Ho-Ho-Ho!

Q: "Hey Green Giant, what's new besides 'Ho-Ho-Ho!'?"
A: "Would you believe 'He-He-He?'"

Happy Halloween!

Here's something interesting: shown are Beatles Ringo Starr, John Lennon, and Paul McCartney, as well as the late Mrs. Maureen Starkey and The Masque Of The Red Death heroine actress and former McCartney main squeeze Jane Asher at a costume party, but amazingly not for Halloween-- December 21, 1967 --for the upcoming telefilm, the ill-fated "Magical Mystery Tour".

By this time after all the successes and benchmarks set by Messrs. Lennon, McCartney, Harrison, & Starr, the Beatles apparently could do no wrong-- until "Magical Mystery Tour" that is...

Even though the music was as usual up to the high, ahem, standards set by "Revolver" and "Sgt. Pepper's", the critics mercilessly lambasted the movie because they just didn't get it.

Essentially McCartney's version of the San Francisco adventures of Ken Kesey and The Merry Pranksters, albeit translated into the Queen's English, it really had no plot or subplot, which as you know was/is a cardinal sin insofar as conventional movie critics are concerned.

Plus you either had to be a Beatles devotee or acidhead, or maybe some good hash would do.

But careerwise, "Magical Mystery Tour" unlike "Sgt. Pepper's" was a Major Bummer.

In any case this was also the infamous event where Beatle Lennon was allegedly flirting and dancing with Beatle Harrison wife the beauteous Patti, object of many a Rock Star's wet dream.

I Was Bat Masterson's Martian

Have A Segar!

Krampus Eve-- And Adam Too!

So Now It's "Cyber-Week", Eh?

It's "Cyber-Monday"

Cyber-Monday: The Day When 'The Doctor' Versus The Cybermen, or Cyphermen* or...


Superboy No. 150 September 1968 Cover: Superboy, Mr. Cipher, Jonathan Kent, Martha Kent //Neal Adams Story: “The Stranger Who Stalks Smallville” (23 pages) Editor: Murray Boltinoff Writer: Frank Robbins Penciller: Bob Brown Inker: Jack Abel Feature Character: Superboy (last appearance in ADVENTURE COMICS #372) Supporting Characters: Jonathan Kent, Martha Kent, Lana Lang (all last seen in ADVENTURE COMICS #370) Villains: An alien invader (first appearance; dies in this story), the Mr. Cyphers (robots; first appearance for all; all destroyed in this story) Synopsis: An invader from space infiltrates Smallville with a corps of look-alike robots, each called “Mr. Cypher”, who force their way into every home in Smallville--and who are each powerful enough to take on Superboy.

Black Friday Stuffing

New Post

To Be Announced

Liberace's Greatest Hits

When I was a lil' baby watched Liberace play his grand piano on the old round cathode ray tube television and pretended to play along with him.
I loved this stuff so much so that my parents bought me a toy piano and violin, which of course couldn't really play but I tried to.
This was when I was 2 or so, and liked all sorts of shows that were musical and beautiful, or 'busical' and 'mutiful' as my pal Andy, an old black guy who was a peddler in the '80s would say when selling Valentine or Mother's Day cards, slurring his words as he nodded off to sleep.
Busical cards! Mutiful cards! Busical ca...Zzz...zzZz...Zzzz...zZz...
Would see Liberace on all the variety shows, wearing not his sequined signature outfit, but a rather conservative tux with tails.
He didn't develop that gimmick 'til much later.
Then when I was 8, saw him as Guest Villain on of all things, "BatMan", in a dual role as the Liberace by anything but the name Chantal, esteemed concert pianist, and his evil twin brutha Louie.
Believe It Or Not- this episode of BatMan was the highest rated episode of all time.
Probably a lot of baffled blue-haired old ladies tuned in for the first time and didn't quite get it.
What I couldn't get was whenever someone like Rich Little, Frank Gorshin, or Bugs Bunny even did an impression of Liberace, they'd always use the line, "You dirty rat", oops, "I wish my brother George was here."
Who?

Zombies On Broadway

You'd think that after like a month or so of ghosks and ghouls and things that go bumpity-bump in the night I'd be sick and tired of such like stuff, but there was so much area to cover and I had interruptions due to my moving last month that I'm still trying to play ketchup- which isn't easy, and certainly very messy.

Day Of The All Dead Saints Day

Well survived the festivities of All Hallow's Eve, only to face (Saint's preserve us!) The Day Of The Dead, and for that we should all be grateful.

P. O. E. Toasties

Peter Sellers as Mandrake:

"Now look, Colonel... Bat Guano, if that really is your name, may I tell you that I have a very, very good idea, I think, I hope, I pray, what the recall code is. It's some sort of recurrent theme he kept repeating. It's a variation on Peace On Earth or Purity Of Essence. E. O. P.
O. P. E.
It's one of those!"

To anyone familiar with Stanley Kubrick's classic "Dr. Strangelove, Or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb", the solution to the cryptic recall code to send to the squadron of 34 B-52's to stop them from dropping their payload (some fourteen hundred megatons worth) on Russia, is a variation on the initials P. O. E., which only General Jack D. Ripper, played by the excellent Sterling Hayden, has.

General Ripper is a completely paranoidal, psycho-sexual, psychotic lunatic, and the nutty, obsessed General who has found a scapegoat for his own sexual inadequacies in the Russkies, Commies are unaffected by the plot to pollute the water of the world because they drink vodka:


Ripper: Mandrake?

Mandrake: Yes, Jack?

Ripper: Have you ever seen a Commie drink a glass of water?

Mandrake: Well, I can't say I have.Ripper: Vodka, that's what they drink, isn't it? Never water?

Mandrake: Well, I-I believe that's what they drink, Jack, yes.

Ripper: On no account will a Commie ever drink water, and not without good reason.

Mandrake: Oh, eh, yes. I, uhm, can't quite see what you're getting at, Jack.

Ripper: Water, that's what I'm getting at, water. Mandrake, water is the source of all life. Seven-tenths of this earth's surface is water. Why, do you realize that seventy percent of you is water?

Mandrake: Uh, uh, Good Lord!

Ripper: And as human beings, you and I need fresh, pure water to replenish our precious bodily fluids.

Mandrake: Yes. (he begins to chuckle nervously)

Ripper: Are you beginning to understand?

Mandrake: Yes. (more laughter)

Ripper: Mandrake. Mandrake, have you never wondered why I drink only distilled water, or rain water, and only pure-grain alcohol?

Mandrake: Well, it did occur to me, Jack, yes.

Ripper: Have you ever heard of a thing called fluoridation. Fluoridation of water?

Mandrake: Uh? Yes, I-I have heard of that, Jack, yes. Yes.

Ripper: Well, do you know what it is?

Mandrake: No, no I don't know what it is, no.

Ripper: Do you realize that fluoridation is the most monstrously conceived and dangerous Communist plot we have ever had to face?

Whether fluoridation is a sinister plot or just another, ahem, "cost effective" way to dispose of deadly toxic materials, well the jury's still out, and the reason I started this entry with the Dr. Strangelove stuff- "strange love stuff", sounds posi+ively pornographic -was because of the reference to Poe, as in Edgar Allen, not fluoridation.

I had the opportunity in 1992 to go day tripping and journey down South to Baltimore's "Inner Harbor" to see what prospects (if any) were for me to obtain a General Vendor permit to become an "Araber" an itinerant street vendor of produce, or goods, typically using a decorated wagon drawn by a pony. The term derives from the 19th-century term "street arab" and has no connection with Arabs. The remaining arabbers in Baltimore are all African-American.


Except of course for me, that's if I could get the license.


Now you may ask, why and what the Hell am I doing in Baltimore, Maryland, trying to get a license, why not N.Y.C., Newark, etc.?


Well N.Y.C. at the time had a moratorium with no new licenses issued until further notice, and I did already have ones for Hartford, Connecticut, Newark, NJ, and Philadelphia, PA.


I would take advantage of travelling to places most people would only go on perhaps a vacation while I would routinely go weekly or bi-weekly and make some money to pay for the trips as well as briefly enjoying the local sights and scenes, cuisine and ambience- on a budget.


X-Mas 1992 was fast approaching and the window for sales as every merchandiser knows is only from November to December, as musc as 50% of the years sales are crammed into the Holiday Season, and in many small businesses it's do or die, feast or famile, depending on the outcome.


So looking for new ground selling women's accessories, mainly costume jewelry, it was imperative for me as all the styles were finite and my regular clientele in Newark and Philadelphia already had most of them.


Every day all over the world working women wear earrings when going to their jobs as part of their outfit, and during the all too brief holiday season these same ladies purchase extra pairs to replace the inevitabe lost or damaged ones, not just for themselves, but as gifts for their daughters, mothers, aunts, grandmothers, lovers (if lesbian), etc.


Men also buy these as well since these are affordable "stoffing stuckers" at only $5.00 a pair.
(as transvestites and transsexuals love 'em too as nippple and cock rings)

Why only $5.00 a pair?


Because experience has shown that most costumers- customers who wear costumes -will pay that amount as it is perceived to be the fair market value of this item, and falls within the consumer product price threshold, whatever that means.

Hollow Wienies

Luna Lily

MAD Monster Potty

Soup Du Jour

What's WRONG With This Here Picture?

¿?¿?¿?¿?¿?¿?¿?¿?¿?¿?¿?¿

October 23

Whew! Was that a long intermission/snack bar/bathroom break or what?
Now that I took care of both Number One and Number Two needs- soda and popcorn -ready to continue the snow, er ah, show.
Submitted for your approval, the great auteur Brian DePalma's arguably (hey, why is everything "arguably", I argue) 1974 masterpiece, "The Phantom Of The Paradise".
What? Surely you jest, you've heard of it much less seen it? Where have you been?
Okay here's the scoop- when I was in high school, freshman year, used to go to the Harrison Public Library to not just do research for book reports but check out the pretty girls and also fool around, and we used to bring comic books and monster magazines to read besides the required scholastic stuff.
One mag, don't know whether it was "Famous Monsters Of Finland"(sic?)- yeah that Reptilicus puppet was also on The Monkees; Go Reptilicus, go! -or "Castle Of Frankenstein" by that inspiration Calvin T. Beck, whose life with his Mom and geeky lifestyle- "Monsters" -were noted by noted writer Robert Bloch and later incorporated as part of "Norman Bates" in his story for Hitchcock, "Psycho".
Yeah, it's true. Cal Beck (rhymes with "Cal Tech") was a nerdy guy who lived with his dominating, overbearing Mom on Palisade Avenue in North Bergen, NJ, and was of of the original "fanboys" who used to circulate, converse, and otherwise hobknob with all the other similar like-minded individuals who attended the seminal SF, never "SCi-Fi" conventions- only outsiders and "off-worlds" ever referred to it as such, although "Such Conventions" didn't quite have that ring to it you know?
All kiddin' aside, "SCi-Fi" was an invention of one Forrest J. Ackerman, who coined it it the 1950s as a shorthand name for Science Fiction, no doubt influenced by the new term "Hi-Fi" aka High Fidelity; interesting to note that within a year after "Uncle Forry's" departure the "SCi-Fi Channel" further confused everybody by relaunching itself as the text-friendly, some would say gay, "SyFy", which looks like an high tech venereal disease.
Getting back: so I have this B&W mag and it has like a upcoming, or up & coming section where they leak press releases for future forthcoming features, and my 15 year old eyes see this tiny sentence about the "Phantom Of The Fillmore", a modern retelling of the old "Phantom Of The Opera" tale.
This was 1971-72 and the cinematic trend- both movies and TV -was to con temporise the old themes for MODern, "happening", "NOW" audiences; Hammer Films which made excellent versions of the classic monsters in the late 1950s and mid '60s, with lots of (for that time) "blood and gore"- blood a bright almost fluorescent orange -and "sex", mostly busty female vampires with ample cleavage and filmy, flimsy garb- all in Technicolor -which made the earlier '30s & '40s Universal Monsters look pale, weak, anemic-flaccid -and camp by comparison.
But Hammer was running out of momentum and the initial inertia that the rave successes of its two main monsters, "Dracula", and the "Frankenstein" franchise were soon losing steam.
In fact the Hammer "Frankenstein"'s were about Frankenstein, Victor Frankenstein, played by Peter Cushing, and dealt with his mis-adventures of trying to perfect his methods of resuscitating the dead, not about the "monster".
Well, Hammer tried to breathe new life into an old series when they replaced the entire cast of stock players and Cushing too in 1970's "Horror Of Frankenstein", a remake/reimagining of the 1957 "Curse Of Frankenstein", but with Ralph Bates as the good(?) Dr. , Jon Finch as the Inspector, and David Prowse as the "creature"; played more for gallows-humor than outright horror, and with a sprinkling of nudity it died at the box-office.
The filmmakers decided that a "hip" cast for a "hip" audience wasn't enough, as "Horror Of Frankenstein" was still a costume period piece set in the 18th or 19th Century, so the next project would also involve some sort of plot development or device to set the action and characters in a contemporary setting.
This of course was nothing new, as TV's "Dark Shadows" was doing this since 1966, but really didn't get its groove on until Barnabas Collins appeared on the scene a year or so later.
The ratings for the Gothic daytime soap were stratospheric, a fact that wasn't lost on ABC-TV execs, so they agreed to fund an upcoming Dan Curtis made-for-TV movie: "The Night Stalker".

Looong Bathroom Break...

Refreshments

Intermission

"Brainiac on banjo."

For your entertainment enjoyment some vintage

"DO NOT ADJUST YOUR SET"

which the title seems to indicate an "OUTER LIMITS"

influence, particularly in the fact that the "Control Voice" and

Narrator, Vic Perrin, used a similar suggestion each week

to the viewer and also it was originally supposed to be called

"PLEASE STAND BY"

which the '90s Canadian remake series used for their

station breaks.

Wolf Gang

Yes, 'tis true:

1. The Wolf~Man
2. Frankenstein Meets The Wolf~Man
3. House Of Frankenstein
4. House Of Dracula
Bud Abbott - Lou Costello Meet Frankenstein (1949) doesn't really count "Dracula", as it's a spooky spoofy send-up, likewise the 1960 South-Of-The-Border Mexican La Casa del Terror (House 0f Terror) another monster horror/comedy film, nor does the "Lizard's Leg and Owlet's Wing" October 26, 1962 (Episode 68) of Route 66(6) qualify where Chaney is reunited with his genre buddies Boris Karloff and Peter Lorre; last and certainly least of all is the the Jerry Warren regurgitation, Face Of The Screaming Werewolf (1964).

Sorry, but Chaney notwithstanding, none of these is "Wolf~Man" canon, Jack.

For semi-realistic blood in a jiffy, you need not go any further than Heinz Ketchup, available at all fine grocers and eating establishments everywhere.

I'm A Moonage Daydream Believer

Oh what can it mean?
FREAK OUT!

'Star Treck (sic) In A Leather Jacket'

David Bowie again- why?

Well other than Alice Cooper, KISS, or even Screamin' Jay Hawkins, there's no other Rock performer who epitomises Halloween 'dress-up', and in his case literally as well as figuratively.

Ever c-c-changing, ever mercurial- after all, oh by jingo, he was on Mercury Records before his RCA adventures in sound -and he went from different guises and personnas as fast or as often you could change a, well, Halloween costume.

And a lot of his outfits were in retrospectacle (and a tip of the noggin to T. Dolby for that one) Halloween costumes let's see:

he went through being a R & B rocker, influenced in no doubt by the early 'Stones, a Music Hall/Caberet faux Anthony Newley, a 'Flour Power' Folkie, a Major 'Lost In Space', and this incarnation, a cross-dressing singer/songwriter that Ed Wood would have an affinity with-and all this is before his magnum opus 'Ziggy Stardust' which kept morphing and mutating itself into the the Lon Chaney, Junior-like transition of Diamond Dogs' one-eyed 'Halloween Jack' into the hokey cokey 'Thin White Duke'.

 =The 'Face' Of MARS=

"...sake and strange Divine (real name Glenn Milstead- or is it Glenda Milstead?), wait for a lad insane..."

Grainy photo like grains of Martian sand. 

HUNKY DORY was his fourth release sallying forth further where no one has gone before, recorded April 1971 at Trident Studios, London,  just a year or so after The Beatles 'official' breakup, and released December 17, 1971: 

Changes - This album is full of my changes and those of some of my friends.

Pretty - The reaction of me to my wife being pregnant was archetypal daddy -
Oh he's gonna be another Elvis.
This song is all that plus a dash of sci-fi.

Eight - The city is a kind of high-life wart on the backside of the prairie.

Life On Mars - This is a sensitive young girls reaction to the media.

Kooks - The baby was born and it looked like me and it looked like Angie
and the song came out like - if you're gonna stay with us you're gonna grow up
Bananas.

Quicksand - The chain reaction of moving around through out the bliss and
then the calamity of America produced this epic of confusion - Anyway, with
my esoteric problems I could have written it in Plainview - or Dulwich.

There is a time and space level just before you go to sleep when all about you
are losing theirs and whoosh void gets you with its cacophony of thought - that's
when I like to write my songs.

Fill - Biff Rose song.

Andy - A man of media and anti-message, with a kind of cute style.

Bob - This is how some see B.D.

Queen - A song on a Velvet Underground-Lou Reed framework s'about London sometimes.

Bewlay - Another in the series of David Bowie confessions - Star-Treck in a leather jacket

Bowie's next phase was probably his "Sgt. Pepper's" in that it shares some commonalities with the iconic Beatles LP from five years earlier, as the personas and identities presented are elaborate masquerades for the artists to hide behind making commentary as their 'altar-egos' ("...the church of man, love, is such a holy place to be.") make pronouncements equivalent to benedictions for the faithful flock almost religious in their fervor and zeal.
And just as theatrical, because "Sgt. Pepper's" Beatles and "Ziggy Stardust" Bowie are almost Pentecostal in their presentation(s), mixed with the roar of the greasepaint (Bowie wanted to be Newley once), the smell of the crowd (as the opening number and the reprise of same on The Beatles album demonstrates), music-hall tunes mixed with Rock, fantasy and larger-than-life reality.
Notable too is that David Bowie's first album, the eponymous DAVID BOWIE had the unfortunate distinction of being released in the UK the very same day as SGT. PEPPER'S LONELY HEARTS CLUB BAND which certainly didn't help sales much, even though it as a debut effort it was as good as it can get from a 20 year old wunderkind, and his "Rubber Band" 45 r.p.m. single predated the much better known famous song and 'concept' album by about a little more than half a year, December 2, 1966.

Most interesting is that both Bowie LPs include references to Mars, and have Bowie posing in pictures that immediately (at least to me) evoke the (in)famous "Face on Mars" photograph taken in the Cydonia region by the Viking 1 orbiter (orbital insertion June 19, 1976) released by NASA/JPL on July 25, 1976.

'Coincidence' or...?
As most know the name 'David Bowie' was about as real as 'Ringo Starr'- Richard Starkey became the stellar cowboy, possibly outlaw, 'Ringo', whereas David Jones became 'Bowie', so as to avoid confusion and mis-identification with/as in the musical show 'Oliver'- 'The Artful Dodger' -the lil' chap who was also on 'The Ed Sullivan Show' that fateful historic night the Beatles first appeared, February 9, 1964, and later of the 'Faux Four'- Monkee Davy Jones.

↑The other David sans leather jacket↑'David (Jones) Bowie' in a leather jacket w/ Star Trek: The Next Generation holodeck detective 'Dixon Hill' who for some reason or another resembles esteemed Beat author & junkie
William S. Burroughs.

Bar Sinister

"Belly-up to the Bar Boys!"

(sounds like an old all-male revue show at the Ninth Circle)

Lil' "Nell" GODdard

Robert Goddard was born today.
He's the guy you've always read about in elementary school science books- at least I did at 8 or 9 years old -who fooled around with solid rocket fuel and lauched his little "Nell" rockets in New England, being scoffed at and ridiculed by the local hambones, if hambones is the correct term for Northeast rustics.
Goddard resembled a cross between Lionel Jeffries as 'Prof. Cavor' in the 1964 "First Men In The Moon" and another Robert- Robert Heinlein -and was the archetype of the dedicated scientist, square, on the straight & narrow, unlike his persona non grata (for the most part)counterpoint/counterpart Jack Parsons' unrepentant reprobate.

The Penguin, The Walrus & The Joker

In keeping with the upcoming Halloween Holiday spirit, this time it's the adventures of the Penguin, the Walrus, and the Joker- but with a twist -bup suppa buppa buppa buppa suppa...

In 1963 interestingly enough Total Television, an unofficial 'subsidiary' of General Mills- GM, you know makers of 'Total' breakfast cereal -already known for their "King Leonardo" (Da Vinci reference) and 'toon "Superpup" clone "Underdog" cartoons starring 'Jor-El's' lover Wally Cox as humble and lovable 'Shoe-Shine Boy', and known to earlier viewers even as 'Mr. Peepers' in the Golden Age Of TV and more recently (we're talkin' '63 here) better known as Proctor & Gamble's salesman for "Salvo - The Fortified Detergent!" -also came up with the more cerebral and consequently 'educational' "Tennessee Tuxedo and His Tales" about the misadventures of the "small penguin, who tries but can't succeed-o," Tennessee, voiced by Don Adams, soon to be known worldwide as Agent 86 in the Man From U.N.C.L.E./James Bond spy spoof Get Smart, and his friend Chumly Walrus voiced by Bradley Bolke.

Whew!

An elementary penguin not singing Hare Krishna.

In and among the promos for other cartoon frolics, puppet shows- remember Fireball XL5 was on NBC that season -and the endless adverts for toys- "Hey kids, tell Mom and Dad!" -and of course the never-ending cereal ads brought to you by the grain futures sector of the economy, Tennessee & Chumly actually left an impression on me and it wasn't just mindless entertainment for the kiddies- I was a 6 year old then -as it was partially a response to FCC honcho Newton Minnow's comment that TV was/is a "vast wasteland", and it was one of the first successful integrations of information and entertainment for young minds that excelled where similar fare as 'The Funny Company' didn't.

"The Funny Company" bankrolled by Mattel, "...and TOYS!", was very educational but not very funny, a guaranteed 5 minute video sleeping pill for all but the most nerdiest of kids -and seemed more akin to the brief segments of "The Big World Of Little Adam" NASA training films fest that were run by Sandy Becker on his show after January 1, 1964 WNEW NYC show as well as WNET right and up to when they still had the old Owl logo, shortly just before Apollo 8.

Psssst...saw almost every episode of "Little Adam", shhhh- just don't tell anybody!

The makers of the "Funny Company" redeemed themselves shortly thereafter with "The Adventures Of Roger Ramjet"- seldom seen but great fun in the tradition of "Rocky and Bullwinkle", whereas "Little Adam" is largely forgotten and much less ever seen today.

The blend of both entertaining and informative is equally balanced- with the writing and the voice characterization -and important in Tennessee Tuxedo and is one of the many reasons it is so fondly remembered.

Without recounting or rehashing the episodes as I'm certain that there are much more precise and concise sources on the 'net from which to find out further about this wonderful series, I'll just go into one particular episode- #27 " The Treasure Of Jack The Joker".

Originally aired on Saturday, October 10, 1964, 9:30 am EST.
Now please remember Dear Reader that I haven't actually seen this since maybe 1966, and several zillion brain cells ago- R.I.P. -so recollection of this is particularly hazy or shadowy, but I remember that 'punch line' ending, "Ha, Ha, Ha-- Jack The Joker!" when the walrus and the carpenter- oops -penguin, find instead of a treasure inside the chest this taunting note.

Taunting note? Taunting...note...hmmm...the Joker...#27...penguin...by George Reeves, I think I've got it!
Detective Comics #27 was the first appearance of The Batman- and this was Episode #27 of "Tennessee Tuxedo and His Tales"- Holy Bat-Clues old chums, Chumlys, & 'chumettes'!

So what you say, big deal, I'm not impressed, etc., etc.,

Okay then, consider this:

Lawrence Samuel "Larry" Storch (born January 8, 1923) is a US actor best known for his comic television roles, including voice-over work for top cartoon shows, including Mr. Goldberg, er, uh- Whoopee -on Tennessee Tuxedo and his Tales, and of course Corporal Agarn on F Troop.

Waaay before Mark Hamill, he was also the first actor to voice Batman's arch-enemy, "Doctor Scholl" ("The Joker" in one of his many disguises...)

Yes it's true- It was in the Batman with Robin The Boy Wonder segments produced by Filmation animation in the late 1960s.

Larry continued his association with Filmation as a voice-over actor in other series the company produced- and more importantly was one of the original GHOSTBUSTERS in his zoot-suit, along with pal Forrest Tucker and Bob Burns in one of the few live-action shows for Filmation a decade before Bill Murray, Dan Aycroyd, and Harold Ramis.
Sohowzat?
(an old comic store just off of Canal Street)

Octobriana!

I first read about this in 1973 in connection with a proposed David Bowie project, you know, "...the Halloween Jack is a real cool cat, and he lives on top of Manhattan Chase...", era Bowie, that Bowie.
There were all sorts of rumours circulating then such as Bowie was going to make his film debut in "Stranger In A Strange Land" as 'Michael Valentine Smith', with all the sexual and weird stuff intact from Heinlein's allegory, then Angie Bowie his then wife as 'Jipp Jones' was going to play the new Wonder Woman, and that a film be made with Amanda Lear called...
In her autobio, Angie Bowie mentions a character 'concocted' by her then husband, who she described as "a sci-fi priestess of high Bowie camp and magic [and] a pretty cool customer." This character's name was "Octobriana". Further research (ie, trawling through the early-1970s music press) shows that Bowie was working on a feature film about Octobriana, and had also apparently written songs for the alleged motion picture soundtrack.
But of course these events never happened- and who is Octobriana?

The Magick Of Marvel Is...

Today October 2, is another Marvel milestone day, as it was on October 2, 1914 that the true Marvel Age was actually born, more specifically, Marvel Whiteside Parsons, later known as John, and finally 'Jack'.

What- you don't know 'Jack'?

Well...you heard of Dasher and Dancer and Prancer and Vixen and- oops -Robert Hutchings GODdard (October 5, 1882 - August 10, 1945), U.S. professor of physics and scientist, was a pioneer of controlled, liquid-fueled rocketry. He launched the world's first liquid-fueled 10-ft. rocket on March 16, 1926, and launching the 'Space Age' in a New England cabbage-patch field.

In 1929, an 11-ft. missile caused such a stir the cops were summoned- the next day the local rag ran the hee-haw headline: MOON ROCKET MISSES TARGET BY 238,799 1/2 MILES.
In 1930, with the promise of a $100,000 grant from financier Harry Guggenheim, Goddard and his wife Esther headed west to Roswell, New Mexico, where the land was vast and the launch weather good, and where the locals, they were told, minded their business.
Roswell, New Mexico, hmmm....

Hey wait, isn't this about 'Jack' Parsons?

Yeah, yeah, we're getting there.

Most people who are interested in the subject of Rocketry & Aerospace probably heard about or read about Robert Goddard in the primary grades- I first read about him when I was 9 in 1966 -or at least in High School.

But most never heard of 'Jack' Parsons, and with no surprise: he was an acolyte since 1938- the year of the comics debut of 'Superman' and 'The War of the Worlds' radio panic -of Aleister Crowley, the self-styled "Great Beast 666" , an employee of Howard Hughes- lecherous but brilliant aviator and industrialist who degenerated into eventual insanity -a victim of L. Ron Hubbard- Golden Age pulp science-fiction writer and crator of lucrative PoP Culture religion, who ripped-off Parson's woman & money. Whatta pal! -and an enthusiastic phone buddy to Wernher Von Braun- who was also incidentally a 33° Freemason.

Parsons had NO successful formal education beyond high school.

Can you imagine the uncomfortable teachers or principal or PTA that would have to explain >EGAD!< all this to young questing minds, mentioning that the illustrious Mr. Parsons besides all of the above info, also regularly used- some would say abused -alcohol, marijuana, peyote, and heroin, opiates, had sex orgies, etc., etc., This definitely would have guaranteed an A on a surprise quiz for most of the kids.

But instead...

In 1972 American scientists named a crater of the moon after Jack Parsons. The crater at 37 degrees north and 171 degrees west can't be seen from Earth- it's on the dark side of the Moon.

And get this, his birth and death dates- October 2 & June 17 -almost bookend the birthdays of Lennon & McCartney- October 9 and June 18, respectively -of the Beatles.

I'm waiting for the Disney bio-pic.

June 17 on the Julian Calendar is also the day when the Tunguska Whatchamacallit fell from the skies over Siberia in 1908 - June 30, 1908 to you.

BTW on Oct. 2, 1959, CBS broadcast the first “Twilight Zone” episode, written by the series creator Rod Serling, called “Where Is Everybody?”, about a man wandering through a town in which he appears to be its only living inhabitant.

Cue spooky music.

Oh yeah, and did I mention that it's Gandhi's B-day too.

The Marvel Age Of Bologna

In the late '80s/early '90s when I used to commute bi-weekly to Philadelphia, PA to work as a mobile street vendor in and around 'Center City', the nickname probably influencing the writer of the DC's Silver-Age Barry Allen "The Flash" for the name though I really can't say for sure, other than the (fictional) fact that it is located in Missouri (originally Ohio in Showcase # 4, September-October 1956), right near 'Keystone City'- just as the real 'Center City' happens to be coincidentally- not -near a fantasy 'Keystone City' but rather in the actual 'Keystone State', Pennsylvania.
Anyway...I noticed in the course of my working day then that one of those small boxy refrigerated provision 'truckettes' would be going around town making deliveries with the logo or legend 'STANLEY MARVEL' emblazoned on the side, and I'd always laugh and point this out to my girlfriend and workmates whenever it would pass us while we were in congested Center City traffic, or while working on the street, and once actually outside Fat Jack's Comic Crypt on Sansom Street where I customarily went after work to get my new comic fix and also look for lower priced, better quality, Silver Age books- waaaay better than anything ever found in the NY-NJ Metro area rip-off shops.
Then around '92 Philly started to get this attitude that the vendors have to be more controlled, as a lot of NY peddlers, vendors, hucksters, and outright con men were influxing into the area since the early to mid '80s and the word was out that it was 'easy pickin's', so it was inevitable.
Found unexplored territory shortly afterwards and fortuitously for me it was still not far from Center City: as soon as disembarking from the R7 SEPTA at 30th Street Station all I had to do was walk towards 'University Hill'- all the cities I used to work in on the NE Corridor had a 'University Hill', or it's equivalent, Newark with Rutgers and UMD, Baltimore with University of Maryland and Johns Hopkins, Philly with Drexel, University of Pennsylvania, etc., I'm certain that there are better examples; alternated with the old Center City spots, and Newark, NJ, whenever possible, bi-weekly, and also went to new spots in weekly established outdoor rural 'flea markets' such as Columbus NJ, on Rt. 206, Cherry Hill, right across the Delaware River in NJ near the racetrack, and Philly Racetrack in BenSALEM, PA.
So after I started to taper off my visits to Philly due to a change in work plans, seldom went there after '96, and so that was that...or was it?
In late '96 discovered Bucks County
It was run by the same folks who ran the Columbus Rt. 206, and the locale I liked better than Cherry Hill even- they had a much larger selection of both old and new stuff for sale, and better yet was accessible after a fashion via mass transit when I didn't go there with a friend and their vehicle- 'a ride'.
Getting there was reletively sinple- you took the Newark to Trenton NJ Transit train from Penn Station (either NYC or Newark) and switch over at Trenton to the R7 to Philadelphia, except instead of taking it to that destination going to Eddington Station and taking a $15.-$20. cab ride, or get off at the Croydon Station where you can go up the crumbling sandstone steps past warehouses and walk at your own risk up Street Road/Route 132 on the overpass bridge above Interstate 95 until walking at a confortable pace you get to Philly Racetrack parking lot and the Philly Market.
But not before seeing a whole lot of STANLEY MARVEL trucks as you see, and as I found out soon afterwards, that Stanley Marvel is right near Adams Street, on Ford Road just behind (or in front of) 'Meating' Road off of Bensalem Road and not at all far from the King David Memorial Park, the largest Jewish cemetery in that region.

Q: Was the corporate cold-cut entity known as 'Stanley Marvel' actually founded in 1915, if so was Stanley Lieber aware of this and rename himself professionally 'Stan Lee' so if introduced he would be , "Stan Lee, Marvel...", or completely unawares and therefore a coincidence, or was the original Stanley Marvel and his descendants Stanley Marvel II and Stanley Marvel III even aware of the likewise monikered comic book writer and publisher, and would he offer him a real good deal on catering events and so forth; and was it really founded in 1915, or the two confusing entries indicating 1975 and 1986- what's up?

Cold cuts and cemeteries- good Halloween eatin' to me...and sounds more like EC Comics than Marvel to boot- size 11 1/2.

Octoberfest!

Well I'm baaack, sort of- haven't been doing any entries for a while as am in the laborious process of relocating, so hopefully you'll please excuse me if I'm still spotty at times.
'Octoberfest' is not just a reference to the annual Germanic Autumnal beer festival held in European countries such as Germany, Austria, and parts of Italy and Switzerland, but also worldwide wherever Germanic communities are predominant- and to paraphrase the old classic 1960s Levy's Jewish Rye ad, "You don't have to be German (in this case)..." to be a BIG-TIME 'beer nut'- was going to say aficionado but 'beer nut' sounds just about right in this case; a good corned-beef or pastrami on rye w/mustard & a beer is paradise... and BTW what the hell are Beer Nuts anyway(?)- there's NO beer in 'em at all- they're like 'Apple Jacks' cereal: NO apples and NO jacks either;
'Octoberfest' (on this here blog at least) also refers to the next 31 days that I'll try to provide more pertaining to PoP Cultural stuff & events related to Comic Books, Science-Fiction, and Rock n' Rock, though not necessarily in that order.
Wish me luck!
More later...

Today is Chumley's B-Day

Steve Gerber

?

Plan Number 9ine...Number 9ine...Number 9ine...

Testing...Testing...1...2...3...

COLOSSUS: The Forbin Project

Today is the 40th anniversary of the first packet switched computer network which was established between two Interface Message Processors (IMP) located at Leonard Kleinrock’s lab at UCLA and Douglas Engelbart’s lab at SRI, creating what is now known as the Internet.
Mario Armstrong and Xeni Jardin talk about the birth of the Internet on the NPR show “Tell Me More” and Xeni has posted a video on Boing Boing of Kleinrock explaining how it happened.

Who'd have thunk it -- well for starters the makers of this movie:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W7Rq-PEW5qM

Galileo Figaro - Magnifico!

Exactly 400 years ago today, on 25 August 1609, the Italian astronomer and philosopher Galilei Galileo showed Venetian merchants- that's merchants from Venus -his new creation, a telescope – the instrument that was to bring him both scientific immortality and, more immediately, a whole lot of trouble.

Like hair-pulling, nose tweaking, stomach bumping, eye-gouging...

Optick Tube

WO9ODSTOCK Finale

Elvis. Elvises? Elvii?? Bela???

wO-Odstock: 40th Anniversary

Betty Boop's B-Day & The Beatles ...

...and Woodstock too!
This week was/is a bzZzZy as a bee week for commemorating key cultural
events than largely affected the American PoP scene, and still continues
to this day, this century, and probably for ages to come.
Betty Boop, Beatles, Helter Skelter and Woodstock- tried to (but failed) to somehow sustain the 'B' motif in this entry in a vain attempt as it turns out well not quite alliterative but certainly alphabetical -2 out of 4 isn't at all bad.
Okay, okay, nix Helter Skelter, definite bad vibes and bummer for sure, and even though tomorrow commemorates the 40th Anniversary of the infamous events, I'm not gonna cover it or mention it as you'll probably read/hear plenty about the Tate/LaBianca murders and Charlie 'X' and the unfortunate dumb bitches who fell for his small-time picayune mind-control techniques, some would say he himself was a Frankensteinian creation of various societal forces - essentially a 'guinea pig' -that made him believe he was in charge while recruiting other lesser gullable brain-dead accolytes- more 'guinea pigs', more fun - to do irreparable damage to the experimental 'counter-culture'.
Hippies no damn good, see I toldya so...or so went the refrain at the time spearheaded by that fine upstanding solid citizen, well none other than (gasp), can it be- Richard Nixon -Yow!
2 out of 3 ain't bad.
Instead, I'll give you satirist Jonathan Swift's original tome from which McCartney took the title from (as well as a playground ride), which should help at least a lil' bit to undue some of the unfortunate negative connotations and associations with 'helter skelter':

HELTER SKELTER
OR,
THE HUE AND CRY AFTER THE ATTORNEYS UPON THEIR RIDING THE CIRCUIT
Now the active young attorneys
Briskly travel on their journeys,
Looking big as any giants,
On the horses of their clients;
Like so many little Marses
With their tilters at their arses,
Brazen-hilted, lately burnish'd,
And with harness-buckles furnish'd,
And with whips and spurs so neat,
And with jockey-coats complete,
And with boots so very greasy,
And with saddles eke so easy,
And with bridles fine and gay,
Bridles borrow'd for a day,
Bridles destined far to roam,
Ah! never, never to come home.
And with hats so very big, sir,
And with powder'd caps and wigs, sir,
And with ruffles to be shown,
Cambric ruffles not their own;
And with Holland shirts so white,
Shirts becoming to the sight,
Shirts bewrought with different letters,
As belonging to their betters.
With their pretty tinsel'd boxes,
Gotten from their dainty doxies,
And with rings so very trim,
Lately taken out of lim--[1]
And with very little pence,
And as very little sense;
With some law, but little justice,
Having stolen from my hostess,
From the barber and the cutler,
Like the soldier from the sutler;
From the vintner and the tailor,
Like the felon from the jailor;
Into this and t'other county,
Living on the public bounty;
Thorough town and thorough village,
All to plunder, all to pillage:
Thorough mountains, thorough valleys,
Thorough stinking lanes and alleys,
Some to--kiss with farmers' spouses,
And make merry in their houses;
Some to tumble country wenches
On their rushy beds and benches;
And if they begin a fray,
Draw their swords, and----run away;
All to murder equity,
And to take a double fee;
Till the people are all quiet,
And forget to broil and riot,
Low in pocket, cow'd in courage,
Safely glad to sup their porridge,
And vacation's over--then,
Hey, for London town again.

[Footnote 1: Limbo, any place of misery and restraint.
"For he no sooner was at large,
But Trulla straight brought on the charge,
And in the selfsame Limbo put
The knight and squire where he was shut."--Hudibras, Part i, canto iii, 1,000.
Here abbreviated by Swift as a cant term for a pawn shop.--W. E. B.]

Class

Twenty-Four

Salvo

Laser

Wood Moon

Verne vs. Wells

Georges Méliès, Filmmaker & Magician (1861 -1938)

H.erbert G.eorge Wells had his gripping account of an alien invasion from Mars first published in the waning days of 1897 AD, an amazing 112 years ago:

The book in serialised form appeared in the publication Pearson's Journal and in proper book form shortly in 1898.

It was so popular that unofficial sequels and unauthorised versions were written by others other than Wells.

Blast Off!

Here's the Cavorite Sphere papercraft from the motion picture, "First Men in the Moon." Scale is approximately 1/24. You need to print seventeen pages of parts.
Makes a cool X-Mas ornament too!
Cavorite Sphere Paper Model

MMM

C'mon Ya Bastards It's Bastille Day!

Bobk bonk

Charles Laughton

Thank Heaven For '7-11' (WaWaWaWa...)

Teslamania!

It

The Art Of Life

Aftermath

Curiouser

The Wild One & The 4th Of July: Based on a 'True Story'

Today is Saturday, the 4th of July, and it reminded me
of several things-

1. My mate's Father's birthday, he would've been 86 had
he not have died of intestinal perforation last year due to
being constipated for a week before seeking medical help
despite urging from his daughter and one of her brothers.
Talk about anal retentive...

2. The 1953 Marlon Brando movie 'The Wild One' about a
bikers club, 'invading' a small town in the mid-West, with
lots of tension resulting between yokels and the B.M.O.C.,
well as it turns out was based on an actual occurrence in
1947 when the newly formed 'Hells Angels', composed mostly
of ex-military guys from the Air Force, all fighter pilots and
bombardiers who served in WW II, and afterwards formed the
motorcycle club to stay in touch with their brothers-in-arms
going on cross-country treks on their choppers.
Europe did not become home to the Hells Angels until 1969,
when two London chapters were formed after the Beatles'
George Harrison invited some members of the HAMC San Fran-
cisco to London. Two people from London visited California,
"prospected", and ultimately joined. Two charters were issued
on July 30, 1969 , ten days after the historic Walk On The Moon.
The group's official website clarifies that the name was suggested
to the founders of the club by a friend of theirs, Arvid "Oley" Olsen,
(Hmmm- any relation to Jimmy?) who was a member of the Flying
Tigers. No actual members of that squadron became members of the

HAMC.
There's a whole lot more @ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hells_Angels
to whet your appetite for starters- Vrrooom, vrrooom...

3. Last and by all means not the least is the the time in 1975 when
on a hot Summer day me and my younger brother decided to take in
a whole day's worth of various movies at the 42nd Street 'grindhouses'
which stretched from Broadway to 8th Avenue, showing all manner of
cheezy SCi-Fi, 'Blaxploitation', Horror, 'ChopSocky', and 'Soft-Core',
flicks.
Admission was only, get this: $2.00- and no questions asked as my 14
year old bro could easily get into the 'R' rated schlock movie fare with
me.
On this particular day in July 1975, we decided to go to see 2 double-
features: the heavily advertised 'Deathrace 2000' starring the just off his
successful 3-year gig on 'Kung-Fu', David Carradine, also starring in an
early pre-Rocky appearance Sylvester Stallone as 'wacky racer' 'Machine
Gun Joe', as well as Mary Woronov and her then co-conspirator Paul Bar-
tel, among others;
A Brit import 'The Final Programme' which for American movie consumers
was re-titled here as, 'The Last Days of Man on Earth'. A truly oddball SCi-Fi
film it was based on Michael Moorcock's book, 'The Final Programme', which
is part of his 'Cornelius Chronicles' featuring his all-purpose (for our purposes here)
super-hero Jerry Cornelius, and directed by Robert Fuest who earlier directed the
'Abominable Dr. Phibes' series and several of 'The Avengers', episodes of which
this movie has more than a passing resemblance to.
Then crossing 42nd Street amidst dealers hawking 'Thai-sticks', 'loose joints',
'mescaline'- all probably fake -we went into the next double-feature and
saw:
'Flesh Gordon'- the soft-core pornostar festooned spoof of the 1936 Buster
Crabbe 15 Chapter serial by Universal, which was fairly accurate as a spoof
especially some of the characters- 'Dr. Flexi Jerkoff' which was their version
of 'Dr. Zarkoff', for one who was pitch perfect -as well as miniatures by Greg
Jein and SFX by Jim Danforth.
'The Groove Tube', forerunner of both 'Saturday Night Live' and 'The Kentucky
Fried Movie', and countless other comedy TV shows and movies.
Ken Shapiro who was the genius behind all this, writer, director, producer, and
actor (!) was joined by a very young pre-SNL Chevy Chase and Richard Belzer
in this movie which purports to show a day in the life of Channel One programming.
So in the 'Spirit of '76' here's 'Kramp's EZ-Lube Vegetable Shortening 4th of July
Heritage Loaf' as seen in 'The Groove Tube':

Bon apetit!

Superman Day July 3, 1940

Dragon Moon

Living Way Out

When I was 10 went to the TWO GUYS (from Harrison) Department Store on Route 10 in East Hanover, NJ, just a hop, skip, and a jump up the road from the Sandoz Corporation's US manufacturing plant.

Now at the time I had absolutely no idea what Sandoz manufactured, as doubt most 10 year olds in '67 had any clue that their laboratories in 1938 Switzerland first synthesized LSD-25 thanks to an unforeseen fortuitous event facilitated by Albert Hoffman- not to be concused with the similarly named LSD researcher Albert Hoffer, or the ex-acidhead Youth International Party- 'the Yippies' -founder Abbie Hoffman.

No, no, all that stuff I either read about, heard about, or experienced years later in my late-teens/early-twenties.

In 1967 the only 'mind-altering' or 'consciousness-expanding' stuff I could readily access was MAD Magazine (and its imitators SiCK and CRACKED), Playboy, comic books, and the newfangled (to me anyway) Color TV.

But life just wasn't centered around these- I actually was reading real books, books that the Bookmobile would bring to the Helen Morgan School parking lot and the kids were encouraged for a modest fee- 50 cents! -to buy paperback books covering all manner or subjects and interests.

The juvenile section had the new for that time Peanuts reprints in digest book form, Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn, Nancy Drew, etc., etc., all fine books written by authors who specialized in children's fiction, although I don't believe that Samuel Clemens were writing exclusively to kids.

I wanted to buy and read the science-fictional stuff, the TV show tie-ins, the novelizations of my favorite programs of which the work-for-hire authors were no slouches either: Murray Leinster 'The Time Tunnel'- his second book with that name 'Time Tunnel' but instead of it being a sequel or Part Two of the first novel 'Time Tunnel' written in 1964, about a naturally occuring time warp that sent the book's characters to 1804 Napoleonic France, Irwin Allen had Pyramid Book commission him to write it based on his concept of 'The' 'Time Tunnel' which was a GIANT

Op Art tube that the main characters would be transported backwards and forwards in time with a lot of special effects and explosions; Star Trek by James Blish which had the cooler than cool James Bama artwork depicting Captain Kirk and Mister Spoch circa 'Where No Man Has Gone Before', and which gave you some details and backstory not seen on the screen, as did 'The Time Tunnel' and 'The Addams Family' written very wittily by another veteran Jack Sharkey;

These were all great choices and before I could plunk down my $1.50 in quarters the Bookmobile lady asked me if I could read and understand any of this stuff as thses books were not designated for a 4th Grader but insteead for a bright 8th Grader (and up) as they didn't come from the designated Children's but the Young Adult section, which was a nice way of saying teenager.

I said, 'Yeah, sure, but if there's anything I don't understand I'll look it up in a dictionary or encyclopedia."

Luckily the school's Reading Teacher chimed in and said that she gave me books in the school library that were for older grades so I shouldn't have trouble with these either, and if all else fails there is the dictionary and encyclopedia.

So I finally had 3 books, real books, albeit paperbacks, with no pictures but plenty of text.

And what stories they were!

Fast forward.

Now I'm in TWO GUYS 6 months later and while my Mother is on the checkout, I check out the POP- point of purchase display -of all their science fiction and fantasy books, and came across two that I wanted to get= the Isaac Asimov novelization of 'Fantastic Voyage' and this book:

The cover was to me very much in the Addams Family/Munsters mode and I'm certain that the late artist Ron Walotsky who painted the illustration was aware of that but hey, he probably had an artistic license.

The stories by Wyman Guin were even better and even though I don't recall the titles, some of the stories were memorable, such as the society of multiple personalities, are a girl who had magic powers ala Samantha Stevens.

Do yourself a solid treat and get this book.

Write me and let me know how you liked it.

O

Day

It's the'70s

The World Is A Carousel Of Colours

"...wonderful FABULOUS colours..."

It's

Summer

Father Knows Best

Jiggs from "Bringing Up Father"
1913 - 2000

Blue

Abbott & Costello

=°MEET° THE °MUMMY°=

Potato

Rotate

This

Rubba Dubba

View

New

Nixon's The One

Esso Bee

10

Why A Duck?

Donald's full name is Donald Fauntleroy Duck. He debuted in the cartoon "The Wise Little Hen" on June 9, 1934, so... today is his birthday.

Milk Money

I'd Love To Turn You On

The Future's So Bright, I Gotta Wear Shades

A City- IN SPACE!

A SUPER-Metropolis!!

Underground ROCKET Trains!!!

I don't know about you, but I can hardly wait!

(Sotto voce) Uh-oh...

Races

Just In Time

Charles Fort-- who was the chronicler of strange anomalies and out-of-place (and time) persons & things in the late 19th & early 20th centuries, and author of The Book of the Damned, Lo!, & Wild Talents, long before his modern successors Frank Edwards, 'Long John' Nebel, right up to our present day sleuths Art Bell and George Noory --would've been really amused.

So too would Ivan T. Sanderson, who coined the term OOPart: Out-Of-Place artifact.

In a earlier posting, "It's Electric..." it was demonstrated that the ancient Egyptians apparently had the knowledge to produce electricity as the pyramids had elaborate stonework and ornamentation which would not be possible to execute otherwise.

No fire or torches were used to light the interior of these monolithic structures-- there are no telltale black soot or scorchmarks present anywhere other than what later explorers, and plunderers, left. But the ancient Egyptians were neatniks, and why not since they used electricity 3,000 years before Edison and Tesla.
So then here's another one to ponder:

So what, big deal right?