02.26.08
Posted in News of the World, Friends and Family, Chicago, Malachi Ritscher, 1954-2006, Online Video at 9:28 pm by Spencer
On January 13, 2008, Al Jazeera’s english-language station aired a story about my late friend Malachi Ritscher. As I posted here about at the time, he died on the morning November 3, 2006 when he set himself on fire next to the Kennedy Expressway in Chicago, before a statue named “The Flame of the Millennium”. He left a handmade sign that read “Thou Shalt Not Kill.” On his web site, before he killed himself, he posted last testaments that said he was immolating himself to protest the US invasion and occupation of Iraq. Except for a handful of fleeting stories, US press coverage was essentially non-existent. Coverage in Europe was slightly more extensive, but equally fleeting. Malachi videotaped his self immolation but his family, understandably, has not released the tape and they have stated they never will. Further information about Malachi’s suicide and its impact can be found at the link above.
The Al Jazeera story was aired as part of their series People and Power, described as an investigative program “which looks at the use and abuse of power.” This particular episode was titled “The North Front Line.”
Streaming video of the segment has been posted on YouTube. I am also posting it here. Many thanks to Eric Leonardson for bringing this to my attention.
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12.04.07
Posted in Nifty Links, Avant Experiwhosis, Experimental Film, Online Video, 16mm Film at 10:46 pm by Spencer
Burnt Weeny Sandwich
April 30, 1969 KQED TV, San Francisco, CA
18 min. B&W and color. Originally on 16mm.
Part 1: http://youtube.com/watch?v=Hn1aV3VnZQg
Part 2: http://youtube.com/watch?v=9IY1STwLoqU
Part 3: http://youtube.com/watch?v=xeHVSKEUfAo
Aired on KQED TV in 1969, the Dilexi Series represents a pioneering effort to present works created by artists specifically for broadcast. The 12-part weekly series was conceived and commissioned by the Dilexi Foundation, an off-shoot of the influential San Francisco art gallery founded by James Newman. Newman, who operated the Dilexi Gallery from 1958 until 1970, saw this innovative series as an opportunity to extend the influence of the contemporary arts far beyond the closeted environment of the commercial gallery.
Formal agreement was reached with KQED in 1968 with the station’s own John Coney designated as series producer. No restrictions, regarding length, form or content, were imposed upon the works, except for Newman’s stipulation that they be aired weekly within the same time-slot. Upon their completion, the 12 works were broadcast during the spring and summer of 1969.
Of the 12 artists invited to participate in the Dilexi Series, ten of them completed new works, and two, Andy Warhol and Frank Zappa, submitted extant works. The tapes and films are far-reaching in their approaches to the medium and the circumstance of the broadcast series. Some of the artists chose to intervene in the relationship of broadcaster and audience by broaching the subject of communications. (…)
Burnt Weeny Sandwich is another rarity. Created by Frank Zappa, the film, in one form or another, found its way into a larger work, Uncle Meat. Something of a high-speed home movie, Burnt Weeny Sandwich features the original Mothers of Invention, along with Captain Beefheart. This is one of the works that exists only within the Dilexi Series.
Once broadcast, the Dilexi Series was stored on the original 2″ videotape masters, a now archaic video format. Some masters were transferred to a contemporary format in 1982 and presented at the S.F. Video Festival. Through the generosity of KQED, the last of the Dilexi Series was just transferred to an exhibition format. This marks the first time in 22 years that all the Dilexi tapes are available. (…)
More info at: http://globalia.net/donlope/fz/videography/Burnt_Weeny_Sandwich.html
The Music:
- 00:00 “Uncle Meat: Main Title Theme” (1:26-1:55) from Uncle Meat
- 00:34 Unidentified Percussion Piece
- 01:27 “Theme From Burnt Weeny Sandwich” from Burnt Weeny Sandwich
- 05:47 “A Pound For A Brown (On The Bus)” from Uncle Meat
- 07:15 “Snork”
- 07:22 “Dog Breath, In The Year Of The Plague” from Uncle Meat
- 11:20 Unidentified Percussion & Snorks Piece
- 11:44 “Prelude To King Kong” from Uncle Meat
- 15:22 “God Bless America” from Uncle Meat
- 16:01 “The Dog Breath Variations” from Uncle Meat
More Things to Thank John Coney For:
(King Kong-sized hat tip to Hell’s Donut House.)
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08.10.07
Posted in Cinema, Sci-Fi and Horror Flix, Online Video at 8:37 pm by Spencer
Courtesy of Mike (with the famous airship fetish) comes an immensely entertaining post from John Coulthart’s Feuilleton blog (which is via Boingboing via Jess Nevins via Airminded via The Fortean Times and via Gargoyle’s Landing) about Zeppelins vs. Pterodactyls already — a proposed (but never made) Hammer Films production intended to horn in on the success of British rival Amicus Productions’ rather shabby but popular summer popcorn muncher, The Land That Time Forgot (1975). John’s post includes this obviously very preliminary comp of a demo poster:
In the above piece, there’s a pointer to this YouTube piece that reimagines Zeppelins vs. Pterodactyls as a Republic movie serial from 1936.
That video was created by EvilDayJob, who published it on July 30, 2007. He says:
Actually it’s a mashup I made from old serials and a few feature movies, all public domain.
Dick Tracy (1937)
Ace Drummond (1936)
The Lost World (1925)
Voyage to the Prehistoric Planet (1965)
Three Musketeers
(1933)
The Hurricane Express
Shadow of Chinatown
The Phantom Creeps (1939)
Undersea Kingdom (1936)
Thief of Baghdad (1978 TV movie)
Newsreels: Akron Disaster (1933), Giant Dirigible Sets Record (1936), Zeppelin Explodes (1937 Hindenberg)
The main theme song is taken from Captain Scarface (1953) which is supposed to be public domain, so I hope the music is too.
See if you can spot John Wayne firing a machine gun from a biplane and later bailing out of a burning ship. Sitting behind him in the biplane is Noah Beery, who played James Garner’s father on Rockford Files.
The song with which Ace Drummond (John “Dusty” King) delights his fellow passengers is “Give Me A Ship and A Song” by Kay Kellogg.
For extra credit, find the two Wilhelm screams, one actor who wasn’t even born until 1939, and explain to me why that kid exclaims “Mammy” as he listens to the song. Was that what Cartman would have exclaimed back in the day instead of “sweet”?
A few other inside jokes:
1. Nat Levine really did produce a string of serials in that era.
2. “Potrzebie” is a Polish word that was repeated in Mad magazine for some reason.
3. The recap title card says they’re attacked by a “Muranian” Flying Wing. Murania is the name of the underground kingdom in The Phantom Empire.
4. “The Fur Pirates” is the third chapter of Dick Tracy (1937).
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07.10.07
Posted in Cinema, History, Funny Shit, Reality is Weird, Chicago, Online Video at 9:27 pm by Spencer
Ah yes, I remember it well!
“During a broadcast of the Dr. Who episode Horror of Fang Rock on WTTW Chicago Channel 11, on Sunday November 22nd, 1987, at around 11:15pm, a Video “Pirate” wearing a Max Headroom mask broke into the signal and transmitted one of the weirdest, unauthorized things ever to hit the Chicago airwaves.
Earlier in the evening on the same day, during the Nine O’Clock News on Channel 9 (yes, a completely different channel [in fact, WGN, owned by The Tribune]) the Max Headroom Pirate also broke in — although it was for a much shorter time and there was no audio.
Needless to say, Dan Roan (the sports reporter) was a bit flustered.
And no, he [the pirate broadcaster(s)] was never caught.”
Further details can be read from the archived Dec. 20, 1987 issue of the e-zine, Tolmes News Service. (Man, I kinda miss e-zines. Don’t you?) There’s also a Wikipedia entry about the Max Headroom pirating incident, according to which there “has not been a broadcast intrusion incident of this kind in America since.” Darn. There’s also a write-up at the aptly-named Damn Interesting site.
Ginormous thanks to my ol’ fellow Chicago expat buddy Hell’s Donut House for bringing this to my attention.
Here’s a partial attempted transcript of the lo-fi, electronically-distorted audio from the person who posted this to YouTube:
“He’s a freaky nerd!”
“This guy’s better than Chuck Swirsky.” [another WGN sportscaster at the time]
“Oh Jesus!”
“Catch the wave…” [reference to a Coke commercial at the time of which Max Headroom was a spokesperson]
“Your love is fading…”
“I stole CBS.”
“Oh, I just made a giant masterpiece printed all over the greatest world newspaper nerds.” [??]
“My brother [mother?] is wearing the other one.”
“It’s dirty…”
“They’re coming to get me…”
Also courtesy of YouTube, here is the CBS network news story about the incident, broadcast the following day (contrary to the added title on the clip, which is incorrect).
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05.31.07
Posted in Cinema, Nifty Links, Animation, Online Video at 8:57 pm by Spencer
WFMU’s Beware of the Blog has posted two very fine streams of ’70s-era animation by one Vincent Collins, a very talented animator that I regret to say I was not previously aware of. Well now I’m much the wiser, and you should be, too.
Of particular wonderment is his fantastic three minute film 200 (1975), Collins’ tribute to the US Bicentennial that was actually financed and distributed by none other than the US Information Agency, which was basically the “white” (open) propaganda fount during the Cold War. Among other things, it is proof positive that times have REALLY changed.
Below is the complete 200 via YouTube thanks to the mighty A/V Geeks. (Props to Michael Bester for his [standards-compliant!] Kimili Flash Plugin for WordPress.)
(Broken video link corrected 1/14/2007)
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03.21.07
Posted in Whatever, Cinema, Silent Films, Online Video at 10:06 pm by Spencer
Wow. Of all places on Earth, who would have guessed that the private papers of German film director Fritz Lang would have wound up at the University of Wyoming? Well, they did — and I sure would love to know the back-story on that one.
Fritz Lang was one of the greatest film directors ever, full stop. Just some of his works include Metropolis (1927), Spione (Spies, 1926 — surprisingly modern to this day), the epic Wiemar-era Dr. Mabuse, der Spieler (Dr. Mabuse, The Gambler, 1922 — with an excellent US edition recently issued by Kino) and the even more masterful early-Nazi-era sequel Das Testament des Dr. Mabuse (The Testament of Dr. Mabuse, 1933), the landmark 2-part epic Die Nibelungen (Siegfried [1924] and Die Krimhelds Rache [Kriemheld’s Revenge, 1924]), and the absolutely amazing/horrifying M (1931) which was not only one of the very first German sound films ever made, but also the breathtaking film debut of one Peter Lorre. And that’s not even counting his later (and, alas, much lesser) Hollywood films after fleeing Hitler, such as The Big Heat (1953) and Rancho Notorious (1952).
If you’re a true scholar and make it out Laramie way, you can avail yourself of Lang’s papers (1909 - 1973). For the rest of us, do stop by the online collection of 20 digitized Fritz Lang silent home movies “shot on 16mm film from 1938-1953 as he toured around the American Southwest, capturing images of Tombstone Arizona, Death Valley California, a Hopi Native American Village and what is now the Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument in Arizona and the White Sands National Monument in New Mexico.”
All are available for download as Quicktime videos.
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02.19.07
Posted in Funny Shit, Reality is Weird, Online Video at 11:07 pm by Spencer
In case you haven’t yet seen Osama Teen Hunger Force — the TRUTH behind the plot!
They hate us for our comedy, ya know.
…and in case you somehow don’t know what the hell this refers to.
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01.07.07
Posted in Whatever, Nifty Links, Funny Shit, Online Video at 12:20 pm by Spencer
You know you’ve always wondered.
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12.28.06
Posted in Cinema, Nifty Links, Experimental Film, Online Video at 2:43 pm by Spencer
As recently reported here, Alejandro Jodorowsky’s films El Topo and The Holy Mountain are now emerging from the vaults of ABKCO Films for a limited US theatrical run in advance of a deluxe box-set restored release on DVD. (More on this later.)
As also mentioned, the ABKCO Film web site’s homepage features a Flash-ified trailer. Some additional Quicktime clips have begun to surface, including several relatively extended excerpts found on the French film site, AlloCiné. I discovered these clips via Twitch (specifically here and here), “a film news / review / discussion site that pays particular attention to independent, cult, foreign and genre film” — and which had the restoration story way back in May. The Twitch postings provide direct links to the Quicktime files (sans pop-up) for easier downloading.
Here are links to the original AlloCiné postings (en francais), which are embedded in pop-ups: El Topo and La Montagne sacrée (The Holy Mountain).
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12.13.06
Posted in Whatever, Nifty Links, MP3s, Funny Shit, Seattle Stuff, Reality is Weird, Online Video at 9:55 pm by Spencer
Ye olde WFMU Blog has recently posted two Concertos for Jew’s Harp (then known as the guimbarde) composed by Johann Georg Albrechstberger (who once taught some guy named Beethoven) apparently to please his patron, Austrian king Joseph II, who was evidently a fan of the instrument. It’s nice stuff, once one gets past the inevitable giggles from hearing “boing boing twaanggg” amidst the more familiar orchestral arrangements. And why the heck is that thing called a “Jew’s harp” anyway?
There’s also a recent pointer to a jaw-dropping Quicktime VR tour of “Steve’s Weird House,” a Victorian mansion somewhere in Seattle jammed stem to stern with, well, just about everything in the universe (especially if it’s odd). Methinks the man could make a fortune if he charged admission. Must be seen to be believed.
Time Migraine, er, Magazine is currently accepting online voting for their Person of the Year. Candidates include Hugo Chavez, Gee Duh-bya, Kim Jong Il and “the YouTube guys.” Hm.
The reprobate running Seattle’s own Wall of Sound record shoppe recently tipped me to a very fine live 1970 TV performance of “11 Mustachioed Daughters” by biG GRunt (via YouTube), a post-Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band whatsis fronted by Vivian Stanshall (whose very British piece of very surreal comedy, Sir Henry at Rawlinson End (1980), recently appeared on the shelves at Scarecrow Video). Anything featuring a leg-theremin solo and homebrew robot sidemen is worth some peeper time. Btw, the YouTube clip does look better if you use the handy shrinker-izer button. You can learn more about biG GRunt at the Ginger Geezer site (which does not constitute a rabbit). And speaking of Dog Doo-Dahs and biG GRunts, Neil Innes’ web site offers a very fat bowl of MP3 and streaming Real audio floaters, including 8 songs recorded live in Chicago in 2004 and mastered by none other than Pink Bob.
Meanwhile, Pixar has posted all of their short films online for your streaming pleasure.
Also, one Dan Lamoureux is entering post-production on his nerdcore documentary. Like a DQ Blizzard, baby.
But for some real learning, visit the Intergalactic Research - Space is the Place site/blog (or its earlier incarnation at Blogspot), in particular their collection of extremely rare Sun Ra interview and conversation audio. Much of the downloads are only via the thoroughly aggravating and grossly misnamed Rapidshare site, but there is a pointer to a 2 hour interview (in 3 parts, MP4) easily downloadable from the Slought Foundation site. While you’re getting schooled, you should poke around the lengthy discographies at Space is the Place, where you will find many links to choice MP3s…albeit at that dag blasted Rapidshare.
Okay, done now.
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