I don’t know if I’d like porter, but this video sure makes me want one. In all likelihood, none of us has had the real thing. I’m sure some of the jillions of craft breweries out there offer a porter, but is anyone drawing it from separate kegs like in this video? Apparently it became a lost art in the early 70’s. Sad.
DST Reminder
Don’t forget to adjust your cocks, I mean clocks.
Look upon this as Renfield’s revenge for that Rod Stewart pubes pic.
It’s A Gift
If you like W.C. Fields and haven’t seen It’s A Gift, it’s a must-see. Here’s another scene.
Get Happy
If you haven’t played through this whole album lately, do yourself a favor. I have no foul moods that this album won’t dissipate before turning me into a grinning idiot. I find “Dracula’s Daughter” (and many others) addictive, but it’s a bit uncharacteristic; the rest of the album rocks like fuck. When I finally got around to buying a copy a couple of years ago, it had a sticker that said “10 Brand-New Songs Scientifically Designed To Make Anybody Happy.” Rare case of marketing matching the product.
Sigh
The Beatles juggernaut rolls on with four biopics in the works, one for each Beatle. What could possibly go wrong?
Dylan Aleam Jacit
I’m taking Renfield Jr. to see Bob Dylan next month, so decided to familiarize myself with some of his more recent original material. I think this song’s as brilliant as anything he’s done (admitting that I haven’t heard everything).
What Are They Dancing To?
Here’s a Scopitone of Brook Benton lip-syncing Mother Nature, Father Time while bikini girls apparently dance to something else.
If you’re unfamiliar with Scopitones, they were music video jukeboxes typically placed in lounges and similar adult-oriented locations. It seems that most Scopitones, like the later music-video format, were more about the girls than the songs. (I remember child-oriented ones, but their format and machines had a different name). The videos often had the hubba-hubba vibe of 50’s-60’s softcore men’s magazines (like here and here). Although Procol Harum did one, most rock acts snubbed Scopitones. I imagine they’d started looking dated, like something their dads watched for cheap thrills, down there with carnival peep-shows. One novelty was a live Billy Lee Riley one, unusual in that it’s not lip-synced.
For you film nerds: I can’t verify this, but I know I read somewhere that French (who invented them) Scopitones used Pathecolor, a very early film tinting process that used stenciling. Wikipedia claims that the last use of Pathecolor was the 1954 Mexican surrealist classic, Robinson Crusoe, but it’s often stated that it was used in that august cinematic masterpiece, Dr. Goldfoot & The Bikini Machine.
Seeds Documentary!
Not sure how a doc about some of my favorite proto-punks got past me. This goes straight to the top of my list if it’s available anywhere.
Christmas Past
I’ve got nothing new, but these holiday classics are worth re-posting.