(Patrick Works invokes a roll/role call of history.)
A long while back I went to see the remake of “Shaft.” I decided in the end that the movie fell kinda flat because the director missed a crucial half of the character. As I see it Shaft was Shaft because of two distinct things:
1. Shaft is a bad motherf*cker.
2. The chicks really dig him.
While Sam Jackson’s Shaft was definitely a pretty bad dude … Richard Roundtree he ain’t.
Then it occurred to me that Shaft was really a rock star character on screen … or that our rock stars are really screen stars on stage. Mick Jagger has of course explored this at length, as has David Bowie more fully and completely.
Now of course we have more than just music figures as role models, though so many of us fix on entertainment. Lately some dialog here has revolved around historical figures of influence so I thought I’d post the Lester Bangs Memorial Personality Survey:
Who in history is your underground hero? Punk progenitor? Fifth Column Forebearer?
Some here will remember my early and complete fascination with Rasputin. He fits for a number of reasons … peasant upstart upsetting the social order while making all the papers. Physically repulsive to many, though with a distinct, sincere style he took everywhere. Public hedonism. And of course his complete disdain for establishment sensibilities and “polite society” and its inverted morals.
His famous early death and the difficulty of his murder is so legendary that in many ways I think it set the bar for flameout biography for a century to come.
His underappreciated history of patronage to gypsy musicians of St. Petersburg speaks to his person instead of his personality…but of course we get back to the Shaft of the matter:
1. Rasputin was a bad motherf*cker.
2. The chicks really dug him.
So … Who (outside of popular entertainment) got you goin’?
— Patrick Works
Huey P. Newton, Fred Hampton.
Joseph Severn, the young painter who accompanied Keats to Rome to help him recover from t.b. and there nursed the poet through his terrible death, was neither a bad motorscooter nor inordinately dug by chicks. Nonetheless, he’s long been a hero of mine and seems to me a sort of paragon of friendship. He’s one reason my son’s middle name is Joseph (others include a friend, my wife’s deep and somewhat heterodox admiration for the biblical Joseph, and my having learned politics-for better or worse--from the Clash). When it became clear Keats wouldn’t make it, Severn went to the cemetery where he would end up and sketched it for him. When Keats died, he felt a complete failure as a poet and a man and asked that his tombstone read, “Here lies one whose name was writ in water.” Severn had generally done everything exactly as Keats had asked for months, but he couldn’t bear that and instead had it inscribed, “Here Lies the English Poet John Keats who asked that his tombstone read, ‘Here lies one whose name was writ in water.'” I love that combination of fidelity to Keats’s request and cussed insistence on his friend’s name and value.
Not so punk rock--and maybe you just wanted names… Sorry.
Simon: That was a very cool story I never heard. And punk as hell, IMHO.
The young Bob Marley. Man he was cool. I think I’ve read nearly everything on the man and he was just a very cool young man who was tenacious and resourceful and rose above so much adversity.
And Underdog.
Fictitious female heroine of the future: Ellen Ripley. She puts her life on the line against alien organisms that not even a platoon of marines could defeat… to save a cat and a little girl.
I guess I should add more about my choices, both Huey P. Newton and Fred Hampton stood up for poor people when nobody else would, Huey was imprisoned in California and Fred was murdered in Chicago, plus they dressed cool with those black leather jackets and black barrets….:-) Oyeah Huey and co. stormed the state capitol with riffles and shot guns, just to prove a point. Such big balls.
Underdog for sure
Emma Goldman- anarchist who meant it and said why
Rachel Carson
These things always deteriorate when people mention their parents, so mea maxima culpa, but: my mom. Who rebelled against her conservative family to marry my dad and be an authority questioning hippy. And still had to do a clerical job. The hippies in our 1972 neighborhood threw co-op produce at her as she walked to the bus stop in her work clothes. Because a 28-year-old secretary symbolized The Man. Demonstrating the conformity and self-proclaimed authority of rebels. Seeing all that turned mom into the first real punk I knew. I’ve always really liked her.
Huey Newton in Hello Kitty barrettes. That’s a baaaad mutha. Shut yo mouth.
Oh, and Cleopatra Jones. Shaft for girls.
Thomas Merton: mystic, poet, social activist, anti-war protestor, student of Christianity and Buddhism, Franciscan monk.
From Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander: “In Louisville, at the corner of Fourth and Walnut, in the center of the shopping district, I was suddenly overwhelmed with the realization that I loved all those people, that they were mine and I theirs, that we could not be alien to one another even though we were total strangers. It was like waking from a dream of separateness, of spurious self-isolation in a special world, the world of renunciation and supposed holiness. The whole illusion of a separate holy existence is a dream…There is no way of telling people that they are all walking around shining like the sun….
I suddenly saw the secret beauty of their hearts, the depths of their hearts where neither sin nor desire nor self-knowledge can reach, the core of their reality, the person that each one is in God’s eyes. If only they could all see themselves as they really are. If only we could see each other that way all of the time.”
LOL!:-) Oooooooooooops!:-)
(Quick tangent)
Syd Barrette would be an awesome drag-queen name!
(End tangent)
Huey Lewis and Juice Newton, definitely!
Bruce
Helen Keller. Suffragette. Political activist. Promoter of birth control. Fluent in five languages. Buddies with Mark Twain, amongst other radical heavies. The lady couldn’t see, hear or talk. Now if that ain’t subversive, I don’t know what is.
Ray. Love that you mentioned Thomas Merton. He really broke the barriers of dogma. I’ve read poems and excerpts by him -- I’d love to check out more -recommended reading?
Syd Barrette would be the most depressing drag-queen ever, a drag- queen singing jug band blues?
inez milholland, sufragette.
tina modotti, photographer.
milan kundera, author.
jerzy kozinski, author. (being there, anyone?)
peter sellers, actor.
and the queen of all my dreams, ono no komachi, the great tanka poet of the japanese heian period.
pat, also, rasputin was a tangent i went on for about a year. reading everything i could get my hands on, including histfic. his charisma and, ahem, staying power, were the stuff of serious legend. glad to know i’m not alone in my respect for the original mad man.
Chauncey Gardener…what a performance !! LOVE peter sellers in that.
Rasputin??….prefer Raskolnokov.
bruce
gautama buddha.
chogyam trungpa.
yoda.
jaime sommers.
my 95 year old grandpa.
many of you people….
http://image.guardian.co.uk/sys-images/Arts/Arts_/Pictures/2007/02/09/ayler460.jpg
albert ayler
of course
albert ayler
played in little walters band
recorded an lp for esp with one song on one side
and blank on the other
performed at john coltranes funeral
found dead in the hudson river
and
was one hell of a golfer
Kristen,
-Seven Story Mountain: excellent autobiography
-Seeds of Contemplation
-No Man is Island
-Love and Living
-his first album
>>Syd Barrette would be the most depressing drag-queen ever, a drag- queen singing jug band blues?
“And I’m grateful that you threw away my old shoes
And brought me here instead dressed in red”
Grafting this back into the main trunk of the thread, Divine (like the rest of the Waters troupe) is kind of a cool, iconoclastic role model. That was some CRAZY stuff for 1960s Baltimore!
Bruce, Yeah, I saw the Raskolnikov. Dude, that’s messed up.
>>Yeah, I saw the Raskolnikov. Dude, that’s messed up.
The Little Raskolnikovs: Soviet cinematic genius Sergei Eisenstein’s much-reviled 1930 effort to bring his art to Hollywood and cast Hal Roach’s “Our Gang” comedy troupe in a retelling of “Crime and Punishment.”
At the height of the Depression, audiences were ill-prepared to watch a four-hour drama that featured lovable ragamuffins beating an old woman to death, then exploring the nature of guilt and atonement before experiencing a mass conversion to the Russian Orthodox Church.
Spanky gave the performance of his career, however.
Hilarious…as always. Conjuring Eisenstein.
bruce
My third grade at teacher at grant Mrs. Davidson a true heroine.
were are you now?
LOL! My third grade teahcer at grant, Mrs. Davidson.. Where are you now?
Wow, really digging myself a good hole on this thread, coffee has not kicked in yet.
Mrs. Davidson was great, she took time to work with every kid and she really tried to help the more creative kids(that were maybe not as book smart as the others) excel in there talents. She helped me become the “unicorn poet” I am today.
Really the only good teacher(in school) I ever had.
IF we go to the third grade…there was Sister Catherine for me. 1972 and we were at war. I fell for a nun…heavy. She told me I should cut off my long hair. I told her Jesus had long hair. She slapped me. She was hot. Later punk days I got my hair cut like a monk after learning of the band “The Monks” and thought of her while I did it.
Wait…this is getting kinda personal.
Forget all that.
Never happened.
Bless me father for I have sinned…
Never did confess that crush on Sister Catherine. Mostly because I never repented.
Take that Rasputin! Sister Catherine used soap!
Patrick
Thomas Merton, Devine, Fred Hampton, Underdog, and Helen Keller walk into a bar…
My wife bathed aged nuns in high school. Nancy is hot!!
Any good teacher is a hero(ine). Mrs. Oyer in fourth grade in Salamanca, NY — little bitty town way upstate — totally awesome. I wrote a play during a bout of pneumonia about Spanish explorers, and she tore up her curriculum so the class could spend three months mounting a big production. We built sets and rehearsed and performed it for the school and the town.
“Explorers for Spain” … You may have heard of it. The Salamanca Republican-Press said my portrayal of Columbus was somewhat derivative of the young Gielgud, but the paper raved that Richie Ullman perfectly captured the inner turmoil and hardscrabble roots of Hernando de Soto. (Richie lost the 1974 Tony to Michael Moriarty in “Find Your Way Home,” but we all know those awards are rigged.)
What was Helen Kellers favorite color.
Corduroy
>>“Explorers for Spain” … You may have heard of it.
Matt,
I had a chance to see an off-Broadway production several years ago. I was particularly impressed by the Massacre of Cholula.
Helen Keller’s favorite book: “Around the Block in 80 Days.”
“Life is either a daring adventure or nothing. Security does not exist in nature, nor do the children of men as a whole experience it. Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than exposure.” HK
How did Helen Keller’s teachers punish her for talking in class?
They made her wear mittens.
you guys…… I wish all this wit was not above my head.. .-)
pat
you have to
admit
jeffery wright
does a great
job
as the pusher
in the new
shaft flick
John
Coltrane
Wow …. Jeremiah… you are speaking a profound language that I understand. These are my favorite things…now.
bruce
jeremiah: http://www.coltranechurch.org/
hey jerry
giant steps
or love supreme
Take the Cole-train.
Bruce
I’ll have to go visit the John Coltrane Church again. I always wondered if they were a “real” church. I just read that they’re part of the African Orthodox Church, started in 1919, descending from the Syrian Orthodox Church started by Peter the Apostle. I used to go there on Sundays when they were on Divisidero St. I went to the back of the church where they fed people brown rice and beans, back when I was broke half the time, and listened to the music.
yes! on divis! i would go with marie, mikes ex, back in the late 80’s early 90’s. it was awesome. the singing, the vibe, all of it.
The Church of John Coltrane just went through another of their periodic lease/space crises. I don’t know how it came out but you might not find them on Divis. any longer. I used to live on Divis right across the street from the Vis club…upstairs from the Muslim incense shop and next door to the NAACP. Went to the church every month or so. I miss my neighbors on Divis.
The VIS, aka the Kennel Club, has been The Independent for several years now. As always, still a great place to see bands—a more intimate setting and they do get some bigger name bands. They also have free Monday movie night with a 2-drink minimum, but free popcorn. Haven’t checked that out yet. I hear it’s ok for seeing a movie you’ve ALREADY seen, as the mostly-intoxicated audience tends to talk through the whole flick.
~sigh~ I am still mourning the loss of the MAB, I-Beam, the Stone, Nightbreak, the Farm, the Chatterbox (a short-lived club from ’86-’90—Johnny Thunders played here), and many others.
The St. John Coltrane Church has been closed down on Divis since 2000, but just last year they found a new home on Fillmore—down the street from the legendary Fillmore. http://www.coltranechurch.org
Dan McLain
A BIG POST NOTE…Hi Paul Allen…do you nhave any old recordings of our Fate Gallery rehearsals? Regardless, it was good to see your name appear on the blog and Che event RSVP! I look forward to seeing you again. I wonder if Jimmy or Mark will be joining us. Any word?
Good call on that one, Paul. Dan was one of the funniest, nicest, most real people I’ve ever met. Even as “Country Dick Montana” there’s no other way to describe him as anything but totally genuine. He did so much for the scene, and truly was one of a kind.
how did i forget to mention gertrude stein and atticus finch?
two of the best and most influential characters ever. one real, one imagined.
Lou D --
“Love Supreme.”
Followed by Pharaoh Sanders, “The Creator Has a Master Plan”.
jeremiah
great choices
have you heard
ask the ages
with
pharaoh
elvin and sonny sharrock
Kristi, Hi, I do not have recordings of Fate Gallery. Should I? Do I have a connection to this project I don’t recall? On Jimmy, I don’t know him, but Toby Gibson does. Also, there is a Sacred Lies MySpace page: http://www.myspace.com/subversiveones , and a flickr page: http://www.flickr.com/photos/9154697@N04/ . On Mark -- Mullen?, Stern? Mark Stern said on the blog he was thinking about it. I heard Mark Mullen is not performing but I don’t know if he’s coming to the reunion. I’d love to see him.
Louie, Hi, Ask the Ages is a great recording. I’ll have to dig it out. Someone on the blog said you play sax now. What is happening with that?
Kevin, genuine is the best word to describe Dan. The world is not as good without him.
My other hero was Bart Cheever -- probably the most creative and funny guy I have ever met in my life.
“Pimp’s got a Caddy, Lady’s got a Chrysler -- Black’s Got his ‘Respect’, White’s got his Soul Train”
Just in time for your valentine. LIFELIKE BOWIE DOLLS! They got your mother in a whirl…
Sorry. They’re not for sale.