dates

be sure to 'click to enlarge.'

here is yet another light and funny telling comic strip from the master, Mr. Dave Berg. i loved it then, and i love it now. its just so beautifully American.

the sundays: joy -video

this is a sound i know i would be sick for if i was stranded someplace without it.
the lilting marriage of harriet wheeler's voice and the rest of the music has a clean sophistication i fell in love with... a long time ago. still, i think this is one of their finest and most intelligent, patient, crushing tracks. it kills me.

machine

this is a very recent collage jean-lucien sent to me. i haven't had it long enough to have too much to say about it, except the fact that the genius is obvious. such surgical presicion, such crucial desicions when it comes to cutting. i don't know too many surgeons that are a scalpel and a saw at once. and the stitching is silky, world-class... a millionaire's operation. the best. dig it.

the crew

this is the crew of the commercial towing vehicle, 'the nostromo,' at breakfast. no, wait, i think this might actually be their 'last supper.' this was a screen capture i managed to snag and trick to my eye's satisfaction. to be honest, the set and costumes and casting did most of the work for me. (click to enlarge)

seventeen

she's sexy and seventeen... actually, it's 70's model ingrid thulin. i actually had a copy of this issue. it fell into my hands by sheer accident. 17 magazine was so much bigger in those days... like, close to the size of a newspaper. jean-lucien and i found a bunch of them hidden away someplace in the house in morganton, nc. i'm sure i read it completely. thanks to this wild machine, i get to see and dig on the cover again. miss thulin can also be seen in the mostly-forgettable 'the last tycoon,' ...an elia kazan film from the mid-to-late 70's co-starring a young robert de niro. i love this cover. and i miss that house. i'll probably never see it again.

going down

this was a collage i constructed onto the back of one my marbled notebooks. you really have to 'click to enlarge' to appreciate the piecework that went into it. there are too many featured players to mention, but at the bottom some of you will no doubt recognize the practially-in-drag mr. johnny depp as willy wonka. i was keeping in mind that weightless feeling one gets when descending too fast, either in an elevator, or in car going over a big hill... that flutter under your stomach that's not unlike the feeling of being in love. if there's a theme to this piece, i suppose that's it. dig it.

i am michael caine

tonight's featured smoker is the always-cool mr. michael caine. has he ever been un-cool? i guess his turn in the campy 'the hand' is about as close as he ever got. michael caine is one of those blokes i've been in love with for as long as i can remember. favorite roles? hey, 'deathtrap.' where else can you see him lay a gay kiss on superman himself? something about him is so definitively English. i've never really been able to 'do' his voice convincingly, but hey. he won an oscar for best supporting actor in woody allen's 'hannah and her sisters' for the lovestruck, romantically confused, chain-smoking husband of mia farrow. that may be his finest role, now that i think about it. madness even wrote a song for him. unfortunately, i can't find a version i can post. but dig it on your own if you can.

les diables

this is a very cool collage jean-lucien made from butterfly wings, a french 'the devils' poster, and sarah douglas. you may know sarah douglas better as Ursa from 'Superman II.' i like the flutter and flow of this one. jean-lucien has an impeccable eye for color harmony and movement. i've always liked this one, (well, to be fair, i like them all.) this one seems to implode with cool. dig it.

athens

this is the tremendously gifted mike millis, bass player and one quarter of the pen behind the songs of r.e.m. they are from athens, georgia... as many of you know. i lived for a while in georgia. in augusta. it was sort of like the honeymoon after my 13 years of fomal education. its a hot place. slow people... florid with golf and barbecue and ice cream. it was the closest to living in surburbia i've ever come. it was, in retrospect, bittersweet, but i wouldn't trade those months for anything. it is hard for me to hear mike mills sing and not grow misty about that time in my life. alone, playing house, with my only love. in my opinion, mike's finest song vocally, is 'texarcana.' unfortunately, i don't have access to that track at this... precise moment.

boys on film

...mmm, what a predictable play-on-words when you're talking about duran duran. this is, of course, simon le bon. i would guess around 1984, the 'ragged tiger' tour. they came through greensboro, but we didn't make it. still, luckily the highlights of the tour are well documented in the stylish, fast-paced, and fun documentary 'sing blue silver,' which is available on dvd, and well worth whatever they're charging if you're a duran fan and are on the fence about shelling out the bucks. the 'mint-flavored lip salve' scene is a cinematic triumph.

brat

this is what is commonly referred to by morrissey fans as 'the brat shot.' according to my calculations, this was sometime around the 'glamorous glue' era. he looks so cocky and hot. you know he had a hell of a hot and butch band behind him, all his rockabilly boys. i've always liked this shot... it has a slick shimmer about it. lovely.

va-voom!

curves, yes... just look at all that ivory flesh. this is, of course, a never-before-seen-by-me shot of the often-great marilyn monroe. girls, doesn't that look inviting? guys, don't you just want to dive in and sink? what a figure, what a dress... oh well, i don't really have any more elevated comment for this shot except... yowza!

covered

here is the album art for maurice jarre's hypnotic soundtrack.

overture

'...we can't all be lion tamers...'

have you got a straight?

tonight's smoker is a young paul mccartney. he's so pretty, and even makes the vile cigarette look good. so, here's to the paul that once was. quite frankly, i don't think he exists anymore. hey, paul is dead.

the beatles: ticket to ride - the beatles

zhou? i want you to listen to this and let me know if you like it. don't be afraid to tell me if you don't. we'll talk about it. i love you.
what can i say? i just wanted to hear it. from the film 'help!'

holy cross

here is a still i shot from the monumental ken russell rock n'roll opera, the shocking 'tommy.' it is positively in my top five films of all time. this shot comes from the hallucinatory 'amazing journey' number. all songs were written by pete townshend, a great self-proclaimed bisexual. this fractured genius film dropped into my lap when i was less than ten. and it did a great deal to define my sense of fantasy and spare storytelling. it scared the hell out of me, but i loved every minute of it. even so young, i knew the difference between an intelligent, quality scare and just some dumb scare.

suspicion

"...well, its an interesting combination of elements... making him a... tough little son of a bitch."

back georgina

...that's an order. here's a lovely lush screen shot jean-lucien managed to snag from the ken russell film 'mahler.' it showcases the intricacies of the costume design and the grace of the back of her neck.

even from a composition standpoint, it indicates jean-lucien's sense of framing.

i think its beautiful.

game hunting

this is marsha hunt. she was a level-headed gal who worked in hollywood in the 40's. she modeled, she acted when she could, and even wrote a book... the title eludes me at the moment, but i'll bet if you entered her name you could find it on any of the crazy book-and-or-auction sites. she had a pert, smart, one-of-a-kind face. i don't remember where i found this picture of her, touching up her curls with a rat-tail comb. perhaps its a blessing she wasn't more famous in the conventional sense. i'll always remember her posing and frozen and perfect. dig her.

star hits

duran duran, ladies and gentlemen... and those of you that aren't quite sure. ha ha... here is a cool pink shot of the five heads and five hearts of beating duran duran. (those are simon le bon's words, not mine.) still, these are the three boys who stole my heart almost 25 years ago... along with two jokers they hired to play lead guitar and drums. my soap-pink walls used to be papered with their faces. and even now, i still love all three of them. ...roger and andy, mmm-not so much. (and for those of you who don't know, duran duran, are: clockwise from the top... nick rhodes, (in the headband), john taylor, roger taylor, andy taylor, and simon le bon.

check please

here's a lovely shot of the worldly and wise mrs. robinson. the leopard coat was a perfect wardrobe desicion. she's like a cat about to pounce on her innocent prey. for those of you who don't know, its anne bancroft. and she's heartbreaking in the iconic role. i think she's beautiful. i catch myself sprouting grey hairs, and i don't care. meow, what a cat. she's cunning, she's cutting, she's at times, even cruel... but she gets what she wants.

performance

the only performance that makes it, the one that really makes it, that makes it alll the way... is the one that achieves madness... roight? yes this is a production shot from the shockingly cool 1970 film 'performance.' directed by ronald cammell, photographed by the Great Nicholas Roeg, and starring mick jagger, james fox, and anita pallenberg. its groovy, its bloody, its trippy, its sexy... all ingredients for a first-class ride. this lobby card isnt the best shot i could've chosen, i know. it doesn't do the stunning photography justice. and the story is hot and cocky and smart. london underground gangsters... london underground beatniks... with one magnificent musical number. mick launches into the bluesy, raunchy 'memo from turner' somewhere in the second half. its a must. dig it.

miss julie

this is a lovely ethereal still from the 1938 movie 'jezebel.' i think it was directed by william wyler. wait, let me check. (checking... thank god for IMDB.) hey, i was right! sigh... i usually am. anyway, the face is that of bette davis. looking at her here, its hard to believe some of the studio heads at the time thought she was too plain to be considered a proper leading lady. they called her 'the little brown wren.' i've always thought she was gorgeous. and her talent was immeasurable. this is one of her most highly acclaimed roles; as the spoiled headstrong southern belle, julie. the ballroom scene is an unforgettable stab of storytelling. by the way, the man's shoulder belongs to henry fonda.

vintage

who doesn't love playboy? ...vintage playboy, especially. any issue put out before 1984 is welcome in my collection. that's when the girl had curves, ivory skin, and hair in all the best, bunnyish places. i supplemented much of my early education with playboy. my brother and i used to line up centerfolds on the hardwood floor of our bedroom and hold our own little beauty contests. we read every profile, and to this day, i can still remember names like lisa welchel, candy loving, and ola ray. the comics were great, too. dedini, smilby, leroy neiman, and of course, nagel. so here's to all the gorgeous gals, and thanks to my mom, who was bright enough to know that a picture of a beautiful naked girl never hurt anybody.

primus: over the falls - video

if you don't hear something catching in the first 100 seconds, then you're probably not going to.
still, i find their sound hard, tricky, intelligent, and dirty. and i like it.
this throbbing moody track caught me on its barbed hook at once...
yes

comes stays lays prays

this is an older one, but i love it. how can you not love the fast candy-apple red of damone and devo and pretty miss carroll baker on the end? my mate conjured this one for a notebook embellishment. its so hot and lovely.

swimming

just looking at this one, i smell the chlorine of public carolina swimming pools, and that wild and lovely hunger one would feel after swimming, then being doused in the cool AC of the public library for two hours, then carried home in the army green station wagon, then treated to 'just right' mustard hot dogs and fans going top speed in the high point bedroom windows, tuning in the FM, dreaming of cakes, gifts and revenge.

information

...information retrieval. tonight's ian holm appears in the guise of mr. kurtzmann from terry gilliam's wildly prophetic and orwellian 'brazil.' i daresay the title is the most original and daring aspect of the entire production... but its still a film that tells the truth... the truth that there is almost nothing so vile and indefensible as the reading another one's diary. however, it must be made clear that the sin comes not merely from reading, but in holding the content against them. that may be the modern Original Sin. so... speaking as one who has had to stand by and see thier letters violated...i say: how dare you, and good luck deciphering our code. still, i maintain kurtzmann is a soft and complacent cog. i honestly can't blame him... there are times when the easier road is the right one.

vampire art

and yet, here is another notebook banner. it features ronan vibert, two ways! man, i must be sitting on literally hundreds of these, and they're so groovy! i love the shades of pink we manage to come up with, and god bless ronan vibert.

crowd pleaser

here is a slice of emerald notebook art featuring two hand-snapped stills, and other embellishment.

needless to say, the featured players are davy jones and eddie (i met him) izzard. dig it.

mucha: des arts

here is a somewhat rare work by The Master, Alphonse Mucha. i once had the marvelous opportunity to see an exhibit of his original works in Raleigh, NC. it was something. wow. i mean, when i looked close enough, i could see pencil erasures and proof his hands had been there. it was... really something. and i have to thank Kathy for going with me, and understanding why i cried.

velvet smoking

tonight's featured smoker is john rhys-meyers as brian slade, lighting up and getting ready to '...alright, lads?' cruise some schoolboys. its a great shot that made it onto one of my covers, a long time ago.

ahhh, chicks

i miss the golden days of playboy. if you want to recognize how much the times have changed-in-the-way-of-sexiness, just take a look at those panties. modest, tasteful, but incredibly sexy. i remember this cover from when i was a little girl. i love all the long hair and real panties!! I should start a movement to 'bring real panties' back into style. you'll never be able to convince me a thong is sexier. have you ever tried to feel off a girl through a lacy, limp, scratchy, fancy thong? well, maybe its just me, but i'd rather feel the slickened-down-the-middle pillow soft moistness of Dacron. who's with me?

straight time: bank robbery

this is a scene from the 1978 film 'straight time,' starring dustin hoffman and harry dean stanton. i've never seen it, but i want to.

valmont

its late... i wasn't planning on adding anyting, but a little valmont never hurt anybody. its such a shame that modern men aren't allowed to go around looking like that...with the whole dangerous liaisons powder and breeches and black satin ribbons and all that. god knows we girls spend a hell of a lot of time looking good, and dopey men think they can just put on a backwards ballcap and a hooters t-shirt and they expect us to be cool with that. i mean, put forth a little effort... peacock for us, we love it.

captain

here is an appetizer: a flash shot of captain quinn, sword up, and ready.

fight

this may well be my 'nightly ash.' i saw this picture long before i saw the movie. after seeing it, i almost wish their violent crescendo would've lasted about 30 seconds longer. sigourney and ian holm seem to be pretty well-matched, physically...and it would've been really hot to see them get down to the biting and kicking and pinning. i realize that probably reveals something wicked about me, but what else is new?

goin' down

i realized today that three days ago (i think) was micky dolenz's birthday. i can't remember how old it said he was, but i didn't want to let an event like that slip by unmarked. i must admit, i have enjoyed endless hours of safe, groovy, carefree fun thanks to the Monkees. micky, (or 'the micker' as i call him almost exclusively) always cracks me up, and reminds me that life shouldn't be taken too seriously. but he can be serious, too. his agile mysterious vocals on such tracks as the nesmith-penned 'daily nightly' are unique and strident. his soaring starring role in the classic 'pleasant valley sunday' is bright vocal pop gold. so here's to 'the micker,' ...always cool.

vrooom!

here's a shocking pink bookmark my mate jean-lucien made a long time ago using pictures of t.e. lawrence and his motorcycle, pink stars, and princess leia organa. it looks fast and groovy and great. jean-lucien manages to coax just the right shades out of colors. the shade of pink is very 'revved-up,' which is so fitting for the fey horsepower of 'el lawrence.' dig it.

nosy

here's a great strip from the one and only dave berg, weighing in, waaaay ahead of his time, on the plastic surgery thing. i just can't say enough about his persistence and consistency. for so many years, he was perfectly funny, and his drawings were a window into an era of america i was born into, but barely. through his 'lighter side,' i learned so much about the recent past of american domestic life. although funny and light, he always told the biting truth. here's to you, dave... wherever you are.

right

tonight's featured smoker is mr. harry dean stanton; or more accurately, brett. and i probably should know his 'title' by now, but i confess i haven't 'geek' dug around for that information yet. anyway, here he is alongside ripley, rolling cigarettes. i think its impressive when someone can 'roll one' properly. i've seen some hand-rolled jobs that look like a python swallowed a rabbit. but that's beside the point. for some reason i've got a bit of a crush on the seemingly slow-witted brett. maybe its a 'wrong side of the tracks' thing. maybe its something along the lines of telepathic pheromones...if that makes any sense. in any case, tonight, brett gets the 'full shares' of my attention. and a curious kiss good-night. right.

garnett

yet another bloke in my 'ugly-is-the-new-cute' movement. this is richard garnett. he portrayed the exaggeratedly uncool and awkward character gussie finknottle in the 'jeeves and wooster' series. i managed to capture his striking profile in black and white. he has such fine skin, and he looks like he'd be a hot and fervent kisser. also, i like glasses and long noses and black hair. at least in this case. (this frame from the episode 'the hunger strike.')

e=mc2 : big audio dynamite

the lion's share of the credit goes to mr. nicholas roeg.

mythology

here is perseus presenting the head of medusa to the kraken in order to release andromeda. i have always had a waltzing affinity with greek and roman mythology... and i have never been completely sure why. perhaps i steered towards the hard certain star of early civilization...perhaps i was enchanted by the magic... perhaps it was my deep belief that those two forces needn't be mutually exclusive. who knows? still, this slide suggests the deliverance of a princess. anyone can dig that, right?

back pages

here is a striking front cover to one of my partner's books. i don't remember how long ago it was. i think the picture of the back of adam ant's head just surfaced and begged to be used. it looks great. i like every little ribbon and braid.
definitely cover-worthy.

singleminded

'...the singleman party.' for those of you who don't know, this is a captured-by-me still from one of the most finely-stitched and darkly hilarious movies in the last 50 years; Mike Nichols' 'The Graduate.' i think you might have to watch the movie to get the joke, still... anyone who's ever had a clandestine affair, (and there's more of us than most of us would like to admit) its so cruelly real its laughable.

postale

i needed a thread of pink, so i chose this effervescent notebook embellishment jean-lucien assembled largely out of pieces i provided. i love it. i wish i could tell you who the guy with the hat is, but honestly, i have no idea. he just popped up one day, and was begging to be used. i think he's found a good home, nestled in the bubbly silky framing of my partner's genius eye.

pondering partridge

its late. not to undercut the brilliance of andy partridge, but i needed something black and white to stamp this letter off for the night, hence, the nice and tidy shot of andy, posing with cutlery.

oom-pah-pah -the 'oliver!' soundtrack - shani wallis

"...careful, bill...please! no violence...!"

the good witch

this is a still of glenda jackson from ken russell's 'women in love.' i have a lot in common with her character gudren. i think a lot of smart girls do. i love the orange dress and the salute she's given by sooted miners: '...you're first-class, you are!' ...and she is. aren't we all?

science!

he blinded me with science. all those tubes and wires and careful notes... and antiquated notions...

ahhh, you know the rest.

pin-up

here is a dreamy shot of duran duran, circa 1982-83. who wins this horserace? i'm tempted to give it to john. yeah, considering i remember other shots from this session, i think i have to give to john. (and for those of you that don't know, john is the one in the hat.)

swoon

here is a lovely and flowing complex piece jean-lucien sent me well over a year ago. it works on so many levels. my partner's almost supernatural talent for color harmony must've been born from living blind in his formative years. when your vision is hazier than a monet, colors are all you have to cling to. i should know; my vision wasn't too much better. yes, i still love this one. its got a tangling to it... hanging vines and florid jungle blossoms. something like that. a little dangerous.

randy

this is a screen shot i managed to shoot and trick to my taste. its the terribly sexy hugh laurie in the role of bertie wooster. this shot is like, 'blink-and-miss-it,' but thanks to my quick hand, i landed it. it works better in black and white. and i love the particular shape of the 'stash... its jusssst sleazy enough to be... umm, just a little bit on the...dare i say it? ...porno actor side? no wonder jeeves had a big problem with it. hey, the ladies loved it, though!

sweet sylvie

if i start gushing over sylvie vartan, i'll be here all night. i wish her music and video was easier to get over here. thanks to this wild invention, i have enough to live on for a while. i don't remember where i found this image... i'm pretty sure its an album cover. she looks so simple and cute, but i suspect there's a toughness there that you wouldn't want to tangle with. her voice is capable of plunging to some deep lows, if you listen. anyway, i love this cover. so pretty... so sweet... so cool.

countrylife

here's another notebook strip featuring cary elwes and stephen fry. the slashfic almost writes itself, you know? slashfic... sigh.