2024 FAIRGROUND ATTRACTIONS. ONE COMES TO ME ; ONE WAS LOST FOR 33 YEARS AND FOUND IN SHIPPING CONTAINERS

For once, an hour of happy came to me. A carnival fairground sprang up 2 blocks from my house, with genuine diversity in its themes like a German/Austrian Beer Haus, little green folks from outer space, New Orleans Mardi Gras, Chinese dragons, etc. It also was gratifying to see denizens of my neighborhood having fun instead of their usual resentful desperation.

I was impressed with the high caliber of the graphic art of the attractions. Behind the beer maiden are the Katzenjammer Kids, a very popular 1920s comic strip, Arnold Schwarzenegger and some cool draft horses hauling the beer. The analogy of the elephant in Leiderhosen escapes me (perhaps reference to German milita
ria, as in the elephant in the room?)   

 

 

Carnival fairs are important entertainment to smaller, rural communities, while they remain an urban rarity. Usually the art is over the top kitsch, which is why this vivid, well-maintained batch surprised me. I no longer can ride the rides because of vertigo, but I liked everything else about these: they succeed in their manufactured fun. There was even a full-sized Ferris Wheel, like in Luna Luna.

 NOW FOR LUNA LUNA

 

 

  

 

Luna Luna, the world's first fine art amusement park once graced a Hamburg, Germany park in 1987 and was supposed to tour, then was lost in litigation of its investors, then genuinely lost until it turned up 35 years later in 44 shipping containers in Texas of all places.  

MAJOR, MAJOR fine artists of the day designed these fairground attractions, half of which have been restored to viewability, and two of which have been restored to proactive participation. You can step inside the Salvador Dali hall of mirrors in a geodesic dome, and you can get genuinely lost in the Roy Lichtenstein hot pink maze. Otherwise one can admire the Jean-Michel Basquiat (full-sized) Ferris Wheel, the Keith Haring merry go round, and the David Hockney spinning ride where the floors drop away as the colors change the artwork walls, plus plenty more.

It was set up for a paying public in April and May 2024 in the "fashion district" of downtown L.A., right next to Skid Row. It needed an airplane hangar-sized space within which to put a full amusement park, hence was found in this commercial warehouse area with no retail, no restaurants, no nothin' per se around it. It should be mentioned that hip hop artist Drake spearheaded the foundation that restored and ultimately displays Luna Luna once again to art and fairground fans.

CATCHING FIRE: the story of ANITA PALLENBERG, a take by a lesser mortal, moi

                                    

 

Friends and friends of friends knew Anita Pallenberg, although I never was in her company. In those crowds, I would have been ignored anyway as "non-model material," as a pal euphemistically put it.

She nonetheless fascinated me because she was a complete checklist of everything that I wasn't, with exaggerated versions thereof: blazingly confident, unquestionably beautiful, tall, well-connected, multilingual, thin, manipulative, financially secure, instant object of desire to all, physically strong, reckless, intimidating, hollow leg for substances, etc.etc.etc.  We did, it turns out, share a trait somewhat invisibly: a large mix and match wardrobe of highly interesting clothing of generally unique textiles so that we rarely resembled anybody else in the room, fashion-wise. Hey, I'll grasp at any straw I can get!

 

Therefore one expectedly and happily anticipated liking the new documentary by Magnolia Pictures "Catching Fire: the Story of Anita Pallenberg," produced by her son Marlon Richards. And one does, despite the puzzling choice of actress narrating Pallenberg's own words, my fellow American Scarlett Johansson. Pallenberg's own voice was a mashup of Marlene Dietrich's smoky German sophistication and Joan Greenwood's* seductive purr, were it a bit more Eurocentric. The narration is jarring, but doesn't inhibit enjoyment of the film. The home movies footage throughout is nothing short of incredible.

 

The screen captures herein of real life and real role-playing are unannotated and presented for your viewing pleasure to whet the appetite: watch this documentary, directed by Alexis Bloom and Svetlana Zill in the comfort of your own home when it's released May 3, 2024.  In selfsame screen captures (emblazoned with my email for "security," so don't reproduce) we see her evince a complexity far beyond her libertine persona familiar to music fans from her years with Keith Richards (and Brian Jones.) 

 

Make no mistake, Pallenberg's absence in the band history would have begat a far different Rolling Stones. No matter how superior the music is in and of itself, do not underestimate the importance of strong visuals in modern popular music. We have five senses, and they all work together. And she plugged her volcanic life force directly into the Rolling Stones at just the right minute of the 1960s, which indeed helped codify The World's Greatest Rock And Roll Band.

*Other agree: Joan Greenwood was in fact the dubbed voice of Pallenberg's Black Queen/Great Tyrant in "Barbarella!" Same tone and timbre, just done by the then entertainment world's sexiest plummy voice.

BOB MARLEY: ONE LOVE review

For distraction, I deliberately went movie-going on Valentine's Day to avoid the reality of the recent loss of my soulmate of fifty years. Happily enough, it was the first day release of biofilm "Bob Marley:One Love." A recommend!!  Bigtime!  Firstly, hearing superb reggae played in a good theatre sound system will lift anyone's spirits, it's built into the very construct of reggae. Like African-American gospel, it lifts you up musically before any singer even opens his or her mouth.

I was a trifle hesitant about the lead Kingsley Ben-Adir beforehand since he has absolutely zero resemblance to Marley, but his natural sense of command, musical performing style and ease in conveying creativity won me over. His acting for the writing of the song "Exodus" is a marvel. It's hard to convey "creativity" in films because the act of thinking usually is not very cinematic. Jeffrey Wright's depiction in "Basquiat" worked, and Bob Dylan in Scorsese's "No Direction Home" doc where he stops in front of some random poster and starts lyrically riffing on its contents is fun insight into how artists create. Few other scenes in all of moviedom come to mind.

More pluses-- "One Love's" Rita Marley actress Lashana Lynch is nothing short of phenomenal, completely inhabiting the character. Without any stylization of same, she is the Greek chorus reminding the protagonist of hidden adversities, as well as his living inspiration in addition to his spiritual ones (or as Harvey quipped, "Keith to his Mick.") Also, the montages of the eventual success of The Wailers has a few LOLs for observant, longtime reggae followers: note a photo op with a Mick Jagger lookalike!

Old home week subjectivity: I recognized a lot of names in the credits of people I worked with in 1976 writing my book "Rastaman Vibration: Bob Marley & The Wailers," like Island's music true believer and promotional whiz Jeff Walker. His wife Kim Gottlieb provided the book's wonderful photos she had taken in Jamaica of Bob, his family and the band. Island admitted they were puzzled about new audiences' initial hesitance for reggae in the U.S.A. African American music fans of the '70s seemed to prefer their music heroes to be glitzily successful like Lionel Richie and Diana Ross, not hardscrabble Trenchtown. So Island suggested to try appealing to college audiences, whose very job it used to be to embrace the new. And I did: I was the first to find and write of the tie in to Rastafarianism in the works of Kurt Vonnegut, who was the national darling of college readers everywhere at that time. Even if it was Vonnegut's signature morbid satire, hey, any bridge in a storm!

I quite like that the film is doing so well in its initial release, particularly for a music biopic. Most reviews have been snobby, such as "People" magazine's accusation that it plays it too safe. "One Love" is important as well as entertaining: it is this current generation's mainstream introduction to the legend behind the cool music they've heard all their lives. As such, it's a very good narrative depiction. Marley really did come from nowhere, really was that prolific (than goodness, given his short life) and really did beat the odds in inventing a sea change in popular music, fashioning a regional variation on Motown R&B into the gold standard of World Music, beloved to everybody all over the globe. Because to hear reggae music for the first time is to love and embrace it. Thank Bob!

 

DON'T WORRY DARLING ~AND~ LAST NIGHT IN SOHO. WHY I HEART THESE FLIX

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Don't Worry Darling and Last Night in Soho have been the most intriguing and indisputably visually arresting psychological thrillers of the last several years. Oddly, they're about the same thing, just in different eras. The former concerns the ring-a-ding Rat Pack glamour of the 1950s, the latter Swinging 1960s London (I lived through both-- they get the details right.) Both explore consequences of the deliberate diminishment of women in these otherwise dazzling eras, with extreme, gory vengeance resultant in their respective plot twists. '50s and '60s cognescienti are going to love the music: great, non-formulae choices in both. Having just the right music was as important to director Edgar Wright as it is to, say, director Martin Scorcese. And both Soho and Darling sidestep any obvious choices. 

 

For those who've followed pop culture fashions/music/sociology of the last half of the prior century, you'll enjoy the correct details and continuity choices as well. Soho's director Edgar Wright specializes in making sure all music placed in his films is important and contributing to the overall zeitgeist without ever being pretentious about it or calling attention to itself (Example: he directed Baby Driver with the best music accompanied car chases ever.) And director Olivia Wilde let her imagination roam quite free once she got a hold of this script that is a VERY unusual take on a previously well known horror theme. 

 

Screen captures from Don't Worry Darling's cool retro auto scenes, with a Corvette in the 2nd pic carrying the protagonist Florence Pugh, and the top pic crowd scene containing a Nash Metropolitan, '54 Ford, '57 Chevy Nomad among others. Their stunt doubles come a sorry end in the big chase scene (last 2 pix.) My better half adored all the cars! Younger viewers will adore co-star Harry Styles for his deft handling of a real love/hate acting role.
 

Best of all, the three young female leads, AnyaTaylor-Joy and Thomasin McKenzie in Soho, Florence Pugh in Darling, are astonishing strong. They seem like A list from the get go. Their assured performances caught me by surprise. Pugh has been garnering "next big thing" plaudits lately, but don't be put off by this spin: she nailed this one. You never don't care about her character for even one second. And both films are, hahaha, feminist despite all that violence.

 

Screen captures from Last Night in Soho, Anya Taylor-Joy in first encounter with Matt Smith, all joyful dancing and running through the night streets of mid-1960s Soho; Thomasin McKenzie and (from the actual '60s) Terence Stamp in present day Soho; Eloise channels Audrey Hepburn; the two time travelers merge.
 

Trivia: this was the very first production to feature the interiors as well as the exterior of the famous Richard Neutra Palm Springs Kaufmann mansion (the same client who commissioned Frank Lloyd Wright's Fallingwater!!) and for long, extended scenes in and out, not just establishing shots. I presume the huge collection of wonderful mid-century architecture in Darling is a millennial's wet dream. And don't worry: Soho features boomers' wet dreams of 1960s London, ground zero of coolness in all things pop cultural and otherwise, particularly in its amazingly filmed initial introduction to time travel.

 

Above, fair use photo from the sales site from 3 years ago for Neutra's classic Palm Springs residence. To see all pix, click LINK (or https://digs.net/richard-neutras-kaufmann-house-in-palm-springs/)

Don't Worry Darling and Last Night in Soho should eventually be deemed classics. Both came out in our oddball, constricted covid era, yet still are sensational. There just hasn't been a lot of the promotional hoo-ha that usually accompanies such great films. If you enjoy one you should enjoy the other: I sure did! 

 

IT WAS 55 YEARS AGO TODAY: THE BEATLES AT DODGER STADIUM 8.28.66

 

Yes, it looked this far away. Or more like this far away. Photographer unknown

It was 55 years ago today: The Beatles performed for 45,000 fans at Dodger Stadium, Anaheim, their L.A. area engagement on Aug. 28, 1966, one day before their final show ever at Candlestick Park, San Francisco. My friend Sally A's part of the tale: "I was there. 'Sat with my friend Heather's mother and two of Heather's friends (Rob F. and Carol L.) What a night. Heard nothing but screaming and faint music. But I would not have missed it for the world. My boys......"

I trust the statute of limitations has expired in the intervening 55 years, so that I may answer the unspoken question the world cries out to know, where was HH?  I was with Rich C. as his mule. My beach bag was recruited to carry his giant reel to reel tape recorder with which he had yearned to document the set. Unfortunately as it was returned to its owner, he dropped it and one of the tapes unspooled all the way down the bleacher rows of Dodger Stadium. Even without the hiss of this very public mishap, all that could be heard later in playback was the roar and din of screaming pubescent females. Good times!

My mother was there to chauffeur us all, it only seemed fair to buy her a ticket. Some of us were quite underaged. Rich C. was Carol's boyfriend, so I really was brushing up against possible legal ramifications as a favor to a good friend who was not my date.

Sally A.'s final pronouncement: "Heather is telling the truth. I was standing at the top of the steps and watched as the tape unspooled all the way down the steps. Boy, did we all panic."

I AM QUOTED FOR A FEATURE ON THE FILM 'THE SPARKS BROTHERS' r.e. a chance encounter 50 years ago...

                                            Promotional graphics courtesy of Focus Features

 

I haven't seen The Sparks Brothers, the documentary film directed by our household fave Edgar ("Baby Driver") Wright but nonetheless was asked to contribute to Harvey Kubernik's feature about it in Music Connection, published today. Here's my observations, as follows:

 

"Noted photographer/writer Heather Harris provides a unique view of Ron and Russell from fifty years ago which is quite illuminating.

“The Sparks Brothers = The Marx Brothers, geddit? Like most of the UCLA community of artists, musicians, filmmakers and entertainment journalists of the late 1960s/early 70s, we all knew who one another were, despite the student body numbering some 40,000 souls at the time,” recalls Heather.

 

“We all liked the same wide nets cast of pop cultural happenings and would see one another at their gigs and assorted exhibits, film premieres etc., which is why I can verify the filmic reference of the initial name change of the band Halfnelson.

 

“I'll let someone else explain ‘the UCLA Mafia's’ future successes in the entertainment world, but what follows is its origin. Halfnelson and Christopher Milk were the two house rock bands of UCLA in that same era, the latter being fronted by my future better half Mr. Twister who was also a widely published music photographer then and containing amongst illustrious others Rolling Stone and Creem music reviewer John Mendelssohn of assorted notorieties.

 

“We all started our respective creative careers while still in university, partly because the ambitious entertainment sections of The UCLA Bruin, Icon and Index (both of which I was editor of in my last years at UCLA) put one in direct contact with all the record companies and movie studios of the era, who were more than happy to welcome loquacious students to freebie gigs and film previews to expound happily and wordily about their product. They even provided us with travel junkets!

 

“An Icon or Index review, good or bad, was after all a free advertisement to 40,000 young consumers,” she explains. “This made all parties, students, musicians, artists and company publicists alike very happy indeed in this all win/win scenario.

 

“We all liked everything new and cool no matter what medium, usually to incorporate magpie-like into our own effusive creations. Which is why it wasn't unusual to encounter Sparks' Ron and Russell Mael at a rare live concert by Greek avant garde composer Iannis Xanakis in West Hollywood. Xanakis was one of the very few serious musicians to incorporate the then spankin' new synthesizer (Moog or ARP) into his compositions. Since synthesizers were monophonic at the time despite their inevitably multi-tracked use in studios, the brothers probably shared a similar curiosity to see how this could work live.

“After the show I introduced myself as a fellow UCLA student who had seen them play live and I asked when they would do so next,” remembers Harris.

 

“They were cordial and replied that the very next day they were leaving Los Angeles for England to further their music careers, which for once did in fact spell fame and fortune, ‘This Town Ain't Big Enough For Both Of Us,’ etc. success ongoing up until today. If this isn't like encountering Secretariat right up at the starting gate of the Kentucky Derby, then at least to continue the equine analogy, it's like encountering Cinderella stepping into her pumpkin coach drawn by six white horses and about to go to the ball. Life-changingness ensued, at least for Sparks."