Louie Louie Rosy Rosy

" ´Should hear our version of "Louie Louie!", were the last words, Joy Division singer Ian Curtis uttered on stage after the band crashed through a pretty rough version of "Sister Ray" as their final encore ever.

"Louie Louie", one of the most covered rock-standards in the long history of rock-standards counts over 1500 different cover-versions according to Wikipedia.

Notorious for being the subject of a long and idiotic FBI-investigation that tried to find out if the lyrics were actually obscene (or if the obscenities could only be heard when the record was played at the wrong speed!), countless versions of the song would then actually invent rude lyrics, securing the basic rock-riff it´s legendary status.


One of the most bizarre cover versions, however was done by a German Vocal-Jazz group, The Rosy Singers.

During the late fifties and into the mid-seventies, the band was a well booked studio-session group, recording vocals for many orchestras and Schlager productions. they also implanted their voices inside the heads of young German movie-goers since they recorded the dubbed songs for most of the Disney movies (eg. Bambi).


By the late sixties the 2 girls/2 guys group would sing in many legendary tv-shows alongside many big-bands.
The Rosy Singers were always a supplement, hardly ever taking centre stage. A reason for this was their typical, laid back, almost ethereal singing style. Cushioned in lush string arrangements, their four-voiced harmonies were so tricky that they actually sounded like a full choir.

But somewhere inside all this fluff, Rosy must have felt the urge to get down and dirty. And what could be better than a German version of Louie Louie in a Rosy-Stylee, to show all those kids that the Rosies were cool?!

Well, I know a few things but they did it anyway.

For pure wonder and sensation (or sedation) enjoy The Rosy Singers: Louie Louie.

Being mostly a studio-act is one of the reasons that pictures of the Rosy-Singers are nearly impossible to find. Please accept these random selections which I think reflect the mood of the song.

This post is for the amazing Leo at Versions Galore, who just recently felt the need to post 73 cover versions of "Das Model". Galore indeed!

Everybody Pays

Great Timing! "The International", Tom Tykwer´s thriller about financial corruption and conspiracy was originally scheduled for release in August 2008. The studio obviously thought that the film was lacking in the action department and ordered lots of action re-shoots.

Now the film, with the poignant tagline: "They control your money. They control your government. They control your life. And everybody pays." will be on the screens in February. With the global economy crisis, "The International" could have the most expensive involuntary campaign ever. Sure, the idea that banks are the most powerful, uncontrollable entities on the planet, might get some laughs now.
But in the end: Everybody pays!

Anyway, the poster is very nice!
I still think that "Lola rennt" was a pretty mediocre film.

Nurse Satana

If you happen to be in Chicago in November, please visit "Tura! Tura! Tura!" at the Tattoo Factory Gallery for me.


"Tura!" is not (as of yet) a musical about the life of legendary movie icon (and nurse) Tura Satana, but a group art happening celebrating the amazing actress.


Tura started exotic dancing at the age of 13. She became a burlesque sensation earning the title Miss Japan Beautiful. From there her talents lead her to guest appearances on many top television shows of the 60's including "Hawaiian Eye", "Man from U.N.C.L.E." and "Burkes Law".


Movie roles followed in "Our Man Flint", "Irma la Douce" and "The Astro Zombies", but her greatest cinematic superstar achievement was as the baddest ass Varla, the leader of 3 thrill seeking stripers in Russ Meyer's legendary masterpiece,"Faster Pussycat! Kill! Kill!".

"The Key to the Carrera" by Shag

The show will feature the cream of the crop of the lowbrow art world to contribute jaw dropping Tura inspired masterpieces including paintbrush superstars, Shag, Lou Brooks, Lisa Petrucci, Glenn Barr, Niagara and many more.


I would love to see the merchandise.

UPDATE: For a nice write-up on Tura, hop over to Swindle Magazine.

Computer Beat

With their first album Rheingold from Düsseldorf had a massive hit with the minimal and elegant Dreiklangsdimensionen (Triad Dimensions), the second album was a soundtrack for the bizarre puberty-cannibalism flick "Der Fan", in which Rheingold singer Bodo Staiger himself played a new-wave musician who gets killed, cooked and eaten by a fan.

The sound was a mix of rough, electro-punky pop with dark and experimental soundscapes. "Fan Fan Fanatisch" and "Das steht dir gut" are blueprint electro-clash 18 years before it was "invented".

With their third long-player it was hi-concept-time. When "Dis-tanz" was released in 1984 it turned out to be a very expensive and slightly disappointing album. Gone was the minimalism of the debut and the frenetic power of "R".
"Computerbeat", was supposed to become a big hit, but it flopped together with the album.
1984 was the year of Alphaville and Duran Duran. The extra artificial sound of Rheingold was suddenly "out".

Ironically, "Computerbeat" sounds very now and much less dated than other mid-eighties productions. The breakdown at 3:05 floored my back in the day. Enjoy a bonafide piece of forgotten, but authentic 80s.

After the flop of "Dis-tanz" the band disbanded. Bodo Staiger went on to produce techno tracks and partner Lothar Manteuffel later teamed up with ex-Kraftwerk member Karl Bartos to form Electric Music.
Last year, Rheingold reformed to release a collection of tribute songs to fellow Düsseldorf bands, like themselves, Kraftwerk, Propaganda, Fehlfarben, etc.

Concrete Plastic

I like Zaha Hadid´s architecture as pure form and sculpture. Since she is rather popular and sticks to her style, which is a mixture of sci-fi art-nouveau, abstract sculpturing and some echoes of Le Corbusier, she is obviously hated by many.



Maybe that´s why she recently scored lots of commissions by smaller German and Austrian cities, who are not exactly known for their international architecture to build something, anything for them. So, Zaha Hadid´s forms decended on small tram-stations in Innsbruck, where she also designed a beautiful new Ski-Jump tower (very first pic).


Fire stations, a science center and a building for BMW were built in Germany. Now it´s off to Dubai, the oasis of architects, where you should´t be caught dead without at least two spectacular projects "opening sometime around 2010".




As I said before, I am much more interested in Hadid´s work as sculptor and commercial furniture designer. Her "VorteXX Chandelier" (what a wonderfully silly name) needs to find a place in my new apartment (although at first I need to find out where to get it and how to pay for it).


From tomorrow, November 1st, the Sonnabend Gallery in NYC is opening a show with installations, Hadid has been working on for some of her international projects.



These giant, amorphous convulsions of plastex are exactly my kind of thing. Huge forms that seem to flow from the ceiling, organisms that form at the edges of time and consciousness, only to freeze into a senseless and beautiful statue of externalised, forced use. Yes, you can sit on it or use it as a desk in your opera house, as the pic below shows.

God Hates Signs

I agree, that movie was really bad.

via Laughing squid

Honk if you´re Bionic!

Watch and listen: "Love Me" by Capsule





"Truly Trionic" and "Jolene Machine" by Philip Castle. Click on the autobods for enlargement.

More on the amazing Capsule in the near future.

"It must have been art, but it´s over now"

Since I am not "on the market" for a very long time, I am not exactly up-to-date with all the dating- and hook-up sites that are out there.
In the summer I came across this astonishingly bizarre collection of mostly German exhibits which were handpicked from the net.

A few weeks later I was re-blogged (on a different subject) by Justinspace who has actually published a book about this very subject. His Obscene Interiors gracefully whites out all the pictured cave dwellers. This way, the pictures look more like unpaid Diane Arbus photographs. Interestingly, the white outlines of the erased subjects are still giving away a lot about the person without distracting too much from the interiors.


All in all the shocks in "Obscene Interiors" are mild compared to the next purveyor of interior decline: Lurid Digs!


Be warned before you click on the link: This website goes to places where you hopefully never have to go yourself! There is nothing hidden or pixelled. If you have a job that doesn´t have you sitting all alone with your back to the wall in a basement room, you probably shouldn´t go there during office hours.

The pics I chose to show here are actually the only ones that appear to be relatively harmless (minus one). Some of the others will have you rolling and gagging on the floor (like this one):

Watch closely if you can. The devil is in the details (and Detail dons a ratty blond wig)

Each picture is cleverly discussed by the staff and tagged with great titles. A bunch of regulars add some funny and bitchy comments. But where to start with material like this?

The camouflage couch. Click to see it


This one is really interesting! The colour, the motive, the strangeness. Many of the commenters are wondering if the room is in America or in Europe. My first association was the "Bowman room" from "2001" and two comments share this idea. One even claims its from the perspective of the monolith!


Of course it is a bit questionable to re-distribute these pictures without blurring (at least) the faces, even if the owner put them up on a hook-up site in the first place. I am also against "watermarking" pictures which are not your own and posting them on a clearly commercial site. But anyway you look at it: Some of these photos are the funniest you might have seen and they are an amazing display of life, honesty, loneliness and horniness.

Japandering

Why watch old, Japanese movie trailers and commercials? Because -thanks to Youtube- we can!

One of these faces doesn´t belong here:

It´s Marilyn, of course.


This is Ex-Bond girl Mie Hama, who was a major star in Japanese cinema of the 60s and 70s. Internationally known for her role as Kissy Suzuki in "You only live twice", she was also seen in many Toho-monster movies and in the Crazy Cats-comedies. In this commercial she flips a pancake and twists many, many levers.

Legend has it, that Mie threatened to commit ritual suicide when the Bond-producers threatened to replace her, because of her bad english! Who knows what she did to get this job.

Speaking of Mie Hama and the Crazy Cats. For obvious reasons, this musical comedy act is totally unknown outside of Japan. Our loss!
These cats were at least as much fun as the Rat-Pack!
The trailer for their "Las Vegas, free for all" is totally amazing. It looks like a mix of "Oceans Eleven", "It´s a mad...world", "Viva Las Vegas" and 1000 beach-blanket flicks. Oh, The Peanuts (and a stylish Pan-Am bag) are also making an appearance:



Bathing culture is as Japanese as it gets, and this spot is probably only a little bit alien to us gaijin. In Japan, sumo-sized men in tiny bathtubs are as common as an Godzilla attack:


Yellow Magic Orchestra. Always selling out:



James Coburn, who went from manliest man alive to a man who looks like an old lesbian, is selling out too in one of the countless "japander"-commercials for Lark Cigarettes.

For more (much more) American celebrities "japandering" their faces for Japanese products and lots of yen, visit the amazing Japander.com. It´s a great A-Z library of first-class prostitution.

Which brings us to Andy Warhol! We all know the spot Andy did for TDK, but did you know that he also did one for Quicksilver? No? Well...see for yourself:
(genius and kirei!)

"I love you more than my hair!"

Did you ever wonder what would have happened if Charles Manson would have made a career as a jet-set hair-stylist, while Vidal Sassoon would have followed his destiny to become a twisted cult-leader?
Would this be the MANSSOON-look?