I have been deathly ill for what seems like weeks, how ridiculous is it to be in the throes of a fever when summer is finally descending all around you? Anyways, just some quick links to catch up:

• Fiend #1: Chiara Bautista, aka 'Milk', Amazing artwork, needs a real website though, everyone knows myspace sucks my balls.
• Fiend #2: Louis Roskosch, very cool work.
• Italian Spiderman Parts 1 and 2 are up, and it does not disappoint. Looking forward to this weekly.
• Incredible Nudibrach Pictures
• DANCE! KREMLIN PALACE! by SHINTARO KAGO Prologue, chapter 1, and chapter 2.
• Every visual recording by Tom Waits.

Now I must get back to sacrificing small woodland creatures to several ancient deities with the hope that I can remove the sandpaper from my throat...


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Technorati tags: sick

Found on Japan Probe, this is a series of excellent surreal, weird, and funny shorts. They have quite a few posted on youtube, definitely check them out:

Gag Manga Biyori or "A good day for gag manga" is a series of five minute short cartoons helmed by famous anime director Akitaro Daichi.

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Last week's web zen was supremely excellent, this floating head video made me especially happy:



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Available May 22nd online, Italian Spiderman:





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Chile's Chaitén volcano by Carlos Gutierrez UPI/Landov:




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Somebody has waaaay too much time on their hands, thank gods:

Tom had a band called “The Systems,” but no performance dates are known. Tom: “I used to have a Saint George electric guitar - I used to play rhythm in a little combo for awhile, but it didn’t pan out, you know...” BBC interview 1976... And from "Bitin' The Green Shiboda With Tom Waits" Down Beat magazine (USA), by Marv Hohman. Chicago. June 17, 1976: "Hohman: Did you start out working in a combo, or were you a solo act right from the beginning? Waits: I did a few rock things; I was in a group called the Systems, I was rhythm guitar and lead vocalist. We did Link Wray stuff... Rumble was his first hit. I've been trying to pin down Frank Zappa's guitar style for a long time and I think Link Wray is the closest I can get. I think Frank is trying to be Link Wray. We did stuff by the Ventures, too, a lot of instrumentals. I finally quit that band; we had a drummer with a harelip and a lead guitar player with a homemade guitar. Actually, there were only three of us, so in a sense we were sort of like pioneers."



Tom worked Napoleone’s Pizza House in National City from 1965 to 1969.



Asylum records published a bio in March 1973. Here are the venues Tom refers to from the early days:

YMCA

Junior High

The Back Door

(In) The Alley

The Bonita Inn

The Manhattan Club



“The Back Door”: Lower Level, Aztec Center, San Diego State University, CA

This club opened in the fall semester of 1969. There were Hoot Nights where Tom probably played, but I found no evidence that Tom ever headlined there.



Lou Curtiss suggests Tom may have played in the following clubs, although I have no evidence:



“The White Whale”: 5544 La Jolla Blvd., Bird Rock, California

A sister folk club to the Heritage which Tom probably played, although no dates are verified. Open 1967 to 1971. No advertising for the club was found in the La Jolla Light. Managed by Daniel F. McLister 67-70, & James H & John L. Zollinger in 1971. Appears to have closed before 1972.



“The Candy Company”: 7711 El Cajon Blvd, La Mesa, California

Another local folk club which Tom is purported to have played. The earliest ad I found for this club is from 10/18/68. I found nothing past 9/25/69. Folk clubs had a hard time surviving, and often went out of business quickly. I could find no evidence that Tom ever played there. A 1970 business listing indicates it was managed by Richard & Mrs. Constance Russell.



“The Bifrost Bridge”: 4751 Spring Street, La Mesa, California

Another local folk club which Tom is purported to have played. I found dates in December of 1967. Bob Webb suggests the club closed in January of 1968.



“The Heritage”: 3842 Mission Blvd., Mission Beach, California

1969 – March 1972

Tom was the doorman & “bouncer” at this folk club near the beach. Bob Webb thinks Tom started as bouncer in early 1970. He also played on stage from time to time. The club closed sometime in 1972. Tom: “The first weekend I had at the Heritage it was Bob Labeau (sic) and Tom Waits and we split the bill a couple of times after that. It was Bob Webb, at first, who gave me a weekend there. I’d been hootin’ (note: a “hoot” is an open stage where various performers play impromptu sets, now often called an “open stage”) for quite a while and I had a girlfriend who got a job waiting tables too. So she was kind of putting a good word in for me with Bob and finally he came around and said ‘we’ll risk it.’ And I was the doorman and that was one of the important steps for me because I got to listen every weekend.” (from an interview from 1/13/74)

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He also launched his new website and announced his summer tour with the best press conference ever:



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