Rembrandt and the Face of Jesus is a tight-focus exhibit running at the Philadelphia Museum of Art through October 30. Includes a good proportion of European loans, so this is not stuff you can see in town any old time.

Jim Henson’s Fantastic World is at NY’s Museum of The Moving Image through January 16. This has been a traveling exhibition, but at this stop it is augmented with additional screenings of film and television work. If you were not a kid in the 1960s, pre-S.Street, you have no idea what a kick Henson’s Muppets were. You never knew when or where they would turn up on the old cathode ray tube, or what they might do when they did. It was like a guerilla puppet squad from Surrealville.

A new interview with modern comics master, Jaime Hernandez.

33rd Annual Wheels Of Time Rod & Custom Jamboree in Macungie, PA this weekend. This is a huge and wonderful gathering of hot rods and custom cars from all over the east coast and beyond. I used to walk around there in a rubber-necked daze every year. Catch it if you can.

Fizzboomski The Anarchist: a comic strip from 1905 to 1907 that lives up to all the stereotypes you expect (don’t let the lack of thumbnails worry you, click on through to see the individual strips).

Danny’s Guitar Shop is a fledgling TV series out of Philly, exploring the world of guitars and music with a tone that reminds me somehow of This Old House, minus the renovation aspect (though I suppose that could be a possible subject). A video version of The Fretboard Journal might also be an apt description. Of the currently posted episodes, Pulled Into Nazareth may be the best video tour of the C.F. Martin factory that I have seen. Guitarholics Unanimous is a visit to a vintage guitar show, paradise or purgatory for guitar geeks everywhere.

American Vaudeville Theatre shows already rolling as part of Fringe NYC.

Art Of Gandhara is a rare western exhibit of early Buddhist sculpture from the Gandhara region of Pakistan. Asia Society, NYC through October 30.

Pissarro’s People: figurative work by Camille Pissarro at Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, Williamstown, MA through October 2.

…to Rockaway Beach.

A video visit to C.F. Martin’s old (approximately 1859-1964) North Street factory site.

The Comics Journal dusts off their 1993 interview with Jim Woodring for internet perusal.

At the American Folk Art Museum.

WWII Soviet propaganda posters at Art Institute of Chicago through October 23.

The Philadelphia Wireman.

All About Birds is a well assembled bird identification and information site from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. Plentiful audio included.

Nose Job: military jet nose cones + invited artists = group show at Eric Firestone Gallery, East Hampton through August 21.

Dynamic Dutch portraitist, Frans Hals, at the Metropolitan through October 10.

A medical crisis benefit show for Beth Ann Lejman of Philadelphia music gods, The Stickmen, is happening tomorrow night, July 30 at Connie’s Ric Rac, 7:00pm. Long distance online donations are also set up.

Well, of course I’m a week late to note it, but last Thursday marked what would have been Marshall McLuhan’s 100th birthday. I’ve been reading Understanding Media once a decade since my first time in the late 1970s, and it manages to find new ways to be relevant every time.

‘High art’ painter and ‘low art’ comics pioneer, Lyonel Feininger, features in simultaneous exhibits at the Whitney Museum and Moeller Fine Art, NYC through October.

John Kricfalusi provides a brief on the theory and evolution of cartoon anatomy.

The Ponderosa Stomp gang presents She’s Got the Power! A Girl Group Extravaganza on Saturday, July 30 in NYC. Free! WFMU provides 9 hours of radio coverage (plus a Thursday night preview). Free! Walk in or tune in.

Classic pulp magazine cover art at the Museum Of American Illustration/Society Of Illustrators, NYC through July 30.

Perfectly Damaged. A group show at Derek Eller Gallery, NYC through August 17.

Shakespeare First Folios by the bushel at the Folger Shakespeare Library, Washington, DC, through September 3.

The Louis Armstrong House Museum in Queens, NY. If I said “hallowed ground,” you might say I was pushing it, but I would not agree.

Game not over yet for the National Pinball Museum.

Jason Polan “Living and Working” at Nicholas Robinson Gallery, NYC through July 29. I have to give a nod to any artist who draws a king-size King Kong (and plays ping pong with gallery visitors).

At the Brooklyn Museum through October 2, renderings of Vishnu from antiquity to the recent. Related and simultaneous: Mother India: The Goddess in Indian Painting at the Metropolitan Museum through November 27.

African art at the Neuberger Museum of Art, along with a specialized exhibit of work from Cameroon.

Tyson Reeder at Daniel Reich Gallery, NYC through July 15.

Marc Chagall’s Paris years, at the Philadelphia Museum of Art through July 10.

Meticulously rendered miniature environments are featured in Otherworldly: Optical Delusions and Small Realities at the Museum of Arts and Design, NYC, through September 18.

Dale Chihuly blown glass sculpture at Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, through August 7.

Paintings by Yves Tanguy and Kay Sage at the Katonah Museum of Art through September 18 (looks like the link will not remain stable over time).

Pennsylvania-Dutch folk ways at the Kutztown Folk Festival July 2-10. But what’s with the country and bluegrass sneaking into the music acts? This should be strictly oompah territory.

A close examination of Giovanni Bellini’s St. Francis in the Desert, via The Frick Collection, NYC. Real-life examination running through August 28.

Another set of online remains from an exhibit that has come and gone: Along the Yangzi River: Regional Culture of the Bronze Age from Hunan at China Institute Gallery, NYC.

Pioneering electronic music ensemble, Mother Mallard’s Portable Masterpiece Company, is still out there oscillating. Live Wednesday night at the Issue Project Room, Brooklyn. Must dust off my old vinyl and give it a spin sometime.

Remaining from a departed show at the Morgan, a well presented online exhibit of work by Hilaire-Germain-Edgar Degas.

(and nothing in between) Come September, the Dead Milkmen play festivals in LA and Philly. Some nice co-bills in there too.

Mummies Of The World at the Franklin Institute, Philadelphia, PA.

Smears, Multiples and Other Animation Gimmicks documents still frames of these animation techniques. Which can look pretty darned impressive when taken out of context.

29th Annual Coney Island Mermaid Parade, Saturday at… Coney Island.

Undead Jazzfest — gearing up the 2011 edition. Update 6/17: Interesting.

Medieval fashion seems to be in fashion with shows at both NY’s Morgan and LA’s Getty.

MoMA presents a small exhibition on The Whole Earth Catalog and its satellite publications. Hey, I still have my copies of the Last Catalog and the Epilog. It really was like a proto-internet in print form. Endless fascinating browsing.

One of the best of the “best bands you never heard of” is Glass Eye. Formed in early-1980s Austin, Texas, they did not play blooze rock or Americana or outlaw country or even alt-country. They played Glass Eye music, which was a better idea all around. I saw them twice, and as I said after the second time, “They must be angels or devils, ’cause they sure can’t be human.” (I meant that in a good way.) Learn about the legend. And if you happen to catch the indie movie standard Slacker, well, 3/4 of the band make cameos in there.

Humblug! A new comiks blog from legendary cartoonist/illustrator, Arnold Roth (he’s from Philly, y’know).

The Bray Animation Project is a site documenting the history of Bray Studios — animation pioneers of the early 20th century.

Beginning… yesterday… and running through Saturday at various locations in NYC is Vision Festival 16. Despite the best efforts of some parties to ignore it to death, avant garde jazz lives, kiddies.

Quilts, quilts, quilts. The original American abstractionists.

John Chamberlain sculptures at Gagosian, NYC, through July 8.

Ethiopian Magic Scrolls: Talismanic Art of Ethiopia — 18th and 19th century artifacts at Elizabeth Street Fine Arts through June.

Coney Island’s Dreamland Park burned to the ground 100 years (plus a few days) ago. The event is marked with exhibits at the Coney Island History Project and the Coney Island Museum Spectacularium.

11th annual Bethlehem Guitar Festival this Friday and Saturday at Moravian College, Bethlehem, PA.

A 16-foot model of Vladimir Tatlin’s unbuilt behemoth, Monument to the Third International, accompanied by a feast of Russian Constructivist film posters at Tony Shafrazi Gallery, NYC. R. Crumb’s Kafka art as well. All through July 30.

The Kota Ancestors: 19th century African reliquary figures at Friedman and Vallois, NYC through June 11.

Kirb Your Enthusiam — a panel of artists and writers comment on Jack Kirby art panels. I could get lost for hours reading these.

Fiber artist, Sheila Hicks at the Philly ICA through August 7.

No, it’s not a scary B-movie. This Saturday night, Baby Flamehead plays at The Record Collector, Bordentown, NJ. Billing with Lust2Love, “The Go-Go’s Tribute Band.”

Here’s a big ol’ 1920s Stella jumbo 12-string guitar, as played by Leadbelly, though not this particular one. However, this one was owned by Leo Kottke in the last quarter of the 20th century and sports a haunted houseful of interesting repair work.

Congolese power figure sculptures at the Bruce Museum, Greenwich, through September.

Zap: Masters of Psychedelic Art, 1965 – 1974 at Andrew Edlin Gallery through June 25, 2011 features the seminal underground Zap Comix crew: Robert Crumb, Victor Moscoso, Rick Griffin, S. Clay Wilson, Gilbert Shelton, Spain Rodriguez and Robert Williams. Curated by Chris Byrne and Gary Panter.

The C.F. Martin guitar factory, now and then (1939 film footage!).

The Library of Congress serves up the National Jukebox of historic recordings. Enjoy it before an IP cartel pitches a hissy fit or the funding gets cut off.

Happening all week: Harlem Jazz Shrines Festival 2011.

Dreamweapon: The Art and Life of Angus MacLise documents the diverse and little known art/poetry/music works of the Velvet Underground’s first drummer. Running at various NYC locations through May 29.

Night Vision: Photography After Dark — an exhibit of early (and less early) nocturnal urban photography, running at the Metropolitan Museum of Art through September 18. “Human Head Cake Box Murder!”

Gary Panter exhibit in Paris through June 4.

Last week for George Condo at the New Museum.

Or, Yet Another Picasso Exhibit. And why not? At Gagosian, NYC through June 25: Picasso and Marie-Thérèse: L’amour fou.

Running until July 4 at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Guitar Heroes: Legendary Craftsmen from Italy to New York is an exhibition tracing fine guitar lutherie from the 16th century to the present.

Dead Milkmen at Chicago’s Congress Theater this Saturday night.

Only a few days left for this show at Foxy Production, but we’ll still have the web. Sascha Braunig renders curious portraits of constructed heads. Go, see, it’ll make more sense than I do.

It’s an art history/true crime sandwich. Your optional reading assignment for today: legendary art forger, Elmyr de Hory.

Cocktail Culture: Ritual and Invention in American Fashion assembles booze-related fashion and ephemera from that far away world — the 20th century. Museum of Art, Rhode Island School of Design, through the end of July.

Last couple of weeks for R. Crumb: Lines Drawn On Paper, an exhibit at the Society Of Illustrators, NYC.

Kurt Schwitters: Color and Collage — an exhibit on view at Princeton University Art Museum through June. See also.

Saturday is Record Store Day. Celebrate ‘em and support ‘em while you still can.

Way-ahead-of-their-time acoustic rock eclectica band (acousteclectirock?) Baby Flamehead, finally has their own website up. And two live shows this weekend: Fergies on Friday night and the Media Americana Roots Ramble on Saturday night. Check the website for details.

All In The Family is not, in this case, a TV show. It is an exhibit of art by parents, children and siblings at Philadelphia’s Green Line Cafe from April 14 to May 29.

Not exactly. Picasso: Guitars 1912-1914 features a pair of rickety abstracted guitar constructions, but mainly documents one his more excitingly experimental periods. Running at MoMA through June 6.

Cozy is Karen Schmidt’s remarkable knitted art installation now occupying a cell at Philadelphia’s historic Eastern State Penitentiary.

Colored pencils and a singular imagination. Friedrich Schröder-Sonnenstern exhibit at Michael Werner Gallery, NYC through the end of April.

The Dead Milkmen play at Brooklyn’s Warsaw this Saturday night. No doubt they will be flogging their new (?!) long player, The King In Yellow.

Fresh exhibit of German Expressionism running at MoMA into July. Many more works viewable online.

Recently I put together a little primer on film noir for a friend of mine. Well, the dog knows we need content here, so here’s a copy ‘n’ paste post.

This is one possible film noir essentials list. Loads of great movies here, though let’s face it — it’s such a rich genre that you could throw darts at it blindfolded and come up with a terrific selection. Not exactly a ‘short list’ — though considering the hundreds (thousands?) of noir flicks out there, it is quite short, proportionately — but still, I’ll throw some asterisks on the extra special movies.

What is film noir? I will say it is a sort of ghost genre, haunting other genres: detective, police procedural, gangster, heist, even gothic horror or show biz. It is usually a crime movie with a certain sort of grit, moral ambiguity and an overriding sense of doom, shot with dark and striking cinematography. The classic noir storyline follows an ethically compromised protaganist as one wrong choice or bad twist of fate throws them onto a downhill path of inescapable doom.

But then again, “Is this noir?” is such a subjective question, often coming down to mood and tone and your own opinion. Bear in mind that for the first couple of decades, these filmmakers never considered themselves to be making a “film noir.” It is a genre that was defined in retrospect by French cinephiles. At the time, they were simply making crime dramas.

Take note of the year of release to avoid bad latter day remakes. It also might be instructive to watch these in order and see the form develop over the decades.

Regarding a child-safety rating, well… given the old production code, anything up to the early-60s should be more or less clean. That is if you don’t mind them watching nihilistic movies filled with low lives, crime and cold-blooded murder.

The list…

The Glass Key (1942)
Not quite noir yet, but almost. You have the dark mood, shaky ethics and a protaganist in over his head. Based on a novel by the patriarch of hard-boiled fiction, Dashiell Hammett.

The Seventh Victim (1943)
Another not quite noir, and not even a crime movie. Rather a gothic suspense. But it definitely has the cinematography and all the bleakness you can handle. Produced by the 1940s king of psychological horror, Val Lewton.

*Double Indemnity (1944)
Many people name this Billy Wilder film as the true beginning of film noir. I am not inclined argue with them. It has the classic storyline, great acting (Barbara Stanwyck, Fred MacMurray, Edward G. Robinson) and terrific cinematography (the film that invented the ‘venetian blind shadows’ cliche). Screenplay by Wilder and Raymond Chandler, from the novel by James M. Cain.

Murder, My Sweet (1944)
Detective sub-group — based on Raymond Chandler’s Farewell, My Lovely. Dick Powell as Philip Marlowe is not Bogart, but he’s not bad at all. It is perhaps better to have a Marlowe who seems more vulnerable than tough ol’ Bogie. Perhaps tilts more toward detective than noir, but quite worthwhile.

*Detour (1945)
Another classic. Cheap, short and bleak as hell. The plot epitomises the classic doomed noir storyline to a tee. One that’s on everyone’s short list.

*The Big Sleep (1946)
Tilting back to detective again. Based on Chandler’s novel of the same name, with Bogart as Marlowe and Lauren Bacall as the femme. Storywise, tilting a bit away from full-on noir (you never feel that Bogie isn’t in control), but the cinematography is right in there with the best. And Bogart & Bacall? Their (real-life) chemistry crackles like lightning.

The Killers (1946)
It’s no spoiler to say that Burt Lancaster gets killed by mobsters. It happens right at the start, and the rest of the film is an investigator’s flashback-enhanced uncovering of how it came to be. A fine meat and potato noir.

Lady In The Lake (1946)
One more Chandler/Marlowe adaptation. This one has the unusual gimmick of being filmed ‘first-person’ from Marlowe’s point of view. Surprisingly not-bad.

*The Postman Always Rings Twice (1946)
Definite noir, definite prestigious reputation, with career highlight performances by John Garfield and Lana Turner. Based on another James M. Cain novel. He really had the obsessively doomed behavior down pat.

Born To Kill (1947)
I cannot actually remember this one in enough detail to comment, but it is a good, solid, straight down the line noir. Lawrence Tierney as the protaganist? You know he’s got to give a great twitchy performance.

Out Of The Past (1947)
Another ‘big rep’ noir, directed by frequent Lewton collaborator, Jacques Tourneur. Stars the triangle of Robert Mitchum, Jane Greer and Kirk Douglas. Based on the novel, Build My Gallows High — now that’s a title, eh?

*The Lady From Shanghai (1947)
An Orson Welles noir… ’nuff said.

*Force Of Evil (1948)
Another fine performance by John Garfield as a lawyer working, ever more uneasily, for mobsters. A very urban noir.

They Live by Night (1948)
Nicholas Ray’s first feature can be thumbnailed as the 1940s incarnation of Badlands.

The Naked City (1948)
A landmark police procedural packed with amazing NYC location footage, shot in the middle of a summer heatwave.

He Walked By Night (1948)
The coastal flipside to the previous film, as police track a deviously clever killer (Richard Basehart) through plentiful LA locations. Jack Webb has a small role as a crime lab tech, and took much inspiration to a little project he was cooking up. This film and The Naked City cast long shadows over police dramas from Dragnet to the latest TV series.

Criss Cross (1949)
More Burt Lancaster, more LA locations and back to the classic noir storyline. Not great, but a fine straight-ahead noir. And I often think noir is served up better by the low profile programmers than the big prestige pictures.

*The Third Man (1949)
Welles. Well, directed by Carol Reed — Welles only acts, but it sure feels like his fingerprints are all over it. Written by Graham Greene — not just a great noir, but a great movie. Short list either way.

*Stray Dog (1949)
Directed by Akira Kurosawa, a crackling example of Japanese noir. Another police procedural set in a heatwave — a rookie cop loses his gun and sets out to track down the hood (practically his doppelganger) who is killing with it. Featuring remarkable street footage of Tokyo post-WWII.

*The Asphalt Jungle (1950)
Heist sub-group. Finely directed by John Huston, Sterling Hayden puts together a team to pull a big haul. And then the complications begin.

Dark City (1950)
Charlton Heston, Jack Webb, Ed Begley and Harry Morgan are low-life crooked gamblers caught up in trouble when something happens to one of their marks. The antagonistic baiting between future cop partners, Webb and Morgan, is morbidly fascinating.

D.O.A. (1950)
Edmond O’Brien is poisoned and sets out to find out who dunnit before he dies. A standard.

*Sunset Boulevard (1950)
Billy Wilder again, with a tour de force that shows noir isn’t only found in crime settings. The Hollywood movie biz is every bit as dark. Oh yes. Another great one.

Ace In The Hole (1951)
And one more from Wilder, some say his darkest ever. An examination of the tabloid news mentality, as the story of a man trapped in a cave is exploited to the hilt by venal journalist, Kirk Douglas.

The Narrow Margin (1952)
Noir on a train. Cop, Charles McGraw, tries to get endangered (and hostile) witness, Marie Windsor, through a cross-country train journey alive.

Kansas City Confidential (1952)
A complicated heist plot. Some noir elements missing, but a solid and reliable programmer.

*Pickup On South Street (1953)
Sam Fuller (who is practically a genre of his own) directs Richard Widmark as a NYC cannon (pickpocket) pulled between cops, cons and commie spies. Great, intense performances — but Fuller always pulled that from his actors.

Dragnet (1954)
A feature film version that is less flat-footed than you might expect. I’m not sure if the series had made the transition from radio to TV yet or not. Police procedural, not much noir, some nice LA footage.

Shield For Murder (1954)
Bad Lieutenant — 1950s version.

Killer’s Kiss (1955)
Kubrick’s first feature film, the story of a small-time boxer who becomes involved with a taxi dancer who has trouble in her life. Very low budget, which only adds to the charm. Nice gritty NYC locations.

*Kiss Me Deadly (1955)
Mickey Spillane’s Mike Hammer character hits the celluoid in a beautifully pulpy hard-boiled flick. Probably tilts more toward detective than noir, but certainly has plenty of noir cues. You will note plenty of influences picked up in films of later decades.

*The Killing (1956)
Kubrick’s second feature — a top-notch heist film told in non-linear time and from differing viewpoints. Sterling Hayden is back with a new plan, backed by a fine cast of mid-century character actors.

*Sweet Smell Of Success (1957)
NY show-biz noir, featuring Burt Lancaster as an all-powerful (corrupts absolutely) newspaper columnist yanking a sleazy publicity agent (Tony Curtis) around to do his dirty work. Excellent.

The Lineup (1958)
Police procedural/crime procedural hybrid featuring Eli Wallach and plentiful SF location footage.

*Touch Of Evil (1958 — go for 1998 ‘restored edition’)
One more Orson Welles noir, and probably his best. Just incredibly well made throughout. The cinematography is particularly beautiful, with the camera almost never at rest — even on landscape shots.

Murder By Contract (1958)
How a hitman does his job.

Elevator To The Gallows (Ascenseur pour l’echafaud) (1958)
The French named it, now they send it back. Louis Malle directs a tight little tale of murder gone sideways. With music by Miles Davis.

Breathless (A Bout de Souffle) (1959)
One more from France… Jean-Luc Godard’s notorious first feature. Perhaps not so much a film noir as a film about a protagonist who has watched way too much noir. I didn’t realize until my most recent viewing that this movie has a lot more humor in it than overly serious film buffs credit.

*Odds Against Tomorrow (1959)
Nearing the end of the classic era, a fine cast of noir veterans (plus Harry Belefonte) assembles for a sharp heist film including a cool jazz soundtrack by John Lewis, of the Modern Jazz Quartet.

All Night Long (1961)
Shakespeare’s Othello reset at an all-night jazz session in a London loft. A rarely seen British production with appearances by some surprisingly major musicians (Charles Mingus! Dave Brubeck!). Patrick McGoohan (The Prisoner) plays the Iago of the piece, and does a fine job of drumming to boot. It’s great to see him cut loose as an out and out villain.

*Blast Of Silence (1961)
A cheap, bleak, existential tale of a hitman having a bad week. Really makes a positive of the low budget and cheap locations. The closing scene could almost be seen as a tombstone for the original noir era.

What Ever Happened To Baby Jane? (1962)
Oh, this really isn’t noir — more Hollywood Gothic, but it does have plenty of darkness and makes such a perfect bookend to Sunset Boulevard. I cannot resist throwing it in. Bette Davis and Joan Crawford play faded show biz sisters living out a private war in their shabby mansion. Ladled generously with black humor.

The Girl Hunters (1963)
Mickey Spillane stars as his own creation, Mike Hammer. And pretty woodenly at that. Not an especially good movie, but not bad either. Great novelty factor and sports an enjoyably sleazy and gritty aura to boot.

*Point Blank (1967)
Some call this the advent of psychedelic noir. Well, I suppose that could work. Lee Marvin is a force of nature as an ex-con hunting down the partners who stabbed him in the back. Although… when you really think about it after a viewing or two, there are some odd little points that have led some people to some odd little theories.

And this is where I will cut off the list. We’re certainly well past the original noir era at this point, and I will leave you to sift through the later, more self-conscious and revivalist offerings for yourself. Or dig into more of the old stuff. You can always go to the IMDB and get hundreds more suggestions.

After five years lost at sea, Big Mess Orchestra returns to Philadelphia’s Trocadero Theatre on December 18 and 19 with a shiny new Christmas Cabaret titled: Als Die Dinosaurier Die Erde Durchsteiften. Be there or be extinct.

Currently running at Philadelphia’s ICA through August 2nd is the exhibit, Pathways to Unknown Worlds: Sun Ra, El Saturn & Chicago’s Afro-Futurist Underground, 1954-1968. Coordinated events include live performances (The Arkestra on July 1), films and a lecture by Ra biographer John Szwed.

Ponderosa Stomp No.8. Extra amazing lineup this year.

The pale horse keeps coming. Harrison Ridley, Jr. — beloved Philadelphia jazz educator, DJ, fan, collector and just plain nice guy — passed away on February 19th. If you never heard his long running Sunday night show on WRTI — The Historical Approach To The Positive Music — you didn’t just miss out on an excellent, educational and heartfelt radio program. You also missed out on Harrison’s always cheerful and reassuring presence. Read the linked articles for more about his life and many accomplishments besides radio. Thanks, Professor Ridley, for the music, edification and always-positive enthusiasm. We will miss you, yes indeedy. His absence leaves a sad space in old Philly.

As you’ve probably heard by now, Lux Interior (Erick Purkhiser) — front shaman of The Cramps — shuffled off this mortal coil last week. Man, there’s way too many cool people dying, way too frequently these days. A nice link for you: this post at WFMU includes the link for a great 2004 chat with Lux and Ivy on the excellent Fool’s Paradise program, along with an extended compilation of some of the old rekkids they loved. Did The Cramps mean a lot to me? Well, yeah — both for their own music and for their example of the joys and mysteries of digging into the obscure underculture of America… from crazy rock ‘n’ roll to crazy movies to crazy ol’ magazines. When I heard Songs The Lord Taught Us in summer 1980, my own little postpunk adventure was taking its first wobbly bounces down the runway — and for a little while there, it was really, really hard to not turn into a Cramps imitator. That wild, yet ethereal record hit deep. Listen to it by the light of a full moon sometime, you’ll see. Young Erick dove into the rock ‘n’ roll universe with a no-turning-back totality that few ever came close to, and now he’s gone… real gone, mad daddy.

Send Me Your Head is a new art project from busy Miss Kitty. Small 3×3 paintings, “a portrait a day, maybe.” Enjoy her brushwork and color sense, and perhaps submit your own photo for rendering. (No, I am not on there yet.)

The True Life Adventures Of Violence Girl is Alice Bag’s episodic memoir of her life in L.A., from childhood to the punk years and beyond. Blog format, so be sure to go to the oldest post and work your way backwards for the correct order.

Crate Digging, Don’t Do It!

On this day, thirty years ago, I got my first guitar. It was an extremely cheap and cheesy Les Paul copy made somewhere in Asia, without a brand name even, and purchased from Sears. It was a cheap try-out guitar, that first step on the road to perdition. A couple of months later, I upgraded to a used Gibson SG. Was guitar playing my biggest mistake ever? Possibly, but its been good to have guitars as my steadfast buddies all these years.

I’ve just added a destination to the Weblogbog in the left sidebar: Guitarbench.com. It’s a new acoustic guitar oriented blog — lots of exotic tropical wood fetishing, zero metallic shred heading.

Presenting a freshly baked web album for you. A Fretful Menagerie is my latest batch of solo acoustic guitar pieces. Better recorded, better guitar, better technique (with more truly independent bass and melody), same old stumblebum execution. Well, three out of four ain’t bad. Handmade mood music for worrisome souls. Available free (as always) on its own page, or via the Web Album Dumpster.