PUBLIC FAILURE, in more ways than one. At first I thought, I won't show up to the pres. because I am feeling anxious and sick, sick and wrong, wrong and right. But then I remembered Celi's voice in my head: "no, do the hard thing... take the challenge" & I thought "I don't want to let down my group." So I went to class and started talking about a chapter of economic policies I had read over twice and took lengthy discussion notes on. Once my first sentence was out, I realized I had no more words within myself. I had no thoughts, blank mind, green mind. 60 sets of eyes were looking at me with confusion and that look that says "oh he's bombing." The only thing I could say was "I can't do this, I can't talk... I am sorry." I left my backpack, wallet, water, and jackets and just walked over the my favorite empty stairwell and stared into the opaque/foggy windows. I could hear my breath echoing up 4 floors and after a few moments I convinced myself to return to the classroom, but I didn't. I ended up talking to the friendliest surfer dude possible eating McDonalds and he said "hey I've got an extra burger, you want one?" & I politely declined saying "I'm full up." The surfer dude started relating all kinds of mixed anxieties to me and usually when someone does this it just makes me feel worse and want to crawl in a hole, but there was something about his oversized flip-flops and his backwards hat and his spicy mustard from McDonalds that calmed me down. Peers started to roll out of class asking me if I was OK and re-assured me that "no one is making fun of you" as if that was soemthing I was at all worried about. My teacher Jin came out and quietly walked over to me with a deeply sincere stare that reminded me that she was A) the best teacher I've ever had at Evergreen B) probably a wonderful grandmother & C) only worried about me and my well being. I left the A Wing of SEM II and walked across red square and the squabble of last day partiers and hip hop dee jays and dancers were only making me feel worse. The only solution is to eat falafel and sit in the woods, except I am not hungry and I am wearing white-ish pants that shouldn't get dirty.

This post is based on the index of Richie Unterberger's book UNKNOWN LEGENDS OF ROCK 'N' ROLL. Each artists name has a link attached. I skipped some of the artists in the book because they were either too obscure or sucked.

OVERLOOKED ORIGINATORS

The Collins Kids

Ronnie Dawson

Wanda Jackson

LOST BRITISH INVADERS

Graham Bond

The Creation

John's Children

Duffy Power

OUT OF THE GARAGE

The Chocolate Watch Band

The Music Machine

The Mystic Tide

The Remains

The Seeds

PSYCHEDELIC UNKNOWNS

The Deviants

The Great Society

The Misunderstood

MAD GENIUSES & ECCENTRIC RECLUSES

Syd Barrett

Roky Erickson

Lee Hazlewood

Arthur Lee

Joe Meek

Skip Spence

Scott Walker

FROM THE CONTINENT

Can

Francoise Hardy

The Outsiders

Savage Rose

COMIC RELIEF

The Rutles

Screaming Lord Sutch

Swamp Dogg

PUNK PIONEERS

The Avengers

Crass

The Dils

The Raincoats

X-Ray Spex

LO-FI MAVERICKS

Tall Dwarfs

The Clean

The Bats

The Chills

R. Stevie Moore

Half Japanese

Beat Happening

ONE SHOT WAS ALL THEY GOT

The Blue Things

The Monks

The United States of America

Young Marble Giants

ROCK ENIGMAS

Merrell Fankhauser

The Red Krayola

Doris Troy

how are these dudes so cool?

I was so surprised at how good this film was! Elvis' acting was really, really good & the story wasn't that campy at all. Even Ness really liked it!

I tried posting this back when Aisha B. first showed it to me while I was in SF, CA but they had taken it down for a while. Crispin Glover is so fucking hilarious.

After finishing Dispatches we watched DEAR AMERICA: LETTERS HOME FROM VIETNAM by Bill Courtiere. It was one of the best war documentaries I've ever seen. Here's a pretty good clip. I have been feeling pretty bummed all day though, so I went running through the forest and down to the beach. I feel asleep for a bit, ran back and sat in the sauna for about 1/2 an hour. After sweating it all out I was in overdrive and ended up at the liquor store and bought some whiskey. Now I am going to watch THE GREAT SILENCE starring Klaus Kinski as "Loco". Benny's bud James said it was one of his favorite spaghetti westerns! I don't see how it can fail me w/ a combination of: Klaus, Ennio Morricone, and winter landscapes!

here's a killer tune by Bob Lee that sounds remarkably like a Screamin' Jay song:

the Tornadoes! wow!

After reading Michael Herr's Dispatches almost entirely in one day, I was starting to get bummed (even though it's an excellent book & I think everyone should read it). Luckily, I found this clip of Vicente Gomez where he smiles the entire time (even when he's playing impossible chords).

JOIN, OR DIE

I could really use a Pepsi right about now

Charanjit Singh has always been one of my favorite Bollywood musicians, but I never he made this record in 1982 called 10 Ragas to a Disco Beat. The Bombay Connection label just re-issued a 2xLP that I really hope I can get a copy of. Thanks again to Joey Casio, as usual, for hipping me to the best electronic music ever made.




Speaking of disco music & Joey Casio... I bought the Debbie Deb 12" Single for "Lookout Weekend" today for only $5! I'll have to spin this at Mykey's love ceremony!

Doris Day singing one of my favorite songs by her, in the film CALAMITY JANE (a really goofy musical, that's actually pretty funny):

THE ART OF THE CRIME, the #1 trading card of all times. These BATMAN trading cards were a gift from Cole J. R. Doig! (click on the image to make it larger)

Excellent live version of "Baby Let's Play House". They were doing those close-ups of his face to avoid showing his thrusting hips and shakin' knees over the air. I am so glad I finally love Elvis.


I tried to segway this into Beat Happening's "Playhouse", but I couldn't find a video... so I'll just re-post the "Black Candy" video that was recorded at TCTV in Olympia!


It makes sense to me on a lot of levels, because I probably wouldn't appreciate Elvis if it weren't for Calvin. We were discussing Elvis one day and I was like "you know, I am just NOT a fan..." & CJ says "... well, just give the guy a chance" & then he proceeded to give me an oral history of Elvis & Sam Phillips & Sun records and then the next day at work he had bought me an Elvis lunch box (as a joke) which Ness now uses as a container for seeds for the garden. He later lent me this book (I was still not a fan) called LAST TRAIN TO MEMPHIS: The Rise of Elvis & it was a really interesting book.... & I still was not a fan. Then Calvin lent me some records by Johnny Burnett & the Rock 'n' Roll trio & I was blown away. I LOVED IT. I started listening to it over and over and went into a deep Rockabilly phase. Later, when I was visiting my Mom & her family in Texas over the holidays, I went to Half Price Books (excellent chain in TX) and found this LP called ELVIS: The Sun Sessions. & now I am a fan! those recordings are so good. I'll never forget Calvin talking about his love for Elvis' haunting version of "Blue Moon".

Last quarter in class we spent some time talking about Elvis & my teacher talked about going to see him in Tulsa when he was a kid, and how he couldn't believe that the Rock 'n' Roll was making ladies around him tear their shirts off! They were screaming their heads off. Dave said "by the time the Beatles came around and all the girls were freakin' out... ah man, that was old news... cause I already saw that happen w/ Elvis".

My grandmother Ann has a great story about throwing her Senior dance in High School way out in Midland, TX in the 1950's. They had a $500 budget (that's a lot of money back then!) & on the day of the dance they were going to get all the food and whatever w/ their money when someone ran to the auditorium shouting "Elvis and his band are at the hotel down the road w/ a day off of their tour! Let's see if we can get them to play our dance!" So they all went to the hotel and found Elvis & the gang lying by the pool, told them about the dance & Elvis said "well, it's our day off, but we'll play for $500." Of course they gave all the money to the band and they apparently had the best dance of all times. Watching my grandmother tell that story is the cutest thing ever. Although, I doubt she was tearing her shirt off... but then again???