TAG SALE COSMOLOGY

Ghosts in the Night - Generica’s Long-Lost Ditty

Happy Halloween!

At long last, Generica releases their soon-to-be-classic holiday song Ghosts in the Night! Click on the title and give it a spin. Jennifer and I originally recorded this song in 2005 and had intended to release it for the opening of our Halloween-themed dance club Ghosts II. Things didn’t go as planned, but at a kind of lame Halloween party this weekend, we decided to finally give it up to the world.

Enjoy!

Pictured: Generica, early 2005 (?), preliminary photo shoot for Ghost song video. We started working on the video long before writing the song.

Listen to more Generica songs on the ol’ website.

Star Trekkin’

I was searching youtube for items tagged “star trek dance” for an upcoming project on the theme and I came across this gem. Kirk Incorporated, a group of guys aged 14 to 30, performs the classic novelty song “Star Trekking” (with the addition of a few extra verses) on a local Minnesota station during a holiday fundraiser. Though not all members of the group come across as hardcore fans, several of them are animated and/or dedicated in their delivery. The teen portraying Uhura utilizes his most general female impersonation, but he couples this with falsies - a bold move for local TV! Spock’s stand-in demonstrates a firm commitment to his muse, and Scotty turns out to be a bit of a spotlight hog. And all the while, ads scroll across the bottom of the screen….Sauk Rapids Plumbing and Heating Services $10, etc.

It’s worth watching through to the end if you can bear it. You can always skip ahead - but some of the natural (?) rhythm is lost. I made it through, but just barely, and I can tolerate (and rather enjoy) those things in life that live on the high end of the cringe factor scale.

Make Your Own Shoes

This adorable woman Mary Wales Loomis did and so can you. I originally found her site on the Make blog yesterday via a google search. But today when I googled “how to make shoes,” happily, her site was the first that came up. I made a pair of shoes last year, but they’re not too durable. Here Mary gives you the poop on how to go the professional route. Her technique is used mostly to create matching heels for her outfits but she claims that her instructions can be adjusted to accomodate any style. You can buy her book called Make Your Own Shoes from her website. It’s definitely going on my b-day/xmas wish list.

Santogold - I Believe

Heya,
Never heard of this gal until today and I am really feelin’ this song! (I guess it’s actually called LES Artistes.) It sounds better on her myspace page, but I like seeing her perform it live, too, with that awesome skeletal ribcage sweatshirt. She’s got an MIA-ish thing going on w/a little YYY, but I think she stands out on her own too. I was researching pics of her at work and had read that she moved to NYC in 2005 after her father died so she could focus on her music. (Rolling Stone article HERE.) This song seems to allude to that and strikes a chord with its sincerity.

Check it:

The Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Long-haired Men

Just starting to catch up…
Grant emailed this one around last week. Check out 17-year old Bowie defending his rights as a long-haired young man.

Pie Chart Harmony

I checked my site stats today (OK, so I’m going to my site more than anyone else) and I noticed that the charts illustrating traffic breakdowns were unusually symmetrical and balanced. And lovely.

Hire me for Land of the Lost!

Will someone please hire me to work on the Land of the Lost movie? I’ve heard rumors about this project for a while and just heard a recent interview with Marty Krofft (May 07) in which he mentioned it. How can I become involved in this movie?? God knows my Krofft expertise, costuming skills, and writing and acting wizardly would come in handy, though, admittedly, my knowledge of Far Out Space Nuts outweighs all else in the World of Sid and Marty Krofft.

During the Marty Krofft interview, he mentioned a few things his Dad had always said to him as a kid while they walked to school:

- Remember, you’re gonna work in fantasy - don’t live in it.

- The slower you go, the faster you get there.

- On your worst day, help somebody else.

I think that last one is especially nice.

Betty Davis

Not Bette Davis as in Bette Davis eyes, but the soul/funk goddess of the 70s pictured below. She was born Betty Mabry and changed her surname to Davis when she married Miles Davis in 1968. She’s credited as introducing him to Jimi Hendrix and influencing his style immensely. She began her career writing songs for bands like The Commodores and came out with her first solo album in 1973. Intensely passionate and sexually charged, her music makes quite an impression. Light in the Attic Records reissued her first 2 albums in May, and their site has a great page about Betty’s music and her story. She has apparently been living in poverty, without proper royalties from her music, so hopefully this reissue will prove to be profitable for her. You can also listen to an interview with Betty on The Sound of Young America from July 2007. I found it to be a bit awkward but interesting nontheless…it was the first interview Betty had agreed to in decades.

This outfit totally reminds me of Sun-Ra.

Walk on the Water…

…with Judy Henske. Found this gal on Rhino’s website, as they put out an album of music from throughout her career in February. Dubbed the Queen of the Beatniks, she has a strong, deep voice with a lot of conviction. Check out this video of her appearance on ABC-TV’s Hootenany:

Here’s her Wikipedia entry.

And her own personal website, featuring the sassy/gruff tune Tikki Tikki Gumdrop. First line: “I love your tikki tikki gumdrop sticky black rick rack lips.” Is she singing about a dog?? Not to be missed!