Dark Park

My hero Troy Paiva is still out every full moon to catch his vision of Lost America. Between releasing two books ("Lost America" and "Night Visions") he is kind enough to share his amazing work on his Flickr-site.




His nocturnal journeys have recently led him to one of my favourite subjects: An abandoned amusement park! I posted a selection of a similar project by another photographer recently, but when Mr. Paiva clicks his way through a lost and dark fun-park, it is sure to be something special.



I would love to invite Troy Paiva to come to Berlin to pay a full-moon visit to the spectacularly creepy "Spree Park", the former East-German amusement park which is left to rot since 2001!


Click pics to enlarge!

The Amazing Helen Levitt. 1913 - 2009.

Helen Levitt´s photos are very "Now". Often grotesque and funny, sometimes sad. They are perfect for "re-blogging" and you could also print bold words over them. Of course, they are also displayed in museums.


Last year I read a short interview with the famous New Yorker street photographer that made me love her and her pictures even more. When she was asked how she so quickly learned to use colour-photography in 1959 she just answers: "Why? You take a colour film, you put it in your camera, you start to shoot!"


The quiet woman who refused to be photographed also claimed that she never showed any personal interest in her objects. "No, I never talked to anyone. I always walked on immediately", was her answer she gave to German magazine "Der Spiegel".


In the 1940s Levitt could not live from her work, so she became a cutter, worked with Luis Bunuel and later started to make her own influential and acclaimed short-films. She died yesterday, aged 95.

Bow Down! They Are The Superions!

urprisingly, The B-52s released a new album last year after aeons and now Fred Schneider is already fronting a new band which could finally bring pure Exotica back into the mainstream (or not).


With collaborators Noah Brodie and Dan Marshall they are The Superions. Formally called The DelMorons, the trio has released "Totally Nude Island" as a single late last year. The original version is a slow, lilting panoptikum of Martin Denny/Les Baxter-style exotiki, complete with the sounds of crashing waves and bird calls. This aural concoction is completed with Fred Schneider reciting the legend of totally nude island like a horny and tipsy National Geographics narrator at a suburban backyard luau.


The invocation of getting nekkid ends with the hilarious cop-out line: If you have any inhibitions cast them aside! Put on a strategically placed shell and raise a little hell on totally nude island.

Then there is the Ursula 1000 version of "Totally Nude Island" which ups the tempo that adds an irresistible groove to the whole thing. If the song passes you by on first listen, play it again and you will be hooked!


VJ Tom Yaz has created a video for each version. If you are into horny animals and vintage tits you should watch the original. In the remix video the women are better dressed, while 50s beefcake guys are showing their stuff. So basically, there is a straight and a gay version. You should -of course- watch both. They are the Superions after all!

The Superions - Totally Nude Island

The Superions - Totally Nude Island (Ursula 1000 Remix

Mondo Pre-Teen

Pimping up kids to look like creepy adults seems to be a common ritual in Northern America and Papua New Guinea.

Lux Exterior

Lux Interior (Erick Lee Purkhiser) 1946 - 2009




At times The Cramps kept me sane, at times I forgot about them. There are not many bands that are so beloved by so many different sub-cultures over such a long time.

Who wouldn´t have loved to hang out with Lux and Ivy in their rumpus room, playing records while nibbling hot peanuts fresh from their "Liberace Hot Peanuts Dispenser"?!

For a far better and informative write up, link-parade and lots of exquisite videos head over to Media Funhouse!

Sonik Omi

While on my way to Rome in 1990 I visited a musician friend in Zürich for a stop over. He is one of those guys you can completely trust with his musical taste and he enjoyed showing off his obscurest vinyl possessions.
After we had listened to some super rare northern soul sides he pulled out a thrift store find which jumped right in my face: It was a soundtrack to a 1978 Bollywood film called "Teen Eekay" by Sonik Omi! Has there ever been a better title and a greater name than Sonik Omi?! (consider that "Omi" means "granny" in German). Although I have later found out that Sonik Omi are actually two people, uncle Sonik and nephew Omi!



It was a few years before the Bollywood phenomenon was slowly discovered in Europe, so I had no idea what kind of music was hidden behind the incredibly tacky sleeve.

There is a great joke in "The Simpsons" in which Apu puts on an Indian record which plays a totally wild cacophony of tabla, sitar and flute. Apu then notices that the record plays at wrong speed, switches it to 33rpm and the music changes to a Sinatra-style crooning.

Even played at 33 "Teen Eekay" is a wild mix of Indian musical pop, disco and the wildest exotica. I loved every second of it and tried to find this record for ages. I even considered contacting EMI India, and thought about borrowing "Teen Eekay" as the name for a band or even this blog.


The internet isn´t of great help at least not in a language I can read and you can only find one still-shot clip on youtube. To get a rough idea of what to expect from the record I only heard once 19 years ago and which I have never forgotten, here is Ree Baba Ree Baba. Get ready for a blast of Teen Eekay-madness. Take it away, Sonik Omi!

So great, you have to listen to it twice: Ree Baba Ree Baba

If I VRETaHAMMAR

Enjoy this classic Portuguese 70´s groover in a super mellow version by Swedish singer Sylvia Vrethammar Vo Bate Pa Tu

(Click the arrow in front of the title, the song will then stream in the embedded player on the bottom of this page. Meanwhile get hypnotized by the beauty of these trousers! Click for larger size!)

Atomic Apparel

Oceania by Kava Kon





Build Your House Underground by Kava Kon




In Memory of Alfred Shaheen, who is considered to be the creator of the modern Hawaiian shirt. The floral red shirt that Elvis sports in the above pic was designed by Shaheen.

Of course he didn´t invent it. The Aloha shirt was popular in Hawaii during the 1920´s and 30s. It was often made out of left over Kimono garments, had coconut buttons and -because it was designed to be worn over the trousers- it had a straight waist cut. After WW2 many US soldiers brought the colourful garments back home and with Hawaii becoming a state of the USA, Hawaiian shirts became all the rage.


It is a pretty thin line if a man looks good or goofy in them. But despite the fashion challenge, The multi-coloured shirts are parts of museums and collectors items. Some of Shaheens designs are traded for $ 1.000,--
The price might actually increase now: Alfred Shaheen has recently died at age 86.

The author of website Vintage Hawaiian Shirt actually believes that Hawaiian shirts can bring world peace: "You just issue every soldier on both sides a beautiful, bright Hawaiian shirt. A different shirt for each soldier. Everyone would be so relaxed and contended that the killing of each other would be the last think on any of their minds."


The two music files are by Neo-Exotica outfit Kava Kon, whose album "Departure Exotica" perfectly mixes bonafide tiki-sounds with electronic chill-moods. They will release their second album "Tiki for Atomic Age" on January 13. It´s a bit like a brand new Hawaiian shirt.

Web of Love (Trapped in 14 Frames)

This unbelievable Scopitone-clip of Joi Lansing performing "Web of Love" is in any way the definition of C.A.M.P.
Don´t blink or you´ll miss a millisecond of scenes like these: