From Dr. Schluss’ Garage of Psychedelic Obscurities:

I’m willing to say this obscure sitar-infused psychedelic jazz album is one of the absolute best I’ve heard from the legendary Impulse! jazz imprint. Why they haven’t reissued it yet is beyond me. Bill Plummer’s primary trade is in the string bass, which does provide the awesome backbone for all of these songs. But someone must have tossed Mr. Plummer in a vat of acid (almost like Jack Nicholson in the 1989 “Batman”) before the making of this album. With it’s layers of Eastern gauze, occasional blasts of spoken word and free jazz, and oddball covers, this is the most ear pleasingly far-out legitimate jazz album I’ve come across (the wild fury of John Coltrane’s Om, also on Impuse!, is probably the most far out, but it’s not easy to listen to).

The first track, “Journey to the East,” is far beyond awesome and deserves a place on every psych compilation. It’s got a rock-solid groove, crazy chanting, a wall of sitar, and a totally entertaining spoken word rambling. Practically every 60’s cliche is packed into the spoken word, but it’s all convincingly sold by the dispassionate reading and the phenomenal music backing it up. I think I’ve listened to it about 600 times in the past week; I can’t think of a better complement than that. For your own mind journey to the East, you need go no farther than “Arc 294,” which plays as Indo-psychedelic free jazz for about ten minutes. The covers here are of note as well. Seeing “The Look of Love” on a track listing typically makes me groan, but with sitar drones and a groovy beat accompanying the tune, it works out just fine. Even better is the similar treatment to the Byrds great, yet-neglected “Lady Friend.” I didn’t know that that song required a transcendental Indo-jazz reading, but apparently it did. To hear Mr. Plummer score at making more conventional jazz, head for “Pars Fortuna” and “Song Plum”

This album manages to fuse jazz, Indian music, and wacky psychedelia, while still ending up as more than the sum of its parts. You need to become part of the Cosmic Brotherhood as soon as possible.

(Link here.)

If you “love” going to the dentist as much as I do, then you’re in for a delightful treat!  Dental Assistant has a frightening pictoral tribute to the

 
My fluency in Italian ranges from shaky to non-existent, but some things do transcend linguistic boundaries.  Beheadings by guillotine, for example.  According to the Sokkomb website, “Your dynamic, active rhythm demands quick, summary justice and you are the person to do it, but too often you just don’t have the time and your family is increasingly in danger.”  Well, regardless of whether or not you are that person, rest assured the Sokkomb in-home neck-chopper is made from, “the best solid pine and comes equipped with a sturdy blade in stainless steel.  It is light and versatile and is guaranteed effective for up to 100 executions a day.”

Bizzare farm-themed yoga and exercise show for children called “E-i-E-i Yoga.”  Featuring Yogi Oki Doki and his buddy, Rasta the Rooster!

Max Thomas (Yogi Oki Doki) is one of America’s most loved and respected yoga teachers.

Learning Some Uplifting Yoga Down on the Farm

(via Everything is Terrible)

Travellers from all over the world now make The Giraffe Manor part of their East African safari, the only place in the world where you can enjoy the breathtaking experience of feeding and photographing the giraffe over the breakfast table and at the front door.
  
The Giraffe Manor is surrounded by 140 acres of indigenous forest just outside Kenya’s capital, Nairobi. As well as the giraffe, the property is also home to many species of birds, large families of warthogs and the elusive Bush Buck.

The Giraffe Manor

Thanks Olivia!

 
I am a complete Joni Mitchell nut. I once went for nearly a solid year listening to nothing but Court and Spark
and Ladies of the Canyon
in the car. I’ve easily played those two albums, 500 times each. My life has been immeasurably enriched by her music. There is nothing better to listen to when you are really, really sad, but her more joyous tunes can have you dancing around the house singing along like a fool.

When the we’re all dead and gone and future musical historians write the history of the 20th century’s greatest music, I have no doubt whatsoever that Joni Mitchell’s artistic contribution to our culture will rank alongside those of Lennon and McCartney, Miles Davis, George Gershwin and Duke Ellington.

And if you want to know how I really feel…

Here’s a stunning performance of a very young and very beautiful Joni Mitchell (then going by her maiden name of Joan Anderson) on the “Let’s Sing Out” TV show, hosted by the renowned Canadian folk singer Oscar Brand. Here Mitchell sings her own composition, “Urge for Going” which is better known as Tom Rush’s cover version.
 

 
I also found this clip. The audio is less than stellar, so turn it up, but what’s interesting about it, is that you can really see her hands playing the guitar. As a child Mitchell caught polio and it left some residual damage in her hands. So to get around this, she created custom tunings that allowed her to play exactly the sound that was in her head, and what her hands would have otherwise had trouble doing. It’s an extraordinary thing to see.
 

 
Back in June, I was lucky enough to be in Venice for the opening of the 53rd Biennale.  After 3 days of gorging on works from artists both established and emerging, I would have to say I was sucked in most fully by the work of Hong Kong’s Pak Sheung Chuen.  He’s a prankster, for sure, wittily combining Sophie Calle‘s exploration of self with the Situationist mandate to expose (and sometime pick at) the seams knitting our world together.  One of Chuen’s more whimsical works involved his renting of an apartment in Busan.  He lived his daily there as usual, but he collected every single one of his breaths into transparent plastic bags until they completely filled the space.  The project took 10 days to complete, and, by the end, Chuen felt as if, “part of his life was absorbed by the apartment.”

Touching video of an Asian elephant birth and new mum raising her calf at Taronga Zoo in Sydney, Australia.  Taronga Zoo sez, “The elephant calf Luk Chai can be seen most days out in the paddock with his mum Thong Dee. They are usually bathed in their barn mid-morning and sometimes visit the waterfall in the afternoon, especially if the weather is fine.”

Elephant Diaries

(via Arbroath)

Had a wonderful day in Pasadena, California interviewing the very charming David Tennant and Russell T. Davies for an upcoming episode of Boing Boing Video.

At first my reaction to meeting them in Pasadena was “Isn’t bringing someone from England to Los Angeles and sticking them in a hotel in Pasadena a bit like inviting a Yank to London and putting them up in Croydon?” but the Langdon Hotel (formerly the Ritz-Carlton) is in fact a lushly opulent palace on 23 nicely landscaped acres with a Michelin star restaurant. It was a great place to shoot.

I got a chance to talk with the former Timelord about what if was like to turn in his TARDIS for the very last time and ask Russell about writing his final “Who” script, the recent Transatlantic triumph of the “Torchwood: Children of Earth” mini-series and about his recent move to Los Angeles (sneak preview: he’s been here for six weeks and he already misses the rain!)

Meeting the Mighty Boosh (and seeing them in concert last night at The Roxy) and then sitting today with David and Russell has made for a very exciting 24 hours.

Look for Xeni Jardin’s Mighty Boosh interview—if you were standing in that monstrous seven block line last night, you’re probably going to see your bad self in the final piece, at least briefly—and this one to show up next week on Boing Boing Video.

A special thank you to Devin Johnson of BBC America for making this happen.

 
In today’s fascinating NYT piece on American writer/champion of the dispossessed, William Vollmann, and his new 1,300 page opus, Imperial, reference is made to his friendship with Leonard Knight, Sean Penn cohort and architect of the religious-themed folk-art sculpture, Salvation Mountain.  Imagine what might happen if the Blue Meanies found Jesus Christ and needed a desert hideaway to worship in and frolic, and you’ll get a pretty good idea of what Knight’s been making out of clay for the past 25 years.  He’s also, since then, launched a website packed with photos, all lovingly documenting his monument to faith, love and tenacity.

 
William Vollmann in the NYT

Leonard Knight’s Salvation Mountain