on YouTube

We’ll miss you George.

Here is an excerpt from the most brilliantly scathing review of anything I have ever seen:

This is the most torturous, pretentious, incompetent mess of a movie I have ever seen. Don’t believe the reviews that suggest this film is visionary or a classic. The songs are ridiculous: the groans at the beginning of each one were deafening. The “Piccadilly Lily” song must have been done 15 times. There is nothing visionary (or even mildly interesting) here, only a long string of poorly-done Fellini ripoffs — actually, that’s the whole movie. It was like a train wreck. This was by far the longest hour and 45 minutes of my life. The movie made me long for death. My fellow audience members screamed and screamed as minute after endless minute and song after horrible song beat us into the ground. People were pleading for other audience members to kill them. Other kind-hearted viewers tried to distract the crowd by juggling and reading Moby Dick. Some, like myself, simply attacked the screen. Watching this self-obsessed piece of garbage was like having sharp nails scraped along the chalkboard of our souls.

It’s on the IMDB for Anthony Newley’s 1969 auto-onanistic auto-biopic Can Hieronymus Merkin Ever Forget Mercy Humppe and Find True Happiness? Wow.

Need more convincing? Here’s a clip on You Tube of Newley with then-wife Joan Collins from the film with the charming title Chalk and Cheese.

I became re-introduced to Newley because of his one collaboration with my major hero Delia Derbyshire and her comments about him. He now holds a special fascination for me similar to that with the ever erudite Prince Philip (who sadly lacks Newley’s gift for alliteration).

This is David Lynch’s more eloquent response… you know, on my behalf… to the fucking idiot the other day who said he would pay a few dollars for a download version of the only story he was interested in in the new Kramers Ergot. (As opposed to my more juvenile response today on the Beat… sorry Uncle Heidi. So much for satire) Hey folks? Guess what? If you just want to read it and not spend any money… It’s called a fucking library. Get off the damn computer and out of your house.

I think now that it’s been a little while since Rory passed I’m experiencing that stage of grief know as liberation that is supposedly so familiar to those who have already lost their parents. Sorry about the headline lift, Tom. I feel your pain brother.

4-11-08

George Tabb Benefit, Thursday March 13 at 10pm with Mike Watt + the Missingmen at Safari Sam’s, 5214 W. Sunset Blvd., Hollywood, CA, (323) 666-7267. Visit MySpace.com/HelpGeorgeTabb.

I have to admit to being way clueless. My apartment in Brooklyn is a scant 4 3/4 miles away from the World Trade Center, in a neighborhood heavily populated by firefighters, and apart from some vague sense that, ‘yeah, the air after 911 was probably pretty bad and I’m sure some people are a little sick’, I haven’t given it a whole lot of thought (given that I only live there part time and moved in over a year and a half after 911, I’d probably miss a little, but c’mon!). Randomly today I see a bulletin from Mike Watt in my rarely visited MySpaceship about the benefit show, and first I’m thinkin’, ‘I didn’t know George was sick’, I read a little and it’s ‘I didn’t know George lived in New York’ (somewhere in there is, ‘we both worked at MaximumRockNRoll and even though we met once or twice I dodn’t really know George’), and then I’m sucked into a new scary world.

Simple version: George lived downtown during 911 and shortly after that he got sick… and then he got very sick, and found out that not only was there not much help available for anything beyond a runny nose, but the possibility that a causal link existed was denied in the interest of homeland security. Read his whole story at MySpace.com/HelpGeorgeTabb. As always George dishes things up in a clear, direct and honest human voice. For more on the human wreckage caused by the attacks in the years since, see these pieces in CBS News, The Village Voice, and Discover Magazine.

Back in the nonreal world, you should also give a visit to George’s YouTube channel, which contains many fine installments from his punk TV joint Destroy Television.

Fox again dips into the pool of slightly odd to fill space in their schedule, this time dragging Mr. Scott Smallwood (beard, glasses, sitting in the center) along with them. This clip is a tad old, but, hey, it was new to me. For those unfamiliar, Mr. Smallwood is pretty much the central unit in music at Wow Cool, being 1/2 of Evidence and a member of Brown Cuts Neighbors and nickname: Rebel. Check his stuff at the DeptEx shop.

At long last I’ve managed to go through some more of my shots from the intense photo-overload in Florida last month. Some of my favorites are these from the Disney Martial Arts Festival night-time show performance by the Tiger Claw Elite Champions. Now I’m off to Raleigh-Durham in the morning for more martial arts action and to hopefully catch a Bryan Lee O’Malley’s book signing.

See the full set.

You can also watch the whole thing on YouTube.

More info at TigerClawElite.com.

10 years ago at SPX, me and Jason cornered King Cat creator John Porcellino and made him come clean about what makes him tick. With less than a week to go before this year’s Small Press Expo, we present to you an in depth interview with this master of small press comic art.

OK… to us, it is like the holy grail of TV production company idents…. If you’ve experienced the Department of Experimental Services you’ll have a distinct “ah” moment. Somewhere in the back of our heads was this iconic computer video moment that opened so many warped episodes of Vegetable Soup in the 70s. I can watch this again and again.