Phil Proctor: Forward into the Past with The Firesign Theatre
Beginning June 15, vintage Firesign Theatre radio shows, dating from 1970-72 will be rebroadcast for the first time since their original air dates on WFMU radio. This is comparable to being a James Joyce fanatic and finding not just one notebook where he’s working out the themes that would become fully developed in Ulysses and Finnegans Wake, but an entire crate of ‘em. Some of the most mind-bending, thought-provoking and hilarious material of their career and unheard for the past 40 years. A counter cultural treasure of the highest order. Firesign Theatre LIVE in Portland and Eugene, Oregon this weekend!
The Bubble Baba challenge is the world’s only blow-up doll rafting race. It takes place every year in Russia. Here’s some footage from this year’s event. I love the point of view shot from the contestant’s perspective; the doll straining to achieve victory.
From the looks of the photograph it’s a unisexual blow-up doll event. I wonder what kind of problems a fully inflated plastic cock could cause in a situation like this? Position must be very important.
I lived in Northern New Mexico during the late 1960’s and from 2003 to 2008, right at the foot of the Sangre de Cristo (blood of Christ) mountain range. This is an area that has drawn artists, outlaws, visionaries and lost souls for decades, from D.H. Lawrence to Dennis Hopper to the New Buffalo Commune and the Rainbow Tribe. The mountains are thought to have mystical powers, both good and bad. It is said they can mess with a man’s mind. I lived in Taos, which a friend once called “the world’s largest open air mental institution”, and I saw the flow of neo-hippies coming into town blending with the old guard who had been living there for decades. It was a wild mix of 1960’s Aquarian Age values and a kind of longhair punk nihilism - a fascinating blend turning a bit moldy at the edges and slightly rotten at the core.
Dennis Hopper was busted in the mid-1960’S in Taos for walking into a town council meeting brandishing a shotgun.
Shot in New Mexico, the “fat Jew on shrooms” video (Rob Tyner, is that you?) is a comically surreal version of the kind of madness you’ll find in the high desert, on the mesas and in the bloody mountains. The altitude can turn a simple psychedelic trip into something straight out of a Castaneda book and, in this dude’s case, something gonzo from Hunter Thompson. I don’t know how ‘real’ it is, but at 10,000 feet above sea level shit happens. Whether shroom boy is having a bonafide mystical experience or just going apeshit for the camera doesn’t matter. It’s the vibe, man. And the vibe is spooky.
In New Mexico, guns, pot and longhair are totems of some new bizarre breed of hippie outlaw.
The other video included here is from a film called “Off The Grid” and is the real deal. I knew these folks in the video. I had a store not far from where they lived on the mesa and they were my customers. Many were Vietnam vets, a few were clinically insane, others were social outcasts or folks just looking to live the simple hippie life. I liked most of them. But a few had feral children that saddened me. Dirty and hungry, these little kids were living in poverty and squalor, not by their own design, but by the choices their parents, mostly quite young themselves, had made in deciding to live outside of society.
The directors of “Off The Grid” were told by the folks depicted in the film never to screen the movie in Taos. If they did, they’d regret it.
A little comedy followed by something a bit more serious. The connection between these videos is kind of tenuous; longhairs with guns. That’s something I never imagined during the Summer Of Love.
From what I can gather, these beautifully odd clips are from the early 70s Soviet era Georgian film Mziuri which appears to be some sort of showcase for electric folk tunes performed soley by pre-teen girls. On a cruise ship. Can a Georgian DM reader perhaps tell me more about what’s going on here? I love the overdriven sound especially. Toasty good !
The latest masterpiece by the true genius of the form, StSanders. This guy’s videos are a well known phenom for good reason and he keeps getting better. Total hilarity and it only improves with multiple viewings.
Dr. Phero is a skit from the defunct Japanese variety show “Vermilion Pleasure Night.” The entire series is available on DVD from Amazon. It is totally weird fun.
Rare footage of Polish psyche duo Usmiesch Zebiczny. This is their one and only chart entry, “Quiches And Flans And Bottles And Bags”, which came in at number 83 in October 1967. The pair have never been sighted again since this was filmed.
Well no actually, but that’s a good one. It’s actually Bristol, UK band Schnauser (!) being hysterically funny and spot-on. Love it !
Music lovers can now be immortalised when they die by having their ashes baked into vinyl records to leave behind for loved ones.
A UK company called And Vinyly is offering people the chance to press their ashes in a vinyl recording of their own voice, their favourite tunes or their last will and testament. Minimalist audiophiles might want to go for the simple option of having no tunes or voiceover, and simply pressing the ashes into the vinyl to result in pops and crackles.
There’s so much to love about this. Although the guitarist seems keen to play it straight, the rhythm section is too gloriously inept to do anything other than turn it into a no wave/skronk classic. Better than the original.
From an ad on Craigslist. I appreciate that these Republicans are at least self-aware enough to add that this is for Jersey Shore lookalikes who “wouldn’t mind coming to a Republican party.” No pay, but free booze. Something tells me that most people who fancy themselves a ringer for the Situation or Snookie, free booze is probably pay enough…
We are looking for people who look like cast members of the jersey shore and whom wouldn’t mind coming to a republican party. We want basically anyone who even remotely resembles a cast member of the Jersey Shore, or who would not mind dressing up like a cast member of the show to come to our party. We want everyone to fill at least one role. Snookie, Situation etc. Send a pic with your response and your phone number. If you decide to attend we will cover your drinks and etc for the party. It’s not a big party, just a little get together very casual. It’s for a college club. Send an email if you are willing to show up to our party posing as one of these people (Anyones welcome, even if it’s a long shot to the way you look). Just send your number so we can call and talk about arrangements. Anyone looking to have some fun should apply!
On the other hand, Democrats who look like the IQ-challenged Guido and Guidette cast-members, might want to consider showing up in Jersey Shore drag, drinking all their Republican booze and puking all over the place. It would be more in character, anyways, don’t cha think?
