| Ten Books of Basie | ||
|---|---|---|
| This clip is not available for streaming at this time. Please contact WPA. | Tape Master: | 1063 |
| Catalog #: | 320048 | |
| Clip Number: | 320048-1 | |
| Orginal Film: | SONY VT REEL | |
| Timecode: | ||
| Location: | Memphis, Tennessee, United States | |
| Year Shot: | 1975 (Actual Year) | |
| Audio: | Yes | |
| Color: | No | |
| Headings: | ART: Performance Art DRUGS: Illicit FADS AND TRENDS: Hippies FADS AND TRENDS: Misc LOCATIONS/NORTH AMERICA: USA, Tennessee | |
| Description: | This video-original footage is exemplary of the early open reel to reel prosumer equipment of the time it was shot: grainy, edgy, shaky, and less than stable. The footage is raw & gritty in the truest sense. Not necessarily professional, but artistic. A video happening, described by videographer Tav Falco as "an art action piece." (from the Televista catalog): "Flower children of the '60s out in the attic moaning for those lost days of the intact nervous system. They wheel through the old times to come up with a pitiful hand-hold on the '70s. Lost in the thrill-kill present, prisoners of the ironclad past. Shocking." Pretty strange material. Disturbing at times. 1970s hippie types do drugs and talk about drugs. Twentysomething white man talks about drug use, speed, among others. He shows off marks or scars on his hands (track marks?) and points to a vein near his elbow, explaining it was for "once in a while when we're dealing with something really special." Somewhat maniacal laughter off camera. Demonstrates preparing his arm for intravenous drug use. Another shot where he might be injecting himself but it's so dark it's hard to tell. Man seems to be putting fingernail polish on his nail, while rambling. Person standing behind him is holding a mask over his/her face and swaying. Trippy. Man says thumbnail paintings represent an orgy of one sort or another. A second man, presumably stoned/high, stands around also rambling, sometimes smoking and sometimes holding up a mask over his face. He starts destroying furniture with a stick or spear-type implement. "The oracles must be consulted," he declares. Man plays with a crystal ball, makes sound effects. SCU man reads/performs some sort of text (poem?) and turns to the camera, wide-eyed, for the line, "Ya got any money?" Another line says, "can't understand... why anyone would stick a needle in himself." (Self-reflexive.) Another seems to deal with soldiers in Vietnam. White man with longish hair and mustache sits on floor, smoking cigarette; he says/sings, "It's eight years later and we're still in the attic. Summer of love..." His song continues, perhaps improvised, perhaps nostaligc: "Summer of love, there was no reason/ Everyone was allowed interpersonal treason..." Some demeaning-sounding racial remarks in here. Man sits, backlit, and rambles some more, making joke about "thorazine tune-up kit in the brain garage." Woman off-camera joins in conversation. Dark, partly out of focus scene of man apparently snorting illicit drug. He says, "I'm gettin' high again." They talk more, perhaps about unwanted side effects of drug use like getting sick. Woman offscreen asks what "this" is, cocaine or meth? She says she's getting a rush on it. Finally the camera pans to her, and she says the drug, whatever it is, is bitter; man says that must be meth. He recommends sticking with "class A's". He says San Francisco is the only place he knows where they're manufacturing speed. The two chat about their drug activity; man says he likes "downs" when he's coming down from speed. Another experience has been with juniper berry and grain alcohol, he says. When writing under the influence of speed, he claims his syntax is horrible, with digressions. Man begins to snort again; tape ends. | |
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