STRAY PHOTOS from the '70s and '80s

Above, the still beauteous to this day Crickette posing on astroturf outlined to resemble the apartment complex's missing courtyard swimming pool, rare in non-ghetto SoCal communal living. This remains a good example of location shoots I'd put together when so inspired between jobs. (I've always seemed to have good looking and compliant friends to model.) We hauled in all missing pool accessories. Circa the mid-1970s.

Above, all this brother and sister wanted was a photograph of themselves together. Somehow this is what we ended up with. She was a photogenic, very animated rock singer who then married a quite well to do local sports arena owner. The life-sized dinosaur was cardboard, later utilized in a campaign portrait of a local political candidate who then won.

Above, hot air balloon in which Mr. Twister and I later were aloft, the Antelope Valley, Calif. circa the mid-70s.

Above, for my photo feature in Crawdaddy Magazine on Japanese monster toys, beloved of the era's punk rockers. This assortment was gleaned from the respective collections of writer Paul Diamond and myself. My own did not survive the terrible 1994 Northridge earthquake whose epicenter was a mere three miles away and killed our across the street neighbors. Except it was via the destructive proclivities of the unsupervised children of the
builder we'd hired to repair quake damage, and he was livid as well. At least the quality work made up for it.

De rigueur rock photo, Paula Pierce of The Pandoras (LINK) circa 1984 just after the band's bisection.

Vaguely haunted-looking for daylight train scene, Tennessee, '70s.

Above, my "tourist" photo of a Communist rally at the Colosseum, Rome, Italy, October 1978. The next time we were in Rome for Chainsaw's Euro-tour in 2003 (LINK) they still were demonstrating, this time against the then spankin' new war in Iraq, "Pace! Pace!"

Above, my "tourist" photo of Pompeii, same trip, 1978.

Mr. Twister rises above it all, Rome, 1978.

Someone really rising above it all later in the 1980s, affecting Bruce Dern's frequently psychosis-prone film characters.