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Sunday, February 26, 2012
Ezekiel 25:17
The path of the righteous man is beset on all sides by the iniquities of the selfish and the tyranny of evil men.
Blessed is he who in the name of charity and goodwill shepherds the weak through the valley of darkness, for he is truly his brother's keeper and the finder of lost children.
And I will strike down upon thee with great vengeance and furious anger those who attempt to poison and destroy my brothers.
And you will know my name is the Lord when I lay my vengeance upon thee.
Blessed is he who in the name of charity and goodwill shepherds the weak through the valley of darkness, for he is truly his brother's keeper and the finder of lost children.
And I will strike down upon thee with great vengeance and furious anger those who attempt to poison and destroy my brothers.
And you will know my name is the Lord when I lay my vengeance upon thee.
Monday, February 20, 2012
Sunday, February 5, 2012
COSMIC UNCONSCIOUSNESS
A few days ago, while enjoying a friend's birthday dinner in the back room of El Quijote, i looked up while rolling my eyes at a joke about penguins and noticed the decorative lattice work on the ceiling, and felt that the two or three plastic vines running through it just werent nearly enough. It looked unfinished and needed more like twenty. But the lattice, combined with the shrimp i was eating, was enough to remind me of the scene in the movie Repo Man where the character "Miller" talks about 'a lattice of coincidence that lays over everything".
El Quijote, the classic Spanish restaurant next door to the notorious Chelsea Hotel on 23rd street, is one of my favorite spots here in NYC - classic old school surf and turf, with Spanish delights such as Paela Valencia and Chicken Villaroy, all seasoned with a huge amount of salt, and served in an original 'Old Spain' decor with Don Quixote murals, Don Quixote statues, and art deco glass - left largely unmolested since the 30s. White tablecloths, and you cant wear a hat.
Next door, in the late 70's at the Chelsea Hotel, temporary resident Sid Vicious stabbed Nancy Spungeon to death, and a bit later the hotel was home to everybody's favorite Ramone, Dee Dee, who was convinced that Satan worshippers were living in the basement feeding people to piranhas. Not to mention the list of other former guests who's names might carry more weight outside the disgusting world of "rock music", such as Mark Twain, Tennessee Williams, and Stanley Kubrick....
Nancy Spungeon carried out after her murder.
Sid Vicious under arrest for the murder of Nancy Spungeon
If you havent seen Repo Man, a punk cult classic from 1984, starring a very young Emilio Esteves and the beloved Harry Dean Stanton, i suggest you netflix it immediately. Maybe amazon the soundtrack too while you're at it. Black Flag, Iggy, Circle Jerks, Fear, Suicidal Tendencies, etc. Both are great.
But if you have seen it, you'll no doubt remember Miller saying "A lot o' people don't realize what's really going on. They view life as a bunch o' unconnected incidents 'n things. They don't realize that there's this, like, lattice o' coincidence that lays on top o' everything. Give you an example; show you what I mean: suppose you're thinkin' about a plate o' shrimp. Suddenly someone'll say, like, plate, or shrimp, or plate o' shrimp out of the blue, no explanation. No point in lookin' for one, either. It's all part of a cosmic unconciousness". Miller's character was the that of Repo shop mechanic, possibly an ex-hippie burnout, and it's easy to write off what he said as the inane ramblings of a drug casualty, but what he was talking about was no less than Carl Gustav Jung's "THEORY OF SYNCHRONICITY".
Synchronicity is the experience of two or more events that are causally (not casually) unrelated, occurring together in a meaningful manner. To count as synchronicity, the events should be unlikely to occur together by chance. The concept does not question, or compete with, the notion of causality. Instead, it maintains that just as events may be grouped by cause, they may also be grouped by their meaning. Since meaning is a complex mental construction, subject to conscious and subconscious influence, not every correlation in the grouping of events by meaning needs to have an explanation in terms of cause and effect.
I lifted that straight from an encyclopedia, and as i'm no Mensa candidate, it almost gave me a headache trying to understand it. But the short description is simply "meaningful coincidence", often in a way that might relate to you personally.
Like a coincidence that would make you say "BALLS MARIE, man".. Some people might describe it as a "sign" - Say you're wondering if you need your umbrella and then your hear a crash of thunder. Or say you pull into a packed parking lot and suddenly a car pulls out creating a space for you. Or say you're walking along, thinking "i really could use a drink", but there are no bars in sight. You round the next corner and there's a gay bar with cheap drink specials. You go inside and have a FANTASTIC TIME. These are all good examples of synchronicity that have happened to other people than myself.
There are many more references to this concept in popular culture. The Police, probably under Sting's coersion, titled their last record Synchronicity, and while it was their biggest selling record it was also their worst, and predicted the downward spiral that later spawned Sting's "Dream of the Blue Turtles" solo nightmare. The Police were my first 'favorite band', and looking back i remember feeling disappointed and betrayed by the band that i felt should have given us more "Walking on the Moon" new wave reggae...
Another band victimized by this same syndrome was U2. From 'Sunday Bloody Sunday', 'New Years Day', and 'Refugee', and those first 2 or 3 stunning albums, to "the Fly" and "Lemon"!? WTF? And those glasses?
The short explanation might be "Ego", another psychological theory. But that's a discussion best saved for another time...
-Karl Monroe
El Quijote, the classic Spanish restaurant next door to the notorious Chelsea Hotel on 23rd street, is one of my favorite spots here in NYC - classic old school surf and turf, with Spanish delights such as Paela Valencia and Chicken Villaroy, all seasoned with a huge amount of salt, and served in an original 'Old Spain' decor with Don Quixote murals, Don Quixote statues, and art deco glass - left largely unmolested since the 30s. White tablecloths, and you cant wear a hat.
Next door, in the late 70's at the Chelsea Hotel, temporary resident Sid Vicious stabbed Nancy Spungeon to death, and a bit later the hotel was home to everybody's favorite Ramone, Dee Dee, who was convinced that Satan worshippers were living in the basement feeding people to piranhas. Not to mention the list of other former guests who's names might carry more weight outside the disgusting world of "rock music", such as Mark Twain, Tennessee Williams, and Stanley Kubrick....
Nancy Spungeon carried out after her murder.
Sid Vicious under arrest for the murder of Nancy Spungeon
If you havent seen Repo Man, a punk cult classic from 1984, starring a very young Emilio Esteves and the beloved Harry Dean Stanton, i suggest you netflix it immediately. Maybe amazon the soundtrack too while you're at it. Black Flag, Iggy, Circle Jerks, Fear, Suicidal Tendencies, etc. Both are great.
But if you have seen it, you'll no doubt remember Miller saying "A lot o' people don't realize what's really going on. They view life as a bunch o' unconnected incidents 'n things. They don't realize that there's this, like, lattice o' coincidence that lays on top o' everything. Give you an example; show you what I mean: suppose you're thinkin' about a plate o' shrimp. Suddenly someone'll say, like, plate, or shrimp, or plate o' shrimp out of the blue, no explanation. No point in lookin' for one, either. It's all part of a cosmic unconciousness". Miller's character was the that of Repo shop mechanic, possibly an ex-hippie burnout, and it's easy to write off what he said as the inane ramblings of a drug casualty, but what he was talking about was no less than Carl Gustav Jung's "THEORY OF SYNCHRONICITY".
Synchronicity is the experience of two or more events that are causally (not casually) unrelated, occurring together in a meaningful manner. To count as synchronicity, the events should be unlikely to occur together by chance. The concept does not question, or compete with, the notion of causality. Instead, it maintains that just as events may be grouped by cause, they may also be grouped by their meaning. Since meaning is a complex mental construction, subject to conscious and subconscious influence, not every correlation in the grouping of events by meaning needs to have an explanation in terms of cause and effect.
I lifted that straight from an encyclopedia, and as i'm no Mensa candidate, it almost gave me a headache trying to understand it. But the short description is simply "meaningful coincidence", often in a way that might relate to you personally.
Like a coincidence that would make you say "BALLS MARIE, man".. Some people might describe it as a "sign" - Say you're wondering if you need your umbrella and then your hear a crash of thunder. Or say you pull into a packed parking lot and suddenly a car pulls out creating a space for you. Or say you're walking along, thinking "i really could use a drink", but there are no bars in sight. You round the next corner and there's a gay bar with cheap drink specials. You go inside and have a FANTASTIC TIME. These are all good examples of synchronicity that have happened to other people than myself.
There are many more references to this concept in popular culture. The Police, probably under Sting's coersion, titled their last record Synchronicity, and while it was their biggest selling record it was also their worst, and predicted the downward spiral that later spawned Sting's "Dream of the Blue Turtles" solo nightmare. The Police were my first 'favorite band', and looking back i remember feeling disappointed and betrayed by the band that i felt should have given us more "Walking on the Moon" new wave reggae...
Another band victimized by this same syndrome was U2. From 'Sunday Bloody Sunday', 'New Years Day', and 'Refugee', and those first 2 or 3 stunning albums, to "the Fly" and "Lemon"!? WTF? And those glasses?
The short explanation might be "Ego", another psychological theory. But that's a discussion best saved for another time...
-Karl Monroe
Saturday, December 31, 2011
DEATH OR GLORY
In the midst of a casual stroll back from the coffee shop the other day, warming my hands around my four dollar mocha latte, i found myself in front of Billy's Antiques, on the corner of Houston and Elizabeth - the famous one stop shop for vintage furniture, mummified cat heads, bizarre medical implements, and Nazi parapernalia. While saying hello, Billy stopped and pointed at the the little skull and crossbones pin on the lapel of my pea coat (pea coats were originally called Urine Jackets when they came out, but they didnt sell) - He said "Oh yea, 17th Lancers". I didnt know what he was talking about - all i knew was that the Clash had a song called "Death or Glory" and my pin said the same thing and that was good enough for me. So i did a little research....
In 1854, after reading a newspaper article depicting a recent bloody and disastrous battle in Crimea, a region now known as the Ukraine, Alfred Lord Tennyson was inspired to write the now legendary poem called "The Charge of the Light Brigade".
It describes the Battle of Balaklava, (not "Baklava", a delightful dessert which has caused more than a few documented scuffles) in a war fought between England and Russia, and how a misinterpreted English order to attack the Russians in a valley (later immortalized as the "Valley of Death") between two Russian held hills sent the English Light Brigade into a maelstrom of artillery, infantry and cavalry.
The 17th Lancers were part of the Light Brigade, which included several other dragoon (meaning mounted infantry, trained in horseback and ground fighting) regiments, and totaled 603 men (there is some debate over the exact number).
Hammered from both sides, the entire Light Brigade pressed through the valley, led by Lord Cardigan (his involvement with button-up sweaters is unknown), and upon nearing the enemy at the end they accelerated into a full charge. The 17th Lancers drove through the artillery and smashed into the Russian cavalry with such impact that they were able to drive them back. They were unable to hold their position due to insufficient troops, but this impact resonated so hard, figuratively, that the Russian cavalry flatly refused to engage the 17th Lancers in battle for the remainder of the war.
The 17th lost 109 soldiers out of its 147 on this courageous but tragic day, but their heroics reaffirmed their reputation as a top class fighting machine.
Their motto was "Death or Glory", and their cap badge featured a skull with a banner underneath saying "Or Glory".
Tennyson's poem, published shortly thereafter, praised the brigade while simultaneously mourning the appalling futility of the misinterpreted command. It became hugely popular and even reached the soldiers in Crimea.
Half a league half a league,
Half a league onward,
All in the valley of Death
Rode the six hundred:
'Forward, the Light Brigade!
Charge for the guns' he said:
Into the valley of Death
Rode the six hundred.
'Forward, the Light Brigade!'
Was there a man dismay'd ?
Not tho' the soldier knew
Some one had blunder'd:
Theirs not to make reply,
Theirs not to reason why,
Theirs but to do & die,
Into the valley of Death
Rode the six hundred.
Cannon to right of them,
Cannon to left of them,
Cannon in front of them
Volley'd & thunder'd;
Storm'd at with shot and shell,
Boldly they rode and well,
Into the jaws of Death,
Into the mouth of Hell
Rode the six hundred.
Flash'd all their sabres bare,
Flash'd as they turn'd in air
Sabring the gunners there,
Charging an army while
All the world wonder'd:
Plunged in the battery-smoke
Right thro' the line they broke;
Cossack & Russian
Reel'd from the sabre-stroke,
Shatter'd & sunder'd.
Then they rode back, but not
Not the six hundred.
Cannon to right of them,
Cannon to left of them,
Cannon behind them
Volley'd and thunder'd;
Storm'd at with shot and shell,
While horse & hero fell,
They that had fought so well
Came thro' the jaws of Death,
Back from the mouth of Hell,
All that was left of them,
Left of six hundred.
When can their glory fade?
O the wild charge they made!
All the world wonder'd.
Honour the charge they made!
Honour the Light Brigade,
Noble six hundred!
Original photo of the "Valley of Death" after the battle, littered with cannonballs.
There is some speculation whether the photographer Roger Fenton added cannonballs to the first shot, or if they were simply removed in the second shot by troops in order to re-use them...
In 1983, Iron Maiden recorded "The Trooper", about this same battle..
You'll take my life but I'll take yours too
You'll fire your musket but I'll run you through
So when you're waiting for the next attack
You'd better stand there's no turning back
The bugle sounds as the charge begins
But on this battlefield no one wins
The smell of acrid smoke and horses breath
As you plunge into a certain death
The horse he sweats with fear we break to run
The mighty roar of the Russian guns
And as we race towards the human wall
The screams of pain as my comrades fall
We hurdle bodies that lay on the ground
And as the Russians fire another round
We get so near yet so far away
We won't live to fight another day
We get so close near enough to fight
When a Russian gets me in his sights
He pulls the trigger and I feel the blow
A burst of rounds takes my horse below
And as I lay there gazing at the sky
My body's numb and my throat is dry
And as I lay forgotten and alone
Without a tear I draw my parting groan
Throughout history the 17th saw action in Waterloo, the U.S. War for Independence, the Boer and Zulu Wars in Africa, also in WW1 and WW2, and they still exist today in the form of an armored regiment fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Above: "Death or Glory" - in this case "Death"...
Seen here YET again, combined with Clockwork Orange references on the cover of this Angelic Upstarts single.
-Karl Monroe
Thursday, December 8, 2011
We Miss You Razzle!
R.I.P., December 9, 1984
Tragically, on this day in 1984, Nicholas Dingley, aka "Razzle", rock 'n' roll drummer extraordinaire, was killed in a car crash in Los Angeles, California.
We all do miss him.
Now if it seems to you that just a week ago we here at Lost At Sea NYC Magazine Worldwide (LASNYCMW) were wishing him a Happy Birthday, you're right, and while he was born on December 2nd, and then died on the 9th of December, it's important to recognize that it was a December 9th TWENTY-FOUR YEARS LATER, making him age 24, not a 7 day old infant.
*EDITORS NOTE: The editor would like to state that LAS-NYC is in no way a Razzle fan page, despite our admiration and respect for the man - it's just been a busy few days for him.
Tragically, on this day in 1984, Nicholas Dingley, aka "Razzle", rock 'n' roll drummer extraordinaire, was killed in a car crash in Los Angeles, California.
We all do miss him.
Now if it seems to you that just a week ago we here at Lost At Sea NYC Magazine Worldwide (LASNYCMW) were wishing him a Happy Birthday, you're right, and while he was born on December 2nd, and then died on the 9th of December, it's important to recognize that it was a December 9th TWENTY-FOUR YEARS LATER, making him age 24, not a 7 day old infant.
*EDITORS NOTE: The editor would like to state that LAS-NYC is in no way a Razzle fan page, despite our admiration and respect for the man - it's just been a busy few days for him.
Friday, December 2, 2011
HAPPY BIRTHDAY RAZZLE!!
In keeping with this month's theme of Razzle Dazzle Camouflage, today we wish a Happy Birthday to England's Nicholas Dingley, aka "Razzle", drummer of Finland's dazzling Hanoi Rocks.
Surely now he pounds the drums in Valhalla.
December 2, 1960 - December 9, 1984
Surely now he pounds the drums in Valhalla.
December 2, 1960 - December 9, 1984
Tuesday, November 29, 2011
Sunday, November 20, 2011
Copy Cats
Its no secret that LAS-NYC is revered as one of the most influential Electronic Magazines on the interweb, but these latest copy-cat antics fringe on the absurd. They say imitation is the highest form of flattery but honestly does anyone have an original thought in their domes anymore?
This latest bit of "street art" on the corner of Elizabeth Street and Houston stands as a testament to LOST AT SEA NYC - always at the forefront - and it's recent amazing expose on Dazzle Camouflage, and as our resident in-house art critic Tipton Newquay pointed out, "It really ain't half bad".
photo: Turk 183
This latest bit of "street art" on the corner of Elizabeth Street and Houston stands as a testament to LOST AT SEA NYC - always at the forefront - and it's recent amazing expose on Dazzle Camouflage, and as our resident in-house art critic Tipton Newquay pointed out, "It really ain't half bad".
photo: Turk 183
Sunday, November 13, 2011
Saturday, October 15, 2011
GENE VINCENT, R.I.P.
D.P. Flores and I popped over the hill into Santa Clarita to visit Gene last time I was in L.A., and after a bit of light landscaping around the grave, managed to take this incredibly well lit foto with my camera, which also happens to have a built-in telephone.
Feb 11, 1935 - Oct 12, 1971
Gene Vincent We Miss You.
Friday, October 14, 2011
BANNED FROM THE GUGGENHEIM
AN EXHIBITION OF FANZINES PRESENTED
TO CRASS BETWEEN 1976 AND 1984,
PLUS ORIGINAL CRASS-ERA ARTWORKS BY GEE VAUCHER
AND A NEW AUDIO INSTALLATION BY PENNY RIMBAUD.
Once again the Boo-Hooray Gallery has put together a great exhibition featuring art from the punk era.
Last time it was Linder Sterling's early Xerox generated images at their old location in Chelsea, and now it's Crass, at the gallery's new spot downtown on Canal Street.
With their first blistering release in 1978, Crass was the first true anarchist punk band, and their philosophy influenced other heavyweights such as Discharge and Conflict, and resonated with hundreds of bands that followed.
The artwork they created for their albums and posters featured the now classic bold stencil print, screen prints, collages and satirical paintings, which not only made their message very clear, but also defined what then became a style, again adopted by like-minded political punk bands, and their fans.
This exhibit features posters, flyers, and a huge collection of similarly minded punk fanzines given to the band over the years - a MUST for the true anarchist, punk rocker, rebel-rocker, rock-n-roller, mini-punk, art connoiseur, arm-chair anarchist, punk, ex-punk, backpack punk, spare-changer, hippie, limousine liberal, rasta, Combat 84 fan on the fence, Falkland Islander, Argentinian, crustie (no pets allowed), skittle, Wall Street occupationist, and Sesame Street occupationist.
It runs through October 20, is open every day, 11-6pm, and is free. Dont miss it.
Check the website HERE.
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