A Plea To The Mariners

In what can only be labeled blatant disregard for a young fan, The Mariners failed to win on Sunday, despite Jackson's very polite request to do so. The 11-3 loss to the Tampa Bay Rays was a full-on stinkeroo of a ballgame. Though Safeco Field is quite clean and lovely (and offers plenty of double shots of espresso for weary fans, tired of text-messaging their friends during long, boring games such as this one), it wasn't enough to pull us out of our sports ennui.

I know it's August and The Mariners have had a terrible season, but I ask of you, Seattle fans: Where is your anger? Your bitterness? Your rage? Having grown up within a family of Giants fans, slapping their palms against their foreheads at regular intervals within the bowels of the wintery, cement-filled Candlestick Park, I can tell you that I and my fellow sufferers did not go quietly into the foggy night whenever The Giants failed to meet our expectations. Drunken fistfights, rioting and hooliganism were never distant concepts during bad seasons, especially when the hated Dodgers were in town. Oh how we despised those smug, clean-cut Dodgers and their winning ways!

Things really settled down once Pac Bell Park was built and Barry Bonds started slamming hundreds of steroid-infused hits out into the Bay in right field. The other factor in the calming of formerly rowdy Giants fans: the cost. Everyone now had to work two jobs to attend a Giants game and that left the crowd feeling spent and passive. Yuppies moved in with their increasingly complex hand-held devices, or talked throughout all nine innings about their summer homes and stock options. It was a beautiful park but it wasn't the same.

The same thing applies to Safeco. Everything is so bright, fresh, shiny and new. It leaves little room for angst, despite the sucky team. One lone voice of protest is my uncle, who finds the amounts of money spent and lost on this team, obscene. And Keith, who said, "Thanks Mariners, for making my son's first baseball game so terrible." That's why I married him. He understands my bitter baseball heart, which is only disappointment in what can be a beautiful game.

Good things: Jackson ran the bases afterwards with about two thousand other kids. That was fun until the Safeco lady along the third baseline told us to stay off the grass, which was so thick, lush and green, it was hard to comply. I didn't envy her her job.

More fun: The Seattle Tattoo Expo. We missed this because we were busy playing miniature golf and air hockey at the Seattle Center, but The Seattle Post-Intelligencer has a nice gallery of photos. Click the "See more photos" link on the page to see the large, the colorful, the lovely and not-so-lovely tattoos.
Photo by Grant M. Haller.

Northwest Road Trip Soundtrack Sampler

Just got back from a road trip to Seattle--the Emerald City. That's right: The Big...um, Emerald; soon to be renamed The Multi-level Condo Development City. I'm too tired and anguished over the deaths of the great Bernie Mac and Isaac Hayes to write much for now, so here's a sample of the music we listened to on that long, lonely stretch of I-5 between the Sleater-Kinney Exit and The Clark County Fair (all lit up, sparkling and spinning). There's still room in life for a CD collection, despite its bulk and expense.

Wanda Jackson just played in Seattle (or thereabouts, in Everett). I couldn't get to the show due to road-weariness. It's the second time this year I've missed this rockabilly great. Wanda, please return to Portland so that I may pay proper tribute to your wonderfulness. Let's Have a Party. Surely that's Glen Campbell on guitar.


Cat Power - The Greatest along with scenes from "My Blueberry Nights." Keith is the Cat Power fan. Chan Marshall's whisper-quiet voice and repetitive compositions tend to put me to sleep, but I really cherish my sleep so in the right circumstance, that's a good thing.


ELO - I Can't Get it Out of my Head. We've been grooving to ELO's greatest hits lately. Since we both grew up with a new ELO hit single every few weeks, it seems, they are definitely a blast from the past. I like how just when you're getting tired of the aggressive catchiness of their songs, they throw in some geniune string-instrument flights of fancy, and multiple harmonic hi-jinks. Shades of The Beatles, The Zombies, and the rest is all ELO original weirdness. I appreciate their package deal.


Mr. Blue Sky - Whoo! It's 1977 all over again!


The Dutchess and The Duke have been getting lots of home-town press in The Multi-level Condo Development City after opening for this summer's Fleet Foxes tour. We saw them play at Sonic Boom Records in Capitol Hill. If you want to see every great TV show or musically themed film available on DVD, simply walk along the left wall at Sonic Boom and they will be for sale there. Very hard to tear myself away from that. (Both seasons of "Big Love" - both seasons!). Here's D&D in Atlanta, folk-rockin' it up.

Tran Quang Hai - Master of the Jaw Harp

Professor Tran Quang Hai is an expert in traditional Vietnamese music, which includes the jaw harp (or Jew's harp--no connection to being Jewish whatsoever). Many fans of techno and trance have correctly pointed out that Quang Hai's musical stylings are quite trippy. Listen for yourself.







Quang Hai is also a genius with the spoons and he can really throat sing with overtones as well. I bought one of his CDs many years ago when I was looking for jaw harp music for a film I was making. Thanks to whoever stocks the Amoeba Records international bin! I'm really glad to see so many videos up of his work. He's a great conduit of traditional and modern sounds using ancient and newly modified instruments.

Hey it's Friday--celebrate with one more.


Learn more about mouth harps, double melody overtone singing, and other unusual instruments at Overtone Music Network.

Dang! I missed the 16th Annual North American Jew's Harp Festival in Bay City, OR, featuring dueling Jew's harps and workshops in ukulele, washtub bass, and the art of jamming. (Mentally kicking myself for being one week too late for this.) Perhaps I should sign up for The Jew's Harp Guild newsletter.

Heavy Metal Moments: Black Sabbath - "Hole in the Sky" 1975

My high school was a typical, California middle-class suburban structure with plenty of one-story, squared-off buildings painted mustard yellow, and lots of outdoor hallways and a quad that flooded during the winter. Once a group of seniors captured a bunch of ducks from Diablo Valley College's lake and released them into the quad so they could splash around our flooded lunch-bench area. Or maybe that was my idea and I never carried that out and I'm getting mixed up, but anyway, I do know that some other seniors kidnapped the Bob's Big Boy statue and the life-sized dairy cow statue from the last dairy in town and hung them from our radio tower on the gym roof. How festive they looked, dangling from there.

For you see, hidden in the bowels of our army-barrack-like school was a radio station that broadcasted throughout a large region of the county. Still does. 90.5 The Edge (a very unfortunate slogan, since there's nothing edgy about a suburban high school radio station, generally speaking) continues its non-commercial, student-operated ways.

When I DJ'd there, it was a 90% heavy metal station with me and another girl, Wendy Chavez, throwing some new wave and punk rock in the mix during our shows. In fact, Wendy's show was entirely new wave and was a frickin' breath of fresh air within that all-hardcore-metal teen-age boy staff. I'm talking "666 The Number of the Beast" metal 24 hours a day, with forays into classic rock (i.e., "Highway Star") along the way.

Not that I was complaining. I was an angry teenage metal-head myself. Our school had its metal girl assemblage and I kind of skimmed the surface of that before moving into San Francisco indie-rock circles. My friends and I were like that Lindsay character in "Freaks and Geeks" who tries to infiltrate the Freaks during a bout of existential depression when her grandmother dies. Though the Freaks come to accept her presence, she can never truly belong because she's an accomplished mathletics participant.

If intellectual metal is your preference, good luck my friend. Best to try out some vintage Black Sabbath, who really personified that depressed, angry teenage angst while throwing in a jazzy guitar solo once in a while, courtesy of Tony Iommi. I do wish I had hung on to my Sabotage album instead of selling it to a grateful and long-gone dealer in Walnut Creek many years ago. Sabotage is one of the best metal albums ever, if not the best with great guitar riffs on Symptom of the Universe and Megalomania; Ozzy wailing on key throughout. My favorite Sabbath song is still "Hole in the Sky" which I was playing one afternoon when Mormon missionaries rang our doorbell. If you ever want to tell a missionary to "back off Jack," this song will do the job without you ever having to say a word.



Further memories: one day when I was training a new DJ named Paul from another school district, we received a call on our request line. The guy on the phone said that if we didn't stop playing Oingo Boingo, and start playing some metal, he would come down to the station and kill us. Paul wore Hawaiian shirts and resembled Dick Van Dyke with the brush cut and big smile. He was easily the nicest person I had ever met, up to that point in my life. I gestured toward the phone, big-eyed and slightly worried. "This guy says if we don't stop playing your new wave records, he's going to kill us," I told Paul. Paul got an "oh my" look on his face and said he would talk to him. I don't remember Paul's exact words but he calmly and kindly explained that there's all kinds of music in the world and it's a good thing for everyone. And that a radio station that played lots of different music was also a good thing for everyone. The guy calmed down. "You're right," he said. "And I'm sorry. You keep playing your music. That is a good thing."

Paul--I don't know what became of you--but thank you. Your polite defense of XTC, Devo and yes, even Oingo Boingo, is appreciated.

Decorating Ideas For Every Room In Your Home - 1969

From the Woman's World Library and my local thrift store comes these great decorating ideas from 1969. My mom and I watch a lot of HGTV and one thing we've learned (besides "bring the outdoors in" and "make it light and airy") is that every room needs and deserves a focal point. But according to this book, which was somehow construed by Olsten Office Services in conjunction with Reader's Digest, EVERY object in the room, including walls and floors, is a focal point. Where then does the eye turn? I've pulled a detail or two that I think you'll agree, "make" the room--at least to my television-educated discerning eye. Now, let's get decorating!

 This first one is easy. Can you guess the accent that makes the room?

That's right! A fuzzy throw pillow MAKES the room.

This next one is tricky.

Did you guess the barf-colored throw rug? Absolutely right! Anything barf-colored and/or barf-shaped will MAKE the room!


You're on your own now. What makes this living room "pop?" (Hint: it's not the fluorescent green color scheme.)

It's all in the details and in this case, the zebra-rug's tail MAKES the room!

Whoa! A multi-colored split-level. Where to shift your focus? I must admit, my eyes are getting a wee bit tired at this point.

No problem--a round bulb-horn will always draw even a tired eye with its intriguing, decorative aura.

Oooh--beaded dining room divider. So very sparkly. So very, very spark-a-leee...

Let's move on to the bedroom. I hope you like red! And patterns!

Zero in on the quill with still-life. Notice that it's red too? You did? Congratulations on your decorating acumen.

Here's a fun look for the little ones.

Tough call, but I find that the Clark Kent eyeglasses MAKE the room!

And the bulbed horn is another perfect touch.

Oh my--a beaded bathroom divider. Clacky, clacky beads next to the toilet, clacking, clacking...

A modern bathroom to wow you.

A dish of soap balls helps soften the look.

A play-room, a game-room and with our old friend, the zebra rug in attendance, what makes it even more special?

Yes! Hotdogs MAKE a room even MORE special, every time. In fact, the ability to grill in any room, especially if it has a beaded divider, will make YOU the envy of all your friends. And isn't that why we decorate?!

If you like this dipsy-doodle style motif, check out Part 2 of this post, with more fabulous looks from 1969 (depending on how you define the word, "fabulous").

Mike Kuchar Presents at the Clinton Street Theater

I'm breaking my "no blogging on the weekend" rule to encourage Portlanders to attend the final Kuchar Brothers showing at The Clinton Street Theater tonight. George was presenting his recent films last weekend and Mike will be there tonight to show "The Fornicators" and five other shorts.

I went last night. I was sorry to miss George's nights but I've seen some of his work and Mike's is usually harder to come by. He's a tall man with a Bronx accent and heavy-duty beard. He looks at his shoes a lot when he talks but he has a really friendly, open manner. An unusual speaker who laughs at himself. There's a metaphysical, meditative air about this guy, who has lived his whole life compulsively creating art, without worrying about the "how" and the "why" of it.

Some random images from the films of last night: flowers; poetry; tawdry love cravings; older women wearing long false eyelashes, dressed as floozies and caressing their breasts, gazing hungrily at young bare-chested young men--who barely tolerate them; naked male-torsos with ice cream drips and soap suds randomly applied; penises; frustrated and failed sexual yearnings.

Also shown, a rare documentary about his aged and dying mother that was very moving.

Some tidbits from Mike Kuchar's talk:
- Filmmaking is a hobby, a vocation for him.
- He doesn't like to work from a complete script, preferring to film intuitively as he goes. But he's also a control freak who wants to be in charge of the entire production. His brother George works more loosely but Mike says the chaos of that scares him too much. He's afraid the cast would take over.
- He's worked as a cinematographer on regular film crews but found the sets "cruel" and would rather do his own thing.
- He loves drawing and painting and is particularly interested in the fairy portraits of the Victorian painters of the 1800's.
- Sometimes a person will come up to him and want to make something and he'll be inspired by their personality, or the inspiration will come from a book of poems on the set, or even a terrible wig, worn by one of his actresses. He has built a film around a black, corkscrew-curled wig.
- He edits on Macro System's Casablanca editing system, which allows him to use his TV set as a monitor, and not need a computer. He bought the latest edition after he and his brother were awarded $50,000 grant for their historic contribution to underground film.
- He says artists shouldn't worry about having money to make art because it's not the important thing.
- He doesn't make the campy sci-fi films of his 60s-era youth because he's not that guy any more. At his age, his libido tends to take over when he films. (He looked down at his shoes and laughed when he said this.)

Clinton Street Theater Kuchar Brothers trailer


Interview with Mike Kuchar, October 24, 2007


"Sins of the Fleshapoids" trailer (1965) - Mike's most famous film; written with George, who also stars.


Many of Mike Kuchar's newer videos are available for viewing (in Apple Quicktime format) at the Video Data Bank.


"It Came From Kuchar" - a feature-length documentary in the making by Jennifer M. Kroot about the Kuchar brothers. Great trailer shows George filming a giant spider attack at the San Francisco Art Institute with his class, narrating over a series of paintings featuring attacks by mythical monsters, and interviews with Mike and John Waters--ha-larious.

Mary Worth - The Dramatic Reenactment

I'm years late with this but here it is anyway in all its brilliance: a panel-by-panel reenactment of actual Mary Worth comics that ran from May 17th to June 13th, 1998. Formerly part of a series featured on the now defunct Zero TV site, someone with a kind and giving heart has edited all the segments together in one glorious filmed comic strip.

According to King Features Syndicate, Mary Worth is a well-spoken gentlewoman with a knack for quoting proverbs and surrounding herself with interesting people whose lives reflect the daily concerns of society. Mary Worth stories are not about Mary. They are about a continuing parade of people who enter Mary's life. If you look closely, you may recognize one of your neighbors — or even yourself.

Ponder the ongoing mystery.

The Golden Voyage of Sinbad - 1974

Back in the 70s, our household was a test market for a new cable channel called HBO, which specialized in playing the same movies over and over again for weeks on end. They were testing the soon-to-be cult-film market, I guess. Since we were kids, our tolerance for repetition, especially for titles such as "Blazing Saddles," "What's Up Doc?," and "Phantom of the Opera" was very high. In particular, this film, The Golden Voyage of Sinbad, which we had seen on the big screen prior to its HBO release, made us very, very happy.

Remember: no VCRs or home computers at this point in time. Just seven or eight network or local affiliate channels, and whatever minimal cable was available in your area. In our case, we could get no TV without cable, and because a house without TV was unthinkable, we had as much cable as humanly possible.

I don't know how many times we watched this but it never got old. This was the second of Ray Harryhausen's "Sinbad" trilogy. The first was the very popular 7th Voyage of Sinbad, which was made in 1958, and so didn't have such an impact on us. We saw it once in a rep theater (thanks mom) and it was great, but everyone had 50s haircuts and 50s ideas of adventure (dragons, tiny princesses, lack of facial hair). The Golden Voyage was definitely a 70s production that didn't take itself too seriously, yet was extremely atmospheric and had very high production values, despite its astounding under-one-million-dollar budget. Kudos to a crack set-design team and director Gordon Bessler, who would go on to an illustrious TV career, including another cult favorite, KISS Meets the Phantom of the Park. Besides the wonderful creatures and animated combat scenes by Ray Harryhausen (think: DYNARAMA), this film had three other things going for it:

Hellooo (and R.I.P.) John Philip Law (1937-2008). One of the most beautiful men in cinema, he made an affable blue-eyed Sinbad. You may remember him as Pygar the angel in Barbarella.


A former monk, Tom Baker quit the monastery to become an actor and went on to play Dr. Who. Here as Koura, he makes an intense and equally blue-eyed villain, who ages every time he uses his black magic to thwart Sinbad. By film's end he's such a depleted wreck he has to crawl to complete his evil tasks. A fun role with a slew of muttered nonsense words for each evil spell.


Also starring: Caroline Munro's chest. As Margiana, Munro was required to cower, faint and heave breathlessly, which she accomplished aptly. I admire her extreme composure while wearing such skimpy costumes. It's to the credit of her fellow actors that everyone was able to act around her cleavage without too much fanfare.


I mean, c'mon. At this point in the film, there must have been a full-time crew member just to spritz Ms. Munro with baby oil before all her scenes. Nice job, spritzer, whoever you were. Ignoring the exploitation factor of the sexy, half-dressed slave girl (who Sinbad is quite chivalrous around, to his credit, or to his questionable sexuality), let us move on.


If you want to be enchanted anew by this film, avoid the rest of this post, due to spoilers. I couldn't help but feature a lot of Harryhausen's creatures. This film is crammed full of world mythology with Arabic, Hindu, Pagan, and Greek references aplenty. An excellent and emotive Miklos Rosza score adds to the action and adventure (and sweat-drenched chests) that await! And now:

































As Sinbad sails into the dusk (toward an inferior sequel), enjoy these Sinbad links:

Kali dance scene. Harryhausen always gives his creatures a reality within their motion. Kali definitely moves like she's made of very heavy metal.



Here's a link to an interesting comparison of the CGI fight between Obi Wan Kenobi and General Grievous (stupid names!) in "Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith" and the stop-motion animated fight between Sinbad and Kali. I think you will agree: stop-motion has more visual "weight" to it--an alternate sense of reality, when it's done by a master such as Harryhausen.

A fan-made trailer with great clips throughout.

Read about it: Ray Harryhausen: An Animated Lifeand The Art of Ray Harryhausen

Matbergman's Ray Harryhausen Creature List - every Harryhausen creature in chronological order, set to Mon Ti by Tito Puente. ¡Excelente!