Alas, I don’t actually own this album, but it is at the top of the list: The Best of Marcel Marceao.  Apparently both sides of the album have 19 minutes of silence, followed by a minute of applause.

Genius!

I’m not sure why Marcel Marceau’s name is spelled incorrectly on the album cover - does anyone know?

…done up sailor-style

…done up western

But wait - there’s more!  …done up geometric

’nuff said.

Courtesy of Wishbook

For today’s Wordless Wednesday post, Kathy from The Junk Drawer has graciously agreed to share some Christmas photos from her childhood. She has two pictures; in the first one she and her siblings are glasses-free, and in the second one all three of them are sporting a pair of glasses.

As she put it, 1972 was “A Good Year for Ophthalmology”

Christmas, 1971: Michael with good eyes, Ann with good eyes, Kathy with good eyes.

New Year’s Day, 1973: Ann, Michael, and Kathy with glasses.

If you want to share your seventies (or eighties) pictures with the world feel free to send them my way and I’ll add ‘em to the collection

Thanks to Kathy for submitting these great pictures.

Thanks to KUOW for providing this fabulous photo of Dave Beck with his 1971 Gremlin, circa 1980. Dave is a radio host of the program Sound Focus, and was nice enough to interview me earlier in the week about The RollerBlog.

Forget the El Camino - now that’s a real seventies car.

David Bowie is a god.

There. I’ve said it.

I’ve been meaning to write a post about David Bowie for a while now, but where to even start? His turn as the alien being Ziggy Stardust? His R&B Young Americans phase? His prolific acting career in films such as The Man Who Fell to Earth (1976), The Hunger (1983), Labyrinth (1986) … and Zoolander (2001)? His glam rockery?

David Bowie turned 61 a few days ago on January 8th, so now is as good of a time as any for me to come out of the closet as the unabashed Bowie fan that I am.

Happy birthday, David. May you have many happy returns.

To celebrate the occasion, I present you, my dear readers, with a video of one of my favorite Bowie songs, Changes. Changes is from the the 1971 album Hunky Dory, although I suspect the video is from a few years later.

Fan Sites! Blogs! And More!

• BowieWonderworld.com
• CrackedActor.com
• Moon’s David Bowie Webdream
• Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Inductee Page
• Rolling Stone Biography
• Teenage Wildlife
• Ziggy Stardust Companion Web Site

Tags 1971 . David Bowie . Changes

As we approach the last day of the year, I thought it only appropriate to view a seventies movie that follows the story of the last living man on earth. I’m talking, of course, about the 1971 film The Omega Man, starring Charlton Heston as Army Colonel Robert Neville. The movie is based on the 1954 novel I am Legend by Richard Matheson (the book was also adapted onto screen in a movie starring Will Smith which is in theaters now).

The movie opens with Robert Neville speeding around the deserted streets of Los Angeles on a sunny day. He is the last human alive after biological warfare has wiped out the earth’s entire human population three years previously. The individuals who were not instantly killed by the deadly germs were transformed into violent albino creatures who roam the streets at night. The creatures have formed a group called “The Family,” and, under their leader Matthias, make it their sole mission to exterminate Robert Neville.

Robert Neville has transformed his home into a fortress in order to withstand the nightly assaults by The Family. He runs a generator to keep the lights on around his home and plays chess with a mannequin that he has set up at his kitchen table. During the day he goes on forays into the city to find useful items and to root out The Family’s nest. Robert Neville’s life changes dramatically, however, when he discovers a group of human survivors who are somewhat resistant to the disease…

I found the movie somewhat dated and a rather loose adaptation of the book (the entire ending is completely changed), but still fun to watch. The shots of Los Angeles streets that are completely devoid of human life make the film worth viewing on their own merit; this is also my favorite aspect of the 2007 remake which takes place in New York rather than in L.A. The albino members of “The Family” are a significant departure from the zombie-like vampires depicted in the book, however, and are somewhat laughable. The portrayal of Lisa (played by Rosalind Cash) is also pretty funny - sporting a tight brown leather outfit, one of the biggest afros I have ever seen, and attitude to match, she is definitely a figure out of another era.

My favorite scene takes place when Robert Neville attempts to hang onto his sanity by talking to himself and to his mannequin friend. He has video surveillance set up all around his home, including a camera set up in his living room so that he can talk to himself. Shirtless and sweating, he turns on the camera and says to himself “Hi, Big Brother, how’s your ass?”

In a stroke of creative genius, my husband has come up with the next great thing to rock the exercise world: exercise videos set to Led Zeppelin music. In other words, Zeppercise.

The idea came about at the end of a snowy day here in Seattle as we were sitting around listlessly and trying to find something to do. That’s right, it actually snowed in Seattle yesterday. I had gone out to meet my friend Lisa for lunch earlier in the day and by the time we were finished giant snowflakes were flurrying down and I had two inches of snow on my car. After a rather nerve-wracking drive home that involved slipping and sliding on a few hills, we scrapped our plans to go out and spent the evening at home.What to do? I was feeling antsy after holing up in the house for most of the day. As we flipped through our cable On Demand options, I was strangely intrigued by a video called ”

BootyBeat - one in a series of “Flirty Girl” videos that shows you how to be sexy and stay in shape at the same time. Hmm…. learn stripper moves and lose weight? Count me in! Adam thought it was pretty funny so he joined in too. The video started out easy enough but the moves soon got so complicated (pelvis thrust! hip gyration! cowgirl lasso!) that we just ended up stumbling around and laughing.

After this rather failed attempt to be flirty girls, Adam and I found that On Demand cable also has an entire section of Led Zeppelin live concert footage from the 1970s. As we watched Jimmy Page and Robert Plant rock out to a 1971 rendition of “Black Dog”, Adam had his stroke of genius. Why not set exercise videos to to Led Zeppelin music?

Zeppercise - it’s not just for flirty girls.

Tags Led Zeppelin . Flirty Girls . 1971 . exercise videos

Dirty Harry. A movie that I’ve heard referenced a million times but somehow never managed to watch … until now. Last night I was glued to the television as Harry Calahan, played by Clint Eastwood, swaggered across the screen, brandishing his Smith & Wesson and fighting crime in urban San Francisco. Harry does it all. He talks down suicidal jumpers, foils bank robbers, hunts down a notorious serial killer, and takes the law into his own hands.

Scorpio, the villain in Dirty Harry, is loosely based on Zodiac, the serial killer that murdered victims in the San Francisco area shortly prior to the filming of the movie. Having recently watched the movie Zodiac and read the book Zodiac Unmasked by Robert Graysmith, I was eager to see how the serial killer was portrayed in Dirty Harry. He did not disappoint. Played by Andrew Robinson, Scorpio is a seemingly harmless young man with curly blond hair and disarming blue eyes. One minute he is singing nursery rhymes with young children, and the next he is laughing maniacally and ruthlessly murdering the most vulnerable members of our society. Very creepy.

As I watched Dirty Harry, I could not help but draw parallels between Shaft and Dirty Harry. Although the movies take place in different neighborhoods with distinct cultures, both characters are essentially the same. (Except the fact that Dirty Harry does not have a moustache. But this can be overlooked as his hair comes suspiciously close to being feathered, which is almost as good as having a moustache.)

Therefore, I have compiled the following list, explaining why Dirty Harry and Shaft are actually the same person.

• Dirty Harry and Shaft both have a penchant for plaid sports coats.
• Neither character could be described as a “team player” or “works well with others” or “a good partner when working on a group project.”
• Dirty Harry and Shaft have both perfected the manly swagger.
• Both characters like to save the day by rescuing innocent children.
• Talking is for sissies. Violence is for manly men.
• The rules are for sissies. Breaking the rules is for manly men.
• Lots of dialog is for sissies. Gunfights, manly stares, and memorable one-liners are for manly men.

Tags Dirty Harry . Harry Callahan . Clint Eastwood . Zodiac . Shaft

I’ve seen the movie Shaft before, but it’s been a few years and I had largely forgotten what a great movie it is. Fistfights! Tight leather pants! Moustaches! A daring rescue! It just doesn’t get much better than this.

The movie takes place in the swinging early seventies in gritty, urban New York. John Shaft, played by Richard Roundtree, is a private detective who is respected by the black community because he hasn’t sold out to the man, and he is respected by the white community because he is the man. Shaft is not intimidated by pressure from the cops, he plays hardball with black gang leaders, and he beats up the mafia. As his theme song attests, “this cat is one bad mother…” “shut your mouth!” chimes in the background vocals.

In tribute to Shaft, I have compiled a list reasons why Shaft is the baddest badass of them all.

1. Shaft is not afraid to express himself. His first words in the movie as he jaywalks and is almost run over by a taxi: “Up Yours!”
2. Look at that moustache! So perfect. So shiny. So… moustacular!
3. Shaft is a real ladies man. What was his name again? Shaft. Hmm… not very subtle.
4. In case you forget that Shaft is a real ladies man, the theme song reminds us: “Who’s the black private dick who’s a sex machine to all the chicks? Shaft! You’re damn right.”
5. Speaking of the Shaft theme song, with a funky wah wah guitar groove playing every time he walks down the street, Shaft can’t help but be a groovy cat. Plus the music from Shaft won an Oscar.
6. The moustache is so amazing that it deserves at least one more mention.
7. Shaft calls everybody “baby”, not just the ladies. Cops, gang members, chicks, friends from Harlem – they are all “baby” to Shaft. That’s suave.
8. Not to appear too tough, Shaft has a soft side. You can count on him to give money to those in need, especially to poor black children in Harlem. But of course, that just endears him even more to the ladies.
9. No one can pull off an endless series of tight turtleneck sweaters, plaid tight slacks, leather pants, and seventies-style leather jackets like Shaft.
10. Did I mention the moustache?

Tags Shaft . Richard Roundtree . moustache

I picked up the book Half Past Human for free a few weeks ago at a bookstore. That’s right; they were giving the book away. I couldn’t resist the tagline on the front “Awakening to manhood is deadly when your whole world is watching,” or the back cover which read:

Get Yourself a Female! It was a direct order. Tinker was a Good Citizen of the hive, he had no choice. The time had come to give up his neuter status and become polarized. The Big Earth Society wanted Tinker to mate. But no one had prepared Tinker for sexual activation, nor for a woman like Mu Ren. From that moment on, Tinker was no longer a Good Citizen of the hive. Suddenly Tinker knew he wanted more. He wanted out. Tinker had become a man…

Wow. This book promised to be the cheesiest book ever. I couldn’t wait to get it home and start reading.

Half Past Human by T.J. Bass, c. 1971

The year is 2349. The Earth’s citizens have evolved into a species with four toes called the Nebish. Over three trillion Nebish live underground in crowded shaft cities, subsisting on tasteless protein bars and the occasional flavored food. Few Nebish will risk going aboveground to be baked alive by the sun’s rays. The Hunters, armed with protective gear and drugged into a blood-thirsty frenzy, are the only ones who travel Outside to hunt the five-toeds and to protect the crops tended by machines.

Buckeyes, coweyes, and jungle bunnies are the hunted. This species has five toes on each foot and ekes out an existence on the Earth’s surface. These aborigines live primitively and use stone tools to avoid the metal detectors of the Huntercraft. There are only one million five-toeds left on Earth, and their numbers are slowly being depleted by the Hunters who bring their lifeless bodies back to the shaft cities as trophies.

To control the population and to suppress the bad five-toed gene, the Nebish are not allowed to mate without authorization. When Tinker, a mechanic who maintains the Huntercraft, and his wife have a son with five toes, they decide to flee Outside rather than face the anguish of losing their son to the garbage chute. Once Outside, they join a band of buckeyes who are determined to flee from the Hunters and to journey to the paradise promised by Olga, a mysterious deity. Unbeknownst to Tinker and the members of his new tribe, buckeyes around the world and even some Nebishes are rallying as if an unseen force is guiding their actions…

—

So… my take on this book is that it is not nearly as terrible as I first thought it would be. It was actually fairly engaging… once I got past the first 100 pages or so. As noted in this review in the SF Signal, the book’s writing style is extremely difficult to follow. Between the obscure medical terminology (T.J. Bass is a physician) and the terms invented by Bass to describe aspects of life in the future, I had a difficult time following the narrative in the beginning. Even more frustrating is Bass’s penchant for frequently switching perspectives between characters and even inanimate objects without adequate warning - especially with the introduction of new characters. I kept finding myself re-reading pages, trying to determine who was doing what.

However, once I got into the rhythm of the book, I was interested enough in the plot to keep reading. The book raises some intriguing themes - population control, ecology, intervention of technology in the gene pool, artificial intelligence, and utopian/dystopian societies to name a few. I am interested enough that I will probably read the book’s sequel The Godwhale. As attested to by this blog post and this review on the Strange Words web site, Half Past Human certainly has a rabid fan base, and the book even was nominated for the Nebula Award in 1971.

So, go figure. Although I still think that no book should take 100 pages to get into, in this case I’m not sorry that I read it. I guess in this case the lesson is “don’t judge a book by its cover,” as the cover really has nothing to do with the actual book. But the cover does take the cake for being one of the cheesiest covers of all time…

Tags Half Past Human . T. J. Bass