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Showing posts from May, 2016

The Ghazi

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I could go on and on about this guy, but there is so much out there that there is no point.  I wish to point out what one man can do.   In the one imaginative operation of the first world war, the British launched this incredibly poorly done up offensive at Istanbul after having fucked up an extremely easy navy attack.  As the British were milling around on this mountaintop, a disgraced and marginalized Turkish Colonel grasped the situation and moved troops up in time to change history. I am, of course, referring to Mustafa Kemal, Ataturk. The Allies came so close to ending the war here.  One man stopped them.  They made every mistake in the book and yet they were that close.  The fall of Turkey would have ended the Central Powers and saved millions of lives. So strange how when things just seem they could not get any worse, that things are as bad as can be and it is the end of all hope, the right man will show up. Te salud, Kemal.

Madness

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Hatemonger hill.  A Virginia house owned by the widow of Admiral Willis Kern.  That's George Lincoln Rockwell in the foreground. Rockwell was a talented artist, a seemingly very intelligent man and a Corsair pilot.  He was a commissioned officer, trusted and relied upon.  6 months away from getting a pension, he was kicked out of the navy because of his racist talk.  He needed that money.   This was produced by the American Nazi Party newsletter, a Lincoln Rockwell creation.  The word vile is often overused, but not in this case.  It is hard to believe how he thought, and even harder to believe the things he said in public and in his writings.. This man served in World War Two and Korea.  He was handsome, talented, intelligent and very, very angry.  His parents were successful vaudevillians and he grew up knowing Fred Allen and Jack Benny, Fanny Brice and Groucho Marx, to name a few. The man standing next to him is John Patler, née Patsal

The Very Essence Of High Adventure, Never Bettered, Never Filmed Right, Always Superior!

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A famous big game hunter, on a passenger ship, spends the evening in the bar insisting that animals do not experience fear.  While taking a turn topside, he drops his pipe and, trying to retrieve it, loses his balance and falls overboard.  He hears gunshots and swims toward the sound.  He wakes up the next morning, naked and exhausted, and starts looking around.  He finds evidence of some big animal killed with a .22.  How odd, Rainsford thinks, the hunter must have had some nerve to tackle large game with such a small gun. Stand by for action, folks.  This is the opening of  "The Most Dangerous Game", the incredible high octane, mildly racist, top shelf adventure story. Written by Richard Connell, this was an O'Henry prize winner back in the twenties.   Rainsford is about to discover what hunted animals feel. An otherwise bad movie, filmed at night on the King Kong set, Leslie Banks as the murderous and probably not insane at all Cossack General

Weegee

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Himself. These people are having more fun here than I have had in my entire life. Weegee, Arthur Fellig.  Voice inspiration for Doctor Strangelove. Photog genius, to say the least.

The Last Judgement, By Some Guy

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All you punks are going to Hell. Get gone! OMG, I have really screwed up this time.   Saint Bartholomew and paring knife.  But who is that handsome man all boneless? Marco d'Agrate, 1562.  Saint Bartholomew. I have absolutely no clue as to what is going on here, but if I was a cop I would be breaking this up, posthaste!

My Saturday Night Was So Much Fun!

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In which I pop a string and am very annoyed.  The nearest replacements are in Corpus, and that is a long drive for just one string.  I guess I will lay in a supply. The beauty of electric guitars is the sound.  Even without much skill, it is so rewarding to discover effects and chords.  And when I get impatient, as I am born to do, I think of Carl Perkins with his cigar box instrument he would learn on after his sharecropping chores with his father, or B. B. King with his strand of fence wire strung between two nails on a wall.  No, my only problem is lack of trying harder.  I found a great western embossed guitar strap, just lovely, at a thrift yesterday for two dollars.  It is perfect for my old acoustic. The drawing today shows a hell of a lot of Marvel Comics influence, and with good reason.  The pose is that of, say, the Red Skull announcing his plans right before Captain America shuts them down.  (See Kirby, Jack).