The Point Is Of No Return, and You’ve Reached It
The Dr Frank Weakly Reader for 7.23.21, incl.
So, the Dr Frank Weakly Reader is back, after three weeks “off.” That means there’s a lot of stuff to index, though the same factors that hindered the timely aggregation and indexing probably also hindered the flow of “content” a bit. At any rate, here we are. This is my way of keep track of my internet so it can be found in the future. I do it mainly for my own use, just in case, but as always, feel free to read along. I’ll try to make it as pretty as possible.
Little did I realize when I posted a production still from Russ Meyer’s Faster Pussycat! Kill! Kill! that our old pal Kepi would find the hidden message and decode its true meaning. Hard to believe I never noticed it before.
It is one of the greatest films ever made. (John Waters actually once described it as possibly better than any film that could possibly be made in the future; that was some time ago… it is still difficult to think of anything better of its type.) Till now, though, its true significance, and prescience, has eluded me. Lots more research to do, of course, but I have the sense that so much that has been heretofore dark and obscure about my world and its meaning may well be in danger of falling into place. Get Dan Brown on it, maybe.
In the meantime, on to the weaks that were…
FRONT BURNER
— RAD-018: by which I mean MTX Shards vol. 3, which has inched ever-so-slightly closer to release. The 180 gram sea glass “finished copies” have arrived, and they’re dead beautiful. Art by Chris Appelgren. Mastering by Justin Perkins. You can still get on the “dibs” list if you want one. The buy-links go out on August 2. Street date for the standard pressing(s) is September 10.
Pretty ain’t it?:
There’s this saying I made up that goes, it ain’t real till it’s on discogs. Well, by that standard, it’s real.
— RAD-004–1: MTX Shards vol. 2., that is. The second pressing finally arrived at Sounds Rad HQ, eight months after it was ordered (illustrating the current vinyl production bottleneck.)
Half red, half white vinyl, which is the usual pattern as we move through the pressings.
Some say it resembles the Pokemon ball, which is all Greek to me, but googling it, I see that it sort of does.
Sounds Radical is offering a bundle of vol. 1 and vol. 2, both half and half second pressings, for those who act now.
— RAD-009: Mtx forever, still a thing. To wit, some kind words and nice photos from J’s Record posting account on Instagram.
You can order it (third pressing, half lavender / half white vinyl) from Sounds Rad.
MTX, THE SMOKER’S TOOTH POLISH
— Approximately Hell Bent for Pleather: this one always gets a repost. (Thanks, Klode.)
— Rock. Dr Frank: Mark found a Love Is Dead that I signed thus once upon a time, and it’s still pretty.
— And Mike found a blue vinyl copy of the “So Long Sucker” / “Zero” seven inch, a variant I never even knew about till just a couple years ago. Looks cool, too, and it’s gotta be pretty rare.
— A tale of two very similar shirts, from Timothy PopKid, who collects them all.
— LK 299: Mark Murphy’s Lookout Records collection series hits #299, Yesterday Rules, the end of the Lookout line for us, but a good one.
— …and the Women Who Love Them spotted in the wild at Vintage Vinyl in St. Louis.
— Songs about Girls: lookin good guys.
— Night Shift: old poster, for 1996 re-issue of 1987 album, stumbled upon on the internet.
— Mr T Experience Ramones Covers — look what we got:
More soon.
— Hey, I’d listen…:
I want one of those YouTube video game historian people to do a video on how NCAA Football 06 ended up with the weirdest/best video game soundtrack ever.
Who at EA was like “Okay… football game… this is just begging for The Mr. T Experience.”
— Artwork from the upcoming graphic novel How I Became a Shoplifter, features some MTX stickers.
— "Reason 46 of why I’m single. Thank you mr. T experience for not suing me for copyright infringement.” It’s Facebook video.
— MTX records on Sounds Radical, from the Music Record Shop — St Louis (on Instagram video). It’s a good start, more to come…
— Odin interruptus: I just couldn’t stop skipping Song for Odin. For three weeks, which is the longest I’ve ever gone with no “minor secrets” since this thing began three years ago. It takes some time and effort to do the write-ups and I just found myself unable to manage, and then kept on finding myself unable to manage. Instead, I re-posted: the fingerpicked “I’m Like Yeah…” (minor secrets here); “We Are the Future People of Tomorrow” live at the RCKNDY in Seattle, 1998 (minor secrets here); and, finally, “Lickitung”:
The Punkemon story here.
— Odin returns: at long last, with the Shards vol. 3 test pressing playing “Together Tonight”:
Thumb by Klode. “Minor secrets” here. Songs for Odin playlist here.
This is the 180th Song for Odin, covering 132 songs. We’ll try to keep it going just a little bit longer.
— The Robinsons’ great cover of “Mr Ramones”: now on YouTube.
…and on the covers playlist it goes!
DR FRANK IS NOT THE HELL YOUR WHALES
— The Weakly Skip: having skipped the past few Weakly Readers, as mentioned, I re-visited: My Punk Rock Tape, ca. 1978; and the story of how the Mr T Experience almost died in a snowstorm sumbitch crash.
— My old SG: i.e., the Milk Milk Lemonade guitar, pretty much. (At left.)
The photo and story came up as a “memory.” Related, a 1949 Martin 0–15:
which sounds like:
— The Eyes of Love: sort of Dr Frank related.
— Seems like holding your hand was not enough: I begged for YouTube subscribers by re-posting “I Want to Hold You Ear”. It was worth a shot.
— Jennifer is reading King Dork Approximately.
— Our man Klode did this (which I should have expected when I posted this):
FILM CORNER
— “The years haven’t been kind to Gene Wilder and his underplayed performance as the sadistic chocolatier in a cheap and poorly made adaptation…”: I know this guy’s just trolling for clicks like everyone always does and he probably doesn’t even really mean it. But, nope.
Whatever the film’s flaws (and Gene Wilder is not one of them) there’s zero chance that any conceivable film that could or would be made in current year would be better. Or indeed any good at all. The planned prequels, which I just learned of from this piece, are guaranteed to be dreadful.
— Turn your eyes inside and dig the vacuum, i.e., Philippa Fallon manifesting “High School Drag” from High School Confidential:
PICTURE BOOK
— Roman calendar: Saints John and Paul of Rome; Hemma von Gurk; Irenaeus, in stained glass; Saints Peter and Paul; for the Commemoration of Saint Paul, an illumination of his matrydom in an historiated S (at left); the Most Precious Blood of Our Lord, illuminated; the Visitation, illuminated in The Black Hours; the martyrdom of Thomas the Apostle; Saint Elizabeth of Aragon (a movie poster from the Spanish/Portuguese film Reina Santa); Antonio Maria Zaccaria; Saint Maria Goretti; Cyril and Methodius; SS Aquila and Priscilla; the martyrs of Gorkum; Knud Rex, i.e., King Saint Canute IV; St. Benedict Mends a Broken Sifter (Niccolò di Pietro, ca. 1415); The Merciful Knight (Edward Burne-Jones) after a legend of Saint John Gaulbert / Giovanni Gualberto; Saint Henry the Exuberant, i.e., Holy Roman Emperor Henry II; Kateri Tekakwitha (Lily of the Mohawks); Saint Bonaventure, portrait by Alvise Vivarini, ca. 1485; Our Lady of Mount Carmel; Saint Kenelm, illuminated in the Anglo-Saxon manner (below); Szymon of Lipnica; Saint Arsenius the Great; Margaret of Antioch hitting a devil with a hammer; Saints Praxedes and Pudentiana (by Antiveduto Grammatica, ca. 1600, Turin); Mary Magdalene and her hair; Saint Bridget of Sweden…
— Other
A day in the life of Rod Stewart; just another ginger cat bra; the statue of Louis Agassiz fell off its pedestal on the facade of the Stanford University zoology building after the 1906 San Francisco earthquake…; Terry Rina with ice cube, by Marta Bevacqua; filthy bunny in the desert; the violent world of hippies; Our what? (below); just a nice, tall, refreshing glass of poison; Silver Lake Drive, photograph by Alex Prager; for July 4th, a nice girl holding a rocket; I am Death (continued after next page); Mary Tyler Moore, surfing; Bad Memories - Do Not Open; for the use of members and guests…; Debbie Reynolds, fishing under the boardwalk; production still from Russ Meyer’s Faster Pussycat Kill Kill!; Halil Altindere, Master Magician; slow dance; Que lit-elle? Clochemerle?; she smokes placidly while he falls; a gal with an ax, comes in handy; you are committing blasphemy; El musico metafisico by Vito Campanella; two gals dancing; Herzblut; not foxy enough; lady by McGinnis…
— …and yet another picture of a naked lady on a zebra:
IN THE NEWS
— Feel the guilt: The New Republic does its best…
— Year Zero:
The installation of these policies, and the sea-change in elite consensus that they enact, happened with little public deliberation or debate. Instead, we saw the policing of contrary views out of circulation, first by administrative authorities at universities, and later through broader campaigns to stigmatize the common moral intuitions of a supermajority of the American public.
That’s from Wesley Yang, on the “successor ideology”, in a clear and beautifully-written essay announcing his new substack project. One to watch.
Biz Markie, RIP: not a “bad singer” like some say. Rather, all heart. This is sad news. Posted one of my favorite moments:
FIN
And that’ll wrap her up. Just so you know, it seems likely that I will skip next week once again, so brace yourself for the lacuna. At any rate, for those, if any, who have made it all the way this far down the page, a bit more of Tura Satana:
See you next week. Ish.
