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Dust to Digital The Best Reissue Label EVER? Ayup!









Dust to Digital, the Atlanta-based juggernaut label headed by wunderkind Lance Ledbetter continues to continue...and I mean in large southern culture chunks. Just look...FOUR projects now ready for your holiday shopping, and each anxiously awaited here. Yes, there is still Christmas for adults, and this label proves it. Again and again.

Let's face it...you can't open a download Christmas morning. Put your hands on something! At Dust to Digital physical objects of artistic beauty and quality persist...and now is a particularly rich and fertile time to consider their projects. All are affordable and all will be appreciated by anyone you purchase them for. Buy Now. Simple as that. Seriously.

Let Your Feet Do The Talkin tells the story of 70-year-old buckdancing legend Thomas Maupin and examines music’s ability to form and to strengthen relationships and to lift us above our circumstances. Baby, How Can It Be? is a three-CD set from the 78 rpm record collection of John Heneghan with liner notes by Nick Tosches and a centerfold illustration by R. Crumb. The discs are organized by theme: Love, Lust and Contempt. The Hurricane that Hit Atlanta is a two-CD collection of archival recordings from Rev. Johnny L. "Hurricane" Jones. Culled from more than 1,000 tapes going back to 1957, every track on this set is available to the public for the very first time. Ten Thousand Points of Light is a documentary film that should be added to everyone's annual holiday playlist. The wry, understated and terrifically funny look at the Townsends, a suburban Atlanta family who, every holiday season for eight years, transformed their Stone Mountain area brick ranch house into a meteoric blaze of Christmas lights is available on DVD for the first time.

Graffiti from Hell's Kitchen NYC 1980s


I just spent a few days working on a little essay on a forgotten publisher from New York City (which you can read HERE if you like) but as the action centers around a building I passed many times in the 25 years I lived in Manhattan, it got me all New York weepy. (well, not really) But I did realize posting a photo from the file would take care of a post for the day. That is indeed your intrepid reporter above, complete with a "Man Purse" but before you laugh, note I lived on that island all that time without a car, and if you pass some good stuff on the street, which happened then every damn day...you had to sling it over your shoulder. Plus I went to the gym every day and likely had my supply of steroids with me. In glorious New York City, no one cares what you look like, where you came from or where you are going. They just want you to get out of their way...and they don't care if you like how they look either. So you can carry a damn bag if you like.

This space, which at the time was a bit ragged, has been spiffed up into Hell's Kitchen Park to serve the community, and it is quite nice. 10th Avenue and as you can see 47th and 48th Street. In case my girlfriend during one part of the time i was there is reading...I've seen a magical dog jump half way up the wall chasing a ball...and he was so damn intent on getting it he pooped in the air without even knowing it! And you know what? That is far from the most incredible thing I saw in Manhattan. When I get old, I will try to remember 1 year in Manhattan equals 5 years in America...so I am WAY ahead of the game. The Mural wasn't up long. I'm glad I had someone catch it.

Crazy Chiropractic Science BJ Palmer's Grotto of Greed


Chiropractic "medicine" is controversial still after all these years for a reason. It isn't science. It isn't even bad science. I have always suspected it had more to do with manipulating one's wallet than manipulating one's spine, and most serious scientists, doctors, scholars and legal professionals will agree with me. Yet it persists like chronic pain, bilking pain sufferers now for 100 years.

Since we recently had an election where candidates who deny evolution, climate change and even the legitimacy of social security not only were on the ballot but WON is an indication of how gullible a good percent of our population is...and since several bloated "entertainers" on the radio continue to line their pockets while spewing nonsense as news, things will only continue to get worse. Let's face it...the windbags (one with a crazy brush cut and chalkboard, the other an obese joke who avoided jail after doctor shopping for his Oxycontin addiction) have a hold of hundreds of radio stations, just like so many quacks of the past. And just like the earier generation of quacks, they blanket huge swatches of the country like a blizzard of bile and bilk.


In fact, the quack who invented Chiropractic "science" was a quack with a radio station. Like Dr. Brinkley, who planted goat gonads into people to cure their libidos, D. D. Palmer and his nutty son "B.J." factored in a radio station to broadcast their crazy ideas. BJ's station was WOC (by strange coincidence the station Ronald Reagan would later lie the sports news on) which stood for Wonders Of Chiropractic. Guess who fills the time slots on WOC now? I don't have to tell you.

D.D invented chiropractic after failing to get rich off his first "scientific" discovery, magnetic healing. Now THAT is a strong foundation for your research.

Anyway, the point of this story is
Crazy B.J. Palmer and his "Little Bit of Heaven" shown above. Can the story get any stranger? Well, BJ (who once ran over his father with a car contributing to his death...can you hear the bones cracking?) fancied himself an art aficionado. In fact he had an enormous collection put together on the fortune built from bone tugging...including a gigantic collection of phallic symbols, totem poles and salon nudes. Maybe B.J should have invented a cure for impotence instead of stretching limbs. Lil' Bit O Heaven was built to show off the tons of useless bric-a-brac he lugged home from his world travels. Among the live alligators and fertility objects on display, he added trite platitudes to the good, honest and healthy life he advocated along with his insane ideas of medical care.

I swear...what a country.

To learn more about B.J Palmer's Grotto of Greed see the sources highlighted.



Little Bit O Heaven real photo postcard circa 1920 Collection Jim Linderman


NOTE: I've been getting lots of mail from Chiropractic practitioners (not surprising since "marketing" is one of most intensive classes in the school of chiropractic stuff, another fact, look it up) I refer ANYONE who is either interested in, or disputes ANY PART of my essay above to consult the reasoned and detailed Wikipedia article on same...which is not only well-researched...to be fair upon reading I find I could have actually been far, far harder on both the "profession" AND those who pay for the services. At least I didn't refer to it as an "unscientific cult" as others have, but I would clearly been on solid ground if I had! If it helps anyone, fine, great...but as you can see in the article and the references cited...I'm far from alone. In fact, I seem to have been more than generous. Keep those cards and letters coming anyway!

Things to Make a PRETZEL PUP



I just realized it has been a year since I did a "things to make" so here you go. Get started now and your holiday parties will be pretzel pup perfect!

Carte de Visite Salesman Sample for Hot French Vintage Dames! (In which "vintage" is defined)





Everyone thinks the word "vintage" means old. Well, not quite. What it means is "of it's time" or a period of origin. So something "vintage" could be from last week, as long as it is indicated "Vintage 2010" like a cheap wine. So when searching the term on Ebay, you should consider it to mean the same thing "natural" does on food labels...nothing. There isn't any reason to put "natural" on the label unless it ISN'T really natural. When is the last time you ate "unnatural" food? My guess is the last time you ate.


Anyway, here is a vintage Carte de Visite size Salesman Sample which is EXTRA vintage! CDV is French for "visiting card" more or less, and came to replace the tintype, more or less, though both photographic mediums flourished at the same time. You'll also find both hidden in baskets at the flea market...the tintypes are the ones with rust, the CDVs are the ones on little cards, and no one wants either unless they show an early baseball player, or an unfortunate slave.


So anyway here is an example of a composite salesman sample CDV by an enterprising fellow selling OTHER CDVs of what passed for sexy dames around 1890. "Allow me to present my card...of ZAFTIG HOT BABES!" Some 19th century Larry Flynt would hand these out, take down orders, and deliver the spicy goods a few days later. One could take out a loupe and get a rise, I guess, but probably better to spring a quarter for 6 of your choosing full-sized. Then each would be like 2" x 3" and they would be as big as women on your smart phone, easy to shuffle (and hide from the wife.) You can "click to engorge" but "French postcards" didn't get good until about 30 years later, I am afraid. Funny, but they are all built the way woman are today. So when did "sexy" come to mean "skinny?" Topic for another post.


CDV Salesman Sample for early risque photographs, circa 1890. "Six for 25 Cents" Collection Jim Linderman


Justin Kent Eddie M...
By Jim Linderman


Behind the Sitter i...
By Jim Linderman DUL...

EGYPTIA and NASCA'S BAND Show Beautiful At the Circus in Black and White #23



"At the Circus in Black and White #23 (or in this case, more of a sepia) is an old albumen of a Girl Show. Like "Mermaids" from Figi, "Aztec" Children, "Mysteries from the Orient" and "Savages" who were really from Brooklyn, Sideshow operators played on our cultural ignorance when naming their acts. Presented here, some dancing girls from Egyptia!



Original Photograph, circa 1900 Collection Jim Linderman (formerly Collection Captain L. Harvey Cann of Sarasota, Florida)

ALL KNEEL BEFORE umm...THIS THING


Without insulting some culture, tribe or environ, I'll just post the snapshot and let others figure out who the grand Kahuna is. Guesses?

Anonymous Snapshot circa 1950? Collection Jim Linderman

Postcard Generic Stops Along the Road (Deja Vu Road Trip)



Ever get the feeling you've driven down that road before?

"Generic" Postcards "GOOD FOR ANY PART OF THE COUNTRY" Colourpicture Publishers Postcard catalog 1946 Collection Jim Linderman

New GENE BILBREW BOOK by JIM LINDERMAN Times Square Smut



Jim Linderman tells the true tale of an artist, an author and a mobster from New York City in the Fifties, a time America was learning of many strange things for the very first time. INCLUDES over 30 rare drawings by the noted African-American fetish artist Eugene Bilbrew unavailable and unpublished since being confiscated over 50 years ago! Rare graphics and images from the Victor Minx collection and a faithful reprint in full of a novel written by the author "Justin Kent" not seen since being confiscated as evidence by the police. A snitch, a gangster and a junkie meet to create a true story which literally moves from the 42nd Street Times Square gutter all the way to the Supreme Court. Over 50 B & W illustrations. A landmark book on censorship, New York City, Times Square and the artists who brought vintage sleaze from the deuce to the Supreme Court! Click below for Free Preview or Purchase!
TIMES SQUARE SMUT THE BOOK (AND EBOOK)

Homemade and Handmade "Gag" Postcards from the 1960s







What is funnier than a bunch of old sexist gag drawings? Umm...not these. HOMEMADE POSTCARD erotic "gag" drawings by an anonymous amateur. What could he have possibly been thinking? Was he intending to mail them to friends? Send them to a printer to have them run off? Send them into a professional postcard company to see if they were interested? Since he appears to have had trouble writing the captions, I'm going to suggest he get a professional printer, at least. Hilarious. But not funny. At least they are colorful. I have over 50, so who knows how many he did. The standard gags are all here...women of the night, the wife, the sleazy boss, a fishing joke. Standard fare for the sixties, but done by hand? As common as clean dirt.

Collection of Homemade and Handmade "Gag" cartoon postcards, circa late 1960s. Collection Jim Linderman

Also posted on Vintage Sleaze the Blog

Rolling Stones Tongue Logo and the Sweet Taste of Joy Coincidence or Conspiracy?




Now that I am reading Keef's autobiography, linked at right and recommended highly, I've been thinking more about the Rolling Stones than in years. In particular, I have been thinking about that tongue. You certainly know it, it ranks among the world's most familiar logos and the original drawing attributed to John Pasche, a British designer, was sold in 2008 for $92,500 to the V & A Museum. In the story on the sale, reported by "LogoDesignLove" HERE "The inspiration for the eventual logo, which took Pasche around two weeks of work, has never been in doubt" Pasche says "I wanted something anti-authority, but I suppose the mouth idea came from when I met Jagger for the first time...Face to face with him, the first thing you were aware of was the size of his lips and mouth." But is the origin of the logo really all that clear and simple?


For years stones fans have known the first use of the logo was in the 1971 Sticky Fingers Lp release, it was used on the inner sleeve. (That's the Warhol album with the zipper, and far more speculation went to whose crotch was depicted than who did the tongue inside. (It wasn't Jagger's...it was Warhol hanger-on (no, make that just "hanger") Joe Dellesandro, It was, and remains, one of the greatest rock albums ever recorded.



The Stones next release was the now reissued double LP Exile on Main Street which I wrote about earlier. It is outstanding, of course, but my attention was drawn to a similar tongue and mouth logo, one shown both in the photographs in the album and in presumably 1971 or 1972 Robert Frank shot footage of the Stones in LA. During the brief film, shown here, Jagger stops near a porno grind showing the film "Sweet Taste of Joy" with a remarkably similar design. The film is a zero-rated piece of soft-core corn.


But it got me thinking...just what was the date Jagger passed by that poster? Did he stop to look at it because it resembled their own logo so much? OR was the actual film shot BEFORE the stones had come up with their own version of the lip-smacking image? Since we are talking about a period of a year or so, determining which was first could get dicey. Certainly, even if the stones had already registered their use, seeing such a similar product must have puzzled Mick. Did the sleazy film producers rip-off HIS commissioned logo? Or did somehow the stones designer see the LA footage and use the background poster as an inspiration for HIS version?


As you can see in the great footage here, at the three minute (3:00) mark Mick is convinced to pose near the poster.

All these matters do converge in the Exile Album, which reproduces several strips of film showing the poster in the gatefold packaging. Was it a slap in the face? A bold challenge to see who had come up with the design first? Did the porno flick designers rip-off the stones? Vice- Versa? Neither? Did Mick sick his lawyers on the poster-maker? Did the poster-maker sick his lawyer on the Stones?


As I wade through Keith's very entertaining bio, should I find anything to add here, I certainly will. Coincidence? or CONSPIRACY?????


BY JIM LINDERMAN

DULL TOOL DIM BULB BOOKS HERE


NOTE: VIDEO REMOVED FOR COPYRIGHT...SORRY!

New and Notable Photography History Books Available from Michigan MIPHS Members Bill Rauhauser and Janice G. Schimmelman


(click to enlarge)

THREE new books are available from members of the Michigan Photographic Historical Society (one of the more active history of photography regional organizations, information on memberships follows.)

Two books by scholar Janice G. Schimmelman, who previously published the remarkable book "The Tintype In America 1860-1880" has now made available the following wonderful titles:

"The Iron Plate in American Photography: The Tintype as Art 1860-1880"

and

"Warren Avenue & West Side Industries: A Detroit to Dearborn Photographic Album 1920"

The links here will take you directly to a preview of the titles which you may also purchase.

Bill Rauhauser has published 20th Century Photography in Detroit. St. Paul Press, which also includes a DVD and an essay by Mary Desjarlais, by St. Paul's Press. More information on his book is available from the author at rauhauser@sbcglobal.com

The Michigan Photographic HIstorical Society Publishes a highly regarded newsletter (Now in volume 38!) each with a research article in depth and lots of news and tidbits for camera, photographica and photography collectors. Membership is MORE than reasonable, and you will be joining a group of serious scholars getting things done here in the Mitten State.

The Michigan Photographic Historical Society Website contains Membership Info.

Agfa Screen Test! Snapshot Contest from the Great Depression



Agfa used to be a film, now it is an "imaging corporation" I think. Same old story...spin-offs into divisions, eventual bankruptcy, frustrated consumers and hopefully a bright new future as a lean, mean company shorn of employees and now producing pictures which exist only in digital form. Progress!

Agfa had a brilliant idea back in 1934. Their films were used in making motion pictures, including Agfa "Plenachrome," so the "Test for Hollywood" was born! We were in the midst of the Great Depression, and at the time the glamour of Hollywood was about the only thing taking folks minds off their lost land and foreclosed houses, so Agfa decided to hang movie-star fame over the heads of picture takers. Snap a picture of yourself (or more likely, your brat) and mail it in! Afga promised to select five winners who would receive screen tests, and the winner would be guaranteed a movie contract. I have no idea how many cans of film this gambit sold, but the instructions allow one to "enter as many snapshots as you like, up to sixteen."

Ads ran in local newspapers and elsewhere. The Milwaukee Journal, The Pittsburgh Press, the Chicago Tribune. Oddly, each ad had a potential winner wearing a mask.

Now I cannot find the name of the winner, nor can I locate a film star who credits Agfa with giving them their start. But it would make a good movie, wouldn't it?


Agfa Film Win a Movie Contract brochure 1934 Collection Jim Linderman