RIP Michael de Benedictus (1951 – 2019)

Life Is Something Special (1983).

This happened on October 17, 2019, but I only found out yesterday.

Michael de Benedictus co-founded the Peech Boys who released several twelve inches and one album: Life Is Something Special (1983).

De Benedictus was part of the New York dance music scene which was centered around two discotheques: the Paradise Garage and the Loft. I leave out Studio 54 on purpose.

I believe I told this story before, but for many years I hunted Antwerp flea markets for vinyl. My prey were records played by DJ Larry Levan at the New York discotheque Paradise Garage.

I was assisted in my hunt by a internet list of records I had found in 1996. You can find that list of  1100+ records here. I printed it and tried to learn the names by heart and started hunting.

At the time, I was already a fan of house music. I listened to radio shows by Pierre Elitair and the guys behind Liaisons Dangereuses. But now, finally, I found the antecedents of that kind of hedonistic nightlife music.

I gradually delved deeper, learning which labels to buy (Salsoul, West End, Prelude), which producers to focus on (Patrick Adams) and which artists to follow (Arthur Russell).

Where had this fascination with dance music come from?

I don’t know.

I remember when I was in my early twenties, walking along the Meir, hearing “Rotation” by Herb Alperts, and being intrigued by this music which could not be heard on the radio.

This world continues to fascinate me.

Michael de Benedictus role in that world was short and modest but large enough for me to document his legacy during a couple of hours on a lost coronavirus afternoon.

RIP Mal Sharpe (1936 – 2020)

“Maniacs In Living Hell”, from The Insane (But Hilarious) Minds Of Coyle & Sharpe (1964).

Mal Sharpe was an American humorist.

His most notable work was done as part of the duo Coyle and Sharpe.  They were active as street interviewers in the early 1960s and were simply hilarious.

The filmed sequence of “The Warbler” is hilarious. Sadly, it appears to be offline at the moment.

I give you “Maniacs In Living Hell”, collected on the album The Insane (But Hilarious) Minds Of Coyle & Sharpe (1964).

RIP Max von Sydow (1929 – 2020)

Max von Sydow was a Swedish-born actor famous for playing chess with death in the film The Seventh Seal (1957).

In my universe, he has a minor role in Death Watch (1980) a film which caught my attention at a young age. It tells the story of a woman with an incurable disease who will be filmed 24/7 until her death.

Death Watch (1980)


Its theme is still my theme: technology, reality television and its impact on society.

Von Sydow has but a minor part in this film.

Speaking of reality television. The most underrated film with reality television as a trope is Paul Bartel’s The Secret Cinema (1968).

RIP McCoy Tyner (1938 – 2020)

McCoy Tyner was an American jazz pianist.

What links McCoy Tyner to the Jahsonic 1000?

Let me tell you.

Among Tyner’s most critically acclaimed albums is Trident (1975).

On that Trident album there is a musical composition called “Impressions” which features a bassline by Ron Carter which was sampled throughout the “The Choice Is Yours (Revisited)” (1991) by Black Sheep. The sample is well-known in hip hop midst because in fact it is the spine of that song. It is also in the Jahsonic 1000.

 Impressions  by John Coltrane interpreted by McCoy Tyner. In this song, the Black Sheep sample in at 3:03.

The song “Impressions” is an interpretation of Coltrane’s composition Impressions (1962).

“The Choice Is Yours (Revisited)” (1991) by Black Sheep. The bassline if featured throughout.

The power of women

A series of publicity shots from A Fool There Was (1915). My World Photography Classic is the upper shot.
A series of publicity shots from A Fool There Was (1915). My World Photography Classic is the upper shot.

I am writing a review of The Madness of Crowds and as is so often the case, I get sidetracked quite easily.

One way to deal with this sidetracking is my encyclopedia, which allows me to store every single trope, meme, lemma, phrase or idea quite easily. No thought is lost.

Now in Murray’s book, there is a chapter on women which mentions the “Women Mean Business” conference. Murray is present and he witnesses young, smart, attractive women.

This started a digression on my part into the power of women wich made me watch A Fool There Was (1915) yesterday evening. This made me research The Vampire painting by Jones and its accompanying poem by Kipling. Both of 1897.

All morning!

I have to stop now.

In this phase I have reached the publicity shot for that film which shows Bara sitting behind a skeleton, now #99 in my series World Photography Classics. See above.

I really have to stop now.

‘Card Catalogue’ – Alistair Ian Blyth

During an online life of more than 25 years, it would be strange not to run into kindred souls.

One such soul is the translator and writer Alistair Ian Blyth.

Card Catalogue
[Amazon.com] [FR] [DE] [UK]

It so happens that Alistair has a new novel out. Its title is Card Catalogue and it is due to be published or already published.

In Alistair’s own words:

Card Catalogue features ruminations on the metaphysics of dust, oneiric libraries, an exhaustive catalogue of mentions of the cockroach in the classic Russian novel, and, of course, the Marlbrough Theme.

RIP David Roback (1958 – 2020)

“Fade into You” (1994)

David Roback was an American guitarist, best-known for co-writing “Fade into You” (1994). That was a song by Mazzy Star and it featured the vocals of Hope Sandoval.

Listening to this, I can’t help but think that Lana Del Rey has a very similar sound and voice. Not surprisingly, both Mazzy Star and Lana Del Rey are considered dream pop.

RIP José Mojica ‘Coffin Joe’ Marins (1936 – 2020)

José Mojica Marins was a Brazilian film director, best-known for his persona “Coffin Joe“.

 At Midnight I’ll Take Your Soul (1964)

I just finished watching At Midnight I’ll Take Your Soul (1964) and it’s actually quite good. I especially like the atheist bits, his materialist world view, his Nietzschean take on things.

For example, Coffin Joe eats meat on Holy Friday, just to taunt his catholic fellow townspeople.

And consider the opening oration of Coffin Joe:

“What is life?
It is the beggining of death.
What is death?
It is the end of life!
What is the existence?
It is the continuity of blood.
What is blood?
It is the reason of the existence!”

All this blasphemous discourse makes you wonder how this went down in Brasil. After all, it was 1964, another four years for 1968 to happen … and … did that even ‘happen’ in Brasil, the sexual revolution?

See atheism in Brazil, the sexual revolution in Brazil.