Muppets Bohemian Rhapsody

Best thing I have ever seen on Youtube.

The Devil is Real

I was watching "Walk the Line" with Zoe the other day... and the scene where Johnny is talking about playing Folsom, and the record execs are telling him his church going audience won't approve... And the man in black says, "Well then they ain't real Christians." I've been thinking about that, and about how my Mama has always claimed religion would be alright if more Christians were religious the way the Man in Black was...

Mulling all that over, and then I find this awesome song, by probably the country's most under appreciated songwriter, Kevin Kerby... vocalizing thoughts that passed through my stoned teenage mind loitering in this exact same church parking lot twenty years ago...

Damn, Kevin, we don't deserve ya...

Take the Skinheads Bowling and discuss Mod History

I guess parenthood has made me tragically unhip... I had no idea that Camper Van Beethoven had gotten back together, but here they are, performing that late 80s college radio classic "Take the Skinheads Bowling"
Schweet!

and along a similar vein, I recently found this info graphic, which illustrates the history of Mod culture in the US. While it doesn't specifically mention scooters, or SHARPS, it does a good job of illustrating that Nazi skins are merely an extremely vocal and attention seeking sub-genre of the subculture. I was also proud to realize that this chart is on the servers of Evergreen, my Alma Mater.

And just so's you know where I stand, here's a little message to Aryan Skins, courtesy of Jello Biafra:

American Scooterist: Issue # 54/55 Scooting to the Beat

Somehow, I got the latest issue of American Scooterist today. My dues for Vespa Club of America must have expired two years ago, and I never changed my address with them when you changed coasts.
Not that I'm complaining.
If like me, you are interested in the history of American counter-culture, the Beats, and scooters, you owe it to yourself to get a copy of this issue.
Proving there is nothing new under the sun, this issue gets deep into the history of scooters as a gentle rebellion against the prevalence of American car-culture. Just check out this paragraph:

For the Beats, the automobile and automobile culture - that great destroyer of urban life - had become the most potent symbol of American consumerism and alienation. As Kerouac expressed it: "Whither goest thou, America, in thy shiny car in the night?" For many young bohemians, the natural progression from this line of reasoning often led to the purchase of a scooter and investing it with larger political overtones. Like beards, European scooters had eccentric and mildly subversive connotations that often signified that one was already well-advanced on the pathway to an alternative conception of reality.

Heady stuff.

Dave Arneson has Left the Prime Material Plane

As is my wont of late, I am late in this post in observation of the late Dave Arneson, who failed his last saving throw versus Cancer earlier this week.
This means that the two main minds behind the origins of Fantasy Role Playing Games, have left us.
I know there were some issues about Dave not feeling he got his due credit for his role in the creation of Dungeons & Dragons, though for me personally, I always remember his name being right there on the front of my rule books.
Fare the well, Dave.

Now here's hoping Ken St. Andre will still be with us for awhile.

Jello Biafra's Advice to Obama

If you are up for some in depth reading, I suggest you check out this open letter to Barack Obama from Punk-Rock-Patriarch Jello Biafra. It's the sanest thing I've read in some time.

IRAQ – TRY THIS!

The closest thing to a solution I have heard was offered clear back in April 2004 by the Organization of the Islamic Conference (www.oic-ico.org). The OIC is comprised of 57 Islamic countries ranging from West Africa clear over to Southeast Asia. At their annual meeting they found six member nations (Indonesia, Malaysia, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Yemen and Morocco) willing to pony up enough of their own troops (approx. 150,000) that our troops could have gone home! Who slammed the door on that one? Colin Powell, on the grounds that having the Islamic soldiers under UN command instead of Americans was out of the question.

WHY??!? Wouldn't a neutral force of Muslim peacekeepers make a lot more headway than the disaster we've made? Wouldn't they at least command a lot more respect, resulting in a huge drop in violence? Surely the non-stop carnage and Iracketeering we have spawned is Exhibit A that we need to get over this colonialist illusion that other countries' problems can only be solved by Americans. The OIC's proposal for US withdrawal and peace in Iraq must be revisited immediately, and also considered for Afghanistan.

War of the Worlds II: The Steampunk Sequel

I just got a report on a new animated movie co-written by David Abramowitz, and using the voice talent of well, most of the cast of Highlander the Series, as well as Adam Baldwin, from Firefly. Sounds pretty cool.
The Dragon's Highlander correspondent reports:

War of the Worlds: Goliath that was co-written by David Abramowitz and is voiced by Adrian Paul, Adam Baldwin, Peter Wingfield, Elizabeth Gracen and Jim Byrnes. It's set in the very early 20th C. a few years after the events of H. G. Wells' War of the Worlds, around 1914.

Because of the source material (Wells) and the setting, it always sounded kind of steampunk to me. At Indianapolis I was chatting with David about the movie and said straight out that it sounded like a steampunk film to me. His answer was "Exactly." In scrounging around I found this site with a bunch of pre-production illustrations.

The Heavy Metal site has this to say:

Synopsis by Joe Pearson, "It's an R rated, retro-history, steam punk epic set in a 1914, fourteen years after the first failed Martian invasion. Mankind has rebuilt her cities and military adapting a lot of the abandoned Martian technology. They've created an international defense force, A.R.E.S., based on the lower end of Manhattan and under the command of Theaodore Roosevelt. They've built a formidable force centered around giant, steam powered battle tripods. Think of "Band of Brothers" meets "Star Wars", meets World WO. It will be cool-steam powered battle tripods, doomed Cossack cavalry charges, victorian decco, steam punk Manhattan, 1500 foot long armored battle zeppelins, Teddy Roosevelt, souped up Tri-planes, blood on steaming metal, sex in the cockpit. The usual." This story is not directly based on Heavy Metal, but it is a sequel to the classic War Of The Worlds novel by H.G. Wells. It will have a budget of around $3 million, and be produced by Tripod Entertainment Sdn Bhd (joint venture between Elemental Ventures Sdn Bhd and Epoch Ink Corp). It is uncertain how connected this movie is to Heavy Metal. It was originally indented on being part of a series of Heavy Metal Videos. And is being co-produced by Kevin Eastman (owner of Heavy Metal).

Sounds pretty promising, can't wait to see it.

Airbrushed Motorcycle Jacket

So, even though I haven't been blogging much since Zoe was born, I have found time to be a little productive. Take for instance the jacket pictured above.
I picked up the jacket cheap, it wasn't new, but it sure didn't look used, except for the fact that the design seems more late 80's than contemporary. The jacket was purchased with the intention painting it and selling it. Having a new baby is a great motivation for trying to find new sources of income.
The design was my attempt at something that fit into a traditional biker look, but with a little individual touch. You know, a portfolio piece. Skulls other assorted morbid images are ubiquitous in biker wear, and you can't get much more morbid than a deer. Riders face all kinds of threats and challenges on the road, but a deer, especially at night, is one of the most dangerous. Plus it was just a cool looking graphic which fit in with the lines of the jacket. Likewise, I'd been playing with Celtic knotwork lately,and designed that knot to fill the bottom panel.
So I'm testing the waters of Etsy with this one. It's for sale for $250.

Bruce Sterling looks at the Steampunk Sub-Culture

Just stumbled across this great essay by Bruce Sterling, who some would credit with birthing Steampunk, (though he is humble enough to credit earlier influences), on where Steampunk came from, and where it just might be going.

Ruskin wrote an extremely influential and important essay which changed the world. Everything Ruskin says in that essay is wrong. The ideas in there don't work, have never worked and are never going to work. If you try to do the things Ruskin described in the spirit that Ruskin suggested, you are doomed.

However. If you try to do those things in a steampunk spirit, you might get somewhere useful. Steampunks are equipped with a number of creative tools and approaches that John Ruskin never imagined, such as design software, fabricators, Instructables videos, websites, wikis, cellphones, search engines and etsy.com. Successful steampunks are not anti-industrial as Ruskin was. They are digital natives and therefore post-industrial. This means that they can make their own, brand-new, fresh mistakes -- if they understand the old mistakes well enough not to repeat them.

Steampunk's key lessons are not about the past. They are about the instability and obsolescence of our own times. A host of objects and services that we see each day all around us are not sustainable. They will surely vanish, just as "Gone With the Wind" like Scarlett O'Hara's evil slave-based economy. Once they're gone, they'll seem every bit as weird and archaic as top hats, crinolines, magic lanterns, clockwork automatons, absinthe, walking-sticks and paper-scrolled player pianos. ...

The past is a kind of future that has already happened.

Datamancer's Ergonomic Steampunk Keyboard

Man, is this thing gorgeous!

This keyboard was commissioned by a female client and has some elegant, feminine design features such as violet LEDs, an acanthus-leaf pattern etched into the brass, and a soft burgundy wrist pad that is removable for cleaning. It also has a built-in "buttonless" touchpad mouse in the center (tap anywhere to left-click and drag, tap in the top-right corner to right-click). This keyboard is interesting because the typing plane is actually tipped forward rather than back. It looks odd at first, but actually makes for a very comfortable typing position.

Datamancer has been cranking out a lot of great keyboards in the last year, but I think this one really takes the cake.

Fox Mulder's Vespa

Stories about celebrities riding scooters are almost as common these days as the boilerplate fluff pieces linking rising scooter sales with rising gas prices. In other words, not really worth me commenting on. But this story about David Duchovny purchasing a Vespa to fill the holes left by electric car is worth checking out.

"I’ve had my RAV4 EV [Toyota’s all electric 4x4] for the last four years,” Duchovny says. “It was supposed to be a prototype for the next generation of cars. But the problem is that the car needs charging every night and the most you can do in a day is 80 miles. It is like being tethered.”

He has become so fed up with it that since moving back to New York from Los Angeles he has bought a Vespa scooter.

I also like the fact, mentioned later in the article that he didn't have a drivers license until he was 27.

Scooter Punk Kids Fabrics

Sorry about the long hiatus from posting... strangely, my instinctive response to Jes's swelling belly has been to spend all my free time either in the studio, or curled up on the couch with her.

This morning though, I was searching for some unique cloth to make a baby sling out of and found this great baby-mod print. It's cotton thermal, so I don't know that it would be good for a sling, maybe a hoodie?

Warren Ellis on Creativity

Warren Ellis has a great little rant up about his experience of creativity:

I still get asked with appalling regularity “where my ideas come from.”

Here’s the deal. I flood my poor ageing head with information. Any information. Lots of it. And I let it all slosh around in the back of my brain, in the part normal people use for remembering bills, thinking about sex and making appointments to wash the dishes.

Eventually, you get a critical mass of information. Datum 1 plugs into Datum 2 which connects to Datum 3 and Data 4 and 5 stick to it and you’ve got a chain reaction. A bunch of stuff knits together and lights up and you’ve got what’s called “an idea”.

And for that brief moment where it’s all flaring and welding together, you are Holy. You can’t be touched. Something impossible and brilliant has happened and suddenly you understand what it would be like if Einstein’s brain was placed into the body of a young tyrannosaur, stuffed full of amphetamines and suffused with Sex Radiation.

Love and Marriage, American Style

So this past weekend, Jes and I attended the wedding of one of her childhood friends. Perhaps you can tell from the photo above, it was a little non-traditional.
Still, it was the most beautiful ceremony I have ever seen.
The ceremony was a mish-mash of Wiccan and Native American rituals, which was surprisingly poignant and non-New Age-y.
With the recent developments in California about gay marriage, I feel like I should share some deep sociological and spiritual insight, but really I have none.
I mean, I am about to have a child with the most amazing person I've ever known, who also refuses to marry me. Perhaps that shows her good sense, or perhaps it only attracts me to her more, in the Groucho philosophy of not wanting to be a member of any club which would have me.
Jes throws out a lot of varying reasons for not wanting to get married. At this point, I'd like to have the symbolism of the ritual, and to celebrate our love with friends and family, but it would ultimately be merely symbolic.
I guess I have reached the point where I think that the gay marriage issue boils down to a church and state issue. If a certain religion doesn't want to marry gays, well they don't have to. But their views shouldn't influence the state's stance on the matter. And ultimately it is in societies best interest to allow gays to marry to raise children. I think that by the end of this century this will be as self-evident to the average person, as the stupidity of segregation and racism was at the end of the last.
All I know is, I have a daughter on the way, and my deepest hope for her is that she can be as strong, intelligent, brave, and caring as the women I met this weekend, both gay and straight. And that if/when she finds another soul with whom she wants to share her life, well I'll be fortunate enough to witness a ceremony as touching as this.

Oh, and I hope she rides off on a Vespa, like these two brides did... (hey, we all have our prejudices.)

Is Steampunk Dying?

We strip-mine your underground culture
Take the bite out and rinse it clean
Give ourselves credit for creating it
Then sell it back to you
At twice the price

- Fleshdunce, by The Dead Kennedys

Will Steampunk survive being the next big thing? There were a couple of things this morning which some might interpret at signs of the coming Steam-pocalypse.
First is the mere existence of this story in the New York Times Fashion section on Steampunk. Major media attention is frequently to the coup de grace to an emerging subculture.
Second is to be found within the the article, the mention of Giovanni James of the James Gang magical performance troupe opening his own bricks and mortar Steampunk shop in NYC:
He plans to offer brass Rubik’s cubes, riding boots, early-20th-century-style motorbikes, handmade leather mailbags and brass or wooden iPhone cases, all under the label TJG Engineering.

There will, of course, be a clothing line with vintage and new looks modeled on Mr. James’s own neo-Edwardian sartorial signature. “I’m so sick of baggy pants hanging off your bottom,” he said. “This is more refined. It goes back to a time when people had some dignity.

“It’s a new day.”

Off-the-rack Steampunk? Why I say, how gauche! Any real steampunk casts their own goggles and gears from... Wait... did that say early-20th-century-style motorbikes, and handmade leather mailbags?

I am so there!

I mean really, Steampunk was dead to begin with. It is all about reanimating the mouldering corpses of bygone fashion, technology, and manners. So what if someone purchases their tails at a haberdashery rather than a thrift store?

Day Late and a Dollar Short Movie Review: The American Astronaut

Just got this disc in the post from the Dragon's Arkansawyer correspondent, Iain de Sane, and I gotta say it is a Drive-in Classic!

Now Iain has been raving about this film to me for some time, and quite honestly, I thought his hedonistic lifestyle had finally caught up with him, and he was just getting the name of that Astronaut Farmer flick wrong... How wrong I was...

The American Astronaut defies easy classification. Some reviews call it a Science Fiction / Western / Musical / Comedy, but that really doesn't give you much concept of what this film really is, and actually does it a disservice. The American Astronaut is what would happen if a rock band attempted to make a independent science fiction art-house movie which broke all of Joe Bob Briggs' Drive-in traditions, but would still be something that Joe Bob would say, "check it out."

If you have no idea what I am talking about, yet take this as a sign that this film is not for everyone, then you are correct! Indeed, Jes couldn't make it all the way through. I, on the other hand watched the film, then watched the director's commentary (given live, with Q&A from an audience in a Brooklyn bar), then watched the movie again!

Now, I'm not big on musicals. Though I'm an obvious fan absurdism, the average musical in absurd in a way that bugs me. I suppose the absurdity is generally not taken to the aesthetic and humorous extremes I'd like. A short list of musicals I like will make this obvious, Hedwig and the Angry Inch, The Ruling Class, and Improv Everywhere's guerilla performance art piece Food Court Musical, all illustrate a peculiar and original interpretation of the genre.

The American Astronaut definitely qualifies as peculiar and original. Set in a Sci-Fi universe which seems one part William S. Burroughs and one part Philip K. Dick, it's musical numbers either fit seamlessly with the plot, as performances which are taking place in bars or mass assemblies, or they are completely absurdist, beyond that absurdity of characters just bursting into song which one might expect of Broadway. No, these explosions of song, verse and choreography are delivered with a Discordian wink, a nudge, and even a "say-no-more." The number linked above "Hey, Boy" is just one example.

So, I don't know if Joe Bob would have reviewed The American Astronaut, as it is a strange mix of B-Science Fiction, and Art film (or more likely, art-school drop-out turned rock-musician), but I'd like to think it woulda gone a little like this:

No dead bodies, but countless piles-of-ashy-remains-of-disintegrated -bodies. No breasts, but one "Boy who actually saw a woman's breast." Disintegration pistol fu. Public restroom Polaroid. Two giant fish bowl space helmets. Two F-bombs. Space-gimp in a rubber suit who smells like poo. Description of homo-erotic acts by 19th century Nevada silver-miners. Gratuitous Flash Gordon-esque painted space scenes. Spaceship hidden in floating space barn.

Also check out this review from Boulder, CO, where for sometime the film has shown with Rocky-Horror-like frequency:

The whole movie, including the music, is infused with an odd mix of working-class sensibilities and intellectual irony. The roughnecks at the bar wear leather, don’t shave, drink rotgut, and dance as though their masculinity depended on it. At the same time, the longest mis-told joke on film can only really be appreciated in a post-modern, ironic frame of mind. And our hero is subjected to the humiliation of having a Polaroid taken of him on the toilet, something you will see in no blue-collar commercial for Chevy Trucks.

In music, if you mix the aggression of hard rock with ironic lyrics, you get something like punk. Add a little country, and you have the music from The American Astronaut. Maybe the fact that it’s all so incongruous and puzzling (and still funny) is what makes the movie watchable over repeated viewings.

Four stars. The Dragon says, Check it out!

Buy The American Astronaut at Amazon

Free Shipping on the Dragon's Shirt Designs

This weekend there is free shipping at SpreadShirt. I suppose you could use this on any old graphic, but why, when you can get these fantastic scooter designs by yours truly. You can see all my images here.

This offer is good April 19th and 20th, in the US and Canada, just use code SPRINGFREE (or CADSPRINGFREE for Canada) when asked for a coupon or voucher code as you order.

Comics Britannia: Alan Moore Interviews

I just found this lovely series of videos of comics writer Alan Moore discussing several of his projects.
If you are a fan of Mr. Moore, then you probably are aware of most this stuff. It's highly entertaining, nonetheless. If you only vaguely recognize the name, (and you should as the man behind the comics which inspired the films V for Vendetta, The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, and the upcoming Watchmen), beware of spoilers.
Also some of these (particularly the 4th) are not exactly work safe.
Probably my favorite bits are when Mr. Moore reads excerpts from his work. It's interesting to hear the emphasis and inflection he places on the text.

Part 1: V for Vendetta

Part 2: The Watchmen

Part 3: League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen

Part 4: Lost Girls

Like Everything Else, Those Dastardly French Raise Comics to Fine Art

Heather McDougal over at Cabinet of Wonders, has a wonderful (pardon the redundant pun) post up about the joys of French comics:

For a number of years now, I have gone to France as often as I and my family can afford, and each time we make a pilgrimage to a particular store in St. Michel that sells literally thousands of these kinds of comic books, along with videos, manga, and other things. Imagine going into a shop that rises up on several levels, with at least two of them literally solid with the spines of comic book albums. Every book on the shelves is large format, beautifully printed, and relatively reasonably priced (considering you can get ten or twenty years out of them; the terrible bindings I've been finding on modern American softcover graphic novels only last a few months in the hands of enthusiastic readers before they start giving up their pages like moulting birds). We always choose two or three books to buy. They have to be readable in our lame high-school French, and at least one of them has to be readable to my daughters, because we can only fit a couple in our luggage. But they're worth it.

Sigh.

Sigh, indeed.

Oh, comics. Despite your constant reappraising by pop culture, the true depth of your potential as an artistic medium is constantly overlooked. Except perhaps, in France, where artistic endeavors are held in slightly higher regard than in the Colonies.

Case in point, Ordinary Victories by Manu Larcenet. If Bill Waterson were to write the great American graphic novel, it would probably look a lot like this. It is pure genius, better in many ways than most celebrated novels I've read, to say nothing of comics. It should be a best seller among mainstream readers. But it is a comic, and it is hard for Americans to over come that stigma. Larcenet melds traditional western visual storytelling with lessons from Manga effortlessly, coming up with something that has the Zen-like beauty of the best Calvin & Hobbes sunday strips.

Seriously, I have comics picked out to help my kids learn to read, to help them adjust to adolescence, etc. This is the comic I will give them when they graduate college. This is the "OK, you're an adult now, welcome the real world" comic, with all the freedom, joy, numbness, and true existential angst (as opposed to adolescent poseur angst) that entails.

Sigh, indeed.

News on the Dragon's Favorite Blogs

Which do you want first, the good or the bad?

Ah, you're like me, you want the bad first, with the good to follow to cusion the blow, well...

One of my favorite blogs is going into extreme slow down, if not ceasing to post altogether. Yup, Steve Williams over at Scooter in the Sticks is moving on to greener pastures. This makes me very sad, as Steve frequently came the closest to describing the ineffable Zen of scootering, without relying on trendiness, fashion, or allusions to Robert Pirsig. Steve was one of the first bloggers to notice your humble Dragon, and I still hope to actual bump into him at some point, preferably when we are both on scoots. Plus he had magnificent photos, and even won an award for his blog. Still, he has a life, a family, and quite a photographic talent to be tended to. The Dragon wishes him the best of luck with all of these, and hopes to hear something about how they progress.

On a more positive note, Tinkergirl over at the Brass Goggles blog, is looking for a steampunk blogging co-conspirator. She is feeling a little overwhelmed with maintaining both the best blog deovted to Steampunk items, and the best forum devoted to Steampunk culture. Who can blame her, she's done a bang-up job so far, which we salute her for. Drop her a line if you are interested. I'd pony up, but my steampunk blogging is probably a little more sporadic than she is looking for.

Speaking of, Steve, if having another hand at wheel would help you keep Scooter in the Sticks going, well I'll through my Stetson into the ring. Heck, living in sticks in Connecticut, I think I might be able to generate ample fodder, now.

EDIT:
You should check out Orin at Scootin' Old Skool's post-mortum for Scooter in the Sticks, his analogy to Calvin and Hobbes is most apt.