Alaska Correspondence, 1958

 

Here is a bit of postal/correspondence material (from 1958) from my father's (Bruce W. Falk) time in Alaska, connected with the White Alice project. -JF 

Draft Cards: Moe, Larry, Curly, and Shemp

Here are WWII-era draft cards for Jerome Horwitz, Louis Feinberg, Moe Horwitz, and Samuel Horwitz (AKA Curly Howard, Larry Fine, Moe Howard, and Shemp Howard, all members of the Three Stooges, in various lineups -- along with Joe Besser, and Curly Joe De Rita). The draft cards have a straightforward, sober feel, in contrast with the Stooges' comic personae. Source: Ancestry .com

35mm Slide: Stardust Resort and Casino, 1958

A slide photo, taken by one or the other of my parents: the Stardust Resort and Casino, Las Vegas, 1958. 
 

New Digital Works

Me, at Jim Morrison's grave, 2013.

                 Me, one year-old, watching a turned-off TV. -JF 

A photo, from Jimmy Carter's Visit to Mt. Hood Community College, 3 November, 1978

 The limousine, carrying President Jimmy Carter, at Mt. Hood Community College (Gresham, Oregon); 3 November, 1978 (the photo was either by me, or by mom). -JF

 A micro-length tale I wrote last year. -JF 

Collage: Infinitesimal Balcony

 A new year, a new collage, Infinitesimal Balcony (which I created 1-1-23). I made this entirely with material by Laura Lee Burroughs, the mother of writer William S. Burroughs. The cut-ups have some mysterious oracular flashes.  Happy New Year!

--JF 

Draft Card Roundup; H.P. Lovecraft, Clark Ashton Smith, William S. Burroughs

WWI-era draft registration card for H.P. Lovecraft; and WWII-era cards for Clark Ashton Smith, and for William S. Burroughs. I extracted these, from Ancestry.com. 

H.P. Lovecraft Film Festival and CthulhuCon 2022

 On October 8th and 9th, I shewed up (as I have many times, starting with the first one) at the H.P. Lovecraft Film Festival, at the Hollywood Theatre; staying for two full days. I took in Freeze, directed by Charlie Steeds, Short Blocks Three, Re-Animator, and Bride of Re-Animator (both followed by question-and-answer sessions, with Jeffrey Combs -- he made reference, to among other things, how Re-Animator originally took off through word-of-mouth, and then rentals). I also attended a showing of Night of the Comet (first time for me to viddy this hilarious, and atmospherically campy cult film), with Kelli Maroney appearing afterward (she provided great insights into the movie, mentioning for example that the sequences at the department store were filmed after hours, at the real deal). 

I also attended some panel discussions, on Lovecraft's Favorite Films, The Aquatic Origins of Weird and Cosmic Terror; along with one on comics, and one on video games. Sipping beer, then alternately removing a mask, I tossed the panels a couple questions, including one involving Fritz Lang's Die Nibelungen; and another with reference to Skull Comix. 

Gwen Callahan, with Kelli Maroney. 

Alice's Restaurant Massacree Doesn't Live Here Anymore

 

The name of Alice has a recurring association with restaurants, in a song, in (unrelated) movies,  and in the TV series of the same name (based on the Martin Scorsese movie). During the original run of the show, I was aware of it, but only viewed it a few times. In 1975 or 76, 1977, for example, the show would not have formed part of my gestalt. Rather than watch  television, I might have been ranging in the deep forests and creeks of the area where I then lived, in the midst of the Boring Lava Buttes. I could have been occupied reading comic books, or books.  I might have been on family trips, to California, Nevada, eastern Oregon, Idaho, Montana.  I had also started on some initial creative projects, including collages, and a bit later, writing. The world of waitresses in old school utilitarian uniforms, humor, drama, failed romance and jokes based on the bad quality of Mel’s cooking, would not have drawn me in. The signals from the broadcasts remained unseen, passing the atmosphere, and drifting into the outer spaces.

The show was threaded with light (if often repetitive) humor, guest spots by celebrities such as Martha Raye, Joel Grey, Telly Savalas, and Robert Goulet, and topical references which would have hit the spot in their day. I’ve written elsewhere of how my family often brought up the sudden death of Frank Sutton (who played Sergeant Vince Carter, on Gomer Pyle). Vic Tayback, as his diner-owner character Mel Sharples,  even eerily foreshadowed his own relatively early passage, on one episode. There is a cluster of premature, or tragic deaths with the series (including Tayback, Philip McKeon, and Charles Levin). – JF, 9/2022

The Mystery of Frank Tayback; digital collage by JF, September 2022

Oregon Vietnam Veterans Memorial

Above: An instant photo I took, 23 June, 2022, at the Oregon Vietnam Veterans Memorial. And this post marks the 14th anniversary of this here blog; which started in the murk and distance of 2008. 

 

Ray Wallis

 

Blogger and collage artist, Ray Wallis (photo by him; I enhanced the picture).

The Magic and Mystery of a CV

 Here's a piece I wrote (ICV) in 2008, concerning some past employment experiences of mine: 

1917 Draft Registration Card for Farnsworth Wright

 

 WWI draft registration card (which I located on Ancestry.com) for future Weird Tales editor (and journalist, veteran, Esperantist, and author) Farnsworth Wright. 

More from the H.P. Lovecraft Annotated Bibliography

 

From the final version of my H.P. Lovecraft Annotated Bibliography, for Professor David Holloway's class at Portland State University; 1994.

From the Leaves of an H.P. Lovecraft Annotated Bibliography

A couple sample draft pages from an annotated H.P. Lovecraft bibliography; which I wrote in 1994 for Professor David Holloway's English 596 course, at Portland State University. 
 

Season's Greetings and Yuletide Visions

 

I'm posting this photo I took in Paris, 17 December, 2013 (at a Christmas market on the Champs-Élysées), as we creak past another solstice. Holiday greetings! 

From Hubbard to Hamm

 

Here are a couple variant digital collages I made of late; playing on an imagined, virtual meeting between two of my ancestors about whom I've previously posted, Norma Bassett Hall and Adalbert Falk (in reality, their lives only overlapped by a bit over 11 years; and such a meeting would have been improbable, of course). 

Axel Weiß took the photos of the Adalbert Falk memorial (which I subsequently visited); the background of the first collage, is a photo I took of the moon, in the early 2000s. 

The Charring of the Flag, 23 September, 1989

A piece I wrote, after an event, at the long-defunct Blue Gallery (the actual performance took place outside the space),which I attended on 23 September, 1989 (along with my friend, artist Roman Scott). Nirvana (as a replacement for a band called Cat Butt!) had performed at The Blue Gallery, just a few months prior to the flag burning -- I wish I'd seen that concert. 

Roman also made a short film (almost certainly lost, in all formats) of the episode, using a PXL-2000. 

The Pallid Giant

 A few years ago, at a going- out- of- business sale at a bookstore contained in an older house, in Portland, Oregon, I purchased The Pallid Giant: A Tale of Yesterday and Tomorrow (1927), by Pierrepont Noyes.The book is a curious novel, with some disorienting leaps in pacing and style. The initial parts take place in Europe, during and after the post-World War I peace conference in Paris.  The book has different elements and tones (including a section, ostensibly a translation of a manuscript from a group of humans in an ancient epoch)  which are inconclusive, and which never cohere. The opening chapters contain some engaging narrative, including an account of an exploration of a cavern in the Pyrenees, along with the discovery of enigmatic artifacts. The unnamed narrator, together with other characters, including Grudge, Professor Gribbon, and the local woman Mraaya, have some suspenseful and enthralling adventures on their quest for new knowledge. The novel loses momentum with its tale-within-a tale, with coined words, names, and disquieting elements of eugenics; but the author does loosely, and correctly, anticipate a future of cataclysmically destructive weapons. 

Roman Scott: Painter (Video)

Recently I watched again this video (in its original VHS format, from 1997), featuring interviews with Roman Scott, and related images and sequences. The director, who did a stellar job, left his name out of the credits; and some searching by me has not yet revealed his identity. With material such as clips from Taxi Driver (one of Roman's favorite movies, for its painterly qualities, as he explains), intersecting with his art; and an appearance by a work including the Twin Towers, the videocassette has an atmospheric and spectral feel.  As Roman stated, it's a mysterious thing to create something out of nothing.

Here's a link to the production, digitized by, and posted by Todd Mecklem, in 2015.

 

13 Year Anniversary

 

A digital collage I created recently, to mark the 13th anniversary of this blog, Adalbert. The background for the collage was a photo I took in 2004. 

Digital Collage

Occultation; a digital artwork I made; 7/7/21. 

 

KKEY: Talk Radio Echoes from the 1980s

 I recall residing in the forest with dad, 1983-84, listening on a battery-powered radio to Portland talk radio station KKEY (a favorite station of his). The station (at least the version with those call letters) is long defunct, passing the way of all phenomenona, transitory and evanescent. (Talk radio was especially important in those days before the internet was accessible; and this was also in the heated context suggested by the Talk Radio film.)   I recall from memory walking past the station's singular, small corner office on Burnside street, in downtown Portland, Oregon. The bellicose Dave Collins; Lee Evans (a laid-back host, a retired lawyer), Jerry Dimmitt, Henryne, Mary Pierce, Jim Lindsay, (no doubt some, or all were assumed names) and others fielded phone calls, and discussed political, domestic, and quotidian topics. The hosts held a range of political views, moderate, left, right; or in same cases, they avoided partisan matters completely. The late, controversial religious leader/former mesmerist, Roy Masters, showed up occasionally on the station, in those days; I even called in and asked him a question, once.  

At that time, the station only held a license to broadcast during daylight hours. I recall those twilights, when the station faded early off the air; especially haunting in fall or winter's dusk. 
I have been unable to locate any audio recordings from the station, online or elsewhere. A number of callers were regulars -- one nervous guy seemed to be from the local red cell. His calls always culminated with something about the greatness of the Marxist bloc... "uh... uh...Communism...". My father and I pictured another frequent dialer, as a sort of Captain Willard (from Apocalypse Now) figure, with a pack of smokes, a bottle of pills, and a .45 with a live chambered round; tightly wound and chattering fast. "Caller, you're on the air..."

Casual web-searching indicates few traces of this phantom, in the data record; a photo or two, and a few brief references. It might exist chiefly through recollection.... The nearest thing I have encountered since was Art Bell's radio broadcasts, which a friend drew my attention to around 1998; but Art retired, quit, and flamed out in different ways, before his final passage... 

Digital collage by JF, May 2021 (including an image of the 1983-84 camp; and the same camper, on a 70s slide photo).

42nd Street Precognition

 A photo I took; NYC, 10-17-19. 

The Caterpillar of Otranto (poem)

 

The Lace-Maker

 The Lace-Maker 

June 30, 1987. Beverly Beach, Ore.

 The leather of the sole must be half-an-inch thick when in glass cupboards for leprous dolls which lace-like stumps probe.

"Right now!" Triangular lenses look belligerent 'neath black-belt eyebrows. He waves his hand: Five stub-ends. 

The very inner circle of each stump has never healed, & was wont to discharge clear fluids, especially when his limbs mimed karate motions, kind of iridescent & glowing like stupid monkey heads strung on tree- leaves. This was ever so far away from a "do not drink the water" warning, on the 20th floor of a worn city building, a bit like a beacon against poor posture & conterminous with the museum. Dull mahogany cabinets, I bet you fellows haven't seen anything like that before. And just as his cataract-laden eyes winked with victory, a wax-plastic figure (based on that of a wooden dummy) showed a glittering smile. 

J. Falk, R. Scott

A collaborative poem I wrote with Roman Scott, after a visit to the now-defunct Lacey's Doll Museum in Lincoln City, Oregon (we then traveled to the Newport area, where we created these works). My family also dropped by the place a number of times, stretching back to the early 70s. 

A drawing by R.Scott and me; from the same day as the poem. 

Plain's End (prose poem)

Plain's End, a prose poem/freewrite of mine, based on impressions of Japan, and South Korea (and contents/cover) of Sunflower: A Literary Journal for Freewrites, 1st quarter, 1994, Berkeley, CA. Art/editing:Myeongsuk Jeong. A few web searches found almost no traces of the magazine (or the editor); which had its run right around the first glimmers of widespread internet availability (although one of the queries found this previous post of mine, from 2013).