After a short and brief and tiny fourteen month gap, Houseplant Picture Studio is heading back OVER to our second home which seems to be London, England which is approximately a ten hour journey by plane but (as they say…) well worth it. As usual, we’ll be sending back reports (maybe LIVE maybe not…) and taking loads of special investigative photos. We’ve got a different grown-up hotel this time, right near the Royal Albert Hall (where Twiggy once played with Eric Clapton and Jonathan Ross and then Peter Sellers and nine members of Take That showed up…) and a seasoned portion of Hyde Park. Anyway, it should be a total gasser-er-er and I personally always enjoy getting right off the plane to rigorously check up on old haunts and to re-trace steps and to make sure that old bits of London-esque graffiti are still where I left them (there’s graffiti on a series of doors near ASDA in Charlton that’s been there well over ten years! What the fuck?! No shit!)

HPS London Tour 2009 – coming in October!

I’m like totally stunned at the fact that I’m like totally really into Kraft Jet-Puffed Marshmallows right now. I mean, it’s probably been several years or more since I’d eaten actual basic puffy white marshmallows straight out of the plastic bag, but this is a truly nice thing which I am doing currently for my self now and I’m like totally really fucking into marshmallows right now. Maybe it has to do with the fact that I’m also like totally into that funny Seinfeld TV show which is a TV show I had not previously been into previously until very recently (it’s funny and I like it!) and perhaps the good feelings I get from watching the Seinfeld TV show have oozed pleasantly and assisted me (in an etheric sense) in enjoying basic kick-ass marshmallows (full-size, not miniatures or pink or blue marshmallows) again…so, yeah, it’s Seinfeld and marshmallows all the way as mid-August rears it’s head and forces September into a stand-off at home plate.

More news concerning this project as it or they come in.
Hey, I just got a brand new haircut! It should last a while…

Just finished the latest BENBENEK album SONGS OF THE GOLDEN WEST and am officially announcing the next album project which is going to be called JESUS A GO-GO which will feature mostly covers and a few originals related to Gospel music and Jesus Christ

Should be ready by Christmas!

Also, speaking of religion…watched Bill Maher’s semi-documentary called RELIGULOUS and it’s pretty good, I learned a wee bit about the profound idiocy of (some) world religions and even though Maher is no Michael Moore, I give it 7 out of 10 stars!

Bill Maher Official Website

Gosh, hadn’t seen TRON (the sci-fi animated LIVE action Disney movie) since I was 18 – turns out it has held up SPLENDIDLY, in fact it hasn’t aged much at all, other than some of the mulletized haircuts and the snug faded dorky blue jeans some of the actors wear (outside the video game…)

Visually, TRON (of course) is stunning, having been compiled using comfy composites, ace animation, LIVE action (again) and dozens of other movie-esque techniques.

Apparently “they’re” doing a TRON 2 – so, let’s hope it stays on budget and lives up to the trademark. All in all, TRON is one motherfucking great kick-ass wonderful fucking movie!

Upon hearing of his (MJ’s) timely death (all deaths are timely and in the long run, timeless) I was reminded internally of a slogan I once glimpsed on a t-shirt in a local clothing shop which humorously read:

“Where else but in America can a poor
young Black boy grow up to be a rich ugly White woman…”

Of course PHIL OCHS said it best when he sang:
“No, no, no…don’t play the chords of fame”

The great thing about having one of our local libraries selling
used and discarded books for a dime (10 cents) is that killer,
straightforward and somewhat oddball books (like this one)
find their way(s) into my ever-morphing cheap-o-yet-effective
“level two” reading library. Definitely this is not a book I would
pay ten bucks or even a dollar for… yet it’s near priceless,
with tons of early 1970s-style photos of vandalism and
spray paint-isms…all accompanied by rather rigid-laced
commentary and some statistics. All pretty tame in this
age of body modification and spatial (ie; sculptural or
skyscrapertural) one-upmanship…however, quite to the point!

It had been a year since I last watched this thing and since it was a nothing-to-watch-Friday-night-kinda-evening I popped in my grainy DVD (dubbed from Outer Mars) copy of Cocksucker Blues and I’ve only made it 35 minutes into it so far, but I need to reiterate how great it is on many non-Stonesian levels, including the almost random camera moves, the indestructible soundtrack which exists as an entity unto itself, plus what about the Heavy Metal Parking Lot-style crowd shots and hangers-on shots also?…and also really solely it is not-to-be-missed for Mick Taylor and his solo during Brown Sugar and can’t forget the auto tour into The Deep Dark South

somebody’s posted the whole film right here

Benson Sound Incorporated

I’ve heard (literally) good things about Chuang Tzu very recently (seek out Alan Watts and his kick-ass “Wisdom of the Ridiculous” lecture) and am puzzled as to why it took me until now to figure out I should read this guy. Have already finished the short introduction and am ready to plow full-bore (boar) into this obviously bitchin’ book.

How now paperback Tao?

As I’ve mentioned elsewhere recently, I have always forever been in search of the ultimate internet message board and finally after years of searching forever I have discovered the best and ultimate (and only one you’ll ever need) message board ever devised by fragile human minds…

And this particular great message board is totally all about the old TV show “I Dream of Jeannie” and I don’t think anyone’s posted on it since about 2006 but that just makes it better…

I Dream of Jeannie message board

Don’t know how I ever missed taking the Three Stooges train. I vaguely remember seeing old black and white (what else?) Three Stooges shorts on Saturday morning TV or Sunday afternoon TV or whenever, but I cannot recall ever latching on to the whole Three Stooges mythos as many of my kind-hearted and often drunken friends did.

Basically I’d gone my whole life without having the perverse desire to watch The Three Stooges, up until about two weeks ago when I suddenly (out of the blue) was struck by the “perverse desire” to watch some actual raw unfettered Three Stooges in the flesh – - so quickly (to quench my innocent thirst) I managed to find an actual whole small compilation called “Curly Classics” online (only $3.80 at Amazon) and, and, and…

And I watched the first three shorts (on the compilation) straight through…I wasn’t bored or distracted but I was struck by the fact that Moe Howard definitely must be the angriest man ever placed on earth (angrier but funnier than Hitler!) and I generally was overwhelmed and ultimately strategically enlightened by The Three Stooges in about an hour.

So, I’ll have to eventually check out the “Shemp Years” and maybe I’ll even get some Three Stooges fridge magnets and a couple of Three Stooges metal wall hangings. Some obsessions simply take time to flourish.

All Three Stooges-related websites on the web seem to suck big time, so sorry no fun links!

Today I received an email reply from writer and Fug (and other things) Ed Sanders – I had written Sanders about three months ago and had asked him a simple question concerning some factual material in a short piece he wrote concerning Wavy Gravy

And not only did Ed Sanders answer my simple question, he answered it thoroughly. Now, Ed Sanders is maybe perhaps one of the 5 or 10 greatest living American writers and he’s also made his mark majorly in many fields.

And he took out time (and took time out) to write me. Wow.

This once again proves my self-inflicted adage that “the good ones always write” – in other words, throughout my life I’ve had some letter-writing and email contact with some fairly well-known collective cultural icons (I traded letters with actor Dick York back in the late 1980s, etc) and (almost to a person) the best ones (“the good ones”) have always taken time (out of their busy schedules) to write me back when sent a question or comment (by me)

Contrast that with many lesser cultural characters (anywhere and everywhere, especially on the internet) who make it their business to avoid replying to emails, who avoid being straightforward and who avoid being somewhat kind and considerate when it comes to people asking about their work (or art…or music…or writing)

But yeah…the good ones always write.

Ed Sanders – Woodstock Journal

get on down with The Fugs

As a Man Thinketh (PDF CLICK HERE)

And I pondered checking out that particular audio book, but decided not to…my week went on and I kept thinking about “As a Man Thinketh” which is a book I’ve read before but never owned…and I thought about it and thought about it…and later this week I happened to be in another library (in Seal Beach) and there was a large rolling bookshelf which housed books for sale and I began browsing through the sale books and lo and behold stuck in a corner on one of the shelves was a copy of James Allen’s book “As a Man Thinketh”…how very coincidental and nice, especially so since the book was only TEN CENTS wow! I bought it and now I own it! Talk about unplanned pregnant commerce!

No matter how we (as a sedentary species) slice and dice the question, there truly is (are) no such thing(s) as coincidence(s) – hence this quick story regarding James Allen’s book “As a Man Thinketh” which (hopefully) illustrates the point, however vaguely and…brevitous.

I’m just sayin’…

I’m pretty tired of people using the phrase “I’m just sayin’…”

HOUSEPLANT PICTURE STUDIO

“Found ourselves speeding along the 101 Freeway near Burbank
and spotted this modern day motorcycle guy speeding along, too…”

MOTORCYCLE GUY ON THE 101

Back on August 14, 2008 I found a folded-up bunch of notebook paper pages in the street. I quickly uncovered the fact that the folded-up notebook paper pages (in fact) contained a large, handwritten adult-themed, pornographic story called PINK SOCKS (plus two untitled story fragments)

PINK SOCKS – CLICK HERE

Oops, gotta pick up this post…

I don’t think I’ve ever met a person with an *I* preceding a *J* in their last name. But, thanks to the great and powerful internet, I sort of have.

CLICK HERE SOON FOR THE WEBSITE OF JEFF BAIJ

Jeff Baij does seem to understand that even a basic GIF can be delightful in the face of all the rancid and wanton crumminess that passes itself off as “conceptual web art” (on the internet, Dear Lord…which is ever a haven for the talentless)

And Jeff (Baij with the *I* and *J*) looks like he’s got a “motion thing” going on, which I’ve never seen within the context of a plain old Quicktime movie…like moving frames depicting a continuum…a continuum of a simple scene (such as someone standing up on a porch)

Yep, I like this stuff…and if I was a real big-timey art critic and if I knew bigger words, I would write more about Jeff Baij (rhymes with beige?) and his splendid internet-ish art pieces by golly.

START AT *MISC* AND WORK AROUND – JEFF’S GOT IT GOING ON…

Reminds me a little of what my friend Jake
does up in Manchester…BAD WATER

Like many hundreds or millions of very like-minded individuals around the world, I myself am enjoying the great 2008 Olympics which are being currently held in Bejing (China) – there are many Olympic events which I am finding to be very entertaining and inspirational.

I really love the following Olympic “events” –

1) the event where
people jump in water and
move their arms and legs around

5) the event(s) where people run

And there are many other Olympics “events” I am
enjoying (on TV) and there is an entire whole week
left of the Olympics and that’s nice.

Check out comment writer
Tom’s BLOG which is called:

BEANIEVISION

There’s a photo of a frozen custard place (on Tom’s BLOG) that
I think I saw on the FOOD CHANNEL (the place, not the photo…)

If you have any fun links, send them in!

Cool beans!