John Cale: Saturday Music Club on Sunday

John Cale performing an excerpt from Erik Satie's "Vexations" as part of his appearance on I've Got a Secret (1963)


The Dream Syndicate: "Day of Niagara" (hint: this is the first of two to skip if you don't like minimalism that might well've also inspired Lou Reed's Metal Machine Music)


The Velvet Underground: "Loop" (the other one...and the first recording made commercially available, albeit in the avant-garde multimedia magazine project Aspen, to be attributed to the VU)

A film record, incorporating a minute or so of "Loop" but mostly Warhol-shot footage of VU playing "Run Run Run" in 1967.
"Fontana Mix" from Aspen, a soundtrack to a multilayered visual/textual item by Cale.

The Velvet Underground: "Sunday Morning"


The Velvet Underground: "The Gift"


Terry Riley and John Cale: "Church of Anthrax"


John Cale Band: "Fear is a Man's Best Friend"


John Cale Band: "Strange Times in Casablanca"


Brian Eno and John Cale: Wrong Way Up


Lou Reed and John Cale: "Faces and Names"


John Cale, Chrissie Hynde, Nick Cave: "Ship of Fools"


"A Signal to Noise with John Cale"
Circa 1979: A Signal to Noise with John Cale from Australian Broadcasting Corporation on FORA.tv

FFB: edited by Avram Davidson: THE MAGAZINE OF FANTASY AND SCIENCE FICTION January 1964

Donald Westlake, Mack Reynolds, Damon Knight, Edward Wellen, Allen Kim Lang's possibly best story, part of Fritz Leiber and Avram Davidson's longterm argument about the merits of H.P. Lovecraft's work...alongside Davidson and MZ Bradley reviewing some important and some  underappreciated (or even Forgotten) texts of fantastic fiction...so, what was so special about this issue?
 
from ISFDB:

• The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, January 1964   
• (View All Issues) (View Issue Grid)
• Editor: Avram Davidson;
• Cover: Ed Emshwiller (for The Tree of Time) 

• 5 • Pacifist • short story by Mack Reynolds
• 21 • Starlight Rhapsody • short story by Valentina Zhuravlyova (variant of Zvezdnaya Rapsodiya 1959) [as by Zhuravleva Valentina ]
• 29 • The Follower • short story by Wenzell Brown
• 40 • Books (F&SF, January 1964) • [Books (F&SF)] • essay by Avram Davidson
• 40 •   Review: Spectrum II by Robert Conquest and Kingsley Amis • review by Avram Davidson
• 41 •   Review: The Hopkins Manuscript by R. C. Sherriff • review by Avram Davidson
• 41 •   Review: Explorers of the Infinite: Shapers of Science Fiction by Sam Moskowitz • review by Avram Davidson
• 42 •   Review: Dr. Ox's Experiment by Jules Verne • review by Avram Davidson
• 43 •   Review: The Star Rover by Jack London • review by Marion Zimmer Bradley
• 43 •   Review: The Dunwich Horror and Others by H. P. Lovecraft • review by Fritz Leiber
• 46 • The Tree of Time (Part 2 of 2) • serial by Damon Knight (book publication as Beyond the Barrier)
• 88 • Thaw and Serve • short story by Allen Kim Lang
• 97 • Nackles • short story by Donald E. Westlake [as by Curt Clark]
• 104 • Science: Round and Round and . . . • [Asimov's Essays: F&SF] • essay by Isaac Asimov
• 114 • The Book of Elijah • short story by Edward Wellen
• 122 • Through Time and Space with Ferdinand Feghoot: LXVIII • [Through Time and Space with Ferdinand Feghoot • 68] • short story by Reginald Bretnor [as by Grendel Briarton ]
• 123 • Appointment at Ten O'Clock • short story by Robert Lory

The January 1964 issue of F&SF gets to be significant to, well, particularly me from the confluence of several notable contributions within (as well as having the cover date kicking off what would be Avram Davidson's last year of editorship, his being the best set of issues the magazine would see so far, the best from the magazine that has averaged the best among the long-running fantastic fiction magazines in English even in the face of strong competition for that plaudit)(and several of the best magazines in other languages were either launched as their national/language editions of F&SF or affiliated with the Yank magazine early on, notably the French Fiction and important Swedish, Japanese and Spanish magazines).

I've written previously about Mack Reynolds's cover story "Pacifist" being one of the stories that has helped shape my thinking about the world, posing the basic questions at the heart of utilitarianism as well as pacifism, rather neatly and with force and wit. At 13, bracing stuff. James Sallis thought so, too, when he, a bit older than I was at first reading, put together his fine first anthology, The War Book (1969), and it's one of the two Reynolds stories that newbie anthologist Martin Harry Greenberg and his collaborators used to bookend the contents of their Political Science Fiction (1974), not the last time Greenberg would reprint the story.

Donald Westlake's "Nackles" is a Christmas horror story, about an anti-Santa rather more dire than Krampus, published not long after Westlake's denunciation of the sf and fantasy publishing scene, hence the use of his little joke of a pseudonym, Curt Clark (Westlake would never be able to divorce himself from fantastic fiction, however frustrating he found the commercial realities there early on, as such late work as Humans demonstrates).  Another story with a kind of sneaking influence in the culture...CBS's refusal to film an adaptation for the revived The Twilight Zone led to Harlan Ellison's resignation from that series.

Allen Kim Lang has had what critic John Boston has termed a "stealth" career in sf and fantasy, most of his publications in the 1950s and '60s (Lang is still alive, but apparently hasn't published in quite some time); Algis Budrys praised his work, and the unflashy nature of it, particularly in his one published novel, Wild and Outside. Though "Thaw and Serve" is decidedly flashy, and in tone reminiscent of the nearly contemporaneous Anthony Burgess novel A Clockwork Orange and certainly anticipatory of the rather goofier film Demolition Man in its depiction of a thug awakened from cryogenic storage in a nearly utopian future. One of the many proto-New Wavish (or, as Boston has joked, in this case rather more punkish instead) stories that Davidson, like Cele Goldsmtih/Lalli, published in their magazines in the early '60s, it would not only have fit comfortably in Harlan Ellison's anthology Dangerous Visions a few years later but might even have had some influence on Ellison's "A Boy and His Dog"...this is another story that has stuck with me from early reading, as have the Westlake and the Reynolds.

The other stories have not been as memorable to me, and I should revisit them.  Though Damon Knight would not write a fully satisfying novel till his rather late CV, despite his brilliance in all shorter forms, there was always something interesting about the earlier attempts. Edward Wellen, like Davidson, Westlake and to some extent Reynolds (and a lesser extent yet Wenzell Brown) an amphibian between crime fiction and fantastic fiction, and fond of doing work that sat firmly on the boderlines between both, has been reviewed here previously (a later contribution to the magazine, in fact); Robert Lory would be particularly productive in writing sequels of sorts to Dracula and other horror work, in novel series and otherwise, in the 1970s. Valentina Zhuravlyova not only wrote sf on her own but also, to get around the anti-Jewish bigotry of some aspects of the Soviet publishing sector, lent her name to her husband's fiction for publication (at least at home)...G.S. Altschuller is better remembered now for his formulation of the metatechnological observations known as TRIZ , or TIPS.

And the wittily, even offhandedly erudite book reviews by editor Davidson are supplemented in this issue by those of Marion Zimmer Bradley, not yet quite the institution she would become, and Fritz Leiber, in part engaging in a casual but heartfelt debate with Davidson over the merits of not just the interests H. P. Lovecraft pursued in his fiction, but in the qualities of the fiction itself (Davidson remained unconvinced...both Davidson and Leiber are vastly better and more profound writers than HPL was able to be, despite Lovecraft's extraordinarily important work in exploring existential horror, and his direct mentoring of the young Robert Bloch and, much more briefly but tellingly, Fritz Leiber as well in the latter's fledgling career as a writer).  And, of course, Asimov's science essay, of which he published, all told, 399 in consecutive issues of F&SF, and which column he credited as being the bedrock of his pop-science (and extensions) nonfiction-writing career (though Asimov and Davidson had a somewhat cool relation; Davidson's humanistic Orthodoxy and Asimov's utter atheism while being of Jewish ancestry was one source of occasional tension).

And, to add to the personal if not so much the intrinsic value of this rather impressive issue, it would've been the one on the newsstands at about the time I was being conceived. 

That noted, please see Patti Abbott's blog for more of today's books (and possibly a few more magazine issues or other not-quite-books)...this week's entry by Jerry House is a review of The Eureka Years:  Boucher and McComas's Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction 1949-1954, edited by Annette Peltz McComas, about the origins of the magazine and its first five years of publication (and collecting some impressive stories published in those issues, among much else).

Tuesday's Overlooked Films and/or Other A/V: the links

The Panic in Needle Park

Elmore Leonard...nothing left to prove. Rest in Glory.

Below, today's set of reviews and citations of audiovisual works and related matter, with the posts at the links...as always, thanks to all the contributors and to all you readers for your participation. As usual, there are likely to be additions to this list over the course of the day, and if I've missed your, or someone else's, post, please let me know in comments...thanks again...

Summer of  '42

Bill Crider: Summer of '42  [trailer]

Brian Arnold: Marlo and the Magic Movie Machine

BV Lawson: Media Murder

Dan Stumpf: They Drive By Night

Ed Gorman/Tim Robey: Day of the Outlaw

Ed Lynskey: Highway Dragnet

Day of the Outlaw

Elizabeth Foxwell: Chicago Confidential

Evan Lewis: The Case of the Curious Bride (1935 Perry Mason short/series film)

George Kelley: Jobs; The Butler

Greg Proops: Dog Day Afternoon

Iba Dawson: Penn Station in the Movies; Prince Avalanche

Dial M for Man

Ivan G. Shreve, Jr.: Ride the High Country; Alan Reed

Jack Seabrook: Alfred Hitchcock Presents: "Not the Running Type" (from the Henry Slesar story)

Jackie Kashian: Fred Armisen

Jacqueline T. Lynch: Crack-Up

James Reasoner: The Yellow Rose; Dial M for Man

Jerry House: Tales of the Unexpected: "Georgy Porgy"

J. Kingston Pierce: Star Trek: The Animated Series: "The Slaver Weapon" (based on Larry Niven's "The Soft Weapon")

Can...

Kelly Robinson: Ironside (the tie-in novel by Jim Thompson, and more)

Kliph Nesteroff: Can Heironymus Merkin Ever Forget Mercy Humppe and Find True Happiness?

Laura: The Girl from 10th Avenue; Robber's Roost

The Return of Ringo

Lucy Brown: The Adventures of Michael Strogoff (aka The Soldier and the Lady); Victim; Hotel Reserve

Mike Tooney: Ironside: "Puzzlelock"

Mystery Dave: December Boys; Dragonheart

Patti Abbott: The Panic in Needle Park

Pearce Duncan: Troll

Prashant Trikannad: A Mumbai book fair

Randy Johnson: Mickey; The Return of Ringo (aka Il ritorno di Ringo)

The Thomas Crown Affair

Rick: Do Not Disturb

Rod Lott: Twisted Nerve;  Death Ship

Sergio Angelini: Top 12 Crime-Film Remakes

Stacia Jones: Evidence; How to Make Money Selling Drugs

FFB: LAUGHING MATTERS: A CELEBRATION OF AMERICAN HUMOR edited by (of all people) Gene Shalit (1987)

Gene Shalit had a long but not all that distinguished career as a film (and to a lesser extent book) reviewer for television, usually the NBC morning series Today, before retiring in 2010. He has been fond of puns and lightweight judgment, and as such, not too much less illuminating in his compass than Siskel and Ebert (and their various heirs at their tv series) were in theirs, and the latter usually had more time to go on. 

Given that, it's mildly surprising (to me, in any case) how engaging his very eclectic 622-page (including index) bugcrusher of a humor anthology is...his taste in stories, essays, verse, cartoons, sketch scripts, jokes and other expressions of wit on the page isn't so much surprising as nonetheless rather sound, and while nostalgic, wasn't ignoring the then current-crop of contribution to the traditions (a generous helping of Crockett Johnson's Barnaby comic strip is supplemented by examples from Nicole Hollander's Sylvia, Gary Trudeau's Doonesbury, and Gary Larson's The Far Side, for example). Amusingly, Shalit was a schoolmate of Fran Lebowitz's father and apparently knew her from her childhood, so her work is introduced here with a bit of memoir. Also notable is the focus on material published during Shalit's lifetime...a few older chestnuts, from Mark Twain and others, are included, but more likely to be encountered here is the sequencing that goes from a short Lebowitz essay to a Charles Schulz Peanuts strip to an E. B. White rumination.

Doubleday did him few favors in pricing this book in '87 at $24.95, but copies can be had relatively inexpensively now, and in slightly shrunken dollars...

Here's Annie Van Auken's somewhat condensed (and alphabetical rather than in sequence of appearance) list of the contents:

Introductions by: Gene SHALIT, 

[these taken from other books:] Dorothy PARKER, Louis UNTERMEYER and Alexander WOOLCOTT

- - - - - - - - - - PROSE - - - - - - - - - -

Franklin P. ADAMS
A Pair of Sexes

Woody ALLEN
Confessions of a Burglar
Hasidic Tales, with a Guide to Their Interpretation by the Noted Scholar
The Kugelmass Episode
The Scrolls
Selections from the Allen Notebooks
The Whore of Mensa

Kurt ANDERSEN
Affectations

Russell BAKER
Francs and Beans

Henry BEARD
The Congress of Nuts

Robert BENCHLEY
Christmas Afternoon
Kiddie-Kar Travel
Opera Synopses

Roy BLOUNT, JR.
Blue Yodel 9 Jessie
The List of the Mohicans
What to Do on New Year's Eve---I and II

Roark BRADFORD
Green Pastures

Lynn CARAGANIS
U.S. Torn Apart by French Attitude

Craig CLAIBORNE
Just a Quiet Dinner for Two in Paris:31 Dishes, Nine Wines, a $4,000 Check

Gordon COTLER
More Big News from Out There

Steven CRIST
Letterati

T. A. DALY
Mia Carlotta

Finley Peter DUNNE
Over the Counter
Short Marriage Contracts
The Vice-President

Ian A. FRAZIER
Into the American Maw

Veronica GENG
Curb Carter Policy Discord Effort Threats
My Mao
The Stylish New York Couples

Jeff GREENFIELD
The White House is Sinking!

Milt GROSS
Ferry-tail from Keeng Mitas for Nize Baby

Garrison KEILLOR
Attitude
Shy Rights: Why Not Pretty Soon?

Arthur KOBER
Boggains in the Bronx

Ring LARDNER
Some Like Them Cold

Fran LEBOWITZ
An Alphabet of New Year's Resolutions for Others
Ideas
The Last Laugh
Lesson One
Tips for Teens

Don MARQUIS
The Rivercliff Golf Killings

Bruce McCALL
Rolled in Rare Bohemian Onyx, Then Vulcanized by Hand

H. L. MENCKEN
The Wedding: A Stage Direction

George MEYER
Food Repairman

Christopher MORLEY
Unearned Increment

Howard MOSS
The Ultimate Diary

Ogden NASH
I Never Even Suggested It

Mark O'DONNELL
Insect Societies

Mark O'DONNELL and Chris AUSTOPCHUK
The 1985 Old Codger's Almanac 

Michael O'DONOGHUE
How to Write Good

NATIONAL LAMPOON
Classified Ads

Dorothy PARKER
An Apartment House Anthology

S. J. PERELMAN
Farewell, My Lovely Appetizer
No Starch in the Dhoti, S'il Vous Plait
Nothing But the Tooth
Waiting for Santy

Noel PERRIN
Answers to Poets' Questions

Lois ROMANO
English Lit(mus)

Leo Rosten
Christopher K*a*p*l*a*n

Philip ROTH
Letters to Einstein

William SAROYAN
Old Country Advice to the American Traveler

Max SCHULMAN
Excerpts from Barefoot Boy with Cheek

Casey STENGEL
Organized Professional Team Sports

Frank SULLIVAN
The Cliché Expert Testifies on Literary Criticism
The Cliché Expert Testifies on the Movies
A Garland of Ibids

James THURBER
The Little Girl and the Wolf
Mr. Preble Gets Rid of His Wife

Calvin TRILLIN
Ben's Diary

Mark TWAIN
Fenimore Cooper's Literary Offenses

Ellis WEINER 
Patriotic Spot (60 Secs.)

E. B. WHITE
Across the Street and into the Grill
Dusk in Fierce Pajamas
The Sexual Revolution: Being a Rather Complete Survey of the Entire Sexual Scene

- - - - - - - - - - VERSE - - - - - - - - - -

Franklin P. ADAMS
To a Thesaurus

ANONYMOUS
Great Fleas

Morris BISHOP
Mournful Numbers

John Collins BOSSIDY
On the Aristocracy of Harvard

Margaret FISHBACK
I Stand Corrected
The Purist to Her Love

Robert FROST
A Considerable Speck

Samuel HOFFENSTEIN
Budget
The Notebook of a Schnook
Oral History and Prognostication
Poems in Praise of Practically Nothing
Poems of Passion Carefully Restrained So As to Offend Nobody
A Simple Tale

Earnest A. HOOTEN
Ode to a Dental Hygienist

Frederick Sheetz JONES
On the Democracy of Yale

Harold A. LARRABEE
The Very Model of a Modern College President

Don MARQUIS
the coming of archy/mehitabel was once cleopatra/the song of mehitabel/
the old trouper/the flattered lightning bug/the lesson of the moth
the honey bee

Ogden NASH
The Firefly
How to Harry a Husband or Is that Accessory Really Necessary?
Look What You Did, Christopher!

Dorothy PARKER
Résumé

D. F. PARRY
Miniver Cheevy, Jr.

Edwin Arlington Robinson
Miniver Cheevy

Allan SHERMAN
The Drapes of Roth

Bert Leston TAYLOR
The Bards We Quote
To Lillian Russell

UNIVERSITY of CALIFORNIA
Engineer's Yell

- - - - - STAGE, RADIO & MOVIE - - - - -

Bud ABBOTT and Lou COSTELLO
Who's on First?

Fred ALLEN
Jack Benny in "Allen's Alley"

Marshall BRICKMAN
"The Enigma Redundancy"

George BURNS and Gracie ALLEN
Say Good Night, Gracie

Marc CONNALLY
A Fish Fry (Part I, Scene 2 of "The Green Pastures")

Brad DARRACH
Interview with Mel Brooks (from Playboy magazine)

Bob ELLIOTT and Ray GOULDING
Garish Summit---Episode 1

Harvey FIERSTEIN
Scene One: Arnold

Frank JACOBS and Mort DRUCKER
Antenna on the Roof (Mad Magazine spoof of Broadway musical)

George S. KAUFMAN and Morrie RYSKIND
Groucho and Chico Make a Deal

Garrison KEILLOR
U.S. Still on Top, Says Rest of World

The MARX Brothers
Why a Duck?

Will ROGERS
Timely Topics

- - - - - CARTOON & COMIC STRIP - - - - 

Charles ADDAMS
Peter ARNO

George BOOTH

Roz CHAST
Frank COTHAM

Robert DAY

Jules FEIFFER
FLENNIKEN

Rube GOLDBERG
Edward GOREY
Sam GROSS

Bud HANDELSMAN
Johnny HART
George HERRIMAN
Nicole HOLLANDER

Rea IRVIN

Crockett JOHNSON

B. KLIBAN
Ed KOREN

Gary LARSON
Bill LEE

Jeff MacNEELEY
Robert MANKOFF
Howard MARGULIES
Skip MORROW

Mike PETERS
George PRICE

Arnold ROTH

Charles SCHULZ 
Tom SMITS
Gary SOLIN
M. STEVENS

James THURBER
Garry TRUDEAU 

Jim UNGER

Gluyas WILLIAMS
Gahan WILSON

Jack ZIEGLER

Afterword by Kurt ANDERSEN

For more of today's books, please see Patti Abbott's blog.

Of related interest:
Bennett Cerf's Houseful of Laughter
Parodies, edited by Dwight Macdonald, and The Stuffed Owl edited by Lewis and Lee
Funny Papers: from 5 years of reviews on this blog

Tuesday's Overlooked Films and/or Other A/V: the links

Theatre of Blood

Below, today's set of reviews and citations of audiovisual works and related matter, with the posts at the links...as always, thanks to all the contributors and to all you readers for your participation. As usual, there are likely to be additions to this list over the course of the day, and if I've missed your, or someone else's, post, please let me know in comments...thanks again...

Allan Mott: Theatre of Blood

Cocoon

Bill Crider: Cocoon [trailer]

Brian Arnold: The Incredible Mr. Limpet

B.V. Lawson: Media Murder

Clayton K. Walter: Luke Slaughter of Tombstone

Ed Gorman/David Kalat: Marilyn Monroe and Howard Hawks

Ed Lynskey: The Snoop Sisters; Fear in the Night

Elizabeth Foxwell: Girl in the News

Evan Lewis: "Popeye the Sailor Meets Sindbad the Sailor"

Submarine

George Kelley: Justice League: The Flashpoint Paradox

How Did This Get Made?: Crocodile Dundee in Los Angeles

Iba Dawson: Submarine (2010 film)

Ivan G. Shreve, Jr.: The Adventures of Sam Spade; The Jack Benny Program: The Lost Episodes

Jackie Kashian: The Dork Forest: "Live in Portland: Carrie Brownstein"


Jacqueline T. Lynch: Adventure in Manhattan

James Reasoner: The Quest (1976 US television series)

Deadlier than the Male

Jeff Flugel: Deadlier than the Male (1967 Bulldog Drummond revival film)

Jerry House: Annie Oakley (herself and the tv series)

Kelly Robinson: Craig Rice

Kliph Nesteroff: How to Commit Marriage (and Irwin Corey interview passage): The Last of the Secret Agents

Laura: Timber Stampede; Disney Expo 2013

Lucy Brown: Hindle Wakes (aka Holiday Week): School for Scoundrels (1960 film)

Mike Tooney: Stargate SG-1: "Collateral Damage"

The Valley of Gwangi

Mystery Dave: Men of Honor

Patti Abbott: Foul Play

Pearce Duncan: Demons

Randy Johnson: The Beast of Hollow Mountain; The Valley of Gwangi; Ace High (aka I quattro dell’ave Maria)

Rick: People Will Talk (1951 film)

Rod Lott: Wanted Dead or Alive (1986 film); Airport (1970)

Scott Cupp: Shock Treatment (1981 film)

Sergio Angelini: Heat (William Goldman's novel and the film adaptation)

Stacia Jones: Mitchell 

Stephen Gallagher: Pilgrim Shadow; Doctor Who hoohah

Walter Albert: Maria, A Hungarian Legend (aka Marie, A Hungarian Legend aka Spring Shower aka Tavaszi zápor)

Tavaszi zápor