KURTBENBENEK.COM HAS ARRIVED AND THERE'S NOTHING MUCH GOING ON








I'm sure there's an easy grammatical explanation for this bumper sticker I photographed.

But for the life of me I can't figure out what this sticker means. But it's sure typeset nicely
and now on second thought maybe it's supposed to be intentionally confusing and ill-worded.







For heaven's sake, this is what our main 4th of July picnic table looked like as guest after guest arrived
with trucks of store-bought and sometimes inedible picnic food. Personally at first I was real happy
to slug down fistful after fistful of Lay's Potato Chips (followed by spit-laced gulps of of Diet Coke)
but after about four hours of that (basically eating stuff I never eat anymore) I decided to avoid
launching myself into a heavy Martian-level psychotic food fit and instead ate whole rocks
of pure Columbian cocaine all day (also known as Spanish peanuts) - so that's the table.








Hal Fishman Fourth of July Memories!


One of my favorite ever constant yearly things to do on
the Fourth of July was to settle back (after the long, fun holiday)
and turn on KTLA-TV Channel 5 and watch news anchor Hal Fishman
give a calm, cool account of the various holiday activities found around
the nice City of Los Angeles. Hal's calm and cool presence at the end
of the Fourth of July holiday was always calming and cool-inducing
but unfortunately Hal Fishman died this year and he won't be
anywhere on TV on the Fourth of July...so this year things
will be different and a little bit sad for me personally
and I'm sure for others who truly miss Hal Fishman
and his calming and cooling Fourth of July presence.


B E N B E N E K






God bless Hal Fishman
and God Bless America!









NEW WEBSITE OPENS WITH NOTHING MUCH ON IT!



There's nothing much on it right now, but after years of non-Dadaistic interplay and
neo-superlative secret undercover work by the FBI (The Funky Bicuspids of Infinity)
I've been very solitarily (and with the help of others) able to register my own name
as my own "domain name" and launch another actual website (there's nothing
much on it right now) which will be not un-unlike this very HPS website
and yet (at the same time) it will be more text and literature-oriented...
so much so that it may eventually look less like a website and
more like a rolled-up newspaper from the exciting year of 1985

There's nothing much on it right now...but it's here

As actor Harry Reems didn't ever say:

"There's nothing much on it right now..."





PHIL OCHS AT CARNEGIE HALL




Every year aound this time (of year) we here at Houseplant Picture Studio
enjoy celebrating the deep and never-ending solemnity of the 4th of July
(and unrelentingly so) by presenting the complete classic second music
show at Carnegie Hall (March 27, 1970) by America's greatest and most
very sure-footed All-American Number One patriot...the one and only
greatest most super and great American ever...Phil Ochs

Parts of this show (and parts of the first show) were smooshed
together to form an album which goes by the catchy name of
"Gunfight at Carnegie Hall" (A & M Records, etc) but this
particular recording captures Ochs entire performance,
complete with rambling intros, shocking asides and more.

This is probably the most "asked for" piece of mp3 audio
we're asked for on an ongoing basis, so don't miss it...OK?

PS - watch out for the wow and flutter!





COMPLETE LATE SHOW - MARCH 27, 1970

CLICK HERE FOR THE ZIPPED ALBUM

























































































SNOOP DOGG - MY MEDICINE

This whimsical song is almost entirely and totally great...
from the oh-so-very-sincere-sounding dedication to Johnny Cash
to the cornball asides and smooth shuffle and acoustic guitars
and slide guitar and nearly-perfect neato lyrics...oh gosh!



CLICK HERE FOR THE MP3















MESSAGE FROM THE FRONT DESK



Yeah so, I found the family photo portrait (directly above) at the legendary and bustling Golden West Swap Meet
for a mere buck...a fair trade I'd say considering the fact that some sort of "monster of light" (right side of photo)
is captured in the photo - about to infest and/or devour the family with it's irresistible "demonic glow" but
then again it could just be severe water damage and moldy photographic paper. You figure it out!

We WERE going to do a big week-long Ian Dury and the Blockheads blow-out music thing,
but the idea sort of hit the skids (in other words I grew weary of the idea) so alternatively
we'll simply continue being spontaneous in another direction. That's one of the great
things about spontaniety...it includes practically everything within it's influence!

So instead we've got an album called "Upward Bound Sound" which contains wretched audio
by (apparently) some young people from Fullerton College circa 1968. It's quite blandly-eclectic
in a narrow kind of way and it's really not so good...however, it has a really mondo, splashy cover
which is all hand-drawn and psychological in nature. Maybe we'll fit in some Ian Dury another time!





Most of the HPS staff and myself went to the 2nd Annual Cyndi Lauper True Colors Tour
at the Greek Theater this past weekend. Loads of fun...the B-52s were there and I forgot how
utterly sarcastic and droll Fred Schneider is and they did all the hits including "Private Idaho"
which is catchy and has some darn funny lines. Cyndi Lauper (of course) closed the show and did
most (if not all) of her hits she did last year...at times she appeared drunk or loopy but that's what
makes her great...she played a lot of acoustic guitar and entered the audience about 12 times...
her new album is very good and dance-y and she cusses on it. Click here for True Colors Fund info

We're having a very special 4th of July bar-b-que this Friday, this year I may get drunk and break stuff
or at the very least I may watch other people get drunk and break stuff I would've broken had I been drunk.

If anybody ordered or asked for a free Listening to Paint Dry CD they are all in the mail
and should arrive this week. Overseas people hang in there, they should be there soon!

If you'd like a free copy of the album...write here now and you'll get one!

Older HPS stuff is here...visit it before it visits you!

More poorly constructed sentences soon!

And more exclamation points also!


> B E N B E N E K







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