Where the Heck is Dr Frank?

The Dr Frank Weakly Reader for Sept. 16 2021 — Feb 4 2022

21 min readFeb 4, 2022

Jon von made this out of a Wall Drug bumper sticker way back when, whenever that was, on tour out in the middle of nowhere, wherever that was, and it has been on this old Marshall 2 x 12 cab ever since.

I’m right here. But I haven’t done of these “weakly readers” in some time (not since mid-September of last year.) This was mainly because I had other matters to attend to and keeping scrupulous track of the internet seemed less important and had to take a back seat. Also, I let my social media presence and flow fade and diminish to a slow simmer, so there was less to summarize. I kept up my schedule of posting a saint from the Roman calendar each morning, and a sort of “picture of the day” after lunch, just before shutting down the internet for the rest of the day. I did my best to repost and hype the latest Sounds Radical news. When someone died (which was often) I posted a picture. And I even noted and commented on a news item here and there, those I judged to be bland enough not to get me or anybody else in trouble or to provoke the kind of needless anger over trivia among casual acquaintances that takes up your whole day to respond to. I’m sure you’ve experienced it yourself: it’s the biggest waste of time ever invented by man, fighting with everyone you know about nonsense by typing at them into a little box. No one is ever made happy by participation in this. (One of my dumb little pictures of the day actually did get me slightly in trouble, though, see below — the robots didn’t like it, anyway, and I have been warned.)

Basically, I hate social media and would like to disappear from it completely if I could. But there are things coming up that loom large in my little world, e.g. the next couple of Sounds Radical MTX re-issues, and I can’t leave them unhyped. I started doing Song for Odin again a couple weeks ago, and if nothing else, I’ll probably want to be able to find that stuff in future.

So here we are. This is a thing I do to keep track of stuff posted so I can find it in future, a makeshift index for the index-less internet of today. Though I do it for myself, you can read along if you like. Maybe it can help you find stuff too. And the pictures are cool and often pretty.

As for the future, we shall see.

One final note here: a lot of these links are screwed up, owing to a glitch in the minds.com link-generating routine that I didn’t notice till I was halfway through. I fixed what I could but I’m sure there are some wrong links in there. Contact me if there’s anything you want to see but can’t find and I’ll try to help. (Not that I think anyone will actually click, or ever has actually clicked, the links — I’m pretty confident no one will take me up on that offer, which is the main reason I made it.)

So… on with the show, good health to you.

FRONT BURNER

— This Is No Dream, this is Really Happening: Here’s a Sounds Radical RISASAY re-issue update:

[1] the lacquer cutting and plating happened and test-pressings exist and it sounds fantastic. I shared the digital audio of the lead-off track as a Song for Odin along with some commentary:

[2] revamped, expanded, deluxe-ified artwork by Chris Appelgren of his own original design is complete and the printing process has begun. Some surprises remain un-telegraphed, but Sounds Rad has telegraphed these slip-mats:

[3] This was originally planned for a Feb. release, but delays in vinyl production are inevitable these days. So for all the usual reasons, and maybe even a few more, we had to “re-organize the schedule.”

But barring any further snags we’re looking at a release date sometime in June. We’ll get there eventually, anyhow. You can still get on the “dibs” reserve list here.

— RAD-018–01: MTX Shards vol. 3, that is. The special 180 gram first pressing “dibs” copies are all gone and delivered. (Here’s some pics of Danny’s.) The second, normal weight retail pressing is out there if you can find one. Try your local record store first, maybe, and if not there’s always Amazon et al. While supplies last, of course.

Sounds Radical is readying a third pressing on a new color. Supply chain, infrastrucure, and other issues are such that it’s anyone’s guess when we’ll finally get them but our turn will come, just hide and watch. And watch this space. In the meantime, you can get the plain old CD at Sounds Rad, alone or bundled with a Shards vol. 3 shirt. It’s also on those streaming services. You know the ones I mean.

THE MTX IS COMING FROM INSIDE THE HOUSE

— Hello Dr Frank. We found something we think you might like: Amazon always tries to sell my own stuff back to me, and sometimes it even works.

— All the boxes: What Sounds Rad hath wrought… and speaking of boxes, check out Heather’s Shards endcap.

— A Fans’ Notes: Lookout 045 (“Love American Style 7”); “for Ian and Spencer” — about as heartwarming as anything to do with Milk Milk Lemonade could ever get; you never forget your first MML CD; somebody’s Night Shift; that same somebody’s Making Things with Light; TIL there is a band called The Mr. T experience and they fucking rock. Today Steak Fry Enthusiast, tomorrow the world…; “wall to wall greatness”; “If I could only grab one crate from my burning house, this [Love Is Dead] would easily be in that.” It’s good to have a plan.

— Pictures or it didn’t happen: me with Kevin’s grandma’s guitar, ca. 1997; Big, Strange, Beautiful Hammer; please do not forget the Mr T Experience when making your will; Vive la France; some of those olde tyme calendars; a Lickitung slide; posing awkwardly with Kepi and Kevin, at a pirate bar, an age ago; yours truly with Zoso shirt and Bobby’s Guild; the way how I used to tape up my guitar like…

— Pods say the darnedest things: A “shout-out” (if shout-out means what I think it does) from a podcast about the TV show News Radio, including Mtx forever and a snip of “You’re Impossible, Baby.” Cheers!

— Fixed it for ya: Our man Klode, upon request from Kepi, made the image below. It’s a parody / adaptation of a poster for some “concert” that I’m too lazy to look up what it is and it won’t register at all in future, but seeing that constellation of songs is cool in its own right. Thanks guys.

— Five Random Songs: The Mr. T Experience, “Another Yesterday” By the time they reached Revenge is Sweet, and So Are You, MTX was in their decline phase. The previous three records were their best stuff, where Dr. Frank’s clever, fun lyrics were backed up by the catchiest songs they wrote. By the time we get here, it was a little tired. I would only be in for one more record after this one.

We did the best we could with what we had — but, to be fair, I was tired all along.

— a singer who likes several topics and he feels crazy about them: an Indonesian site commemorates a Love Is Dead anniversary.

— …when the band Mr T Experience released their fourth album Milk Milk Lemonade in early 1992, his colleagues from other groups saw that there were ballads and complex compositions and even a lot of acoustic guitars, they came out to destroy him…

Thus the google-translated text of the notes to this Spanish-language podcast on music of the ’90s. (I much prefer this to the comparatively bland current wikipedia entry.)

— Popkid reviews Shards vol. iii, commenting on the thrill of the chase:

One of the things about these MTX singles is how difficult it was for me to track them down in a pre-internet world. Now granted, it’s not like I’m saying the internet didn’t exist in 1995, but it sure didn’t have the robust record hunting features that it boasts these days. I spent a lot of time coming through record stores and trying to come up with interesting trades to other folks to obtain them. I think in some ways that hunt makes me appreciate those 7”s a bit more than this LP. While the songs undoubtedly sound better on the comp, there’s something special about the memories forged by tracking down those singles, even if I can’t really remember the specifics of any of those memories.

Same here for the stuff I collected (Adverts singles, the Chiswick catalog, etc.) That experience of discovery, and luck, was a huge part of my appreciation of the music, the challenge making the achievement sweeter and more appreciated. It’s inextricable from the experience of growing up, and impossible to recreate once you’re grown up, I’d guess. For good and ill, those days are gone, and nothing’s that hard (or good.) Collecting them and making them sound and look as good as we possibly can isn’t a substitute, but it’s the best we can do. Thanks, Tim!

— Dr Frank, Tape Detective: these are all the 1/2" and 1" multi-track masters I have in my possession. Keen to determine (a) what the heck is on them; and (b) whether the masters for all tracks of Milk Milk Lemonade and Our Bodies Our Selves are extant. (Most of the MML songs are listed; almost none of the OBOS are.) Wish us luck.

Still no update on this — maybe you didn’t wish us luck hard hard enough — but there may be soon. Ish. Soon-ish.

— ODIN: The Song for Odin show staggered, then kind of petered out, slowed to a drip, and then ceased entirely (though I occasionally marked Wodnesdægs with “re-runs” I will not recapitulate now — the whole list is here if you want to choose your own adventure.)

Nevertheless, Song for Odin did manage to spit out a few songs for Odin since the last Weakly Reader, and they were:

“Don’t Go Breaking My Heart”, “Alternative Is Here to Stay”, and “You Today”.

Then, as aforementioned, we had “Here She Comes”, and, just this week,“We Hate All the Same Things”:

The “minor secrets” get rather heavily into the songwriting and rhyming weeds.

— …and finally, a “Love Is Dead” drum cover:

DR FRANK IS YOUR FAVORITE COLOR

— My record sale happened. And it was the most successful one I’ve ever done so thanks for that, it was a big help.

— For Christmas, I “reprised” my post about Christmas records: All My Vinyl, part iv.

— I still have the shirt I’m wearing in this 1999 photo seen on the internet.

— Kezar Pavilion San Francisco Bill Graham Presents the Clash Saturday Oct 13 1979: hard to believe it survived as it is very old and I never used to save this sort of thing on purpose, but I just stumbled across, in a pile of random detritus, the ticket for the show described in my story on “My Dad, the Clash, and Me”.

— Hard to believe it’s been a year since the first Lookout “zoomout” but I did the math and it checks out.

— Only the bonnest of mots:

[1] CNN: like SNL, it’s a show I don’t watch, so it’s a matter of absolute indifference to me who is or isn’t in the cast in any given season. (It’s my understanding, though, that both programs have gone downhill — they should add a cute kid, maybe, a la Cousin Oliver, which works sometimes.)

[2] Where’s the lie?

— Status: Entertainer (3 months): certificate of eligibility to apply for permission to land in Japan for our 1997 tour with the Hi-Fives. (Permission was granted.)

— From the mixed-up files… came across this, from an SF Bay Guardian cover story, in a bin of old tax records:

— Birra Franketti — made by the great Paolo Proserpio on the occasion of my playing at the Punk Rock Raduno in Bergamo Italy a ways back:

He actually made labels that he put on actual bottles of Pirelli, but we drank all those.

OTHER PEOPLE’S MUSIC

— Harry Merry — “The Sky-Fun Reels and Angelica Kneels”:

— Flanders & Swann — “Madeira M’Dear”, best of its kind:

—Planxty — “When First unto this Country”:

— A Waste of Money — Allan Sherman gives good quote: I styled my hair just like Cary Grant’s, and bought a pair of those new tight pants. A waste of money — Household Finance took my pants.

— misc: 2/3 of the Shaggs — “My Pal Foot Foot”: via this article by a philistine; Roy Lee Johnson and the Villagers — “The Dryer”; the Four Renegades doing Irving Berlin’s “They Were All out of Step but Jim”; Ohio Express — “Winter Skies”

— “Dedicated to the Best Sister Ever” — still the greatest music video ever made:

PICTURE BOOK

Saints Cosmas and Damian with the Virgin, from the Liesborn Benedictine Abbey’s high altarpiece, now in the National Gallery. ca. 1490

— Roman calendar: Hildegard of Bingen from a Liber Scivias illumination; Saint Joseph of Cupertino, relics; The blood of St. Januarius / Genarro; Albrecht Dürer, Vision des hl. Eustachius; Saint Matthew with spectacles on a painted Rood Screen, Cawston, Church of St. Helen, 15th century; Saint Maurice, by Master Theodoric of Prague (from the Chapel of the Holy Cross at Karlstejn Castle Bohemia/Czech Republic c. 1360); Saint Thecla, reliquary; Our Lady of Ransome / Mercy; Saint Fermin in Pamplona; Saint Cyprian with skulls; Saint Leoba in glass; Saint Michael the Archangel firing an arquebus, Cuzco School, 17th c.; Joachim Patinir — Landscape with St Jerome (1515–19), Prado; Saint Remigius baptizing Clovis I….

…Adalgott II of Disentis; St. Francis of Assisi received by Pope Innocent III (Giovanni Gasparro, 2016); St Benedict receives SS Maurus and Placid; Eustache le Sueur — Saint Bruno’s Dream (1645–8, Louvre); Our Lady of the Rosary; Bridget of Sweden; Saint Denis carrying head; Saint Francis Borgia (Jean de Morainville, 18th c, Quito, Ecuador); Our Lady of the Pillar; Edward the Confessor in glass; statue of Pope Callixtus I, Cathedral of Reims; St Teresa of Avila, hand reliquary…

Motherhood of the Blessed Virgin (Jean Fouquet — right side of the Diptych of Melun, Antwerp, 1452)

… Hedwig of Silesia; Ignatius of Antioch; Saint Luke paints Mary’s portrait (Master of the Holy Blood); resteð sancta Fryðeswyð on Oxnaforda; Irene of Tomar…

The Martyrdom of Saint Ursula (attributed to the circle of the anonymous Master of the Magdalen Legend, ca. 1520.)

… Saint Mary Salome and Her Family (Bernhard Strigel, ca.1520/1528); Siege of Belgrade, 1456 (for the Feast of John of Capistrano); Archangel Raphael by Miguel Cabrera; Saint Crispin (on St Crispin’s Day); Demetrius of Thessaloniki; Saint Frumentius; The martyrdom of Simon Zelotes and Jude Thaddeus from the Book of Hours of Simon de Varie, 1455; Douai martyrs; Marcellus of Tangier; Calvin en enfer (Egbert van Heemskerck the Younger, ca. 1700); East window of Holy Trinity, Sloane Street, London, Edward Burne-Jones designs, 1907(for All Saints Day); All Souls Day; Saint Hubert; Vitalis and Agricola (Basilica dei San Vitale e Sant’Agricola, Bologna); Zacharias Writes Down the Name of His Son (Domenico Ghirlandaio — Florence, ca. 1486); Sanctae Mariae Sabbato; Twenty-Fourth Sunday after Pentecost — Matt. 13:24–30. Illuminated miniature from the Book of Hours of Simon de Varie, ca. 1450; Quatuor Coronati (The Four Crowned Martyrs) — Danube School, Lower Austria, ca. 1515; Saint Theodore (with Saint Sisinnius) at the nave of the church of the Monastery of St. Anthony, Red Sea; Pope Leo I confronts Attila — illuminated miniature ca. 1360…

Saint Martin of Tours (at Skibby Church, Denmark)

…Josaphat Kunsevych; Abbo of Fleury; Lorcán Ua Tuathail, i.e. Saint Laurence O’Toole, from Saint Mary’s Cathedral, Dublin; Albertus Magnus, De animalibus — illuminated manuscript 1301–1400, Biblioteque Nationale de France; Margaret of Scotland; The Virgin Mary Gives the Confession of Faith to Gregory Thaumaturgus, (Giuseppe Cesari and/or Giovanni Baglione) fresco, apse of the Borghese chapel Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore, Rome; Saints Paul and Peter (Carlo Crivelli, ca. 1470); Saint Elizabeth of Hungary (Sándor Liezen-Mayer, 1882); Saint Edmund’s decapitated head cries out while guarded by a gray wolf, from a 15th c. manuscript of Ælfric’s Life of St. Edmund; Presentation of Mary at the Temple by the “Meister des Marienlebens”, ca. 1465…

Saint Cecilia (John William Waterhouse, 1895)

… Saint Felicitas with Her Seven Sons (Neri di Bicci, Santa Felicita Church, Florence — 1464); Saint Chrysogonus (Michele Giambono, ca. 1450, Venice); Catherine of Alexandria, tapestry; James the Solitary; Vierge Consolatrice (The Virgin of Consolation) — William-Adolphe Bouguereau, , ca. 1875; The Wise and Foolish Virgins — Wm. Blake, 1824; Saint Saturninus; Saint Andrew the Apostle — Workshop of Bernardo Rodríguez (ca. 1775, Quito, Ecuador); The Miracle of Saint Eligius (16th c. tapestry); The Martyrdom of Bibiana and Demetria — follower of Pietro Berrettini da Cortona, early 17th c.; The Portuguese arrive in Japan, 16th c. (Francis Xavier); Saint Barbara Escaping from the Tower — Pinturicchio , Borgia Apartments, ca. 1495; The Dormition of Saint Sabbas the Sanctified, 16th c. Greek icon; Saint Nicholas of Myra resurrecting the three murdered boys, detail of a stained-glass window from the Chapel of Saint Nicholas, Bourges Cathedral, early 13th c.; Saint Ambrose, wood carving; Alegoría de la virgen Inmaculada — Juan de las Roelas, 1616; Juan Diego Cuauhtlatoatzin; Saint Eulalia (of Mérida) — John William Waterhouse, 1885…

The Coronation of the Virgin — Filippo Lippi ca. 1460

…. Our Lady of Guadalupe, contemporary engraving; Lucka (the “dark” Lucy) of Bohemian tradition — left, with Baborka (“dark” Barbara); The martyrdom of St. Nicasius, as St. Eutropia looks on. Stained glass window from a chapel of the Cathedral of Soissons, early 13th c., now in the Louvre; Saint Nino of Georgia; Saint Adelaide of Italy / Burgundy — Abel Terral (1840); Lazarus of Bethany (icon by Nikola Sarić); La visione di san Giovanni a Patmos, La Donna vestita di sole (the “woman — of the Apocalypse — clothed with the Sun”) — Giovanni Gasparro, Basilica di San Giuseppe Artigiano, L’Aquila; La Vierge, l’Enfant Jésus et Saint Jean-Baptiste — William-Adolphe Bouguerreau, 1875; the “O antiphons” schedule; Reliquary of the spear that killed Thomas the Apostle, Basilica di San Tommaso Apostolo, Chennai, India; Blessed Jacopone da Todi (fragment of a fresco by Paolo Uccello, ca. 1436); Annunciation to the Shepherds — Joachim Wtewael, ca. 1595…

Giotto’s Nativity projected onto the facade of the Upper Basilica of St. Francis, Sacro Convento, Assisi, 2020

… Christmas nativity illuminated; Saint Stephen (Bernardo Cavallino 1656); St. John the Evangelist writing the Book of Revelations on the island of Patmos, from the St. John Altarpiece of Bruges, ca. 1479; Holy Innocents; Thomas Becket by Albert Pierre Dawant; Feast of the Holy Family; Saint Pope Sylvester I, from the 15th-century manuscript Vaticinia de Pontificibus; The Circumcision — Bellini, ca. 1500; Most Holy Name of Jesus, Dutch holy card; Saint Genevieve; Compianto dettaglio Basilica Inferiore di Assisi by Pietro Lorenzetti (Angela da Foligno); Saint Syncletica; The Adoration of the Magi (tapestry, for Epiphany, Edward Burne-Jones, 1904); Lucian of Antioch; The Temptation of Saint Gudula (Joseph von Fuehrich, ca. 1860); Baptism of Christ (Aert De Gelder, 1710); William of Bourges; Theodosius the Cenobiarch; Bernard of Corleone; Hilary of Poitiers; St. Felix of Nola in Lego (from the Heavenly Bricks site); Ita of Kileedy; Our Lady Refuge of Sinners; The Temptation of Saint Anthony (Leonora Carrington, 1945); Saint Prisca…

Bishop Henry killed by Lalli (Albert Edelfelt, 1877)

…Votive Offering with Saint Sebastian (Ángel Zárraga, Mexico, 1912); St. Agnes in prison; Saint Vincent (Augustin Théodule Ribot, ca. 1860, Musée des Beaux-Arts, Château at Blois); Saint Ildefonsus of Toledo (known as St Dexius ደቅስዮስ in the Ethiopian Church); Saint Francis de Sales in glass; The Conversion of St Paul (Master of John Rolin II, Book of Hours of Simon de Varie, 1455); The Embarcation of St. Paula (Claude Lorrain, ca. 1645); Saint Li Ban Muirgen; Saint Peter Nolasco; Brother Juniper (with the hippies); Statue of St. Martina at the Basilica of St. Martina in Martina Franca, Italy; Simone Martini — Saint Geminianus of Modena (left, with Saint Michael and Saint Augustine, ca. 1320); Saint Brigid of Kildare, in Lego; Candlemas; Saint Blaise; Saint Joan of Valois, O.Ann.M.

— Food for the Eye: love scene from Revenge of the Creature; Inside. I Lose; a record store pic I used to announce my record sale (see above); April consorted with hippy characters who smoked hemp, held orgies…; Sputnik gal; chicks are more interesting when they’re sprawled on the floor with a bunch of records; teens in limbo; I think it’s Vicki Dougan; beautiful backstage shot from the Rosemary’s Baby set; “the collected works of the Marquis de Sade”; SEX Boutique, London, ca. 1975 (from left Steve Jones, unknown girl, Alan Jones, Chrissie Hynde, Jordan, and Vivienne Westwood); multiple head options for the modern girl; some people in bags (by Geof Kern); Blue Lagoon vibes; Supergirl’s jilted boy friends; jewels on her eyes; someday there will be robots to serve us coffee and cake before they kill us; Kraftwerk road case; Wilhelmina Cooper, Sharon Tate, Josephine Attominoff, and Jean Shrimpton — photographed by William Helburn in 1967:

… “I wish the whole country would sink under water” (Funeral Parade of Roses, Toshio Matsumoto, 1969); stop arthritis with Milton Berle and Marilyn Monroe; Debra Paget in The Ten Commandments, 1956…

Debbie Ellison / Playboy’s Playmate of the Month, September 1970 (photo by Pompeo Posar)

… What about blowing up computers? (L’An 01, Jacques Doillon, 1973); Jane Birkin with giant strategic poppy; delete my browser history; girls with robot…

…Abnormals Anonymous; ready for class (at St Trinians); muppet from the waist up; what not to do in a black mass; legs with pig and roses; space McGinnis; hatching egg hat; Frederic Leighton (1830–1896) — The Fisherman and the Syren; Cathy Rowland — Playboy Playmate of the Month, August 1971 — photo by Mario Casilli; scene from a Thin Man; all the faces; Sex and the Single Girl; not love, Kierkegaard; from Tip Top comics; Miss Diana Rigg was strapped to the rails at this spot…; tic tac toe; Claudine Auger in red; coupla pilgrim gals and a monkey for Thanksgiving; save the day with snap shots; “vulgar neorealists” (Marcello Mastroianni in: La decima vittima, Elio Petri, 1965); Drinking Sisters — Nicholas Alm (2014); Gene Tierney; “suffering, tra la la” (Anne Wiazemsky in Porcile, Pasolini, 1969); have some Woodford Reserve…; play & learn drowning game; will you do me a favor?; yet another robot girl; El Nigromante (The Necromancer) — Leonora Carrington….

… what’s that stuff? daylight (Flamingo Road, 1949); loungewear for the discerning ape; the waitress knows something; why Jane’s husband eats at Liz’s house; press for champagne; New Years aftermath, 1920s; SLUT CEMETERY; Debby Harry, punk playmate, July 1976; nothing but zombies (Fahrenheit 451, 1966); Yvonne Eckman with fencing gear (Cavalcade, 1960s); Sears’ Trouser Legs (fake but funny); the art of approaching soñorites; Vanessa Angel (Spies Like Us); take your last look; Valerie Leon and friend; the martini, your best and only friend; STOP (with Yvonne Craig)…

… Marilyn Monroe as Theda Bara in Cleopatra (photo by Richard Avedon, LIFE December 1958); naked lady on shaggy horse on railroad tracks; sick of just reading about love; absinthe ad; boobs (for Betty White’s birthday); this junkyard of idiotic trivialities (Winter Light — Ingmar Bergman, 1963); Jean Seberg with mouse; Dolly Parton and some bears; Sex Pistols teacup and saucer; spiraled; don’t be happy worry; a devilette’s drink; in it for the legs; which way?; nude farmers; how to get undressed in 30 seconds (part 1; part 2); The Sacred Feather; real girl on fake wood; record collectors are heartless bastards; self-decapitation; she has a nice smile; I killed my husband because…

— The robots have spoken: Yesterday my “picture of the day” post across the “platforms” was a historical photo of a couple of real swingers with a refrigerator. The FB robots decided it transgressed community standards and it’s gone now. According to the explanatory note, it would have been okay if the lady in the refrigerator had been breast-feeding. Unfortunately, there was no baby in there with her, only a pineapple, and that’s the standard we’re aiming for. I’m in big trouble now, apparently, and if I do it again I’ll be in even bigger trouble. So I must be on my best behavior, and if you don’t see a picture of the day from me on FB in future it means I judged it wasn’t worth the risk and you can probably find it on one of the other platforms, as you can with the refrigerator pic, which is worth a look if only because some robots figured you’re better off not looking at it.

Anyhow here it is:

— Halloweenies: 4 x 7 monster movie titles; just a nice gal holding a skull; before the altar; Dracula Has Risen from the Grave; no gay deceivers; Christie McConell with scythe and Elder Thing; esbat; a couple more girls with skull; the Satanic mass complete and unabridged; Bob Hope; standard gothic scene; lot going on in this one, click to see; Shubina adapts a meme; Louis Ricardo Falero — Witches Going to Their Sabbath (1878):

… even the great pumpkin is voting Nixon-Agnew; just a coupla monsters in classic McGinnis style; this lady hopes you’re thinking of Hallowe’en; Nancy Caroll, 1929; Tormented; Vincent Price with friend; Allison Parks, Playboy 1965; Green Ghosts; It conquered the world; turning people away from the door…

— All Your Christmases: Strange Adventures, featuring “Invaders from the Ice World”; Martha Hyer on the set of Nathan Juran’s First Men in the Moon (1964); pure white fireproof asbestos snow; Jean Bell (Playboy); Suddenly I have a dreadful urge to be merry; The Christmas Martian; from Santa; babycham… diamond sparkle… Christmas glow; it’s gonna be a King Kong Christmas; Diana Dors wishes you a Joyeux Noel; early Bradys Christmas photo (I assume Mike is taking the picture); you wood if you could, but you can’t see — for I saw through it; caught in the barbed wire; Jaguar: Men Who Don’t Sleep Around Are Insane; Celia Parker, counting ’em down; judging from lack of comments, very few people remember Doug Henning nowadays, but I remember; Bunny Yeager under the tree; …and the unwrapping begins; just what I needed, a laptop…

… and boxing day carnage.

IN THE NEWS

— Obits: The Jazz Butcher (né Pat Fish), singer-songwriter and all-around diamond geezer; Mort Sahl; Dean Stockwell; Margo Guryan; Billy Hinsche; Stephen Sondheim:

Eddie Mekka (Carmine Ragusa); Mike Nesmith; Eve Babitz; Joan Didion; Thomas ‘Mensi’ Mensforth (of the Angelic Upstarts); Betty White; Peter Bogdanovich; Sidney Poitier; Bob Saget; Dwayne Hickman (Dobie Gillis); Ronnie Spector; Meat Loaf; Louie Anderson; Howard Hesseman;

— The Empathy Racket: Really got a lot out of this long essay on how contemporary ideological and commercial currents have diminished art and the understanding of art, valuing it, as so much else, primarily as social-therapeutic self-help.

Also: the English word “empathy” only entered the English language in the early 20th Century, as a Greek-based neologism translating the name of a 19th Century German theory of the psychology of aesthetics (Einfühlung) — that incidentally seems to have meant something like the opposite of its contemporary sense as a super special sort of touchy-feely sympathy. Not a lot of people know that, including me till just now.

— Will OnlyFans Save Civilization?: OnlyFans may be a refuge for nude fine art (NYT).

Naughty Networks ftw: updated a previous thing on whether PornHub could save civilization to include the recent developments in re. the Vienna Tourist Board’s resorting to OnlyFans as a safe place to post fine art.

Pornhub didn’t save civilization in the end, and OnlyFans probably won’t either, but the principle is sound. For ideas and “content” newly judged to be too naughty for public consumption, you’d need a naughty network where “anything goes.” And in an age where nothing goes and anything and everything is at least potentially naughty, well, it stands to reason. If it’s less likely to be censored, let’s just move all the information over there, just in case, that’s my semi-facetious conceit here.

— Barbados:

— The Censors: