea. I am much happier these days just being home at my studio than going out. I'm always looking to meet cool new people that are visually interesting, to shoot.

I've been part of and seen the ugly side of LA clubs for far too long and am now starting to live a 'real' life that includes travel, museums, international food and non-club people. I have met some cool people, and I have amazing stories for days, enough to write a book or two, but mostly its been late late nights, drinking, and basically a life of pure indulgences that make it difficult to see the world the way it really is. If you let it, the nightclub world will change the way you see things, permanently. Not in a good way either. You live in this fantasy world where everyone thinks they look their best and are in the best mood ever because of booze or drugs and feel good...and they're trying to impress everyone cuz they don't want to go home alone. THATS NOT REALITY. thats called Fantasy(yours). and when that becomes your life/work, it just isn't that fun or self-fulfilling anymore. I am now making a conscious change to have a healthy and spiritual lifestyle.

I paint giant bar codes, collect vintage porn, but I don't really do anything besides collect it...I don't really look at it, only to steal poses from the fotos, but mainly it just sits there on my bookshelf, stacked vertically, one after another....I guess thats a true collector....I mean we just collect it and let it sit there. I have a passion for the underground and non-mainstream anything. I love pop-culture, fashion, music and the lifestyles of the 60s and 70s. I absolutely HATE living in the ideology of today. I hate the trends, the young people, and the media, which has systematically RUINED Everything that was cool by making it a commodity and turning the Nation into TV Zombies. I LOVE late 70s NY and UK PuNk and the nihilistic attitude that shaped that genre. and furthermore I love that sleazy 70s DISCO lifestyle of pure indulgences and excesses. and that period of music in 1980 when disco transitioned into New Wave and all the music that is half disco and half electro and half New Wave with Vocoder.

I am a very positive person and always see the bright side of things(of course I can be a jaded sacastic bitch too...but that's just the Yin and Yang of life) I would love to be a positive influence on people and inspire them in any way, especially creative. I am an ex-fashion designer and used to own a 60s MOD Boutique with my partner Mers, at my loft space, called LE CHIC Boutique. It was pretty cool back then, now every stupid trendster thinks they're a fashion designer because they design Stupid Graphics for T-Shirts.

FAVOURITE PASTIME: Currently, I am thouroughly entertained by standing outside the Burgundy Room, when I go to work as a DJ on Thursdays, and watching all the pathetic insecure RETARDS wait in line for hours, outside of GOA(the so-called 'celebrity' club next door)just to try to get the acceptance and OK from some uneducated Gorilla bouncer list guy to be let into a place where you are RAPED for drink prices and the only game in town is loud mouthed, spoiled, elementary minded, rhinoplasty disaster, donald duck billed bimbos that feel 'special' if they get attention from even the homeless guy begging for change outside of Grecos pizza on the corner. Their Pathetic predictable behaviour is OUR ENTERTAINMENT. Yay! I wouldn't have it any other way.

UPDATE: GOA closed like 5 months ago because they were doing illegal and shady shit. Now I just look at the homeless bums outside who asks for cigarettes.

ON OTHERS BEING INTERNET WHORES/MYSPACE CELEBRITIES: Do you really feel better and more confidant about yourself by having a legion of underage tweens and a sea of ingnorant followers, worship and idolize you? Do you really believe that you have more power by having more people(insignificant as they are) admire and adore you? Does it make you sleep better at night knowing that you got 100 new comments today from from wannabes who think that My Chemical Romance is Punk Rock? If thats all it takes, more power to you. We need your type to exist just to make us more credible. and we Thank You.-A.Staar

I BELIEVE IN THE CASTE SYSTEM.

2010-04-09T14:38:00.000-07:00

I AM A STAUNCH SEPARATIST. I STRONGLY BELIEVE SOME PEOPLE ARE BETTER THAN OTHERS.

Young people today make me wanna choke on my own feces. They are all ignorant POSEURS and formula followers. If I see or hear one more self-righteous Bimbo, Guido, Hipster, Scenester, 'Mall' Punk, Ebonic spewing wannabe 'rapper', or any smug 'film/photo/model industry' brat/poseur, I swear I'm gonna fucking shit myself. First off, I'm an ANTI-hipster/scenester. I loathe all the ridiculous ignorant poseurs who wear tight jeans and white belts/boots, have shag/long fringe haircuts, think they are part of the 'indie' band or music scene, live in impoverished areas like silverlake and echo park and think its cool to have no money(truth is they are just lazy), who love Wes Anderson(totally overrated) movies and think the film JUNO represents their culture, have nose piercings, and who desperately, no-matter-what-it-takes, feel a need to be accepted in the los angeles 'Hipster/Scenester/Indie scene. They scream.."PLEASE ACCEPT ME!! PLEASE LET ME BE PART OF YOUR SCENE!!...I WILL DO ANYTHING TO GET THE RECOGNITION AND ACCEPTANCE THAT I THINK WILL MAKE ME COOL" They are insecure, uneducated, egotistical lemmings. They know nothing about the history of what they profess to be into, and are nothing more than uneducated, shallow, spineless invertebrates with only a strong desire to follow in the herd, like cattle to the slaughter. And they will be slaughtered.

Everyone who doesn't impress me can go be consumed in their own excrement.

just another day in hell...

2010-04-09T14:36:00.000-07:00

I'm bored with trying to find interesting people in this town...they simply don't exist. The truth is masked by 'Celebrity' bullshit.

First off, I HATE today. The world of today is nothing but 99.999% poseurs searching for recognition. The word 'Celebrity' now means 'Recognized'(for absolutely Anything)....it stands for NOTHING more than that. Every single person who is consumed with pop culture, any music that is played on the radio and pretty much EVERYTHING that is new and spewed forth by the Media(which is pretty much everything unless you live in a cave), well those people are PATHETIC POSEURS WHO FEED ON RECOGNITION FROM ANYBODY TELLING THEM THAT THEY'RE 'OK' and 'ACCEPTED' by the masses. But WHY would ANYONE want to be 'Accepted' by the general public?? The typical American has the LEAST discerning taste on the planet....makes me fucken sick. The only thing cool today is talking to old people that actually 'lived' during those cool years(the 50s thru the early 80s) They lived thru the real deal and are the real deal. However, we are a dying breed. Soon we will all perish into ashes or worm food and there will be NOTHING COOL LEFT. Nothing will EVER be as cool as it used to be. The media has fucked it up permanently and it will NEVER EVER COME BACK. I can't wait until I'm ash and won't have to deal with this world of complete hypocrisy. Until then, Eat, Shit and Fuck.

FOOD FOR THOUGHT......or mindless drivel.....I don't care.

2010-04-05T11:22:00.000-07:00

"I'm on a never-ending quest for more. More from art...more meaning...more symbolism...more visual stimulation. More from everything."

"It is my personal mission, to leave no-one...unprovoked."

"I don't shoot pretty faces for internet websites or magazines. My goal is to have my work hang in the bathroom of the Hells Angels clubhouse."

"I am constantly asking myself 'what is classic, what will transcend the test of time, what will still be interesting and thought provoking in 100 years?'. If I feel I've found the answer, that's what I shoot."

"There is too much 'manipulated beauty' in this world. I want to capture whats not often sought. Beauty that falls through the cracks of reality."

"To me, in photography, a pretty face is overrated...I always want more from it....or to punch it and give it some character."

"Digital photography has divided the barrier between shit photographers and talented photographers. Good photographers got better, and shitty ones got internet jobs."

"I don't like to shoot anything unless I know I will be the only person with that capture."

"Candid event/club photography is not art. Its a glorified hobby."

-Apollo Staar
April 5th, 2010

THE LIGHT AT THE END OF THE TUNNEL IS JUST AN ONCOMING TRAIN.

2010-04-04T13:07:00.000-07:00

I've come to the conclusion that as a creative person, one can never be financially successful at the same time as keeping ones integrity, credibility and pursuit for truth. In today's day and age, the media wont let you. That is what you compromise with popularity and success. Quality and honesty are jeopardized and thus sacrificed. These observations are ones that I hold to be true in my own perspective. I welcome intelligible challenges from any naysayers. P.S. I'd love to be proven wrong.

addendum:
Two things. First I must stress that my humble observations are ones that pertain to today's day and age. Meaning, what America has become in the last 5 years, due to the ever-increasing influence and pressure that the media has on society. And secondly, I'm aware that the term 'success' is a subjective one, open to a variety of interpretations, and opinions. I will simply state that my definition of the term 'success' is being able to pay your monthly bills, eat healthy and moderately, have health care, have money for a cold beer when you desire one, and be able to afford to travel to visit loved ones. Nothing else matters.

-Apollo Staar
Aril 4th, 2010

Whow said this and where...? Its a contest.

2009-09-15T11:51:00.000-07:00

There's no earthly way of knowing....
Which direction we are going...
There's no knowing where were going....
Or which way the river's flowing...
Is it raining....?
Is it snowing...?
Is a hurricane a blowing...?
Not a spec of light is showing...
So the danger must be growing...
While the fires of Hell are blowing...
Is the grizzly reaper mowing...?
Yes! The danger must be growing...
For the rowers keep on rowing....

SUCCESS in LA is nothing more than a popularity game.

2009-08-13T23:25:00.000-07:00

....For creative people. Just think...in order to get anything done or out there, you have to convince someone who has the means of making it possible for you. Getting a book published, having a successful(as in actually making $) Art Gallery show, having a popular/busy nightclub, getting a film made, etc. the list goes on and on and can be applied to many applications. The only way to convince these people that what they are capitalizing on their investment is by being known, popular and having 'clout', achieved by going to tons of parties and getting people to know you and like you or at least think that you're cool. Everyone in this town is on a quest to be 'cool', to be 'popular' to be 'known'. As long as you have an army behind you, then you are Golden. However, this army can be comprised of just about 'anyone' that goes out or wants to be seen; any loser who just wants to belong or be part of a larger group, not necessarily smart or having individual thought. In reality, this then negates any credibility in the main person that has the army, since their soldiers are a reflection of them. But nobody ever sees it like that. This is what people are missing, this is what everyone forgets. Its not how popular you are that counts, its the quality of your army that is important, not the size of it. People in this town always seem to forget that...

WHO CARES ABOUT POP ART, come up with something new and different already....

2009-08-13T23:21:00.000-07:00

It seems that everywhere you look these days, in the art world, everyone who is trying to be 'cool' and 'in the now' and 'trendy' and 'accepted' is basing their art on the foundation of 60s POP Art. Most young artists paint/draw/create 'characters' or 'Icons' that are easily recognizable. Cartoon art. Graphic art. Fucken T-SHIRT ART, for christ sake. I say, get over it. It was cool back in the 60s when Warhol and Lichtenstein, etc, created it. But now it comes off as you people just being LAZY. Thinking that you can just jump on the bandwagon and make up some dumb character or some hip/trendy graphic image/icon and put it on T-Shirts and that you're an artist. Call yourself what you will, but don't forget about the rest of us who just see you as pathetic talentless hacks, trying to fit in. Go have your 'Gallery Show' at some trendy bar or club and just see who of credibility, reverence and importance shows up. It may be packed, but its not the size of your army, it's the people in it. Try working with Oils, a palette knife and a live model. That takes effort, time and talent. It's not art if you can make it by pressing a button(sorry Warhol, although you would have loved this concept, it's the young trendsters that have now ruined all your original thoughts and ideas). I hope I have insulted everyone who's young and thinks they're gonna be the next Shep. And I don't care in the least if no one ever reads this.

The Death of a disco DJ....

2009-02-24T10:59:00.000-08:00

I wrote this a few weeks ago while I was DJing at the Beauty Bar on a Friday night, and came to a conclusion that my generation is dying. A sad and ugly death. Anyways, here is the scanned original note I wrote.

"WITHOUT SUFFERING, TRUE HAPPINESS WOULD NOT BE KNOWN."

2009-02-03T15:52:00.000-08:00

Uhh....that's all I wanted to say. -Apollo Staar

Total Depravity - from the Doctrine of Calvinism.

2008-12-15T14:41:00.000-08:00

I don't expect most of my readers to read this entire entry, since many of you already have your own beliefs about religion, etc. and see little or no importance in alternative belief systems. However, this is simply a journal entry to ENLIGHTEN those of you who may be interested in expanding their traditional thinking in to realizing other beliefs that are off the beaten path, so to say.
The following passage is a basic explanation of the term TOTAL DEPRAVITY simply taken from online sources, and below that are more in-depth and thorough explanations of this belief system.
- Apollo Staar

Total depravity (also called total inability and total corruption) is a theological doctrine that derives from the Augustinian concepts of original sin. It is also advocated to various degrees by many Protestant confessions of faith and catechisms, including those of Lutheranism, and Methodism, Arminianism, and Calvinism. It is the teaching that, as a consequence of the Fall of Man, every person born into the world is enslaved to the service of sin and, apart from the efficacious or prevenient grace of God, is utterly unable to choose to follow God or choose to accept salvation as it is freely offered.

Total depravity is the fallen state of man as a result of Original Sin. The doctrine of total depravity asserts that people are by nature not inclined to love God wholly with heart, mind, and strength, as God requires, but rather all are inclined to serve their own interests over those of their neighbor and to reject the rule of God. Even religion and philanthropy are destructive to the extent that these originate from a human imagination, passions, and will. Therefore, in Reformed Theology, God must predestine individuals into salvation since man is incapable of choosing God.

Total depravity does not mean, however, that people are as evil as possible. Rather, it means that even the good which a person may intend is faulty in its premise, false in its motive, and weak in its implementation; and there is no mere refinement of natural capacities that can correct this condition. Thus, even acts of generosity and altruism are in fact egoist acts in disguise.

Nonetheless, the doctrine teaches optimism concerning God's love for what he has made and God's ability to accomplish the ultimate good that he intends for his creation. In particular, in the process of salvation, God overcomes man's inability with his divine grace and enables men and women to choose to follow him, though the precise means of this overcoming varies between the theological systems. The differences between the solutions to the problem of total depravity revolve around the relation between divine grace and human free will – namely, whether it is efficacious grace that human free will cannot resist, as in Augustinism, or sufficient or prevenient grace enabling the human will to choose to follow God, as in Molinism and Arminianism.

More on TOTAL DEPRAVITY:
(taken from The Five Points of Calvinism)

II. What Is Meant by Total Depravity?

This depravity, Scripture and our Confessions teach us, is total.

Before we enter into a more detailed description of that, I must call your attention to some distinctions that have been made and have become increasingly popular. These distinctions are evidently intended to soften the truth of total depravity. There is, e.g., the distinction which is sometimes made between total depravity and absolute depravity. This distinction is intended to mean that while man is totally depraved, he is not absolutely depraved. The following quotation will serve to elucidate what is meant by this distinction. (It is taken from The Banner and is found in an article which is explaining the Canons of Dordt, especially Canons III & IV, Article 4.)

The result of the fall is total depravity or corruption. By this is meant that every part of man is rendered corrupt. The Canons say that man "became involved in blindness of mind, horrible darkness, vanity, perverseness of judgment; became wicked, rebellious, obdurate in heart and will and impure in his affection." There was no part of his nature that was not affected by sin. The word "total" must not be taken in the absolute sense as though man is completely depraved. Man is not as bad as he can be. Article 4, which we hope to consider more fully later in this series, speaks of "glimmerings of natural light which remain in man since the fall." God does restrain the working of sin in the life of man on earth. And sinful man still has a sense of right and wrong. His corruption is total in the sense that there is no part of his being that is pure and holy; and the good he does is done for God and for His glory.

In this quotation the distinction is made between total depravity and absolute depravity. Total depravity means that man is depraved in every part of his being. But while he is depraved in every part of his being, at the same time there remain in every part of his being remnants of good. Absolute depravity means that every part of his being is wholly bad. This distinction therefore is intended precisely to leave room for some good which man is able to perform. And this good is particularly the good of accepting with his will the offer of the gospel. That is precisely what our Canons do not mean by total depravity.

Another distinction which is oftentimes made is a distinction between the inward motive of the heart and the outward deed. There are some who maintain that, while indeed man is, as far as his nature is concerned, depraved, nevertheless, as far as his outward deeds are concerned, he is still capable of a considerable amount of good. He can perform works that are externally in harmony with the law of God. He doesn't live a totally adulterous life. He doesn't go around shooting his fellow man with a gun - every man he meets on the street. He is capable of conforming his life and conduct in an external manner to the law of God and of performing a great deal of good even though within he is corrupt.

That too is something which our fathers did not mean. They spoke of total depravity. And indeed they meant that man is just as bad as he can be. And this is what Scripture teaches.

There is another distinction which is made between what is called spiritual good and natural good. The quotation above also suggests this distinction. By spiritual good is meant good which is a possible basis for salvation. It is a tentative step in the direction of heaven. These insist that, while man is indeed incapable of such spiritual good, nevertheless he is definitely capable of natural good. By natural good is meant something very much like external goodness which is an external conformity to the law of God. Those who maintain this will point to the world in which we live where much of this natural goodness is to be found.

All of these distinctions, in one way or another, are intended to soften the hardness of the doctrine of total depravity.

When Calvin and the fathers of Dordt insisted that depravity was total, they knew what words mean. And they knew that "total" means precisely that. They intended that the expression "total depravity" be a description of what Scripture calls "death". The sinner is dead; spiritually dead. He comes into this world from his mother a spiritual still-born. He is not sick. He is not afflicted with a malady or a disease no matter how fatal. He is dead. And this is the emphatic teaching of Scripture. Always the Scriptures insist that the sinner is dead.

What does this mean?

This means that his nature is so thoroughly corrupted by sin that it is incapable of producing anything good. There is nothing which the sinner can do which is pleasing in the sight of God. His heart is dead. Does not Solomon say, "Out of the heart are all the issues of life?" Prov.4:23. Yet the heart, the source of all man's life, is dead. Man's mind is dead. It is so darkened by sin that man cannot with his mind know any spiritual good. He can, of course, in a formal sense understand the truth. When a wicked man reads the Scriptures, he can understand what words mean. He can understand the thoughts in these words. This is not the point. But his mind is so thoroughly darkened that every time he sees the truth concerning God he hates it and turns against it. He rebels against its clear teaching. He pushes it away from him. So true is this that Jesus tells Nicodemus (John 3:3): "Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God." His mind is so filled with the darkness of the lie that there is no room for the truth in it.

The same is true of man's will. The bondage of the will describes man's state precisely. His will is bound - bound by sin. Man cannot even will the good. The sinner does not, but also cannot will the good. This is his nature. He is dead. Can a dead man think? Can a dead man will? Can a dead man give evidence of life? The spiritually dead man is incapable of any spiritual good.

This is what our Canons express in III & IV, Article 1:

Man was originally formed after the Image of God. His understanding was adorned with a true and saving knowledge of his Creator, and of spiritual things; his heart and will were upright; all his affections pure; and the whole man was holy; but revolting from God by the instigation of the devil, and abusing the freedom of his own will, he forfeited these excellent gifts; and on the contrary entailed on himself blindness of mind, horrible darkness, vanity and perverseness of judgment, became wicked, rebellious, and obdurate in heart and will, and impure in his affections.

I cannot think of a worse description of man than that. You object perhaps, and say: "Yes, but the Canons also speak of glimmerings of natural light." This is true. They speak of glimmerings of natural light whereby man retains some knowledge of God, of natural things, and of the differences between good and evil. These glimmerings give man some regard for virtue, for good order in society, and for maintaining an orderly external deportment.

But two points must be made in this connection.

In the first place, when God brought death upon man as the punishment for sin, God did not make man a devil. God did not make man an animal either. Man remained man. And this is what our Canons mean. He was totally depraved; but he was emphatically a totally depraved man. It is sometimes objected that if God had not preserved some remnants of good in man, man would have become a demon or a beast. This is absurd. Man would not have become a demon or a beast if some elements of goodness were not preserved in him. He was created a man. As a man God punishes him. As a man God drives him out of His world. As a man God puts him in hell. But he remains a man. This is what the Canons mean.

In the second place, the Canons explain themselves what these glimmerings of natural light are; and the Canons in the same article (III & IV, 4) show clearly that they do not mean that man is still good.

But so far is this light of nature from being sufficient to bring him to a saving knowledge of God, and to true conversion, that he is incapable of using it aright even in things natural and civil. Nay further, this light, such as it is, man in various ways renders wholly polluted, and holds it in unrighteousness, by doing which he becomes inexcusable before God.

This is the sorry picture of man which our Canons make as they defend the truth of total depravity. And the point is then that if man's nature is dead, one cannot expect that out of that dead nature there will proceed good works. How is this possible? Can a dead man do good? natural good? external good? good by whatever name it is called? Can a rotten tree bring forth good fruit? Can an impure and foul fountain bring forth sweet water? Can a dead corpse bring forth life? If man's nature is depraved, not simply in all of its parts, but in such a way that each part is thoroughly corrupt, then there is no good at all which man can perform in any sense of the word which is pleasing in the sight of God, He cannot do natural good. He cannot do spiritual good. He cannot do civil good. He cannot conform his nature to the law of God. He cannot will his salvation. He is bound hopelessly in the shackles of sin.

Nor must some good he found among the heathen. It is often pictured in our day as if the heathen earnestly crave to be delivered from their idols; earnestly long to escape from the shackles of dark heathendom. And, so it is told us, they would indeed serve the true God if only they knew Who He was. They wait in eager anticipation for someone to tell them about the true God, about Christ, because all their yearnings are in the direction of the true religion. And so it is that when the gospel is preached, this gospel brings to them words which they have long desired to hear; and which now they readily embrace.

But all this can never be. We must not soften the harsh sentence of Scripture. Man is totally depraved. In him is to be found no good thing.

I suppose there are some who would object to all this and insist: "Yes, but when I go out and observe the conduct of my fellow man, I observe something quite contrary to what you say. I see in the world a great deal of love--love between man and wife; love between parents and children; love of man for man. There is a great deal of compassion, philanthropy, desire to help one another in the world of the wicked. There are marvelous accomplishments, which stagger the imagination, on the frontiers of science, technology, and industry. There are wonders of healing performed in medicine. What mighty deeds man can perform! What great things he is capable of! Are not you being unduly harsh? Is not your sentence unjust? Are not you closing your eyes to obvious realities which surround you? Go into the world and you will find that your judgment of man is too severe."

What must we say of this?

There are three points which need to be made.

In the first place, we must be reminded of what was said in the very introduction. We are not formulating the truth of total depravity on the basis of observation. If we do, we shall fail. We must not pay attention to the sentence of man pronounced upon man. We must rather listen to the Word of God -- God's sentence upon man. God Who knows the heart. We have one calling, and that is to bow before the Word of God. And God says that man is dead.

In the second place, we must say something about these apparent good deeds.

That problem, strikingly enough, arose already at the time of Augustine. There were those who objected to Augustine's doctrine on the same ground. But Augustine made this very pointed comment: the apparent good which men do is the result of the fact that, in their lives, one kind of lust represses and restrains another kind. He used the example of a man whose whole life is dominated by the lust for money. Such a man is so completely absorbed in acquiring to himself an abundance of material things that this lust is dominant, all-encompassing in his life. It is a completely driving force which banishes all other lusts. In the pursuit of gain, he foregoes all other pleasures. He does not want to squander his money in gluttony, drunkenness, riotous living. He eats sparingly and drinks in moderation. He does not waste his precious hoard of silver and gold in an adulterous life. He thinks this foolish, for he seeks money for its own sake. This is the explanation for the apparent good which men do. One lust restrains another. This was Augustine's answer. And this is true.

Can you call these things the man does "good"? Can you call it good when a man foregoes the pleasures of adultery in order to accumulate for himself greater riches of gold? Is this good in the sight of God? Of course not. The same is true of the so-called apparent philanthropy of men and their many works of mercy. The one driving force in man's life is his lust for honor and recognition. Sin is pride. And man is always attempting to exalt himself before the eyes of his fellow man. In this lustful, dominating drive for honor and fame he is willing to spread his largesse abroad. He is willing to share his riches with his fellow men in order that they may praise him and he may hear, ringing in his ears, the acclaim of those with whom he lives. Is this good? How can it be?

In the broader sense of the word, this is true of the entire history of this sorry world. When God created Adam in Paradise, God set Adam in the midst of this beautiful world only that Adam might love his God with all his heart and mind and soul and strength. He was given the world to glorify his Maker. This was the sole reason for his existence. But Adam refused and bent his ear to the devil. He listened to the devil's whisperings: "You shall be as God, knowing good and evil." Adam took the side of the devil. But it was the devil's purpose -- his unwavering purpose to drive God from His throne and steal this world from God. He enlisted the aid of man to accomplish this. Sin means therefore (from this point of view), that man who stands on the side of the devil, is driven in all that he does to pursue the evil goal of making this world the kingdom of Satan. This determines everything. This is what sin is all about. It is hatred of God. It is rebellion against the Most High. And it is, therefore, a desperate, undying attempt on the part of man to seize this world in which he has been placed and make it his own; to drive God out of His world; to depose Christ from His throne; to make this universe subservient to the cause of sin. And, in order to accomplish that goal, he is willing to bend every effort at his disposal. He is willing to use every means available. And if he must, in the pursuit of this goal, forego for a little while certain other pleasures in order to accomplish this, he is willing to do it. He knows then that if government is not instituted to make laws and enforce them, anarchy will prevail. And anarchy will prevent him from attaining his goals. And so he not only makes laws, but also conforms his life to them. That is, he will do this as long as is necessary to drive God out of His world. Just as soon as he believes he can safely escape the fury of God's wrath, the consequences of sin, he will do as he pleases. He will sit back in his pride and say: "The world is mine. God is gone. I can do as I please -- sin all I want. There is no need any more of bearing sin's consequences. God is banished from His throne." Everything man does, therefore, (all this apparent good) is determined by this overriding desire. He may stand on the frontiers of space. He may make marvelous inventions in the fields of science. But it is because he is engaged in a desperate struggle to wrench this world from the hands of the Creator. He will not rest until that goal is reached. This is the deepest principle of his life. This is why all the human race's sin culminates at last in that man of sin, the Son of Perdition, Antichrist. In Antichrist he thinks he has attained his goal.

Indeed man's depravity is total.

III. What Is The Importance Of This Doctrine?

There are two remarks which we must make by way of conclusion.

In the first place, the importance of this doctrine is theological.

This means two things.

First of all, the truth of total depravity is not an isolated doctrine. It is closely connected to and interwoven with the other four points of Calvinism. And because this is true, this doctrine is closely connected with the whole truth of Scripture. It is with good reason that our beautiful Heidelberg Catechism begins its entire discussion of the truth with the significant statement of total depravity:

Are we then so corrupt that we are wholly incapable of doing any good, and inclined to all wickedness?

Indeed we are; except we are regenerated by the Spirit of God.

It is on this foundation that the Catechism erects the whole structure of the truth. The truth of total depravity is part of the whole truth of Scripture. If this truth is denied, softened, vitiated in any respect, it becomes impossible to preserve any of the truth of God's Word. Historically this has proved true. And this lies in the nature of the case. And so this is true also of the five points of Calvinism. A denial of total depravity leads to a denial of sovereign grace. This in turn leads to a denial of limited atonement and unconditional election. And the preservation of the saints necessarily falls by the wayside. This cannot be demonstrated in detail in this chapter. This shall be amply made clear in the chapters to follow. But it ought to be clear that if man is not totally depraved, then grace cannot possibly be sovereign. To the extent that he is not totally depraved, he is capable of doing good. And to that extent he is capable of participating in the work of salvation. And to that extent grace is not sovereign at all. The two truths stand or fall together. And so it is with the whole of the truth.

Secondly, all this means (and this is most serious) that the truth of total depravity is the only truth which preserves intact the glory of God. To the extent that good is ascribed to man, glory is taken away from the only adorable God. To the extent that man is said to be other than the awful sentence of Scripture. God is no more the glorious sovereign and holy God of heaven and earth.

And this brings us to the last point. This truth is also important as far as the life of the child of God is concerned.

The doctrine of total depravity is not cold and abstract dogma. It is the living confession of the people of God. But even that confession is not something which they make of themselves. It is the fruit of grace. For characteristic of the sinner is that he exalts himself in pride, haughtiness and arrogance. In his frightening conceit he refuses to admit his total depravity and boasts of his own goodness before the face of the Most High. But when the shining light of God's holiness and the sovereign power of grace penetrates into the heart of God's elect child, and he sees himself standing exposed before the face of Him Who searches the hearts, then he hears thundering in his ears the awful sentence of Scripture. He sees himself as worthless, corrupt, depraved, incapable of doing any good. And the words of the saints of all ages ring in his own heart: "Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me." "God be merciful to me, a sinner." "Oh, wretched man that I am. Who shall deliver me from the body of this death?"

This is the living confession of the child of God. And when that confession grips his soul and he sees himself as he truly is, as God's Word describes him, then, with tear-filled eyes, he can also see the cross. Only then. For in the consciousness of sin he can see the wonder, the power of the cross; the mercy and grace revealed there; the infinite splendor and love of God manifested in that blood-spattered tree. And seeing this, he sees the wonder of sovereign grace; and from his heart arises a doxology of praise and glory to God - the God of his salvation.

If you are read this sentence, I imagine you got through the whole entry. I thank you for your interest, patience and insightfulness in now knowing something more than you did 15 minutes ago.
-Apollo

Ignorance....

2008-12-10T14:09:00.000-08:00

Self ignorance is bliss.....Others' ignorance is simply stupidity.

EVENING OUTING: 'Shell Shocked' - German Expressionism after the Great War @ LACMA - Ahmanson Bldg., Los Angeles

2008-12-02T10:23:00.000-08:00

Incredible.
Simply incredible.
You should really see this if you get a chance.
I say no more.

"As I grow older, as each passing day comes to a end, as each moon falls deep into the sea at the dawning of a new day, I feel my tastes changing. Long gone are the days of admiring what is the colourful pure surface. I now find myself studying the textures of the surface, rather than seeing it as a whole. I find beauty in the subtle nuances that create the texture and composition of even the smallest area of each work. How the lines are formed, the patterns left by the brush strokes, the varying degrees of thickness formed by layers upon layers of paste-like oil paint, and the complex thoughts and feeling that went through the minds of the artists when such creations were brought to life, these are the things that I now see as art. Beauty is finding fallen-off twisted brush hairs sticking out of the paint."
-Apollo Staar

Art in Review: GIRLS OF THE SS - Military Fetish Photography @ Ultrastar Gallery, Los Angeles

2008-11-25T13:14:00.000-08:00

Saturday, November 22nd, 2008
"GIRLS OF THE SS"
Group Photography Show
Ultrastar Gallery

Photographers:
Steve Diet-Goedde
Apollo Staar
Chad Michael Ward
Dan Santoni
and Fetish Paintings by Anna P. Sutton

The show was a total success, in that the right people were exposed to the right art for them, and my Gallery didn't get completely trashed!

This was a group photography show by 4(Federico Zignani wasn't able to show at the last minute) local Fashion/Fetish photographers, including myself. Chad Michael Ward's work is very Photoshop heavy in that he uses the program as a tool to manipulate his pictures to an almost dreamlike surrealist painting, rather than just for touch-ups. His pictures were mainly portrait style shot of models faces and heads done with a military twist. Steve Diet-Goedde is also a well known photographer who has also had several books published on his fetish photography. His style is more of like a quick peek-a-boo into the lives of his subjects, with distinctly choosing what to show the viewer thru medium shots rather than just all wide portrait shots. His ability to crop in camera works nicely with his overall message. Dan Santoni is a master at special effects, lighting and costume design. Most of his work for this show consisted of the models positioned in front of various explosive backgrounds that perfectly fit the look of his models. I especially liked how much work seemed to be put into his wardrobe and composition.
Then lastly is my work. I can't really review my work personally without readers probably feeling that I have a biased opinion. So, all I will say is that I was pleasantly happy with the last minute custom framing and the overall look and muted colour of my pieces. I had found these vintage gold leafed guilded frames at this second hand shoppe and then decided that I wanted all my photographs displayed in them. I purposely brought down the color saturation in my work so that the photos would have a vintage quality to them and lend themselves perfect for the vintage frames. The overall effect was that they looked like they belonged on the walls of a Chateau in the south of France. I thought they ended up being pretty cool.

Here's a shot of me in front of some of my photographs that were hanging that night.

Here are a few video clips that I shot during the show, showing the overall manic state of affairs that nite.

Part I.

Part II.

How the bathroom looked at the end of the night...and yes, that is an Original John Eastman from 1976 hanging up on the wall of my Tiffanys bathroom.

Must See Video: The Mysterious Explorations of Jasper Morello

2008-11-19T12:08:00.000-08:00

Nominated for an Oscar and for a BAFTA award, Jasper Morello is a short feature made in a unique style of silhouette animation developed by director Anthony Lucas and inspired by the work of authors Edgar Alan Poe and Jules Verne. In the frontier city of Carpathia, Jasper Morello discovers that his former adversary Doctor Claude Belgon has returned from the grave. When Claude reveals that he knows the location of the ancient city of Alto Mea where the secrets of life have been discovered, Jasper cannot resist the temptation to bring his own dead wife Amelia back. But they are captured by Armand Forgette, leader of the radical Horizontalist anti-technology movement, who is determined to reanimate his terrorist father Vasco. As lightning energises the arcane machineries of life in the floating castle of Alto Mea, Jasper must choose between having his beloved restored or seeing the government of Gothia destroyed. Set in a world of iron dirigibles and steam powered computers, this gothic horror mystery tells the story of Jasper Morello, a disgraced aerial navigator who flees his Plague-ridden home on a desperate voyage to redeem himself.

NEW PAINTINGS- Saint Sid, Jim Carrol, Lydia Lunch, Iggy and Blondie

2008-11-09T11:28:00.000-08:00

A few pics of new paintings that I am finishing up.

The Iggy and Blondie is not finished.

BLOODFEAST: An Homage to 60s & 70s Sexploitation posters.

2008-11-08T16:02:00.000-08:00

ART INSTALLATION at The Thought Gallery

Gallery Installation and new Paintings by Apollo Staar with Lily Marlene.
On view from Oct. 24th, 2008 thru late November.
The Thought Gallery
1621 N. Cahuenga Blvd.
Hollywood, CA. 90068
8:30pm-11:30pm. nightly.

Apollo and Lily Marlene create an Installation with paintings at the Thought Gallery, Hollywood.

"We wanted to create a perfect environment for the paintings to hang in, rather than just plain white walls. So we took a section of the Gallery and painted it reminiscent to what a 'movie-screen' Castle scene would've looked like in the late 60s if you were watching an exploitation picture. I was inspired by Z-Man Barzells' mansion in Russ Meyer's 'Beyond the Valley of the Dolls' and a few Argento and Bava films from the 70s."
- Apollo Staar

THE PAINTINGS by Apollo Staar
(Detailed close-ups can be seen at apollostaar.com)

Celebrating the naivete and decadent lifestyle of the Adult Industry in the 1960s and 70s, painter Apollo Staar, has created a new series of paintings that pay tribute to the exploitative adult film posters from that era. Combining bold colors and eye-catching headlines with images from classic Hollywood Movie Monsters, these paintings capture the essence of the times and add a new take on Horror films gone “Adult”.

Each painting is entirely made by hand from inception to completion. From the personal choosing of the Douglas Fir panels that form the base, to the entire graphic and color layout of the paintings, to the multi-stage coating procedure of the final finished painting. Each painting background is first hand cut and sanded, the backing is then nailed and glued on, then double primed and then coated in black acrylic paint. The layout and colour scheme are then selected and go thru a variety of different assemblages until a perfect layout is chosen. The layering of the painting then begins. Finally, a Polymer Resin is used as a final coat and archivally seals the paintings. Each painting is an Original work.

This collection is a series of 8 original paintings which can be purchased individually or as an entire limited collection.

The following is a short clip of the finished installation along with a few of the other installations. Digi-video shot by Apollo Staar.

not my best picture.....

2008-11-07T12:28:00.000-08:00

but a reader wanted a candid snap.

photo by Lily Marlene.

ALBUM COVER SHOOT - Lily Marlene

2008-11-04T10:38:00.001-08:00

A few months ago I did a shoot for the album cover of the new collection of musical work by Lily Marlene. Here is the final outside cover and inside cover artwork. Album available soon.

check out her music here:
http://www.myspace.com/lilymarlenepage

Cover

Inside cover

ART OPENING: Photography by PAUL ZONE-NY Underground '72-'77

2008-11-03T10:53:00.000-08:00

I know this is a few months old, but it was a really great Photo exhibit that definitely merits being posted up, showcasing people who were important in shaping the New York Underground Punk/New Wave/Music movement in the early to mid-70s. Photographer Paul Zone was just a kid when he shot these incredible pictures.

Here are a few snapshots from the opening that night, July 12, 2008, at the Darkroom Gallery in the Atwater district of Los Angeles.

Paul Zone and I.

(L to R.) Vinny Stilleto, Julia 'Lady J' Gerard, Sirius Trixon, Lily Marlene, Apollo Staar.

We were all wearing pointly shoes. See if you can match up the show with the person. hint: I was the one wearing the Chelsea Boots.

Here is a short video clip I shot at the opening.

What struck me the most from the photographs were the candid moments of rare authentic emotions that Paul Zone captured. Most of the photographs reveal a very personal and intimate side of each of the subjects, as opposed to just shots of them posing and posturing onstage.
-Apollo

PREDICTION: McCAIN WILL WIN DUE TO SOME POLLING SCREW-UP...

2008-11-03T09:56:00.000-08:00

Although I hope it DOESN'T happen...

-----
First of all, its pretty obvious that Obama SHOULD win since he's up in ALL OF THE POLES in the last couple of weeks and McCain is losing ground, Faster and Faster.

HOWEVER, I predict that by some technical foul-up, McCain will win by some polling screw up at the last second. You'll see.

IF THIS HAPPENS, then its totally clear that WE THE PEOPLE really have NO SAY in the voting process, and it will be apparent that it is completely run by the Gov't/bug business/dominant global corporations and the only reason that the polling institution exists is so that we the people FEEL that we have a say and don't RIOT across the Nation due to the result, since "WE" chose the president. The Go'vt will ultimately choose the president, but then will blame us, the people, if something fucks up.

watch McCain Win due to a technical Snafu:
-It has already started in Los Angeles.
Apparently there are not enough Ballots to meet the demand for the turnout of voters this year. They are already predicting it.

That would be a perfect excuse for the Republican Campaign to use for a McCain Win. I predict that something like this will happen across the Nation.

And/or

Somehow, all the votes that were put in due to voting early (Before Nov. 4th) OR that were put in as an absentee vote, somehow their vote will not be legit OR not counted because of some screw-up. Its already happened before.

And/or

There will be SOME discrepency with the voting results that will somehow land McCain in Office.

I don't know what it will be, but I predict that SOMEHOW he will land in office, at the last second. Some Bullshit 'Swing' state decision.

THESE ARE JUST MY PERSONAL PREDICTIONS.
I WILL NOT RESPOND TO ANY RESPONSES, AS THESE ARE SIMPLY JUST PRESONAL THOUGHTS.
I'M JUST THROWING THIS OUT THERE.

AND I HOPE THAT I AM DEATHLY WRONG.

McCain having a private moment in the bathroom.

HALLOWEEN 2008 - ON THE STREET IN LOS ANGELES

2008-11-02T14:01:00.000-08:00

As per a suggestion from my friend Vanessa, I was dressed up as a dark David Copperfield, the character from the Dickens novel.

Nobody got it. Not one person. They laughed at me, pointed at me and called me Willie Wonka and had never heard of Dickens, the author.

I'm done in this world.

...although, a slight chuckle silently escaped my breath, in knowing I stood alone in a sea of the ignorant.

picture coming soon.

MY ARGUMENT AGAINST THE WRETCHED WORD "CELEBRITY"...

2008-10-16T19:00:00.000-07:00

Yes, I'm quite aware.
Its just a word.
...just a word....
this I know...
But in reality.....its more.
What it represents by today's standards.
What it translates to.
What is connected with it.
What it means in this town.

Years ago, the word was once associated with Glamour, Class, Respect, and especially TALENT.
Primarily in the film/acting world.

We now live in a time where that is only a memory of the past.
A very distant past.
The word 'Celebrity' is no longer defined by these adjectives.
In fact, the word 'Celebrity' is now almost infinite in its definition.
Thanks to the Media's exploitative promotional machine of everything sensational and 'Newsworthy', 'Celebrities' constitute the majority of the way money moves in this Nation.

Since they exist only because they are 'liked' and are 'popular' to the masses, this makes them a commodity. The Media as well as other business and marketing sources see this and use 'Celebrity' to peddle their wares.

They believe that the Public are 'Cattle', who will do, moreover, BUY, anything that is endorsed by 'Celebrity'. The 'Celebrity' gets what they want; money and admiration to feed their insatiably insecure egos, and the companies get what they crave, the selling of their product, bringing them up the corporate ladder so they can afford more weekend hooker getaways.

This is known as a never-ending 'slave circle' that is fueled by the 'Celebrities' addiction to fame and recognition, and the public's pavlovian need for feeding on 'Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous', thus giving the 'Celebrity' what they crave and so on and so forth.

On the outside of the circle are various entities that try to get a piece of the action by using the 'slave-circle' to their benefit.
The Media.
Corporations.
Magazines.
Clothing companies.
Nightclubs.
its everywhere.
and it won't ever stop.

We are a doomed society that is increasingly becoming more af a POLICE STATE, manipulated soley by what generates product consumption.

Before I go off on that tangent let me just finish by going back to my original aim of focus which was basically stating how I do not believe in the word 'Celebrity' in the nausea inducingl days of today.

In todays sensationalized reality-star-based society, that word is meaningless.

'Celebrity' (se leb're te) n. 1.Recognized 2.Acknowledgement. 3.Identified. 4.Acceptance. 5.Approved. 6.Deception. 7.Trickery. 8.Counterfeit, falsefied. 9.Charlatan. 10.Colloq flimflam 11.Hoax 12.Fraud 13.Duplicitous 14.Guileful 15.Artifice.

The term is now attached to anyone that is void of talent, but who happens to attract media attention. Evident in the insurmountable number of reality-based television shows where the 'stars' of the show receive as much, if not more, attention than actual Film Actors who have studied their craft for years.(Although, much of whom's talent is debatable).
Nontheless, these so-called 'Celebrities' have diluted the strain of what is true 'Celebrity'(non-existant by todays standards) and what is media fodder.

Maybe you already know this all.
Maybe you feed into it.
Maybe you don't care.

I guess I just had to express it since it really makes me sick to my stomach.

more to come...i have to run.

No More Fucking DJs.......PLEASE.

2008-10-07T10:31:00.000-07:00

This is a message to all pathetic Hipster, Scenester, sideways trucker/designer fake wearing, long scroungy hair-over-the-face, pink/turquoise/yellow hoodied wearing, oversize fringe-y scarfy thing donning, tight pants-a-wearin', undersize graphic T-shirt sportin', headphone around neck 24/7, spineless young people who don't know what real music is, and who are just part of a pack to feel like they belong, are under 24 and don't know who Kraftwerk is, and who couldn't give two shits about being original...... (if this is you and you're OVER 24....GROW UP, get a sensible fashion sense and a decent haircut...I'm sure everyone you hang out with thinks you're the gross lecherous old dude hanging around)

To be fair, this concerns FASHION only....I don't know who these people are when they take off the silly costumes.

After 10 long years in the City of Hollywood, California, I am officially retiring from DJing and hosting parties and going to bars/clubs.
My life now has new meaning, and the past 10 years have done NOTHING for me other than to help my social life, get me laid, and hinder my original focus, if I can even remember what that was.

I simply can-not go on anymore.
Not in this world.

I am a dying breed.
Everything that I consider worthy of my interest is now being pushed into the closet and deemed 'for old people'.
To make room for the new, the media obsessed, the trend hungry youth, the herds of insecure Television Zombies who feed off of needing to feel worthy by others; or by anyone for that matter.

It nauseates me to go to work.
Even the thought of having to go into a bar makes me feel sick to my stomach.
It starts at my photo studio, before I even get ready.
Just thinking about it.
First the subtle butterflies in the pit.
Then the tightening in the throat.
The lump at the bottom that slowly begins to crawl up.
wanting to escape.
My mouth starts to feel 'extra wet'.
Its not fun.
Just at the thought of having to be in the same proximity as the legions of ignorant celebrity-obsessed, trend mongers.
Him with his short hair, graphic printed Ed Hardy T-shirt, sensible shoes and a glimmer in his eye in hopes of getting laid at the end of the night.
And her with her $400 spandex skirt, white platform open-toe stripper shoes, 40 volume bleached split-end hair, botox injected flesh mask, and facial expression that screams "Please lust after me..".
With this thought, a few drops of bile come into my mouth from down below.

I am repulsed when I hear requests for any "music" that's widely available.
ANYTHING that is played on the Radio.
Rap, Hip Hop, Top 40, and especially that trendy indie hipster shit; MGMT, Cold War Kids, The Knife, Crystal Castles, The White Stripes, etc, etc, etc;
Simply created as an alternative to the mainstream, but is really nothing more than a hypocritical recipe itself since it was a formula for the 'Indie kids', to begin with.

Formulaic sounds, arranged in a fashion that has found success in the vast wasteland that is our consumerism.
That is the literal definition of 'music' for the masses.
Not for me.
I would never ever ever want to be part of the masses, or belong to anything that is part of a larger group.

I can't stand the concept of a "DJ".
Why would I want to subject myself to what some self-imposed 'Cool guy' deems as what's 'Cool' and 'Hip' and 'should be listened to'.
I have my own taste. I know what I like. And I respect close friends for introducing me to music that they think I may enjoy.

Why should I find enjoyment in someone else's musical taste?
Am I not self assured in what I enjoy musically?
Do I need to be subjected to what is considered 'good music' by the ignorant masses, that are led by the media, who are being dictated by the Record Labels, who are being ruled by their Corporate Revenues and who are ultimately ruled by Napoleonic individuals who have a need to 'acquire' material things?

No thanks.
Let me wallow in my own unpopular tastes.
Let me stay at home, listening to music of my choice, drinking top shelf cocktails without having to tip.
Let me be able to decide who comes over, who doesn't, and who gets kicked out when I'm done with it all and ready to retire.
At least let me be the Gov't of my own country, the real one is unreal.

-A.S.

So, one gray hair says to the other...

2008-10-02T15:50:00.000-07:00

In 57 hours it will be the day of my birth.
Another year has come and gone. This last one with a renewed sense of purpose.
To sink or to swim.
Undoubtedly with sharks.

How many back Birthdays can you remember?
I gauge my troubled memory by thinking of what significant other I was sharing my time with. What kind of cake I had. Who was my company. And what dive bar I was in.

Every year seems shorter and shorter than the one before.
Either I'm busier every year, or my memory is getting spotty.
And I make no apologies for not remembering people who I've met a thousand times. The ones that leave an impression are golden.

I know I'm maturing when I see gray hairs in my nose.
That's nature telling you soon you'll either become a legend or be completely forgotten in time.
There's no in-between for me.

I wish the gray would stay on my head.
Coarse, silvery, thick and sometimes kinky.
They're lovely up on top. and different. Every one has its own story.
I snuck on the train hoping not to get caught.
I don't have all the rent money this month.
My body is in ill health and I have no insurance.
Every one is a result of an experience.
I can't wait until my entire head is covered. The whiter and more wirey the better.

Sometimes I read under very low light, wishing my eyes would go bad so that I could wear glasses. So I could squint when I read in public, only to open up my glasses case, pull out my chamois swatch and clean and carress the glass lenses before putting them upon my face.

I think I am in love with the process of getting old.
I find myself napping alot, reading alot of books I deemed "uncool" when I was young, and enjoying the simple comforts of a well cushioned cabseat and a cashmere cardigan.

Making a cup of tea, has never been more gratifying.
Scooping the loose leaves into a stainless steel strainer, finding the right thickness of a tea cup so that it enhances the experience of the first sip when your lips touch the warmth of the cup and the hot of the tea.
Finding the right combination of steep time, milkfat, and tea leaf.

I find myself more and more in comfort shoppes rather than clothing shoppes. Looking tirelessly at thread counts and pillow tags. Relentless in my pursuit of the perfect ingredients.
Contrary to popular belief, the higher the thread count, the coarser the sheet, not the softer the sheet.
400 TC is just about right. Anymore, and your sleeping with a oversized sheet of starched sandpaper.

But what I love the best is coming to the realization that I simply don't give a shit about having to prove myself to anyone. I've never been accepted by the majority and I've never wanted to be. I always felt comfort in knowing that the majority sucks and that the minority is always the cool one since they've had to fight to survive.

Looking over hundreds and hundreds of photographs from the past 15 years of my life of hosting events and parties, bearing witness to the happy expressions of all the drunk and cockeyed people in the pictures, that I used to know, makes me feel that I have contributed something to society. At least a few dozen memorable nausea inducing hangovers, I would hope.

At least a momentary sanctuary. A slice of time where bliss was experienced.
Now just a faded memory, attached to a slight chuckle.

Getting old is fun.
I can be crabby and a bitch for no reason.
and that is accepted.

I've lived through the best years that this society had to offer and I'm content and done.
There is nothing more for my satisfaction, other than knowing that I inspired someone to do something.

There is no more hope left, other than what we find in an addiction. In a bottle. In a pack of smokes. In a schoolgirl crush.
A momentary ecstasy. Not forgotten.

The world is now geared for the young. And the very old up at the top holding the strings. Anyone in between must find satisfaction in the little things, as we have no real power of positive change anymore.
I find interest only in events and experiences that celebrate the past. The new is not for me.

I find satisfaction in my solitude. I am proudly alone in my world.
There will be a time where I will come out of my cave, perched atop the mountain and look down upon the people and say to myself, "I, too, was once one of them, but then I cut my strings with my teeth..."

UPDATE (Oct. 8th)
So last nite we celebrated my 54th Birthday. My peers took me to The Magic Castle, for Dinner and a few Magic Shows. Here are a few pictures leaving the studio and then at the end of the nite since they don't allow pictures inside the actual Castle.

Leaving the Photo studio on route to the castle.

With my peers, chums and immortal brood. At the end of the night.

With Lily, and the car.

I love to live in squalor.

METROLINK DERAILMENT: Not Human Error after all...

2008-09-20T17:29:00.000-07:00

On Friday September 12, 2008, a Metrolink commuter train with 222 people aboard crashed into a freight train in Chatsworth, CA after one engineer failed to yield at a red light. 25 people were repotedly killed and hundreds injured.
The Media has now reported that the train conductor was TEXT MESSAGING seconds before the head-on collision.

THIS IS NOT TRUE.

The purpose of the Media in this Nation is to keep the people at bay, satisfied, and 'informed'. It is not in the best interest of the Media to report ANYTHING that would possibly disrupt this veil of deception. The Government works in conjunction with the Media to keep the American People a group of un-challenging followers with elementary ideals that satisfy them. This is the reason that the Media pushes issues of surface importance such as 'Celebrity Interest' onto the public. It fails to push legitimate issues that directly affect the people, primarily because, we as a people, have NO SAY in politics or policies anymore. The fate of this Country is now determined by what is financially best for the top people, companies and institutions that run the Country, which now happens to be Large Corporations, the Media, the Government, and the wealthiest 5% in the US Nation as well as the top 5% in other wealthy Nations worldwide that the US does trade with.

There are simple reasons the Media is blaming the train operator for the collision. First off, it is easiest to pass the blame on 'Human Error' rather than to question the safety of the entire Metrolink System. Secondly, the operator is now deceased. Thus, there is no possible way of him/her contradicting and/or appealing this report. Thirdly, if the real reason of the collision was revealed, that being a horrendously faulty safety system in the entire Metrolink railway, the Nation would immediately be in a state of panic at the disclosure of the mediocre safety procedures and would be deathly afraid of stepping foot in any one of the trains. This would cause massive financial losses for State of California and may even cause the system to go into bankruptcy.
So, in an effort to keep everything in order, the Nation deems it much easier to blame this accident on human error and maybe have to pay out a few hundred thousand to the families of the deceased rather than jeopardize the entire loss of the Metrolink system.

This may seem far fetched to many who read this, but if you really think hard about what is fed to the people by the Media(the Nations obsession with celebrity culture, reality shows that promote idiotic behaviour and puff television that feeds on the fantasies of wealth by the middle and lower class), you will grasp the concept that we as a people have no power anymore. Yes, we may have independent leaders and thinkers(who the Media portrays as 'Radicals') who challenge Govermental policy, but the truth is that we are not in control at all. The Gov't doesn't mind these people as long as they don't change the mentality of too many people resulting in upheaval. The Gov't sees these people as 'petty' and laughs at knowing the only permanent change that these people will have is a place in our History Books.

The Government may grant the people a few liberties attempting to make them believe that they are doing what's best for the people, but the reality is that we are nothing more than simple pawns who while simply surviving are indirectly supporting and ultimately fattening the ones at the top who make the decisions. The Media is the Governments kitchen and the people of the Nation are the hungry mouths who just want to be satisfied. They'll take anything, including a having a weakness for .39 cent cheeseburgers from the largest food corporation in the WORLD.

MUST SEE VIDEO-BLACK LEATHER BLITZ by MAD 3

2008-09-11T10:38:00.000-07:00

This is a video by the Japanese Rock band MAD 3. As you will see, there are numerous references and homages to Kenneth Angers 1964 underground film, 'Scorpio Rising' and 'Kustom Kar Kommandos'.

LucyintheSkywithDiamonds-Psychedelic 60s

2008-09-07T16:43:00.001-07:00

Here's a short film made at the time of the height of Psychedelics in the late 60s. Do yourself a favour and go ingest some hallucinogen inducing substance.

CONTEMPORARY URBAN ART-THE DUMBING OF A NATION

2008-09-04T19:20:00.000-07:00

I just watched this video from The Knife, 'We Share Our Mothers Health', directed by Motomichi Nakamura, and realized that the only way to actually get thru to the young generation in this nation is to ONLY USE ICONS AND GRAPHIC LOGOS THAT THEY CAN RECOGNIZE. This goes waaaay beyond even the elementary MTV Generation, because at least they were creative. Today EVERYTHING that is Art/Music/Media Based that wants recognition and admiration by young people has dumbed itself down expressly to be understandable to the young people. They are so uneducated, sophmoric, dumb and lazy that they can only recognize symbols and icons.

This theory also encompasses EVERYTHING that is 'graphic' based, recognizable and spewed out by Artists and Musicians of todays generation. It has all boiled down to "What can we use, that is immediately recognizable by the moral majority, to get our statement across? How can we influence a nation of people with the littlest effort possible?" This has also crossed over into the definition of the word 'Famous'. Famous can now be substituted for the word 'Recognized'. Try it. It works perfect by todays standards.

What ever happenend to having something sacred and only catering to the few people that we respect for their intelligence and integrity? I guess you have to pay your rent somehow.

Here's the Video:

P.S. I think 'The Knife' are pathetic retards that were designed especially to cater to insecure, easily-influenced, indie kids that don't know ANYTHING about ANYTHING, other than how to use their sidekicks. Plus they're from 'Sweden'. How special. After all, to them, its hip to like anything Euro and non-american.

COREY HAIM: Ex-Teen Iconoclast or Shameless Drug Urchin

2008-08-30T16:50:00.000-07:00

Urban Legend says that if Corey Haims head where to be split open, that his brain, now in a state of permanent decomposition, could easily be substituted for Oatmeal. With Nut topping.

Everyone knows that ex-teen idol, Corey Haim, has a HUGE drug problem(his favourite pill combo is 10 valium ten mg, 10 vicodin extra strength and 15 somas) which has destroyed his acting career as well as permanently damaged his brain to where he has incomprehensible speech. Its beautiful to watch. The following video is a clip I found online. The footage includes clips of his E! Entertainment interview where he was in the midst of a pill-fueled stupor where he seems to be speaking in tongues.

Watch and enjoy.

The following clip is a short promo video that Haim made and put together himself, shortly after the botched E! Television interview, to dispell any rumours that he is a total nut job and has fallen off the deep end. If anything, this video confirms his non-existent grasp of reality and lack of sanity.

Video Highlights: His keyboard playing sounds like it should be the soundtrack to an 80s version of the "Howdy Doody Show".

PLASTIC SURGERY MASTERPIECES or Where did I leave my nose?

2008-08-28T11:00:00.000-07:00

The following pics are examples of very insecure egos, or just having mentally scrambled eggs or plain nut jobs. But each is a Masterpiece in their own right!

A name synonymous with 'plastic surgery gone mental', Jocelyn has spent over US$4 million on recreating her face. Money well spent I say. She's a beauty.

kiss kiss! The perma-tanned fashion guru is proud of her appearance and makes no apologies for her many surgeries. I wouldn't either, look at what a FOX she now is!

Original Charlie's Angel Farrah rocks a Michael Jackson-inspired beak these days.

Once a poverty-stricken young boy, Lepore's countless surgeries have made her one of the world's most famous transexuals. All comments aside, I think she's pretty fucken rad. YouTube her if you get a chance. I saw her perform once and it was funny as all hell. In a good way.

Aging actor Burt isn't going to let gravity get in the way of a killer jawline. I heard he has had several penile enlargements and shaping as well, due to his rumored disfigured organ. If you have pics, send them my way.

At 74 years of age, the outspoken

talk show host has successfully removed every line on her face! Any resemblance to a rotton smashed Halloween pumpkin is purely coincidental.

Once married to Liza Minnelli, we hear David is now single - go get him, ladies and gentlemen!

Italian socialite Michaela is only in her early 30s, yet manages quite a 'mature' look, don't you think?

Once the hunky singer of 80's pop group Dead Or Alive, 48-year-old Pete Burns is now an impressive work of art.

What scary celeb gallery is complete without a shot of the Queen of Pop herself, Michelle Jackson.

Rumoured to be the inspiration for Michael Jackson's plastic surgery, legendary singer Diana's putting forward a pretty freaky face herself these days.

Don't smile, Wayne! You'll crack in half.

soap star Leslie is famous for inspiring the term 'trout pout' after a collagen implant gone wrong. p.s. She played the hot mod girl 'Steph' in Quadrophenia in 1979. What the fuck happenend?

Jackie's surgically-enhanced face makes her just as scary-looking as her steroid-addicted disaster son Sylvester.

Ex-teen dreamboat Patrick was once a swoonsome movie hunk. Now, he's just permanently startled with a look that emotes a stick up his ass.

Alternative Young Hipster Tattoo porn fuck shit- or some thoughts on those lame websites

2008-08-26T10:27:00.000-07:00

"Being naked for Sui**de Girls is empowering to ALL women. Just look at how many guys are drooling over us!!"--Starla Suicide, 18 years old, member of Sui**de Girls and resident Rocket Scientist.

"I am a conceptualist and an artist. I don't have anything bad to say about about those CHEESY PHOTOGS from Suicide Girls, Gods Girls, Burning Angel, Razor Dolls, and all the rest of that amateur hipster porn other than I don't consider that talent or art. It isn't even CLOSE to being anything I would consider of worth. Its just a by-product of the media, fueled by young 'alternative' people who feel a need to 'belong' to a group they think is alternative. Too bad they're missing the entire point of being 'alternative' and 'underground'. Get a clue, you're not really underground or alternative when you're spreading your pink to the greater Global public. Are you that insecure that you need the acceptance from this nation of TV Zombies that worship Jeffree Starr, shop at Hot Topic, and think that Blink 182 and Green Day are PuNk RoCk? What little pathetic miserable lives they lead. But whatever, someone's got to entertain us and keep us laughing and letting us steal 'alt' porn to send out to everyone we know on the web." Thanks for that, actually....

P.S. This was actually a little post I had up on my Model Mayhem profile to ward off cheesy so-called models that think what they're doing is actually modeling. Due to the overwhelming amount of junk mail I received from these people bitching about the post and rationalizing what they do as 'art' and 'being creative' and how they should be taken seriously, I finally removed it since I was receiving between 10-30 messages a day. and I couldn't be bothered anymore, eventhough I was highly amused at the messages from these people and how they took themselves so fucking seriously. The last laugh was on them, since I forwarded their messages (for publication purposes) to every 'National Lampoon' type satirical and parody based website I could fine. hahaha...

'In My Time of Dying' by A.S.

2008-08-25T11:44:00.001-07:00

I eat.
I drink.
I piss.
I shit.
I fuck.
not necessarily in that order.
These are the majority of things that constitute my life.

Some others piss.
some eat.
some shit.
some screw too.

Some even do these simultaneously.
eating and screwing.
shitting and pissing.

some people even eat and shit.

these people entertain me.
since some people say, 'don't eat where you shit'.
I find amusement in it.
some people say I am easily amused.
these people are clearly the ones eating and shitting.

people are creatures of habit.

they eat.
then they shit.
they drink.
then they piss.
they kiss.
then they fuck.

they fuck.
then they sleep.

its a cycle.

everybody does it.
nobody can stop doing it.

its ok.

its simply something that is done.

I do it.
they do it.
we all do it.

we all have to do it.
whether we want to or not.

eating, drinking, pissing, shitting, fucking, screwing and sleeping.

L'Chaim....!!

NIKOLA TESLA: HIGH VOLTAGE GENIUS

2008-08-25T10:17:00.000-07:00

The following is a short boigraphy on Nikola Tesla, the founder of modern electricity and regarded by some as the 'Father of Physics'.

NIKOLA TESLA

(b. July 9/10, 1856, Smiljan, Croatia--d. Jan. 7, 1943, New York City),

Serbian-American inventor and researcher who discovered the rotating magnetic field, the basis of most alternating-current machinery. He emigrated to the United States in 1884 and sold the patent rights to his system of alternating-current dynamos, transformers, and motors to George Westinghouse the following year. In 1891 he invented the Tesla coil, an induction coil widely used in radio technology.

Tesla was from a family of Serbian origin. His father was an Orthodox priest; his mother was unschooled but highly intelligent. A dreamer with a poetic touch, as he matured Tesla added to these earlier qualities those of self-discipline and a desire for precision.

Training for an engineering career, he attended the Technical University at Graz, Austria, and the University of Prague. At Graz he first saw the Gramme dynamo, which operated as a generator and, when reversed, became an electric motor, and he conceived a way to use alternating current to advantage. Later, at Budapest, he visualized the principle of the rotating magnetic field and developed plans for an induction motor that would become his first step toward the successful utilization of alternating current. In 1882 Tesla went to work in Paris for the Continental Edison Company, and, while on assignment to Strassburg in 1883, he constructed, in after-work hours, his first induction motor. Tesla sailed for America in 1884, arriving in New York, with four cents in his pocket, a few of his own poems, and calculations for a flying machine. He first found employment with Thomas Edison, but the two inventors were far apart in background and methods, and their separation was inevitable.

In May 1885, George Westinghouse, head of the Westinghouse Electric Company in Pittsburgh, bought the patent rights to Tesla's polyphase system of alternating-current dynamos, transformers, and motors. The transaction precipitated a titanic power struggle between Edison's direct-current systems and the Tesla-Westinghouse alternating-current approach, which eventually won out.

Tesla soon established his own laboratory, where his inventive mind could be given free rein. He experimented with shadowgraphs similar to those that later were to be used by Wilhelm Röntgen when he discovered X-rays in 1895. Tesla's countless experiments included work on a carbon button lamp, on the power of electrical resonance, and on various types of lighting.

Tesla gave exhibitions in his laboratory in which he lighted lamps without wires by allowing electricity to flow through his body, to allay fears of alternating current. He was often invited to lecture at home and abroad. The Tesla coil, which he invented in 1891, is widely used today in radio and television sets and other electronic equipment. That year also marked the date of Tesla's United States citizenship.

Westinghouse used Tesla's system to light the World's Columbian Exposition at Chicago in 1893. His success was a factor in winning him the contract to install the first power machinery at Niagara Falls, which bore Tesla's name and patent numbers. The project carried power to Buffalo by 1896.

In 1898 Tesla announced his invention of a teleautomatic boat guided by remote control. When skepticism was voiced, Tesla proved his claims for it before a crowd in Madison Square Garden.

In Colorado Springs, Colo., where he stayed from May 1899 until early 1900, Tesla made what he regarded as his most important discovery-- terrestrial stationary waves. By this discovery he proved that the Earth could be used as a conductor and would be as responsive as a tuning fork to electrical vibrations of a certain frequency. He also lighted 200 lamps without wires from a distance of 25 miles (40 kilometres) and created man-made lightning, producing flashes measuring 135 feet (41 metres). At one time he was certain he had received signals from another planet in his Colorado laboratory, a claim that was met with derision in some scientific journals.

Returning to New York in 1900, Tesla began construction on Long Island of a wireless world broadcasting tower, with $150,000 capital from the American financier J. Pierpont Morgan. Tesla claimed he secured the loan by assigning 51 percent of his patent rights of telephony and telegraphy to Morgan. He expected to provide worldwide communication and to furnish facilities for sending pictures, messages, weather warnings, and stock reports. The project was abandoned because of a financial panic, labour troubles, and Morgan's withdrawal of support. It was Tesla's greatest defeat.

Tesla's work then shifted to turbines and other projects. Because of a lack of funds, his ideas remained in his notebooks, which are still examined by engineers for unexploited clues. In 1915 he was severely disappointed when a report that he and Edison were to share the Nobel Prize proved erroneous. Tesla was the recipient of the Edison Medal in 1917, the highest honour that the American Institute of Electrical Engineers could bestow.

Tesla allowed himself only a few close friends. Among them were the writers Robert Underwood Johnson, Mark Twain, and Francis Marion Crawford. He was quite impractical in financial matters and an eccentric, driven by compulsions and a progressive germ phobia. But he had a way of intuitively sensing hidden scientific secrets and employing his inventive talent to prove his hypotheses. Tesla was a godsend to reporters who sought sensational copy but a problem to editors who were uncertain how seriously his futuristic prophecies should be regarded. Caustic criticism greeted his speculations concerning communication with other planets, his assertions that he could split the Earth like an apple, and his claim of having invented a death ray capable of destroying 10,000 airplanes at a distance of 250 miles (400 kilometres).

After Tesla's death the custodian of alien property impounded his trunks, which held his papers, his diplomas and other honours, his letters, and his laboratory notes. These were eventually inherited by Tesla's nephew, Sava Kosanovich, and later housed in the Nikola Tesla Museum in Belgrade. Hundreds filed into New York City's Cathedral of St. John the Divine for his funeral services, and a flood of messages acknowledged the loss of a great genius. Three Nobel Prize recipients addressed their tribute to "one of the outstanding intellects of the world who paved the way for many of the technological developments of modern times." (I.W.H.)

TIMELINE:

1856 – He was born on the 10th day of July of this year in Smiljan, Military Frontier, Austrian Empire. His baptism certificate reports that he was born on June 28, 1856, and christened by the Serbian Orthodox priest Toma Oklobdžija. His father was Rev. Milutin Tesla, a priest in the Serbian Orthodox Church Metropolitanate of Sremski Karlovci. His mother was uka Mandi, herself a daughter of a Serbian Orthodox Church priest.

1862 - His family moved to Gospi in this year. Tesla went to school in Karlovac. He finished a four year term in the span of three years

1875 - Tesla then studied electrical engineering at the Austrian Polytechnic in Graz. While there, he studied the uses of alternating current. Some sources say he received Baccalaureate degrees from the university at Graz.

1880 - Tesla was later persuaded by his father to attend the Charles-Ferdinand University in Prague, which he attended for the summer term of 1880. However after his father died he left the university, only completing one term.

1881 – He moved to Budapest, Hungary, to work under Tivadar Puskás in a telegraph company, the National Telephone Company. There, he met Nebojša Petrovi, a young inventor from Austria. Although their encounter was brief, they did work on a project together using twin turbines to create continual power. On the opening of the telephone exchange in Budapest, Tesla became the chief electrician to the company, and was later engineer for the country's first telephone system.

1882 – He moved to Paris, France to work as an engineer for the Continental Edison Company, designing improvements to electric equipment. In the same year, Tesla conceived of the induction motor and began developing various devices that use rotating magnetic fields for which he received patents in 1888.

1884 - On the 6th day of June of this year, Tesla first arrived in the US in New York City. He had little besides a letter of recommendation from Charles Batchelor, his manager in his previous job.

1886 – He formed his own company, Tesla Electric Light & Manufacturing. The initial financial investors disagreed with Tesla on his plan for an alternating current motor and eventually relieved him of his duties at the company. Tesla worked in New York as a common laborer from 1886 to 1887 to feed himself and raise capital for his next project.

1887 – He constructed the initial brushless alternating current induction motor, which he demonstrated to the American Institute of Electrical Engineers (now IEEE) in 1888. In the same year, he developed the principles of his Tesla coil and began working with George Westinghouse at Westinghouse Electric & Manufacturing Company's Pittsburgh labs.

1887 - Tesla began investigating what would later be called X-rays using his own single node vacuum tubes (similar to his patent #514,170 ). This device differed from other early X-ray tubes in that they had no target electrode.

1891 – He became a naturalized citizen of the United States at the age of 35. Tesla established his 35 South Fifth Avenue laboratory in New York during this same year. Later, Tesla would establish his Houston Street laboratory in New York at 46 E. Houston Street.

1892 - Tesla served, from this year to 1894, as the vice president of the American Institute of Electrical Engineers, the forerunner (along with the Institute of Radio Engineers) of the modern-day IEEE.

1893 - From this year to 1895, he investigated high frequency alternating currents. After his demonstration of wireless communication in this year and after being the victor in the "War of Currents", he was widely respected as America's greatest electrical engineer.

1899 – He decided to move and began research in Colorado Springs, Colorado, where he would have room for his high-voltage, high-frequency experiments. Upon his arrival, he told reporters that he was conducting wireless telegraphy experiments transmitting signals from Pikes Peak to Paris.

1900 – With $150,000 (51% from J. Pierpont Morgan), Tesla began planning the Wardenclyffe Tower facility.

1902 - In June of this year, Tesla's lab operations were moved to Wardenclyffe from Houston Street. The tower was finally dismantled for scrap during World War 1. Newspapers of the time labeled Wardenclyffe "Tesla's million-dollar folly."

1904 - The US Patent Office reversed its decision and awarded Guglielmo Marconi the patent for radio, and Tesla began his fight to re-acquire the radio patent. On his 50th birthday in 1906, Tesla demonstrated his 200 hp (150 kW) 16,000-rpm bladeless turbine.

1910 - During 1910–1911 at the Waterside Power Station in New York, several of his bladeless turbine engines were tested at 100–5000 hp.

1915 – He filed a lawsuit against Marconi attempting, unsuccessfully, to obtain a court injunction against the claims of Marconi. After Wardenclyffe, Tesla built the Telefunken Wireless Station in Sayville, Long Island. Some of what he wanted to achieve at Wardenclyffe was accomplished with the Telefunken Wireless.

1917 – The facility was seized and torn down by the Marines, because it was suspected that German spies could use it.

1916 – He was awarded with an Edison Medal this year.

1943 – He died on the 7th day of January of this year. 1943, the Supreme Court of the United States credited him as being the inventor of the radio. Many of his achievements have been used, with some controversy, to support various pseudosciences, UFO theories and new age occultism.

DESTINATION: Desolation

2008-08-22T17:38:00.000-07:00

This is a short clip of downtown LA, while I was walking down 7th st. towards Maple on a Sunday at dusk in mid march. The desolation and emptiness was breathtaking.

"The downtown streets and sidewalks are more alive when there are no humans trampling over their faces. They become living, breathing testaments to times now forgotten, only remembered by the derelicts who have been there for years, bottles in hand, pissing in the dark corners, adding that certain downtown 'Musk' that tickles our sinuses, wandering barefoot, massaging the concrete squares and rivers of pavement that constitute this land. The deco buildings are the jaded elders who have seen it all come and go. They have bared witness to the weak sons and daughters, destroyed, only to make room for the new strong son-in-laws. The true beauty of loneliness and alienation lies in this one single potato chip bag. Floating endlessly thru the streets. Stopping momentarily to kiss the ground and pay homage to the desolate city streets that are the very foundation for city existence." -Apollo Staar

WOMANIZING VIRTUOSO: NICOLO PAGANINI

2008-08-22T11:11:00.000-07:00

Nicolò Paganini (1782-1840)

Nicolo Paganini was born in Genoa, Italy, Oct 27, 1782. He was one of six children born to Teresa and Antonio Paganini. He was an Italian violinist and a composer, considered by many as the greatest of all time.

He received music lessons from his father before he was 6 years old and later from the best instructors in Genoa. He began to perform in public and composed his first sonata in 1790. In 1795 he went to Parma, Italy to study but the teachers there told him they could do nothing more for him. He then commenced on a course of self-training so rigorous that he often played 15 hours a day. In 1797 he started his concert tours, which for many years consisted of triumph after triumph. From 1805 to 1808 he was the court solo violinist at Lucca, appointed by Napoleon’s sister Elisa Bacciocchi. In 1809 Nicolo became a free-lance soloist performing his own music. He performed concerts throughout Italy.

In early 1828 Nicolo began a six and half year tour that started in Vienna and ended in Paris in September 1834. During the two and half year period from August 1828 to February, 1831 he visited some 40 cities in Germany, Bohemia, and Poland. Performances in Vienna, Paris, and London were hailed widely, and his tour in 1832 through England and Scotland made him wealthy.

His playing of tender passages was so beautiful that his audiences often burst into tears, and yet, he could perform with such force and velocity that at Vienna one listener became half crazed and declared that for some days that he had seen the Devil helping the violinist.

Paganini's signature violin, Il Cannone fabricated in 1742 by Giuseppe Antonio Guarnieri del Gesù, was his favourite. He named it "The Cannon" because of the powerful and explosive resonance he was able to produce from it. Its strings are nearly on the same plane, as opposed to most violins, the strings of which are distinctly arched to prevent accidentally bowing extra strings. The stringing of Il Cannone may have allowed Paganini to play on three or even four strings . Il Cannone is now in the hands of the City of Genoa, where it is exhibited in the town hall. It is taken out and played by its curator once monthly, and periodically loaned out to virtuosi of today.

Once his fame was established, Paganini’s life was a mixture of triumphs and personal excesses. He earned large sums of money but he indulged recklessly in gambling and other forms of dissipation. On one occasion he was forced to pawn his violin. Having requested the loan of a violin from a wealthy French merchant so that he could fulfill an engagement, he was given a Guarnerius violin by the merchant and later refused to take it back when the concert was over. It was Paganini’s treasure and was bequeathed to the people of Genoa by the violinist and is still carefully preserved in that city

Paganini’s genius as a player overshadows his work as a composer. He wrote much of his music for his own performances, music so difficult that it was commonly thought that he entered into a pack with the Devil. His compositions included 24 caprices (published in 1820) for unaccompanied violin that are among the most difficult works ever written for the instrument. He also challenged musicians with such compositions as his 12 sonatas for violin and guitar; 6 violin concerti; and 6 quartets for violin, viola, cello, and guitar.

According to Philip Sandblom in his book Creativity and Disease few geniuses have experienced such lucky agonies as Paganini, bedeviled by a host of chronic complaints, including Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, marked by excessive flexibility of the joints. “This enabled Paganini to perform the astonishing double-stoppings and roulades for which he was famous”, Sandblom writes. “His wrist was so loose that he could move and twist it in all directions. Although his hand was not disproportional he could thus double its reach and play in the first three positions without shifting.”

It is well known that Paganini rarely practiced after his 30^th birthday. Those who were closely associated with him used to marvel at his brilliant technique and watched him closely to discover how he retained it.

In performance Paganini enjoyed playing tricks, like tuning one of his strings a semitone high, or playing the majority of a piece on one string after breaking the other three. He astounded audiences with techniques that included harmonics, double stops, pizzicato with the left as well as the right hand, and near impossible fingerings and bowings.

Antonia Bianchi, a singer who toured with Nicolo in 1825, bore him a son, Cyrus Alexander on July 23, 1825. Although they were never married, he did lavish affection on his son for the rest of his life.

Known for years as an incorrigible womanizer and incurable gambler, he unsuccessfully attempted to open a gambling casino in Paris in 1838. Later he moved to Marseilles and then to Nice, France.

His health deteriorated due to mercury poisoning by the mercury compound used at that time to treat syphilis. The disease caused him to lose the ability to play violin, and he retired in ca.1834. He died of throat cancer in Nice on 27 May, 1840.

LILY MARLENE - by Apollo Staar (c) 2008

2008-08-19T00:41:00.000-07:00

Here is a quick pic from a shoot I did last nite at my studio of musician Lily Marlene from 'The Grown-Ups' and 'Lily and the Ladies'.

KIM FOWLEY AT DON BOLLES B-DAY PARTY

2008-08-18T14:58:00.000-07:00

On July, 29th, Don Bolles(ex-drummer of the Germs) had his B-day party at his club 'Ding-a-ling'. Ding-a-ling is a real dive bar. About the size of a Japanese businessmens hotel room, a dinky bar that serves only 2 kinds of bottled beer and a popcorn machine from the 60s that still pops corn that they give out for free on paper napkins, if you ask politely. There's a ton of underground people that look like they crawled into a cave back in 1977 and crawled out tonite for this event.

Fancy Space People performed, Prickle DJ'd, Howie Pyro was there and Kim Fowley did this impromptu performance, ad-libbing lyrics to songs that were made up on the spot. It was pretty impressive. I've always heard that he was outspoken and a loudmouth. He wasn't that loud, but he was pretty outspoken, engaging the audience with bizarre offbeat questions about their sexuality. Then in the middle of his spoken performance, he looked at me, pointed and then said, 'That guy has cool hair.'

Here's me, Lily and the 'hair'.

EX-TEEN IDOL COMMITS SUICIDE: JONATHON BRANDIS

2008-08-16T18:26:00.000-07:00

This is a little old, as it happenend in 2003, but I still found it interesting that a young star who had everything committed suicide partly because of his loneliness. And they say its lonely at the bottom....

Teen idol Jonathan Brandis dies at 27

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Jonathan Brandis, who from an early age appeared in a string of roles on television, commercials and film, including the starring role in 1991's The Neverending Story 2: The Next Chapter and two seasons on Steven Spielberg's SeaQuest DSV, has died. He was 27

The county coroner's office is investigating the Nov. 12 death, which was reported by the Los Angeles Police Department as a possible suicide, Lt. Ed Winter of the coroner's Investigations Bureau said Thursday.
The coroner performed an autopsy but the cause of death will not be announced until the results of blood and toxicology tests are returned. The investigation could take as long as four to six weeks.
Police said a friend of Brandis called 911 from the actor's apartment just before midnight on Nov. 11 to report Brandis had attempted suicide. Paramedics transported Brandis to Cedars-Sinai Medical, but he died the next day, police Detective Gene Parshall said. The office of Brandis' agent at Innovative Artists refused to comment.

Brandis started his career in commercials and on television, landing a recurring role on the soap One Life to Live at age six. After moving with his family to Los Angeles at age nine, he made guest appearances on such shows as L.A. Law, Who's the Boss? and Murder, She Wrote. Other film credits included the Rodney Dangerfield comedy, and the martial arts comedy Sidekicks with Chuck Norris, and a small part in the 2002 film Hart's War, starring Bruce Willis. Brandis also starred as crew member Lucas Wolenczek in the underwater sci-fi series SeaQuest DSV, a role that garnered him a Young Artists Award in 1993 and helped turn him into a teen idol.

DEATH:
On November 12, 2003, Brandis died from injuries he suffered after brutally hanging himself. He was 27 years old. The Los Angeles Police Department released a statement regarding his death:On November 11, at about 11:40 p.m., a friend of Jonathan Brandis called police to report that the actor had attempted suicide at his apartment, located in the 600 block of Detroit Avenue. Paramedics from the Los Angeles Fire department responded and transported Brandis to Cedars Sinai Medical Center where he eventually died from his injuries. Brandis' death was announced by hospital staff on November 12, 2003, at about 2:45 p.m.

Brandis did not leave a suicide note, although friends were quoted as saying he was extremely lonely and severely depressed about his lagging career. One friend admitted that Brandis drank very heavily, and had even mentioned that he might kill himself. He was also said to be upset when his appearance in Hart's War, a role he hoped would be his big comeback, was cut from the film.

TEEN ANGST IN MY PANTS: RARE TRAILERS FROM SOME FILMS OF NOTE

2008-08-15T11:48:00.000-07:00

Here are a few trailers from some rare films that I personally suggest you watch, even if you're not into Punk music. The brash reality and candor of these films is a refreshing change from the contemporary fecal matter that the studios have been putting out. Most of these are available to see FULL LENGTH on you tube, if you don't mind lousy resolution, otherwise rent, buy or steal these wherever you see them.

QUADROPHENIA (dir. Franc Roddam 1979) Now available on region 1 DVD.
*HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.
Director Franc Roddam has brought us an array of young British acting talents who bring back London's nineteen-sixties Mods and Rockers. Set against the soundtrack of The Who's 1973 mighty concept album "Quadrophenia", Phil Daniels plays working-class Jimmy, the drug-induced Mod, who hates his job and is misunderstood by his parents. But by night, he comes alive, with the all-nighters, his pills and his scooter-riding friends. Always on a high, life can't get any better. Then there's the Brighton scooter run, where both Mods and Rockers converge, ending in the battle of the cults on Brighton Beach. What goes up must come down, and with Jimmy's come-down, his life is turned around, and so begins his downward spiral into paranoia and isolation, and the four-faceted mindset: Quadrophenia. With its extremely realistic language, violent overtones and classic sixties soundtrack, this illness is bound to be contagious. Come along for the ride.

SCUM (Dir. Alan Clarke 1979)
This is the hard and shocking story of life in a British Borstal for young offenders. Luckily the regime has changed since this film was made. The brutal regime made no attempt to reform or improve the inmates and actively encouraged a power struggle between the 'tough' new inmate and the 'old hands'. The film was originally made as a BBC play but it was banned before ever being shown. So 'Alan Clarke' and 'Roy Minton' got it re-made as a film. This is a tough and brutal film and should not be viewed lightly.

MEANTIME (Dir. Mike Leigh 1984)(TV)
An odd film, primarily looking at how the dole affects the underclass in Britain. Tim Roth(screen debut) stars as Colin, a slow and possibly retarded man living with his parents and brother in a housing project. He and his sarcastic manipulative brother(Phil Daniels from Quadrophenia) still behave like teenagers, living with their parents, harassing each other. The problem is that they are in their late teens or twenties. Neighborhood characters include Hayley, a young woman with a crush on Colin, and Coxy (Gary Oldman) a violent local skinhead who befriends Colin. Trouble ensues when their wealthy aunt gives Colin a job and his brother becomes jealous.
Since I couldn't find the proper trailer, this is the first part(of 11 on YouTube) to give you a taste of the flavor of the film.

DOA (Dir. by Lech Kowalski 1980)
Since I couldn't track down the actual trailer, this is actually the first part of the film that I found on You Tube.
I HIGHLY recommend this documentary on the early Punk scene. It has interviews from everyone who was part of the scene.
A brash, captivating documentary of punk music on and off stage. Focus is on the first U.S. tour (1978) of the Sex Pistols. Other groups shown are Dead Boys, Generation X (with Billy Idol), Rich Kids, X-Ray Specs, Sham 69, with additional music from The Clash, Iggy Pop and Augustus Pablo. Includes famous interview of Sid and Nancy in bed.

THE PUNK ROCK MOVIE (Dir. Don Letts 1978)
A revealing look into the bands comprising the 1978 London punk-rock scene, and a peek back-stage at the lives behind the facade. Includes performances and interviews by Sex Pistols, Siouxsie and the Banshees, Eater, Wayne County, Billy Idol, Debbie Juvenile, Steven Severin, Joe Strummer, Johnny Thunders and other concurrent bands.

DECLINE OF THE WESTERN CIVILIZATION I (Dir. Penelope Spheeris 1981)
A documentary on the Los Angeles Punk scene filmed from December 1979 through May 1980)
This is an all-time classic. Everyone should see this at least once.

MADE IN BRITAIN (Dir. Alan Clarke 1982)(TV)
This is not so much a trailer(since I couldn't find it) But rather scenes cut together showcasing a bit of the film, set to The Expolited.
Synopsis:
The film follows a short period in the life of the 16 year old skinhead Trevor.Starting with a court appearance Trevor moves to an assessment centre where he continues to rant against authority.Refusing to sign the "contract" he goes on a trail of violent destruction in the job centre and on the streets of London.After a rampage on asian homes and ending up ramming into a police car outside a police station he finally ends up at his social workers home and gives himself up.The final confrontation with authority leaves no doubt that he is doomed to spend his life in jail at the mercy of authority.A docu style piece at 76 minutes this made for tv film introduces Tim Roth as an exeptional talent who went on to a great career .

SUBURBIA (Dir. Penelope Spheeris 1984)
When household tensions and a sense of worthlessness overcome Evan, he finds escape when he clings with the orphans of a throw-away society. The runaways hold on to each other like a family until a tragedy tears them apart.

SLAUGHTERHOUSE 6 - Hipsters.

2008-08-14T15:50:00.000-07:00

Living in Los Angeles makes me feel like I'm captive in a PoW camp of faux fashionistas.

After much thought and comparison, I've come to the conclusion that silverlake(et al) Hipsters are simply just the Hippies of today. Back in the 60s, the hippies represented a new voice of the people, presented new ideas, and offered alternative ways of living, but in reality were unorganized drug addicts and came off like annoying pests to Americas working class. Like the hippys, many of todays hipsters are uneducated, lazy, and simply just part of the movement to gain a sense of 'belonging' to a trend without really knowing what they're preaching and advocating. Hipsters are the new hippys.

To all Hipsters: "PLEASE overdose on your designer drugs of the moment and make room for people who actually have Backbones. Put to rest your stupid hair, annoying clicks, florescent clothes and graphic lowbrow T's that you think are 'fashion', and American Apparel Hoodies and dumb bandanas. You are all nothing more than the media's by-product and answer to their undying need to peddle consumer corporate goods to. You're not proving to anyone that you're creative or even an individual by existing, but simply adding refuse to our disposable society.

Young people today make me wanna choke on my own feces. They are all ignorant POSEURS and formula followers. If I see or hear one more self-righteous Bimbo, Guido, Hipster, Scenester, 'Mall' Punk, Ebonic spewing wannabe 'rapper', or any smug 'film/photo/model industry' brat/poseur, I swear I'm gonna fucking shit myself. First off, I'm an ANTI-hipster/scenester. I loathe all the ridiculous ignorant poseurs who wear tight jeans and white belts/boots, have shag/long fringe haircuts, think they are part of the 'indie' band or music scene, live in impoverished areas like silverlake and echo park and think its cool to have no money(truth is they are just lazy), who love Wes Anderson(totally overrated) movies and think the film JUNO represents their culture, have nose piercings, and who desperately, no-matter-what-it-takes, feel a need to be accepted in the los angeles 'Hipster/Scenester/Indie scene.

They scream.."PLEASE ACCEPT ME!! PLEASE LET ME BE PART OF YOUR SCENE!!...I WILL DO ANYTHING TO GET THE RECOGNITION AND ACCEPTANCE THAT I THINK WILL MAKE ME COOL" They know nothing about the history of what they profess to be into, and are nothing more than uneducated, shallow, spineless invertebrates with only a strong desire to follow in the herd, like cattle to the slaughter. And they will be slaughtered. For all I care, they can nurse on the tit of my anus."

(BTW, Dov, the owner of American Apparel, is currently in lawsuits with 38 young, underage female AA employees who filed sexual harassment charges against him. They are being represented by civil Rights attorney, Gloria Allred. Apparently when he(Dov) hires female employees, he expects them to fuck him in his office at his whim. It is an unwritten agreement. When they refuse, they are let go) ..what a stand up guy.....

Genius or Madman: ANTONIN ARTAUD

2008-08-14T15:30:00.000-07:00

ANTONIN Artaud's name is associated with a fundamental revolt against insincerity, and especially against insincerity in literature, where the written word corresponds to an attitude or a prejudice. His most cherished dream was to found a new kind of theatre in French which would be, not an artistic spectacle, but a communion between spectators and actors. As in primitive societies it would be a theatre of magic, a mass participation in which the entire culture would find its vitality and its truest expression. In January 1947, a year before his death, Artaud gave a lecture in Paris, in Copeau's old theater, the Vieux-Colombier. Among those present, and mingled with a youthful, fervent audience, were such writers as Gide, Breton, Michaux, and Camus. Artaud symbolized for all the generations in his audience an exceptional fidelity to a very great belief, a life devoted to a cause and an unflinching persistence in extolling the cause.

He was born in Marseille and spent his childhood in Provence and Smyrna. He studied in Marseille. At the age of eighteen, he was briefly cared for in a sanitorium for mental disorder. There were other attacks in 1916. In 1918 he went to a clinic for two years. In 1921 he acted for Lugné-Poë at the Théâtre de l'Oeuvre and for Dullin at the Atelier. He was engaged by Pitoëff in 1923. At this time some of his poems were published in literary magazines. He was one of the early followers of surrealism. In Paris he lived with his mother between 1924 and 1937. He was strongly attracted to the movies and played the role of the monk Massin in Carl Dreyer's Passion de Jeanne d'Arc of 1922. In 1927, for approximately one year he severed all connections with surrealism, and founded the Théâtre Alfred Jarry, which lasted for two seasons.

Of major importance in the evolution of Artaud's thought was the Colonial Exposition of 1931, where he was able to observe performances of the Balinese theater. These were the immediate origins of his conception of the Theater of Cruelty for which he wrote the First Manifesto in 1932 and the Second Manifesto in 1933. In May 1935, Artaud produced his play, Les Cenci, based upon a play of Shelley and a short story of Stendhal. Performances ran only two weeks. He spent part of 1936 in Mexico. Between 1939 and 1943 he was in a sanitarium. The year after his release, in 1944, his most important writing on the theater, Le Théâtre et son double (The Theatre and Its Double), was republished. Artaud died in 1948.

From this brief biographical sketch, it is obvious that Artaud's greatest activity in the theater fell approximately between the years 1930 and 1935. They were productive years for the Paris theaters in general. Jouvet produced three new plays of Giraudoux: Electra, La Guerre de Troie n'aura pas lieu, and Ondine. Dullin was responsible for a fine production of Richard III. Pitoëff put on three plays of Chekhov: The Sea Gull, Three Sisters and Uncle Vanya. But even such repertories as these were unsatisfactory for Artaud. He wanted to go much further in dramatic experimentation, desiring for the theater the same kind of frenzy and moving violence that he found in the paintings of Van Gogh. He claimed that a new kind of civilization was needed, one that would consummate a break with the sensitivity and the logival mentality of the nineteenth century. Thunderingly he denounced his age for having failed to understand the principal message of Arthur Rimbaud.

Artaud summarized the classical tradition of the French theater, which he found still dominant, as that art which states a problem at the beginning of a play, and solves it by the end. It is an art form, he says, that presents a character at the beginning and then proceeds to analyze the character during the remainder of the play. Artaud questions the authority of this procedure. "Who says that the theater was created to elucidate a character and to solve a conflict?" He claims that already in France there have been signs of a new kind of theater, one that is characterized by freedom, by the surreal, and by mystery. He sees the beginnings of this theater in Mallarmé, in Maeterlinck, and in Alfred Jarry. He finds an instance of it in Apollinaire's Les Mamelles de Tirésias, which he opposes to the then popular plays of Bernstein and François de Curel. The most successful plays of playwrights such as Sartre and Anouilh are closer to the traditional form of the French play, even to the form of a Bernstein, than to the experimentalism of an Apollinaire or a Jarry. As yet, the theories of Artaud have rarely been put into practice.

In analyzing his particular mission in the theater, Artaud divides humanity into two groups: the primitive or pre-logical group and the civilized or logical group. The roots of the real theater are to be found in the first group. At the Colonial Exposition of 1931, where he saw the Balinese theater, he was struck by the tremendous difference between those plays and our traditional Western play. He felt that the Balinese dramatic art must be comparable to the orphic mysteries that interested Mallarmé. A dramatic presentation should be an act of initiation during which the spectator will be awed and even terrified--and to such a degree that he will lose control of his reason. During that experience of terror or frenzy, instigated by the dramatic action, the spectator will be in a position to understand a new set of truths, superhuman in quality.

Although Artaud was usually condemnatory of Christianity, he defined the goal of the theater in spiritual terms. Its "sacred" goal, he claimed, is to communicate delirium whereby the spectators will experience trances and inspiration. Dramatic art induces as strong a delirium as a plague does. A true play, according to Artaud's concept, will disturb in the spectator his tranquillity of mind and his senses, and it will liberate his subconscious. Aristotle had emphasized especially the ethical power of the theater. Artaud intends to release its mediumistic force. If the theater is able to exalt man, it will drive him back to the mysterious primitive forces of his being.

The method Artaud proposes by which this will be brought about is to associate the theater with danger and cruelty. "This will bring the demons to the surface," he says. Words spoken on the stage will then have the power they possess in dreams. Language will become an incantation. Here again Artaud draws upon the poetic theory of Mallarmé and Rimbaud. Action will remain the center of the play, but its purpose is to reveal the presence of extraordinary forces in man. The metteur-en-scène becomes a kind of magician, a holy man, in a sense, because he calls to life themes that are not purely human. To illustrate this kind of spectacle Artaud equates it with certain paintings of Grünewald and Hieronymus Bosch.

The one experiment in Artaud's theater of cruelty was Les Cenci, his adaptation of the texts by Shelley and Stendhal. It initiated the fundamental notion of a "theater in the round," which has been especially developed in America, and which was destined by Artaud to establish a closer contact between actors and spectators than the normal theater could ever realize. In this production mechanical devices were used to create a visible and audible frenzy: strident and dissonant sound effects, whirling stage sets, the effects of storms by means of light, unusual speech effects. It was often difficult to distinguish between tragedy and the Grand Guignol.

Certain mass movements used by Jean-Louis Barrault in some of his productions are reminiscent of Artaud's Cenci. This production of 1935 marked a return in the French theater to a complicated stage production, which has been developed especially by Barrault (who had a part in the original performances of Artaud's play). The production was a failure, although some of the discerning critics, such as Jouve in the Nouvelle Revue Français, praised the stage set of Balthus and the direction of Artaud.

Out of the financial failure of Les Cenci, Artaud emerged as a prophet of the theater. His madness, accepted by some as a real sickness, has been interpreted by others as a sign of his revolt. He became a martyr of illogicality by protesting against morality and rationality. To be an actor for Artaud is equivalent to suppressing in oneself traits that make one distinct from other men. It is therefore equivalent to a kind of suicide. The last long internment of Artaud was interpreted by the surrealists as purely arbitrary, as a sign of the persecution that society is constantly imposing on revolutionaries and dissidents. However one interprets the terrifying obsessions of Artaud, they allowed him to see into unusual depths of the human mind, where he claimed the eternal questions on life and death are clearly visible.

The principal tenet of The Theater and Its Double states that reform in the modern theater must begin with the production itself, with the mise-en-scène. Artaud looks upon it as something far more than a mere spectacle: it is a power able to move the spectator closer to the absolute. The Oriental theater, which Artaud saw as a compact agglomeration of gestures, signs, postures, and sounds, constituted for him the language of production and staging. (Le langage de la réalisation et de la scène. . . .) The result of this kind of réalisation (which seems to be the more effective French word for our term "production") is the awakening of the spectator's thought, which will take attitudes that are "metaphysical in action." (La métaphysique en activité. . . .)

The real objective of the theater for Artaud is the translation of life into its universal immense form, the form that will extract from life images in which we would have pleasure in being. This is what he means by the word "double" (Le Théâtre et son double). The theater is not a direct copy of reality; it is of another kind of dangerous reality where the principles of life are always just disappearing from beyond our vision. He compares these principles to dolphins, who as soon as they show their heads above the surface plunge down into the depths. This reality is beyond man, with his habits and character. It is inhuman. If the theater is able to lead the spectator back into his world of dreams and primitive instincts, he will find himself "in a world that is bloodthirsty and inhuman" (sanguinaire et inhumain). Artaud has acknowledged that in this conception of the theater, he is calling upon an elementary magical idea used by modern psychoanalysis wherein the patient is cured by making him take an exterior attitude of the very state that he should recover or discover. A play that contains the repressed forces of man will liberate him from them. By plastic graphic means, the stage production will appeal to the spectators, and will even bewitch them and induce them into a kind of trance.

The Western theater has always been too dependent on a text. The Eastern theater is able to furnish a physical and not a verbal idea of theater. Theater in the West is associated with literature, whereas the Balinese productions that Artaud had seen were addressed to the entire being of the spectator and the words used in them were incantatory. Artaud wanted to see stage gesticulations elevated to the rank of exorcisms. In keeping with the principal tenets of surrealism, Artaud would claim that art is a real experience that goes far beyond human understanding and attempts to reach a metaphysical truth. The artist is always a man inspired who reveals a new aspect of the world.

Shortly before Artaud died.

MANIFESTO IN A CLEAR LANGUAGE

by Antonin Artaud

If I believe neither in Evil nor in Good, if I feel such a strong inclination to destroy, if there is nothing in the order of principles to which I can reasonably accede, the underlying reason is in my flesh.

I destroy because for me everything that proceeds from reason is untrustworthy.I believe only in the evidence of what stirs my marrow, not in the evidence of what addresses itself to my reason. I have found levels in the realm of the nerve.

I now feel capable of evaluating the evidence. There is for me an evidence in the realm of pure flesh which has nothing to do with the evidence of reason. The eternal conflict between reason and the heart is decided in my very flesh, but in my flesh irrigated by nerves. In the realm of the affective imponderable, the image provided by my nerves takes the form of the highest intellectuality, which I refuse to strip of its quality of intellectuality. And so it is that I watch the formation of a concept which carries within it the actual fulguration of things, a concept which arrives upon me with a sound of creation. No image satisfies me unless it is at the same time Knowledge, unless it carries with it its substance as well as its lucidity. My mind, exausted by discursive reason, wants to be caught up in the wheels of a new, an absolute gravitation. For me it is like a supreme reorganization in which only the laws of illogic participate, and in which there triumphs the discovery of a new Meaning. This Meaning which has been lost in the disorder of drugs and which presents the appearance of a profound intelligence to the contradictory phantasms of the sleep. This Meaning is a victory of the mind over itself, and although it is irreducible by reason, it exists, but only inside the mind. It is order, it is intelligence, it is the signification of chaos. But it does not accept this chaos as such, it interprets it, and because it interprets it, it loses it. It is the logic of illogic. And this is all one can say. My lucid unreason is not afraid of chaos.

I renounce nothing of that which is the Mind. I want only to transport my mind elsewhere with its laws and organs. I do not surrender myself to the sexual mechanism of the mind, but on the contrary within this mechanism I seek to isolate those discoveries which lucid reason does not provide. I surrender to the fever of dreams, but only in order to derive from them new laws. I seek multiplication, subtlety, the intellectual eye in delirium, not rash vaticination. There is a knife which I do not forget.

But it is a knife which is halfway into dreams, which I keep inside myself, which I do not allow to come to the frontier of the lucid senses.

That which belongs to the realm of the image is irreducible by reason and must remain within the image or be annihilated.

Nevertheless, there is a reason in images, there are images which are clearer in the world of image-filled vitality.

There is in the immediate teeming of the mind a multiform and dazzling insinuation of animals. This insensible and thinking dust is organized according to laws which it derives from within itself, outside the domain of clear reason or of thwarted consciousness or reason.

In the exalted realm of images, illusion properly speaking, or material error, does not exist, much less the illusion of knowledge: but this is all the more reason why the meaning of a new knowledge can and must descend into the reality of life.

The truth of life lies in the impulsiveness of matter. The mind of man has been poisoned by concepts. Do not ask him to be content, ask him only to be calm, to believe that he has found his place. But only the madman is really calm.

PuNk is dead. (no fucking kidding...) by CRASS

2008-08-14T14:50:00.001-07:00

Punk is Dead. The media, corporate labels and especially the insecure desperate youth of today have ruined IT ALL.

This video is dedicated to all the Mall Punks and poseur punks who wear band shirts when they don't even know ANY songs from that band.

Anyone that wears a Punk Band shirt from the Mall is pretty much a total poseur. Basically they’re saying “I don’t know anything about being a real punk, so I need this T-Shirt for you to categorize me and see what subversive subculture I want you to think I’m accepted in”. Currently the most overrated T-Shirts are “Ramones’ and ‘Misfits’ shirts. (Bootleg shirts are available for $5 at the Alley Downtown, which actually makes those particular shirts kind of Punk.)...The people who wear these usually know absolutely nothing about Punk Music and think that link 182 and Good Charlotte and even Green Day are Punk. What pathetic formula followers. The only real punks you see out are the ones that wear their own home-made shirts and have their own style.

YOU CAN'T BUY PUNK, it comes from the inside.

Lyrics to this song:
Punk Is Dead.
Yes that's right, punk is dead,
It's just another cheap product for the consumers head.
Bubblegum rock on plastic transistors,
Schoolboy sedition backed by big time promoters.
CBS promote the Clash,
But it ain't for revolution, it's just for cash.
Punk became a fashion just like hippy used to be
And it ain't got a thing to do with you or me.

Movements are systems and systems kill.
Movements are expressions of the public will.
Punk became a movement cos we all felt lost,
But the leaders sold out and now we all pay the cost.
Punk narcissism was social napalm,
Steve Jones started doing real harm.
Preaching revolution, anarchy and change
As he sucked from the system that had given him his name.

Well I'm tired of staring through shit stained glass,
Tired of staring up a superstars arse,
I've got an arse and crap and a name,
I'm just waiting for my fifteen minutes fame.
Steve Jones you're napalm,
If you're so pretty (vacant) why do you swarm?
Patti Smith you're napalm,
You write with your hand but it's Rimbaud's arm.

And me, yes I, do I want to burn?
Is there something I can learn?
Do I need a business man to promote my angle?
Can I resist the carrots that fame and fortune dangle?
I see the velvet zippies in their bondage gear,
The social elite with safety-pins in their ear,
I watch and understand that it don't mean a thing,
The scorpions might attack, but the systems stole the sting.

PUNK IS DEAD. PUNK IS DEAD. PUNK IS DEAD.
PUNK IS DEAD. PUNK IS DEAD. PUNK IS DEAD.
PUNK IS DEAD. PUNK IS DEAD. PUNK IS DEAD.

ESSENTIAL CINEMA: IF...(1969) Dir. by Lindsay Anderson

2008-08-14T14:25:00.000-07:00

If...directed by Lindsay Anderson (1969)

Starring
The Crusaders:
Michael 'Mick' Travis.....Malcolm McDowell
Johnny Knightly.....David Wood
Wallace.....Richard Warwick
The Girl.....Christine Noonan
Bobby Philips.....Rupert Webster

The Whips
Rowntree.....Robert Swann
Richard Denson.....Hugh Thomas
Fortinbras.....Michael Cadman
Barnes.....Peter Sproule

Synopsis:
This incredible film takes a look at a British boarding school and three unruly seniors who fail to conform. If.... is an amazing blend of fact and fantasy with features a young Malcolm McDowell in his first film. The students at College House are kept in line by tradition, strict discipline, and prefects. Director Lindsay Anderson is careful to document the repressive conditions and the painfulness of rebellion as he builds to his surreal and violent ending when the students have their day. It is a marvelously funny movie, but it's also profoundly disturbing and deep.

Review:
This film is a masterpiece, it is nearly impossible to find any flaws with the film. If anything, I would have liked more scenes with Malcolm, but this would've totally changed the style of the film.

The film is more a collection of short stories instead of a film where you just follow a main character, or characters, with a straight narrative. It seems the film takes place over the course of a semester, but there is no indication of time between scenes. It is like Lindsay just put cameras around a real school and taped what happened during the year and edited together the good parts. It is a unique film in this sense.

It starts out by showing what it is like for Jute, a new scum, arriving in school. It would be easy to think he was the main character, after all he is in most every scene in the beginning. In fact, when Mick enters, we don't even know he does, or who he is at all! Since he is practically covered from head to toe and says nothing we don't think much of him, it is a very clever changing of the guard. The first time we see his face he has a mustache and before we can get used to that, he shaves it right off. Once again changing our perception completely.

I really like how the characters are introduced and then usually fade into the background. Stephans is shown a few times in the first part as a big ass kisser, then almost never again. Brunning who is Jute's mentor has no lines after showing Jute the ropes. It really gives a good picture of life all across the school for those of us who never attended a school like that. I always wondered how Jute did on his test of the school words though. One of those completely meaningless indoctrinations you have to go through that stays with you for the rest of your life.
Through the few scenes of Mick, Johnny and Wallace in the beginning we get glimpses of how much they hate the system, but do their best to get by. They are pushed and punished too harshly for them to stand by and take it. This leads to one of the best and most famous scenes in the film. When Johnny, Wallace and Mick are getting caned in the gym, each takes their turn and it is one shot - from one angle. This is stunning in it's simplicity. I've always hated the modern Mtv style where the camera cuts to a new angle every second. The violence in the gym isn't shown, but by hearing it, the tension mounts and makes it more powerful. The angle only changes when Mick throws open the double doors for his turn with the birth of Malcolm's classic wicked grin. That single shot speaks volumes and is one of the best in the film. He is telling them to "Bring it on!". They want him to be scared, but he won't give them that pleasure. They can beat him, but will never break him because he knows his spirit is more alive than theirs.

The Headmaster had it all wrong when he told them it was too easy to rebel. It is too easy to blend into the background and attract no attention. When you are yourself and that is much different then the standard they want to set for you - then you are an outcast. It is much harder when you stand out and don't fit in - the fact that you are just trying to be yourself and not even actively rebelling is even worse. You'll always be looked down on and make enemies. Never speak out and give them what they want and you'll do well - even if you feel empty inside because of it. Since it is a military prep school, they are preparing for war. But I think the pictures of war in Mick's room were an inspiration and a way to pump himself up for his own war.

The Girl is the enigma here - who is she? Hell, she doesn't even have a name! When Mick spots her in the telescope she is in a nearby house - a school? And how did they sneak her into their project under the stage? And why is she so angry? She doesn't have to put up with the crap going on at College House, after all - she is the one who kills the headmaster. I think the girl is less of a character then more of the embodiment of women's liberation of the time. She is openly sexual and can hold her own with the boys when it comes to violence. When Mick hands her the human fetus in the jar he says nothing. I interpreted this as him saying "Let's get married and have a child of our own." By her putting it back on the shelf, she is telling him - no, that is the old way.

The only true critique of the film I have is how the violence at the end is toned way down. The Crusaders on the roof have the students and the parents pinned in the courtyard. There is only one way out and they have it blocked. With all the gunfire and shells they pour into the yard, the blood should've been flowing in gallons. There would be no survivors since it was a choice of being burned up or escaping into the yard. I love how the last shot doesn't wimp out though. It shows a close-up of Mick still determined, even though he is now facing opposition. He doesn't die, doesn't waver, doesn't fall, doesn't give-up and never surrenders. The title comes up "if...." saying be careful how you treat people because this could happen to you.

The acting here is all top notch. Everyone plays their roles like they were born to play them. This is especially noteworthy since so many of them were so young. Malcolm had an advantage of being 24 years old at the time, though he certainly doesn't look it. Eventually this would hurt his career because soon after he was a 30 year old man playing the parts of teens! When he finally grew into his body he wasn't the young rebel anymore that the studious wanted. Of course he was brilliant here and has the rare honor of being able to become a star in his first role which could be the greatest debut in the history of cinema. Even Harrison Ford's first roll was completely forgettable with only three lines. Robert Swann was a perfect bastard and started him on a career of authority type roles. Hugh Thomas who also appears in O Lucky Man! was a great self righteous prick. Christine Noonan was perfectly sexy as the Girl and it was a loss that she didn't pursue acting after OLM!

FOUR STARS

Clip from IF....(café/tiger scene)

The Tiger Scene in the Cafe
If tigers don't mate, they'll die. It is necessary for young adults to stake out an area of their own before they can start to breed. The ritual consists of a series of challenges; after each challenge one tiger has the opportunity to back away. Copulation may take place before sexual maturity, though pregnancy is extremely unlikely. She will signal her readiness for breeding in various ways, including roaring & moaning. Approaching males sometimes reply. The female will continue her efforts until a male is attracted.

RETRO-FUTURISTIC MOTION LOGOS

2008-08-13T18:24:00.001-07:00

Remember these from the 70s and 80s?
I love how they are vector based, it was so 70s.

And here's a little hodge podge of 70s clips, assembled by San Francisco based experimental filmmaker of note, Craig Baldwin. This is from the early 90s.

ESSENTIAL MUSIC/SOUND: THROBBING GRISTLE- I Want Discipline

2008-08-12T20:34:00.000-07:00

Throbbing Gristle's confrontational live performances and use of often disturbing imagery, including pornography and photographs of Nazi concentration camps, gave the group a notorious reputation. However the group always maintained that their mission was to challenge and explore the darker and obsessive sides of the human condition rather than to make attractive music. Throbbing Gristle pioneered the use of pre-recorded tape-based 'samples', and made extensive use of special effects to produce a distinctive, highly distorted background, usually accompanied by lyrics or spoken-word performances by Genesis P-Orridge. Though they asserted they wanted to provoke their audience into thinking for themselves rather than pushing any specific agenda (as evidenced by the song "Don't Do As You're Told, Do As You Think" on Heathen Earth), Throbbing Gristle also frequently associated with the anarchist punk scene. They even appeared on the infamous Crass pamphlet Toxic Grafity, with a condensation of their own propaganda parody series, Industrial News.

In 1977 they released their debut recording, The Second Annual Report. Although pressed in a limited initial run of 786 copies on the band's own Industrial Records label, it was later re-released due to high demand on Mute records, however this later release was reversed with all tracks playing backwards and in reverse order. This was followed by a series of albums, singles and live performances over a four year period.

On 29 May 1981, Throbbing Gristle performed at the Kezar Pavillion in San Francisco, California, USA. This concert marked the end of the group and its mission. As Cosey succinctly put it, "TG broke up because me and Gen broke up".

Genesis P-Orridge and Peter Christopherson went on to form Psychic TV, whilst Cosey Fanni Tutti and Chris Carter continued to record together under the names of Chris and Cosey and Creative Technology Institute. Christopherson later went on to become half of the band Coil with his partner and fellow Psychic TV member, the late John Balance. Meanwhile, Gen (now known as Genesis Breyer P-Orridge) subsequently formed Thee Majesty and PTV3 with the help of his late wife, Jacqueline "Jaye" Breyer

The following video is a UK television interview with Genesis P-Orridge after throbbing Gristle broke up and he formed Psychic TV.(turn sound up)

and Genesis P-Orridge today....
The reason he transgendered was to 'become' his late wife Lady Jaye Breyer after she died.

and here's an interview with him(now her) about why TG broke up and what formed after that. This is just 1 of 4 parts (to see the rest go to YouTube and search 'Soft Focus: Genesis P-Orridge')or it might be on the menu of the viewer.

In Focus: THE GODDESS BUNNY

2008-08-12T19:25:00.000-07:00

The Goddess Bunny, or Sandie Crisp as s/he is known, is one of the more eclectic and bizarre underground stars.

Sandie is actually a guy. His real name is Johnnie Baima. It is interesting to note that Sandie/Johnnie is a transvestite, and not a transsexual. This means he has a penis.

Stricken by polio as a child, it appears that Johnnie bounced from foster home to foster home where he experienced some kind of abuse. His posture and growth was restricted due to an ill-fated attempt by doctors to strengthen his spine with a steel rod.

Johnnie, as Sandie Crisp, wants to be a famous.

Some may say that he has already achieved his goal judging from his huge following in the gay and transgender community. I've heard that he does lip-synching routines and some sort of stage show in various parts of California (not just Hollywood). He has also attained some notoriety in mainstream culture by appearing in Marilyn Manson's Dope Show video and I believe that there is additional footage of Johnny in Marilyn Manson's DVD. It's in the behind-the-scenes footage of the Dope Show video where Johnnie can be seen frolicking and kissing various band members inside a limosine.

Sandie also appeared in a Carrie Fisher movie called "Hollywood Vice Squad", and does a cameo in the 'Punk Bunny' video, Water Sports.

I remember seeing her perform years ago with Vaginal Creme Davis, back in the Troy Cafe days('90-'94).

Jackie Beat--Baby Got Front

2008-08-12T13:08:00.000-07:00

I came accross this video while watching some 'Punk Bunny' videos on YouTube.
Uhhhh....not too sure what to say about this other than its pretty fucking funny. I've seen Jackie Beat perform several times here in LA and all I can say is that she is quite an entertainer and never disappoints. Her electro band 'Dirty Sanchez' is pretty cool.

More on Jackie(taken from her website)(I guess this is some sort of review from one of her shows):
Jackie Beat is a dirty-minded and dirty-mouthed drag queen. That is a good thing by the way, since a lot of her jokes and song parodies depend upon graphic descriptions of sex organs and a variety of sex acts. It is tough to do a show with smut as a central theme. The risk is you'll become tedious and leave an audience feeling like they are hearing one long dirty joke. Luckily, this doesn't happen in Jackie Beat's one-hour, live singing and comedy show, currently running at the Post Office Cabaret.

What keeps The Jackie Beat Show vital and fun is Ms. Beat's near flawless presentation and skillful working of the crowd. Don't get me wrong, this show is dirty and no doubt offensive to some people – not a big deal, since Jackie Beat doesn't care a bit if you walk out. "Leave when you want. I don't care. I've already got your money."

Drinking during the show is also encouraged, and she makes no bones about wanting a "well lubricated" crowd. "Drink! Drag is spelled with one 'A'. There is no 'A.A.' in Drag." I would have to say most of the audience was in total agreement with Jackie, since the 10:15 show is the last one of the night at The Post Office Cabaret. Everyone was feeling good and the energy in the room was definitely high. The audience cracked up at the cute, but corny opening announcements. The jokes are funny, most of the time, and when they are not, Ms. Beat rebounds in a snap and says or does something truly comical. She is the first performer I've ever seen who can independently rotate her eyeballs and freeze her face in a look that is all at once menacing, empty-headed, sad, and hysterically funny. And then there's the voice.

Jackie's voice has the power and range of a Broadway star and an old-school Black Diva. She is an amazingly good singer with incredible vocal fl exibility. She mimics just enough of song-stylists like Shirley Bassey, Angela Lansbury, Nina Simone, and Jennifer Holliday to set you laughing at these singer's vocal quirks. This is not a show about impersonating stars, but there are familiar song parodies like "Billy and the Priest" ("Beauty and the Beast") and two standout numbers, "Please Don't Tell Me You're Gay" ("Please Don't Leave Me this Way") and "Dildos are Forever" ("Diamonds are Forever").

ESSENTIAL CINEMA: WHAT ABOUT ME (1993) by Rachel Amodeo

2008-08-11T08:44:00.000-07:00

Synopsis:
WHAT ABOUT ME portrays the gradual deterioration of Lisa Napolitano (Rachel Amodeo) a young woman forced to exist on the streets, intermingling with the outcasts of society. Along the way she encounters a shell-shocked Vietnam veteran, Nick(Richard Edson), a nihilistic East Villiager, Tom (Nick Zedd); and a sympathetic good Samaritan, Paul (Richard Hell).

WHAT ABOUT ME was filmed in B/W on location in Tompkins square park and the Lower East Side. Gregory Corso, Judy Carne, Johnny Thunders, Jerry Nolan, and Dee Dee Ramone appear in addition to the homeless residents of the partk. The soundtrack includes music by Johnny Thunders.

Review:
Not only boasting a dream cast from the 70s NY Punk scene, but they're good in it! Somehow I managed to bump into this film while cruising Amazon a few weeks ago when I was trying to track down a 1st edition of Warhols 'I, a Man' and the picture and cast listing where of interest to me. It was around 8 bucks new and I figured that I should buy it(since its unrentable anywhere) rather than just spend the 8 bucks on a vodka tonic just to piss it out at the end of the night.

All the elements where there; the grittyness of the lower east side, soundtrack by J. Thunders, a cast comprised of the luminaries of the 70s punk scene, and shot in B/W on actual film! This was a very low budget 16mm film that was heavy on interesting characters and light on 'Hollywood Formula'. The lack of budget only adds to the authenticism and credibility of the story, since you kinda realize that the cast aren't really acting too far off from their real characters and personalities. Incredible soundtrack, and kept my attention for the whole 85 minutes. Honestly, I wasn't expecting alot other than gratuitous nihilistic visuals, but the incredible cast made this film a classic for me. I put it on my shelf in my permanenet collection sandwiched in between my VHS copy of 'Reform School Girls' and Bunuels 'Los Olvidados'.

Highlights: Jerry Nolan does a cameo as a crack smokin' scenester, and Nick Zedd is hilarious. His raw natural dialogue and presence lends a genuine quality to this picture. If you're remotely into no budget/underground/raw cinema this is definitely a must see.
"****" four stars. Out of four.

Sluts for hire

2008-08-10T02:36:00.000-07:00

I am lost in a time forgotten.....

I can't but cringe to all the idiotic bimbos and unclued dudes that inhabit this town (LA). I have been getting a serge of requests to befriend these people who have nothing but cheesy pictures of themselves at clubs with/or who are: brainless, half naked, Barbie doll imposters, with NOTHING more than an 'I deserve EVERYTHING I want' attitude, attributed to the majority of desperate men in this town who succumb to their whims. I may be completely alone in this (and I probably am..) but I don't understand the charm of some attitude donning, money hungry, self-important trollop, that proudly looks up to and looks like a porn star that has been passed around town like a warm 'Natural Light' at a silverlake party. Have women been reduced to that in order to successfully prosper?

These are the kind of girls that rather than put the time and effort into going to school or even just getting a respectable job, have simply chosen to take the easy way out and physically whore themselves out to feel desired and accepted. This includes EVERYONE...apparently you don't have to have a perfect body or even have a half-way decent face to turn into a town slut and get attention. All it takes is slutty clothes and an attitude to match. Either they act like sluts or bitches to get attention.

ALL GIRLS WHO DO THIS DO IT BECAUSE ITS EASY....you need nothing to be part of this shallow world, literally nothing...as the less you have on the better. Most men in this town are just looking for any kind of hole to stick their dick into anyways and these bimbos are perfect providers. Trust me, the men really don't care, they all really just want a hole. And apparently the girls don't care either since they feed into it, cater to it, and this cycle continues its course...year after year after year.

I used to get irritated by this whole world, since it makes all men seem like pigs. But then I gave up on my crusade and realized that they both deserve each other, the pathetic bimbo in need of validation, and the chauvenistic player, just looking for a wet hole. They work in perfect harmony like that.

The world has changed due to the scewed mores attributed to the media(Hip Hop that glamorizes stupidity, Porn Stars that are worshiped as Role Models, mainstream accessible fashions that are becoming less and less classy and creative and more and more cheap, unimaginative and slutty, and the stigma that the more you come from the 'streets' and 'ghettos' and 'broken home' with no positive role model, the cooler you are. "I was raised by my single mother and no dad so I don't know any better and I blame society for that...and thats why I'm a chauvenistic, uneducated, misognistic but cool role model"....they just pass the buck. It helps the media perpetuate this apathetic attitude of the cool, overweight, uneducated, misognistic, hip hop rap star, that has COME UP from a hard life on the streets to where they are today, a life of wealth(on credit), women at their disposal and a basic lifestyle of pure indulgences and excesses.
Apparently this drives all Los Angeles women wild.

I still don't get it.

What happenend to all the self-empowered women who consciously went on to get an education, a respectable job and a position of power...? They can't all be lesbians and corporate execs...

As I say, I live in a time forgotten....forgotten are the strong powerful women that made it sexy to be smart.

lvciverMDCCCCLXXIII

2008-08-09T16:34:00.000-07:00

ESSENTIAL VIEWING--LUCIFER RISING by Kenneth Anger

2008-08-09T11:57:00.000-07:00

Lucifer Rising (1973)

The famous classic underground film by director Kenneth Anger. The film was completed in 1973 and starred British singer Marianne Faithfull, but only widely distributed in 1980.

The film's dark soundtrack was originally to be composed by guitarist and producer Jimmy Page, but due to a dispute between with Anger, the original Page soundtrack was dropped and replaced by Manson Family member Bobby Beausoleil. It is presented here in 3 parts.

Open your mind and relax. Its just a film.

Part I

Part II

Part III

In "Just One Question Regarding Jimmy Page" Kenneth Anger talks about working with Jimmy Page on the "Lucifer Rising" Soundtrack.

IMPORTANT THINGS TO KNOW WHEN DEALING WITH THE PIGS.

2008-08-09T10:31:00.000-07:00

A few years ago, I got pulled over in my 1980 Camaro for not having up-to-date registration stickers or insurance. I was in between getting my other car worked on and in the meantime I was driving the one that had been sitting in the parking lot for months, without tags.

I tried to evade them by going into the HUGE parking lot at the strip mall on Santa Monica and Bronson.

None doing.

After they took my license, they came back , drew their guns at me, pulled me out of the car and proceeded to cuff me. Apparently there is some criminal from another state, IN another state who is on their most wanted list who has my EXACT same name. They thought it was me. The birthdays are almost the same, only his is 5-10-71 and mine is 10-5-71. WHAT FUCKING RETARDS. I hate the cops.

After me yelling at them telling them to re-check all the info, they realized it wasn't me and uncuffed me. They still ended up impounding my car and it was a fucken hassle to get it out since I had to buy insurance immediately, and pay for registration and all those parking tickets that I was planning on giving away with the car when I sold it. All within a day.

anyways, here's some useful tips to know.

----------------------------------------------------------------

Dealing With Police
What can I do to protect myself from the police?

Since in general the police need a reason to stop, question, search or arrest you, it's very important for you to know your rights, in order to avoid unintentionally giving the police evidence in a criminal case against you. When clients are interested, I always discuss our rights and our ways to protect them. Sometimes this information is only helpful if you are ever in contact with police in the future, but it's handy to know whether or not you're charged with a crime.

Basic facts to know when you have an encounter with the police:

1)You have no obligation to talk to the police, ever, unless you are subpoenaed to come to court and asked questions by a lawyer in a hearing.

Stand firm when you are asserting your right to remain silent. Police may tell you they will do something (like arrest you) if you don't talk to them. In general, if they have enough evidence to arrest you, they will whether or not you talk to them. Rarely, if ever, can a person talk his or her way out of an arrest if the police believe they can make a case in Colorado court against the person. Most often, when people being investigated talk to the police, they wind up providing the police with a little bit of information that the police didn't have before, making the case against them worse when it gets to court. If the police want to talk to you and you refuse, and then the police arrest you, if they didn't have the proper factual basis to arrest you your lawyer can challenge the arrest in court. If you've tried to talk your way out of an arrest, and the police arrest you anyway, all the things you told them will be brought out as evidence against you, and usually misinterpreted to boot. If you want to talk to the police, request permission to speak to a lawyer first, get the officer's phone number, and have the lawyer call the officer to arrange a time when the lawyer can advise you during the interrogation.

2)Police don't have to tell you the truth of what they're looking for when they arrive at your house.

You never have to let the police into your house. When they have a search warrant, you should let them in, because they can break the door and barge in if they want. When they have an arrest warrant, you should come out of your house to be arrested, because otherwise they can barge in to look for you, and then search the inside of your house once they're inside. If they have a warrant, you should ask the police to show it to you before letting them in. But if the police have no warrant at all, you do not need to let them in. Often the police will tell you they will get a warrant if you don't cooperate. Let them, they may be bluffing. More people than I can describe become their own worst enemies in court by agreeing to let the police do something, thinking they'll get a break later, only to find that their own agreement, or statements, are what led the police to gather the evidence against them.

3) If you're walking on a street and a police officer wants to talk to you, you do not have to stop and talk to them.

Tell them (politely) that you're busy, and keep going on your way. If they already have a reason to arrest you, they probably will. But if they don't, they may try to talk to you to gather the additional information they need to arrest you. Your stopping to talk to them may be deemed to be "consensual" in court, and not a violation of your rights.

Be aware that the police are often looking for something other than what you think they are looking for.

Usually, when they talk to you (on the street, in your car, or in some other public place) they will examine you (without your knowing it!) for signs of being under the influence of alcohol or drugs. There is nothing you can do about some of these symptoms, they pertain to things like the amount of moisture in your mouth, the smell of your breath, and the size of your pupils. I advise clients not to voluntarily stop and talk to the police in part because often during these "consensual encounters" the police will see "symptoms" of what could be drug influence that they couldn't have noticed if you just kept going when they "asked" to talk to you.

4) If you're in a car, the police need a specific reason to hit their red lights and pull you over.

Be aware of the condition of your car and the rules of the road, to avoid giving them such a reason. The most common traffic violations that I've seen, which give the police reason to pull you over, are: no current registration tags, a brake light or headlight out, failing to signal while turning or changing lanes, failing to come to a complete stop, speeding, weaving (even within your own lane - that's considered "suspicion of drunk driving"), and changing lanes over a solid white line.

If the police pull you over and you have not apparently violated any law, always be polite, but remember your case might be successfully challenged in court because your constitutional rights were violated.

5) If the police pull you over for a routine traffic stop, you do not ever have to give the police consent to search your car.

Sometimes the police will suggest that you must consent or they will arrest you. They are lying; failure to consent to a search is not grounds to arrest you, the police need something else to justify an arrest. If the police have a lawful reason to search, they are going to no matter what, you don't need to give them consent to do so (it just makes their case easier to prove in court). You should tell them clearly and firmly that you do not give them permission to search, or they may interpret your silence as implied consent to search.

UPDATE: My friend Penelope is a cop and I always pick her brain about everything cop related whenever I talk to her. As it turns out, the cops don't need a real reason to pull you over. She says that they make up ANY reason on the spot when they pull you over, if you're not doing anything wrong. And apparently they can also search the car if they have 'Probable Cause'.

'Probable Cause' can be ANY reason at all. The most common excuse they use is that 'The Driver looked like they were hiding something'.

THEN ITS LEGAL.

This is the kind of bullshit law enforcement we have to live with.

Next time you see cops on horses, go up to them and yell at them to pick up their horse shit. They're responsible for it and if you're on foot, there's nothing they can do to you, and they feel stupid.
Otherwise AVOID COPS AT ALL TIMES. looking at them wrong, can land you a 10 year sentence.

i hate today.

2008-08-08T19:16:00.000-07:00

I HATE today.

The world of today is nothing but 99.999% poseurs searching for recognition.

The word 'Celebrity' now means 'Recognized'(for absolutely Anything)....it stands for NOTHING more than that.

Every single person who is consumed with pop culture, any music that is played on the radio and pretty much everything that is new and spewed forth by the Media(which is pretty much everything unless you live in a cave) are pathetic poseurs who feed on recognition from anyone telling them that they're 'OK' and 'ACCEPTED" by the masses.

Why would anyone want to be 'Accepted' by the general public??

The typical American has the LEAST discerning taste on the planet....makes me want to choke on my own bile.

The only thing cool today is talking to old people that actually 'lived' during those cool years(the 50s thru the early 80s)

They lived thru the real deal and are the real deal.

However, we are a dying breed.

Soon we will all perish into ashes or worm food and there will be nothing cool left.

Nothing will ever be as cool as it used to be.

The media has fucked it up permanently and it will never ever come back.

I can't wait until I'm ash and won't have to deal with this world of complete hypocrisy.

Until then, Eat, Shit and Fuck.

On a positive note, I just got a letter from Publishers Clearing House that says I won 5 Million bucks.

art in review: MR.BRAINWASH

2008-08-08T17:40:00.000-07:00

Video of the show-Part 1

Part 2

A critical review
MR. BRAINWASH—"Life is Beautiful" 6-22-08

*NOTE: I'm not a 'professional' art critic. I'm an art follower, just like everybody else that goes to shows. The following is just PERSONAL OPINION. What gives me the right to shove my opinions down your throats? The 1st amendment. I welcome you to challenge me with any opinions that you may have. (Maybe I'm just missing something)

First off the show should really have been called 'Life is a Rip-Off'. That would have been more appropriate since he blatantly ripped-off numerous artists, and it was quite humorous as well since the show was really funny to us.

So we went to the opening nite on June 18th, but apparently the article in the LA WEEKLY had done its job and there was a huge line outside the show to get in. Since we couldn't be bothered to wait, we came back the following Sunday to see the show and spend some quality time understanding everything that is Mr. Brainwash.

Upon entering we were handed free ice water from the rent-a-cops which was great since it was like 95 degrees outside. In the front patio garden area were these oversize sculptures and a huge pile of books. The first sculpture was what looked like the side of a Rubik's cube. And then on the far side was a huge 10 foot tall lunch bag. At first they seemed like really cool sculptures. Then I realized that I had seen similar sculptures by artist Claes Oldenburg, from back in the 60s, when Pop art first broke. Don't get me wrong, these sculptures were cool, but it wasn't something that struck me as being original. The oversize six pack of coors beer was cool though, but that's just because it was hot and I really could have used a cold beer.

The pivotal piece and trademark item in this show had to be the endless paintings and larger than life-size sculptures of Warhols' Tomato Soup Cans that the artist had added a spray can tip on top and claimed the images as his own. At first, and with most of Mr. Brainwashs' art, it seemed really cool. Soo POP, and so retro, and soo friggin' cool!! But what I realized was that EVERYTHING that I thought was cool and hip from this show was because it was ORIGINALLY COOL AND HIP WHEN IT FIRST CAME OUT IN THE 60s. All of the art that everyone was seeing and thinking was really cool was because they RECOGNIZE IT from being a Warhol or being previously done. That was the 'cool' part about it. Because we already recognize it as being cool. It seems that MBW understood this concept and figured that if he uses images that are "Cool" and "Established", then his art will automatically be "Cool" and established as well. I liked this thinking and I was amused at how he dared to group himself with the heavies of the POP movement by using all of Warhols imagery with his own, as if to say that he's up there with the king of Pop Art himself. Smart. After all, its not who you are, but who people THINK you are. You can quote me on that.

The ideas behind the art were creative, however to me personally the execution was un-original and basically a blatant rip-off of already established art that people already think is cool. He just added a few embellishments and claimed it as his own original. Maybe it's because I hail the 60s POP movement with Warhol and all the artists that were involved in it, as being an untouchable genre of art. Nobody is cooler than Warhol. But when you bite that Warhol coolness as being your own, that's simply asking for judgement and stepping into the bounds of being a fraud/poseur with no original ideas to bring forth.

An argument against this critical review could be if indeed that was the purpose of this show, to capitalize on the established art world and to cash in on what has already been set in stone as being cool and POP. It would be a very Warholian concept and would definitely grant a pat on the back to Mr. Brainwash for his ingenious plan. It would work great and MBW could possibly laugh his way to the bank, until all the photographers that get wind of their photographs being used for MBW art sue him for plagiarism.

My only hesitation is that of credibility. I personally understand this concept. Quite well, actually. But my concern is to all the art lovers that see this as something 'NEW' and 'ORIGINAL' since they have no clue that it was already done and put on the map 45 years ago. I think that the concept of 'Pirating' Art and laughing at the establishment is great! But I also think that 99% of the fans of MBW, mostly hipster 20 something year-olds, have no clue as to the actual purpose and point of 'Pirated' art and completely miss the point of this show, and were just there because it was written up in the Weekly and came across as being 'Graf Art' and some embodiment of the now so ever-popular term 'Street' art. But I guess that doesn't matter since they're not exactly the type to fork over $10,000 for a MBW painting when they're still mooching off their parents for allowance money to spend at The Echo.

Inside the expansive once TV studio on Sunset across from Dennys restaurant, a series of paintings hang in the main corridor leading to the main Gallery space. These paintings are clearly Warhols' "Marilyn" paintings with faces of contemporary icons superimposed over her face. Sort of like the music called 'Mash-Ups' where they take 2 cool songs and put them together and the result is an annoying mix of 2 really good songs that now sound like shit. These paintings were pretty cool actually, but that was just because I recognized the Warhol part.

Once inside the studio, there was several small rooms with what appeared to be found paintings from thrift shoppes that MBW had embellished in some way by adding something to the painting or altering it in a very small way, and then claiming it as his original. Once again, concept cool but execution unimpressive. Finding a painting or even painting an original to make it seem old then adding a little something to it to make it funny, isn't my idea of groundbreaking originality. But its definitely something for the kids. They love that stuff. They love anything that they recognize, plus add in a little street cred(markers or spray paint) and its suddenly the icon to a new generation of TV Zombies.

As if the mock Warhol paintings weren't enough to try to get credibility, there was even an exact copy of the Marcel Duchamp 'FOUNTAIN'(a plain Urinal to the commonfolk) from his 1917 French Dada/Surreal movement of 'Readymades' under plexiglass. Only this one was covered in 'street tags' of local 'street artists' to appeal to the street kids at the show and maybe impress a few art critics as being 'street credible'.

Highlights for me were the robotic sculptures in the show. First the hanging Robot-esque sculpture with spaghetti like cords and cables coming out of it located in the center area just next to a small room with paintings. And then in the back, the towering TV Robot made up of several televisions stacked on top of each other to form this huge monolithic figure. I saw this exact sculpture before at another art show years ago, but it was much smaller and this new large size was quite impressive, I must say. I guess the old adage 'Everythings been done before' is true, only, it can be usually topped in sheer size.

I did like the collages of musicians made from broken record pieces. I thought these works were the most original and inspiring pieces in the entire show. They were something that I had never seen before and part of me wished that I had come up with that. (that's how I pretty much judge if I like the work and think its original or not, if I would have done it or if I'm awestruck by its sheer originality).

Maybe I'll rip it off and become a big art star since its already been done and now has been established! Is that how artists become successful these days?

Last Words: I'll wait for a timemachine and go back and see the original Warhols myself. Art auteurs seeking originality stay home, this ones strictly for the kids.

Mr. Brainwash can try to 'Brainwash' us into thinking this is original, but some of us know that you can NEVER bite what is truly cool. Just leave it be and try something original.

UPDATE: a week ago(7-27-08) I was in a Barnes and Noble at the Grove(gross haven for tourists with incontinence) and somehow came across a book on the UK street artist BANKSY. After flipping thru picture after picture of documented street art, it was apparent that MBW blatently and shamelessly ripped off Banksy(whom he used to soot documentary footage of in the past) in every single way possible. What was most alarming was the EXACT same copies of famous or classical paintings with added embellishments to make them humorous.

C'Mon Brainwash...can you really think of NOTHING original?!!

In case you give a shit.....

2008-08-08T17:07:00.000-07:00

So, upon self-introspection and a need to expose ramblings, images, thoughts, reviews, nonsense and triviality, I decided to put up this blog(hate that word). I implore anyone and everyone to comment, criticize, add and challenge any thing on here that you feel need be. Otherwise shut the fuck up, read on and forever hold your peace.

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