Monday, October 29, 2012

Monkey Lamp!

Confirmed sighing this weekend of a Monkey Lamp in it's native environment. Though waning in popularity, the monkey lamp remains the true hallmark of consummate good taste and subtle sophistication.

Friday, March 30, 2012

Now Hear This- The 101ers



Back before there was a Clash, before there was even a Joe Strummer, there was a guy named John Mellor, who was calling himself Woody and playing music with a bunch of guys called the 101ers. By the time their first single, Keys to Your Heart, was released, the band was no more, and Woody Mellor had taken on the mantle of Saint Joe.
“I called myself Joe Strummer because I can only play all six strings at once, or none at all.”
The 101ers could easily have been lost in the reverb noise of so many other great but forgotten bands, if it weren’t for the efforts of Joe’s widow, Lucinda Tait. Luckily for us, she has preserved some of these potentially lost gems on the full length album, Elgin Avenue Breakdown Revisited.
If you have ever wished the Clash had recorded just one more album, one more really good
album, then you need to seek this disc out and give it a listen. From the raucous Letsagetabitarockin’ and 5 Star R’nR to the more melodious Sweet Revenge and Surf City, you can literally drop a needle anywhere on this album and come up a winner. Keep Taking the Tablets and Rabies (From the Dogs of Love), an ode to the perils of venereal disease, shows hints of the sly lyric writing genius that Joe would soon come to be known for.
Junco Partner alone is worth the price of admission.


Sunday, March 25, 2012

Why Isn't Bruce Holwerda World Famous?


Wandering around a local art festival recently, my mind was becoming numbed by paint by numbers watercolors of the beach and sailboats docked at tropic locales. And don't even get me started on the Wylan wannabe dolphin and whale crowd. Then I saw it- a grinning maniac on a unicycle, obviously going full tilt, and obviously not concerned a bit about it, martini glass held high in salute. I was immediately immersed in a world where every picture literally told a story.

Fantastic, ethereal, haunting and beautiful. How could I not be enthralled? This guy's art is amazing. Check out his website for tons more-

I swear that someday, if I can manage it somehow, I will commission this guy to do a book cover for me.