Out There in the Dark

Why I love the Cramps (and the inimitable Poison Ivy) 

Ready to Rumble

I first heard Link Wray’s “Fire and Brimstone” on a Neville Brothers album, and of course they gave it the Full Neville, a richly textured barn burner. But Wray’s original version is pure hand-made wildness, recorded on a 3-track in a shack. And yeah, that’s foot-stomping and a can of nails being shook in lieu of drums. One of the great indigenous rockers screaming down to his roots.

You Can’t Spell LSD without “Ditko”

 Doctor Strange, Steve Ditko

Christmas Gift Suggestion, for Kids!

I had the hand-held version of this toy gun. It had two functions: (1) damaging siblings' eardrums and (2) traumatizing cats. But if you really want to do some damage, just ask Kurt Russell.

Nature Corner!

A video of two things I never get tired of: funkadunkie music and deep-sea bioluminescence.

How Many Tor Is Not Too Many Tor

 

Thanks to Vinnie Filippini for posting on Underground Comix, ETC! (originally in Heavy Metal)

Today’s In Memoriam!

Yeah, good ol Bob Dole: Nixon’s hatchet man, partisan bill-blocker (including the Clinton health plan), a man whose wit exposed his mean-spirited nature, one of a few Republican “leaders” who supported trumpolini in 2016, and a great statesman who, in an effort to win an election, laid the dead of WWI &II and Korea at the feet of Democrats. And oh boy: a disabled person who came out strong for disabilities rights. Too bad he wasn’t poor; would’ve found the heart to help out poor people.

"Merry Stories and Funny Pictures"

"Merry Stories and Funny Pictures." Don't you believe it. Here's Heinrich Hoffman's 1845 hair-raising—and finger-amputating, and dog-beating, and "Black-a-Moor" teasing (you have been warned), and self-immolating, and self-starving—Big Little Book of Unflinching Moral Lessons. There is no evidence that one of these merry stories directly inspired Tim Burton's Edward Scissorhands, but if you're sucking your thumb right now, I'd advise you to stop. No, really, stop. Oh jeez, please stop.

Get the Lead Out: Molybdomancy and You!

 

Today's word: "Molybdomancy."* Melt lead or tin, drop it in cold water, and use a little (here comes today's word #2) pareidolia to tell the future. I want to do this right now.

                                                                                       

*GHOST TRAIN is not responsible for any hazard to your soul if you click on this site. We clicked on "Black Magick Training" and the resulting sounds were enough to make us toss our phone into a fire.

These Associates Were Scientific Researchers

 

Here's a nice British archivist discussing the SRA Reading Laboratory, a graduated color-coded system for developing reading comprehension skills. Any kid who, as I did, thought this was fun on a bun was immediately shipped off to the Future English Teacher Camp for Extraordinarily Nerdy Dorks, where we spotted main ideas from canoes, hiked through dense prose, learned to build a fire while self-scoring, and were secretly relieved that the increasingly difficult readings weren't numbered, since we couldn't remember the order of colors anyway. To this day, if I see a two-page article or a piece of flash fiction, a thrill of expectant spazz-ness courses through my febrile frame; but the day I start making up questions for them is the day that I—well, that will be the day when I will feel fulfilled as a person.

Wide Open Spaces

Here's a 1906 photo of Broad Street in Philadelphia looking north. City Hall is directly behind, and the Masonic Temple is on the right, followed by the Scottish Rite Cathedral. The U.S.'s first art academy, the Pennsylvania Academy of the fine Arts (PAFA) is, I think, just beyond that tallish building on the left.

But the point is: Notice how spacious and roomy cities could look before automobiles. Yes, immigrants were crowded into cluttered cramped disease-and-death playgrounds; but out there in the hustle-bustle, you could really stretch out. Just watch out for horseshit, of all kinds.

LAAAY-Deeez an Gentlemen!!!

Watching Nightmare Alley (1947) led me to geeks, which led me to Tom Waits; a natural progression. Here’s his Satan’s Barker intro to The Black Rider, a jen-yoo-wine Dark Ride. “And she’s the homeliest woman in the world!

See for Yourself!

(Back cover of Zap! Comix #1; photo credit: Larry Thompson)

Started in 1968 as a showcase for Robert Crumb, Zap Comix proves once again the truism that every new idea begins as heresy and ends as dogma (all due apologies to T.H. Huxley for mangling his Famous Quotation). Pot comix culture loved the "before/after" trope, along with a gee-whiz tone, one that would soon be appropriated by National Lampoon magazine (which itself inherited the gleeful, comic-book-y scorn of "official society" popularized by Mad in the 1950s). I'm getting into a pop counterculture mood, so GHOST TRAIN may be getting a bit snarky over the next few days. Apologies in advance.

Hey Grandpop, What's a "Cyclopedia"?

(gorse of course)

One of a handful of "inherited" books lying around the house when I was a kid, along with Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights, was a battered copy of a (sadly long-gone) "cyclopedia" of, as I recall, "useful and practical knowledge." I've poked around online and found a number of similar books, all from the late 1800s (which as I recall was the date of the book we had back then). This one is very close to what I remember, although I don't think "entertaining" was in the title.

But the insides were something to consider! How to buy clothes, how to take care of a horse, parlor games and magic tricks, all kinds of strange housekeeping and everyday remedy information, and, as I still relate to students, a "'language of flowers" that felt so British I could almost hear the wind whistle across the gorse. If you must buy one crumbly old book this Holiday Season, you could do worse. Besides, haven't you always wanted to know how to discern if your hat has been properly blocked?

British Goblins: Welsh Folk-lore, Fairy Mythology, Legends and Traditions (1880)

This is from the Public Domain Review. Visit this remarkable site the next time you have a couple of days to kill.

Forget Karen. Nancy!

It may be no surprise (to some with a certain something rattling around upstairs) that there’s a lot of Nancy-related folderol scattered around the internet. Remixed Nancy Bushmiller is a good one—but if you know Nancy, her actual life is already remixed. Found this on one of these sites. Real game? 

"WHERE ON TOUR": The Cramps at the Napa State Mental Hospital, 1978

Lux Interior (RIPieces), his soulmate Poison Ivy, Bryan Gregory (RIP), and Nick Knox (RIP)

One of us, one of us.

"The Beckoning Fair One" by Oliver Onions

 

Not to indulge in rank ranking, but this is one of the best ghost stories written in English. Edward Gorey would agree.