WFMU's Beware of the Blog

This Week in Sex: Steaming Cauldron of Porn

You've already seen it. The most-linked video at the moment is Good magazine's pornfotainment clip of stats about porn on the web written on the body of Kellemarie. [As safe for work as any Victoria's Secret ad, but does require ability to read.]

Internet no longer "steaming cauldron of porn." Social networking and community sites like MySpace and Facebook are about to eclipse the popularity of porn. I read this not on someone's body but in a newspaper (Canadian, but still). What is wrong with you people? Hang on, Kellemarie's neck says the most-trafficked porn site is AdultFriendFinder (NSFW), a community site for would-be naughty folks. So we can love both porn and social networking! Except I hate social networking. And I'll never believe people will trade holing up in front of their computers, which has served us for millenia, for this newfangled connecting crap.

Army of one. The Army doesn't like social-type sites, either. Go Army! They already blocked access to YouTube and MySpace, but now they've banned blogging through the Defense Department's computer network. "I put my blog on there and my family reads it," said  Lt. Daniel Zimmerman, 29. "It scares the crap out of them sometimes," he said. And the Army is just not into scaring the crap out of people.

Red, white and blue balls. If there's one thing I like more than a sexy pouch, it's a patriotic sexy pouch. Though it kinda scares the crap out of me. via georgewbush.org

How you doin'? Nerve's pickup line encyclopedia Pickupedia.

Dads and grads, Part 1. Send a fetish card. Who doesn't like getting email cards? Oh yeah, me. Don't send me fucking email cards. NSFW.

Dads and grads, Part 2. Send a penis cushion. Who doesn't like getting a penis cushion? For the man who has everything. Except a penis cushion.

Thanks Daupo, Ken, Maria, and Zoe. Do not get up from your computer, find some smut, and send it to me at amanda at wfmu dot org.

365 Days #142 - If The Bomb Falls, A Recorded Guide To Survival (mp3s)

MP3:
What To Do In Case Of A Nuclear Attack (12:28)
Supplies Needed For Survival (9:52)

First off apologies for the transfer quality in parts of this record.  Although this LP was still in its original plastic when found, there was a small hole in the plastic, in the opening of the card board sleeve which probably exposed this vinyl to whatever elements, humidity, and conditions this record was preserved in (perhaps an old moldy bomb shelter).  We tried playing this with a couple of different needles to see if it made a difference, and made do as best we could. This is why you should never completely trust when people say that a record is sealed.  If you have a better copy feel free to contribute :)

It seems hard to believe and somewhat out of character for a budget label like Tops to have a release like "If The Bomb Falls" in their catalog lineup. Talk about a time capsule!  Otis Fodder and I opened this one up together and were blown away by all of this record's contents: A book on how to build a "Family Fallout Shelter" by the Office of Civil and Defense Mobilization, another book on "Home Protection Exercises", a pamphlet on the "Facts About Fallout Protection", and a card to remind you about "Civil Defense Preparedness" and what to do "When The Warning Sounds".

I need to listen to the actual record again, but I remember it being extremely disturbing.  A true time piece, that reminds me that I can't even imagine what it must have been like to live under these threats, conditions, the unknown, and suggestions of protection to calm your nerves.  To be listened to, with the lights out, while sitting on the floor in the corner of a dark and musty basement. (Or under your bed).

- Contributed by: B.C. Sterrett (The Lost Media Archive)

Images: LP Front Cover, LP Back Cover, LP Label Side A, LP Label Side B, Wallet Sized Card Front, Wallet Sized Card Back, Pamphlet Cover, Pamphlet Page 1, Pamphlet Page 2-3, Pamphlet Page 4-5, Pamphlet Page 6-7, Pamphlet Page 8-9, Pamphlet Page 10-11, Pamphlet Page 12-13, Home Protection Exercises Cover, Family Fallout Shelter Front Cover, Family Fallout Shelter Back Cover

Media: LP
Album: If The Bomb Falls, A Recorded Guide To Survival
Label: Tops
Catalog: 1728
Credits: Narrated by David Wiley

Sensei Rebel's Archive Picks of the Week (May 14 - May 20, 2007)

All RealAudio links are streaming links from the WFMU archives.

Rock And Roll
Carter The Unstoppable Sex Machine - "While You Were Out" RealAudio from Scott Williams' show

International
France Gal - "Frankenstein" RealAudio from Bob W.'s show (filling in for Ken)
Sylvia Hall - "Don't Touch That Thing" RealAudio from Evan Muse's show

Experimental
Ego Plum - "This Is A Clavivox" RealAudio from Phuj Phactory with Ergo Phizmiz

Dance
No Luck Club - "Mais Ritmo no Carnaval" RealAudio from Put the Needle On the Record with Billy Jam

Instrumental
Zhao Liangshan - "Calling Back the Spirit of the Dead" RealAudio from Maria Levitsky's show
Gia Din (Ba Pho) - "Ve Voi Anh" RealAudio from Evan Muse's show

Ambient
Stars of the Lid - "The Evil That Never Arrived" RealAudio from Maria Levitsky's show

Fave Songs of the Week
Freezepop - "Melonball Bounce" RealAudio from Phuj Phactory with Ergo Phizmiz
Okay Temiz - "Denizalti Ruzgarlari" RealAudio from Evan Muse's show

WFMU's Home Turf

Here's a shot of WFMU's post-apocalyptic homebase of Jersey City. This blood-red sunrise photo was taken during a recent drive over the Pulaski Skyway shortly before 6 AM, while listening to the sinister conclusion of Mita's show.

In particular, her closing track ("Vampire Radio" by Douglas Breggar) [Streaming Real Audio] left me with a palpable sense of creeped-outed-ness, even as it gave way to the familiar strains of the JM in the AM theme.

Previous Jersey City-centric ramblings on this blog can be found here.

Harry Pussy (the band) Video

Behold an amazing video of Harry Pussy performing live. These clips aired on a Manhattan cable access program called "Tweeter TV," produced by a lovable yet blathering group of stoners in the 1990's. Big thanks to Rich and Tamar for digging this out of their stash!

I edited these short segments out of the full half hour episode of "Tweeter TV" on which it appeared, but if you're itching to see lots of bong hits, conversations about dinosaurs, and an extended naked interview with a member of the Murder Junkies (one of GG Allin's bands), then just tell me to bring it on in the comments section. But don't say I didn't warn you.

365 Days #141 - Edd "Kookie" Byrnes and The Mary Kaye Trio with Joanie Sommers - Kookie's Love Song + Sing along with Kookie! (mp3s)

MP3:
Kookie's Love Song (While Dancing) (2:18)
Kookie's Love Song (While Dancing) - Do It Yourself Sing With Edd Byrnes ("Kookie") (2:17)

Edd "Kookie" Byrnes was the pre-Fonz epitome of "cool" in the late 50's and early 60's. As the star of the popular television series "77 Sunset Strip", Kookie became a celebrity overnight. The series released an excellent (really!) chart topping Kookie album (which spawned the hit "Kookie, Kookie, Lend me your Comb", sung with Connie Stevens), Kookie comic books, Kookie dolls and of course, Kookie combs. Inevitably, the frustration of seeing other people but him make money with a multimillion dollar Kookie marketing campaign eventually led Byrnes to quit the show.

I wasn't born in those days and can't say I've ever watched the series (hello DVD release?!) and yet Kookie remains one of my favorite pop culture characters! I thought I was pretty well versed in all things "Kookie" until I came across this little gem of a single! This single features Kookie talking to a young doll (Joanie Sommers) while they pound the ground, with the B-Side sing-along for the dolls at home who want some "alone time" with Kookie!

I don't know about you but I've always dreamed of one day being able to ask Kookie if I really was ginchy. "That's for squares, baby. You're the skizziest!"

Like, wowsville, Romeo!

(I must embarrassingly admit I was mildly disillusioned when Byrnes wrote in his 1994 autobiography "Kookie No More" that he didn't really understand the "Kookie" lingo, since it was written for him by the series' writers and he would get "clouds in his noggin'" when fans and even fellow actors asked him to say something "Kookie".)

- Contributed by: Mimi la Twisteuse

Images: Side A, Side B, Cover

Media: 45
Label: Warner Bros.
Catalog: 5114
Date: 1959

Copyright Law explained by The Little Mermaid and Buzz Lightyear (video)

Using Disney characters to explain copyright law and related concepts such as public domain and fair use, Bucknell University professor Eric Faden produced this cartoon cut and paste masterpiece, A Fair(y) Use Tale. Poetic justice indeed, considering how Disney has tried slamming the copyright door shut behind itself, having built its own empire on the public domain fairy tales such as those used here.   

 

Thanks to KJ, boingboing, Belyaun and Stanford U.

Forrester and Kingsley Do Mozart (MP3s)

Before Gershon Kingsley teamed up with Jean-Jacques Perrey in 1965 to splice tapes and mess around with Moog synthesizers, he worked as a staff arranger at Vanguard Records. But even then he did not always stay in the background. In 1964 he released a collaboration with Canadian contralto Maureen Forrester on Vanguard, called Mozart After Hours. Since the Moog was not invented at the time, he had to make do with a harpsichord, the Vienna Academy Choir, members of the Vienna State Opera, and an unspecified "Jazz Rhythm Group". This album has never been released on CD, and according to Maureen Forrester nobody ever got paid for it. In keeping with tradition, we bring it to you in the form of 12 MP3 files, totally free of charge:

Samba Papageno | Minuet in 4 | Swing a la Turca | Lullaby for Wolfgang | G-Minor Chacha | Figaro Flip | Overture | Hold My Hand, Giovanni | Rockin' Don | A Little Night Jazz - Allegro | A Little Night Jazz - Romanze | A Little Night Jazz - Minuet and Rondo

I think this is an underappreciated gem in the underappreciated genre of wacky classics with harpsichord-driven arrangements, but that's just my opinion...

Out Of Context Cinema: 5 Minutes To Live

Follow the jump for details.

365 Days #140 - Wilmoth Houdini (mp3s)

MP3:
He Dead, He Gone Already (2:27)
Moan People Moan (2:50)

Over the last few years, I've moved closer and closer to deciding that Calypso (at least the initial version of the genre, as played in Trinidad and New York in the 1930's and 1940's) is the greatest style of music ever devised by mankind. Even in its weakest examples, the intoxicating rhythms, the wonderful wordplay, even the uniquely accented English of the Trinidadians, can lift my spirit and make my day every time. And when it's good or great, Calypso is just about synonymous with heaven for me.

The list of my favorite Calypso performers would probably include just about everyone who ever made a record in this style, but Wilmoth Houdini stands in the upper tier. Aside from having a really cool name (and although his last name was assumed, he didn't feel the need to adopt a title, such as "The Lion" or "King Radio", like most of his contemporaries), he had a vocal style which gives me chills, featuring a wicked vibrato, and an intensity on held notes which expresses as much emotion as just about any singer I can name. Seek out his performance on the vintage record "Trinidad Hurricane" for perhaps the best example.

A few years ago, I picked up a compilation album which featured Houdini as well as some other lesser lights from the genre. I was caught off-guard by the two tracks posted here today, which combine Houdini's singular style with a dixieland band from what I'd guess is the early 1960's dixieland revival period (as well as some admittedly unnecessary and overused female vocalists).

Early Calypso certainly includes a heavy Jazz influence, but this is Jazz with a Calypso influence, and I can't remember ever having heard other tracks quite like these. I particularly enjoy the drummer's work on these tracks. Houdini is past his prime here, in recordings made perhaps 20-25 years after his heyday, but his singing still gets me.

Both of these tracks are a lot of fun, despite the rather morose subject matter, with "He Dead, He Gone Already" being the clear favorite for me. This is a close cousin, lyrically, to "Stone Cold Dead in de Market", in which an abusive husband gets his rightful comeuppance, and the singer's only regret is that he'll never see the money he had just lent the dearly departed.

Although these tracks appear to appeared only on the compilation album I mentioned, there is a good amount of Wilmoth Houdini material available out there on CD, as well, and one could hardly do better than to seek it out.

- Contributed by: Bob Purse

Images: Front, Back

Media: LP
Album: Calypso Capers
Label: Waldorf Music Hall
Catalog: MHK 33-1220

Bill Thompson: King of Wimps

Bill Thompson had one of the funniest voices in history but his larynges are more famous than his name. The voice of the henpecked husband or meek little pushover in hundreds of cartoons and radio shows, Thompson's characters always seemed to be on the verge of being clobbered with a rolling pin. His most famous voice creation was the mush-mouthed cartoon hound, Droopy. He lent this well-known voice to several characters over the course of four decades, never ceasing to be amusing (incidentally, the picture on the left was harder to obtain than I would have figured - typing "droopy" into Google Image search serves up many undesirable, if not altogether stomach churning, results).

The voice that we now associate with Droopy was in use for years before Thompson first lent it to the MGM cartoon star. The Breakfast Club with Don McNeill, an extremely popular radio variety show during the thirties and forties, featured Thompson as a drooping character named Mister Wimple during the 1934-35 season. He was also called on to provide various animal noises when the script needed it (many of the networks would have an "animal mimic" on the payroll for just this specific service - jumping from show to show). Each day The Breakfast Club featured a popular(!) segment titled Prayer Time that was just as it stated - a minute of dead air while the cast and audience prayed. According to the book Don McNeill and His Breakfast Club by John Doolittle (University of Notre Dame Press, 2001) the show was a favorite of J. Edgar Hoover.

Verka Serduchka's Near Victory for Cheesy Eurodisco at Eurovision 2007 (video)

It was the global triumph of Cheesy Euro-Disco that was not to be. If not for Serbian Nerdthrob Marija Serifovic's first place finish at Eurovision 2007, Ukrainian cross-dresser Verka Serduchka would have come in first place for her performance of Dancing Lasha Tumbai:

 

This, of course, is not the Eurovision performance, which can be seen here. But this is same song which almost put Cheesy Euro-Disco on the map, and the video contains many of the requisite Cheesy Euro-Disco tropes, such as outer space sets, metallic suits and absurd choreography.

Thanks to youtuber xwsqza777

365 Days #139 - Charlie's Tune (mp3s)

MP3:
Charlie's Tune (3:40)
Charlie's Tune (Instrumental) (2:53)

There's something oddly Orwellian about this promo 45 for Charlie Perfume. Everything about it is CHARLIE. Charlie is watching you. The song just sort of meanders on and on, breaking most of the rules of economic jingle-writing. At least they managed to cram the name of their product in a zillion times. I especially like the little stop-start bits toward the end that sort of jolt you into re-focusing on Charlie, as if they can tell your attention is probably wandering by that point. The B-side is a nice bossa instrumental. Oh, and they also include a nice Charliescope on the cover so you can find out "How much of you is Charlie?"

- Contributed by: Pea Hix

Images: Front/Back Covers

Media: 45
Label: Charlie Records
Credits: Charlie's Men, produced by Charlie's Way
Date: 1974, The Year Of Charlie

Former SNL and SCTV Cast Member Languishes in Jail

This is sad and shocking news. Former SCTV and SNL performer Tony Rosato is currently living in a Canadian prison. The full story is here.

Skin Disease Or Supper?

Jump the flip to find out...

The Meaning of Life (video)

...via powerpoint presentation. This should nicely cover everything (forwarded by Andee Connors, via youtuber enlarge).

 

Film by Clemens Kogler and Karo Szmit.

Coachella 2007: Delayed Report from the Front Lines

   

Thanks to Sonja for this illuminating documentation! Outdoor rock fest-goers, please take note of this year's dress code.

Somebody Got to Get Got

Don't worry, fellow fanatics of HBO's The Wire, there are no spoilers contained herein. (And really, how could there be? I don't have cable, and am more than a full season behind in my Netflix queue. What can I say, I watch a lot of Charlie Rose, and that's about it.) But I've been wanting to throw my rabid fandom on top of the already monstrous pile of appreciation out there for what's arguably the best televisial offering of the last ten years. And what better way to do that than with a brief tribute the show's most brilliant character, Omar Little. (Played by Michael Kenneth Williams)

Cassette Culture Revisited, Part II

pHoaming Edison - Untitled 5-song cassette, 1987

I believe my first words to James Kavoussi were, "You're pHoaming Edison?  I'm in awe of you."  Though we would later play together in the band Uncle Wiggly for 10 years, I first came to know James' song craft through his pHoaming Edison cassettes submitted for the Lo-Fi show.  Though often containing only a handful of songs, every tape is a mini-masterpiece of avant-pop looniness, where Kavoussi's combination of dense layers of Fender noise, exquisite melodies, brain-worm riffage and hand-scribbled cover art presents a fully formed personal aesthetic that continues to this day.  "Phed" has made one limited LP and two CDs for the darkbelovedcloud label; the Highest Grady LP and 2nd Highest Grady CD are collections of his home recordings, while the Happy Nap Casino disc takes a more studio-oriented, full-band approach on several tracks.  There are more recent pHoaming Edison CD-Rs available too, as good or better than anything already discussed.  This tape, which just happened to be the nearest at hand, is a good five-song overview of p.E. song stylings.  James also plays in the bands Fly Ashtray and The Gimme 5.

Déficit Des Années Antérieures - La Famille des Saltimbanques, 1984 [2 .zip archives, download part 1 here and part 2 here; total size 105MB]

I've raved about DDAA elsewhere on this blog, and also addressed the fact that several of their best releases were cassette-only.  La Famille des Saltimbanques was released in a beautiful custom package by the Italian ADN label in 1984, and is among my personal top three DDAA recordings, along with their masterpiece, the Ronsard LP (1988) and their first full-length album, Action and Japanese Demonstration (1982).  DDAA's songs have a relentlessly human quality, an emotional intensity that I find lacking in much of the post-punk avant-garde, having more in common with Can or Amon Düül than with DDAA contemporaries like Nurse With Wound and P16.D4.  The two lengthy songs that make up most of Face 2 of this tape are mindbending excursions of plodding percussion and monolithic distorted guitar.  (Note:  Certain tracks on La Famille des Saltimbanques run together, and are thus ripped as a single mp3.)  As an extra treat, I've uploaded side B of DDAA's Nouvelles Constructions Sonores sur Fondations Visuelles cassette from 1991; download here [mp3, 52MB]  (If you haven't already, you can download side A via the post What's On My Micro, Part 3: Experimental Sounds, Long Tracks.)

Cleaning Out My Gifbox