If Terry Bennett, as Marvin, and Joy Bennett, as Dear, had a lost son, perpetuating 1950's Shock Theatre humor, channeled Duran Duran via Kajagoogoo's audiencing of the Spandau Ballet, to a theater of absurd Nick Cave Fans........

SCULPTURAL BEDSIDE LAMPS FOR MIXED-RELIGION COUPLES

A PAIR OF OLD PAINTED CLAY DOPE PIPES FROM A DRAWER OF AN OLD JEWELRY CHEST.......

'Hippie Accessory' from the late 60's....when every pot-smoking 'hippie' had to have a set of 'Scales'.....to weigh that $20/oz ganja......this one weighed out nickel/dime and ounce portions......but has been collecting dust for a few decades....

A thrift store run, five years ago, today, to find a hotplate.....on a busy holiday......Finding only piles of leftovers and a mask, that Ryan Lambert left, unpurchased.......I did bag a chipped pillar candle and an old Janis Ian CD........

Is it the destination or the journey from wherever one thinks one is to wherever one thought one was going, in no particular order........No, wait, 'they're putting out some new Stuff on Aisle 7; turn the shopping cart around!....I think I see 'her' putting out an 18th C. Georgian paste belt buckle on that old mannikin, over by the Brides' Maids' dresses, next to those chenille robes with peacocks on their backs......pick up one of those....yes, that pink and yellow one.....while you're over there......Did you notice that "Society's Child" was autographed?   

VIDEO FODDER: Walks of Life

Prince Andrey Nikolayevich Bolkonsky, would you please pass your grape shears to Princess Anna Mikhaylovna Drubetskaya..beneath the table linen, of course,.....it seems that her servant failed to place a pair in the Princess' jacket pocket.......

 

'almost' two pages from Marlon Brando's copy of "The Undiscovered Self: The Dilemma of the Individual in Modern Society" ....about the comprehension and subsequent understanding of unconscious processes that battle for dominance and survival within the constructs that form and perseverate within our brains and manifest in our beliefs and actions; and, admonishments about dwelling in pop mediocrity rather than intellectually beyond the mass norms of 'acceptable' dogmatic thinking.....

I think Brando was aware of the naive complicity that can bring about what seems to 'be'.....that can place a fool like ex-president DJT on his throne and elect an adulatory congress of self-serving howler monkeys to low 'high' places.......as though they had the capacity to do our thinking for us......

THE REAL JOHNNY WIER........he will, of course, be in 'entertainment mode' for Toyko......

 

THE LEGENDARY MIZNERS

behind a set of Encyclopedia Brittania's that I was moving from basement shelves, I discovered a misplaced copy of The Legendary Mizners, by Alva Johnston (illustrated by Reginald Marsh)..... Interesting quotes from the book: "If you steal from one author, it's plagiarism; if you steal from many, it's research."......A Mizner philosophical maxim: "Be nice to people on your way up because you'll meet 'em on your way down"....

DETAIL OF A NEEDLEPOINT PILLOW.......

The micro-needlepoint  pillow, of which this is a detail, was...originally....a gift from its creator to an 'old lover' of mine, who, after breaking up the the needlepointist, gave it to a young man who was living in the spare bedroom, while in college, in England.....later, the 'young man' gave it to me, since it had been made by the ex-lover of my ex-lover......what a strange 'connection'.....I thought this would have been fodder for one of James Burke's 'CONNECTIONS' programs!    

Sasha Velour's "Pirate Jenny"

THE RUPAUL CONTINUUM.....THIS EVENING.....PREMIERING AT OPERA PHILADELPHIA, ON ITS NEW 'DIGITAL CHANNEL' .....SASHA VELOUR'S 'THE ISLAND WE MADE' Angélica Negrón'S VIRTUAL OPERA IN THE AGE OF COVID......  A FAR 'CRY' FROM CRAIG RUSSELL'S 'OUTRAGEOUS', 'GLEN OR GLENDA', 'TOOTSIE' OR 'THE BIRDCAGE'.......

Nostalgic surplus of Thriftshop Hippie Fashionability

at a local thrift store a couple of days ago, I noticed a half dozen copies of Hermann Hesse's novel, Siddhartha.....and dozens of books on Vegan/Vegetarian cooking......This morning, PBS broadcast a program about the fashionability of Youth, in passive revolt, attaching their sentiments to retro-hippy, naturopathic Altruism, ambiguous sexuality, 'cosmic consciousness', reflective introspection and energy realignments....... I thought of the 'failed' temporary shift of perspectives that millions of then "20-somethings' clung to...with the exuberance of unity of shared vision....to the background chords of Ravi Shankar, Donovan and Alice Coltrane, the droning mantra of 'Give Peace A Chance' and the nakedness of Love.....yet, welcome a great Wave of Change, not yet restrained by pessimism and futility.......

It's about time for The Grammy's.....again......What's in 'Store'?

Did I 'get this right'? Finally, last night, I watched THE GRAMMY'S.....having tuned in to the Live Show earlier, just as Little Big Town was standing, country ABBA style, delivering their big hit, almost yawning, having performed it a jillion times before...... But, last night, I watched/listened from the get-go....skipping both the ads for Acne and mood-disorder meds and the mostly attitudinal tongue-stumbling acceptance speeches.....ZZzzz.....Noting this year's prevailing conformacy of Matrix-styled long coats and jackets, bejewelled ladypanties on breast-pumping, crotch-grabbing second tier backup performers, deep-knee-bending, status athletic shoe wearing predictability........just to set the 'tone' for the coming indulgences........This is NOT to imply that I didn't 'get off' on the performances, however! Kendrick Lamar doin' his thang, surrounded by squatting, super-shorter-than him terrorist hip-hoppers in post-apocalyptic military assault gear, fronting 5, or was that 7....to 'up' the excitement, up-facing pivot spots, joined by some glowingly white transgenderish Kabuki drummer, who....abandoning her/his hyper-extensions behind the skins, joined him in chimp squats and head-bobbing, before heading, mouth-up, between Lamar's parting thighs as the red inudates the stage, as Kendrick shoots the trannie.......wait....then a brief intermission....as Dave Chappell confirms that this performance is almost too edgy for CBS.....then, back to Kendrick's unintelligible-anyway lyrics.......All this.....in Red, of course...with a Mephisto-ish Bono, costumed as a Kabuki demon...no less.......All this in an enormous, throbbingly patriotic showdown......cut to some damage control: "This is a Satire by Kendrick Lamar".......as KL shoots the now red-shrouded, white plastic hospital ID-wearing, faceless dance crew, that later resurrects during a mega-kilowatt light show, as Kendrick implores us to burn everyone that we, mistakenly, thought was dear to us........Fade to Black.......Tumultuous Applause, as Nero fiddles while Rome Burns....... Did I see what you saw, folks?

That cute Rootie-Kazootie Doll, that I've had since childhood has transformed me into his Creepy Doll companion!

Now, I look like my Aunt Louise, as the drug-addicted vampire girlfriend of Forrest J. Ackerman!   

Antique Jewelled Silver Chillum with Holder

Combobulated Finger Ornamentation that converts into an Astrolabe .........

a 'set' from the Series that I had devised for The Scott Show.....but, never presented....any of.....They would have received some 'blank' looks, anyway......since they are neither 'on trend' or 'retro-antique'....This 'set' converts to an astrolabe, nipple biter and 'orbital diamonds' single rings...each, with other 'partners' for mood 'stacking'..... Originally a Collection that I devised for a Museum Gift Department, but shrugged at a request for 'duplicate sets'.....Just one of Each???? Yeah!