Village Madness!

Taylor Negron On Off Beat Cinema.

Heh heh heh, Nice to see these guys still going strong, they introduced me to so many

weird films....Keep watching the skies....

New Stuff For You To Dig!

One of the great things about this blog is when people leave comments, especially

comments with cool info or links and stuff. I've learned alot just from following

comments. Recently Nick Rossi hipped me to the fact that Cosmo Alley (which is

featured in The Rebel Set) was an actual place and you can read more about it and

some other cool places at Folk Beat.

If you dig free music, and you dug this album, than you will dig volume 2 which you can get at Club Cortez. Thanks to Phil from Eastern Eye for that one.

And all on my own I discovered this cool blog, where among other things you can find a good selection of Kenneth Patchen's albums.

These should keep you busy for a while, at least until I can drag the old Victrola back here and rip some of my own records for you.

Thanks again guys! Keep the comments coming!

The Rebel Set - Gene Fowler Jr. - 1959

Now this is one that I've wanted to see for ages. I'm always hoping that I'll discover a film that will be as good as Bucket Of Blood or Bloody Brood but alas it never seems to happen. I had really hoped The Rebel Set aka Beatsville would live up to my expectations but unfortunately it didn't. It starts off well enough with some cool bongo jazz in a beat club called Cosmo Alley. Soon in we meet the proprietor, played by Edward Platt (the chief from Get Smart) and find out that he is planning an armed car robbery, apparently running a beatnik coffee house is just his cover or something. The first half hour is pretty good and then it just turns into your run of the mill caper film, which isn't necessarily a bad thing, but I was kind of hoping for more. I was kind of hoping the whole thing would take place in the beatnik world in the way that Bucket of Blood does.

There are some pretty good poetry readings but the get interrupted by dialogue so I didn't bother ripping them, besides, as it turns out, this film is public domain. I actually found it over at the Internet Archive, so I've embedded it here and you can watch the whole film at the end of the post.

"Spray perfumes of France upon this beatsville, fling petals of rose upon this bed,

strew oceans of lotions and liquid commotions, put cologne on the beards of

each man."

"Don't you ever lose one a them set-to's?"

"Rarely, if ever."

"Then you must be a virtuous-oso as they say."

"Well yes and no, I merely make sure that my antagonists are bad chess players."

"I used to have faith in lots of thing Johnny. Love conquers all."

Beatnik chick dance routine

You are now entering Cosmo Alley

"What I wanna know is why'd you pick us, us three?"

"Because none of you are beat, you're merely beaten. You're not detached, you're

unemployed. You're not dispassionate, you're afraid, scared.

"Lost! lost! The marshall has the big say so in this mans town. Tarnished star on

the breast of fate. Feel the long dark soul at the railway siding, where the beat

train stands."

"From nothingness to nothingness. Go! go capricious Luna on thy fools errand.

The passengers on this sad train are the five senses. Smell, oh nostrils! Hear, oh

ears! The skull is a piece of baggage, a hatbox, it has no contents. The brain

is missing."

"I am bugged! Beyond recall!"

"What are you doing with a gun?"

"Just keeping it company."

Watch the whole film right here!

Miss Coffee House at The Insomniac

Dug here!

North Beach Girl

Let's Have A Beatnik Party!

Men's Mags - Rogue - Nov. 1960

Many thanks to my good friend Robbie P. for this fantastic contribution.

Here we have transcripts of several of the tracks from Del Close and John Brent's landmark beatnik comedy album "How To Speak Hip" taken from the november issue of Rogue magazine.

Thanks again Rob!

Jazz Is My Religion

Awesome beginning to a short film by Louis Van Gasteren. Cool jazz and poetry by

Ted Joans.

Dig It !

Unexpected Hipster #8 - Oddball (Donald Sutherland) - Kelly's Heroes - Brian G. Hutton - 1970

This is a bit of an unusual one. I'm not sure exactly what they were thinking when they dreamed up this character. Maybe they were trying to appeal to the younger generation of the time with a hippie type character although Oddball and his tank crew are clearly more of the beatnik variety than hippies. They are inspired by beats right down to Oddballs mechanic, aptly named Moriarty (remember Dean Moriarty from On The Road?), his fez wearing gunner, and the bohemian setup that they have created for themselves while waiting for orders. This is all strange because the beatnik comic relief character kind of phased out by the mid 60's and also given the time period of the film - sometime in the summer of 1944, it's a little early for a hipster of this style. But enough hair splitting, Kelly's Heroes is a great film, a comedy, a caper film all wrapped up in an action war film. Enjoy it and Oddball.

"For 1.6 million dollars, we could become heroes for 3 days...A Sherman can

give you a very nice...edge."

"This engine has been modified by our mechanical genius, Moriarty. These tanks

are faster than any other tanks in the European theatre of operations. Forwards or

backwards, you see man, we like to feel we're able to get out of trouble quicker than we

got into it."

"Don't hit me with those negative waves so early in the morning. Think that

bridge will be there, and it'll be there."

"You don't want in this thing, you don't get in this thing! I cut you out completely.

60 ft of bridge I can pick up almost anywhere...Smuck!"

"Why don't you knock it off with them negative waves! Why don't you dig how

beautiful it is out here? Why don't you say something righteous and hopeful for

a change?"

"...Crap."

"Woof Woof Woof!!!"

Learn Beat Speak !

Dug Here!

Battle Of The Venice Beach Beatniks.

An interesting article about some in-fighting amongst the Venice Beach beatniks who frequented The Gas House. From the April 1960 issue of Modern Man. Makes mention of the Miss Beatnik Contest. Found here.