“PRINCE OF DARKNESS WENT TO PLYMOUTH, summer all year long, said is this global warming or just some stupid song?” This query, which deserves a resounding double YES! answer, comes from those arch mock-rockers, Spinal Tap, on their 2009 disc, Back from the Dead. The song, “Warmer than Hell,” paints a smoldering portrait of our world superheated by global warming and too hot even for Satan to “enjoy.” Its concluding verse: “Sir Lucifer left London in his chariot of flame. What say I take the credit, then, and you shall take the blame.” After a sardonic chuckle and a little LOL, it got me to thinking about a little cult gem of an eco-conscious record from 1970, psych-rockers Spirit’s Twelve Dreams of Dr. Sardonicus, so … Spinal Tap, meet Spirit. Read More »
ABOUT HALFWAY UP THE LONG BEACH PENINSULA on the southwest Washington coast, in rather unprepossessing territory*, you’ll happen across Jimella’s Seafood Market & Cafe, gemlike yet equally low key, a keen practitioner of things local, fresh, organic, slow and sustainable. And let’s add REMARKABLY FLAVORABLE to the list (sure, why not, in all caps). You see, the owners, Jimella Lucas (she cooks) and Nanci Main (she bakes), own and ran the critically acclaimed Ark restaurant up the road in Nahcotta for more than 20 years. Worth the trip if you’re in this Lewis-and-Clark end-of-the-trail windswept-and-wild landscape? Absolutely. And it’s off the scale in green goodness! “Thank you for buying local,” a sign above the front door reads, “we’ll pay it forward.” Read More »
‘Well, it’s 1969, okay, all across the USA’
ALSO SPRACH JAMES OSTERBERG, aka Iggy Pop, on the Stooges’ eponymous first LP, released 40 years ago—the year the Eagle landed on the moon, the Woodstock music festival celebrated peace and love, John and Yoko held a few “Bed-Ins for Peace,” Ohio’s Cuyahoga River burst into flame, Charlie Manson and “family” ran murderously rampant, Vietnam War protests spread, the Chicago Eight were tried and the National Environmental Protection Act (NEPA) passed in Congress.
Looking back—after the initial wow factor wears off of just what an amazing year it was in matters social, political, scientific, cultural and environmental—what true change was wrought that has impacted the world today? How firmly was the establishment actually shaken? And keep in mind that while August 1969’s Woodstock spelled peaceful coexistence for the most part, December 1969’s death at Altamont displayed a darker side of the hippie dream. From a green perspective, where it’s always better to be a carpe diem realist than a laissez faire optimist, a lot of positive change was truly wrought, a good portion of the establishment was legitimately shaken. Nineteen-sixty-nine was more than just okay. Read More »
I CAN PICTURE ARTIST-PROVOCATEUR MARCEL DUCHAMP—had he time traveled forward—spray-painting his name, or a clever variant, on a qualifying “Cash for Clunkers” car and declaring it ART (much like he did in 1914 with a commonplace cast-iron bottle-drying rack; “I purchased this as a sculpture already made,” he later explained in a letter to his sister). But art signifying what? Art making what kind of statement in our troubled times of meltdowns both financial and environmental? Remember, the mischievous Duchamp also turned a urinal into readymade art (Fountain), signing it “R. Mutt.” Read More »