DESPERATE LIVING John Waters (1977); DVD
Trash/Cult/John Waters/Comedy DVD; Used (Unrated - Adults Only)
John Waters can do no wrong, particularly in the era of his "trash trilogy" which began in 1972 with PINK FLAMINGOS and ended with this "political film" from Waters in which bitch lesbians overthrow the tyrannical rule of Mortville's sadistic Queen Carlotta. The more Waters' early assaults on good taste have become absorbed into mainstream entertainment, the better and more shocking his films look for it. When DESPERATE LIVING stood alone, one hardly knew what to make of it. Now that every lesser talent in show-biz is trying to finance a swimming pool by imitating the Waters touch, it's easy to see, and appreciate, who the innovator and true original is. When Waters made this movie, he was a pariah with nothing to lose...he knew better, but still didn't care. Thus, there's an intoxicating power and thrift-shop integrity to DESPERATE LIVING that none of the Johnny-come-latelies can approach, now that "bad taste" is boxoffice, and safe as milk. If you're gonna wallow in slime, then accept no substitutes, folks: demand DESPERATE LIVING
REFLECTIONS OF EVIL - Director's Original UNCUT Version; DVD
Cult/Experimental/Surreal/Indie DVD, New (Rare!)
Damon Packard's Original 138-minute cult-film masterpiece. This original Packard self-produced DVD contains the Original uncut, unedited version of the film containing all the original music, sound bytes, tv commercials, film clips, sound efx, etc. that he had to remove for legal reasons from the later DVD release from Vital Fluids. Extras include The Early 70's Horror Trailer. It's hard to describe Damon Packard's experimental comedy/horror/satire masterpiece "Reflections of Evil." Stylistically, it bears some resemblance to cyberpunk films like "Tetsuo: the Iron Man" and low-budget gross-out films like "Street Trash." But there's really nothing out there like this film anywhere. "Reflections" is a study in contrasts. Throughout the film, the ugliness of present-day L.A., which Packard presents as a place of paranoia, hatred, and gushing bodily fluids, will be interposed with haunting scenes from a 1970s dreamworld. The plot, such as it is, is built on the wanderings of Packard's character "Bob," a grotesquely obese character. Bob is stuck in a hellish parody of Hollywood, constantly confronted by hostile dogs, police, and street people. The eccentricities of the people he encounters might be funny, except that Packard doesn't leave things at the point of comedy; he presses on until we realize how pathetic his characters are, and then it isn't funny anymore. If you've ever asked the question "What the hell did I just watch?", then prepare to ask it again. REFLECTIONS OF EVIL is definitely NOT for everyone! Some may say that it's not for anyone! An absurd-ist nightmare caught on film, it will never appeal to the casual movie watcher. They'll rip their eyes out over this! It's a meditation on two different time periods. One surreal and idealized, the other manic and paranoid. It's high art. A collection of scenarios and shots, filmed manically and masterfully. Highly recommended.
DRIVE-IN DELIRIUM VOL 1; 4 x DVD set
Horror/Exploitation/Sleaze/Trailers/Grindhouse 4 x DVD set, Used
BAD MUTHAS! CHICKS IN CHAINS! NATURE GONE WILD! STALK 'N SLASH! and much, much more!
Take an eye-popping, jaw-dropping and trouser-bulging trip back to the “gory days” of big screen exploitation with this ultimate collection of the most insane trailer trash ever to up-chuck onto a drive-in screen! Bursting with almost 12 hours of non-stop sex, violence, monsters and mayhem - not to mention an unstoppable posse of foxy soul sisters stickin’ it to the man - DRIVE-IN DELIRIUM VOLUME ONE is a rip-roaring off-road rampage through a cinematic era when films were proudly FASTER, CHEAPER, BLOODIER and BLACKER! So bung in the DVD, crack open a tube and settle back for this mind-numbing cinematic orgy of blood, beasts, breasts and brothers - straight from the drive-in projector to your very own private grindhouse!
CHOPPERTOWN The Sinners (Custom Motorcycle Culture Documentary); DVD
Kustom/Lowbrow/Culture/Choppers/Hotrods DVD + Booklet, New
The award-winning movie that captured a moment in time like no other. Choppertown is the world's first motorcycle documentary about the renowned hot rod and motorcycle club, the Sinners. Modern day greasers, the Sinners are all about the old school. None of them is old enough to have experienced the hot rod heydays of the '50s and '60s, but still they live on the edge of society chopping cars and bikes and searching for vintage parts to make their Rat Rods, Trumps, Mercs, and Bobbers into rolling works of art. Featuring: Kutty Noteboom, Rico Fodrey, James Intveld, Jason Jessee, Cole Foster and the rest of the Sinners.
"Forget the so-called 'reality' chopper shows on TV. This is the real thing." ~Cycle World
"Quite simply the best documentary ever made about custom bikes." ~BSH Magazine
THE GREAT SHARK HUNT Hunter S Thompson (1979); Paperback
635 page collection of Thompson's essays from 1956 to the end of the 1970s Paperback, Used
The book is broken into four parts, not strictly chronological, starting with a collection of his more famous Gonzo-style articles, including those about the Kentucky Derby, his Chicano lawyer friend Oscar Zeta Acosta, and the 1973 Super Bowl; then a section on politics, including excerpts from his "Fear and Loathing on the campaign trail 72" and a group of articles from 1973 and 1974 documenting the last months of Nixon's presidency; a selection of Thompson's earliest writing including for National Observer and the U.S. Air Force; ending up with later cultural commentary and other items. Sections from the author's two original Fear and Loathing serials (...in Las Vegas and ...on the Campaign trail 72) are excerpted. Thompson worked for several different publications throughout his career, and The Great Shark Hunt covers articles from the National Observer, Rolling Stone, The New York Times, Playboy, and others.
DECENTRALISATION 3 Jacques Villeglé (Frac Corse); Paperback
French exhibition book from Jacques Villeglé's 2001 exhibition at Frac Corse (Corsica), Used (Some cover damage)
It has been fifty years now that Jacques Villeglé has chosen his gesture, his expression: fifty years of exploration in a practice that is still alive and which nonetheless belongs to the history of 20th century art, through the group New Realists coordinated by Pierre Restany in 1960, alongside the Arman, the Hain, the Tinguely: a gesture of a collector who chooses and collects on the walls of cities the accumulated and lacerated posters, fragments of images and signs of time. This appropriation of fragments of reality touches both abstract painting and Lettrist poetry; she holds up a mirror to the way in which society constructs its own representation and how the "anonymous lacerator" comes to mark its reaction on the skin of the walls to the world around it. The artist is simply the one who takes these fragments of reality by framing significant details and transforming these rough moments into a painting, thus testifying to contemporary history. Today of international reputation and represented in the largest European and American museums, Jacques Villeglé pays the same attention to the world around him, by taking an interest in and grouping by series his samples of political, advertising posters or even those of electronic music concerts. Villeglé is always a tireless surveyor sensitive to all the significant encounters produced by the uprooting gesture. He is tirelessly enthusiastic to go in search of these riches of everyday culture: also, when he saw photographs of the display columns taken in Bastia by Anne Deleporte, an artist invited by the FRAC for another project, he was ready to come and do his work of sampling ("uncrusting" he says) and preparing a painting in Corsica, sure to find in this memory through the skin of the walls, striking signs of Corsican reality. (French Language Only 48 pages, 100's of colour photos)
JIM MORRISON AND THE DOORS Mike Jahn (1969); Paperback (Rare!)
96 pages Rock/Music/Biography/The Doors 1969; Paperback (Rare book, completely intact but rough condition)
This is among the first books written about The Doors. Morrison himself seemed very different from other rock luminaries at the time, as he came off more like a poet and intellectual. The New Haven arrest is mentioned. The incident at the Whisky is given the nod. All of the important early beats are covered. There is Morrison's time in the wilderness, so to speak. Notably, Morrison's intellectual pursuits elevate him above the status quo. The author stated that to understand The Doors, you should read THE BIRTH OF TRAGEDY, by Friedrich Nietzsche. (Rare!)
HUNTER S THOMPSON His final Hours (Final 24); DVD
2005 Documentary/Docu-drama/Re-enactment/Gonzo/Art DVD, New
A lifetime of alcohol and drug abuse was taking their toll and at 67, with a broken leg, two hip operations and in chronic pain Thompson could no longer live up to the legend he'd created. On February 20, 2005, he decided to end it all with one of his favorite possessions, a Smith and Wesson 45. We chart the life of this troubled genius and uncover why a bullet to the head was the only way out. 'Final 24' is a Canadian TV biography/psychological documentary series. This 4th episode documentary tracing the final 24 hours in the life of American journalist and author Hunter S. Thompson, who committed suicide aged 67. (60 mins)
THE SEAMY SIDE OF HISTORY Honore de Balzac; Paperback
"The Seamy Side of History" (1840-1847) founded on a conception the obverse of the famous "Thirteen," in which a Brotherhood of Consolation, a secret society of men, joined together for the purpose of remedying the evils which society neglects. Madame de la Chanterie, persecuted and outraged, yet never failing in faith and fortitude, is the most sublime figure in the Comedie Humaine. Balzac is always a pleasure to read even if you do not appreciate the story.
Charles Bukowski - The Last Straw (2008); DVD
Art/Transgressive/Realism/Bukowski/Poetry DVD, New
Only a few people were able to witness Charles Bukowski's last poetry reading in 1980, but this documentary captures that fleeting moment for all his fans. THE LAST STRAW features Bukowski reading his own work in Redondo Beach, California, and there is little overlap with his reading in THERE'S GONNA BE A DAMN RIOT IN HERE!
PARADISE LOST John Milton; Paperback
512 pages (2003 reprint)
“This magnificent edition gives us everything we need to read Milton intelligently and with fresh perception.”
"Better to reign in Hell than serve in Heaven."
ALL KNOWN METAL BANDS (2008); Hardcover
300 pages Dan Nelson, Used
This volume contains the names of over 50,000 metal bands. Presuming that each of these bands had an average of four members, and multipling that by the number of bands, one might figure that at least a quarter of a million humans have pledged allegiance to one of them at some point is his or her lifetime. Never has a genre of music relegated to the underground of a civilization had so many devotees; no radio needs to transmit the power of this music, for it is sought out fiercely and freely by the doomed and the dispossessed, whose ears are never soiled by songs of love and weakness. These names are invisible tokens to be spoken aloud, each representing a human quest for superhuman spectacle: shaking floorboards and quivering walls, split ears leaking blood, with faces painted and ornaments pointy, voices uttering eternal truths shunned by woman and man alike.
