Sometimes I wake up and I have to go do something. I was poisoned in my mind by a good friend of mine, long ago, relatively speaking, who told me if you can't sleep, get up. That makes the most sense, considering my other options.
I find some early morning fairly unusual activities. I like to wrap myself up in a blanket or two and go outside to sit in a chair and listen to ufo radio programs that you have to be up at the right time to hear. Art Bell was my favorite. KSFO used to have Jazbo Collins and his greatest of the great Jazz collection, but he's long gone now. I use earphones and drink tea and smoke until I get the right vibe on.
AM radio has weird stations and programming late at night. The real whackos call in after one in the morning, the Rhinoceros Congress is one I heard about once, then never again. What happened to him?
I get this funny feeling of the size and space of the planet listening to strange late night radio, I forget the unforgettable for a while and get some rest.
Now I have all these dogs that want to hang out and fuck around whenever I'm up. I still listen to the radio, but I fuck around with the dogs more. They make me laugh, another good way to forget the unforgettable.
Well. Insomnia drives people to many things. Listening to UFO shit on the air is more palatable than most. Talk radio never really took off over here, like it did in the states; there are plenty of programs, but they are almost uniformly banal. In its infancy - and this only twenty years ago or so - there were moments of greatness, but a spate of prosecutions and fines promptly sucked the fun out of it.
ReplyDeleteI have never heard of Jazzbo Collins. What a great pic. Art Bell, too; kind of resembles Warren Oates in "Alfredo Garcia" period. Very cool.
Occasionally, I idle away the hours surfing channels streamed over the net. I never seem to hit the right spot. Worse, I have to be two feet or so from the desktop to derive any benefit. What I need is a degree of portability, now that we have several feet of veranda out there. You have given me ideas...
Al (Jazzbo) was a straight up beatnik and knew jazz and how to be cool and funny. Art is off the air now, mostly, except for re-runs. Every far out conspiracy theory of note was dissected by his listeners and him for years. I bet you can get his show with the new guy, it's called "coast to coast". It has to be online somewhere.I'm guessing you don't have DSL? We have it,but I don't know what it is.We got it so the computers had a chance to survive the murderous urges dial up gave me.DSL gave me a chance
ReplyDeleteI was locked into the dark ages of dial up for many years - a listless wind blowing snatches of information every half or so down the telephone line - but I moved up to ADSL when I started out on the bleachers. It would have been a near impossibility to assemble anything without that crutch. Our recent move from the 22nd floor meant fibre was for the first time on the menu, even though it is a financial burden. If I hadn't opted to upgrade the contract, mind you, they'd have stuck me with a bill of $200, just to connect the phone. So. Now we have a superfast service but no wireless facility. I will get round to working it all out. Some day, maybe.
ReplyDeleteThe photograph of Jazzbo reminds me of those Beatnik modelled Hot Rod kits that used to appear in ads on the back of comic books. And the cover of a Greenwich Village inspired chunk of vinyl nonsense I once saw. A novelty item. From 1959 or 60.
He bears a passing resemblance to an uncle of mine who sported some facial topiary inspired by King Farouk. In Ray Bans. He was often in possession of a camera too.
I have been straightened out by my wife once again. We have a cable connection also. They have a system of charging for it. Three tiers of service. I can't for the life of me understand why the motherfuckers would slow down your connection unless you pay more. Oh, yeah. It's just business, they can so they do.I guess we pay for the middle tier. For that we can also watch about 97 or so different channels of useless pap on television almost any time we want. My life is so rich, just like everyone elses. I believe you are remembering art created by Ed "Big Daddy" Roth. I was utterly mesmerized by it and tried to emulate it with a modicum of success. Rat Finks and huge fume spewing engines and wiggly girls and monsters are still fascinating me.
ReplyDeleteYes! Ed Roth. I had forgotten the name. I think I featured him once in a post. The plastic model kits were marketed by Revell ? Something like that. Those US comic books were a huge source of frustration, since it was impossible to sen away for anything. X-Ray Specs; electric buzzers; wolfman masks. The Zip Code was the final nail in the coffin of those little clip out coupons. A lot of the good stuff - Robert Crumb; the old EC shit - would wind its way over here as ship's balast, with no import duty to be paid by those merchandisers picking it up in bulk at this end. They would be sold in street markets and alleyways at knock down prices.
ReplyDeleteOnly the DC and Marvel stuff was wholly legitimate. Less entertaining, and a good deal more pricey. The ads were always the best part. Sea Monkeys, too, like something Philip K. Dick might have dreamed up.
These days the specialist comic bookstores are serious business. Investable shit, like Van Gough.
Ed "Big Daddy" Roth (and his Philharmonic Jug and Juice Band) goes for the jugular riff:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.siblingshot.com/2008/10/tales-from-crypt.html
I lived in Germany for a couple of years with my old man. I made quite a few friends in and around Kaiserslautern that used to ask me to please, please get them shit from the PX, cigarettes, records, and guitar strings? Cigarettes were 14 cents a pack on base, 4 marks off base. We listened to AFN and some ultra hip station from Luxembourg. I had a Rat Fink sweatshirt {iron on transfer},x ray specs, a mini super spy telescope,live sea monkeys, all kinds of weird shit. Most of it was crap. The sea monkeys were dried brine shrimp that wiggled around for 4 or 5 seconds when you put them in a glass of water, you couldn't see anything through the telescope and ,alas, the x ray specs did not work at all. I had a German girlfriend that loved sex who I still miss, I was taught the proper way to smoke hashish, all of which enriched my 12 to 14 year old life immeasurably. No drinking age was a big bonus also. The beer! Cognac! Yow! I didn't want to leave. Archie Bell was stationed in the barracks right behind our building and he put a band together and played a lot around there. "Tighten Up". All my old comics are long gone, to where, I know not.
ReplyDeleteThe fucking Germans have been trying to get you Americans to lighten up with liquor and hashish for decades. Just when it seems to be working your whole country goes on an assassination spree.
ReplyDeleteI wish I still had my Captain Canuck comics.
We like our guns and we hate each other, that's why. Cognac and Red Lebanese would go a long way towards healing congressional dissent, but try and tell them that.
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