partytime, english style!

umm, okay... if you were asked to name two blokes who really knew how to party, english-style, it seems almost impossible that you'd come up with two names other than mr. keith moon, and mr. oliver reed. i ran accross this little gem whilst pearldiving the other night. and umm, do i really even have to comment on this? like, i think it speaks for itself. let's see... we've got a grassy english field, some silly hats and costumes, a bottle of british booze hangin' on, and of course, messers reed and moon, doing what they do best; namely, raising 'silly' hell in the name of the jolly ol' union jack! i have no idea when exactly this picture was taken, but it looks like mid-70's, judging by the way they look and stuff. probably sometime around the filming of 'tommy.' looking at a picture like this... it makes me wonder. how did this day begin, anyhow? like, at what point did one of the blokes call the other and say, KEITH: "...oy, ollie...i've got a smashing idea... let's dress up like jesters and cheap vaudevillians, grab some full-strength intoxicants, and go run around in broad daylight, dressed like freaks, and get someone to grab a camera and make sure there's photographic proof of our drunken antics!" and oliver would be like, OLLIE: (in his deep raspy voice) "...count me in." god bless them. i love those two. shooting stars, man. (click to enlarge)

oui, it is my new book, no?

oui, it is my new book YES! so yeah, thanks to my beloved jean-lucien sending me a sweet tasty bundle of new picksh, i was able to get my new dazzling volume of fantasy and laughs off the ground tonight. well, i just got the cover on. and i like it. let's see, as the Stars we have the gorgeous and ethereal miss georgina hale, as the sinning-and-seeking-absolution phillipe on the right, and mr. oliver reed as the trying-to-be-holy-yet-tormented-by-temptations father grandier on the left. the image is of course, from the ken russell masterpiece 'the devils.' (and wow, wow, wow.... if you can get your hands on an uncut copy of the film, then man, strap yourself in and get ready for the searing carnal ride. truly, not only is it one of the finest films ken russell has ever made, i daresay it is amongst the finest films of all the 1970's. it is as gorgeous as it is hellish and shocking.) and um, the title word, 'oui,' seems to speak for itself. it is an exotic and positive word. although i must admit i chose it for the look of the word as much as i did for the meaning. i have great hopes for this book, which was hatched on the first day of june. so okay, now for the medallions below the main picture... let's see, what do we have? from left to right, we have the late, great, tough and sexy mr. joe strummer, smoking a tough 'don't care' cig; then we have some random retro aqua lighting; then hey! let's hear it for the disco scene, because we've got a shot of the curvy and tough annette from 'saturday night fever,' lighting tony's disco cig. ('...but you'd ask me to lay down...') then we've got the lovely and legendary orchid-colored couple of lucy and dougie from 'sgt. pepper's lonely heart's club band,' doing 'you never give me your money,' ; and after them? well it's the marvelous karl malden as mitch from kazan's 'a streetcar named desire,' peeking through the drapes. then next up, in the blue circle, there's the loving sparring couple of 'empire's' princess leia and han solo, bickering in the south passage of Hoth. and last, but certainly never, ever least... we have the silver-haired and handsome, painfully sexy mr. ian holm, as tom frost in cronenberg's buggy epic 'naked lunch,' of course based (somewhat) on william s. burroughs great book. so here it is lovers, dig it... the clutch of blank pages that will soon be filled with literally thousands of separate inkstrokes. its always an odd feeling when i start a new book. like, i always find it hard to believe i'll ever get the whole thing filled up... but hey, i've got about nine year's worth of books like this, all full... so i guess it's all a matter of uncapping that pen, and starting with the first date, the first quote, and that first bit of wit that makes my darling laugh. thank you God. Seriously. (click to enlarge) (oh, and i've since realized that annette's not in fact lighting tony's cig. just wanted to correct that.)

oliver wild

man, i have zero original or amusing ideas tonight... which kind of sucks-for-me, 'cause i'm not that tired. still, i don't like too many days to go by without posting anything, so tonight's post is very '...whatever.' i mean, don't get me wrong, i'm a huge fan of mr. oliver reed over here, but... apart from this picture being quite flattering and groovy, i don't have a hell of a lot to say about it. yeah, it was taken in the 70's, around the time he did 'women in love.' at the height of his looks, i daresay. but he's not looking particularly 'drinky-the-drunk-guy' or anything... like, its not some 'super-candid' shot of him being led away from a pub by the british cops, after getting into a fist fight over a darts dispute, with like, a bloody nose and like, urine-soaked dark areas down the insides of his jean-legs. no, this is just a cool groovy shot of The Man himself. sleep well, oliver. you deserve it. (click to enlarge)

a good reed

yeah, this is just straight-up hilarious, if you ask me. i've been sitting on this one for a long time. i almost don't think i need to comment on it. i mean, i think the humor speaks for itself. the title is just like, well... it sounds like i or jean-luc made it up. but seriously, i found it just like that. i'll bet it's an interesting book, though. i think its been pretty well established that the late, great oliver reed knew a thing or two about 'raising the ol' pint,' as it were. like i suspect the chapters would be something like, 'the night i got into a fight,' then like, two chapters later, 'yet another fist fight,' then two chapters later, 'drunken fisticuffs in the midnight hour,' then one chapter after that, 'you should see the other bloke.' then the next one like, '...pardon, constable.' i'll bet the book is almost impossible to find, even today with our robot-auctions and booksellers named after south american rivers. god bless, oliver. sleep well.

...oliver reed's!

'...all major credits cards...accepted!' okay, so i apologize for opening with an 'in-joke,' i realize that's rude. but hey, judging from the photograph, it does look like we're stopping in at oliver reed's. "...jus' for...a lit'le noightcap...!" hey, i don't mean to bag on oliver reed. i can proclaim with dead seriousness that i am one of his biggest fans. i think its fair to say the first thing i saw him in was 'tommy,' on HBO when i was a kid. even then, i remember being frightened and impressed with his brooding, intense, almost psociopathic portrayal of 'uncle frank.' in more recent years i've seen him shine with true acting ability in gems such as ken russell's 'women in love,' and in ken russell's horrific, gorgeous masterpiece, 'the devils.' but in this shot, it looks like he's working on the very challenging role of 'kicking back' and 'taking it easy.' hey, are those some serious cushions or what? and wait, why is he opting to get shitfaced with all that natural sunlight coming in? hey, maybe he's on a BBC talk show. and, if that's the case, i'm sure they realllly appreciated him slurring-it-up-live. hey, honestly, god bless you, oliver. peace.

k is for ken russell

yes, i realize i've already given ken adequate praise on the planet, and often. but i couldn't let the k's go by without at least letting him have a slot. so, i wanted to post something obscure from one of his best films. so, a few hours ago, i threw my 'tommy' dvd in, and took some shots. i saw this frame of tommy's mother, (ann-margret) and step-father (oliver reed) primping and preening in the hallway just before going out for a night on the town, leaving tommy in the 'care' of his sadistic cousin kevin. (paul nicholas.) i liked the shot because it keenly depicted the arrogance and self-interest that frank and nora have settled into at this particular point in the story. they haven't given up on tommy's plight altogether, but they have no problem letting him 'just be' as they watch the telly, eat tv dinners, drink booze, and step out to escape their bleak and hopeless 'family life.' i also like this shot because it handily illustrates ken's eye for the theatrical. he has a great talent for getting his actors to go jussst a bit too far, just a bit over the top, in order to relate a mood or nuance or feeling. as in the best silent movies, the facial expressions in ken's films are often exaggerated, as are mannerisims, etc. but i like it. this movie is one of his best. (click to enlarge)

frankly, no

that is the answer to little tommy's question concerning his mother's new mate, uncle frank : "did he fight in the war?" you can almost hear oliver reed's thick flat cockney accent answering with a smug and gruff, '...not bloody likely." this is a shot i never tried to snag before, but i'm surprisingly pleased with the way it turned out. i managed to get frank like, mid-sneer... and the colors in the child's bedroom still came through. i actually split the shot in half and tricked each side separately. but it worked, i think. what a great shot, ken. it says it all. you are the best... even after over a thousand screenings, it still gives me chills. literally.