Johnny Mad Dog

For you New Yorkers, at the Anthology Film Archives  until Thursday of this week:


This movie will never get a theatrical release in the U.S.


The Lion King it's not!



Johnny Mad Dog was made in 2008, shot in Liberia, starring mostly ex-kid soldiers. It doesn't get much grimmer than this.  If you can't see the film, try the book by Emmanuel Dongala.
The DVD is available in the U.K., any unscrambled player or computer should be able to read it.

The next clip is a look at the real thing, this ran a few years back on the sadly defunct NY Times/Discovery Channel, great purveyors of snuff TV.   It's called Liberia: An Uncivil War and the only way to see in nowadays is in ten minute clips via YouTube.  About half way though if I remember it correctly is perhaps the most brutal scene ever filmed. Thankfully the war is over in Liberia, Charles Taylor is still on trial. Didn't Lars from the A-Bones date his daughter way back when?  It's unlikely Taylor will ever experience even an iota of the suffering he has caused.  but these things can happen anywhere in the world, at any time. How soon until it happens here?






Me, sorry, but I'm gone until spring. See you then.

Fifty Found Photos From The Fang

  The Fang has published a limited edition hard bound volume of the first fifty Found Photos from our Gillian's Found Photo installments. Comments by me and you all. I think they are $35 + postage (roughly what is cost to print  'em). For more info e-mail the Fang @ gmcfriesprojects@gmail.com. I think there's also copies of the book from the Help Me show still available.

The Byrds 1967

The Byrds- Early '67, Crosby's Last Stand.



The Byrds Late '67 .

I loved the Byrds as a kid, so cool, mechanical and mysterious. At least until David Crosby started talking in public. Even if there whole sound came from two Beatles songs, maybe one (Rain, their best).
I'm pretty sure I've never seen the top clip before, if I did, it was as an eight year old and I drove it out of my mind.
The Byrds, post hair iron, Mike Clarke high enough to fall out of his drum chair (and sporting a precursor to his Firefall look), Chris Hillman with a natural 'fro,  David Crosby, looking full of himself enough to smack, as I'm sure the other bands members would agree. Lip syncing, but not to the record, but an alternate version of their peak moment-- Eight Miles High.
Below we see 'em later the same year, the offensive David Crosby given the boot and replaced briefly by Gene Clark, who oddly enough had been booted out for making more money than the rest of the band due to his songwriting credits on the first two album, he'd be gone again within months.
Skip forward to around the six and half minute mark on this version out take of Universal Mind Decoder to hear a funny studio argument, the word fuck was removed at the Byrds requested 17 times, anyone have the uncut version out there?
Universal Mind Decoder.

Bobby Robinson

The Original Bobby's Happy House, 301 West 125th St.

 

Bobby's In Th Early 90's.

They're going to bury Bobby Robinson (Morgan Clyde Robinson, born April 16, 1917, in Union, S.C.) tomorrow at the United House Of Prayer For All People on 8th Ave and 125th Street, the viewing is 3-6 PM with a service to follow.  Obit can be found here.
Bobby's the last of the great New York record men, he died early this week at age 93, but he really died a few years ago when he could no longer afford the rent on his 125th St. record store Bobby's Happy House (his old store is now a KFC, he was relocated around the corner for a few years,  that building was torn down and Bobby was out on his ass), Bobby's Happy House which had been on the block since 1946.  Priced out nearly twenty years ago, the block is now home to Starbucks and Bill Clinton and the white gentrification of Harlem.
  Christ, how many great R&B and rock'n'roll records did Bobby make?  Kansas City by Wilbert Harrison, the #1 record the day I was born (May 23, '59), always made me feel like we had a personal bond. Lee Dorsey, Wild Jimmy Spruill,  Lightnin' Hopkins, Elmore James, a couple of hundred great doo wop records, early hip hop, Jerry Wexler couldn't shine his belt buckle.  I met him many times when Jimmy Spruill would take me by the record store, he always had a funny story to share, a smile, a joke, and some honest advice.  Bye bye pal, the town won't be the same without you.
Bobby & Buddy- What's The Word, Thunderbird (Fury 1008)