Butlins

Minehead

Here are some very blurry pics of the weekend, starting with The Stooges. Please note that the photographer was seriously out of it most of the time, and it's a wonder anything came out at all. Comets On Fire were my high point of the event:




While the low point must be the No Neck Blues Band...

...who were complete toss, in spite of the fact that the singer spent half the set topless. At one point a fire alarm went off in the venue and everyone thought it was part of the music.

Gozu

Finally got to see this the other night on Film 4, from Ichi director Takashi Miike, and it's absolutely effing nuts. Half porno Carry on Yakuza, half body-horror Twin Peaks, it also has one of the most sphincter-clenching death scenes I've ever experienced. Recommended.

San Francisco 1998

Beermats

For use with Hoffmeister, no doubt.

Let them eat crack...

Well no wonder kids are so hyperactive these days. Actually, they are quite tasty. Hope I'm not developing a habit. All together now: 'I'm living on coco rocks!'

Blue Soap

How's this for bargain of the year. Fourth Draw Down and Sulk, 2 of the best albums of the eighties in a box with loads of extra tracks for £6 in Fopp, or whatever it's called. I have both of these on vinyl, buthaven'tt listened to them for years. Completely forgotten how murky andclaustrophobicc they are, which I mean in a good way. I really dig The Glamour Chase as well, but the production is much more bright and shiny, while these sound like they were recorded in a partially flooded basement in winter. They sound damp and chilly, which I mean in a good way.

Interestingly I was listening to these last night in a herbal stupor while watching Shaolin Soccer with the sound turned down. It actually worked rather better than you might think. At one point a mass street-dancing scene was perfectly insynchc with Message Oblique Speech. Shaolin Soccer, by the way, is an absolutely great drugs movie.

The horror, the horror...

1. Reanimator
2. It's Alive
3. Brain Damage "Looks like you've got a real monster in there!"
4. Blade 2. When will I, will I be famous?
5. Quatermass and the Pit

6. Alligator People. Never actually seen this, but it's a great picture.

7. They Live

8. Night of the Demon. Or Curse of the Demon it was also called.

9. Eyes Without a Face. Absolutely nothing to do with Billy Idol.

10. Cat People. Nasty Kinki's finest hour. Shame on you for not getting it.

OK, kids, tis that time of year, and anything Dom can do I can do more ineptly. As before this ain't a top 10, I just like the pictures. Beat me and you can win a night out in a Hackney housing estate with the crack-whore of your choice. Now there's an incentive.

Spooky Cats

Fear and loathing in Hackney

This is a crap comic

Every once in a while I will be visiting a comic shop and decide, perhaps a little stoned, to take a chance on some first issue that catches my eye. You never know, you might be pleasantly surprised, or it could be worth something in a couple of years. But this is rubbish, and no amount of drugs can make it better. The 'story' as such is that some bunch of pumped-up trans-dimensional super-beings in stupid outfits turn up and fight another bunch of same, while shouting things like 'Only oblivion, Joanna, only death!'. And, er... that's it. Really. I don't know who any of them are, and I don't care. One chick even turns up in a pair of see-through pink panties.
I mean isn't that a little impractical when fighting trans-dimensional super-beings, or am I missing something? Perhaps it's a diversionary strategy. This bit did make me laugh;

Though it hardly justifies the couple of quid I spent on this nonsense. Warning, kids: dope and shopping don't mix!

Camden Lock, last week.

My start as an ebay mogul

Due to the need to reduce some of the clutter in my life, and hopefully make some money, I am now putting putting stuff on ebay. It's mostly recent comics at the moment, because they're top of the pile, but I shall be adding older comics, books, cds, vinyl, and other assorted crap in the future. Will be adding things every couple of days. You can find it all here.

More alien porn

The fossilised erection of a behemoth in Lake Mono, I think it was called, California.

Flying Nurses

Found this while sorting through some old comics. Charlton 1963. Writer and artist uncredited, unfortunately.

My road last night

2 Fast 2 Furious

2 Shit 4 Words.

The view from my room

The End of an Earache

Sad news this week. It seems that the Intrepid Fox, possibly the longest running alternative/rawk pub in London, is set to close. On September 11, which has a certain tragic irony about it. I've been going in there off and on since the early eighties when it was very punk and much rougher. These days I frequent it less, since it was featured in some Euro Rough Guide to London, and is now filled with dreadlocked Spanish children who think it's cool to skin up at the back, and moronic Scandinavian hair-metallers. But it still feels like a bit of history going, and is sad. Another piece of the seedy old Soho erased and turned into more fuckin yuppie flats. The closing party is on Sept 9, and should be some event.
And while we're on the subject, the're trying to do exactly the same thing to the Astoria, the bastards. Sign the petition to save it here: http://www.petitiononline.com/savethea/petition.html