Category Archives: American culture

World cinema classics #27

[Youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KfZhGUFuvgk]

Miami Blues (1990) – George Armitage

“With only bottles of spaghetti sauce…”

The main character, Fred Frenger, played by Alec Baldwin, fits the profile of a psychopath. His girlfriend is Jennifer Jason Leigh. Very violent and terribly funny. Based on the novel of the same name by Charles Willeford.

The song in the background is “Spirit in the Sky.” Listen to it here.

Previous “World Cinema Classics” and in the Wiki format here.

World music classics #16

[Youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OpWeV4Kfyb0]

“Girl You Need A Change Of Mind” (1973) Eddie Kendricks

It would  have been Eddie’s 68th birthday today had he not died 15 years ago. “Girl You Need A Change Of Mind” is an example of what I would call proto-disco.

Proto-disco = disco before the twelve inch, disco avant la lettre.

See previous entries in this series.

I. M. Mel Cheren

[Youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pxCJFvduu_8]

Marty Thomas sings “I Was Born This Way” (Carl Bean)

Mel Cheren ( – December 7, 2007) was a New York gay entrepreneur and owner of West End Records. Mel was romantically involved with Michael Brody, the owner of the famous Paradise Garage club, for which Mel also provided financial backing. He died of complications of AIDS.

West End Records was co-founded by Mel Cheren and Ed Kushins in New York City in 1976 and published disco music. It was closely associated with the Paradise Garage and Larry Levan. Mel Cheren and Ed Kushins had met a few years earlier, when they were employed by Scepter Records. In 2002 Kevin Hedge (half of BLAZE) became Mel Cheren’s partner in West End, as well as the President of West End Records. Much of their music has been sampled for use in other dance and hip-hop tracks. The label employed musicians, mixers and remixers such as Larry Levan, Arthur Russell, Walter Gibbons, Tee Scott and Nick Martinelli.

They released such hits as:

Other notable tracks include

  • Inez Brooks Chillin’ Out(1981)
  • Taana Gardner – Work That Body (1979)
  • Ednah Holt – ‘Serious, Sirious Space Party (1981)
  • Taana Gardner ‘When You Touch Me’ 1979
  • Debbie Trusty – Searchin’ For Some Lovin’/1982
  • Raw Silk ‘Do It To The Music’ (1982)
  • Brenda Taylor ‘You Can’t Have Your Cake And Eat It Too’ (1982)

I Was Born This Way (see Youtube clip above) is one of the most respected gay dance music anthems.

Karlheinz Stockhausen (1928 – 2007)

[Youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Sbs6wb2Fnc&]

Clickable version

Superb juxtapoem of image-to-music by Youtuber Zapple 101

Does anyone know which Karlheinz Stockhausen piece is on the audio track?

Update: regarding my previous question, the piece is “Mikrophonie 0.1”, here is more from Mikrophonie. (Studie II, 1954)

Streetcar through the eyes of Stella

Streetcar

Kim Hunter (Stella) takes Stanley (Marlon Brando) back.

A Streetcar Named Desire is a 1947 play written by Tennessee Williams. It was both a critical and box office success. The story concerns a sexual triangle of Blanche DuBois—a pretentious, fading beauty; macho alpha male Stanley Kowalski, a rising member of the industrial, inner-city immigrant class; and Stella Kowalski, the submissive sister of Blanche.

Stella is a victim of domestic violence and often finds herself taking refuge at her neighbour Eunice’s home, only to return to Stanley when he cries for her to take him back. Blanche, who has arrived for a “visit”, is horrified by her sister’s situation and tries to convince Stella to divorce Stanley, but Stella refuses, bound to Stanley by sexual attraction and her pregnancy with his child.

The night Stella is having their baby, Stanley drunkenly happens upon Blanche and rapes her. This sends Blanche completely over the edge into a nervous breakdown, and Stanley forces Stella to send her off to a mental institution.

In some versions of A Streetcar Named Desire, Stella leaves Stanley after she finds out about the rape.

Icons of erotic art #7

Although French artist Francis Picabia’s work from the 1940s such as [1], [2], [3] and Woman with Bulldog [4]; which borrowed generously from soft-core pornography, is a much more likely candidate for the Icons of erotic art series, today I wish to celebrate Picabia’s entirely unerotic 1915 work: Portrait of an American Girl in the Nude[5], a drawing which depicts a spark plug supposedly representing Agnes Meyer. It is a satirical homage to the machine age and the American pin up girl.

Images sourced at Lemateurdart and K-Punk.

Previous entries in Icons of Erotic Art here, and in a Wiki format here.

This entry also counts as the 15th significant artwork of the 20th century.

World cinema classics #26

[Youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lSho9nlXRkk]

The Intruder (1962) – Roger Corman

The Intruder is a 1962 American film directed by Roger Corman, after a novel by Charles Beaumont, starring William Shatner. Also called Shame in US release, and The Stranger in the UK release. The story centers around the machinations of a racist named Adam Cramer (portrayed by Shatner), who arrives in the fictitious small southern town of Caxton in order to incite townspeople to racial violence against the town’s African-American minority and court-ordered school integration.

The Intruder is the greatest irony of Roger Corman’s film career, after cranking out dozens of exploitation films he put up his own resources to produce a serious work of drama on the explosive issue of racism and integration. The film went on to win rave reviews and film festival prizes but became Corman’s first film to lose money.

Similarly themed fiction includes I Spit On Your Graves.

Previous “World Cinema Classics” and in the Wiki format here.

Introducing Les Krims

Les Krims (born August 16, 1942) is a United States conceptual photographer. He is noted for his carefully arranged fabricated photographs (called “fictions”), various candid series, a surreal satirical edge, dark humor, and long-standing criticism of what he describes as leftist twaddle. Works such as Heavy Feminist with Wedding Cake [1] (1970) has been criticized by anti-pornography feminists and feminist photographers as being fetishistic, objectifying, body despising and a misogynist who uses his photography to humiliate predominantly women. Even though Krims does include men (often himself, nude) in his photos, these critics contend that his primary viciousness is reserved for women.

Tip of the hat to [1].

World music classics #13

Runaway Love (1978) – Linda Clifford

Linda Clifford’s 1978 album, If My Friends Could See Me Now produced two of Clifford’s biggest hit and put her on the music map. The first single, Runaway Love became an R&B hit peaking at #3 for two weeks. It was released as a 9:44 twelve inch on Curtom Records, written produced and arranged by Gil Askey, mixed by Jim Burgess. The lyrics (in the twelve inch version, not on the album version) dealt with female liberation.