A Bucket of Blood, 1959. Directed by the one and only Roger Corman. Starring the one and only Dick Miller. Hope you caught it this past Hallows Eve. If not, check it out anytime. It’s one for the ages. Crazy.

HARD CORE LOVE
by Lenore Kandel

To Whom It Does Concern

Do you believe me when I say / you’re beautiful

I stand here and look at you out of the vision of my eyes

and into the vision of your eyes and I see you and you’re an

animal

and I see you and you’re divine and I see you and you’re a

divine animal

and you’re beautiful

the divine is not separate from the beast; it is the total crea-

ture that

transcends itself

the messiah that has been invoked is already here

you are that messiah waiting to be born again into awareness

you are beautiful; we are all beautiful

you are divine; we are all divine

divinity becomes apparent on its own recognition

accept the being that you are and illuminate yourself

by your own clear light

Peaceful rest, Lenore, and thank you.

Bubbles. Like...wow.

Done at my most casual but astonished request by the amazing Juan Ochoa.

Got hold of a rather way-out book not too long ago – Beatsville, edited by Martin McIntosh.   All the Beatnik madness you could hope for, and more.  It’s out of print now, so it may cost you some heavy green.  It’s completely worth it.  And if that’s not cool enough, there is a website based on the book as well.  So go indulge yourselves, cats and kittens. Oh, and I almost forgot – thanks to this book we now know who the artist is for that pic I posted a while back – it’s Beatnik Queen by Todd Schorr.  Groovy.

Have you heard there’s a biopic of Allen Ginsberg in the works? Howl will apparently focus on the events in his life surrounding the book’s obscenity trial.  It looks promising, but I hope it doesn’t turn into another courtroom drama.

That’s about all I have for you at the moment.  Stay cool, gang.

America when will we end the human war? Go fuck yourself with your atom bomb

The quote is from “America” by Allen Ginsberg.  If and when the bomb drops, this is how I’m going out, baby.  As Emma Goldman once said, “If I can’t dance, I don’t want to be part of your revolution.”

I will always champion the working class. But I will never, ever champion willful ignorance and stupidity. Being educated does not mean you are an elitist snob. It means you know about many things, and it’s more than likely that you can think and converse intelligently about them. When did this become a bad thing?

I believe rapists should be castrated. Without anesthesia. Diamanda Galas speaks of her dream gang, the Black Leather Beavers, who would go around doing just that. I would join such a gang in a New York minute. Don’t trust something that bleeds for a week and doesn’t die? You should get down on your knees and fucking WORSHIP something that bleeds for a week and doesn’t die. Jackass.

I have always been enamored of Gothic bellydance, but lately I have become downright obsessed with it. It is something to which I aspire, lapsed bellydance student that I am.

Speaking of Goth, I guess you could call me a 20th Century Goth.  I’m not really into vampires, flowy velvet gowns, corsets, dragons, fairies, that kind of thing.  The hardcore punk/industrial thing doesn’t do too much for me either.  I dig the 1920s through the 1960s the most, I think.  No one seems too interested in exploring the Goth side of these eras, but I hope as time passes more people will. I think that’s all for now.

wishing you a skully holiday

And please enjoy The Junky’s Christmas on Google Video.

Happy holidays, all.

Beatnik Queen by Todd Schorr

I imagine it’s fairly evident by now my feelings on the whole Beatnik idea. So where does the Goth in Beatnik Goth come in? Is it just a fashion statement, or something more?

I have never self-identified as a Goth. The stereotypical Goth has always struck me as too gloomy, too morose, too melodramatic. I’m old enough to remember when Goth meant post-punk early-80′s British bands like Bauhaus, Siouxie and the Banshees, etc. I loved the music but never bought into what I perceived to be the whole “Goth” mindset. I preferred to wear dark clothing, but I was a sunny-minded hippie idealist in my younger days.

As the years went by and my ideals crumbled one by one, I had to admit that my outlook on life had gotten a bit darker. I still don’t buy into the gloom-and-doom stuff, but I can say I’ve grown into what I’d call an optimistic realist – sometimes closer to an optimistic cynic. Life isn’t all sunshine and daisies, but it’s not all filth and rot either. I like to think I occupy a space somewhere near the middle, leaning toward the dark. Darkness, by the way, is not necessarily evil and bad. It’s simply the unknown. The unknown fascinates me, and I hover between wanting to catch a glimpse and just leaving it the hell alone. I think we all do, to one extent or another.

From Utopian Hippie to Beatnik Goth – quite a journey. I still enjoy a good drum circle, though.

Happy day, everyone.

This is one sweet book.  It’s a great overview of the scene, including the post-war mood of the country that created the Beats, the writers and artists themselves, and the goofy media-created “Beatnik” craze that followed.  It ends with a look at the post-Beat scene of the 60′s and beyond. Generously illustrated with tons of photographs that will have you perusing this book for hours.  And, not to be a shill for Amazon.com by any means, but they currently have this large, hardcover book on sale for practically nothing.  Do yourself a favor and snag a copy ASAP.

Gang of Souls: A Generation of Beat Poets directed by Maria Beatty

It’s hard to believe this film is almost 20 years old.  It’s a great collection of interviews with and readings by Beat poets, Old Guard (Ginsberg, Burroughs, Corso, DiPrima) and New Generation (Lydia Lunch, Henry Rollins, Jim Carroll, Richard Hell).  Edited with wit and verve, with the director’s love and respect for the movement evident throughout.  Don’t miss it!

The Beat Generation (1959), directed by Charles Haas

This is the film featuring the original Beatnik Goth, The Poetess, as portrayed by Vampira (see previous entry).  Unfortunately she’s only in it for about 2 minutes, if that (but she is hilarious).  Also unfortunately, the film just isn’t very good.  It’s about as much about “The Beat Generation” as The Beatniks is about “beatniks.” This movie can’t decide whether it’s a taut crime drama or a hard-hitting commentary on contemporary mores or a silly comedy. However, for you MSTies out there, it does feature Ray Danton, Mamie Van Doren, Fay Spain, Dick Contino, Norman Grabowski (“no Grabowski in there, kids”) and perhaps best of all (or worst of all, depending on your outlook), Sid “Monkey Boy” Melton and Jackie Coogan. In drag. Briefly, thankfully.

The link will take you to the place I bought the DVD from; it was obviously a homemade DVR, as the film itself does not appear to have been “officially” released (and I’m sure hoping it’s in the public domain so the vendor doesn’t get busted).