The Dr Frank Weakly Reader for 10.26.2018
Once again, I made my own index because the internet wouldn’t. Herein lie all the links you missed this week because of platform skullduggery exacerbated by your own idleness and inattention, or vice versa. Never mind, here they are, should it ever become necessary to recall them. I do it for peace and humanity, and for the United States of America. Click friend and enter.
ANDROMEDA KLEIN
— The details and background notes are all here, but the tl;dr of it is that Sounds Radical is honoring Hallowe’en this year with a limited Andromeda Klein package. (AK is my novel about a teenaged occultist, hence the spookiness.) There’s the book, a shirt, a pin, a sticker, plus the original 7" record of the theme song and a rare vintage poster designed by Lane Smith retrieved from the vault. (I’ve signed the 7"s and posters.) Plus the signature Sounds Rad custom box. You can “build your own” box if you want. Limited to 50 packages, through October 31. This is great stuff, you should get in on it if you want to get weedgie.
— (Inset) what fifty autographed Andromeda Klein records and posters look like, spread out all over my bed.
SHARDS
Volumes 1 and 2 of the LP are still findable out in the world, if only you look. Shards products are still available from Sounds Radical. That is the current state of Shards. But there is forthcoming news, so stay tuned.
— MTX Shards Vol. 2 LP spotted in the wild by Marisa at Independent Records in Boulder Colorado.
— Vol 2 also spotted at Celebrated Summer Record Shop in Baltimore, MD.
— via email, Amazon says it thinks I might be interested in MTX Shards vol. 1. They’re right, but I’ve already got one. If you don’t, it seems they have at least one copy on sale over there. They say there are “more on the way” but I kind of doubt it.
THE QUASI-WONDERFUL WORLD OF THE MR T EXPERIENCE
— Steve from 1234Go Records found some memorabilia, including one of those “do your part for the Mr T Experience” combs, in the jacket of an Our Bodies Our Selves test pressing, and Alex bought it. More here.
— There’s a “shout out” to my band, if “shout out” means what I think it does, in this podcast interview between Hank Green and Michael Ian Black.
— The way how we used to do “merch” like…. promotional calendar from 1990, MTX-izing an item meant to be customizable to advertise local businesses like realtors and insurance companies and the like. We had fun.
— The Mr T Experience, “Weekend in Hogboro”, live at Gilman Street, August 6, 1988, video on YouTube.
— Minor secrets of The Mr T Experience, “Weekend in Hogboro”.
ALL DR FRANK ALL THE TIME
— Marisa found Roberta the Female Robot, which is of note because Roberta the Female Robot is a character in my third novel King Dork Approximately. Seriously, that is the case.
— In the neverending quest to find ways to scare myself (largely unsuccessful since I was a small child) I dipped into the Netflix Haunting of Hill House series. It didn’t work. I’m told it gets better after the fourth or fifth solid hour. It seems like a rather tedious family drama with a flimsy ghost story overlay with absolutely no connection to or affinity with the book from which it takes its title. I love the book, and I’d rather spend the next ten hours of my life reading it three times.
— Pussy Melter Update: for those following the saga, here’s a take-apart and lengthy demonstration of Steel Panther’s Pussy Melter pedal, from the Guitologist. Sounds tight. Previously…
— via Cydne, a fascinating article on Tutivillus, the literate demon, with echoes of King Dork’s Mr. Schtuppe, stealing words from God.
OTHER PEOPLE’S MUSIC
— “Peace of Mind”: my favorite music video of all time (I bet you didn’t know I had one) thankfully still up on YouTube the last time I checked which was just now.
— Appreciating Rufus Harley on the minds.com Vinyl Collector group.
— Also appreciating the Rosemary’s Baby soundtrack album on the selfsame group. (If you want to join in the fun and comment and such, go here first to sign up, and thence here. It really is quite a lot of fun, and quite educational as well.)
— Dr Frank’s Record Collection, Part 2. This week’s Medium post was an edited aggregate of the past month’s Vinyl Collector posts. Some good stuff in there, including Atomic Rooster, Ethel the Frog, Celibate Rifles, the Wicker Man, and the Wombles.
— New 50th anniversary re-issue of The Kinks Are the Village Green Preservation Society out now. Maybe it’ll be louder than the original?
— “Just Head” by the Nervous Eaters.
HALLOWE’EN FOLLIES
—take these gals to witch jail; surprise, surprise; bobbing in Redbook; more bobbing, I guess; an esbat levitation; rawr; hey, look what’s in that coffin; if there is a single image summing up everything Hallowe’en is all about it may be this; let Rosemary rock him; and last but certainly not least, G. K. Chesterton with pumpkin.
IN THE NEWS
— Nevada brothel owner expected to win election despite death. To be honest, I’d prefer being governed by dead people to the alternative.
AND FINALLY
— Your Friday morning “Sackcloth and Ashes” — from a sideways guy singing over my recording just cuz. Original song is on MTX Shards Vol 1, by the way.
Till next time, space friends. Click the links if you want civilization to survive.
