JOYEUX ANNIVERSAIRE Be`Be`!

(photographers
unknown)
Happy Birthday Brigitte Bardot. 
"I gave my beauty and my youth to men. I am going to give my wisdom and experience to animals."- Be`Be`

She remains controversial because she is such a public commodity. Despite this, I prefer to think of her as a magnified, iconic version of a multifaceted human being, albeit one of jaw-droppingly astounding beauty. Her unfortunate National Front associations could stem from impatience with those cultures which have not evolved from kneejerk cruelty to animals and diminution of women as their social norm and who now want to impose same on her beloved France. Were my French at all fluent, I'd suggest education rather than excoriation as a better tactic to our 80-year-old birthday grrrrl...

BLUE FLOWERS

Blue flowers, I know not what. Sorta cymbidium-looking. Affordable at supermarket for photo subject and niceness at home.

ROCK OUT WITH 3HAB. REALLY.

Fun evening last night in Simi Valley with vastly overachieving jam band 3HAB of the musical conglomerate 3HAB,Ahab/Rehab, and visitor Stephen Schmidt, film production sound engineer in from West Virginny. With Tony Matteucci from THE DOGS, James Hawkins formerly with Etta James and Little Caesar and Clackers Kay with anybody great locally, this power trio submits perfect arrangements and performances of Jimi Hendrix, Savoy Brown, Van Halen, The Who, Cream and my favorite in their set, ballad  "To Sir With Love" by Lulu. Anyone local to Los Angeles/SoCal area missing them in future should kick themself silly. WAY too good for the venues they often play...

THE GLAM SKANKS- ROCKED AND LOADED

Bad ass musicians and cute to boot! THE GLAM SKANKS played Club Loaded in 
Hollywood CA 9.6.14 to debut their five count 'em five new videos.

  It's hard to keep up with the lineup changing their stage noms des guerre for each gig, but currently it's Ali Cat (Ali Torres) on lead vocals, V (Veronica Witkin) on guitar, Breanna Blue (Breanna Fields) on bass, and Linzy Jewlz (Lindsay Martin) on drums.

Music biz kids exposed to pro talent and work ethics from tender ages, it shows. Terrific musicians the lot of them, and Ali has that real rock drive voice one never encounters on tv contests.

 

Lead singer Ali Cat
trespassing on early Linda Ronstadt's brunette sultriness...

Their set is about 80% fun, original songs and 20% glam covers. They demonstrably are doing everything right, and can only get even better. Sadly, I'll never work for them because they've got the photographer for Aerosmith and Johnny Depp right there in the family (and I like her, genuine nice person and true animal-lover.) But it's always fun to catch major acts at the nascent ascent of an inevitable upward curve. And as a non-blood-relative fan wrote on Facebook, "We NEED a current all female band who are great!" 

What ARE those girls doing?!? Would Bowie and Ronson have approved?

For more info go to LINK. 

First released of their five videos below:

POP TEEN TITAN KODA CORVETTE / MISS LELA BROWN / DJ KISS plus ANDREW LANE

 

Message from a teenage opera: 
this photofeature dispatch delved into the successful world of Teen Pop. On 9.3.14, multi-platinum, award-winning producer Andrew Lane (Backstreet Boys, Hannah Montana, Disneymania) presented the showcase/launch party for 15-year-old singer KODA CORVETTE at S.I.R. Studios in Hollywood CA, abetted by already mature talents of 12-year-old Miss Lela Brown and 11-year-old DJ Kiss.  Mr. Lane displays much  natural warmth in guiding these teen and pre-teen professionals through the rigors of today's pop music biz. 

Ms. Corvette, originally from Portland OR by way of her Swiss-German family, evinced much confidence in her singing, songwriting, navigating the corps du ballet while dancing, and red carpet, work-the-room know how. She also performed a solo turn at the piano to show off that special voice. At the set's end, she thanked her choreographer as well as Mr. Lane, high-fiving the latter.

 

 

Opener was Miss Lela Brown, hip hop artist with an haute couture fashion model-worthy strut whose interactive approach to go carousing in the audience a la Iggy Pop was appreciated. DJ Kiss kept the sounds spinning.
 

 

 RED CARPET PHOTO OPS:

Below left: Koda Corvette, her father and brother share the glory. Right: Everybody! Below, producer Andrew Lane of Drew Right Productions with actress Fallon Smythe; last but hardly least, music industry legend Russ Regan with Lane.

ARCHAIC CASPIAN PONY

Left: 500 B.C., pretty good bareback equestrian position, soft hands to the horse's mouth while halting his stride.

Right (photographer unknown): By the by, the exact same horse breed, now called the Caspian Pony, still exists. Barely. One of the rarest equine breeds in the world due to its last concentration of bloodstock having been in Iran. DNA samples in ancient tombs verify it's the same horse breed. For more information about this fascinating archaic breed, forebear of the Arabian Horse and saved from extinction by a mere 20 horses, go to LINK.

ONLY LOVERS LEFT ALIVE: a tale of two cult classics

I needed a rock and roll vampire fantasy like this film for total immersion/distraction after the death of my beloved Deerhound so I was ripe for this film's spell. "Only Lovers Left Alive" is a later period Jim Jarmusch, an exploration of the emotional landscapes of strange outsider folk as in "Broken Flowers," quirky as always but more believable than earlier mannerisms, a good trade-off in my opinion. 

Recommended to me by Mary Ann Rose and now I to you: convincing portrayals of vampires as languorous musician/blood junkies in present day Detroit MI and Tangier, Morocco. The 2013 film's leads, 33-yr-old Tom Hiddleston and 54-yr-old Tilda Swinton look and act made for each other. Very affectionate, high-functioning addicts, she with her classic literature and he with his music fueled by oldskool tech despite nano-second-new sounds. Many insider jokes of current state of music (young vamp after feeding: "ugh, I feel sick." Older vamp: "No wonder, he was in the music business!") and insider props with no attention directed at same: posters of Nicola Tesla, Patti Smith, Iggy Pop, etc.

No doubt as director Jim Jarmusch's further little jape, it shares its title but zero plot points in common with the famous 1960s' teenage, post-apocalypse novel "Only Lovers Left Alive" by Dave Wallis, once optioned as a vehicle for the Rolling Stones. The book was surprisingly sympathetic to the people older than its protagonist teenagers, and there was a pastoral redemption twist at its end after all the Lord of The Flies violence. So it's amusing to learn that both Jarmusch and Oldham had parallel thoughts of purchasing the rights for its cool title alone although I'll bet the then young Stones themselves grokked the book's ultraviolence (to use '60s parlance) and pictured themselves happily in it. 

I also like the non-sophistication of the vampires' affection, always draping themselves over one another and holding hands wherever they ventured like teen kids' first loves, a cute contrast to their actual ancient ages. More cool dialogue, paraphrased: Q: "Why Detroit?" A:"Because it's like a flower growing from seed, blooming, withering and dying, all in one century. Fascinating to be here to watch!") As the film's reputation grows steadily word of mouth far past its 2013 release, Mary Ann thinks it a future cult classic and I concur.

 

THE HAILERS: hale and hearty 8.21.14

THE HAILERS appeared at Ireland's 32 in Van Nuys CA for a boisterous Irish party of a gig with sets of their original blues rock that already sounds classic and assorted Stones-y covers. Sitting in for a few songs were singer Carol Casey and harpist Tom Austin. Strong vocals, strong playing, fun musics...

THE HAILERS remain:

Robert Mills - guitar and vocals;

April Carson - bass and vocals;

Billy DiBlasi - drums; Lori Herek - backing vocals; Vince LeBauve - guitar and backing vocals; Richard 'Koz' Kosinski - keyboards.

OUR ONCE UPON A TIME SPIDER LILIES

Spider lilies grown at home back when it actually rained here. All dead now, not allowed. 3 inches of rain per annum extant for the last three years and 8 minutes of watering mandated for our entire half acre, civic council conveniently forgetting A) never to allow water-guzzling, massively high-density multiple-unit housing that they rubber-stamp for maximum property taxes and B) without the asphalt, this area was a natural savannah, like the Serengeti--  seasonal rain, lots of plant growth with bulbs and grasses and certainly enough water for lots of wildlife.

REST IN PEACE KARIS

Rest in peace, Karis. 
(hepatic, kidney, stomach, pancreatic, gall bladder failure with brain damage)