cool richard

tonight's featured smoker is none other than mr. richard starkey himself. hey, i dig ringo as much as the next guy. and i like this shot... its nice and self-contained. it makes me want to roll some beatles. no, seriously, it does. it makes me want to hear richard himself take the lead on such great tracks as 'i wanna be your lover,' and 'shout.' (mmm, 'octupuss's garden? ehhh, not so much.) but you know i wouldn't 'pass by' a rolling of the funky 'don't pass me by.' so light one up for me, richard... if you ask me, you're the coolest beatle (left alive) on the planet.

bubblestudy

jean-lucien managed to snatch this perfect, even haunting shot of a soap bubble from some piece of film, i don't remember. maybe it was woodstock footage, i'm not sure... it was something like that. i think it perfectly captures that wild ethereal color that only soap bubbles seem to have. i can almost see the phantom thing undulate as it travels over the hippy concert-goers. it goes to show his keen talent at 'sharpshooting' film. one or two more frames ahead or behind, and it wouldn't be that perfect, satisfying, swollen shape. enjoy it.

sweetlife

here's a still my mate jean-lucien made and tinted a long time ago. its a frame from the movie

'babydoll.' the girl is carroll baker. if i start praising her, we'll be here all night long. the choice of the single word 'life' in the corner was added by jean-lucien, and i find it particularly positive. the choice to tint in such a queer shade of pink, and the angle of her smile... well, all in all, i think its a sound work of art in itself, on a very strong and legitimate Warhol level. i like it like a kid likes sugar.

jeeves is lovely

yes, stephen fry was never lovelier than he was during the 'jeeves and wooster' years. i used this sharp-shot screen capture as an artful study of his stunning profile. despite the broken nose he comes off every bit as haunting and classic as garbo or barrymore. i first saw stephen fry in the 'bambi' episode of 'the young ones,' but it took me almost 15 years to really appreciate his talent, beauty, and wit. and hey, all you slashfic girls, if you want to see him kiss a couple of guys, rent 'wilde.' there are one or two really nice kisses in there.

ariel-laise

here's a large-size collage i made a long, long time ago from nothing but hacked-up magazines, glue, and imagination. i have since decided i really don't like to look at louise brooks because she reminds me of helen hunt, whom i really don't like... (she always seems to have some kind of big chip on her shoulder.) ...anyway, its still a pretty sound peice, i think. its tricky to successfully use red and green without it coming out looking it look christmassy. so, maybe its still got that dreamy, upside-down, gypsy-ish feeling i wanted it have at the time. although, it was well over ten years ago. i guess its not too bad. ( and please, click-to-enlarge)

monkee-cartoon

hey! like, i don't really care tonight, you know? so here's a cartoon i made a while ago. like, i took some random stills from monkee episodes, and just like, forced myself to come up with a lame 'joke,' like this one, with davy jones, complaining about his recent chinese food delivery from the 'ding-ding sechzwan!' (and i'm sure i didn't spell that right, so my far-eastern friend will have to like, correct me on that.)

skull

hey, i don't really feel like, in the mood to post a lot of stuff tonight so um, here's a groovy skull! dig on it! and hey, did it ever occur to you that you'll never hold you own skull in your hands, and like, dig on it? ...sans skin, i mean. skulls really never freaked me out that much. i always thought they were like, jangly and hip with only the most harmless 'halloween night' mischeif on their minds. (ahhh, what in the hell am i talking about?)

say grace

here is a shot of the cute and tough miss grace slick, dressed in the clover innocence of a girl scout uniform... or at least the jacket. don't let the innocent shell fool you... grace is as hard as they come.

jefferson airplane : volunteers - video

here is a wild small film from jefferson airplane. i must admit, i don't know much about where it came from, and i also admit i don't know enough to pontificate about how it relates to the 'state of affairs' of today. all i know for sure is it still hits me. i love the wired, heedless attitude of the sound, the rockiness of it, in a geological sense. the politics are, at the most, coincidental.

salut, sylvie!

she's hot, she's tough, she's a firecracker. she's sylvie vartan, and as far as i know, she's never stopped working. this shot was taken early 70's, i think... she was in rehearsals for her live show. she's my Madonna. she can do it all, and has the energy to do it. she keeps up with the most athletic backup dancers. i love her.

love gustav

here is a strip of a notebook decoration i did ...wow, it had to be over a year ago. but i needed something orange and pink, so here it is. the blokes featured are eddie izzard, (in the cap, from 'the shadow of the vampire,') and his co-star from 'shadow,' mr. ronan vibert. (smoking.) so i guess that takes care of my nightly 'person smoking' feature. its lovely. when i wrote longhand, i decorated every page. yes i did. (click to enlarge.)

nineteen-eighty

this is a surprisingly lovely shot of morrissey in 1980. i have no idea who was taking the picture, but it sure looks like morrissey is feeling pretty coy and kittenish about the whole situation. i think he looks very, very pretty. its hard for me to believe there was a time when i really didn't find him attractive. so dreamy, so coy. man, i got distracted for a moment just like, looking at him. it must be that 'irish blood, english heart.' sigh, i don't know if its because i'm tired, but i just don't feel too witty tonight.

starry sally as herself

i snagged this cool shot from ken russell's 'tommy' just to see if i could coax the tricky color out of it. i think it turned out well. this is the lovestruck sally simpson getting ready for the big concert. her vignette is a cool and crucial facet in pete townshend's well-paced and expertly crafted libretto. and hey, the song is great!! mmm, can you tell i'm tired tonight or what? sigh... so um, dig it.

he's not sorry

hello lovers. i'm feeling a little blue tonight... i think mr. steven patrick morrissey would sympathize. here is a screen capture i took and tricked from the excellent 'who put the M in Manchester?' dvd. here he is performing the dreamy and curiously heterosexual-sounding 'i'm not sorry.' he appears close to tears and almost seems to be praying when he sings of the 'woman of his dreams,' and how she 'never came along.' it seems oddly genuine to me. hey, but only morrissey knows for sure, right? its a truly lovely song. if i can find it, maybe i'll post it later. until then, dig him.

acting straight

...or straight-acting? here is a charming shot of a younger ian mckellan kissing a willing and younger francesca annis. they were putting on 'romeo and juliet,' sometime a long time ago. i like this picture. i wonder if either of them was the slightest bit turned on. but hey, like holly body said herself, 'acting is acting.'

straight time: get me outta here

...we got cause to celebrate.

telescreen

here is a silky still my partner mananged to snag from the film 'farenheit 451.' i love the colors he managed to coax out, and the cropping skill is faultless. i read the book, but i actually sobbed when i screened the film and caught a shot of flames charring and consuming a MAD digest. what could be more harmless? still, it put me on guard... i'm not so naiive to think nobody will ever come for my papers. but, until then, dig it.

service

"...it is the servant who takes money..." that line is from 'lawrence of arabia... and to be honest, i'm not sure how it applies here. but i have waited at table... i've done 'the bunny dip' in a short pleated skirt to retrieve my tips... and only very rarely was it worth it. still, i can't resist a playboy magazine cover. this one shimmers with a cool sapphire luminescene... and i think its safe to say i never owned this particular issue. still, the girl is gorgeous, her figure cinched and perfect; but i'll bet her feet hurt like hell.

fairyland

i needed something pink... so i dug around and found this vertical triptych i made some time ago. it was constructed from a 'badfinger' album cover, and other shards. the shot of morrissey is cut from a still i snatched from the 'last of the famous international playboys' video. i think it glittering and cool, and makes a hell of a bookmark. so dig it.

sword

here is a gorgeous shot of ian holm... sometime in the 1960's, rehearsing shakespeare. i can't help but think of the holt-mcpherson center in downtown high point, nc... a groovy little building now that i'm picturing it. wow... how many hours did i spend there, taking art lessons, acting seminars, and other things, all the time under the age of 15. i just realized that when i imagine ian holm rehearsing, i'm actually picturing that building... with its heavy, outdated otis elevator and its plain views of the modest city from its old windows. anyway, i think ian may have been rehearsing 'macbeth,' i don't remember. still, look how young and hot he was. wow... he would've driven me completely crazy. alas...

bookish

here is a collage i made a long, long time ago... i don't remember what year, but i'm guessing 1995? maybe earlier. i used only cut up magazines, elmer's glue, the inspiration from current songs, and my own imagination. i think it was supposed to be some statement about how smart girls, bookish girls, are the sexiest girls alive. they're well-read, and hard to shock. still, they maintain a modesty and mystery afforded by the boundaries of the brain. i wish i could tell you who the girl is, but sadly, i can't. i don't remember where i found her. hey you know, she could be out there right now, digging on this. if she is, i want her to know i couldn't have made this piece without her.

good and long indeed

here is a frame taken from the 1980 film 'the long good friday.' it deals with the state of british gangland dealings around that time... what i affectionately call 'the diana ascendance.' i'm sort of killing two birds with one stone with this shot. i hearby proclaim the bearish bob hoskins as a prime example in my 'ugly is the new cute' movement. i have been aroused by him ever since 1987-88. i think he's lovely... so solid, so hairy, and that cockney accent... and how he managed to hold it back, turning sort of 'brooklyn' for 'roger rabbit.' and speaking of bunnies, helen mirren really couldn't be sexier. just look at the two of them laying there, smoking. i think i can admit i'm 'bi' enough to want to join them. they're both just so hot.

greta louisa

otherwise known as greta garbo. this is one of my favorite more common shots of her out there. i'm not sure this is the best version, but after some deft tricking by my practiced hand, it looks pretty good. i like it. she looks sexy and smart. the hair length is just about perfect on her. i'm not sure what year this is from, but if i had to bet, i'd say it was probably sometime around 'ninotchka.'

flash bulbs

...and i do mean 'flash.' here is a deep grained shot of mick jagger and anita pallenberg behind the viewfinder. after, please enjoy mick and his barely-legal boys in the fantastic 'memo from turner.'

video: memo from turner- mick jagger -'performance' soundtrack

here is the gritty, psychedelic, somewhat-homoerotic, groovy song from the donald cammell-nicholas roeg film 'performance.' if you dig this, you'll most likely dig the whole thing.

church

what is church? where is church? these simple questions have gotten men killed. i maintain church is where you find it. a person with a brain and a heart knows whether or not he is honestly worshipping. therefore, an altar built on the plaster guise of marilyn monroe and a chorus led by eric clapton and directed by ken russell is, in my opinion, as legitimate a church as i have ever seen. my own church, well... this is America. And accordingly, my church is my concern.

rare model

here is a shot of twiggy i've never seen before. i love it. i love the hair. i love the mod style. i love her mod look. i dig the longer hair on her. so dig it, ... man, i should know twiggy's 'real name' by now, but since i don't, dig this shot. groovy.

for luck

wow... the look on luke's face, it just seems to say, '...oh my god, did she just...' boys, i know any of you with an honorable and chivalrous heart felt a rush when the delivered princess planted that kiss. perhaps some dark and innocent part of him knew it was somewhat incestuous... perhaps not. still, this moment, this kiss, and what it meant to our generation can probably not be overstated. if this small moment of acute arousal inspired any boy to bloom into a gentleman, then perhaps Chivalry is not Dead, and we princesses need not feel foolish in our belief that no matter how jaded and cold and practical and tactical the world gets, there will always be a boy out there willing to shoot our jailer and swing us from a star.

alien kit!

here is a model kit to build your own 'alien.' i think its cool, if you look closely at the picture, you can see that its still shrink-wrapped... at least on some sides. i wonder how many groovy teenage boys and smart geeks in izods and thick glasses assembled this kit according to the blueprints, with thier friends playing the atari 2600 in the background... i was there, playing and hanging out with the Boys. dreaming of cold glinting chlorine pools, sugared snacks, cold sodas, space dust, joysticks, and high scores.

overlooked

here's a lovely piece my partner jean-lucien made featuring the legendary jack nicholson very close to the year he filmed the shining. you're a naughty one... saucy jack, you're a haughty one, saucy jack. man, i love this piece. it has a luminous stained-glass glow... the snake near the top was actually snatched from alex the droog's bedroom, ...tying together the kubrick connection. ahhh, jack... he's got too much to do. on an artistic note, jean-lucien's talent for matching random colors is evident in this slide. it works. i love it.

orca drucker

hey, if there's two things i love and can't get enough of, its the genius of mort drucker, and the thrill of the original 'jaws.' here's a frame from the mad magazine movie parody. 9.9 times out of ten, mr. mort drucker's renderings were dead-on. this strip is a prime example... although i daresay his scheider looks a little more 'french connection' than it looks like chief brody, but hey, its still a groovy likeness. and his dreyfuss couldn't be better. man, i could seriously watch 'jaws' back to back, for ten hours, and literally not get tired of it. does it make me a movie geek? perhaps. but man... 'jaws' ...it doesn't get cooler than that.

coke is it

yes, yes it is. i was raised in north carolina, in strictly pepsi household. my mother was almost religious about her pepsi bias. like, she was downright forcefull about it. it was just, pepsi... one hundred percent of the time, end of story. i literally didn't start drinking coke regularly until my brother and i started babysitting and making our own money. i remember we got a gig doing gift wrapping during the christmas season, in a high-end local clothing shop around 1987. there was an old-fashioned machine that dispensed 10 oz. glass bottles of coke for 25 cents. ever since then, i've been strictly coke. i almost can't even stand pepsi unless its cherry flavored. plain pepsi just has too much of a citrus undertone to it. no... i'm coke all the way. in fact, if i see i'm running low on cokes, its a panic similar to when i'm running low on cigarettes. coke... liquid love. yes.

boyfriend

here is another notebook cover i made quite a while ago. needless to say, the cover star is morrissey, and the cameos at the top appear to be, left to right; morrissey from the smihts days, that bonehead from dracula: AD 1972, dougie and lucy from 'sgt. pepper's lonely heart's club band,' checkerboard, hugh laurie as bertie wooster, orange sparkles, and that cute slim dark haired guy who played mr. bucket in tim burton's willy wonka. i used to know his name, but apparently i've forgotten it. noah? was it noah something? man, i was really in love with him for a few days, but i'll be damned if i can remember.

le notebook art

here's another crop of some notebook art i glued and scrawled whilst listening, (no really, i was listening) to the lecture in my abnormal psyche class. working on my notebook art seemed to relax me, and i actually remembered more. my instructor tried to get me stop doing it, saying it was distracting. then i brought up the fact that they were allowing some 65-year old lady in there to work on her knitting !!! because it 'helped her relax,' ...and after that, they realized they didn't really have a leg to stand on. i honestly think sometimes i get a bad rap because i look more like princess leia and less like granny from the tweety bird cartoons. apparently, if you're cute, you can't multi-task. ahh, whatever.

10:08

tonight's featured smoker is once again, mr. jools holland... a very young jools holland. i'm not sure i remember what year it was, but its obvious it was late 70's, i would guess... the very early days of Squeeze. you can see by the clock that its around ten... what a face. honestly, i've always thought he was a lovely creature. so much talent, such a sense of humor... and i've never heard anyone with a speaking voice quite like jools. and either he's a talented businessman, or he has a fantastic agent, because he's always been in a prime spot to rub shoulders with stars and showcase his stunning affinity for 'the keys.' with me and jools, it was love at first sight, when i first laid eyes on him sometime...mmm, i'd say around 1985.

valentino is dead

here is a collage i made well over ten years ago, using pieces from various sources. it has too much yellow for my taste, but overall, i think its one of my cooler early ones. the girl in the middle i'm 99.9% sure is notorious ragtime starlet miss evelyn nesbit. rumor has it tycoons used to pay her to swing over them in a red velvet swing, dressed in unreported little outfits. the lurid lovely eyes in the backgroung belong to the one and only rudolph valentino... or, as he was christened in Castellenata, Italy; rudolfo alfonso pierre filibert guglielmi di valentina d' antongulla. with a name like that, how could he have ever been anything less than world-famous? i remember making this piece... i tried slipping several pairs of eyes in the overhead space. i had it down to two that really had an impact; rudolph valentino's... and adolph hitler's. both were equally striking, but in the end Love won over Hate, and the honors went to The Sheik.

camille

he's not the baron. i love you.

henriette

here is a crop of a centerfold featuring (god, i hope i get her name right) miss henriette alias. wow. i mean, what chick! i've never really understood why there's a cultural split between 'blondes and brunettes,' like knowing 98% of american men are lucky to get laid at all the way they look and carry themselves. i love her hair, its got a natural sleek look to it, and her face is just lovely. i've always loved this centerfold. i realize a lot of the credit goes to the set design and photographer and what lenses he used. still, henriette has obviously got 'what it takes,' right kids?

experiment

one day my partner threw a lot of stuff on the scanner and hoped for the best. i thought it was very like, 'warhol.' hey, i've been to a lot of museums and read a lot of books and seen a lot of stuff that passes for art, and i have to say this experiment in accidental arrangement still has harmony, integrity of color, and a certain jangly music that's hard not to dig. sometimes the detail and grain and resolution made possible by our current technology is genuinely frightening. like, i zoom in, and can almost sharpshoot some wild detail. anyway, i hope you dig it. it seems to bear the crystalline behavior of mineral formations. (please do yourself a favor, and click to enlarge.)

lesbee friends

ahhh, the platinum sound of k. d. lang. she's handsome, she's coy, she's multifaceted. she can handle country, pop, jazz, as well as 'the old stardust standards.' when you listen to her, you can't help but wonder if she's got her vocal chords insured for like, some cool millions of dollars or something. she's not unlike what i imagined Ulysses's Sirens sounding like. so warm, so cool, so persuasive... and divinely in tune. the track i'd like to post to 'prove it,' has yet to be uploaded by anyone, so... in any case, miss kathryn dawn is not so much a talent, but a northern force of nature.

the assistants

this is a still from ken russell's musical masterpiece, 'tommy.' the man is, of course, roger daltry, and man... i really should know the chick's names; seeing as how they're twins. hey, thanks to this Wild Machine, i just learned they are uncredited identical twins Susan and Jennifer Baker. i was somewhere around... mmm, it must've been seven or maybe eight years old, maybe younger, the first time i saw this film on HBO. the 'acid queen' sequence was the only part that i remember creeping me out, but even then, i was thrilled to see twins. twins are great. no matter what language someone speaks, they know twins when they see them. as i've often said, twins are a universal language.

liquid courage

like most of dave berg's genius strips, this one speaks for itself. man, when i think about the literally hundreds and hundreds of individual strips-and-therefore-jokes mr. berg has come up with in his career, its commands respect. he must've never stopped working. and it seems like he was always trying to talk to 'the kids' as he revealed human american truths and issued human, american lessons. this strip does both. i love it. (click to enlarge and read.) peace.

glitzy

here is my lovely miss sylvie vartan, mid-70's. her act was more vegas-nightclub flavored at that time. what a professional. i've seen countless behind-the-scenes photographs of her in rehearsals for her several french tv specials. she put on a hell of a stage show, too... and even had a groovy co-starring role in the french-spoken mid-70's horror flick, 'malpertuis,' with orson welles of all people. she still performs, and still sounds great. as far as i know, she's really never stopped working since coming on to the scene around 1965-66. i just love her.

grown ups

i'm sort of posting this half for me and half for my mother. the natalie wood part is for mom, and the steve mcqueen part is allll minnne! i love this shot. you just get the feeling these two were pretty sophisticated and shall we say, unabashed when it came to... enjoying eachother. niether one was an angel. i would've loved to have been like, their pet cat at that time, creeping around, spying on thier swinging and no doubt very adult hot times. i'll bet steve knew what 'love with the proper stranger' was all about. i liked watching them together because natalie, although beautiful, i think she needed someone as enigmatic and rough and 'ugly' as mcqueen to give her a bit of and edge. in my opinion, she was far more interesting as soon as she stood next to him. and he was prettier as soon as he stood next to her. and they both left us too soon.

vampire art!

yes, here's a crazy piece i made a long time ago. i think i may have even abandoned it as unfinished. but looking at it now, i think its kind of groovy; almost funny. like, what does it 'vampire' mean? its pretty obvious i really wasn't trying to 'say' anything specific. somehow the circle-shot of udo kier in the middle, moaning a dracula moan, just makes you wanna ask, '...what?' still, it looked a little bit better since i gave it a 15% vertical stretch and toned the green down to make it a little less like, 'cough syrup.' hey, if you dig it, cool, if not, i can see why. its kind of like, 'vampire' whatever. i'm a little suprised i stopped before adding frank-n-furter and 'jaws.' (yes, i mean the shark.)

poetry

here is a study made of a possible cover for dora english's first published volume of poems. the book never made it to press 'legit,' ...partly because miss english fell out of love with most of the verses within. the cover alone is good enough, though. i love slim, slick, paperback volumes from the likes of t. s. eliot, anaiis nin, and lawrence ferlinghetti. (if i've misspelled any of those, forgive me.) so, although the poems never found an official resting place, i still have the cover. there was at least one more study, and if i stumble upon it i'll post that one, too.

alien trailer

this is a trailer for 'alien.'

please

if you dig on anything on 'planetcool,' please leave a comment on something. i still have no idea if anyone can even see us.

sunday breakfast- the monkees : don't call on me -video

i chose this easy and cool mike nesmith track for sunday morning. its got a light, drowsy, dreamy feeling to it. a nice track to enjoy with your muffins, biscuits, eggs, and tea or coffee. so butter up something warm, drizzle something sweet, and smile because you can eat, swallow juice, have a smoke, and go right back to bed. god bless you. amen.

a dead language

this is a shot of mr. and mrs. redfern... specifically, christine and patrick. it is, of course, from the agatha christie movie mystery, 'evil under the sun,' starring my darling peter ustinov as the great belgian detective. the girl playing christine is the frolicksome and very french miss jane birkin. if you're interested to hear any of her lilting french pop songs, then youtube will be able to help you with that. as for the dude, i know he was in 'excalibur,' but apart from that, i really don't think i've seen him in anything besides this.

red

here is a red-themed piece by alphonse mucha. man, i just don't seem to have the literary chops tonight, so let me just say that this is a good example of his style. the girl is lovely, the lines are fine, the colors are faultless and the overall harmony is perfect. so dig it. and god bless alphonse mucha.

michael baby

here is a lovely shot of a very young michael stipe. look at all that hair. i like this shot, because not only does he look pretty, he looks genuinely happy.

bang!

here's another cover from playboy magazine. i don't remember if i ever owned this one or not. i love the cover though. it is from their finest era... 1970 to about 1984. i have to admit, i don't know who the cover model is. but somehow i don't think she was an actual bond girl, but who knows. jean-lucien and i used to keep all our playboys in a peach crate. cute, huh? so, enjoy this shot. (actually, after zooming in closer, i think the date on this issue is 1965... that could be right, i guess.)

the loop

i needed a shot of pink, so i chose the cover to one of morrissey's finest singles, 'the loop.' it has been one of my hard, fast favorite songs since the first time i heard it. i was thrilled when he chose to do this admittedly lesser hit when i saw him in boston. the song is moody, throbbing, dark and upbeat, with lovely, even dreamy vocals and a coy, heavy hook. its got a slight rockabilly flavor... and the spare arrangement allows the structure to speak for itself. whether a live recording or the studio version, i've never heard it sound bad. seek it out and dig it if you can.

georgina suspended

my partner made this one several weeks ago. the suspended chick in pink is the lush georgina hale, in a still frame i captured from ken russell's perky musical 'the boyfriend.' its worth watching, but just expect to be long, and very '1920's.' georgina's number where she goes from nurse to sexy temptress is, not surprisingly, my favorite part. the other numbers are good too... the production values high, costumes inventive, and performances by the ensemble cast pretty tight. like i said, just expect it to be long, long, long.

ash in stasis

i don't have a lot of energy tonight... i'm going to be moving soon, so that's kind of been on my mind.

still, here's a little ash... sleeping, like i should be. actually, i'm not sure he sleeps, being a robot with sly dealings on his mind. still, he's got a nice chest. i think this is the 'nakedest' i've ever seen him. he's probably dreaming about milkshakes and wrestling with ripley. this may be the only thing i post tonight, like i said, i have a lot on my mind. peace.