I have a couple of World War 2 photographs in my small photography collection that I can only make guesses about.
This one is a real favourite of mine and I've just scanned it larger (it's a standard 3x4 inch shot) & have begun to clean it up. This image has such a story - Airmen between jobs resting - but where? I thought it was a classroom but the chairs tell me different. The old English Hot Cross Buns rhyme on the blackboard could possibly give away the time of year (originally thought to be Polytheist or Pagan, Hot Cross Buns is also used by Christians & is thought to have first been mentioned in the early 1700s & the 4 squares represent the 4 phases of the moon) - the cursive writing next to the hotxbuns is not in focus. The clock looks like it's just after 4.30. The Airmen are reading & resting - the one on the far left looks like he is reading a letter or he could be flipping through photos taken by the person taking this shot. I especially like the boot in the window - do you think it's smelly & getting an airing or was it wet... The hats suggest (and I'm pretty sure here) these are Australians. It's printed on Velox paper (a standard Kodak paper of the time) but there is nothing written on the photo - I have no names, or providence except I acquired this one in South Australia over 20 years ago.
AH got me out of the house the other day - we had a look at some outdoor markets where I scored an excellent Ricoh rangefinder camera, complete with case & box, circa 1960. I got the guy down to $40.00 (that's AUD) - a good price for a mint camera. And it looks good too:
mmm, so shiny
So I put a roll of film in it and wound off a few. The camera doesn't have a light meter so I have to wing it or cart around my rather clunky spot meter - I chose to travel light.
Oh, this little camera is my new good friend (Camperdown Cemetery Sept 2009)
(POSTSCRIPT - 29 September 2009 - Oh pooh, the short life of a rating in the speedy world of the internet - my ranking today is now 16054 POSTSCRIPT 10 October - now it's in the 500s - I love the site once again... POSTSCRIPT Later that month - spent over a week at number 1 & to date at 2 November am at No.2 - has it generated any fine art photograph sales? no but I think someone from Latvia is nicking off with some digital copies...)
That's number 5779 out of 10,000 of the best websites worldwide - gosh! my website is on the site: Top 10,000
According to their site: Top10000.info is a compilation of the best websites on the Internet. We scan thousands of websites daily to provide users with the most up to date information.
annnd, people can write glowing reviews (hint hint, begging now...)
"Best" websites - yaye!
gosh, best I update my website... it's been a couple of months... a few
I would also like to point out that the site is my design, not the embedded hosts that put the framework together after which I spent 45 hours getting to look like it does. This is what an artist can do on a minimum (read: nil!) budget and by learning a basic CMS, one is also able to be in control and upload or change anytime.
== Can't upload a new post with just script so here's a new photo:
sort of matches the subject...
Camperdown 25 August around midday - a bit of a trick to work it out but it's the straight shot as I saw it and I was standing when I took the shot, not squatting in a gutter. Maybe that lets on I'm a shortarse...
Sunday 3 or more years ago, I took a winter walk with a camera loaded with black & white film to see if I could find some good shots - one from that productive day I called "Cheerleaders" Enmore - after the paste up paper image of cheerleaders next a doorway here it is (a crop of the original negative):
This Sunday today, I've just finished working on an image - this time colour / cross-processed slide film - took a while and my eyes are dry from the computer monitor (would help if I didn't get so distracted in Wikipedia, IMDb, Ebay, Youtube... oh, and googling me - but I couldn't find the soft porn lesbian (fake straight chicks of course - Kak!) German webpage that has a link to my website... yeah, I don't fucken' know either)
== on with the art moment - here's Cheerleaders re-visited Winter 2009:
think I'll call it 'After The Cheerleaders"
I'm really pleased with this shot & AH has given it her seal of feedback approval. (love the alien shadow on the footpath at the left too...)
I looked out of the bus window and spotted this image from City Road looking into Sydney Uni & got out the next stop, walked back & finished off a roll of old slide film in my little cheapie rangefinder (to be cross-processed at the lab by the weekend)
I also took a snap with the pocket digital for that instant gratification:
Wednesday 12 August 2009 @ 4PM EST (image copyright)
I worked a few hours in Screen Australia this week - the offices are in William Street, Woolloomooloo (spell that word 3x fast) with fabulous views overlooking The Domain & Woolloomooloo Wharf.
After paper shuffling for a bit, I made my escape and visited a back room of a Kings Cross bookshop - no, not a porn peep show but a room full of a couple thousand records neatly shelved with a fair amount of order along with a flash turntable & speakers to play potential purchases.
Two of the records I would've bought unheard just for their fabulous covers (good thing they sound OK too)
This 1950s Barbara Carroll Trio is a real treat - her piano playing is jazz perfect.
Barbara Carroll is now 84 years old.
Seems jazz players either die early (her double bass player, Joe Shulman died at 33)or seem to live forever (herself as example and Dave Brubeck is 89!)
Rummaging some more, I find an original Tamla Motown 'chartbusters' compilation LP
What else did I find... Well a very young Peggy Lee, Earl Grant making good jazz with an organ (yeah, get down!) and an excellent 1964 Della Reese...
but then I found in stunning condition:
LOOK! IT'S SHIRLEY
Shirley Abicair and her Zither looking seductive on the telly.
On the record she sings and plays up a storm - wow (best not to overdo it... maybe that's why the record is in such good condition...)
but what is that in the shorts of little boy on the left... maybe just a little too much starch (if you click on the picture, it will enlarge for a better rear of the shorts view)
As with all Phillips artists depicted on telly (Fontana was a Phillips company), the television is a top model Phillips brand - you may recall a previous blog with a Phillips telly on the cover
and here's a perfect example of what Shirley has to offer:
have a listen - it's Shirley!
Shirley Abicair hails from Melbourne but worked in America and the UK for a long time. She has played with Larry Adler, toured the Soviet Union (1962) and had her own London theatre show (in 1969)She is in her late 70s and is reportedly still globe trotting.
but what a winter sunset - colour & light like that in summer sometimes means there's a fire somewhere but I haven't heard anything (haven't listened to the news since this morning though..) - no storm brewing either... just another gorgeous Sydney winter day
How can I (really) be sure I'll ever end up with this one final 45 to complete my 1963-1970 Dusty Springfield 45 & EP records released in the UK.
This 45 with How Can I Be Sure on side A & Spooky on the B is eluding me.
Sure, I can get it if I'm prepared to pay $30-60 when it does show up online but, oh really, I don't think so. If a 45 is going to cost that much... well, that's a good dinner out...it would have to be factory sealed and unplayed and another record entirely - I'd have to think about that - I have and I don't think there is one...
It gets me wondering what it is about this particular record that makes it so collectible - there are rarer ones about that sell for reasonable prices...
I am wondering about the popularity of this particular 45 - it may be all due to the B-side:
Could it be that Spooky was used in the soundtrack of that Guy Ritchie film Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels
Haven't seen that film yet - will probably get round to it when it's back on telly and I notice it is, maybe but it has once again made Dusty cool and hip...
Could it be that in the film clip of Spooky, Dusty Springfield is wearing an Ossie Clark frock (called "Traffic Light Gown")
One of these frocks sold in 2006 for GBP600 - here it is in my Millers Collectables:
Ossie Clark (9 June 1942–6 August 1996) was a big fashion designer in the 1960s through to about 1974, disappeared into obscurity in the 1980s (not surprising - fashion in the 80s was often horrid) and was in the media again in 1996 after being murdered in his Kensington Council flat by a younger ex-lover whose mind had gone off the rails.
It could simply be that not many 45s of this were pressed in the UK (it wasn't released in the USA)- it reached 36 in the charts after 4 weeks in.
I dunno... I've also read the song was used to sell beer in the UK on telly in 2006.
What I do know is Dusty Springfield was an excellent live singer - there are many TV performances around to prove that - but she was a pretty hopeless lip-sync performer as can be seen here wearing said frock:
** postscript 25 September 2009- I don't believe it - some scabby corporate has taken this off Youtube - I dont think anyone is selling your video mate... in fact it may generate some legit sales - crusty scabby unfair - I'll find a photo & upload it soon - ahh, but I found a link with it - I wonder how long it will last.
so, here it is again:
==
and here she is singing the A-side live - not in an Ossie frock - this frock - it's a silk dress by Eric Plant for Darnell of London - is not such a good look in the frock sense but an excellent live performance (on the Morcambe and Wise show)
- the carnival-style sound with accordion mid-way is good stuff on the studio recorded version.
I have the A side on CD and an LP & the B side on CD only. As far as I can find out, was only released on record that one time - that may be the answer there on why this 45 still eludes me.
I do enjoy watching hard core buyers on ebay having a bun fight over this one and when they all have their own copy, I'll pop in and get a bargain*...
(*Postscript - and I did - in very near mint condition - nnyah nnyah)
I was feeling like the coolest ear on earth when I noodled about in ebay and scored this Dave Brubeck Quartet In Europe (live) picture cover 45 with Joe Morello on one of the best jazz drum solos during Watusi Drums
You wouldn't think him such a fabulous drummer to look at him - one could mistake him for an accountant but have a look at this gem of a drum solo - he makes it look so easy... even as he pushes his "bottom of bottles" spectacles up, he doesn't miss a beat.
Today was another of those gorgeous sunny Sydney winter days so I went on a 10km walk to Rozelle & back (don't be too impressed, it was a slow walk) - on a mission to get my twin her birthday present.
Gee, the 2nd hand markets just happen to be across the road from where I bought her a present - first stall I looked at had records - a quick flick and there's Joe Morello's 1962 LP, It's About Time in "New Orthonphonic" High Fidelity. I am assured on the back by RCA monophonic records can be played on stereophonic equipped for stereophonic reproduction"
Wow, that's a relief.
So I give it a bit of a clean and pop in on the turntable and it's very cool - no big big drum solos but very nice.
As you can read, this is his first solo but a quick search will bring up reference to a 1956 album - cheeky record company. (the image is a cropped version of the sleeve because I couldn't be bothered photographing it & bunged the cover in the scanner instead)
So now all I need for this week is a copy of Barbara Lewis singing Don't Forget About Me and I'm set
(- if you click on the link you'll have to scroll down to track 14 for a sample listen) - it's an excellent version - never was a hit in 1966.
At the moment I can't be bothered to set music up on the share box music thingy and have proper music listening links here... one day maybe.
Did I mention I'm reading the biography of Nico? she was a liar
Brought home a cutie 45: Love Grows (Where My Rosemary Goes) by Edison Lighthouse. I was a little kid when this came out but like Melting Pot by Blue Mink amongst others, it is one of my favourites. It really is a fab example of perfect pop of its era - maybe now. Do we as adults eventually revert to music, clothes and ideas we had as children that made us feel good? I don't have any canvas beachcombers anymore but I still own some navy corduroy pants (OBVIOUSLY not the same ones I wore to the Italian wedding at the age of 7 or 8 with a maroon waistcoat - I loved that outfit). there's a flannie shirt about and yes, I have a maroon waistcoat - not velvet but... Then there's the salmon coloured slacks with the double eye-looking circles and the white sash belt! Loved those super dooper groovy pants from the early 70s - I don't think I could match those even bespoke. Maybe we keep a collection of affectionate memories that sometimes spill out from where they were filed all that time ago in the mind - so one could exclaim, epiphany! so often instead of realising the memory trigger... Like this song - story goes I sang a few lines of it after using a cosmetic that has rosemary in it. Turns out my partner had never heard the song - thought I was making it up... Thanks to YouTube, I found it & liked it so much that I went out & found a 45 that week - almost 40yrs after its release - this world is really good fun. And AH likes the song too - her first listen 39 1/2 years after it was released.
So, onto the mystery. Who is the most gorgeous guy I've seen from ages lip syncing in the clip?
(take no notice of the patched in monologue running across the bottom of the clip, it's mostly wrong but it's the best voice-video synced version I could find)
I looked them up & the singer comes up at Tony Burrows so I look him up and it's not the same guy - Tony Burrows being a bit ordinary to look at and very disappointing - well, a bit fugly really - I was expecting to see the cute one live and I'm wondering if it's one of the guitarists, Ray Dorey maybe. Naming the band members against photographs is eluding me and I'm usually an excellent net sleuth. As I was trying to find a picture that matched boy singer, the web search even came up with a photo of David Cassidy as the lead singer of this band!
ahh well, don't matter.. So - onto playing the song and that pretty, pretty fella! Not to mention that body shirt! pure polyester no doubt (armpits to be avoided within 15 minutes of putting it on)
How do you say 'caught on film' when someone takes your photo on a digital camera? That's me in the foreground the short one on the left with the hair & little sailor looking coat, talking to Megan's cleavage - can I say that?!!! bad, bad - best I go self-flaggelate... ahh , that's better (it looks more like I'm counting with my fingers... probably am)
I went to a group exhibition with a heavy bias on first night dips on Megan Yeo's work (I missed her last Gaffa Show and was spewing!) - I'd just got a hint about my tax returns (2 weeks and I still ain't got the bucks but - yikes, have I spent it all?) and figured there could be something there for sale so I could be challenged to create another vacant place on our wall. And there was.
"Bring on the Ravens" by Megan Yeo - I'm bringing them home - yaye AH reckons she may not cope with our Queen being in an in her face place so I may have to put her above the other bed... hmmm, that's an idea, best I check for a spot without loose plaster under the crappy wall paint - love an Inner West rental...
(thanks to Megan Yeo for letting me nick the images off her blog - now that I am asking post theft.. cheers cuz!) == postscript - how to work at home with a cat lying across your wrists as you type - she managed to publish this post twice before I'd finished
This little photo (only 10cm x 6cm) was created by a Dresden photographer in 1889 to advertise Knapman's "BIG GUN" Tonic Ale.
That's some pretty clever edit work - Photomontage before the Dadaists made it their own...
I've enlarged it for viewing pleasure (click for a bigger view)
I'm liking the top hats (very Fagan / Artful Dodger) but it's the little one with her/his tongue out in the face of the clock at the top that really tickles me.
yes, babies on the pot have a lot to do with beer...
A favourite of mine - unknown photographer, Australia - early 20th Century
Shamefully, I kept this on a pinboard for many years (cos I used to ride motorcycles a lifetime ago) - this rider is making dust! I always thought he had a cigarette in his mouth but I guess it's just a mark on the negative... wish I had the negative
==
Again, no idea - it's one of those make your photograph into a post card from the first 1/4 of last century - It has "post card" in 3 languages so it is from Europe somewhere - I reckon it's from English occupied India - there is one Indian looking fellow (the only one with a water bottle at his waist) and the tanned white boys are all wearing those silly English safari hats - as if wearing one of those will save them in a fall... Perhaps the hard hats are for the sun or really for bullets...
===
Raphael's Motor Car Hire & Repair Company is a photo I've had, I think, the longest -since teen years. Again, photographer and place unknown - most likely Australia (the building suggests Aust)- and date? circa 1920s me thinks
The t-shirt was maybe yellow and beige and I think my Mum still has a photo of me with really bad hair (a home cut maybe and probably only 11 years old) playing tippy-go in the yard (that's cricket but if you tip the ball you have to run - hence the tip & go!)
- usually we played with an old tennis racquet from the dump & a tennis ball.
I thought I was never that good at Tippy-go but one day as a mangy teenie at the beach (playing hooky no doubt) I did really well and the boys who so did not want to f**k me were almost impressed at my tippy-go ability - they almost understood respect and camaraderie through the haze of their oily hormones..
(lovely suburban Adelaide in the 1970s - they also pretended to be surfies - on flat wave Adelaide beaches!!)
==
Annnd, then there was, "Hey Charger" - every time you see a Chrysler Charger, you must hold 2 fingers up in the peace sign & go all sultry and say sexily, "Hey.... Charger!"
I was about to do that a few years ago while visiting Adelaide and some yobs in a hotted up car yelled, "Lesbian!"
Gee, that's tough.. and your point is?
*only in Adelaide...
A few treats have come home to hang around on my turntable is the past couple of weeks. Sometimes a picture sleeve can be as good as the record (sometimes better!)
Amongst the collection I now have the lovely Roberta Flack - could I resist this cover, I think not:
An Australian EP, it of course features one of her most famous songs (First Time Ever... and then you snored... heh heh) and a rather forgettable duet of You've Lost That Loving Feeling, which was never such a great song in its first outing (by whomever sang it - don't tell me cause I'm not interested - oh, it was those 2 blokes, one had a really deep voice & they wore beige polyester suits...) Doesn't matter, I would've bought the single of her First Time Ever... but having it for the same price as a rare EP is fab... and, wow, that hair!
Then... sigh... :
An obscure New Zealand EP from 1967 or 68 in fabulous nick - Phillips obviously banking on the popularity of her BBC 1966-67 television show (the photo is from the show) but such a groovy telly!
Phillips brand of course...
- featuring 3 previous A-side singles (Give Me Time 1967, What's it Gonna Be 1967, Wishin' and Hopin' 1964 - USA not UK) they named it My Colouring Book - a B-side from 1964 - who knows how Phillips execs worked then. One of the nice things in Australia that not only did we get Dusty's UK releases (Her "Where Am I Going" Australian release LP is even a better mix than the UK LP - and it was never released in the USA) but we also got the USA only releases as well but often with different covers.
anyways to fly a little way - 20 years - into the future - I also picked up an English pressing of Nina Hagen's "African Reggae" 45 with picture sleeve - another Parramatta Road bargain:
===
So, that's an Australian release by an American, a New Zealand release by a Brit and an English release by a German
== then there's the Skunk Records Luxemburg EP release of a punk rock benefit compilation (Amore & Anarchia) with 4 bands from... all over the joint and the vinyl is yellow - see:
Tracklisting: A1 Toxkäpp Märder A2 Subway Arts Bow To No One B1 Bakunin's Children Bart Simpson B2 D'Rotzbouwen Intro / Subcaos - I'd call it more earthy punk rather than hardcore but it packs a punch when played loud loud and made a very work-weary AH happy the other night when I became home DJ & played my new find before revisiting The Frumpies and a splash of 7 Year Bitch (the later on CD)...
When Sydney has its gorgeous Winter days, it's always a delight going for a walk. My walk today had purpose - I finally finished 2 years of tax return accounts. I reckon that government payout did the ATO a big favour in that I'm sure it's a bigger record of people doing tax returns than the years when they announce an amnesty...
But, so on the walk, and it IS on the way to the accountants office is the artist's house - the wonderful Jenny Orchard & her fabulous totems:
This one pisses me off so I thought I'd share it with other folks who are into enjoying being annoyed by squeaky-voiced, hot pants wearing blond Scotts
-as opposed to squeaky voiced extra pair of socks in the jeans choking on own vomit Bon Scott(s) -hmmm will the rock god police hit me with 1 million volts of lightening bolts ... oh, dear I must mean High Voltage!!
Damn, see, corny crap pop from my small child past makes me silly with pun.
the following band was called "Middle of the Road" but I think they should have called themselves the Tweeties or Squeaky Squash Squish goober something...
When I think of 'middle of the road' (MOR) it's a style of music very bland and boring and more like those 1980s soft rock bands or torch singers with bad synth (think Whitney, George Michael, America and their 'ken horse, Eagles, Icehouse and all those A-Ha type bands and without thinking about how nice Annie Lennox looks, have you listened to Eurythmics, There Must be an Angel - it is soooo MOR I may have to self-harm)
MOR cannot always be easily ignored it can be very very very annoying - in the past week I've been working for a lovely fellow researching some archives in Ultimo where there is different boring radio stations piped throughout the building each day and it's been making me a bit ratty. How can Vega FM make even Patti Smith sound wrong... by surrounding her song with tedious Icehouse and some other shit. Another day it was 2-Day FM - Kenny Rogers and all! At 4PM one day, the office people changed the station to a christian program - whoa, that's definitely MOR (hands up who wants to see Guy Sebastian naked??) with really odd god advertisements thrown in just to gobsmacked this unsuspecting atheist.
But to get back to 1971 this bit of bubble can on first listening not be dismissed as easily as 80s MOR -it is annoying yet catchy at the same time
urgh - did I write that? Catchy? no it's fucking not. 'ken chirp your fucken cheep... and what is it with the Tweety Pie voice?
See if you can last through the whole song, have a little singalong while you're at it... share it
I don't even know how I got to be listening to this - that's the disease of it...
http://www.youtube.com/user/dascottjr
These folks have done the best voice over of that corny epic Bonnie Tyler hit, Total Eclipse of the Heart,showing that it's way more fun to sing what is actually happening in the clip - it begins funny and then gets hilarious. I love Youtube - but Sony sucks by being lame copyright corporates - forgetting that the people who did this and people watching it & enjoying it were major contributors to the wealth this one release made (except me I guess... hmmm, maybe those that enjoy this most couldnt't stand the effing thing!)
hopefully you can get the gist of how much fun this is until the greed monsters jump on it again
Zombiefied humans ride the escalator to heaven or.... obliteration! Do they know? Have they been hypnotised like in some b-grade sci fi film and follow commands without queston from a strange fearsome mutant creature from another planet? oh, hang on, that's Hillsong or the JW's or Scientology
There were no bespoke tailors (or closets - this IS Adelaide) to be seen in this place so we were suspicious of the true meaning of this arcade... May 2009
It's been a bit of a crappy weather week. I have a lot of clothes sodden on the line out the back - I may have to put them all back in the washing machine to spin so there is a slim chance they will dry. There's a break in the rain this afternoon and I can hear the squawks and squeals of the rainbow lorikeets in the straggly eucalyptus tree in our yard.
A fabulous actress and so beautiful and intelligent to watch - if I saw her name in the cast of any film, I knew it would be excellent but now she has died of cancer too young. 4/5/1944 - 14/5/2009 the last two films I saw her in were, Hilde and the utterly wonderful Vier Minuten And I am looking forward to seeing her in The Murder Farm with scrumptious Julia Jentsch (Sophie Scholl). Now looking forward to this screening takes on a whole new meaning - I hope I don't have to wait another year to see the only screening in Sydney at the German Film Festival. This is just not fair.
AH and I are back from a short visit to Adelaide. She bought me a wonderful new coat and I've brought home souvenirs from a Saturday spent at an antiques and collectables fair in the trendy Adelaide suburb of St Peters. That was not the reason to fly to South Australia - it was more relative (and friends...). At $4 each, these 3 Dutch postcards circa 1942 of the famous 1.5km Maas Tunnel, which opened in 1942 are a treat (didn't know what they were when I bought them, just that having a postcard of an empty tunnel tickled me) There is a parallel tunnel to the auto tunnel for pedestrians and bicycles, I assume that's where these fabulous escalators* (above) are situated. I often buy old postcards to send to friends & family for fun (It began with my Father sending me all sorts of quirky cards including an original 1950s Queen Elizabeth visit to Australia postcard that now lives on our fridge) but these tunnel cards are just too special to give away. Now I have a reason to visit Holland.
(the sign is an Exit Here notice but the literal translation is "Here Go Away")
*After looking up the Masstunnel online I notice the escalators in my photo-postcard have been modernised and no longer exist...(the tunnel is a tourist attraction - I reckon for folks who are partial to a world tour of tunnel discovery and I think those people exist)
Next I may have to look for photos of factories postcards - the pleasure goes on.
A.H. and I did a bulk deal again this year and went along to 5 films that screened at the 2009 German Film Festival. Films were good but the most outstanding was Hilde – the story of actor, singer, writer; Hildegard Knef (above).
Running for 2 hours, which I never noticed as it was totally engrossing & starring Heike Makatsch (Aimee & Jaguar, Resident Evil, Anatomie 2, Love Actually) who bears striking resemblance to the real Hildegard:
(abvoe: Heike Makatsch)
===
Hildegard Knef 28/12/1925 – 1/2/2002 – Another true Diva to celebrate.
Hildegard was 14 years old when WWII began and studied acting in Berlin under the Third Reich. She had an affair with a Third Reich bureaucrat & disguised herself as a male soldier during the last days of Hitler’s hold over Berlin, mainly to avoid being caught (and raped*) by Russian soldiers (don’t miss it if you ever get the chance to view Helke Sander’s excellent 1992 documentary, *BeFreier und BeFreite ( Liberators Take Liberties)- about the not so celebrated actions of the Allies in Berlin)
Despite being invited to Hollywood by David Selznick, her USA success was on stage on Broadway.
Moving back to Germany, she continued acting (with a little controversy) but truly found who she was in the early 1960s when she started writing, recording and performing her own songs and some memorable covers. She was also a prolific book writer, survived breast cancer and died from emphysema in 2002.
The film, Hilde, is a fabulous portrayal of a genuine diva – try to see it.
(at the beginning of the trailer she says, "who is Hildegard Knef? I've found an answer to this question, This is Hildegard Knef" - when she first stands on stage as a singer)
Ella Fitzgerald is quoted to have said Hildegard Knef is "the best singer without a voice".
Here in the 1970s, she does rap (probably called spoken word, you reckon?):
