H     W    E    B    L    O    G  

 
February 26, 2002

Knowledge is power

Visit the archives section of the website feast of hate and fear, and check out Ed Sanders' chapters on O.T.O. and The Process Church of the Final Judgment. These were censored from his Manson book "The Family; The Story of Charles Manson's Dune Buggy Attack Battalion" due to lawsuits, and are only available in the rare first edition of the book. There's also a vast selection of writings by Mel Lyman, Charles Manson, Peter Sotos, Varg Vikernes, Julius Evola, Robert DeGrimston, Ragnar Redbeard, Jim Jones, Jack Parsons, Nietzsche, Valerie Solanas and many others. In the articles section you'll find unique sickness like an article giving advice on how to have sex with living and dead animals(!), death, the penis, pubic hair, home-made drugs, cannibalism, muzak, shit, bondage and much more ...

10:38

February 22, 2002

Mel Lyman is God

Mel Lyman (1938-1978) was a respected and fairly well known folk musician in the sixties. Then he suddenly decided that he was God, and started an enigmatic and highly disciplined cult/commune known as the Lyman Family. Much like the Manson Family, but with a slightly more coherent philosophy and less drugs and violence. The main place to look for Mel Lyman info on the internet is here, a site run by Steve Trussel, who once knew Lyman. The site is ripe with essays, photos, and a very detailed discography (including cover shots and info on re-released CD's by Jim Kweskin w/Lyman on various instruments.).

From the introduction: "Mel Lyman was controversial. He was the brilliant folk musician who soothed the Dylan-ruffled crowd at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival, the Fort Hill guru whose prose in the undergound newspaper Avatar shocked conservative Bostonians of the late 60s...

He died almost 25 years ago at age 40, and the articles and writings included here start from some 15 years earlier, from 1963. It's "ancient history", but a little piece of it was also my history, and Mel Lyman was important in my life. He taught me something important, something that changed me for the better, and so I feel I owe him at least this, a place on the Internet.

The last time I saw him was probably in 1967, so I have no first-hand knowledge of most of the events described here - I've never been to Fort Hill, and didn't know most of the people. It was because of rumors I read in newsgroups on the Internet around 1995 that I started this research - this site - to try to find some of the "truth" -- to learn something about the Mel Lyman after I knew him.

Many years of collecting, and help from numerous people has resulted in the large collection of articles reproduced here. Some say Lyman was God... others that he was a devil... but most of these articles show him as a charismatic individual somewhere between those two extremes." (Steve Trussel)

Photocopies of Mel Lyman material, and rare vinyl albums and tapes are available from The Archives of Aesthetic Nilhilism. Their "Holy Trinity" is Mel Lyman, Robert DeGrimston and Charles Manson.

Another discography of Jim Kweskin, including Lyman's records.

00:31

February 21, 2002

Sleazoid Express #4 out now

Bill Landis has a new issue of his revived Sleazoid Express out. The 70 page photocopied film zine has articles on Charles Manson-related movies, The Rise and Fall of Karen Schubert (from "La Punition" via "Bluebeard" to "Black Emanuelle"), "The Sadist", The Bizarre World of Bob Cresse ("Love Camp 7" et.c.), an interview with Paul Leder ("I Dismember Mama" a.o.) and LOTS more. Landis used to work as a projectionist and theatre manager at many of the sleaziest pits of the old 42nd St. in NYC, and he also put on his own independent movie shows. He has an amazing ability to remember the tiniest details of these good old days, and has a lot of incredible stories to tell. His writing style and vast knowledge of these movies and their directors, actors and distributors places this film zine far above and beyond any others. The zine doesn't look like much, but offers a much better read than all the hundreds of fanboy-drooling rags floating around.

Landis claims that his book of Sleazoid articles will be out for Xmas 2002, from Simon & Schuster. He still sells copies of his excellent book "Anger" on Kenneth Anger. All serious sleaze film enthusiasts should also get Metasex, edited by Landis' wife Michelle Clifford. Three issues are available.

00:00

February 20, 2002

Propaganda Tool #1

Kevin at diaboli.com has a new paper catalogue out, hawking some of the products of his Den of Iniquity webshop. The catalogue also has ads from Warcom Media, Bult/Cotton Ferox, feastofhateandfear.com, Purging Talon Publishing, Reptilian Records, RadioFreeSatan.Com, Mephisto Media, Strength Through Joy, Church of Satan, Figures of the Spirit and others. Email kevin@diaboli.com to inquire about how to get the catalogue, or just shop online. He's got a wide selection of "satanic" books, magazines, cd's and other paraphernalia. Also, make sure you check out his Long Live Death tribute/archive page on NON/Boyd Rice.

01:04

February 19, 2002

JR Bruun på P3

Torsdag 21. februar en gang mellom 0900 og 1100 i programmet "Pullover" intervjues jeg i ca. 3 min. om GG Allin & The Murder Junkies, med litt musikk fra CD'n "Brutality & Bloodshed for All". Innslaget er i serien "Gammel Pink Floyd", om band som var bra og ble skjit. I dette tilfellet ble selvsagt Murder Junkies en total waste of space både live og på plate etter at GG kreperte av en overdose i juni '93. Omtrent som Velvet Underground etter Lou Reed sluttet, insisterte de på å fortsette som om ingenting hadde hendt ... Sjekk ut HWEB's gode gamle GG-diskografi og GG-linker her.

20:50

Lou, Moe & Nico news

Lou Reed's legendary noise album "Metal Machine Music" will be performed LIVE in Berlin March 17th, by the group Zeitkratzer. There's also a second show in Venice on March 20th. Check out the news section of the official Lou Reed site.

Zeitkratzer was founded 1997 at the Podewil/Berlin and gained great international attention since: zeitkratzer is not only a new ensemble, but puts into practice a new ensemble model. The musicians - who are all renowned solo aritsts - as well as guest musicians and composers come from all over Europe to work with zeitkratzer. A fundamental musical openness signifies their music and working method: they cooperate with experimental musicians from the electronic scene as well as with composers of new music, Japanese noise musicians or improvisors. Amongst the ranks of the musicians are Lou Reed, MERZBOW, Elliott Sharp, Mario Bertoncini, Phill Niblock, Terre Thaemlitz, Carsten Nicolai and Keith Rowe.

VU's mighty drummer Moe Tucker (see photo) has not been performing much during the last 3 years, since her mother died. She did a show, partly with Doug Yule, at the Terrastock festival last year. Now she's doing a number of shows, some with Jonathan Richman. Read more at TajMoeHal. Moe is also a grandmother now!

Other VU-related news are the release of Vols. 2 & 3 of John Cale's early 60s recordings, and the imminent release of a new Nico compilation and a double CD mono + stereo edition of "The Velvet Underground & Nico". Check out Olivier Landemaine's Velvet Underground Web Page regularily to keep up with what's happening.

Latest is that the "The Velvet Underground & Nico" double CD is pushed till May, but the Nico CD "An Introduction to Nico -- Innocent & Vain" is out now. It has only 12 tracks, selected from The Velvet Underground And Nico, Chelsea Girl, June 1, 1974, and The End. For a much better comp. that includes tracks from Nico's best albums "The Marble Index" and "Desertshore", look for "The Classic Years" CD.

On "Innocent & Vain", the song "All Tomorrow's Parties" is a remastered version of the alternate "single voice" version which originaly appeared on the 1980s editions of The Velvet Underground And Nico album. The CD comes with a 12-page booklet with liner notes by Simon Goddard and photos by Gerard Malanga.

02:23

February 18, 2002

From Barbie to Klaus Barbie...

According to NY Daily News and Ananova.com, the small time entrepreneur Mike Fosella, 43, of Pound Ridge in Westchester County has launched a line of limited edition collector's dolls of leaders of Nazi Germany, including Adolf Hitler and Josef Mengele. All in Action Man size, and limited to 50 of each doll. Fosella said he made the dolls to sell to serious collectors and history buffs.

"They don't glorify Hitler or Nazis," said Fosella. "How can they glorify anything when there are only 50? If I were mass marketing them at the toy store, that would be another story."

Ken Jacobson, associate national director of the Anti-Defamation League, warned that many people, particularly Holocaust survivors, could find the dolls offensive.

Fosella said he is sold out of both the Hitler and Mengele dolls, which cost $170 each. He plans to continue the series with Nazi Gestapo chief Heinrich Himmler and propagandist Joseph Goebbels. Fosella, who said he rejects Nazism and Mengele's cruel experiments on humans, insisted he was proud nonetheless of the craftsmanship and detail of his dolls. They have plastic bodies and 24 movable pivot points, he said. The heads are made of cast resin and are hand-painted. The Hitler doll was modeled on a photograph of the future dictator as he left Landsburg Prison, where he wrote his manifesto, "Mein Kampf."

Fosella said he screens his buyers and wouldn't sell to anyone who seemed like a skinhead or a Hitler fanatic. He said most of his customers are World War II veterans and history professors.

"A hundred years from now, these will be in Sotheby's," he said. "These are museum-quality."

"I decided to do Nazi leaders for historical reasons and nothing more. To me, it's an art form," he said.

Check out Fosella's RESIN FROM THE GRAVE website, where he offers a grand selection of horror movie figures, but it doesn't seem to be updated with the nazi toys ...

20:56

February 14, 2002

Shocked & Amazed vol. 6 finally out!

Check out the incredible new 128 page issue of the sideshow journal Shocked & Amazed. From the contents:

Our Founder muses on museums and sideshow sadness. Belly up to the bar and cock an ear because any minute now he's going to begin CUTTING UP JACKPOTS

Percilla "The Monkey Girl" Bejano had her share of ups and down but she was never above getting into a little MONKEY BUSINESS

Walt Hudson will never grow up. He'll always remain our very own CONEY ISLAND BABY

Have I got a tall tale for you. Dr. Charles Humberd had a giant obsession and spent a lifetime researching it. Now it's time to peek into the medical files of the FREAK DOCTOR

Lou Dufour and Joe Rogers knew what Life was all about: rows of dead babies in jars. Getting you to pay for their interpretation of the birth-life-death cycle made them MASTERS OF THE MIDWAY

You say you like men? Women? Both? Well, do we have a treat for you! Our cavalcade of cross-gender cuties provides A LITTLE SOMETHING FOR EVERYONE

He was one bald, badass, Bone daddy. He invited strangers from all over the globe to go onstage and choke him. Find out what makes him tick by spending a little time HANGING WITH HOWARD

They say it's always the quiet ones you have to watch out for. Well, not in this case. While there is something sinister about this fire-breathing escape-prone maniac, Harley Newman maintains it's all part of his PROFESSIONAL LUNACY

Is that a face painted on your tumor? You're just a TWO-FACED FRAUD

For decades, kids riding through the Arizona desert have had tantrums demanding ma and pa stop so they can visit GRANDPA AND HIS THING
It's the new sensation. The fabulous creation. Do THE STRAND

Aye, me buckos. Cast yer scurvy eye on this big fish tale starring a frozen sperm whale and the man who captained her to shopping mall parking lots across the country in THAR SHE FROZE!

Hey, stage mothers! Quite trying to get your little precious into all those musicals, Annie is a bore! Showcase your little freak-to-be in a do-it- yourself sideshow. Learn all the secrets of how to frame an AMATEUR NIGHT Page 92 You've come to the right place to get some learnin'. It's just like going to the guidance counselor for a vocational aptitude test. Do you think you can cut the mustard in SIDESHOW SCHOOL

It wasn't no damn three-hour tour. There was no love, neither exciting nor new. Trust me, swabbing the poop deck was the best job on the prison ship. Now join me on the Promenade Deck as we all cheer HERE COMES SUCCESS

That's it. Show's over. You can stand around and watch us sweep up, or you can spend your last few pennies and go into the BLOWOFF

Impulse spending is an American birthright. Celebrate the heritage of the New World on the INDEPENDENT MIDWAY Page 114 How could such a thing be? We answer all this and more by FRAMING THE SHOW

Widely-imitated and rarely credited, read the section so informative and compelling that countless websites have committed thought crimes by stealing our LINGO

Shocked & Amazed web site


23:19

Sideshow Gathering

Friday, Saturday, and Sunday August 30th - September 1st Zoob Productions and Marc's Tattooing will host , a gathering of Sideshow performers, enthusiasts and fans. The event will be held in honor of the Retirement of Master Showman Ward Hall. Tentative activities include performances, lectures, banner artists, an auction, vendors, an amateur bally competition, exhibits, forums, an awards ceremony, possibly a roast, as well as other activities and events as they come together. The event will be held at the Ramada Plaza Hotel on Public Square in downtown Wilkes-Barre, Pa. (North East Pa.) and that same weekend at the Ramada will also be held The 9th Annual Inkin' The Valley Tattoo Convention (annual attendance of 3-4,000), plus a Motorcycle and Hot Rod Show. The entire weekend will be cross-promoted with a heavy focus on local radio and press. This event will be attended by James Taylor and Shocked And Amazed .

This will be our first year out and obviously we will be working with a close budget. We are in need of performers, vendors, speakers, exhibitors, support staff and conventioneers. Please email frank@thegamestudio.net or call 1-570-788-7349 if you have an interest in being part of this historic event. Please include contact info, your area of interest and in the case of performers, lecturers etc. what you need to come. If you know of anyone you can forward the info to we would very much appreciate your doing so. We welcome both newer material and vintage/historical material as well. We hope to bring together people with a love of Sideshow, both insiders and fans, to share an experience which not only offers exposure to new talent but also an education in the rich history of Sideshow. If you are booked that weekend we urge you to send someone from your organization or family to represent you. We will be as accommodating as budget and space allow.

Please consider being a part of our event and helping us get the word out. Come join us in honoring this Ambassador of Wonder and his vast career as well as bringing together folks with a love of Sideshow to share, experience and enjoy your stories, opinions, ideas, and talent.

Respectfully,
Frank S. Kossa, Sideshow Fan

23:10

More of Jim Goad's "Exotic"

Jim Goad is pushing the politically correct boundaries in the february issue of the porn mag "Exotic", which he edits. This month's 8 pages of Jim-written articles, laid out in a steady Answer ME!-style design, are: "The sad, strange world of adult films made by children" (starring adults), "What's with all the lesbians?", the continuing comic-strip saga of "Trucker fags in denial" (art by Jim Blanchard), "Requiem for a heavy breather" and his monthly columns "The industry" and "My muscular ass". Download the PDF files here. You have to be 21 years or more to view it ... Check out the previous two issues in his words section. Check out his great-looking spoof on the Elvis LP cover "5 000 000 Elvis fans can't be wrong" here.

21:58



This page is powered by Blogger. Isn't yours?