A 50s-era cult that didn't end well.
https://laist.com/2018/12/10/bizarre_story_behind_the_suicide_bombing_of_a_socal_cult.php?fbclid=IwAR27k0UFxLRH59Sad4DDkNbCVq6ZwQtkiYy8V_2rky43MYzXqF1Sku-SQ-Q
― nickn, Tuesday, 11 December 2018 01:48 (five years ago) link
wow
― Squeaky Fromage (VegemiteGrrl), Tuesday, 11 December 2018 02:58 (five years ago) link
Mentioned by Elvis T above in 2014, but new article with pictures.
― nickn, Tuesday, 11 December 2018 03:11 (five years ago) link
lotta weirdass shit happened around those Santa Susana mountains man
― Squeaky Fromage (VegemiteGrrl), Tuesday, 11 December 2018 06:34 (five years ago) link
Oh hell yes... https://data.nbcstations.com/national/KNBC/la-nuclear-secret/
― Elvis Telecom, Saturday, 14 September 2019 02:21 (four years ago) link
that is interesting
― Dan S, Saturday, 14 September 2019 02:33 (four years ago) link
Kurt Braunholer did a podcast years ago where he blindfolded a guest & took them to an obscure location somewhere around LA - in one of the eps he took a guest to this site & it blew my mind (no pun intended) that it existedLotsa crazy shit up there
― Squeaky Fromage (VegemiteGrrl), Saturday, 14 September 2019 02:47 (four years ago) link
A 24 min talk on a book. Offered by the Autry Museum in LA, but I haven't listened to it.
Bohemians West: Free Love, Family, and Radicals in Twentieth Century America
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k5T4t-Xx_6M
― nickn, Wednesday, 24 March 2021 17:25 (three years ago) link
Erik Davis' latest email looks at Eden Ahbez's Dharmaland https://www.burningshore.com/p/dharmalands
― Elvis Telecom, Thursday, 26 August 2021 00:39 (two years ago) link
From 1948...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2UVpj0K6RO0
― Elvis Telecom, Thursday, 26 August 2021 00:44 (two years ago) link
Cool, thanks.
― Hitsville Ukase (James Redd and the Blecchs), Thursday, 26 August 2021 00:47 (two years ago) link
yay! i love when you bump this thread, Elvis! <3
― terminators of endearment (VegemiteGrrl), Thursday, 26 August 2021 01:23 (two years ago) link
If I want founding of LA, Chinatown, and occult weirdness to read on vacation, which book to I want?
― Taliban! (PBKR), Thursday, 26 August 2021 01:36 (two years ago) link
Just got around to Dharmaland the other day it and dug it. I liked how they took it seriously with the arrangements - not kitschy or goofy at all
― nobody like my rap (One Eye Open), Thursday, 26 August 2021 12:44 (two years ago) link
This is cool, thanks!
― Hitsville Ukase (James Redd and the Blecchs), Thursday, 26 August 2021 13:03 (two years ago) link
At least one of these tunes sounds a lot like a Hair outtake.
― Hitsville Ukase (James Redd and the Blecchs), Thursday, 26 August 2021 13:12 (two years ago) link
http://shadowboxstudio.com/edenahbez.htm Joe Romersa's website is my favorite Eden Ahbez thing. The best part is the section called "phone messages from ahbe" which consists of 4 long, rambling voicemails he'd left on Romersa's answering machine. In message #3, he performs an original song called "Gone Yogi".
― The 25 Best Songs Ever Ranked In Order (Deflatormouse), Thursday, 26 August 2021 16:18 (two years ago) link
I liked Erik Davis's blog post more than the embedded track from Dharmalands.
― The 25 Best Songs Ever Ranked In Order (Deflatormouse), Thursday, 26 August 2021 17:50 (two years ago) link
Speaking of Erick Davis, this one is on my short list... I heard a couple interviews with him when it was released:
High Weirdness - Drugs, Esoterica, and Visionary Experience in the Seventies
https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/high-weirdness
― Andy the Grasshopper, Thursday, 26 August 2021 18:13 (two years ago) link
RIP Skylaire Alfvegren. I knew her back when she was writing for Ben Is Dead and she went on to be a great writer and source for a lot of what I've been posting here. Kinda shocked here...http://www.cryptozoonews.com/alfvegren-obi/
― Elvis Telecom, Monday, 30 August 2021 05:35 (two years ago) link
i'm here for jack parsons
― "HYYOOOOOOONK!" is the sound I make (Karl Malone), Sunday, 12 September 2021 15:55 (two years ago) link
but you know what, i'm open to other kooks as well
Have you read Strange Angel?
― What Does Blecch Mean to Me? (James Redd and the Blecchs), Sunday, 12 September 2021 16:33 (two years ago) link
nope! currently trying to find somewhere i can stream the tv version though
― "HYYOOOOOOONK!" is the sound I make (Karl Malone), Sunday, 12 September 2021 16:36 (two years ago) link
yeah i want to watch the tv series too
― terminators of endearment (VegemiteGrrl), Sunday, 12 September 2021 17:20 (two years ago) link
The Dollop comedy podcast did a surprisingly great episode on Parsonscant find the ep in their feed but it’s on youtubehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WgTT0Om5rJw
― terminators of endearment (VegemiteGrrl), Sunday, 12 September 2021 17:23 (two years ago) link
The TV series' pacing isn't great. Season two (and by extension, the entire series) ends when L Ron Hubbard shows up - so you're missing a good 75% of the story. Also because it's CBS, everything has been cleaned up for broadcast television. Sex And Rockets is still the book to read first before tracking down the show.
― Elvis Telecom, Sunday, 12 September 2021 20:45 (two years ago) link
good to know, thx Elvis
― terminators of endearment (VegemiteGrrl), Sunday, 12 September 2021 21:05 (two years ago) link
One a somewhat related note... twilight for the back-to-the-land movement:
https://www.gq.com/story/californias-vanishing-hippie-utopias?utm_source=pocket-newtab
― Andy the Grasshopper, Monday, 13 September 2021 18:56 (two years ago) link
parsons and l. ron are fuckin dorks its all about marjorie cameron
― kurt schwitterz, Monday, 13 September 2021 19:04 (two years ago) link
marjorie cameron: also fuckin dorks iirc
― mark s, Monday, 13 September 2021 19:31 (two years ago) link
https://arcana-media.s3.amazonaws.com/thumbcache/5e/6f/5e6f87d242071503607bc932fb5f47f6.jpg
Found a used copy of this recently... really cool little book (the font is quite large), very well put together with tons of interesting illustrations. Gordon Kennedy's Children of the Sun already covered a lot of the fruit & nut germanic proto-hippies, but I found the stuff about California TB sanitoriums to be especially interesting - and how this architecture had a profound influence on the modernist look (Neutra to Eames, etc.). I knew TB was a scourge but I don't think I was aware of just how bad it was... and SO many people came to California & the Southwest to heal themselves of it.
― Andy the Grasshopper, Monday, 13 September 2021 19:41 (two years ago) link
I went to a closing sale at a sanatorium in Altadena, not much left when I was there. It's now a bunch of expensive single family houses (called La Vina, as was the sanatorium).
Zorthian Ranch in Altadena has a commune vibe (and is still around), though it really isn't one.
― nickn, Monday, 13 September 2021 20:08 (two years ago) link
The Wormwood Star is leaving Criterion at the end of this month - of course you can catch it on YouTube, but the Criterion's copy is far better looking. (check out Curtis Harrington's other stuff while you're there)
― Elvis Telecom, Friday, 19 November 2021 00:19 (two years ago) link
Can't believe I literally learnt about eden ahbez last night and this is the second time today I come across him mentioned in my daily trawl through the internet
― Urbandn hope all ye who enter here (dog latin), Friday, 19 November 2021 00:58 (two years ago) link
Almost wanted to revive this thread recently to mention that cult leader Mel something who had something to do with Zabriskie Point but I think he was more East Coast, Boston-based.
― Sterl of the Quarter (James Redd and the Blecchs), Friday, 19 November 2021 02:35 (two years ago) link
Mel Lyman.
― Sterl of the Quarter (James Redd and the Blecchs), Friday, 19 November 2021 02:41 (two years ago) link
Ryan Walsh's book Astral Weeks talks about Lyman and the entire Fort Hill community in Boston. Worth checking out
― Elvis Telecom, Friday, 19 November 2021 22:19 (two years ago) link
Yeah. Love the quote here from Jonathan Richman and then the rest is something I only just recently heard about:
If the Velvets were busy, Richman would wander through Cambridge and sometimes pick up an issue of Avatar. (“I wasn’t sure I understood all of it but could seethey admired this Mel fellow,” he says.) Meanwhile, another young Velvet Underground fanatic was also reading Avatar, and he felt he understood everything it published, especially the Mel-centric pages. Wayne McGuire had been arrested and convicted for selling the paper in November 1967. For his loyalty, Lyman invited him and other salesmen to Fort Hill for a celebratory dinner, and McGuire dedicated himself to turning the population of Boston on to his guru’s brilliance. Once the Velvets started frequenting the Tea Party, the band got rolled onto McGuire’s hero roster, leading to his Crawdaddy essay “The Boston Sound,” easily the most intense endorsement of the Velvets to be published during their career. “NOW IS THE TIME FOR DISTORTIONS TO BURN,” McGuire screams via typewriter, “with flaming sword in hand I will clear away those ugly growths which parade as insightful musical criticism. . . . This is a review of the Velvet Underground, this is a review of the end of the world.”Walsh, Ryan H.. Astral Weeks (pp. 120-121). Penguin Publishing Group.
― Sterl of the Quarter (James Redd and the Blecchs), Friday, 19 November 2021 22:52 (two years ago) link
Mel Lyman seems like a real prick
― Andy the Grasshopper, Friday, 19 November 2021 22:57 (two years ago) link
Yeah, Rolling Stone did an expose of him pretty early on: among many other things, he saw Jim Kweskin coming, got into the Kweskin Band as harmonica player (in the witty, lively, multiple POV music doc Festival, he condescends to drop us some pearls ov wisdomb), may have had something to do with Kweskin disbanding them at peak, then moving into Lyman Family house, butt of jokes, called "Jimmy the Jew" by Mel, back on stage later ranting about end of the world, did at least one album about that, some better stuff later, at least he's outlived Mel, I think.probably in the Rolling Stone anthology Mindfuckers, published by their Straight Arrow Press, long OOP< but some other stuff in there I wish I could forget. (Nah if I could find an affordable copy, would prob re-read)
― dow, Saturday, 20 November 2021 02:18 (two years ago) link
There’s an old clip from The Dick Cavett Show online where he’s interviewing those two kids from Zabriskie Point and they’re talking about that whole Mel Lyman business and it’s just really creepy to watch.
― Josefa, Saturday, 20 November 2021 02:37 (two years ago) link
Yeah, read about that but didn’t watch.
― Sterl of the Quarter (James Redd and the Blecchs), Saturday, 20 November 2021 02:38 (two years ago) link
I did watch John Simon vs. Mort Sahl though, which was also kind of unpleasant.
― Sterl of the Quarter (James Redd and the Blecchs), Saturday, 20 November 2021 02:45 (two years ago) link
Seem to recall Antonioni visiting Sammy Davis, Jr.’s poolhouse to talk to The Band while they were recording the s/t about possibly doing the soundtrack for Zabriskie Point but can’t find a reference right now.
― Sterl of the Quarter (James Redd and the Blecchs), Saturday, 20 November 2021 02:52 (two years ago) link
Some discussion here: The Band.
― Sterl of the Quarter (James Redd and the Blecchs), Saturday, 20 November 2021 02:54 (two years ago) link
Kliph Nesteroff wrote a great article about Lyman for the WFMU blog - it leads with this messed up Cavett interview.
― Elvis Telecom, Saturday, 20 November 2021 22:26 (two years ago) link
Yeah, keep coming back to that article, but it’s so dense I haven’t gotten all the way through it.
― Sterl of the Quarter (James Redd and the Blecchs), Saturday, 20 November 2021 22:39 (two years ago) link
Every time I see the name Geoff Muldaur I think of his ex-wife Maria and her song “Midnight at the Oasis,” written by big time soap opera composer and meditation maven David Nichtern.
― Sterl of the Quarter (James Redd and the Blecchs), Saturday, 20 November 2021 22:42 (two years ago) link
To further detail, here is an article by Nichtern’s son: https://lithub.com/how-loving-the-princess-bride-led-me-to-buddhism/
― Sterl of the Quarter (James Redd and the Blecchs), Saturday, 20 November 2021 22:47 (two years ago) link