BOOKS REVIEW!!! MIND THE GOOF!, GONE WITH THE GOOF and THE GOOF IS OUT THERE by Franquin (Cinebook 2017, 2018 and 2019 respectively)!

I know I know...it's against regulations for me to post two midweek reviews featuring the exact same sort of specific genre in a row! And since last week's post dealt with a BEETLE BAILEY effort created especially for the Europeon market the last thing I should be writing about are these GASTON LaGAFFE books that were translated into English with the lead character now going under the name GOMER GOOF! I once remarked that the new name really showed little imagination given the famed homo of tee-vee fame here in Ameriga, but since these were translated into English English 'stead of Amerigan English with all out the u's and "re"'s 'stead of "er"'s maybe Gomer has a different meaning across the seas than it does here in ANDY GRIFFITH-saturated USA.

Still I gotta really say I like these strips. Getting used to the direct translations is hard at first, but after awhile you too will get into the swing of things as you follow the antics of Andre Franquin's long-lasting creation. Sure you just might retch at the neo-SMURFS Euro style that seems to upset quite a few people but that doesn't really get to me since I must say I enjoy the exactness and craftsmanship that went into it all. 

I also enjoy the various gags extant which kinda presents the title character as a cross between Beetle Bailey and Jimmy Olsen, a mail-sorter who works for the famed Belgian comic mag SPIROU where these strips originally appeared. And despite the strange foreign-ness of it all any tru blu worker should appreciate these comics despite their country of origin, since these one page gag sagas feature Goof either trying to avoid work, thinking up some strange ways to avoid work, thinking up strange invention that naturally goes haywire as well as indulging in a various assortment of hobbies as well as his own musical invention,  the sonically-destructive Goofophone which is a variation on an African harp according to the story which introduced the thing (see pic on right).


Can't really go wrong with this even though like I said you have to get used to the strict translation which still might not explain the punchline. But it ain't like I'm gonna cry about it what with the really eye-pleasing art that captures those Euro automobiles down to a "t" and the detail that Franquin put into his efforts even though most people are sure to whizzz by the artwork to get to the following panel. I for one wouldn't mind seeing some of the very early GOOF comics from the late-fifties on as well as a few of the other Belgian efforts that I must say seem rather intriguing even if they would probably lose even more goin' from French to English than Marcel Marceau.

Another week another BLOG TO COMM post. How time flies while you're having fun and other olde tymey cliches that I do hope never go out of style. Had a pretty good go of it this past week even if I didn't get to write up as many funtime platters as I would have liked, but then again this ain't no BIG CITY NEWSPAPER which gets inundated with album after Cee-Dee after promo package with alla the latest goodies smack dab from CBS/Sony or WEA! Come to think of it almost alla those newspaper rockcrit types have been tossed out on their ear a long time ago anyway due to the thankfully failing stature of the fishwrap press in this age of immediate information to which I say GOOD LUCK FINDING A JOB IN THE TRASH COLLECTING BUSINESS ANN POWERS! That would be a male-oriented job most suited to your talents.  But whaddeva, I had a nice time with the recordings that I had at my disposal, and as you all know I am not an ingrate regarding these types of wondrous items flowing my way. Keeps me out of the tee-vee room and outta trouble, to put a spin on yet another fun cliche of yore.

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How did you spend Pearl Harbor Day (other'n celebrating the shooting that took place there a few days ago)? Personally I thought the sushi was pretty good, plus watching ULTRAMAN was a great way to top off things next to digging out my old toy Toyotas and Subarus to play with just like I did when I was but a mere turdler. And spinning nothing but the Sadistic Mika Band and Yoko Ono records with a little Kyu Sakamoto thrown in sure helped...what better way to remind us of just which side was justified in the long run, and I do believe it wasn't the USA because like, have you seen any of that corny propaganda that came out during the forties?!?!?!

Anyway, while waiting for the complaints to pour in (mostly from all of those World War II vets who just happened to be tuning into this blog) let me once again tell ya that although we have a small batch to talk about, as Ron Jeremy said have pity on those less fortunate than the rest of us. Actually got three wonderful freebees from ugEXPLODE, Ever Never and Feeding Tube to rant and rave about, plus a few more'n just "decent" burns from fans like Bill and Paul! That's enough to take me through my usual rock 'n roll fantasies for quite some time, and if you see me on the street with a smile on my face and a hop in my step well NOW YOU KNOW WHY!!!

Draw Don Fellman and win a scholarship to the Ernie Bushmiller Memorial School
of Cartooning! Just try to get the nose big enough, willya?

Jim Shepard-HEAVY ACTION 2-LP set (Ever Never Records)

Seems as if 2019 was a really good year for Ohio-bred under-the-underground rockers to get their posthumous honors. First came the Peter Laughner box set which has been occupying more'n a few BLOG TO COMM-readers' turntables o'er these past few months, and now this particularly pleasing collection featuring Columbus Ohio rock legend Jim Shepard has headed out our way. Ya gotta admit that the two of 'em being hailed and hosann'd long after their demises at about the same time is quite neato considering how both Laughner and Shepard were under-the-radar musical eclectics who just "might have" become somewhat popular on a larger than provincial plain (Laughner almost did if only because of his rock writing credentials, but not quite). Both also offed themselves by their own hand, although Laughner's "suicide" was slower, seventies sleaze decadent-like and perhaps not as intentional as people who knew him say it was (but I wasn't there so WHAT DO I KNOW!). Shepard was way more direct, and perhaps more surprising to those of us (myself included) who never would have guessed it in a millyun years.

I wasn't at Shepard's side either so (once again) WHAT DO I KNOW! And while I'm at it I've had what you would call bad relations with a number of people "connected" with this release but I will not let try to let this taint my opinion in the least. And even if Shepard does look like Justin Trudeau I will not slam HEAVY ACTIONS one bit for it is a fine, steady and downright exhilarating bunch of records that represent what the man was doing from the seventies until the nineties, and if this is his tombstone it sure looks a whole lot brighter and spiffier than any of you readers' are sure to.

Nice mix up, some live, some rehearsal, mostly low fidelity. For that reason  it works like magic what with Shepard's talents careening through what sounds like the same personalist late night acoustic passion spews that Laughner recorded on his lonesome, up through the avgarage Ohio feeling of everyone from Pere Ubu to By Products of America that was being laid down in an area that certainly had a higher creative rate than most other splotches on the globe. The results give us a firm, fine portrait of what this man was and perhaps what he could have aspired to had he not offed himself way back 1998 way.

Echoes of all your fave name-checked influences and personal bedroom rocker faves can be found, and as with Laughner (or Kenne Highland or Mike Saunders) they come out filtered through Shepard's special frame of mind that says more about what he was and what he did than all the ink spilled about him ever since day one (and the sixth issue of my own crudzine...can't say that I've been totally comatose all these bleedin' years).

For cheapo categorization purposes you cold call this punk rock in that mid-seventies pre-spiky hair fashion. Maybe even "progressive" since everything that sounds as if the Boston Pops could have had anything remotely to do with it seemed to be getting tagged with that insult against the name of rock 'n roll anymore. But this ain't no ELP-fest we're talkin' but some mighty roars from the capitol, the same place where the Electric Eels once roamed and one of the better record shops that I never got to visit stands which kinda makes me wanna hop into the car and spend a few thou just like I woulda loved to have done back when my bank book was barely headin' into three digits.

If I hadda do any complainin' I'd spew on about the concentration of acoustic numbers at the expense of, say, tracks from SLIT AND PRE-SLIT or some of the Old Age cassettes that were makin' the under-the-underground rounds back in the eighties. But as far as giving us a slice of who Shepard as a musician and as a Columbus-area legend was, this effort does give us a pretty good insight into one of at last a few thou unrequited rock 'n roll SAVIORS who never did get their just dues whether they wanted 'em or not. Believe it or not, rock 'n roll in its bared wire, stripped of the varnish form has been loathed and hated by the people who always seem to rally to its more superficial forms and its been that way at least since the teenbos of this world tossed out their Trashmen records and picked up James Taylor at a time when nod out seemed to be the norm.

If you don't get enough Shepard on those two spinners there's actually a third enclosed, a rather interesting affair as it plays 45 rpm and features tributes to Shepard by his friends, mostly musical along with one spoken word to add some additional depth and hotcha class. Familiar names like Don Howland and Robert Pollard give their guts to these efforts and it all seems fine and well, but just to let you know who's the real star the platter ends with Shepard, like ya know it really shoulda!

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Mandy Zone & Ozone-LIVE AT MAX'S KANSAS CITY 1981 CD (ugEXPLODE Records)

Sheesh, who woulda thought that live @ Max's Kansas City albums would still be comin' out this late in the history of musical devolvement? But then again who woulda thought that such a thing as MUSIC would still exist here in 2019?

This one sure dredges up memories of the days when I thought that I was FINALLY living in an era where there were people who actually got off on the same sense of sonic pow'r that I had and that maybe I wasn't the only person within a hundred-mile radius who thrived on pure sound (presented in the proper atypically teenage way) as that fuel that gave you hope that there would be a next year!

If you've heard the Fast and thought they were pretty good if a little too fey for your tastes (hey, Lester Bangs hated the whole batch of 'em, but then again he hated the Cramps) you might prefer this offshoot act. Mandy Zone leads the band (which also included ex-Fast Tommy Moonie) into some terra previously tread by the Fast, his synth and a definite lurch into the import singles bin just being a part of the journey. However Ozone were a way harder bunch to deal with. Their approach was closer to heavy metal in the old CREEM sense (or the mid-seventies variation before promoters grew enough courage between their legs to utter the non-pejorative "punk") to the point where one could find a happy common ground between a whole slew of styles and not be embarrassed about it in the least. Echoes of new-unto-gnu wave can be heard in the cover of the Shirelles/Beatles fave "Baby It's You" as well as in a few other moments, but otherwise this could very well be the flagship for the new heavy metal revival that eventually took hold a good three or so years on. No wonder these guys were paired on bills with Von Lmo!

Besides the Max's gig there are also some live trax recorded who-knows-where plus what purports to be everything Ozone recorded in the studio including the now-rare single which somehow escaped ALL of out radarscopes when it was originally released. In all a fun time was had and after looking at the cool cover snap from Max's and thinking about all of the promise rock music had at the time all I can say is---boy have we descended or what!

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Joseph Allred-TRAVELER LP (Feeding Tube Records)

Yet another way-above-par effort from Allred, a guy who proves that the era of the steel-stringed acoustic guitar visionary didn't fizzle out with the passing of John Fahey. Faheyites will surely marvel at Allred's mastery of the guitar swinging from mid-Eastern spells to downhome Amerigan front porch deep South jamz. Allred even throws in a coupla vocals and he really does capture the backwoodsy essense with his weird nasal whine. This is so good that it kinda makes me wish that I had a copy of this back in 1967 or so and was in a college dorm room all alone with some more than eager co-ed and well, I'm sure you know where all this is gonna lead to, hunh?

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CYRIL JORDAN & THE SNEETCHES CD-r burn (originally on some kinda label)

I guess George Alexander doesn't appear on this or else it woulda been a Flamin' Groovies album. But If you are a big fan of the "epochal" SHAKE SOME ACTION album you'll probably love it, what with Jordan and band (with mid-period Groovie Chris Wilson---I THINK) re-doing the classic mid-seventies sound that hailed back to the mid-sixties thus making the Groovies the punk rock icons that they always strived to be.

For those of you who preferred the early-Groovies re-condition of the late-fifties rock 'n roll era original lead singer Roy Loney joins the group on the closing track which will at least remind me of why the Flamin' Groovies were the best fun one could buy for ninety-nine cents via any discount bin back during the record buying glory days of the seventies!

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Various Artists-GILDED STRAWBERRY DETERMINATION CD-r burn (Bill Shute)

Bill might think that I'm so DENSE that I never heard Love's "A House is Not a Motel" but I have. Thanks again anyway. I never heard Del  Shannon's "Move It On Over" so thanks for that as well. Heard the Godz's "Whippenpoof Song" a long time back but it's still nice to listen to when I do get into one of those Lester Bangs off-kilter moods. Unfortunately the track listings and what's actually on here get outta whack so I gotta guess that that really is Herman's Hermits I'm listening to (a probably post-Noone one cuz I can't make out his adolescent wail at all!). Howevah the Joe Tex track is what's listed here and Cher is nowhere to be found which is something I don't mind! Somebody goofed up, and for once IT WAS NOT ME!!!!

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Anyone interested in reading more of the above kinda inanity might do well by buying a whole slew of BLACK TO COMM back issues which are available for a song, and maybe a dance thrown in. So put on those tap shoes and show us what'cha will do for some of these rare fanzine obscurities, wont'cha you Bojangles you!

BOOK REVIEW! BEETLE BAILEY IN FRIENDS BY MORT WALKER (Dargaud, 1984)!

Y'know, it really is surprising to find out that a comic as Amerigan as BEETLE BAILEY is revered in more nations than I even knew existed. It is so strange considering that BEETLE is an Amerigan strip about an Amerigan soldier stationed in the USA and like what would some zoink in Belgium care about someone like him anyhow? Maybe the universal appeal lies in the fact that BEETLE as a comic represents the various kinds of associations and rank role play that not only soldiers but everyday working people encounter world-wide. Maybe the stories reflect a sort of desperation that those on the lowest rungs of a society have to live through without much if any hope for advancement (and if that sounds familiar its because I'm plagiarizing Bill Shute!). Then again, the artwork does have a wee bit of that European style so popular in such efforts as ASTERIX which would appeal to the Continental eye. More often than not it's UNDOUBTEDLY because people outside the USA hate this nation and like to see something as universally representational of it mocked with such a voracious and satirical bent just like them people have loathed the ever-encroaching Amerigan kultur invading their small burghs until their provincial identity has been pretty much reduced to nil. Yeah, I'm sure THAT'S it!

This especially created for the Euro market BEETLE BAILEY "graphic novel" (published by Dargaud, also known for the likes of such stellar titles as LUCKY LUKE and SPIROU) is sure a whole lot better'n those BEETLE comics that were created especially for English kiddos in the wake of the early-sixties animated cartoons being aired over there. At least the real deal Mort Walker stable was involved in the execution of these particular books and thus the spirit of the strip (or at least the spirit it had before the infamous story arc where General Halftrack went to a sensitivity seminar) remains even more intact than Aunt Minerva's reproductive system. And really, what BEETLE BAILEY fan wouldn't want to read an extended saga which doesn't make any concessions or skimp on the storylines plus throws more scantily clad gals atcha than your local paper would ever allow?

Well, these books do beat the variety of Amerigan BEETLE comic books that were released via the likes of Dell and Charlton all hollow. Those titles seemed to consist of re-drawn and slightly extended Sunday strips that were probably delineated by one of the lower of the low rungs on the Mort Walker ladder if not some quickie imitator (comic book enthusiasts should know more about this portion of the BEETLE BAILEY empire which I must admit is a bit outside my realm of comprehension). This 'un holds together with not only the better than you see in the strip now art, but the strange story that I get the feeling would have gotten Mort Walker into trouble had this thing gotten out even a good forty years back!

No surprise that these newer BEETLE sagas are not only entertaining but true enough to the entire Beetle canon (for what that was worth) with three stories (Sarge and Beetle told to make nice with each other, a surprise party for Sarge's 25th anniversary in the army and the General judging a beauty pageant) intertwined into a pretty high-larious climax that I doubt would be able to pass any comics code scrutiny but they're all a buncha old prudes so who cares! For young prudes like yourself well, you might blush a tad, but as I said years ago it's sure more FUN when you'd hear these durty jokes comin' from the mouths of people like Johnny Carson or from the pen of Mort Walker 'stead of from those "new" "comedians" who might as well be the latest incarnation of the reformers of old that tried to "improve" our lot in life but only ended up improving nothing but their own self-images.

Got one miniscule gripe about this and that's who ever did they get to do the coloring? Sure it looks fine most of the time, but Otto is given a chocolate brown body o' fur which more or less reminds me of the various printing goofs one used to find in a variety of comics from the fifties well on into the seventies.

Given what a renewed follower of the classic forties/fifties-era strips I've become as of late, I gotta search more of these Baileys that were created for the Euro circuit. I know that there's at least one more of 'em out there and hey, at this point in time I'll take 'em in just about any language on God's Grey Earth. After all, I get the feeling that Beetle in Sanskrit would be much funnier'n ZITS is in English!

MOOM PITCHER REVIEW BY BILL SHUTE! DEADLY DUO (1962), STARRING CRAIG HILL!

In the 1959-1962 period, producer Robert E. Kent made many low-budget feature films for release through United Artists as bottom-of-the-bill fillers, kind of like what Robert Lippert did for Twentieth Century Fox with his Regal Films operation. Undoubtedly, UA offered a set amount for a completed feature, with some recognizable names (Cameron Mitchell was in a few) in the cast who could be listed on the poster and the lobby cards, and a recognizable genre, most often crime or mystery or adventure. Someone like Kent could make a professional looking product that was entertaining and, at 65-70 minutes or so, would allow exhibitors to have more showings per day, which meant more income.

TCM used to run these here and there (controlling the UA library from that era), and such films as INSIDE THE MAFIA, PIER 5 HAVANA, VICE RAID, THE WALKING TARGET, THREE CAME TO KILL, and CAGE OF EVIL were solid and efficiently told little programmers that were the perfect way to spend a free 70 minutes. I’ve always kept my eyes out for more of these films and was excited to find this 1962 crime (sort of) melodrama on You Tube.

I stumbled across this film by looking for features starring Robert Lowery, great B-leading man of the 40’s and early 50’s, and my favorite Batman (from the 1949 Columbia serial, BATMAN AND ROBIN). Lowery evolved in the early 50’s from leading man to character actor, growing a mustache, letting the grey streaks in his hair come out, and often playing heavies and crooks. He’s the co-star in this one, playing a low-rent nightclub operator who is presently broke and looking for his next big score. It seems as though in every other scene, he’s asking one of the ladies to make him a drink. “This calls for some liquid refreshment,” he says with bravado, with the weakest excuse. He is married to a blonde woman who was part of a sister act that plays nightclubs. They live in Acapulco, Mexico, with the black haired sister, who’d been married to a man from a wealthy family who is killed in a car racing accident seen at the beginning of the film (probably newsreel footage, as we never see any closeups of anything). She’s the “good” sister here. She also has a child, but the rich matriarch of her late husband’s family wants the child to be raised by herself, the boy’s grandmother, and wants the mom to sign away her rights to the child for $500,000 (probably 10 million today).

The man who is hired to go down to Mexico and broker the deal is a poor attorney, who’d been a junior member of a firm run by a gang lawyer who was disbarred. He himself was innocent, and after an investigation, was not disbarred, but this did not help his practice any, and he was reduced to representing low-paying clients in night court. This man is played by CRAIG HILL, who’d worked for Kent in two other features previously, and a year before this one, even worked with the same director (Reginald Le Borg) for the same production company. Hill was a busy supporting actor in the 50’s, and eventually starred in the much-loved WHIRLYBIRDS TV show. Two years after DUO, Hill went to Europe to star in a Euro-western and soon became one of the most popular stars of Spaghetti Westerns, and made a permanent career in the Spanish cinema. He lived the rest of his life in Europe, working primarily in Spain. His last film credit is 2003, and he died in Spain in 2014. I’ve included one of his Eurowestern movie posters to give you an idea of how he evolved. In 1962, Hill was still a handsome B-movie leading man, but the move to Europe led him to re-invent himself as a grizzled, tough bounty hunter type, who could stare down anyone and who radiated toughness.

He’s given a good role in DEADLY DUO, as he knows he is walking on thin ethical ice with this case (the reason the matriarch does not approach a more established attorney), but he is broke, and he knows if he does not arrange this deal, someone else will. There’s a nice scene near the beginning where he pretends to be more successful than he is when another attorney dangles this case in front of him, and Hill’s bluff gets called.

Both sisters are played by Marcia Henderson, a name new to me (she worked extensively in television), via wigs and very different characterizations. The good sister is reticent about the deal, not wanting to “sell” the son she loves, but the bad sister and her scheming sleazebag of a husband (I can’t say enough about how oily Lowery is in the part!) figure they can talk her into going for the deal, and getting a nice cut themselves in return for making it happen. The first half of the film basically sets up the deal, and the machinations and dirty dealing take up the second half of the film. There are a number of split-screen scenes where both sisters are seen at the same time interacting with each other (like in the old PATTY DUKE SHOW), and these are handled very smoothly. This may be a low budget film, but it’s professionally made, just shot cheaply on a few sets, much like a television show.

As for the Acapulco setting, we see some mountains near a coast that look vaguely “southwest” through a window, dialogue MENTIONS some of the beautiful and picturesque things of the Mexican coast, and there are some Hispanic actors playing some of the locals, but the setting is largely in the viewer’s imagination. That’s fine with me, and in the tradition of earlier Kent productions such as PIER 5 HAVANA and the masterpiece of the lot, the amazing HONG KONG CONFIDENTIAL, with Gene Barry as a lounge-singing secret agent, no money is wasted on second-unit photography, or even mis-matched travel footage.

Much of the film’s second half involves the sisters arguing with each other, and Marcia Henderson should get some acclaim for pulling this off so well. The film’s final ten minutes (I won’t ruin the surprise with any spoilers) lead the viewer down one road which is somewhat brutal, but then a delicious twist (the Acapulco police inspector, Lt. Reyes, played by Carlos Romero, is in some ways the real hero of the film during its climax) causes us to have to recalculate everything we thought we knew, and the ending is both unexpected and satisfying.

With this film being so set-bound and with really no physical action (no fistfights or car chases or shadowing suspects down urban streets), some might find it boring and too much like a TV show, but clever plotting and good casting and interesting characters and the sister angle make DEADLY DUO a first-rate crime/mystery programmer. Also, fans of Craig Hill’s Eurowesterns will find this of interest because the man really re-invented himself when he arrived in Europe. In DEADLY DUO he was still being utilized by Hollywood as the fresh-faced young leading man type (he also guested on WB detective shows such as HAWAIIAN EYE, BOURBON STREET BEAT, and SURFSIDE SIX during this era, and he was like the stars of those shows…in DEADLY DUO, he even takes his shirt off in a scene, the way Troy Donahue or Van Williams might have), but that all ended and he became a much more powerful and intense screen presence in Europe, and his potential became unlimited.

I bet my jaw would drop if I found out how inexpensively this film was produced, and I applaud the creativity and imagination and sleight-of-hand that these low-budget filmmakers bring to the table. DEADLY DUO is as satisfying as a story in the MIKE SHAYNE MYSTERY MAGAZINE (which is high praise coming from me!), and like a printed story on the page, you have to use your imagination to make it fully come alive….which it certainly did for this viewer.

You know I really don't care and I don't, but I gotta start this post off SOMEHOW. Here it is (with gritted teeth)....I hope you all had a fine and dandy holiday this past Thursday! I managed to pull myself away from the Fangsgivin' table at the soup kitchen restaurant without gettin' that overly bloated feeling and for that I am surprisingly proud. Hope you gravitationally challenged BLOG TO COMM readers are now filled with good cheer and that late-Autumn lovey-dovey feeling, and if so goodie good good. But now it's time to get back to the raw meat and potatoes of existence and most of all to the matter of hand, mainly MUSIC.

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Other things besides such fine necessities as unbridled sound are keeping me occupied these days. For one, the string of comments I've been getting from MoeLarryandJesus regarding my OWN THE WHOLE WORLD review post are keeping me on my tootsies and boy do I find it all oh so wonderfully exhilarating even if this guy seems content to spurt out the same old "Chris is bad" tropes I hadda endure ever since the rise of the New and Improved Radical Left in the late-eighties practically made me tilt full 1488 (almost---I still welcome all men of good will and even different ethnicities and racial backgrounds into my ever-growing cult of personality!). Oddly enough I'm not angry at MoeLarryandJesus despite his rather neo-communist views regarding life and myself for that matter. Not even for his usual little digs and personal put downs, though I dunno if I should take his comment that I look like Julius Streicher of DER STURMER fame as an insult since well...Streicher was a kinda good lookin' guy. Maybe I should replace the CREATIVE CONSTRUCTION COMPANY pic on the left with his since that one is getting a little old 'n all and if so, thanks for the idea MLJ!

If I wanted complacency and harmony in life I woulda joined a quilting bee and really, I can get A WHOLE LOTTA pleasure outta it all even if MLJ has to resort to every worn out attack and insists on going around in circles ("Lincoln was good"..."No he was BAD!"..."No he was GOOD you neo-confederate racist you!"...) especially regarding these subjects that had nada to do with the post at hand. I'm also glad that there's some action happening around here and that my review really did jolt someone into full-fledged pangs of abject anger which is sadly in short supply these days. I mean, what else could I have been put on earth for other'n to defend myself (and life in that positive, fulfilling way) against the usual canned left wing namecalling which sometimes has me resorting to my own kinda hackneyed talk (hey, I can't be bright ALL the time, especially late at night after a long day at the salt mines). In all, the conversation we are having reminds me of that old NATIONAL LAMPOON Dave Berg spoof  where his Roger Kaputnick character puzzledly looks on while a hippie and a hardhat are popping off all the right and proper New Left/Silent Majority talking points and rallying cries. But who knows, maybe some day it will all come to an end and I'll have to find another way to offend the easily insulted types who feel they have that innate right to insult people they loathe and not feel the pain of punishment they being so anointed and all!

Frankly I haven't had so much fun since I mixed cayenne pepper in with some classmate's KY Jelly!

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CURRENT READING FAVORITE!: R. Meltzer's "Lumpy Tomahawk Article" in US, THE PAPERBACK MAGAZINE #3 (Bantam Books, 1970) in which Our Hero discusses what was, is and shall remain one of the funnier television programs ever, none other than ABBOTT AND COSTELLO. The real kicker to this boffo piece is that Meltzer wrote and laid the whole thing out like one of those TV GUIDE spoofs you used to see in MAD, only this one is called TZ GLIDE and features Meltzer's essay on the famed series as a number of random program listings that you have to follow by reading another listing on another channel at another time, making the piece practically impossible to follow! Meltzer also gives us some personal reflections on CAPTAIN SCARLET and JUNGLE JIM so when you end up reading the next part of the A&C saga your eyes can't help but suddenly shift over to another unrelated subject making the entire shebang a mishmosh laff riot! Sorta like Smegma for the eyes.

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Anyway that music's been spinnin' 'round here non-stop (you should be here at 4 AM!) and I've been boppin' and droppin' while playin' the followin' platters which I kinda get the feelin' you'll have some affectation for as Norm Crosby mighta said. No matter how down and out bloozey one can get, the right sounds for the right frame of insanity really does help one make it through the night if not through the leather restraints, and as you might have guessed thanks be to Bill, Paul and Feeding Tube for the free offerings which really do keep this blog rollin' like an elephant turd down a steep hill. OK I have a weird fixation for bodily secretions...so did Moe Howard so I guess that puts me in GOOD COMPANY!

Liz Durette-DELIGHT LP (Feeding Tube Records)

Liz plays nothing but keyboards here but you would never know it the way these tinkling sounds come off like ancient music boxes that went out of tune around 1915. Some of this, especially the waltz time music, reminds me of the kind of tracks old moom pitcher vendors stick on their ancient animation releases which does fit in its own charming Victorian way. Others sound like the exact same music as heard by a 110-year-old viewing said films while having a stroke. It sucks you in then chews you up with the tinkling and tintinnabulations that are usually associated with percussion instruments, but it looks as if electronics did 'em all one better. Hype notes sure have me searchin' out Gary Burton's A GENUINE TONG FUNERAL which I guess had a huge influence on Durette's music, and for years I always thought of Burton as one of those foofy fusion guys who I couldn't care about in the least!

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Gavin Bryars, Christopher Hobbs-ENSEMBLE PIECES CD (GB Records)

Paul Morley's article on Eno in the only issue of his OUT THERE fanzine had be digging back into my collection of Obscure Records, this one an item that I never did get around to hearing probably because of those olde tymey stiff import prices and all. Or perhaps because I just don't remember seeing this one in the racks anywhere way back when,

It ain't exactly the original (the John Adams track was taken off and another Gavin Bryars one added on) but it sounds just like what you'd expect the mid-twentieth century English experimental music made by the variety of improvisers, composers and phony intellectual hanger ons to sound like. It's kick your feet up entertaining and not as far-fetched in the abstract department as one would surmise, what with "Aran" sounding almost rock music and Bryars' "1,2, 1-2-3-4" keeping itself together even though the musicians were listening to what they were to be playing via headphones.  The reed organ duo reminds me of Nico while overdosing and the four guitar track will make you go crazy, in a happy way of course. Might contain the very last Cornelius Cardew performance before he went totally Mao. Unlike most of the dilettante precocious art that has been made o'er the past few decades, this thing actually has enough gristle to hold it together.

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Various Artists-THE ROCKIN' SOUTH - ROCK 'N' ROLL & ROCKABILLY FROM NRC RECORDS CD-r burn (originally on Ace Records, England)

I reallyreallyREALLY do enjoy these late-fifties Southern rockabilly tracks featuring unknowns who were lucky enough to get their brief day in the sunshine before getting stuffed in some attic along with old roadmaps and NATIONAL GEOGRAPHICs. Only this disque's got some early sides from people who actually made it big as time rolled on like Tommy Roe, Joe South and of course ol' helmet hair himself Wayne Cochran!  Yes, along with music created by the usual bright hopes that fizzled out way too soon you get to hear things like an early verson of "Sheila" done long before Roe knew what banged hair was. In all this is spiffy hotcha Dixie music as it was meant to sound like during a period in Amerigan history when everything seemed to be aligned in the right, proper, perfect fashion, especially if you were a hungry suburban slob kid with plenty of resources to soothe that inner turmoil I'm sure many kids are saddled with these days!

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The Parson Red Heads-ORB WEAVER CD-r burn (originally on Fiesta Red Records)

The merging of early-seventies Marin County front porch harmonies with early-eighties new psychedelia a la Green on Red etc. doesn't seem exactly like the kind of match I would stand in line to hear. However this group does pull it off without being too cloyingly cute and custom made for gals who seemed to go directly not from bobbysocks to stockings, but Barbie dolls to IUDs. At least some discernible moments of melody and beat merged into a toe tapping reaction do occur, but no matter how much I twist and turn my listening parameters around there's nothing here that will ever bring me back to ORB WEAVER.

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NO EXIT CD-r burn (originally on Private Records)

I used to go whole hog for these brief yet nerve racking punk rock growlers back inna mid-eighties. But that was about the time that punk really was starting to turn into punque and the whole idiom (or at least the more politicized portion of it) was nothing more than hippie love jams mark two. It's a good 'nuff effort anyway, one that really brings back the days of what raw ineptitude and totally brazen doofusness mixed with a rudimentary idea of how one should handle their instruments could mean in the face of eighties blanditude. And this thing came out in 1980, long before such atonal whiz was part and parcel of the entire punk reason for existing in the first place!

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Various Artists-CORNFLAKE ZOO VOLUME NINETEEN CD-r burn (originally on Particles Records, England)

I'm surprised that there's a nineteenth volume of CORNFLAKE ZOO out because frankly, I didn't know that there were that many obscure late-sixties English/Europeon pop platters extant to have filled up so many albums! Most all of this really doesn't flib my jib given that this is mostly well or over-produced and fly spec-less pop rock that somehow misses the mark, but that doesn't mean there are a few moments here that do wile their way into the core of my inner being or something even cornier than that.

Most interesting track here (at least considering how it fit into my own strain of existence) is the Hep Star's cover of the Association's "Enter The Young". The reason for this is well...there was one sunny Sunday morning in the seventies when I decided to plunk AND THEN---ALONG COMES THE ASSOCIATION on the ol' Victrola, and while "Enter the Young" was playing my older cousin who was elsewhere in the abode's ears started to perk up. Y'see, while in high school she and others were responsible for slapping some new student indoctrination slide show together under the auspices of an English teacher who I really LOATHED (and continue to). Anyway my cousin remarked about how this teacher (who I think butters her bread on both sides) thought "Enter the Young" was such a bright, spirited and motivational song along with all the rest of that rather nauseating sixties humanist bullshit that I really was beginning to hate at the time, and considering how this teacher was the bane of my existence during my high stool years you can bet the NEXT LOGICAL THING I did after being told how much she liked "Enter The Young" was to SELL all my Association albums which I did! An extreme reaction true but given the situation what else could I do? Now I really like the Association and all, but after what I went through I just couldn't stand to hear 'em for a LOOOOONG while!

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Various Artists-NEW THING SILVER LINING CD-r burn (Bill Shute)

A "standard" Bill Shute burn which means that this thing is way more varied, more entertaining and definitely more musically conscious in a historical way than anything YOU'D send me! Gotta say that most of the acts found here are totally unknown to me but that don't mean they're doofus in any wayshapeform....in fact I wouldn't mind hearing more from the likes of the Jaybirds or the Kampus Kids if there is any!

Naturally Bill hadda stick some Rodd Keith song poems on which are always an inwardly-twisted hoot, and Kitty North's Olde Tymey Country has more of a meaning for him than they do this suburban slob, but I'd rather listen to music like this than I would the usual smug and complacent amerunderindie material that most of you reg'lar readers creem jeenz over because it somehow fits your own personally one-dimensional existence. And so ends my screed for National Brotherhood and Let's All Get Along Week.

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Just a friendly reminder that issues of BLACK TO COMM are still available and at costs I'm sure you can afford even if you do have to report to the unemployment office to get your moolah. Well, remember that the next reminder won't be so friendly if you value your own sense of rockist pride.

BOOK REVIEW! AMERICA'S PAL : VOLUME 1 READERS COLLECTION (Gwandanaland Books, try Amazon or Ebay)

Hmmmmm...I just wonder who could this AMERICA'S PAL guy just might be? No real hint on the cover is there, eh?

Aw cum-moff-IT!!! It's so obvious that the guy in question is none other than MLJ's own Jughead, who along with a variety of other discretely re-titled efforts from the Archie stable (GAL PALS) as well as other lapsed efforts such as HARD FISTED DETECTIVE MONTHLY (DICK TRACY) ain't got no copyrights to keep 'em under lock and key. However, for legal reason the proper names of the characters are not permitted to be used on the cover leading to a whole lotta sneaky wink-wink-nudge-nudges ifyaknowaddamean.

Even if this "readers collection" features black and white reprints at less a cost (which is no sweat for a guy like me who grew up with black and white tee-vee) this book is custom made for those of you who like the mid-sixties Archie style and stories. Unfortunately I'm not that big a fan of this particular period in Archie-dom given just how one-dimensional I thought the comic book universe Archie line was in comparison with the daily strip style and canon. But when I get down to it all I don't mind that much since these comics always did make for a good enough hot afternoon time-wasting affair, something to wile away your hours reading after you got done with your chores and your favorite tee-vee show ain't starting for another hour. Plus if you like stupid gags and old jokes warmed over more'n that leftover stew these tales should go down finer'n your fave porn star.

Old ads, LI'L JINX and even some Archie Club entries are included making me glad that I sent for my twenny-five cent card 'n badge as a mere pre-pubesprout which I am proud to say still stays snuggled up in one of about twentysome boxes of various flotsam, jetsam and fanzines that I have collected in well over fortysome years! You could do worse re-living your adolescence, and when you've discovered your old cache of NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC you have!

So howz it by you? It's pretty much the same by me given how resigned I am to living in a kultur that is totally against the whole BTC grain of general fun 'n jamz, but  I ain't givin' up! At least not right now being unfettered by life support machines and all. With things like TOMBSTONE TERRITORY and BAT MASTERSON to watch on Sunday afternoon (screw sports...I mean who wants to see a buncha guys runnin' around with a ball anyway?) why should I wanna end it all in a wash of mooshy self-pity anyway?

But as far as REAL LIFE is turning out the more time I spend in my fantasy the better. Really, it's gotten to the point where I feel like putting a big ARBEIT MACHT FREI sign over the entrance of my workplace its that nerve-grating anymore. So like, who can BLAME me when I come home, slip into my jammies after a hot bath 'n INDULGE myself in music, funtime reading material and maybe take a trip to the tee-vee if something of worth like an old Laurel and Hardy moom pitcher is being shown. And if only more people would think and act like I do would the world be a much better place, and that includes you sophisticated cosmopolitan readers who just happened to chance upon this blog as well!

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Dunno about you, but for me the political highlight of the week was prezbait Eric Swalwell supposedly lettin' off a real loud one live on tee-vee proving that maybe he can get the Suburban Slob vote on that raw basis alone. Perhaps so, but when all's over, done and skidded you must admit that if Mayor Pete was on we'd never get to hear it at all.

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The pickins do seem slimmer this week, but given the rather tired state of sounds both "musical" and not these past five decades what else would one expect? Especially given the rawther upscale class that this blog exudes! Anyhoo, I had fun slappin' this one together, and in fact I had fun slappin' some of these disques personally when I got done with 'em! Anyway, you bee dee juj as ushall.

Swell Maps-TRAIN OUT OF IT CD (Mute Records)

Although this ain't whatcha'd call the definitive Cee-Dee version of WHATEVER HAPPENS NEXT (only one track from that 'un on here), TRAIN OUT OF IT's got a good heapin' hunkin' selection of rarer'n usual Swell Maps trackage that should remind you exactly of why the late-seventies were a fun time to exist. Single sides, outtakes, side projects and other "ephemera" fill up this shiny platter going from early punkitude to experimental soundcapes all comin' off like the tinkertoy Red Crayola many have pegged these guys to be. Not a bad way to spend sixty-six minutes of your life!

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The Snivelling Shits-I CAN'T COME CD (Damaged Goods Records, England)

As with the Swell Maps above, it's sure good hearing localized underground rock of the late-seventies variety that borrows way more from WHITE LIGHT/WHITE HEAT than it does that silly gal with all the plastic jewelry and heavy makeup strumming "Sweet Jane" and yer actually supposed to drop moolah into her open guitar case! Giovanni Dadomo was one of the better of the FIRST WAVE English rockscribes despite what Lindsay Hutton thinks, and although I doubt that this noted junkie represents ALL dagos at least he had some brilliant rock missives launched at us way back when, his 1977 Velvet Underground cover story for SOUNDS being just one of 'em. Great classic repeato-riff rock here including the title track which says way more about appropriating Velvetisms in a proper way than the entire REM output ever did.

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ORIGINAL SOUNDTRACK TO JOHN CASSAVETES[ FACES CD-r burn (originally on Columbia Records)

Wow, now that I've heard the soundtrack album I don't have to go and see that stoopid movie!

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Various Artists-BURGER RECORDS TRIBUTE TO WHITE LIGHT/WHITE HEAT CD-r burn (originally on Burger Records)

While the Swell Maps and Snivelling Shits efforts remind us of just how important the spirit of the Velvets hung like phlegm in your lungs across the landscape for a good decade after the group's demise, this platter shows that the legend had since been trashed to the point where just about any doof could ruin even the simplest enough concept of recreating the VU's classic expression of sound as solid blocks of concrete aimed at your skull.

Not that the idea of re-creating WHITE LIGHT/WHITE HEAT was as bad as I would have gandered it to have been way back when, but these acts (like most Velvets aficionados since at least 1981) fail to grasp any of the carnal energy of the original. Hokay, at times those important sparks of sheer creativity do shine through (Gap Dream's "Sister Ray" at first sounds like an early Eno outtake---then you really get sick of it) but once you get down to the dirty gertie of it all this was just an attempt to take one of the bloodiest hemorrhages ever set to vinyl and water it way down for a buncha ignoramuses who really don't know any better.

At one time I had the idea that the Velvets aficionados, few and far between way back when, knew better than to leap into ideas that were so far outside the group's reason for being. Nowadays I don't think ANY Velvets fan can comprehend the carnage, instead focusing on the "cuter" material that back then seemed more like a charming sidestep. When the terminally disgusting Anastasia Pantsios once wrote that the entire legacy of the Velvet Underground boiled down to whiny guys in glasses maybe she was right for once. But she sure as shit smells shouldn't have been!

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Various Artists-SURFIN' DRAGGIN' & TWISTIN' CD-r burn (originally on Yellow Label Records)

From the results of this it's OBVIOUS that Nashville hacks copying the hits of the early-sixties as well as a whole buncha misses were way more pleasant than these same jokers lending their talents to cover versions of Ann Murray a good ten or so years later. Back then I'll just BETCHA that these tracks satisfied the cheaper income'd amongst us just as much as the real deals woulda! And for some strange reason I kinda get the feelin' that the Music City 5, Garry Miles and Marty and the Merits never woulda had a real chance makin' it in the record biz, but then again would any of 'em have been recording progressive rock missives or slobberin' pop for sudzed up housewives a decade on? Of course they would...you don't think I'm a TOTAL stoop now do you???

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Various Artists-SURFIN' THE SPILLWAY CD-r burn (originally on Happy Hour Records)

I can't believe it, but these relatively modern (and for me modern is anything after 1981!) groups can do the surf rock thing swell enough that it's almost like 1963 and yer a turdler who just can't wait to grow up and spend your teenbo years just like these cool guys did! Only when you got there it was all BILLY JACK and a load of AM blanditude that just spit in the face of all that was once boss and proud. Even more surprising is that the groups who lent their talents to this release were all from Michigan, and I never thought that the Great Lakes were a place one could catch a wave! It sorta gives you faith deep down in the brisket of your eternal being.

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Various Artists-BODACIOUS SMOKIE FEVER CLOCK CD-r burn (Bill Shute)

Sometimes it takes JUST THE RIGHT THING to boost me outta the everyday humdrums that plague my life to the point where I've come to accept down in the dumpness as being part and parcel to one's existence. Bill sure did a good job of making a mixtape (or mix-Cee-Dee-Are) that can put a song in your heart and a smile on your lips and let's not talk about any appendages at this time.

The Bill Black Combo's "Smokie" Parts 1 & 2 was particularly powerful especially with the use of a toy piano adding a particularly crazed tone to an already fine late-fifties instrumental. Sharon Cash's soul version of "Fever" actually transcended the usual pitfalls that genre could fall into at times, especially when cover versions are performed. Tracks from the likes of the Royal Chanters, the Virginia Trio, the Southern Stars and the Corinthian Singers might make you remain staunch atheists but at least you'll remain so with a stirring feeling in your soul.

HIGHLIGHT OF THE BATCH---the Mighty Accordion Band's rendition of  "The Syncopated Clock", a tune I always used to sing to my cyster when she was having what I would call "tic tock time" and boy did she get mad sayin' I was wrong 'n all! But I sure knew better, that's for sure! (The nose knows!)

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Hey, if you really wanna make me sad, and I'm talkin' cry my eyes out blow my head off sad, why don't you purchase one or even more old issues of BLACK TO COMM that I have been trying to pawn off for you for a longer time'n any of us could imagine. C'mon, make my life ugly, dreary and downright miserable---you know you want to do it!

FANZINE REVIEW! OWN THE WHOLE WORLD #19 (ubgun12@yahoo.com)

It hasn't been that long since #18 came out making me wonder if editor Bob Forward has a lotta free time on his hands. Still I can't argue about  getting another fanzine in the mail considering the dearth of rockist-related reading that is available, so when it comes plop time in the bathroom you know which mag I'm gonna pull out to read, right?

The latest OTWW sinks to even crudzineier levels than past efforts. Actually that's a pretty good recommendation right there given just how slick to the point of nausea I'm sure some of these rock reads have come to be as of late (just guessing, but I would assume that most would be worse than the offal I read for free onna web). It's sure good reading something pasted and patched like OTWW because if there's anything out there that needs to match the cheap music its cheap publishing! After all, TEENAGE WASTELAND GAZETTE was vastly superior to ROLLING STONE and I get the idea that TWG ran on a budget of ten dollars at the max!

The innards ain't bad either, what with Craig Bell giving us his take on his own history, an autobiography that even throws in a mistake or two for alla you anal retentive types to write in and complain about. Yeah we once again see the same photos of Mirrors and Rocket From The Tombs we've seen over and over again for the past umpteen years, but who sez that OTWW ain't followin' a proud fanzine tradition in doing just that?

Lessee---what else is there? Howzbout a piece on Susan Oliver that probably woulda been more fitting for an issue of VULCHER only I think that effort has deep-sixed for all eternity. I'm not that hotcha a fan of Oliver but I do like old tee-vee shows and she appeared on a good share of those herself! Also boffo are the two pages of Eddie Flowers reviews followed by some Bob Fay guy giving us a track-by-track appreciation of THE CAN SOUNDTRACKS!  Fay is top notch true, but as far as Flowers goes it's sure grand reading things written in the HERE AND NOW that were written by a guy who was around in the THEN AND THERE which retains that old sense of gonz that's been poo-poo'd by the POWERS THAT BE ever since Lester Bangs did his own era's end almost thirty years back. None of that college kid crit golly gosh gee shit here I'll tell ya!

Andrew Russ also clocks in with a whole load of live reviews including a Devo tribute of sorts as well as various Cle-area live writeups that, while not making me wish I was there front and center, seemed like fun enough events for Russ to document for all eternity. And there's some weirdo thingie on some cassette culture-type electronic collagey thing I'll read about next time I hit the throne.

It's a pretty good 'nuff effort true, but unfortunately OTWW #19 is marred by a few glaring and downright disgusting inclusions that might even make the more squeamish amongst us stay awake worrying all night. Forward's review of a Phoenix Donald Trump appearance reads so alternative rock snob above it all that if he only added a few more caustic commentaries regarding the local yokels and tossed in a few hints o' neo-Fascist bubbling under it coulda appeared in THE VILLAGE VOICE. It's a given that even with his cowtowing to various special interests out there Trump just might be THE real life Rex Grainge or at least a viable MEL LYMAN who actually will "tear down the world"...your world that is. The perfect antidote to the dictatorship of the cosmopolitan that's gotten even more snobbish and unbearable once their power was thankfully usurped by a man I never woulda thought coulda pulled it off inna first place. David Duke?? How right on and Sweet Polly Purebread can ya get there Bob?

Also in the disgusto realm is a positive mention of Jay Hinman's latest 'zine endeavor and given just how hard that man had tried (and succeeded to an extent) to derail my own fanzine efforts I would have thought a person who I had considered a "friend" wouldn't have trotted over to the other side so fast. You must remember that it was Hinman who directed a whole number of screeds against me for various moderne day "sins" such as racism (dunno how that enters into things though I do hold more of an affinity for John Derbyshire's views on race than I would any of Hinman's philosophical idols), sexism (as if the image of what the female gender aspired to in the earlier part of the 20th century was worse than it was once the gals lost their seats when they stood up for their rights) and homophobia (coprophagia raised to a new exulted height---and like many of you readers out there probably don't believe if it ain't procreative it's a doorway to a world even you will fear). He also thinks my musical tastes suck which is yet another reason the guy should be suicided immediately...anyone who would dismiss the likes of Von Lmo and the Plastic People of the Universe should not be allowed to go anywhere near typeset. The smug social consciousness that has sneaked its way into OTWW certainly is unpleasant considering what we really could use these days is a whole lot less "virtue" and a whole lot more lynchings! (And don't go writin' in about the racism alleged or not about that li'l statement....most of the lynchings that took place in the western US were of white people and besides, I really don't have much love for a murderer who was dragged outta his cell and subjected to the neck stretch!)

But hey, I know that Bob and Jayze are man enough to take my solid constructive criticism to heart. If I were you I'd go get yerself a copy of OTWW #19 and at least see what the fanzine idiom on life support looks and reads like long after most of you readers ceased to care.

BOOK REVIEW BY BILL SHUTE! CHARLIE CHAN SUNDAY COMIC STRIPS, BOOK ONE (Pulp Tales Press)

The great newspaper comics artist-writer Alfred Andriola, best known today for his later Kerry Drake comic strip, wrote and drew a Charlie Chan newspaper strip in the late 30’s and early 40’s. The B&W daily strip and the separate color Sunday strip had different continuities and ran from 1938-1942. You can find many samples of these strips online, and they’ve had sections published in collector paperback books over the years. Some recent exciting news for fans of Andriola’s Chan strip is that the Library of American Comics (LOAC, who do the wonderful horizontal, large-sized reprints of one year of a daily strip, one day’s strips to each page) is bringing out the first year of Chan’s B&W strip, from October 1938 to November 1939, in a hardcover volume which should be out by the time you read this. That should re-ignite interest in both Andriola’s work and the Chan strip. What I’m covering today, though, is a book from 2015 that contains the first 72 color Sunday strips, starting from the beginning in late October 1938. Pulp Tales Press promised to deliver the complete Sundays in three volumes, but so far, this is the only one to appear. I’ve been trotting it out every year or so to re-read since getting it, and recently I’ve been re-reading it to get ready for the LOAC volume (I do have most of those daily strips elsewhere, but the quality will be so much better and the size much larger in the LOAC edition, it will be like encountering the strips for the first time---I’m sorry I missed the Pacific Comics Club over-sized reprints of the Chan dailies back in the 80’s, which I saw briefly then but could not afford) and thought I’d mention its existence to the newspaper comics fans and Chan fans among the BTC readership.

Although the Chan name would be familiar to almost anyone in 1938, the specifics of his character would not necessarily be known since not everyone saw his Fox movies or read the novels of Chan creator Earl Derr Biggers, so the initial Sunday entries are complete-unto-themselves and introduce the police inspector for the Honolulu Police who is of Chinese background, showing his family, his methods of crime detection, etc. Only after a few weeks of that, to get readers used to Chan and his environment, do we get multi-week story arcs, and those tend to last for a few months each. That allows for plots involving multiple characters/suspects, changes in setting, multiple subplots, etc. and gives the strip more of the feel of a movie, or more accurately, a movie serial. In one of the early Sunday entries, as the readers are being introduced to the character’s methods, we see him solve a theft ON ONE PAGE in one Sunday strip! Thank goodness that technique was not continued! It would be like those “Five Minute Mysteries” radio shows I’ve sent Chris over the years, which he’s reviewed here.

Instead of sons Tommy or Jimmy Chan assisting him on these cases, Charlie has an assistant from the police force here, one Kirk Barrow, an athletic blond who would no doubt have been played by some former-male-model heart-throb had this been a film, and Kirk is assisted by Gina Lane, formerly of a Hollywood film crew that was filming in Hawaii in the first multi-week Chan color Sunday adventure, and who fell for Kirk and decided to stay in Hawaii. Charlie managed to get her a position on the force! The cases involve kidnapping, theft, piracy, crooks posing as missionaries, crooked phony-rebels who are terrorizing their home area, and of course, some murders. “Murder, Chan specialty” I can hear Sidney Toler saying in one of the Monogram Chan films.

Alfred Andriola apprenticed with Milton Caniff on Terry and The Pirates, and with Kerry Drake he became a fine craftsman with his art (and his storytelling). As this book is taken from photocopies of actual yellowing Sunday strips, and not syndicate proofs, and since there is none of the “re-coloring” and “digital enhancement” we see in so many of the reprints of both comic strips and comic books in the last 25 years, and because of the crude color-newsprint reproduction in the 1930’s, a purist might turn his nose up at the reproduction of the art here, but you don’t need a Criterion edition of a PRC or Monogram film, so I’m happy with the quality. Pulp Tales Press clearly put some effort into making sharp and crisp copies of what would have been a bit blurred in the original medium. I’m sure the LOAC edition of the B&W dailies will show every detail of Andriola’s action-packed, vibrant art, so I’m looking forward to that book. Until then, though, this color collection of brisk and mystery-filled Sunday continuities is the perfect company on a lazy evening…like tonight, as it’s 101 degrees here in South Texas in August----and with the humidity, it’s easy to imagine myself in Hawaii with Inspector Chan! This is actually my FOURTH or fifth reading of this book, so that in itself tells you how much I like this collection. Just Google the publisher and title, and YOU, my friend, can order the book directly from its maker, and if they sell a few more, maybe they’ll finally bring out the second and third volumes of this series. I’m ready for them!

With the weather gettin' colder and the nights longer no longer do I have an excuse not to stay indoors and indulge myself in the finer things in life like music and eyeball stimulation of a moving or static variety. Yes, there's nothing like keeping holed up in one's house doin' nothin' but reading old comics, watching tee-vee and eating the kinda foods that used to be special treats when you were younger, but now you are an old turd and nobody has to tell you that Cheetos are unhealthy and all that rot unless Don Fellman happens to call. I spent a good portion of Sunday as well as a few evening afterwards just soaking myself into music (see my playlist below) while reading some of the finer fanzines that have graced our earth like CAN'T BUY A THRILL and that special surprise OUT THERE (Paul Morley wasn't as much a creep as people make him out to be even if he was part of that nauseating "Frankie Goes to Hollywood" scam). With the days getting darker and the outdoor work load lighter, I sure hope that I have more'n just a few days where I can just settle back and appreciate the past fiftysome years of musical and published mayhem in my own down pat sorta style that is more or less akin to your long-gone bachelor Unca Ferd with the easy chair reclining away in his stocking feet watching BONANZA back 1963 way. Way to go, Ferd!

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Hey, are any of you readers participating in "No Nut", or "No Fap" November, that Coomer pledge to abstain from any really naughty action that takes place in that region below the belly and above the knees for the entire month? Well, in my case it's been "No Nut Life", but then again I feel that many of you regular tuner-inners of this blog might have less of control and are pretty lonely guys and well, there are times in one's existence when even those honeydew melons at the supermarket can look pretty excitng. If you are up front and center in this internet-wide campaign to stamp out self abuse I do commend you, but somehow I have the feeling that all of your water bills are gonna be goin' sky high once December 1st rolls around...

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What may come as a surprise to you as of late is the amount of PSYCHIC MAYHEM that has been occurring during my hours both waking and not. Mostly not, like right before I finally drop off into the deep arms of Morpheus who I hope isn't queer...dunno why, but images both weird and just plain peculiar seem to pop into my mind for no special, or explainable reason for that matter. For example it may be the face of an old man or a quaint young lady of 1930's vintage drawn in a classic magazine style, or perhaps a cartoon-esque character like a little girl I never even heard of who might have had her own comic strip back in the fifties. Clear images of people I've never seen before and hopefully never will again just appear and ya know I'm gonna lose my brain if by some chance I would happen to SEE said person at the store the following day! What's even weirder is when words suddenly start spelling out in my mind, nice and clear as if something from another world is trying to somehow communicate with me. The only real problem is NONE of these words make any sense...like "IBLUM" or "mentrublcat". I still don't know what the various numerals that also appear during those less consciously on-guard hours mean, probably the number of goof offs I'm gonna make the following day. Could I have some strange Uri Geller-type powers I don't even know about? Once I can control these strange powers all I gotta say is...watch out vermin!

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HERE'S WHAT ELSE (BESIDES THE OFFAL MENTIONED BELOW) THAT I WAS LISTENING TO WHILE PUTTING THIS PARTICULAR ENTRY TOGETHER: BLACK PEARL CD (Wounded Bird Records)-A way better representation of just what the late-sixties really hadda offer us than that item reviewed elsewhere in which Black Pearl is mentioned; David Crosby-IF I COULD ONLY REMEMBER MY NAME CD (Atlantic Records)-For Eddie Flowers. Not as wasted as I originally felt, but ooooh those harmonies!; Michael Nyman-DECAY MUSIC CD (EMI Records England)-Avgarde music always seems to go down the smoothest on Sunday afternoons---well it beats football!; The Magic Tramps-KICKING UP MOONLIGHT DUST CD (Moonlight Dust Records)-Wouldn't mind hearing what an actual album circa. 1971 woulda sounded like---wasn't Emerson at one time signed to Paramount Records???; Mahogany Brain-SMOOTH SICK LIGHTS CD (Fractal Records)-Because I always listen to it; Fripp & Eno-(NO PUSSYFOOTING) CD (Editions EG Records)-Self-indulgent? If it is, this kinda self indulgence sure sounded better back inna mid-seventies!;  The Gizmos-RAW FIRST TAKES 1977 CD-r (Slippytown Records)-For those of you who remember 1976 as being a whole lot more than Peter Frampton and disco; The Beatles-BACK-TRACK CD (bootleg)-Well, it seemed like a good idea at the time; SURPRIEZE CD-r burn-Not the WHITE LIGHT/WHITE HEAT explosion that I would have liked, but weirded out "freak" "loner" "music" "done" "up" "by" "someone" "even" "more" "whacked" "out" "than" "you!"; I think I filled up at least two inches (depending on your browser) trying to beef this post up to a more respectable size so I'll just stop everything right here and NOW!

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Not that hotcha a week for new and really inspirational musics to overtake me and my rather susceptible aural/cranial complex. But new stuff I did hear and as usual I will relate to you my own personal opinions on the stuff in my own hopefully snark and pithy ways why I don't give a hoot about any of it. Awww cuh-monh, you might be able to decipher something positive outta the following mess...

The Doors-APOCALYPSE NOW CD-r burn

As time crept on the Doors meant less and less to me, not that they ever were a top-echelon act in my rather "blinkered" mind. Chalk it up to their image as some hotcha revolutionary youth revolt force that made music which was over-produced as well as overwrought and somehow appealed to Young Ameriga's worst values and instincts. The fact that the creepy kids with pinwheel eyes loved 'em didn't help. The other fact is that the Doors didn't deliver on the total eruption jamz like some of their outer reaches compatriots also figures in mightily. After all, when compared to another vocals/guitar/keyboards/drums aggregation such as the Seeds who by all reports produced the best live show in the El Lay area during the '66/'67 season what were the Doors but a poorly executed hip poetry aggregation whose only real claim to fame was that they had the hip Elektra machine crankin' behind 'em thus guaranteeing mucho teenage buckskins a'headed their way!

This live in Stockholm gig just seems to reiterate all my bigotries surrounding not only the Doors but the hip teen cult that surrounded them. Next to the NUGGETS bands the Doors are total pretension, while even next to the late-sixties hard edged punk rockers who copped some of the Doors' musical and vocal ideas they seem rather restrained. A cooker like IT'S ALL MEAT not to mention efforts from the Stooges to Black Pearl definitely do put all of those preachy Jim Morrison poses and the band's too self-conscious ("oooh, let's throw in a Coltrane motif here and some neo-Shankar modal whooziz there") in the shade. Why listen to something that goes part of the way like this when you can hear it all in full tilt Neanderthal mode elsewhere? Jim Morrison does not satisfy the way Sky Saxon did even during the latter's mind-clogged latter days

The freakout segment entitled "Wake Up" did show some signs of rock as twisted expression. And I never really was one that thought "Light My Fire" was that bad of a frequent radio spin even if it was such a professionally bland tune that Jose Feliciano could turn it into bossa nova. (And believe you me, many Doors songs were already bossa nova enough that nobody hadda turn 'em into that!)  But as "decent" as these particular tracks may be they're not quite passionate enough to really get me plugged into the entire Doors "aura".

The above ramble's enough to get anyone tossed outta the rough and tumble book of rock criticism proper, but since I never was a "rock critic" or "proper" for that matter its like I could care one whit. I do kinda care that late-sixties rock 'n roll with all its promise and potential got waylaid by sounds like this. If you wonder where my general disdain for hippiedom and its fruits came from you really don't have to look that hard.

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Various Artists-STARRY EYED - THE RECORDS TRIBUTE CD-r burn (originally on Zero Hour Records)

Listening to over an hour of relatively recent (well, at least ca. 2013) groups paying tribute to these late-seventies power pop legends just might be too twee for me to live through. That's why I stopped midway thinkin' that I just HAD ENOUGH of it to at least crank out a decent review. However, considering how advanced this relatively commercial music was in the face of all that horrid (and it just got WORSE) dribble like Yacht Rock and Disco that was passing for rock ('n roll) and teenage International Music during the same period in time, this might as well be the Stooges. When I think about 1979 musical jamz it's usually the likes of Pere Ubu that tickle my fancy, but this 'un does revive some of those hidden feelings of what this kind of music might have led to. And it was that HARD STUFF if you can believe it!

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Various Artists-RICH SOUNDS OF THE SIXTIES VOLUME ONE CD-r burn (originally on Forum Records)

Yet another collection of rarer than braincells in a modern-day MAXIMUM ROCKNROLL reader's head (are those washed up ex-hippies still around?) sixties garage band rama lama fa-fa-fa. But unfortunately this 'un ain't as overdrive as I would have liked---although all of these tracks found here are from the Northwest there's little here to differentiate these guys from thousands others who were trying to cash in on the Big Time back when the cashin' in seemed good. Not that these guys were so L7 that even Ernie Douglas seemed cool in comparison, but if yer expectin' the overall drive of the hard rock acts that made Seattle etc. so powerful in the sixties you might be disappointed. The highlight, at least for me, just hadda be Atilla and the Huns' "Mojo Cools" which was nothing but a strange re-write of the Sonics' "Witch" and an ever stranger one than that high-larious version that ended up on one of those recent BACK FROM THE GRAVE exhumations.

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'LECTRIC WOODS CD-r burn (originally on Apt Records)

E-Z sludge created especially for the wannabe Silent Majority hipster ca. 1969 who wants to dab his wee-wee-wee piggy into the cesspool of hipster jamz. The hits of the day are reduced to even sappier levels if that is imaginable. Kinda like the aural equivalent of having warm tapioca pudding poured all over your head.

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Various Artists-SOME OF OUR BEST FRIENDS ARE CD-r burn (originally on Warner Brothers Records)

Another one of those Warner Brothers samplers that I don't recall ever seeing in used bins unlike those "loss leaders" that were scattered about all over the place. And for a collection of '68-era Warners artists I gotta say that this platter didn't bore me at all even if many of the artists present aren't exactly what anyone would call BLOG TO COMM-worthy. Most of it is folkie dribble but it ain't gnawin' at me like it might have at one time (probably because I had my nerve endings removed by a Nurse With Would album a good twentysome years back), and for once I could actually enjoy listening to ferret face Joni Mitchell head straight into Eric Andersen while Tiny Tim, Arlo Guthrie and David Blue play on in their own special way. Even the Grateful Dead's "Born Cross Eyed" fit in snug 'n tight and whoever it was that decided to pair the Fugs' "Crystal Liason" and the (new) Electric Prunes' "Kyrie Eleison" back to back shoulda been given a raise. Jimi fans'll explode in joy over "If Six Was Nine" even if Don Fellman would rather shove sharp pencils in his ears. Even if ya ain't one of those down on the farm front porch hippie types you might get some pleasure out of it. Not much, but some.

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Various Artists-FROM ARC RECORDS (ONT. CANADA) UPDATE 1 CD-r burn

Some of these label-specific samplers really don't cut it thematically or aesthetically for that matter, and this one is amongst 'em. However, these single sides taken from Arc Records in Canada do have a teenage fun streak to 'em that makes the thing hold together a whole lot more than some of these other similarly minded efforts. From early sixties vocal group to mid-sixties teen pop, these platters were primed for the transistor radio set, only for some sad reason they never really went anywhere other'n someone's basement. A good bunch if I do say so. Even has a really cheezy mid-sixties comedy horror since from Brian and Gary and the Chain Rattlers that's so cheap that I don't even think Fellman knows about it.

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Various Artists-MUSTANG SAVAGE STREET SHADOW CD-r burn (Bill Shute)

Haw---just got this 'un inna mail today so I don't have to dig through my Bill Shute box in my bedroom to find one of these samplers of his to write up this week! Fairly good 'un what with the Snakefinger stuff from his Ralph Record days coming off way better'n that one live cassette he put out around 1989 or so---ewwww!---while the Shadowy Men on a Shadowy Planet instrumental sides were rather digestible even if they had that oh-so-MODERNE production that comes off way too clean for me. The South Asian tracks from the Mustangs and Arun Amin and Amin's Aspirations (same crew?) will put you in the mood for some tandoori chicken the next time you hit your favorite Indian restaurant. Coulda done without Lainie Kazan or those ever-popular piano wimps Ferrante & Teicher even if these blokes weren't totally "offensive" to my rather skewered musical tastes (and they had the smarts to cop the prepared piano gimmick from John Cage!), but given that every second in my life is precious I like to utilize them in the best way possible!

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Time for the ol' pitch...back issues of BLACK TO COMM are still available for those of you stupid enough to have missed out on 'em the first time. Betcha that got your guilt and shame glands all riled up to the point where you'll just have to buy 'em all now, right? Sheesh, don't any of you people out there have a conscience other'n for protecting slutty teenage gals from those embryos that somehow seem to magically attach themselves to the inner linings of uteri?