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THE HAILERS, PLAY WITH FIRE at Fais Do Do 3.6.18

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                   Charismatic couple Robert Mills and April Carson lead The Hailers 

                            




↑The Hailers at the re-emerging Club Fais Do Do packed the venue with an appreciative crowd as well as packing the stage with their rather full ensemble. They continue to perform their appealing original fare that would sound at home on most radio genres. The Hailers frequently open for A List headliners in larger venues, so this was a treat to hear them in the confines of the club.

Mark McKinniss and his band Play With Fire opened, with soulful blues and a cool Commitments-style backup vocals trio. The beautiful young singer with her hair piled on top of her head is Mark's talented daughter Kaylie!





R.I.P. ROBERT MATHEU

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It is with great sadness I report the death of my colleague ROBERT MATHEU on September 21, 2018.  He is survived by his wife Sheryl and three young daughters. Robert is deservedly well known for his extraordinary photos in the late 1960s/early 1970s of his native Detroit acts like The Stooges, MC5 etc., and since then of everyone in music under the sun. 

He is seen here backstage at the Dec. 1, 2011 Iggy and The Stooges show at the Hollywood Palladium with his longtime friend from 'the good old days' Evita Corby, whom he hadn't seen in quite a while and with Allie Shields, daughter of the late Sabel Starr Shields.  (Evita was Stooge James Williamson's girlfriend in the 1970s, and Allie's mother's sister Corel Shields was Iggy Pop's paramore during the same era.) 

 Despite his professionalism, Robert always seemed to be in a great mood and loved to joke around. My friend Evita reminded me of another side of jocular Robert though. When James was onstage, she said Robert was very protective of her, since young beauties like her were a magnet to too many creeps otherwise.
↑Photo on this book cover by Robert Matheu.

↓ Robert Matheu, Ron Sobol and Kurt Ingham at Jeff Gold's Iggy Pop book Total Chaos signing in 2016. All three had photographed the Stooges live back in the day...
 
 ↓ Below, here's Robert in full raconteur mode on the right with Jimmy Recca, one of the three still living Stooges, trading Detroit war stories in Robert's house, 2010. You can go to LINK* for more details.

 Also, please go to LINK **
 to read my obituary of Robert Matheu in prestigious Detroit Rock and Roll Magazine.

*http://fastfilm1.blogspot.com/2010/08/swapping-detroit-rock-and-roll-war.html
**http://www.detroitrocknrollmagazine.com/2018/09/detroit-rock-photographer-robert-matheu.html

REST IN PEACE LEA BISHOP of Enumclaw, Washington

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Pictured above with her well nigh perfect Scottish Deerhound multiple Best in Show  Champion Rayne An Gael and 3 of her puppies that she bred (daddy was Ch. Benachie's Bobcat); below showing my Scottish Deerhound Karis: Lea Bishop. Little blurbs don't sum up such a life so well lived. She was a survivor, as both her parents died young. She was a self-taught expert on fine hounds and showing them. She was an expert seamstress at stage costuming, which was how I met her at UCLA with Kirk Henry's, John Mendelsohn's, Ralph Oswald's and my future better half Mr. Twister's band (see LINK*). She became my sighthound mentor, unusual as we both were relatively young to specialize in purebred dogs. 

She was a fine, self-taught travel photographer who exhibited often. She used her initial relocation to learn a new vocation, and climbed up the ladder until she was the head of the entire Senior Center for which she first worked in the Seattle area. She bought sports cars to drive around in Europe then imported to sell here in the U.S. to finance selfsame trip. 

She specialized in showing, breeding and enjoying Borzois, then Scottish Deerhounds where her Merridale Farm kennels enjoyed its most rousing success, then Petit Basset Griffon Vendèen ("PBGVs,") then Italian Spinones, all lovely, fuzzy hounds. Why did she quit Deerhounds, often called "the most perfect breed under Heaven" as by Sir Walter Scott?  Because, dear readers, Deerhounds are also called "the heartbreak breed," but that's a whole other story although a hint can be found here LINK**...

She had a wicked sense of humor, once suggesting naming her puppies "the terrorist litter," which prompted me to call my first Arabian horse the apropos Muslim sobriquet Idi Amin, since most would hear "Idi" as "Edie."  After the breakup of her first marriage she visited a counselor with whom she told me she felt at ease only after he sang, at her request, "People Are Strange" by The Doors.

I always had a great time whenever we got together. She sent thrilling accounts of her world travels via Xmas cards with her second husband Emerson. She gave me a fine, vintage Landseer etching of a Deerhound when I had cancer in 1984. After our mutual dog showing friend Jana Brinlee informed me how really ill Lea was at this stage of her own cancer, I tried calling all the phone numbers I had for Lea. I never got through. Now I never will. Rest in peace, Lea...
 
Below, a dog show in the 1970s, Lea with her Borzoi and our friend Debbie.


* https://fastfilm1.blogspot.com/2016/02/the-history-of-mr-twisters-rockpunk.html
** https://fastfilm1.blogspot.com/2010/10/secretariat-and-drusilla.html

REST IN PEACE PETE SHELLEY

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Pete Shelley, deceased at age 63 from a heart attack. Solo or with Buzzcocks, it was all so damn catchy! 

MEET BELLA

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Meet Bella from Southern California Golden Retriever Rescue, new friend to Gia the Scottish Deerhound and Livia the Borzoi. As depicted below, she is settling right in. All is calm, all is bright...
 


SUMMER FLASHBACK...

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While the weather forecast prognosticated 108 degrees in our area, July 6th, 2018 hammered us where we live at 117 F.  Yes, 117 Fahrenheit. (47.222 C.) A first in recorded local history. Tons of trees perished and most all of our garden was scalded from the top down. This weather can kill you similar to blizzard conditions: unless specific precautions are taken, you will die if you remain out of doors.

XMAS PRESENTS DELUXE 2018

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 We do try hard... 

 
Great Christmas! My present to my better half Mr. Twister is running around wagging her tail and chewing a bone at 
the moment.

And from Mr.Twister to me, a beautiful art book of luscious Japanese prints plus... this just published tome that's a real find: it's just so rare to find critiquing that matches the quality of its loftier subjects.  I haven't encountered music writing this vivid since Nick Kent and John Mendelssohn in their heydays.
 
A writer of constant, breezy zingers moored to an inquiring, feeling mind, author Nick Coleman is your impassioned pal on a jag about rock and soul, bon mots galore on every page, every paragraph. However, he's emotionally generous with enough depth to make this cynic get teary-eyed with his description of Amy Winehouse's "...terrible, bone-eating pain that is always the result of too much compulsion."  Recommended read, bigtime,* to remind us why we document great music...



*with this warning-- for American readers and others unfamiliar with this British scribe, there's a surprise, unhappy ending.

HAPPY NEW YEAR 2019

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As my Happy New Year gift to all, here's the incredibly wonderful Evie Sands singing "Burn Down The Mission." This 2012 cover of the 1971 classic is the closest I get to nostalgia, but still... in 1971 its author was a brand new artist, the most accomplished weirdo ever to burst onto the domestic charts, thanks to Elton John's breakout performance at our tiny L.A. Troubadour club where he was photographically documented solely by my future better half Kurt Ingham. 1971 was our local sea change from hippie to glam, I was working my way through UCLA with photo journalism, and everything seemed bright and different and new and all ahead of us baby media mogul types of the "UCLA Mafia" of future entertainment biz professionals. Flashforward 47 years. Things always will be different and new, the idea is to try to shape the inevitable changes into something good as well. Due to the inescapable logistics of our demographic, 2019 will bring more deaths and physical pain. I will be right there beside it trying to drag it back into the arenas of the good, productive and essential for myself and everyone I know. Help me now! and Happy New Year 2019 from HH...


DEMONS IN THE PUNJAB thought for 2019

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Writer Todd Everett reminded his Facebook friends yesterday of occasional gems on normal broadcast television with the unexpectedly moving monologue on fine art greatness on a Dr. Who rerun, "Vincent and the Doctor." 

Today's fare included this verity: "Ordinary people who have lived here all their lives, whipped into a frenzy to be part of a mob...We've lived together for decades, Hindu, Muslim, and Sikh. And now we're being told our differences are more important than what unites us... I don't know how we protect people, when hatred's coming from all sides." 

This was from late 2018's "Demons in the Punjab" written by Vinay Patel, also from the time travel series Dr. Who about the tragic upheavals of the partition of India and Pakistan in 1947 (two million killed, 14 million displaced,) with clear comparisons to all of today's political parties. Let it sink in for all 2019--what unites us is more important than our differences...
Background on the Partition: LINK*
Beautiful Andalusian horses standing in for India Marwari horses, with Andalusia Spain standing in for the Punjab forests and plains...
Image may contain: 1 person, riding a horse, sky, outdoor and nature*https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/aug/05/partition-70-years-on-india-pakistan-denial

'AMY' WINEHOUSE DOCUMENTARY

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Can you see who this is? You knew what she looked like when she was dressed to the nines, fancy, beautiful, retro. This screen capture isn't indicative of bad times or exploitation, just security tapes of an artist looking in a mirror, alone with herself for better or worse. It was the one travail she couldn't handle, and proved lethal. 
   
It might have been a more apropos graphic to promote the 2015 documentary"Amy"directed by Asif Kapadia. The world's rarest orchids cannot survive even a cocooned hothouse without care 24/7, such is their bargain. She should have had it since, as Tony Bennett reminded us in the film, she was that important. And yes, it could have been possible. The too far gone insane and truly evil seem to be immune, but others can saved by the right experts. A physician friend reminds me that drug and alcohol addiction are harder to cure than cancer, but herein, no one in her immediate familial relationships pushed hard for medical care.

Note that the anomalous greatness is taken for granted, and all that's left for discussion is her medical/psychological plight. Explanation: not in the film, but dead on, author Nick Coleman's phrasing of Amy Winehouse's "...terrible, bone-eating pain that is always the result of too much compulsion;" i.e., the very template for superiority in the arts.

One such observation stood right out to me. One of her producers/song collaborators pushed for medical help for her when he first became aware of the problems, very early in her career. He claimed if she had gotten longterm help way before she was a media figure and subject to a very exploitative tabloid press personal harrassment every time she went outside, the whole process may have gone easier with less resistance from her and possibly put her on a better road; i.e., those who backslide repeatedly until something clicks later on and they give it a chance.

Artists are artists because we perceive life differently. Add deep seated psychological problems that one may or may not be born with to the whole miasma, and it can incubate forces which may not have been so overpowering in more ordinary lives. The documentary then adds specific, poignant evidence, like the dismissive jailbird husband asked about Amy and quoted saying directly to the camera "I can do better."  I hope that's his fu-kin' epitaph, "I can do better..." when the inevitable catches up to his future anonymity.
 Image result for Amy winehouse documentary

EVE BABITZ WRITES FOR SOMEBODY'S SINS

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photo booth candids of Eve Babitz, collection of her sister Mirandi Babitz, images circa 1976

Eve Babitz very graciously gave a reading at my first solo music photography exhibition way back when. It was a selection from "Rosewood Casket" about Gram Parsons, although he was not so named, from her amazing Eve's Hollywood book. You want emotional, deceptively simple writing boys and girls, start by diving into this one although her second tome Slow Days, Fast Company is the most lauded of her five non-fiction works and its first edition boasts that amazing cover with the Saluki dog representing all young Hollywood beauties...

Eve's Hollywoodis laced with rock and roll, albeit discretely omitting names, and outlines so much about my demographic that has eluded capture heretofore. Los Angeles shares one gigantic parallel with London of the same 1960s/70s eras-- despite the hugeness and variety within these locales, the most interesting aspects of their social and entertainment biz' beating hearts remain accessible only if an insider invites you in. Eve's writing is an instant "Open, Sesame!" to the riches of Ali Baba's secret caves...

Happily all the fiction has been republished (there are two further non-fiction books) and is readily available negating their previous collector prices. Hollywood's Eve, her just published biography by Lili Anolik reminds why Babitz is not only important but indispensable to Los Angeles literary history.
 Image result for slow days fast companyRelated imageImage result for Hollywood's Eve 

P.S. The ex-husband of my friend, legendary singer Leslie Knauer(seeLINK*)is the photographer in question who immortalized Marcel Duchamp posing with a young Ms. Babitz, naked, both playing chess at an art museum. This cultural godhead image can still be purchased from its maker or at the Robert Berman Gallery, Santa Monica, see LINK** .  

https://fastfilm1.blogspot.com/2016/02/leslie-knauer-jonneine-zapata-ruby.html
**  https://www.artsy.net/artwork/julian-wasser-duchamp-playing-chess-with-a-nude-eve-babitz-duchamp-retrospective-pasadena-art-museum-1





Great film find: BAD TIMES AT THE EL ROYALE

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Recent rainy night film viewing: Bad Times at the El Royale, a great, underrated ensemble noir film with Dakota Johnson (pictured above strutting in vintage late 1960s finery,) singer extraordinaire Cynthia Erivo (below left,) Jeff Bridges (below right,) "Madman" Jon Hamm (seen at bottom in kitschy Madonna Inn type set design decor) which was written and directed by former "Lost" and "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" writer Drew Goddard. 

It's fun, original, violent, great looking and impossible to second guess. And then there's its great retro-late 60s soundtrack! The dvd's special features noted that Cynthia Erivo sang each take all the way through a capella while filming, sometimes up to 20 takes, with no diminishing of her high quality vocals whatsoever. Hence my qualifier "singer extraordinaire..." Special features also noted that the licensing of specific late 1960s songs was so crucial to the plot that the film's pitch to studios mandated that if they couldn't license those particular tunes, to pass on the project. 

Last trivia: the location was based on a real one, still extant although undergoing extensive renovation for modern fire safety: go toLINK *
 






*https://www.rgj.com/story/money/business/2018/08/27/tahoes-historic-cal-neva-lodge-set-renovation-old-cabins-torn-down/1111319002/?fbclid=IwAR1vjzU46l4n44Dh8QruaC7R7hdJEl8n6H12LfLUymhBn-3TILcOnGIv2EE



EVERY ARTIST'S WORST NIGHTMARE BECAME ACCLAIMED, INFLUENTIAL CULT FILM 'CARNIVAL OF SOULS'

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Screen captures from Carnival of Souls, a 1962 independent horror movie which cost $33,000 to make and ended up influencing George Romero's Night of the Living Dead, 1968. Above, the undead au carnival. Director Herk Harvey made industrial and educational films in Kansas, but had an advanced visual eye. This was his only feature film, which has become an acclaimed cult favorite, despite Harvey experiencing every single artist's worst nightmare happening during its production...
The image above was supposed to be the last shot of a long climactic sequence of the undead slowly and eerily rising from the waters of a half dried up lake next to an abandoned amusement park. But the development lab terminally wrecked that reel of film. The budget did not permit a re-shoot, even though the initial promo art for the film already featured an artist's concept of it.

Instead, the film is remembered for its myriad, arty visual touches, for being one of the few horror films of the era besides Hitchcock's Psycho for basing the plot on a credible female protagonist, and for being a successfully realized high concept of a commercial director who never again made another feature...


REST IN PEACE EROICA

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Eroica, the gorgeous Scottish Deerhound who was our playdate regular visitor owned by Paul and Mary Smith and who once body-slammed an actual deer in her native Canada, did not make it through her serious illness and passed away this morning. It was a fluke variant of a disease which destroyed organs before it even presented any other symptoms that could have been treated.

Just like there are exceptional people, Eroica was the quintessential exceptional Deerhound. In a breed known for kindness, playfulness, beauty and absolute devotion, she surpassed all expectations of these traits and immediately stood out to all as a one in a million individual. I feel like I've just lost a close friend and am crying while I write this. 

Offered above is a photo of my better half Mr. Twister and Eroica, and below, this song which recently was used in the tv series "Trust" to signify a much loved, playful, exceptional soulmate who also died too young, because I have no words...

R.I.P. KING OF THE SURF GUITAR DICK DALE

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Rest in peace Dick Dale, King of the Surf Guitar, influencer of Eddie Van Halen, Stevie Ray Vaughn and Jimi Hendrix (like Dale, also a southpaw with a Fender Stratocaster.) He also inspired Quentin Tarantino to include his "Misirlou" in the opening credits of Pulp Fiction, a great financial boon to Dale. 

My two photos of Dick Dale twenty years apart: The First Surf Revival, Hollywood Palladium, 1973 appearing with The Challengers, the Surf Punks and others. Yes, he leapt on top of the piano; secondly, staying with his beach roots, playing at the Santa Monica Pier, 1994.

My friend Donna Balancia, editor of "California Rocker," first broke the sad story of his passing in same, according to today's online "Rolling Stone," which then was confirmed by his bassist Sam Bolle. Dale, 81, had suffered from many serious ailments in his later years, despite his active touring. In his youth he was an accomplished surfer, a real one, not a gremmie...


3 ALBUM COVERS ART DIRECTED BY ME IN THE 1980s

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↑ Art Direction by me, LP cover for 1986 compilation for Warner Special Products based on a single black and white pic, photographer unknown. Do you think it's bright enough?
  
Having black over polychrome was a surf-redolent graphic technique a la art director extraordinaire John Van Hamersveld:  it never was used in mid-1960s psychedelia, hence my contrarian application to make sure it was seen as a newer compilation.

 ↑ Art Direction by me. Another deliberately over the top retro LP cover by me with a single black and white pic as basis, probably mid-1980s. It was released by one of the West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band to look like a bootleg, but it wasn't. The imprecise printing registration of the flowers deliberately emulated a Warhol-ian "Pop Art" technique, one even used today by fine artist Niagara.

Art Direction by me for 1982 LP cover, the first live Gram Parsons and Emmylou Harris music sanctioned by the estate. Fittingly, more respectful tone. The pic, reputedly by a girlfriend of a Rolling Stone, was in bad shape but restored by the Charles Wild Studio, and i did the airbrushing for the font.

2 SPOKEN WORD ALBUM COVERS ART DIRECTED BY ME IN the 1980s

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 ↑ Art Direction by me for this Harvey Kubernik produced spoken word album, released in 1988 by New Alliance Records. I've always liked to mashup fonts for maximum effectiveness. The most thrilling part of this job for me? The chance to photograph Richard Berry, the actual songwriter of the immortal rock classic "Louie, Louie" flanked by the selfsame poets Wanda Coleman and Michelle T. Clinton, below ↓

↓ The first graphics job I did for Harbey Kubernik with his premiere spoken word compilation of L.A. poets album in 1982. Artists included Charles Bukowski, Wanda Coleman, Velvert Turner, Pleasant Gehman, Dave Alvin, Tequila Mockingbird, Richard Meltzer, Danny Sugarman, Chris D., Geza X, Joanna Spock Dean, Kari Krome, Danny Sugarman and about five dozen others. Harvey was the first  to discover, while pouring through contracts at MCA  Records, that just because a company has licensed the music of an artist, this didn't extend to spoken word performances. Whereupon he immediately started recording all sorts of actors and musicians for these compilations. Henry Rollins, Exene and others got the credit for slam poetry, but the progenitor was Harvey Kubernik.

↓ I was proud of this logo I designed for Harvey Kubernik's record company.

R.I.P. GARY STEWART, MUSIC MAN

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Another damn obit. But this one is so sad. I photographed Gary Stewart as a record-happy young'un for an early Rhino cover (seen upper left, my wrestling pic too.) Rest in peace, lifelong music appreciator who ended up at Apple iTunes. Thematically cogent, Gary and the whole Rhino staff grasped the subtle nuances of then unfashionable American professional wrestling in the early 1970s (that's Andre the Giant sitting on a hapless grappler.) 

Gary's persona for this release was "Little Stevie Weingold," and the portrait was staged to look as amateurish as possible. This was Rhino Records' second ever record album released. I photographed and designed Rhino's #s 3,4 and 5 releases as well...

MY FAVORITE TV WESTERNS' HORSE!

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Image may contain: 1 person, smiling, outdoor Oddly, my favorite show for watching horses during the 1950s and 60s glut of TV westerns wasn't The Lone Ranger or Roy Rogers, it was The Cisco Kid. It used some amazing horseflesh, including Cisco's showy tovero pinto and his sidekick Pancho's Palomino Loco.  "Oh, Ceeeesco!!" was their clarion greeting.  

I wasn't a fan of western riding even at a really young age because it seemed unnecessarily harsh compared to English equitation, not knowing how abrupt stunt riding was in those days. Hollywood Hoofbeats original and updated books by Petrine Mitchum, an equestrian and child of old Hollywood, traces the history of oversight of animal welfare in films and tv.  Boy, was it needed... I now fathom the difference between the two styles when ridden correctly-- SUV or truck for ranch work, sports car for fun!

Trivia time: The Cisco Kid was the first TV show to be filmed entirely in color, and to have Hispanic actors in regularly starring roles. Its star Duncan Reynaldo was actually Romanian, but Leo Carillo who played the Kid's sidekick Pancho was a multifaceted native Los Angeleno of Spanish heritage (his great-great-great-grandfather arrived in San Diego in 1769 in the Portola expedition from Spain.) Carillo had been a professional cartoonist for the San Francisco Examiner, played his famous Pancho role when he was 70 (!) years old, was a Republican, and was such a generous preservationist and conservationist (he frequently permitted Boy Scout groups to camp on his 4,000 acre Carlsbad ranch) that Santa Monica's famous Leo Carillo Beach is named in his honor.

Duncan Reynaldo, Diablo, Leo Carillo and Loco

The Cisco Kid character was based upon the O. Henry short story "The Caballero's Way," and he wasn't a good guy at all, but joined Paladin (Have Gun Will Travel) and Hopalong Cassidy as tv's first black clad anti-heroes who nonetheless had a sense of fair play and were always doing good. End of today's nostalgia post...

DUNCAN HANNAH'S 20TH CENTURY BOY

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Duncan Hannah's 20th Century Boy-- very enjoyable read. Nostalgia for those of you who came of age in NYC in the 1970s, nostalgia for me of my own art school daze, and great observations of the author's interactions with  the era's creative movers and shakers. 

As a good looking, trendy young fellow with actual talent, good reporting skills and snarkily realistic attitude to all that some of us grew up with and took for granted regarding sex, drugs and rock'n'roll, Hannah is just the character you want to follow around in his candid and Candide adventures. In contrast to his East Coast atmosphere, my photo is in today's warm California sun.
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