Strange and beautiful

Found this very cool art film of the Avebury henge and dolmen on boingboing, my favorite source for all things cool and unusual. As a casual fan of both art films and giant mysterious stones, this made my day. The makers of the film are all associated with ancient archaeology but have made a beautiful work of art.

Edited, experimental 8mm ciné project, filmed in various film stocks of Super 8; camera: Canon 814. Original film running time: 15 minutes.

The director/camerman is called Ric Kemp, who’s only other credit I unearthed via google was a series of paintings, again of the Avebury henge. So based on the two examples I gather that Mr. Kemp is an artistic Avebury fan with no other credits to his name. It doesn’t matter, I still think his film is gorgeous and qualifies him as a film artist. The others involved are Mark Pilkington of the Strange Attractor Journal (celebrating unpopular culture) and contributor to the Fortean Times, who is given producing credit. The soundtrack credit goes to Neil Mortimer, author of a book about ancient sites of Britain and editor of 3rd Stone journal which discusses folklore and unusual archaeology. Why Neil did the music for the film rather than Mark, a musician in a group called Oort (makes me think of Oort clouds, thread, and Pern, scary name) perplexes me, but he did an excellent job.

HotHotHot

We’re having a heatwave, a tropical heatwave…

 Reached 97 yesterday, prediction for today: 105

Had my first airconditioning injury. I was preparing for the heat by setting up my airconditioner yesterday and the window the AC unit is in was jammed, so I gave it a little encouragement. And sliced open the tip of my index finger, and possibly giving myself a tuft fracture. Dripping blood everywhere I ran to the bathroom and ran water over it. Here’s the embarrassing part: the trauma junkie got light headed and had to lay down, feet elevated, before she passed out. After a  couple of minutes I got back up and fixed my boo-boo ‘cuz I don’t need no stinkin’ doctors and went merrily on my way to way to work. At work I helped fix 1) A lacerated upper lip that had chunks of flesh missing and gravel was imbedded, and a torn up leg with more of the same. Both injuries considerably more gruesome than my little finger boo-boo. What a pansy I am, the sight of my own minor injury caused a vagal reaction. I should have told myself to cowboy up, like I do the weenies in the ED that wimp out. I certainly deserved it.

 

Flesh Peddling

Recently in the course of my job was entertained by local law enforcement. They periodically come in to my place of work with a law breaker who needs clearance for jail or a combative schizophrenic and even occasionally for a rowdy patient or guest. They are a lovely bunch to work with, very polite and well armed. I feel very secure having them around. I’ve never run afoul of the law, what with being the worlds most boring person, so I’m not sure if I could get away with anything, but I make a point of learning their names and being friendly with them just in case I’m pulled over for some sort of infraction or am falsely accused of a crime. While we were entertaining each other the other night with tales from dark side of our hometown we discussed where to get coffee late nights. Also of interest was the new coffee stand in town whose chief attraction is scantily clad Barista’s, which come to find out was not a joke they were pulling on me but a real live business that just opened and incidentally the local law enforcement has been instructed not to patronize.  I don’t read the local newspaper or watch local television, the reporting is subpar and the stories are just dull. I depend on work to find out the latest goings on around town, but I braved the Daily Wreck to bring you this story.

Bikinied baristas serve-up Ellensburg  By CHELSEA KROTZER staff writer ELLENSBURG – Ellensburg opened its business doors to a new kind of espresso stand, offering iced mochas, Italian sodas and a variety of coffees served by bikini-clad baristas. Java Jigglers had its grand opening and free car wash Saturday. The hot pink-roofed stand is located at the west Interstate 90 interchange in Ellensburg across from the Chevron station. “I think it’s a great location,” Jaimie Lopez, Ellensburg resident and Java Jigglers customer, said. “You don’t have to go all the way back into town just to get coffee.” Owners Cliff and Myrna West opened the stand as their first business venture as a means to keep Cliff home more often with his children, namely their 7-year-old.   The dress code at Java Jigglers has already sparked controversy. According to Cliff, verbal threats and obscenities are just the beginning of the negative feedback. “I want to keep it as clean as possible; conservative, but I still want to survive,” Cliff said. “I went to the bar and I was totally shocked and amazed at what I’d seen and heard. This is tame in comparison.” Customers didn’t seem to mind the dress code, or the coffee. “I don’t look at it as profanity or something bad,” Lopez said. “You go to the lake in a bikini don’t you? So why can’t you work in it?” Amy Johnson, a sophomore paramedic student at Central Washington University, works at Java Jigglers as a second job. She also works at Rodeo City Barbeque. Johnson was not fazed by the bikini requirement.     “Well, it’s a job,” Johnson said. “It’s not bad. [The owners] are really nice.”  West and family try to keep the safety of the five girls they currently employ in mind. Cliff said they were looking into installing video surveillance cameras in the near future. For now, someone of the West family is constantly at the stand to keep an eye on the girls during their shifts.     Java Jigglers is currently open from 5 a.m. and closes around 10 p.m. The Wests are planning on providing 24-hour service. Such a transition would depend on if they could hire more baristas. Java Jigglers is currently open from 5 a.m. and closes around 10 p.m. The Wests are planning on providing 24-hour service. Such a transition would depend on if they could hire more baristas. “We work around their schedule for school and so on,” Cliff said. A Java Jigglers Web site is currently in the works, providing a platform for the baristas to share their stories and why they chose to become a Java Jiggler’s employee.

First of all Jaimie Lopez does not have to go “all the way into town” for coffee. At that intersection there are four or more options to get your java. Cliff and Myrna West say they started the business to keep Cliff at home more with the kiddies, then further down explain that someone from the West family is “constantly” at the stand to keep an eye on the girls. How’s that working for spending more time with the kiddies Cliff and Myrna? The fact that they feel they are doing so means they recognize the possibility of sexual harassment or worse against their employees. Cliff says “I went to the bar …  and this is tame in comparison”, that’s because you were at a bar Cliffie, not a coffee stand. Jaimie Lopez again chimes in with the argument of wearing a bikini at a lake, so why not work in one. Jaimie, Jaimie, Jaimie, a)  bikini at a lake is appropriate attire b) bikini at coffee stand is gratuitous sexual titillation. Amy says it’s just a job, smart girl, but is being exploited by your employer worth the tips and wages you’re earning? Are they worth being abused by lewd comments and the burns to your skin you will inevitably incur? Good luck with your coffee stand and website Cliff and Myrna West, you must be very proud to be supporters of The Porno-ization  of America (thank you Jill Soloway).

I honestly don’t think I’m a prude, go ahead and have all the sex you want with whoever you want (just please wear a condom and obey the law), but I am mindful of the impression given by young women featured in businesses like this and the “show us your tits” phenomenon, which I foolishly thought was on it’s way out with the incarceration of Joe Francis.  The impression I get is that it is fine for women to exploit their bodies for profit and the exploiters are just family people, making a living.  This is just another arm of the sex industry no matter how you put it. There will always be titty bars, but do we really need titty bar-istas?

Warm Fuzzies

The strangest things make me feel sentimental, I once teared up listening to Anarchy In The UK while driving, had to pull over to finish listening to it. Recent posts in a couple of my favorite blogs got me feeling warm and fuzzy all over. In Peromyscus, Lyle Hopwood posted video of Communication Breakdown filmed on Led Zeppelin’s last night at Earls Court and a quick history of why this particular version was so meaningful. If you just watch it, it’s good. Communication Breakdownis a fun, punky song, one of my favorites, that typifies Led Zeppelin’s beginnings. Maybe you’ve seen the Royal Albert Hall concert version or the Danish TV performance on the 2003 DVD, they are young and energized and play the song with pride and show off just a little bit. Peromyscus sets the stage beautifully, giving you the back story of Earls Court and telling you just how meaningful this performance is.

They’ve just done a whole week, three and a half hours each night. This is the very last song of the run; an extra encore they didn’t play on the other nights – this, with with the other extra encore, Heartbreaker, is pushing the show to three and three quarter hours.The crowd’s insane. Plant knows his voice has gone and it doesn’t matter. Bonham “collapses” at the end (I’m sure it’s a joke)…It’s amazing. It’s an event – there’s more going on here than can ever be captured on tape. But you can still see it. There’s always some of that magic fairy dust left, even in a 425 pixel wide YouTube window.

In 1975, Led Zeppelin has seen everything and done everything, but still have that glimmer of magic fairy dust at Earls Court.

The other warm fuzzy I had this week was courtesy of Youdopia featuring a performance by Robert Plant and Jimmy Page of My Bucket’s Got A Hole In It, done for the Sun Records tribute called Good Rockin’ Tonight.  Recorded in 2001, Jimmy and Robert strum and sing their way respectively through a great old Rockabilly tune. No dragons winding up Jimmy Pages thighs, and Robert doesn’t sport the bare midriff, but their pleasure in making music shines through. And I believe I saw some magic fairy dust floating about here and there.