Good Hello!

So......what did I miss?

Catching Up With You 'Spotters

I’ve been semi-busy for the last few days, so here’s a run down of the boring details:

ANALOG TO DIGITAL:
Like the rest of ‘em, our local Circuit City is suddenly pushing their stock out before rigor mortis sets in. I saw my future upgrade MP3 player there (Creative ZEN 16 GB). However, I had older business to take care of, like finding a device or program where I can EASILY transfer some of my LPs and tapes into the digital realm. That one device turned out to be something called Inport, a silver plastic box that hooks up between your receiver and the PC. I was pleasantly surprise how easy it was and got started on a couple of compilation project right away: a best of Martin Mull set and putting an old and underrated Earth Wind & Fire LP, Faces, on a CD-R. I’m even starting on another multi-CD nostalgia series set called The Dementia Years, based on all those years of insane music courtesy of Dr. Demento.

SHE’S ALIVE:
If you’ve been reading my blog long enough, you’d probably heard about the resurrection of an old comic book character, SAMANTHA-X. Well, she’s steady as she goes as I got the inks from Steve Addlesee and shipped them back to Ron & Astor for the digital touching up. Ron and I are going back and forth on what to stuff Samantha’s web site. When everything is ready, I’ll let you all suffer the consequences. Stay tuned

SWEET DICK AGAIN:
I’m currently working on an article on Sweet Dick Whittington for Mark Strickert’s MarkTime zine. The theme for his new issue is radio and he asked me to do a write up on Whittington. Thus, I’m doing my part to dig Dick’s shyness out of his grave. Stay tuned as per usual.

OASIS RADIO:
When I finally finished my multi disc nostalgia series THE LOST DECADE, I had another similar idea bop into my head when I got my first MP3 player and a new PC. This one was a combination of any things from my impressionable years between 1977 to 1980 and it would play out like a radio station. The seed of this was a series of recordings I made during my Las Vegas obsession years when I was recording radio commercials from KDWN-AM.

Cutting those old ads individually, I mixed in some of the more favorite “hits from that time (What You Wont Do For Love, Time Passages, Fool (If You Think It’s Over), etc.,), a couple of Xanadu tracks (Magic and Whenever You’re Away From Me) with a few of the movies radio ads, some comedy records (mainly Firesign Theatre’s Dear Friends LP) and a pinch of lounge (mainly from the first Friends Of Dean Martinez CD) to give the set an intimate feel.

After sometime of editing, I finally got the fix that fitted the format and thus: OASIS RADIO, a six hour visit to my old out dated world and I usually tune it in when I work on my “art” or go on trips and get bone-crushing bored.

That’s all fer now, will bug when something else happens,
Don-O

ZINE REVIEW: Murder Can Be Fun #20

$2
John Murr, PO Box 640111, San Francisco, CA 94164
In the face of the ballyhoo about the downturn of zines in the face of the internet and its blogs, Murr has put out two new MCBF editions that made old hands and new faces ever happy…and not just for the usual morbid entertainment Murr offers.

The recent issue is not "all-new", but still a great read. It’s a collection of freelance articles he had written for various newspapers, magazines and crashed-and-burnt-to-a-toast web sites with an updated story as the centerpiece: ‘Waiting In Line To Die’ a 1991 story on Disneyland from MCBF #13.

The reworked and extended Disney piece is just as, if not, more informative and entertaining as the original. Obviously, more new rides means more deaths, like Big Thunder Mountain crushing a rider between the flying train coming off the tracks and the top of the mouth of a mountain. There’s a couple of sidebars about death going TO Disneyland and one about a suicide at the Disneyland Hotel. Serving as footnotes, there’s a related FAQ page.

The rest of the issue is the cacophony of MCBF goodness: Pieces on fatal fraternity hazing, kidnapping do’s & don’ts, a denture murder case based on a copyright and so on.

ODDS & ENDS

McBARF:
It's been generally 15 years since I stopped eating at McDonalds. Sure, I've gone there for breakfast on the occasional moments of breakfast desperation (like I would run out of milk during my cereal days).

Yesterday was a real test of my McDonalds rule and, to make it worse, it at a Wal-Mart. My mom and I were stopping by the Mart when she ordered up two Chicken McNuggets combs for us. I was a bit tepid about it. I had the Nuggets before but not in batches of 12!! I took a deep breath and eat it.

It wasn't the instant reaction that did me in but it was that overly processed numbing hollowed aftertaste that began to creep in near the end of the "meal".

For the rest of the day, I became a bit sluggish and when I went home, I took a 14-hour nap. I was "too out of it" to even watch the TV.

I also noticed that there was a coupon with every McNugget package. Thanks McDonalds. Remind me NOT to use those coupons for those Chicken Strips.

LETTING THE SHIT GO:
Before I spew, a small piece of personal background: I'm an old school Josie & Pussycats fan, we're talking the comics and TV show, NOT the fucking movie. Why did I say "fucking movie"?! 'Josie' creator Dan DeCarlo was screwed by, not only the movie (no big deal, I admit) but screwed without the KY by the comics book company, Archies Comics. See my 'Jozine' site for the bloody details.

This screwing continued not only until DeCarlo's death, but remains to this day upon remaining 'Josie' fans.

To wit: Archie Comics had just announced that going to give 'Josie' a manga makeover, like the one they did with Sabrina from last year. Yup, Archie is resurrecting the dead for more money that they lost over the movie.

And people still ask me why I still read comics.

DON-O's VEGAS TOUR-O-RAMA prequel:
My one-week tour of Vegas will begin soon enough. Actually, it'll begin on Friday...possibly. Thanks to a small screw up on the timeshare's part, we'll be spending the first night at the Palace Station and then we're off to the timeshare for the remainder of the week.

Another complication came up that a windstorm is coming in on the morning of our flight. Since turbulence is not on our travel agenda, we figured we might take a ride with a friend of ours to Vegas and fly back.

Friend in question is planning to stop by here on Friday on his way to Phoenix by Monday. What's planned behind his back is jumping along in his truck on the way to Vegas with a possibility of staying in boarder line casino Whiskey Pete's.

This could be either possibly good or bad...possibly. More stories of travel hell much later.

Don-O

WHO AM ME ANYWAY?!

For those of you who have dumped into this thingy of mine and wondered who the hell am I? and why there ain't much of me on the profile?

Well, I more used to babbling off my opinions than babbling off about my self. Though, I'm sure, anybody will get a good idea if I get carried away with my opinions and, if done in person, by the amount of spit I produce.

Plus, not only am I new to this whole internet socializing mess; I'm kinda suspicious of it. I've heard and read one too many stories about innocent people turning into shut-ins by their 78th consecutive hours on the 'net. Hell, I don't trust this computer here: it keeps demanding that I initialize the word 'internet'. Talking about built-in ego.

Bitch-squealing aside, here's a go at my social resume:

NAME:
Don-O

HOME:
was born and 1/8th raised in Santa Monica, CA. Outside of a few months in living (against my will) in Roy, Utah and working in Grand Canyon, Arizona, lived all me life in LA until Dec. 2004. Now I'm stuck in Grover Beach, CA (pop. MUCH less than LA....trust me). You can smell the homesickness from here!!

AGE:
Too old to breath...at least according to what "Da Media" keeps telling me.

RELIGON & POLITICS:
I don't know. Maybe Hitler has more depth than I do, but I will admit I have a VERY reaction to: neo-cons, Fox News, american health system, attention whore politicians and celebrities, anybody who uses religion as a shield or a weapon, commercial radio, homophobia (I'm straight, but I've been around guys with testosterone coming out of the ears with one hand on their can of beer and the other grabbing their dicks for dear life. NOT pretty), drunks (I don't drink), advertising, the continuing changes in audio and video formats (this DVD-R sh*t better work!!!), telemarketers, Mr and Misses Ann Culter & Dennis Miller, and pretty much any hypocritical and reeks old big brother, his media and his arm pit smell....and same to you too Mike Love.

TV SHOWS I GLADLY WAIST TIME ON:
MST3K, I Love The 70's and 90's (never been a fan of the 80's), Daria, Fernwood/America 2-Nite, The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Flying High (a cheap-o 'Coffee Tea or Me' show in 1978), WKRP In Cincinnati, SCTV, Monty Python's Flying Circus, Bakersfield PD, Bevis & Butthead, King Of The Hill, Disinformation Show, Jackass, the old 'Gong Show', etc.,

RADIO SHOWS I GLADY WAIST MORE TIME WITH:
This American Life, The Molotov Cocktail Hour, Le Show, Over The Edge, etc.,

MUSIC THAT I KILL MY TIME WITH:
Stereolab, Burt Bacharach (including Dionne Warwick), Swing Out Sister, ELO, ON-J, Martin Denny, Tom Waits, John Coltrane, Frank Zappa, The Ramones, Jimmy Smith, Steely Dan, Zootz Rift, Moog records, Samantha Fox (only for the covers), Raymond Scott, Moog records, Charles Brown, Miles Davis, Lord Buckley, Henry Rollins (just the spoken word stuff), good lounge compilations, Julie London, Talking Heads, old LA Radio air checks (like KHJ-AM and Ten-Q), Negativland, The Friends Of Dean Martinez, Pizzicato Five, Firesign Theater, Monty Python, Steve Martin, Bran Flakes, Evolution Control Committee, Bill Hicks, Lenny Bruce, Brian Wilson, They Might Be Giants, 'Weird Al' Yankovic, Dr. Demento compilations, old Blue Note compilations, Neeeeeeil Haaaaaamburgerrrrrrrrrrrrr, etc.,

BOOKS (and other publications) I BARRIED MYSELF IN:
Hunter S. Thompson, Stay Free, Murder Can Be Fun, Alan Hess, Bad Azz Mofo, Evan Dorkin, Steve Gerber, early Bill Ward, Zine World, Inner Swine, Xerography Debt, Charles Bukowski, 8 Track Mind, Cool & Strange Music (rip), Factsheet Five (rip), Peter Bagge, R. Crumb, Harvey Pekar & American Splendor, Eric Schlosser, David Sedaris, Chris Ware, Tarot The Witch Of The Black Rose (best T&A comic out there right now), etc.,

MOVIES THAT I EAT MY LIFE AWAY:
Xanadu (probably the biggest obsession I can think of in this list), Used Cars, American Splendor, Flash Gordon (1980 version), The Blues Brothers (btw, f*ck that '2000' piece of crap), Slacker, Galaxina (ONLY for Dorothy Stratton and nothing else), The Untitled Star Wars Mockumentary, So Wrong, They're Right, Local Hero, Monty Python films, Bukowski: Born Into This, Crumb, Roger & Me, Reflections Of Evil, Sideways, Forever Friends, Harold & Maude, Gumball Rally, 1941, La Dolce Vita, Spectres Of The Spectrum, Tribulation 99, etc.,

OTHER UNCATAGORIAL "JUNK" I'M STUCK IN:
Russ Meyer and anything else with big breasts (yes, I'm straight again), playing Grand Thief Auto: Vic City, drawing coming and making zines, reading zines, old Las Vegas, collecting old Las Vegas radio commercials, old Playboys (mid-60's to 1980), postcards (especially period pieces from the 50's to 70's), Taschen Books, Googie, Tiki, anime (only with big breasts) (ugh! me man again), old buildings, John Waters, old airline memorabilia, 60's and 70's pop art, etc.,

WEB STIES I'M SUCKERED INTO:
LANDWASTER BOOKS:

These poor fools published by first title to see actual print 'The Whatever Of Shmuck-O Rat'. Currently slugging myself through my second...

XANADU PRESERVATION SOCIETY:
I co-run this monolith site to one of my biggest obsessions, that 1980 "musical fantasy of all time", Xanadu! Stared Olivia Newton-John and with music by (mostly) ELO. And yes, I'm straight, too.

'JOZINE':

A personally slapped this together with my own hands (and it shows). It's on my other bigger obsession: 'Josie & The Pussycats' and the rightful creator, Dan DeCarlo. BTW F*ck Archies Comics and that piece of shit movie.

That's all fer now as of 3/14/05. Subject to change without thinking.
Don-O

I LOVE THE SEVENTH LEVEL OF HELL!

It's official. I'm going to hell with a first class ticket in my hand. None of this compulsive verbal and psychological dancing around that Republicans and CEO's is well known to do.

I'm starting to record VH1's 'I Love the 70's.

I finally unplugged my ass and programmed my VCR to record as batch of those episodes (75 to 79) for next weekend and I'm aiming to get a full collection of this show.

It's not that I fully lived through THAT decade, but I did witness it through my own experience and it wasn't pretty. For example: while everybody was partying during the bicentennial year of 1976, I was stuck in the middle of bondockville of Roy, Utah. Bored out of me head with NOTHING going on.

But then, I was all too young to know that's what mormons do very well, make you life boring and paranoid, usually at the same time..and from their backyard of all of Utah. Pigf*ckers.

Jealous? Sure as hell can't deny it. But I also look back on some pockets of THAT decade and feel glad that I dodged a few of those bullets. Like 'disco': nope, couldn't avoid listening to it, which, in hindsight, wasn't THAT bad, but dressing up for it and dancing in public in, what Zappa called them, "coke-filled smoke rooms"? I dodged just in time.

'Charles Angles'?! I was more of a Mary Tyler Moore person and I will forever associate Cheryl Ladd to 'Josie & The Pussycats'. 'Pop Rocks'?! Big fat hairy deal...I put worse things in my mouth like bad Mexican food. 'Bell Bottoms'?! My sister broke her ankle tripping on those, so screw that mess. 'Bo Derick": healthy, but I couldn't stand her for those beads in her hair. Sorry toots, but that looks better on reggae musicians.

The cynic in me washes in gleeful pride on watching bigger suckers dress all f*cked up and acting like fashion clowns and village idiots (one of the reasons I liked the original Gong Show). Easy laughs when needed...

The flip side is the usual nostalgia wet dreams and all the things I missed, or didn't fully realize at the time. Plus, the armchair cultural professor gets a good education out of this mess. Gotta keep them brain cell from going bad too soon.

VH1 prides itself as being a pop culture channel, though Trio Channel dose better job, only without the wide audience and the current pop culture trend, reality shows. So, you'll have to take VH1 with a grain of salt if you wanna live though this whole pop cultural trappings, old or new.

I'm hoping that when I finally complete my '70's collection through the weeds of VH1, I'll get the first two episodes of 'I Love The 80's (80-81). That should take care of my raging nostalgic binge.

The flag has been hoisted between my butt cheeks...

Hoping I'll come up with something more freakin' contemporary,
Don-O

MARTIN DENNY 1911-2005

I'm no music critic, not even a free lancer, so I'm not going to babble on about Martin Denny's artistic identity and his contributions. All that should be known is generally what he did and why his records invaded your parent's record collections, as well as mine. Denny, more or less, recorded and created the musical term called 'Exotica'...and, thus, invading your parent's record collection.

'Exotica' is, basically, Americanized version and arrangements of Polynesian/Hawaiian music that's usually played in elevators and lounges. Thanks to the additional the pressures of conformity of the period (50's and 60's), this all lead to the creations of Tiki bars, restaurants, apartments and office buildings.

Some have called it 'Easier Listening Music'; though I question this as most of these recorded songs contain the sounds of, say, the more-white-than-Wonder-Bread Ray Conniff Singers chanting, almost yelling, Exotica's harsh Polynesian lyrics. A safer bet is sitting in the middle of Disneyland's Tiki Tiki Tiki Tiki Tiki Fucking Tiki Room to get a general mainstream view on Exotica.

The bottom line is that Martin Denny provided just the right balance of smoothness and inventiveness to keep these Tiki backyards from falling asleep on their BBQ pork and Mai Tai. Leave that to bad cover versions of Burt Bacharach and 101 Strings.

It was all about the search for alternative scenery, a frame of mind and escape route that offered a chance to control your own world and, for that time, Tiki was the pill and the music was the background music to help you swallow it.

Personally, this tiki party was all but largely over when I grew up. All I got from the party was the old shells of those buildings and the records.

Whenever I went to places like Playa Del Ray and Long Beach were most of these shells reside and find myself in a neighborhood where I'm surrounded by them, I find myself whipping out a Martin Denny CD and I find myself placed in another time were you can un-self consciously create your own surrounding without fear of real estate prices and smell that BBQ.

BTW, a small side note of thanks goes to Sandy Warner. The Exotica model who graced her presents upon many of those Martin's LP covers! Yowie! They don't make 'em and her anymore.

Don-O