No Soap Radio

2.12.2015

used Steinways

Used Steinways sign en route from my car to the spellbinding exhibit of Rolling Stones photos "It's Just a Shot Away" at Taschen Gallery on Beverly Blvd. It's up until Feb. 28, if you could have possibly missed it with the dayglo pink paint.

a few favorites of mine:

"Patience Please" - Ethan Russell, 1972

"Keith & Pug" (Beggars Banquet outtake) - Michael Joseph, 1968

"Mick Jagger in Car With Leopard, Los Angeles" - Albert Watson, 1992

also some of these photos by Dominique Tarlé from Villa Nellcôtte

building exterior, although the pink is truly unphotographable:

While in the neighborhood, I stopped by Ahead Stereo finally, to ask something I have been meaning to ask for many years: what the HECK is that weird thing on the sign? And of course, the answer is that there is no answer.

Also poked my head into the amazing Walnut Wallpaper and looked through some sample papers:

it's almost The Shining ...

... or John Waters at the Grammy Awards ..

2.08.2015

love stories

I really couldn’t have less interest in this year’s big “romantic” film, 50 Shades of Grey. Creep city. What was the last really innovative love story? Amelie? … which isn’t really a love story, since they barely even meet at the end. It’s more of a character study, and a totally endearing one, but really not a love story.

Anyway, it’s nearly Valentine’s Day, so here I present my favorite oddball and under the radar love stories. Some are relatively minor subplots that I find particularly poignant. Some are unrequited. And even among the reciprocal love stories, they don’t all have happy endings because the story doesn’t really end at the onset, does it? But they are all great.

The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension

Benny & Joon

Mozart and the Whale

Harold and Maude

Sex, Lies, and Videotape

L.A. Story

Only Lovers Left Alive

Suburbia

Over the Edge

(possibly the best film ever made)

Starter for 10 may have a cult following of one person, me. But Benedict Cumberbatch is in it, so someone else is bound to figure it out.

And I may be the only person on earth who thinks Buckaroo Banzai is primarily a love story. Everyone who writes about it seems to think the plot is ridiculous or incomprehensible.

But I stand by it!

(edit) –

I really should have mentioned these two, even though Sixteen Candles concludes absurdly and the "love" story is possibly the least interesting thing about it ...

Some Kind of Wonderful

Sixteen Candles

And also The Princess Bride and Enchanted, which are so utterly ludicrous and perfect they belong in a category of their own.

2.05.2015

Zarvis bum oil

Recently I was looking myself up online and I came across an article extolling the virtues of Zarvis bum oil. I typed "Zarvis art" and "Zarvis bum oil" came up.

That's right. The price has gone up and they seem to be calling it something else these days, but here's the magic stuff, if the Daily Mail can be relied on. They tell us it's for massaging babies, which may be why they took the "bum" out of the title; but the Daily Mail also tell us we should be pummeling our buttocks, so they may just vulgarize everything, or possibly "bum oil" and "baby massage oil" are interchangeable terms in England. Wait - here I've found an American reference to "bum oil" (warning: accompanying pic of diaper rash possibly NSFW, um ... you decide) and a shop actually called "Magic Bum Baby."

what is this illustration? snowman bum?

G-rated bum oil search results:

Are these Zarvis London people relatives of mine?

I hope so, because A. bum oil, and B. they have that initials piled together thing that looks really fancy and I'm sure that someone in the extended family must have me in their will and I'll get a call any minute now from an estate executor who has been going bananas jetsetting all over the globe looking for me. And I will either get: the first dollar ever made from bum oil, framed, or a castle in Scotland.

like someone else who sells bags that cost more than my rent

Gossip Girl season 6, ep 1:

Rufus: Lily, what are you doing here? I thought you and Bart were circling the globe on an 80 foot yacht.

Lily: Well, the yacht was 110 feet, and most people who’ve actually been on one call it a boat.

Likewise, people who've been all over the globe probably don't use the word "jetsetting." So when you come back and see that I have struck out all occurrences of that word (which is probably just the one) you'll know that I have finally made it.

I'll bet that this is the first time YSL and "bum oil" have appeared together in print.
"Pummeling buttocks" and "estate executor."
"80 foot yacht" and "NSFW." Well, maybe not that one.