glam homework

yeah, i find it almost physically and psychologically impossible to keep any kind of notebook for any considerable length of time and NOT decorating it. so, here's an example of some more of the wild and ink-consuming hand-drawn borders i can't help but flourish over the top of every slice of notebook paper that passes through my hands. i just can't help it. i clip tiny dazzling pop culture picksh and whip out that non-toxic glue stik, and all those plasticoated prismatic stickers and metallic rainbow rollerball pens, and voila! we end up with a thoroughly illuminated volume of darling humor and keen observations... and other stuff. so just for the hell of it, here's a hastily-done heading back in the year of 2005. lets see... we have georgina hale from the movie 'mahler,' then john-rhys myers and ewan mcgregor frolicking from 'velvet goldmine;' then, appropriately, at the end, we have the southern glam bisexual patron saint himself, mr. michael stipe. dig it. (click to enlarge)

mmmm...velvet

so... 'velvet goldmine.' i sooo feel two ways about this movie. i guess you could say i 'go both ways' where 'velvet goldmine' is concerned. the cast is wonderful. the songs are fantastic. the costumes are flawless. the subject matter has stellar potential. but, the movie itself, like, the final product is one of the most lopsided movies i've ever liked enough to own. the plot is so weak and who-cares, that you find yourself not even feeling guilty for not caring about it. if you ask me, the whole 'popstar gets shot, who dunnit' aspect is totally extraneous, and a bad idea in the first place. if todd haynes had called me first, i would've advised him to take the same cast, same crew, same vibe, and make a wild, stylized mockumentary about brian slade and kurt wilde, mandy, and the rest of the gang. you could still have all the music, all the drama, all the historic context, and all the sex, drugs, and rock and roll, without the limp-dicked, wet-washcloth excuse for a murder mystery. the opening credits sequence is one of the most invigorating i've ever seen... indeed the entire first hour or so is practically perfect... but i hate to see christian bale so underused and rendered so boring as he is in 'goldmine.' i mean, in the 'flashback to the 7o's' sequences, he's marvelous and spot-on, but in the 'now he's a reporter' sequences, i couldn't even pay myself to care. oh, and eddie izzard's oddly enough, NOT in make-up or drag! oh, by the way, the shot is of johnathan rhys-myers as brian slade during the video of his hit, 'the ballad of maxwell demon.' great f***ing costume. (click to enlarge)

i is for imposter

yeah, when i first got this wild machine, i did a lot of things to teach myself all the little tricks and tools. one thing i used to do was mocking up album covers and .45 sleeves. i really should do some more now that i actually know what i'm doing. but just for the hell of it, here's one of the covers i came up with. yeah, its the latest release from that talented glam quintet 'the headmasters.' the song 'male desperation' was pure pop gold, and the b-side 'quaint,' even managed to chart in the top 50... highly unusual for a b-side. i made a few others, but i can't think of what files they're in like, in order to dig them up. but it was a fun way for me to teach myself about like, the fonts and colors and cropping tools and all that. (oh, and just for the 'record,' the originial image was a still frame from 'velvet goldmine,' during the 'ballad of maxwell demon' bit.) hey, not to stroke my own fur, but i've seen vinyl 45's that looked a hell of a lot worse.

b is for '...mr. bbc.'

here is a still from the glam-rock fantasy movie 'velvet goldmine.' it may be the only genuine laugh or light moment in the movie. the cute blond glam kid is interviewed 'man on the street' style and is presumably asked to comment on the gender-bending ways of 70's rock. his answer is great, '...i like boys, i like girls... they're all great. there's no difference is there?" (pause, 2-3-4, then adds flirtatiously) "...mister BBC..." its the best. i wonder if 'mr. bbc' was tempted? tempted to 'take a walk on the wild side,' if you know what i mean.

queer pass

i have no idea how old this shot is. it shows a young brian slade ambushing a more worldly jack fairy in his dressing room for a very steamy man-on-man celluliod kiss. the film is 'velvet goldmine.' r.e.m.'s michael stipe had a hand in producing this flick, and i've often wondered if 'younger slade's' sheepish curls, full lips, and heavy eyelids were a thinly-veiled tribute to stipe's look around the time of 'reckoning.' i realize the color is a little intense in this one, but i've 'un-shocked' the color as much as i could whilst keeping as much of the line detail as possible. so here's to man-on-man kisses... may i witness many, many more of them... on celluloid or otherwise.

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.

ninefive72

here is a somewhat-

experimental attempt at using the walleye function on somebody's wild machine.

the results are interesting, so i though i'd post them, for the Kids, you know?

i think its prettier than most stuff out there. and i hope you can dig on it.