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This One’s For You, Fat Elvis

Happy Friday! Dig! says …

The uplifting 89-minute documentary was directed by award-winning filmmaker Mary Wharton (Jimmy Carter: Rock and Roll President, Sam Cooke: Legend, Elvis Lives!, The Beatles Revolution) and first debuted in March as an Official SXSW 2021 Selection, winning the festival’s Audience Award. The film went on to win Best Documentary Film at the Boulder Film Festival and received widespread critical acclaim throughout the film festival season. The picture digs deeper into 2020’s critically acclaimed certified gold reissue, Wildflowers & All The Rest (Warner Records) which revealed the long anticipated second half of Tom’s autobiographical masterpiece. The film illuminates an artist at the height of his powers, providing an intimate and emotional look at an enigmatic icon with archival footage of Petty and his band in the recording studio, behind-the-scenes on tour, and at home with his family, providing a view of Tom Petty as he has never been seen before.

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Damn It Janet

The video won’t embed (SO ANNOYING), but this is a pretty cool little time capsule moment.

To my knowledge this is the only full interview that Tim Curry gave about his part in the Rocky Horror Picture Show. Recorded during the week that the film was released in 1975, he talks about his roll in the film and whether or not he would play the part again! The Interviewer is Mark Caldwell and the Interview Director is Colin Grimshaw. Clips were provided by Fox-Rank. Fox has (June 2012) reviewed and released any copyright claim on the film footage appearing in this video. The interview was shot in black and white (the film is in colour)!

I always forget how much ass this soundtrack kicks. Mark and I were in a college cover band that played “Sweet Transvestite.”

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Word

A recent letter to the WSJ in response to a Theranos story:

I am a former biotech analyst. Several years ago, the chairman of a client company told me he had seen an interview with Elizabeth Holmes and thought she was terrific and his company would be interested in working with her. He wanted to know what I thought.

Here is what I did: I went to the Theranos website and looked at the management and board of directors. I immediately noticed two red flags: First, the lack of relevant experience in the CEO’s bio, and second, the board appeared to be decorated with famous names unrelated to Theranos’s business.

Next, I called the company and introduced myself to the person who answered the phone. I explained the reason for my call and that I would like to speak to Ms. Holmes or leave her a message. I was told that there was no mechanism by which I could do that or anyone else with whom I could speak. Red flag No. 3.

It took me 10 minutes and cost my client zero dollars. Any life-sciences analyst would have done exactly the same thing and undoubtedly reached a similar conclusion. No rocket science here. So pardon my skepticism at senior members of corporations testifying as to how much money they spent on due diligence. Perhaps it’s time for their shareholders to make a change.

Elizabeth Silverman

Prism Biomedical Research

New York

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The Gig That Changed The World

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLb9UWImJb6CEPnWk2EwIVECa8sd8dx6Jz

And put the Pistols on the map.

When about 40 people saw the Sex Pistols at the Lesser Free Trade Hall in Manchester on 4 June 1976, they came away inspired. But they were inspired in a very Mancunian kind of way. Many people in the audience that night didn’t look at the Pistols and so much think: “I want to do that…” but instead, they looked at the young Londoners and thought “Come on, I could do way better than that!”

The creativity that sprang from the Lesser Free Trade Hall would loom large over the Manchester scene for decades. Without that 4 June gig – and the Pistols return visit six weeks later – there would be no Buzzcocks, Magazine, Joy Division, New Order, Factory Records, no ‘indie’ scene, no The Fall, The Smiths, Hacienda, Madchester, Happy Mondays or Oasis.

Think then about the ripples of inspiration that came as a result of the bands and situations that sprang from those gigs. Maybe there would be no Nirvana or Green Day, no Suede, no Killers, no Arctic Monkeys, no Interpol or Savages, no Blur, no Pavement, no Radiohead, Prodigy, no Arcade Fire.

Full article here.

Live at the Lesser Free Trade Hall

Part 1
1) Did You No Wrong
2) (Don’t Give Me) No Lip
3) Seventeen
4) (I’m Not Your) Stepping Stone

Part 2
5) New York
6) Whatcha Gonna Do About It?
7) Submission
8) Satellite

Part 3
9) No Feelings
10) No Fun
11) Substitute

Part 4
12) Pretty Vacant
13) Problems

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Shameless Pop

I think the Association had the #1 song on Billboard or whatever during the week I was born, so there was never much hope for me.