Quartz City

Supreme Court Justice John Roberts and actor Gig Young.

Whenever I see Roberts I half expect him to stand up in the middle of everything and start walking towards the Homewood bandstand (or at least take a shot at Warren Oates).

Special 40th birthday edition…

1. John Adams born (1735).

2. Ruth Gordon born (1896).

3. Fred Friendly born (1915).

4. Orson Welles broadcasts “The War Of The Worlds” (1938).

5. Grace Slick born (1939).

6. The Soviet Union detonates the 58 megaton hydrogen superbomb Tsar Bomba over Novaya Zemlya - the largest nuclear bomb ever (1961).

7. The MC5 record “Kick Out The Jams” (1968).

8. The New York Daily News runs the “Ford to City: Drop Dead” headline (1975).

In the past month both the Brian Jonestown Massacre and The Raveonettes had all of their gear stolen in Brooklyn. Please continue to be on the lookout as things actually do get found - Sonic Youth recovered some of their gear that was stolen six years ago and Bob 1 of Devo was reunited with his cloud/potato guitar…

I know I’m legitimately a warm weather dork because any time I’ve been confronted with a radiator I’ve incorrectly believed that doing something with the radiator valve will affect the temperature.

Part of me is still boggled that a major city is heating itself with 100 year old technology, but I suppose if it still works… Anyway, Dead Programmer and Gary The Cat give you the lowdown.

Edward R. Murrow’s 1958 keynote speech to the Radio-Television News Directors Association convention frames the beginning and ending of Good Night, And Good Luck. The complete text is up on RTNDA’s web site and despite being 47 years old it’s just as spot-on now. Even more so.

Most model railroad sets go for recreating some imagined past, but

this guy puts more reality in realistic by building scale urban blight with model commuter trains and subways winding their way through scale model graffiti-marked slums.

Attention all horror and high weirdness writers. Go back and re-revise whatever it is you’re working on because it’s just not weird enough. Reality just kicked your behind twice in a week. Check these…

Worker ’stole human brains’

Self-styled pigeon pal is arrested in Torrance

Crazy animal lover and body snatcher stories aren’t new, but what gives them that express pass to bugfuck land are the details. The brain snatcher “was also accused of keeping the nooses of suicide victims and the drip bags attached to people who died in hospitals” and the pigeon guy “walks with his pigeon Twister to get coffee at Starbucks” and used to give pigeons a shot of vodka before operating on them.

Transfer links to a giant collection of photos from Dubai which give you an idea of the scale of Palm and World megaprojects. Several thousand years from now when the aliens finally get it together enough to show up, they’re really going to be confused by the remains of this place.

Bedazzled solves a mystery that’s been bugging me for over ten years now and as I should have guessed, Al Kooper is involved.

Eons ago, I got an unmarked tape of recording studio outtakes and ephemera. Most of it was identifiable: the Buddy Rich bus tapes, Murray Wilson vs. Brian, Roky Erickson rolling heads down a staircase on Bay Area radio - all stuff that’s been making the rounds on the Celebrities At Their Worst collections and on the net.

One clip I couldn’t recognize though… It’s a couple of band members arguing with each other and their producer over the line “one good turn deserves another.” The band powers their way through a death spiral of anger, denial, acceptance and back before inevitably exploding in “fucking go to hell!” It’s a great recording… You know things aren’t going to work out and you know there’s an oncoming train wreck but no one, except maybe the producer who wisely kept the tape rolling, is aware of it.

I always thought it was some 60s-era band like Paul Revere & The Raiders or something, but it’s actually an 80s band called St. Regis that Kooper was attempting to produce. Not surprisingly, it never came out. Kooper’s only quote: “Fraternal twins that could teach Liam & Noel a thing or two.”

More wit and wisdom from Kooper in his Guide to the Music Biz

MetaFilter links to the Concrete Ships site and the commenters all fall in to discuss the concrete battleship, concrete submarines and the, well, underwhelming remains of the S.S. Atlantus.

Folks, if you want to get some dead concrete ship action going, then get on over to Seacliff State Beach in Aptos, CA and check out what’s left of the S.S. Palo Alto. I had been meaning to send the link to the wreck in to one of the Google sightseeing sites so here you go…