Last week thousands of bananas washed up on two Dutch North Sea islands after about a half a dozen containers fell off a cargo ship during a storm. Scattering across a half-mile stretch of beach, thousands of unripe bunches bejeweled the beaches of Terschelling Island, 70 miles north of Amsterdam. Bananas also washed up on neighboring Ameland Island.

Apparently this happens more often then you’d think on the Terschelling beaches. Last year thousands of tennis shoes, aluminum briefcases and children's toys washed ashore, I hope it was Saint Nicholas day.

I stumbled upon these two LPs a few years ago, upon dropping the needle I was instantly taken by the period piece quality to the service on the 1st.  Transistor organ, call and response hymnals, talk of vibrations and colors...Who were these people??  Ann Davies cuts an interesting figure on the 1st LP- a somewhat androgynous and harsh looking leader of an esoteric group that was at one time based in my then neighborhood of Highland Park...I'd have to look into it...

                                                                                                                                                                                

 

The second installment in my October favorites series starts with an opera LP from Brazil, it's a single LP of excerpts from Johann Strauss' "O Morcego" or "Der Fledermaus" or "the Bat" if you must.  Issued on the Copacabana label, the sound quality is radio broadcast level and the performance by the Zurich Radio Orchestra is fine, but it's the cover art that makes this a Halloween treat. Cool record store sticker from the Loja Gomes store on Av. Afonso Pena. It appears that the store was once in the center of Belo Horizonte-a huge city about 300 miles above Rio...





Up next...a classic American mix



Folkways and Edgar Allen Poe...Folkways records released this version of the Pit & the Pendulum in 1967, the orator is David Kurlan.  I was abe to dig up a little about  his Broadway work, mostly roles in musicals. He also did a couple of other Folkways voice overs. His reading is straight forward and very effective, kind of like the polar opposite of the Lou Reeds double CD nightmare based on Edgar Allan Poe. The LP comes with a small pamphlet containing instructions for teachers as well a sheet of transparency images for the old mimeograph...

I do love conspiracy theories and here is one of the best. On this date, October 28 in 1943, at the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard in Philadelphia, a naval military experiment often called the Philadelphia Experiment took place … allegedly. According to published reports the USS Eldridge turned invisible to eye witnesses for a brief moment, dematerialized, teleported to Norfolk, Virginia, and then reappeared in Philadelphia. The experiment supposedly had some horrific side effects on the sailors who either became extremely sick, insane or among other things, became engulfed in flames; many of the crew never led normal lives again. Since this had a few negative consequences on overall morale, the Navy halted the experiment and silenced the whole affair … allegedly.

The U.S. Navy of course has always stated that the experiment never occurred and many refer to the entire narrative as a misguided and absurd hoax. It doesn’t matter that many details of the Philadelphia Experiment contradict some of the facts about the Eldridge. (The USS Eldridge was not commissioned until late August 1943 and remained in port in New York City until September, 1943. During the month of October the ship was undergoing training exercises in the Bahamas -or was it the Bermuda triangle! - and never made it to Philadelphia that year. But who cares!) Conspiracy theories don’t get much more fun than this. Take this gem and sprint with it baby, because this where it all starts, this is the granddaddy of them all, from here countless Conspiracies can be traced, directly tripping into other conspiratorial ideologues of covert governments, secret organizations, murder corporations and agendas for world domination.  

Greetings from Vinylandia...


Mr. Chadwick here with a new blogspot chronicling  finds and fascinations that lie just beyond the above pictured door. Uncovering those hidden treats that flow through the vast sea of vinyl platitudes that Amoeba Hollywood attracts, as well as many of my own personal treasures.  As things progress I hope to bring you more in-depth histories of the odd and curious private press and small label houses that the City of Angels has produced, but for now we'll start with some simple entertainment... found artwork.... Specifically artwork that was spontaneously created under the "influence" of the very object within which the said art piece was unearthed...

First up a nice trio of interpretations of very famous photos of a very famous UK pop group...

Here we have a very inspired George and Paul, outlined from a white album photo...

    


By far the most effective of the trio, a very different Ringo than we are used to... John got lost somewhere along the line...or maybe his being left out was some sort of message from the artist...