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The Other Side of Glam Rock

BY KOLLIN HOLTZ

 

Watch all 16 videos on Network Awesome

Tony Visconti found Glam Rock buried in the basement of the UFO Club in London when he saw Tyrannosaurus Rex play to a crowd of 200 hippies on instruments they found in the garbage. Obviously I’m not talking about the giant, prehistoric reptile! I mean the band founded by Marc Bolan, and Steve Took (which is not as well known as the giant lizard). It was Visconti’s assignment to go out, and find a new band for the record label to sign as part of his six-month visit to England from Brooklyn, NY. At the time, they were folk heavy on the sound, but after three records, they topped the charts in the UK. It was the 1970’s. The radical US political group, The Weathermen (later called the Weather Underground) HAD gone underground, the Summer of Love died in a biker rage at a Stone’s concert, and the British Invasion of the US Billboard Top 100 was showing little sign of stopping. You ready boys and girls, because we’re about to get it on like a gong. Glitter? Check. Hair? Check. Unbridled, raw, sexual rock lyrics? Double check.

Let’s talk about who comes to mind when we all think of Glam Rock: David Bowie. A month or two after meeting Marc Bolan of Tyrannosaurus Rex, Tony Visconti was introduced to David Bowie. A man he worked for suggested he meet Bowie saying he had a talent for, “working with odd artists [paraphrased].” Bowie and Visconti hit it off, talking about everything from their favorite musicians, spoken word artists, and seeing the new Polanski film, Knife In The Water (Original US release in 1962)* before parting ways at around nine in the evening. His first album was apparently a mish-mash of inspiration from show-tunes, folk, rock and everything else in between. Bowie took time to discover himself, according to Visconti. In the few years they worked together, Bowie took mime classes, and discovered the art of Kabuki Theater. Both of these heavily influenced his showmanship.

Mime taught him how to use his body, and Kabuki inspired the wardrobe and makeup of his stage persona. He may not have been the impetus of the movement, but he was certainly one of its most major influencers. As soon as he wore what he wore, everyone rushed to copy him without understanding the source material and inspiration he was working from. The influence of Kabuki makeup, and the strong pronouncement of

SPEND AN HOUR OR MORE WITH GRACE JONES

Watch the whole hour long compilation here

 

BY KOLLIN HOLTZ

Grace Jones is a Jamaican born (May 1948), New York raised (1962) model, actress and most notably, a Grammy nominated Disco pop star turned new wave/R&B artist at the peak of anti-disco sentiment. Her Androgynous style landed her on the covers of Elle, and Vogue magazine inspiring the aesthetic of many female pop stars to come. Her fashion sense and style is a rebellion against the status-quo regarding gender rolls, and what a woman’s “place” is. Through her music, clothing and attitude, she most certainly is the rebellious epitomic representation of the Pastor’s child that she claims to be.

Grace was born and raised in Spanish Town, Jamaica until the age of thirteen. While there, she was raised by her grandparents part-time while her fashion-forward seamstress mother trotted the globe behind Grace’s sermon giving Pastor of a father. Growing up, she was name called things like “Olive Oyl” after Popey the Sailor Man’s shapeless love, and “nothing-in-the-middle” for what some saw as her lack of breasts. In these early years, surrounded by familial men of the cloth with a line of bishops stretching back to her Pentecostal grand Uncle, Grace took note and issue with the well defined, strict gender roles established around her. Grace didn’t want to become her Grandmother, and speaking about her she says, “She could never say anything at all. She just lived through all that abuse in the name of religion. If she did object, my step-grandfather (who was twenty years younger than her) would dismiss her with a wave of his hand. Even though my mum was tough, my dad was scarier.”

In 1962, her parents moved her and her siblings to New York. While Grace was seen as a tad masculine, her brother was seen in the reverse. In Jamaica, he organized the church choir and played the piano. Apparently

Down by the Riverside with Sister Rosetta Tharpe

Watch the 30 minute show on Network Awesome

Before Bob Dylan, before Joni Mitchell, before Chuck Berry, heck, even before Elvis Presley, Sister Rosetta Tharpe was rockin’ it gospel with her electric guitar at a time when such a thing was unimaginable. Born in 1915, the Arkansas native began playing guitar at the age of four and performing with her mother at Southern tent revivals from the age of six. Tharpe stayed on the road until her untimely death at the age of 58, confounding critics and supporters alike with her blend of the spiritual and the secular and inspiring scores of performers along the way.

Sister Rosetta Tharpe, born Rosetta Nubin, began performing for charismatic evangelical church audiences with her mother in Chicago, where she achieved fame for being such a unique child talent. Throngs of church attendees would flock to Chicago’s Church of God in Christ to witness the “the singing and guitar playing miracle,” performing hymns and dancing on the church piano. From the very beginning, 'Little Rosetta Nubin' understood the importance of a strong stage presence, something that she would carry with her throughout her performing life.

In the 1930’s, Nubin moved to New York, married for the first time, changed her name, and in 1938 was the first gospel artist signed to Decca Records. Her first singles, such as “This Train” and “Rock Me” transformed traditional gospel hymns into rollicking, rhythmic recitations. “Rock Me” was actually a spiritual called “Hide Me in Thy Bosom,” that Tharpe repurposed into a sultry and sensual seduction. Naturally, her

Andrzej Żuławski: A Man Possessed

by David Selden

Watch the whole film on Network Awesome

Andrzej Żuławski’s “intellectual horror film”, Possession begins with the protagonist’s return from an unspecified but apparently dangerous assignment. In an empty room at Tempelhof Airport in Berlin, Mark’s employers plead with him to stay but he is adamant. His “subject” (and his pink socks) will elude them for now. Returning to his bland apartment in a 70’s housing complex, Mark (played somewhat woodenly by Sam Neil), finds his wife is leaving him for Heinrich, an intellectual martial arts expert with a wardrobe of silk shirts.

From there the film spirals into a queasy out of control psycho-drama, with acts of gratuitous violence appearing out of the blue with increasing frequency. Schlock is piled upon schlock until it almost becomes a bonfire of all the vanities of European art house cinema of this period, as well as being a cathartic scream and (perhaps) a pitch black comedy in the tradition of the Grande Guignol.

Żuławski, a protégé of Andrej Wadja, was never a director shy of overstatement. Here in Possession, his first and only English language film, scripted in the midst of a messy divorce case, he piles it on thick with

The Birth of Rock... In Brazil: Tropicalia

by Kollin Holtz

WATCH THIS NOW: http://networkawesome.com/2013-6-26/collection-tropicalia-1

The 1960’s Brazilian art movement, Tropicália, began as a youthful challenge to convention, and fell into being a youthful rebellion against an unjust and militaristic government. Like many musicians around the world at the time (Bob Dylan, The Beatles), these ones found themselves thrust into the center of the 60’s political activism movement, whether they were willing or not.

Tropicália began as an art movement by young Brazilians of the 1960’s to bring the musical and cultural offerings of their nation to the world. As a result of this desire, musicians incorporated non-traditional instruments into their native music, primarily guitars. The common rock ‘n roll instrument was regarded by artists of the Bossa Nova movement, and other traditional artists, as a cheapening of Brazilian music. It showed a disregard for heritage, and the ‘true’ sounds of Brazil. It was this music that had to come up

“MAN GETS EATEN BY AN ALLIGATOR”: THE WILHELM SCREAM

BY CASEY DEWEY

Watch nearly all of the 200 uses of "The Wilhelm Scream" on Network Awesome

At some point in 1997 my friends and I were debating the merits of the remastered, souped-up re-releases of George Lucas’ original Star Wars trilogy. We discussed the issues of introducing Jabba the Hutt in the first film, how the CGI-enhanced added TIE-Fighters was a positive addition, and we lamented the loss of the Ewok’s “Yub-Yub” song at the end of Return of the Jedi. On Jedi, one of my friends said “With all of the stuff Lucas added visually, couldn’t they have at least changed Boba Fett’s pussy-ass scream when he died?” Little did we know at the time that the “pussy-ass scream” was in fact the legendary Wilhelm Scream.

What is the Wilhelm Scream? Trust me, you’ve heard this sound effect over a thousand times. You’ve heard it in every single Star Wars film, even the dreaded new trilogy. You’ve heard it in all of the Indiana Jones movies, you’ve heard it in the Lord of the Rings trilogy and also The Hobbit. You’ve heard it in most Quentin Tarantino movies. You’ve heard it when Harold and Kumar went to White Castle. You’ve heard it

Heil Honey, I’m Home: The Worst TV Show Of All Time?

BY KRISTEN BIALIK

Watch the only full episode of "Heil Honey, I'm Home"

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It’s hard to imagine how the studio pitch forHeil Honey I’m Home! went beyond ‘Picture it: It’s the 1930s and Adolph Hitler and Eva Braun are living in their Berlin apartment/American suburbia home. But they keep getting into zany situations because they can’t seem to get along with their Jewish neighbors, the Goldensteins! (Pause for overenthusiastic chuckles)Any post-WWII audience is gonna love it!’ Really, it’s hard to imagine even getting there, but the British Satellite Broadcasting channel Galaxy went so far as to create an entire series around the premise. Yes, I said series. The world would never know the extent of Heil Honey I’m Home!, however, since the show was cancelled after the first episode aired in 1990. Who’s surprised?

The basic plot of the first (and only) episode to see the light of day takes place around the 1938 German annexation of the Czechoslovakian Sudetenland, though this is largely just an odd backdrop to Adolph Hitler and Eva Braun’s domestic issues. Neville Chamberlain does make an appearance, a fact Hitler tries to hide from his “meddling” blatantly stereotypical Jewish neighbors. Of course, the Goldensteins find out because Eva (read: women) can’t keep secrets and so they pop over to meet Chamberlain and set him up with their frumpy teenage niece. Eva Braun’s plan to get the Goldensteins out of their hair before the Chamberlain visit is to get them knocked-out drunk and “bundle them back to their

Vintage Jeans Commercials: Fit For All

BY KRISTEN BIALIK

 

WATCH VIDEO: Collection - Vintage Jeans Commercials

 

“Once in a great while, a natural phenomenon occurs that is so beautiful, so dramatic, it overshadows everything else. Sergio Valente has created a phenomenon the whole world will be watching: Sergio Valente black denim jeans. They’re more than beautiful. They’re out of sight.” This is the narration for a Sergio Valente denim ad in the jeans collection. The voiceover is so deeply impassioned. The slowly-revolving pan shots around a backlit, denim-clad behind are so intensified. The tight shots of tight asses are so all encompassing. The ad is dramatic to the point that it must be hyperbole. But you can tell that it’s actually in earnest. And the funny thing is that behind the inflated language, there’s a grain of truth to the ad. Jeans have become an unstoppable phenomenon in the world of fashion and apparel. The ubiquity of jeans has become so universal that they are almost hidden in plain view. The phenomenon really is "out of sight."

Anthropologists Daniel Miller and Sophie Woodward of the Global Denim Project consider the global denim phenomenon a perfect example of the “blindingly obvious.” The sheer scale of denim’s presence has made us take that presence for granted. In Miller and Woodward’s estimation, in the majority of countries in the world, the majority of people on any given day are wearing jeans. With the exception of rural areas in China and South Asia, Miller found that when he stopped and counted the first 100 people to walk by, about 50 percent of the population wore jeans everywhere from Brazil to India, from Turkey to the

A Desperate Masterpiece: Lars Von Trier's Riget (AKA The Kingdom)

BY THOMAS MICHALSKI

Watch the first episode of Riget (The Kingdom) here.

Watch the whole series here.

By the earlier 1990s, Danish filmmaker Lars Von Trier was already an internationally well-known art-house auteur, fresh from winning a slew of awards, including the Palm d’Or at Cannes, with Europa, the final film in a trilogy of the same name. His increasing notoriety and the end of Europa had brought his career to a crossroads, but figuring out what he would do next was complicated by the fact that his personal life was falling apart all around him. There was the divorce from his first wife, the death of his father, or at least the man he thought to be his father until his mother, who passed away soon afterward, informed him otherwise, and if that wasn’t enough, he had his cash-strapped production company, Zentropa, to worry about. In an attempt to raise some money, while also keeping things low impact, Von Trier agreed to co-write and direct a miniseries, the supernatural hospital drama Riget (The Kingdom), for Danish TV in 1994. From the outside, it must have looked like a step backward, career-wise, but if it had inauspicious beginnings, Riget would turn out to be some of Von Trier’s best remembered work and have a profound effect on what came after it.

Riget borrows its title from the nickname of the real life Danish hospital where it takes place, Copenhagen’s Rigshospitalet, though if it’s anything like on the show, you probably wouldn’t want to be a patient there. For one thing, it’s haunted as fuck, with the ghastly cries of a young girl emanating from an

WHO’S GOING TO BELIEVE A TALKING HEAD?” 1985’S UNDEAD CLASSIC RE-ANIMATOR

BY ANTHONY GALLI

Watch the whole film + more HP Lovecraft related video on Network Awesome

Okay, so maybe there’s something to be said for not raising the dead. History seems to show that nothing good ever comes from it. Exhibit A: 1985’s Re-Animator.

Based on H.P. Lovecraft’s 1922 short story “Herbert West: Reanimator,” Re-Animator tells the story of a mad, young scientist who kills his mentor, an old mad scientist,while trying to bring him back to life. Dr. Herbert West is then, unsurprisingly, exiled from the University of Zurich to the now infamous Miskatonic University Medical School in Arkham, Massachusetts.

And yes, Lovecraft’s Arkham is the namesake of Batman’s notorious Arkham Asylum, home to such notorious reprobates as The Joker, The Riddler, Two-Face, Poison Ivy, and Bane. Small world.

Herbert West was convinced that animal life could be reanimated successfully after death because life is no more than merely a cellular reflex function; animals are nothing more than electrical machines. Dr. West was convinced that “the so-called ‘soul’ is a myth.”

West’s Promethean hubris will prove to have dire and fatal consequences. Or, as one famous margarine commercial from the 1970’s reminded us, “It’s not nice to fool Mother Nature!”

“Herbert West: Reanimator” is a modern-day re-telling (or, re-animation, if you will) of Mary Shelley’s 1818 classic Gothic novel Frankenstein. Mary Shelley, 21-years-old when Frankenstein was originally

KANETO SHINDO AND THE ATOMIC BOMB (KIND OF): ONIBABA

BY KOLLIN HOLTZ

Watch the whole film on Network Awesome

One word you should know when watching “Onibaba” is “bukufu.” The word is Japanese, but I promise if you search it you won’t have to clear your history. I’ll save you the trouble though (in case you’re afraid to look it up), and tell you that “bukufu” originally referred to the tent or housing of a military General or Shogunate. Later, during the Kamakura, very brief Kenmu and longer Muromachi period (the film takes place at the beginning of this period) “…it came to mean the seat of the Shogunal Military Government; later, all forms of military government.”

Hachi, one of the three main characters, returns as a warrior deserter. He references the two warring sides in the battle for land and power. Kusunoki Masahige fought for Emperor Go-Daigo and his Court against Shogunate Ashikaga, who fought for the (as he felt, “marginalized”) warrior class. Both sides seemed to be hard up for fighters as Hachi says he was offered the opportunity to live after capture as long as he

Solar Records: The Sound of LA

by Tony Best

Watch the whole show on Network Awesome! (updated)

SOLAR (Sound of Los Angeles Records) was THE hottest R&B label of the late 1970s and mid-‘80s. Rivaled only by NYC’s Salsoul Records, SOLAR successfully bridged the delicate gap between disco and funk during a period where both genres were struggling to find an identity in the post-Carter/pre-Reagan administrations. Buoyed by bouncy rhythm tracks and appregioed synths, SOLAR’s Jheri curl-slick music embodied L.A.’s hip (and stratified) cultural identity. From backyard boogies in Compton to roller-skating jams at WeHo’s Flippers, SOLAR kept the City of Angels – as well the world – dancing on sunshine.

SOLAR dawned in the mind of Dick Griffey. A music industry heavy with a keen interest in Black entrepreneurship, Griffey launched the label in the summer of ‘77 as an outlet to foster underrepresented talent in the record business. The early artist roster included Shalamar, The Whispers and Carrie Lucas,

Say It Ain't True: The Elvis Files

by Thomas Michalski

 

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Occam’s Razor teaches us that the simplest answer is usually the correct one, but try telling that to a dedicated conspiracy theorist. It’s not that life isn’t complicated, or that crazy things don’t happen, but a simple explanation (Oswald Shot Kennedy, a weather balloon crashed at Roswell) is mathematically far more likely than one involving vast sinister cabals and little green men. The persistent tabloid-fueled belief that Elvis Presley did not in fact die on August 16, 1977 is no different. The simple explanation for what happened that day is that years of stress, health problems and raging pill addiction finally caught up with the iconic rock star in the form of a massive heart attack in his Memphis bathroom. The complicated explanation could, honestly, be just about anything (time-travelling ninjas), but the most commonly circulated is the one put forth in the amazing 1990 home video The Elvis Files, that Presley’s “death” was actually an elaborate hoax perpetrated, kind of half-assedly, by the United States government.

The hour-long special is hosted by none other than Bill Bixby, best remembered for playing Bruce Banner to Lou Ferrigno’s Incredible Hulk on the late 70s/early 80s TV series (technically, he played “David Banner”, they changed it because CBS thought “Bruce” was too gay). Bixby was a natural choice for the job since he had actually starred alongside Presley in two of his movies, 1967’s Clambake and1968’s Speedway, and

Awesome Tapes From Africa Weekend on Network Awesome

Live Music Show - Classic Sudanese Music on TV

We're thrilled to collaborate with Awesome Tapes From Africa this weekend to present the most interesting and inventive collection of African videos this side of Khartoum.  Guest curator Brian Shimkovitz culls from his deep knowledge of African music to deliver collections of African TV commercials, Pop Music of Pre-War Somalia, even the outrageous 2002 film, "Sharon Stone" - a classic Nollywood drama about an overly ambitious woman willing to do anything to make it to the top. 

Of course the mainstay of Awesome Tapes From Africa is incredible music and here's an ocean of amazing music captured on over-saturated film and video. He elaborates about the Live Music Show above:

"It doesn't get any better than this! The music of Sudan is as varied as the country is large (as Africa's largest country, it's about the size of America's Midwest). Over the years the traditional sounds have seeped into popular music, as shown by Sudan's many TV stations. Watch some classic gems from a small selection of Sudan's most revered artists. Explore the web using Google Translate to help with the Arabic names and discover tons more where this came from"

Playlist:

Zaidan Ibrahim

Al Balabil

Mustafa Sid Ahmed

Hanan Elnil

Eman & Amany (The Sudanese Twins)

Hanan

Zaidan Ibrahim

Hanan Elnil

The Turtle, Standing Defiant in Godzilla’s Shadow

by Robert Bellach

Part of "Rubber Monsters & Giant Heroes Weekend"!  What's on Network Awesome today?

Gamera was both a reaction to, and a reflection of, the genre Godzilla¹ created. For better or worse, Gamera also helped shape the future of giant monsters (or kaiju²). The character was supposedly created from a vision of a turtle in the clouds on an airplane flight by Daiei Motion Picture Company president Masaichi Nagata. But, it is just as likely an attempt by Daiei to get on the bandwagon created by Toho’s giant monster over a decade earlier. Nonetheless, “whether or not you think Godzilla is better, you simply cannot deny that Gamera has successfully survived…to arrive at the point that he is at today.”³ However crass and commercial the intentions may have been in its creation, Gamera carved out its own niche as a unique, unusual cultural icon.

Daiei studios first attempt at a giant monster movie was a rear-projection based, Bert I. Gordon-esque, giant rat movie called “A Swarm of Beasts,” which was scrapped. Nagata’s turtle idea was taken up, and the decision was made to go with the Godzilla-like method of a man in a suit, certainly helped by “the fact that men in suits are infinitely easier to control than live rats.”⁴

The first Gamera film in 1965 is very much like the original 1954 Godzilla: a serious reflection on the toll nature can take when provoked by man. “But even here, at the beginning, we can see his creators at Daiei

Star Children: Heaven’s Gate and the Self-Destructive Family

by Joe DeMartino

Watch the whole video on Network Awesome

If we’re very, very lucky -- and I’m talking here about the kind of luck that would get you rudely expelled from even the highest-class Las Vegas casino -- the star Betelgeuse, located 640 light years away from us in the top-left corner of the constellation Orion, will die within our lifetimes. Betelgeuse is much larger than our sun, which means that its lifespan is correspondingly shorter. Its death throes will manifest in a supernova -- a stellar explosion of such magnitude that it will put out apocalyptic amounts of light and energy. Stars operate on eonic timelines, so Betelgeuse could erupt in the next ten seconds, or the next hundred thousand years. If our luck holds, we’ll see it almost as a second sun -- it’ll rival the moon in the night sky. We’ll be able to read by its light. For a few brief months, Betelgeuse will put on an inspiring show.

Most of us will stare at it and see something gorgeous. Others will be quietly terrified -- the heavens rarely speak unless to say something, and nothing good can come of a message sent through the death of another solar system. Still others will marvel for a day, until the wonder of the thing recedes into banality, long before the star itself dims.

For at least one person -- and I don’t yet know who that is, but I’ll near-guarantee he or she exists -- the supernova won’t be inspiring, or terrifying, or banal. It’ll be an excuse. Time to go. Time for everyone to go.

Marshall Applewhite -- slight, wide-eyed, with the calm conviction of an airline pilot -- saw his excuse in the comet Hale-Bopp, whose passing was perhaps the most widely-observed celestial event in human history. Applewhite’s cult, Heaven’s Gate, counted among its beliefs the idea that the Earth was

Deathly Stills: The Dark Dark World of Guy Bourdin

by Jessie Brown - The Films Of Guy Bourdin

Part of Network Awesome's Fashion Week, Sept 14-18th!

Flick through any glossy fashion magazine today and more-than-likely, you’ll be faced with the legacy of Guy Bourdin. This maverick French photographer was no stranger to controversy both in his work and private life, and he singlehandedly changed the face of fashion advertising due to his uncompromising and highly innovative style.

Freaked: The 90's for Better or Worse

by Jake Goldman - Movie - Freaked (1993)

The early 90s in America will not, I believe it is safe to say, go down in history as a particularly tumultuous time. We had wriggled our way out of the Cold War with nary a scratch, and save for blood briefly drawn in desert storm, things remained relatively stable in the US of A, the country feasting on the remains of the prosperous late 80s. And so, looking back at the 90s, one tends to associate the period with a certain lightness and, well, “fun.”

Daffy’s Inferno: An American World War II Propaganda Revue in Seven Chapters

by Joe DeMartino - Collection: US WWII Cartoons

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Beyond a few broad, core truths (the Nazis are Evil, the Axis are a Threat), propaganda is by its very nature filled with falsehoods, exaggerations, and lies. It reveals far more about the country that created it than its actual target. In the following cartoons, which cast the most popular animated characters of the time into situations both comic and nightmarish, the concerns of World War II America are laid bare: it's scared, defiant, and strangely obsessed. 

Wrath

During a parable about the idiocy of signing a non-aggression pact with a man who is a wolf AND a Nazi, the Three Little Pigs run into the eldest pig’s house, which is made out of bricks and heavy cannons. There’s a sign on the door which says: “No Dogs Allowed”, except “Dogs” has been crossed out and

A Treasure Trove Of Classic R&B;: The Rhythm and Blues Revue

by Scott Marlowe

The Rhythm & Blues Revue (Apollo Theatre Harlem, 1955)

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These days, contemporary R&B seems to be a genre of music with specific attributes and qualities that are easily identifiable—things like slow grooves, smooth production values, and lush vocal arrangements. And, depending on the singer’s gender, the listener is treated to either a Diva or Lothario begging their beloved, earnestly trying to convince the apple of their eye that they need to consummate their love immediately.

While some of these elements can be found throughout the history of the genre, the scope of R&B used to be much larger, encompassing many different, and often disparate, musical styles.

Rhythm and Blues was initially a catchall term; coined after World War II, it was used to describe music made predominately for, and by, urban African-Americans. Under the Rhythm and Blues heading, different