Interesting

Amazing Vienna 1973 Footage

Posted by Mark on September 27, 2024
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How a 50yr Old 8mm Film Found New Life

A few months ago the prolific and miraculous Eric Levy, aka LedZepFilm released the above incredible super 8 footage of Led Zeppelin playing their legendary show in Vienna in 1973. I’ve done a couple of episodes on this show, because it is so amazingly badass, but having film, wonderful film, to match the audio, was never even a secret wish.

The story of how this footage came to be, and then came to be digitized, color corrected, and synced to the existing audio is fascinating. Led Zeppelin News‘ own James Cook (who I’ve interviewed a couple of times) published a story about the process, which includes an interview with the filmer, Mead Eblan, about that magical night, and how that film survived for 5 decades before seeing the light of day.

This is just one of the myriad films, and audio recordings, which Levy has brought to light, with the occasional help of the Dogs of Doom crew. Eric Levy is arguably the most influential, and consequential, fan in the Led Zeppelin community, at least for the last ten years. His video syncs are amazing.

Take a moment to watch the footage, groove to the amazing music, and read the article James wrote about this amazing find, and how it came to be publicly released. Good stuff, I promise.

If You Love Zep You’ll Love Led Zeppelin News

Posted by Mark on September 19, 2024
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James Cook is Doing Amazing Work on Substack

If you’ve been listening to me for awhile you’ve heard me interview James Cook a couple of times, over the years. He’s a wonderful human being and a hell of a researcher. He’s also a ‘real’ journalist, in that he’s published all over, including Business Insider.

That professional expertise is apparent when reading his fantastic website/social media presence as Led Zep News. However, one can go deeper down the rabbit hole because Mr. Cook publishes very precise, source rich, and expanded in-depth articles for your pleasure and education, on Substack.

Substack is a site in which writers and journalists can publish directly to their audience without being throttled/limited by any kind of authority/boss. It’s a good thing. This in particular is wonderful.

Want to know everything about the $200,000 robbery at the Drake back in 1973 (seen in the Song Remains the Same movie)? Well strap in, because James got all the FBI files about the robbery, the case notes, etc. Super interesting.

It’s $5/month to get deep insightful, intelligent, content about the workings (and playings) of the best rock band in history.

This is a pure fan post. There has been no quid pro quo with James. This is something I’ve wanted to for awhile. Listen to the interviews and decide if you would like to hear more about this stuff.

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The Coolest Coffee Cup Ever

Posted by Mark on September 16, 2024
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The Simple Cup of Truth will Change Your Life

Hey there, handsome! Do you love coffee, tea, hot cocoa, etc. but hate slurping scalding hot liquid from your blistered, cupped hands? Dude, I got you! I have a device which will revolutionize the liquid slurping experience.

Behold The Simple Cup of Truth! That’s right, “cup”. It holds the liquid you wish to consume for you, allowing you to use your hands for other things, like shooing away bears.

Allow me to explain. You’ll notice that the “cup” is comprised of two parts joined at two points. The first is the actual “cup” part of the “cup”, by which I mean the cylinder. The perceptive among you may have noted that if one were to pour liquid into a cylinder, it would simply fall through and soil the floor. Guess what, motherfucker? This cylinder has a bottom! The ‘bottom’ of the cup keeps the liquid from spilling out, bringing us to the showstopper.

Attached at two points to the outside of the cylinder you will see a thin hemisphere of baked clay perpendicular to the cylinder wall. Using your thumb and forefingers you can lift the “cup” to your lips and slurp like a gentleperson. Welcome to the aristocracy!

as an additional boon to humanity I have applied positive messages on the outer surface of the cylinder, intended to enlighten and inform. “Music is Good” is a truth both profound and sublime. The Heart of Markness podcast logo is a powerful talisman against nogoodniks and the occasional caribou.

Buy enough to make an igloo of truth in which to repose. Merch of Markness is the place.

Tony Franklin’s Dreaming

Posted by Mark on April 23, 2020
Posted in: Interesting, Music. Tagged: , , , , , . 1 comment

The Demo of The Firm Song

Dreaming is a song of The Firm’s second album, Mean Business. It was written by bassist Tony Franklin, and it stands out on the album for its inventiveness. I like the song.

Tony posted his 4 track demo on YouTube and I am surprised at how complete a demo it is. It’s like listening to Pete Townshend’s demos as far as completeness of vision goes. The song is 90% finished.

I’m impressed that Jimmy Page stayed so true to Tony’s original guitar parts. It shows that The Firm were truly a band, with input from all members having weight and value, and it shows that Jimmy respected Tony’s talent.

I think this version will be my go to for this song.

The Historical Illuminatus Chronicles Is Being Reissued

Posted by Mark on July 18, 2018
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robert anton wilson historical illuminatus chronicles

Robert Anton Wilson’s final trilogy sees new life.

Robert Anton Wilson’s Last Trilogy

Gets A Renaissance

The Historical Illuminatus Chronicles is back in print. I first read The Earth Will Shake (the first book of the Historical Illuminatus Chronicles) in 1992. It was great. It takes place in the 18th Century, and feature ancestors of the main characters of the Illuminatus Trilogy. We have Celines, Malatestas, Moons, as well as amazing cameos by Edmund Burke, George Washington, Tom Paine, and my favorite… de Selby. A fictional character who exists in another fictional world appears (in footnotes) in the second book of the trilogy, The Widow’s Son.

Robert Anton Wilson is a criminally underappreciated writer, in my opinion. I think one reason is that his books are spread throughout the entire bookstore/library. He has written fiction, sci fi, philosophy, literary criticism, plays, humor, treatises, books about sex, drugs, the occult… he’s all over the road. He was a friend and colleague of Timothy Leary, a scholar of James Joyce, Aleister Crowley, Buckminster Fuller, Richard Feyman… he was just as at home speaking of non-locality in quantum mechanics as he was about DMT vs LSD, or the number of mathematical puns are in Finnegan’s Wake.

He was also hilarious. He is a wonderful Hermetic gatekeeper to the realms of all the above. His Illuminatus Trilogy (written with Robert Shea in the late 60’s/early 70’s) contained every extant conspiracy theory of which Wilson was aware. It was Tom Robbins in hyperspace and it will change you forever if you read it, in a good way.

Here’s a nice taste of what Robert Anton Wilson (or Uncle Bob) has to offer.

Listen, I think your life will be enriched, profoundly, by reading some good old Robert Anton Wilson, and The Historical Illuminatus Chronicles are the smoothest entrance into his world I can imagine. Bob passed in 2005 but his daughter Christina has founded a publishing company, Hilaritas Press. This will be used to reissue Bob’s catalog. Getting these books will support the legacy of a great man. Give them a shot.

Podcast Immanent

Posted by Mark on February 21, 2017
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Those of you who are carryovers from Youdopia (my last blog. It was awesome. I miss it. I should have never let it go) may be wondering about the lack of content here. It’s a fair question. The truth is that Heart of Markness has not fulfilled me in the way Youdopia did.

I just don’t feel the magic as much anymore. Most of the stuff I feel inspired to post has already been written about on Youdopia, and even though that site is gone, it still feels cheesy to reboot.

SO… I have decided to start a podcast; not to replace Heart of Darkness, but supplement it. Things about which I want to discuss in depth lend themselves to audio more than 1000’s of words on a blog.

I have the equipment on order and it should be here at the end of the week. I already have my first topic ready. It’s going to be about the aborted XYZ project of Jimmy Page, Chris Squire, and Alan White, back in 1981.

I’ll explore the backstory of how it came about. I’ll go into the 4 songs that have made it into the bootleg world, and how those 4 songs have appeared on Yes, and Firm, albums.

And I’ll go into why it never happened. La la la. It’s good stuff, if you’re a Zeppelin fan, a Yes fan, a Firm fan (are there any?), or just a hominid.

So keep your eye out for my first podcast. I’m aiming for something that’s information rich, like Dan Carlin or Sam Harris do, but also fairly conversational and free form, like Bill Burr’s podcast. As the first one it will suck, but we all start somewhere. 🙂

Watch Steven Wright & Rowan Atkinson In Their Oscar Winning Short

Posted by Mark on September 15, 2016
Posted in: Humor, Interesting. Tagged: , , , , , , , , . Leave a Comment

The Appointments of Dennis Jennings

Won Best Live Action Short Film Of 1988

I remember watching this on HBO in 1988 or 1989. I recorded it on my super snazzy hifi vhs recorder. I was all about recording back then. Boxes of tapes. Simpsons, The Young Ones, Blackadder, HBO comedy specials…. these are the days my friends. It could be Franky. It could be very fresh and clean.
… but I digress. The Appointments of Dennis Jennings is a bleak, stark, monotonous piece of dark humor, that has (unfortunately) fallen off the radar of pop culture. It’s a shame because it is brilliant. Grim. That is the vibe that carries through this piece. Funny is another word. It’s really, darkly, cumulatively so, but funny nonetheless.

"Why would anybody sleep with a parachute on?"

“Why would anybody sleep with a parachute on?”

I hadn’t watched it in at least 20 years, maybe longer, but I was reminded of it and thanks to YouTube, it’s available for all.

Steven Wright does his whole monotone deadpan thing, to perfection. Laurie Metcalf, who was hilarious on Roseanne, and Rowan Motherfucking Atkinson (Blackadder, Mr. Bean) are brilliant. This film takes time to put together, but it’s really rewarding, and completely deserving of an Oscar.

It has the dread and unease of a Terry Gilliam film, like 12 Monkeys but with none of the danger, tension, or life.

Brazil sans whimsy.

It’s kind of like a mashup of the non scary parts of Jacob’s Ladder and The Lobster. 

It’s absolutely worth the half hour to watch it. After all, it won an Oscar. 🙂

Watch 90 Minutes With Mel Brooks & Conan O’Brien

Posted by Mark on September 11, 2016
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mel brooks & conan obrien

An absolute legend.

Mel Brooks & Conan O’Brien

Serious Jibber Jabber From 2013

This 90 minute conversation between Mel Brooks & Conan O’Brien is pure gold. I love Mel Brooks. I love his movies (most of them), I love his humor… I love him! He’s wonderfully dynamic and energetic, even at the age of 87. He still is quick as a whip.

Serious Jibber Jabber is a web series done by Conan in which he does an old fashioned (think Dick Cavett, or David Frost) long format interview. No commercial breaks. No band. Just the subject and the host.

Thankfully we have a good host and a spectacular subject in Mel Brooks & Conan O’Brien. Mel’s career is long and legendary. He wrote for the Titan of modern comedy, Sid Caesar, in which he worked with Carl Reiner, Woody Allen, and other luminaries. THEN he wrote for Jerry Lewis (which I didn’t know until I watched this), and created the great spy parody  series, Get Smart. So many funny!

Mel Brooks has been popping lately in my feeds, mainly due to the death of Gene Wilder, and is own 90th birthday. 90 is the new 70. Stan Lee is in his 90s and still working. In fact he’s in Portland right now, for ComicCon.

Yes, people are living well, and living well, into their 90s, but it still means that our time with them is short. Take the time to appreciate a man who honestly had a hand in shaping our culture. (for better or worse)

Crazy YouTube Videos – Little Drummer Boy

Posted by Mark on July 29, 2016
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crazy youtube videos

This is what I enjoyed, legally and with the full blessings of the Creator

This is a crosspost from another blog on which I write. This version is better. 

Last evening, upon returning from Friday mass, I was moved to pray for the fine people of our great nation.

Not really. I got home super late last night, and it being Friday, I decided, “Fuck it. I’m going to get insanely high anyway.”  So I did, and it’s legal here, so I’m not only a hero, I’m a great citizen.

So, a candy, a crazy potent brownie… (I’m not kidding. 500 mg THC brownie the size of 2/3 of a credit card. I have been nibbling it like a little mouse all week), a couple bowls of Animal Cookies weed (see the leafly review), AND infinite hits of the vape pen later (no half measures for this man)… I was super high.

I was so high that I decided to watch some crazy YouTube videos. I ended up  watching/listening to old Fleetwood Mac songs. Old ones, from when they were a hard blues band, all the way to the fluff of the Rumours era. It was lovely. I dozed, I floated. I lucid dreamed Stevie Nicks vs the Green Manalishi… it was lovely. THEN the above video played (the blessing/curse of autoplay) and I was ripped from revery, and faced with this guy.

Crazy YouTube Videos = A Metaphor For 21st Century Life

Ok. Watch this video while you read this. This guy, Marvin Fleer, is so amazingly information rich…. it’s like Finnegan’s Wake on drums. Here’s why.

  • His drum setup is insane. Look at all the cymbals.
  • His drums seem wedged between a built in china cabinet and… another built in china cabinet?
  • I don’t know how, but I am sure that his mom is no more than 10 feet away
  • Little Lies? You’re going to live drum to an 80’s pop song from Fleetwood Mac? That’s your showpiece?
  • He’s not great
  • He’s not terrible
  • He has shared this with the world.
  • Half a million people have watched this
  • Despite half a million in the audience, our man is obviously very alone (mom doesn’t count)
  • We have only been able to share videos of ourselves doing shit like this for a few years. This is a new phenomenon.
  • Sociology. This is. Read Bowling Alone.

Marvin Fleer, you are the shining exemplar of this day and age. You are the zeitgeist. Go forth and drum forever. There can be great wisdom in crazy YouTube videos.