Jimmy Page Unearths Soundtrack Album

From RFoster1:

Just discovered this today, although it’s been out for a year now. Apparently Jimmy Page of Led Zeppelin had recorded some tracks for the Kenneth Anger film, Lucifer Rising. To refresh your memory, that was the film that Bobby Beausoleil had been involved with. Don’t know how much you all were into Zeppelin, but Jimmy Page was into the occult, the “dark arts” and such back in the day. Who knows if he still is, or not. Anyway, this was news to me, so it might be news to some of you too.

Jimmy Page Unearths Soundtrack Album Guitarist releasing avant garde early Seventies instrumentals Jimmy Page's avant garde soundtrack music from the early Seventies will finally be released on March 20th. Lucifer Rising and Other Sound Tracks will collect several compositions that were recorded at the Led Zeppelin guitarist's home studio, including the title piece, which was intended for use in Kenneth Anger's short film Lucifer Rising. The music never made it into the picture, but Page did make a cameo in the film.
Page will release the record exclusively through his website. An LP edition will be issued on heavyweight vinyl, and a special run of numbered copies will be released as well. The first 93 copies of that set will be autographed by Page.
The track listing for Lucifer Rising and Other Sound Tracks is as follows:
Side One
"Lucifer Rising – Main Track"
Side Two
"Incubus"
"Damask"
"Unharmonics"
"Damask – Ambient"
"Lucifer Rising – Percussive Return"

Original Rolling Stone article HERE

Spahn pic right after the Clampitt fire in September, 1970

I recently found this snapshot of the Spahn Ranch buildings immediately after they burned as the result of a wildfire. This got me curious about wildfires...

The Ranch buildings burned in September of 1970 in a fire known as the Clampitt Fire. The fire burned a large area extending along the Simi Hills from northeast of upper Las Virgenes Canyon through Rocketdyne to Black Canyon. Here is a topo map of the 1970 Topanga fires.

If you are a geek about wildfires, or Santa Susana State Park (of which the Spahn property is now a part of) there is a scientific report on the subject HERE (PDF).

Spahn after the September, 1970 Clampitt fire

Spahn before the fire

Today, from the same general vantage point

Debra's Chest

Patty is not sure how she missed this one. For the 40th anniversary of the murders, Debra Tate did a piece with Inside Edition and an exhibit with artist Jeremy Corbell whereby she had a Sharon lookalike model some of Sharon's clothing. Have you ever seen these?

Were all of the above meant to be dresses, or is "Sharon" running around bottomless in some of them? Here is the art exhibit that was held in Culver City. Apparently, Steve Urkel was
in attendance. See him?

Was it all in the stars?

Scanlan's was a short lived monthly magazine that leaned left of Left.  Only eight issues were ever published, between March 1970 and January 1971.  The magazine was investigated by the FBI and came under the ire of the Nixon administration.  It was essentially put out of business by the muckraking Right. The editors were Warren Hinkle III and Sidney E Zion.

The August 1970 cover was an R Crumb cartoon with a mention of Charlie Manson.

Inside is "An Astrological Portrait of Charles Manson"  done by "Gavin" Chester Arthur.  Certainly astrology was apropos of the times and no surprise that someone should do Charlie's chart.  I found this particular assessment to be quite interesting, offering mystical insight to why Charlie was the way he was.

Just as interesting was the man who did the chart.  Gavin Chester Arthur, born Chester Alan Arthur III, 1901 in Colorado was the grandson of President Chester Arthur.   In the 1920's Gavin eschewed his college education at Columbia to go off and become involved in the Irish Republican Movement of the 1920's.  In the early 1930's Gavin migrated to California and founded a commune at the Oceano Dunes near San Luis Obispo.  In 1934 he joined the Utopian Society of America. 

At the outbreak of WWII in 1941 Gavin signed up with the Navy.  After the war he moved to New York for a time but was back in California by 1949.  During the 1950's he held various jobs, a teacher at San Quentin, a merchant marine, gold prospector and he also completed his bachelors degree at San Francisco State College.  He was heavily involved in San Francisco's Beat movement. He had been married and divorced twice by this time but was also an unabashed bisexual.  He was a forerunner in the gay rights movement.

In the '50's he became interested in astrology becoming a professional astrologer in the early '60's. By 1966 he published "The Circle of Sex", a book having to do with sexual behavior categorized on a wheel like in astrology.   Gavin, with his astrology knowledge, was asked by the staff of the Oracle to select a date for San Francisco's Human Be-in.  That date turned out to be January 14 1967, a scant two months before Charlie was released from Terminal Island Federal Prison.

Gavin Chester Arthur died at Ft. Miley Veteran's Hospital in San Francisco in 1972.

Here is his assessment of how the stars ruled Charlie.

Over The Hill And Through The Woods To Spahn's Ranch we go!

My dearest readers, an opportunity of a lifetime has arisen from the greater depths of Los Angeles real estate! How would you like to be in the vicinity of the old Spahn's Movie Ranch? Spahn's is practically in the back yard (well, over a giant, rocky hill, that is) of this gorgeous, one-of-a-kind place. This property can be YOURS for only a measly sum of a cool $1,995,000!! The property's back yard is actually across the railroad tracks from Shorty Shea's old burial site. Just think of all the exploring you could do, if you were to purchase this beautiful place. Hell, if I didn't live in an-already beautiful place (Austin), I would leap at the chance to own this! Well, that, and if I had an extra million in the bank. The actual address of this groovy, little "ranchette" is at 11001 Farralone Avenue in Chatsworth. (Do NOT bother the realtor, unless, of course, you have the money.) As I already stated, Spahn's Ranch is right over the hill in the back of the place. Eviliz team ASSEMBLE! Let us all put our money together, buy this joint, and make our own commune! Just kidding.
Enjoy some photos:

Book Report: MANSON - The Life and Times of Charles Manson, by Jeff Guinn

First, let me lead in with this: This book was not written for us. Manson aficionados will read this book cover to cover and learn little they didn't already know. I learned little. I was also amused by a few errors that I found - however they were minor. For instance Guinn states that Joel Pugh was the father of Sandra Good's son. There were others, but you get my drift. I was also concerned that he stated as fact that Manson went to Cielo drive murder scene in the we hours of August 9, post crimes. This has never been substantiated.

But there were some positive things. For instance, he went into much more detail than any author so far into Manson's childhood. I enjoyed this part of the book. He connected the various stages of his early life in places like Moundsville and McMechen, WV. Guinn clarified for me the personalities and situations of his relatives - particularly his mother,  Aunt Glenna and cousin Jo Ann. Charlie was clearly already violent and incorrigible with his mother serving time locally for armed robbery. He had me feeling sorry for these people who were flawed but were trying to do the right thing.

Another positive for me was the picture Guinn painted regarding Manson's prison "education". He highlights that Charlie read Dale Carnegie's self-help book How To Win Friends and Influence People. Manson clearly internalized this book and course. Manson took this knowledge to San Francisco in 1967, where he used Carnegie's methods on young girls who were down on their luck and desperately searching for something.

I also thought Guinn did a nice job describing what Manson MAY have been thinking and feeling as the Spring and Summer of 1969 advanced. He describes in nice detail the stressful chain of events that  Manson banked on going his way in hopes for the career in music he needed to afford to keep his cult Family together. There was Kaufman, Jacobson, Dennis Wilson and ultimately Terry Melcher. When Melcher passed on him, his hopes of becoming a star were extinguished. Charlie then feared the unthinkable - he would become lessened in the eyes of his Family. Also, with the Family's healthy fleet of dune buggys and supplies having eaten up the lion's share of the money sucked from recruits and the number of Family members increasing there was the problem of decreasing expenses (i.e. ridding himself of useless members) while trying to acquire enough money for the eventual move to the desert. He had to act. He had to somehow prove his infallibility.

In the end, it was like playing a whole game that ends in a tie. Glad I played, but ultimately not fulfilling. Your mileage may vary.

The Netflix Companion: Skatopia (88 Acres of Anarchy)

 Note to reader: the following post is allegorical, and should not be taken to mean that Eviliz, her agents, her great aunt, her downstairs neighbor and/or her hairdresser acknowledge any resemblance between the man with the Starship Enterprise on his stomach to persons living, dead and/or incarcerated in Corcoran, CA.

Patty just saw this 2006 documentary about self proclaimed anarchist, womanizer, "skate park cult leader" entrepreneur and anger management problem sufferer, Brewce Martin (cough cough Charlie). He's a hella nice guy, but he's just been "hit with a bullshit felonious assault charge."

Brewce is extremely charismatic, and dabbles in music. He has also been skating a long, long time. His mother says that as a kid he was "violent" so she encouraged his skating as a way to channel his aggression.

At the beginning of the documentary, Brewce is living with the lovely, mohawked Halo Whitelight, mother of his 14 month old child (Brewce's other child is 20 year old Brandon "Hellskull" Martin). Halo understands that Brewce has a "fidelity problem," but she is convinced that he has recently changed for her. She is quite a firecracker and got her college's administration to start a lactation room program when her child was born.

By the end of the documentary Bruce gets caught cheatin' and Halo has moved out.

Brewce tuned in, turned on and dropped out of Generation X back in the 90's to run what appears to be the Spahn Ranch of Rutland, Ohio.

Members of his loose knit (cough cough) "Family" are known as the Citizens Instigating Anarchy, or the CIA (cough SLA cough ELF cough cough International Court of Retribution). One kid recalls being cautioned about Skatopia: "Don't go out there! They'll steal your car keys! They'll beat you up! They'll make you stay!"

 

The people of Rutland "think we are worshipping the devil out here," Brewce laughs. "I'm just keeping my cultees in line."

Brewce has got plenty of (cough) redheaded "young love" camped out on his property for a good part of the year. He encourages them to enjoy the "wonders of nature" (cough cough or you don't get off). "Papa Brewce takes care of us so we do a lot of shit for him."

He's got plenty of horny old geezers out there doing shit for him, too.

Somehow, with all the work gettin' done, everyone still remains perpetually broke. One kid actually admits to having eaten dumpster food.

These are actual people! This is not some low(er) budget reboot of "Leslie, Thy Name is Evil." Oh, and BTW: Brewce has been in Rolling Stone, just like (insert name of musical/political/religious/spaceship/personality cult leader here, cough cough).

Sex, Drugs, Rock n Roll and Violence: people will always and forever love reading about lifestyles that contain them. Anyone (cough) who is perceived to have an excess of them is a very dangerous man, indeed.

Check it out!

Fillipo Tenerelli

FROM OUR FRIEND J.C.

I recently took a tour of Death Valley and surrounding areas and one thing that I wanted to check out on my travels was Bishop, California and trying to get more information on Fillipo Tenerelli. For some reason information on this case is very vague and perhaps it's because it's still considered an open and cold case.

Visiting Bishop, California I quickly realized that there were a lot of motels so finding the one Tenerelli was found dead in was impossible. I did notice a few motels that looked like they could have been around in 1969 like, The Mountainview, The Trees and the Bishop Elms. But there's no guarantee that the motel he was found in is still even around.

One other stop was where Tenerelli's VW was discarded, Father Crowley Vista. Again, there's not much here but a highway and a sheer cliff that made my stomach knot up looking over. But what did strike me as interesting was that Father Crowley Vista was nearly half way between Bishop and Barker Ranch, on the same route - no deviations.

I have read many of the Manson blogs talk about this death and some of them go as far to say that there's no way that it could be a Manson-related murder because of the distance. So untrue. Bishop to Barker Ranch is 150 miles. For those of us who have driven these desert roads, we all know that at some stretches you can easily go 80 - 95mph (though there are certain areas where it is impossible to go over 30 unless you want to go over a rail and plummet to your death much like Tenerelli's VW.) Even at proper speeds, that is 4 hours. Speeding it will be a lot less time.

One of the Mansons could have easily did Tenerelli in, drove 100 miles to Father Crowley Vista and disposed of the VW, and then headed the final 50 miles to Barker Ranch. The route is simple: 395 to 195 and then down Panamint Valley Road which is the Goler Wash access to Barker Ranch. However, there was a record flood in 1969, and Panamint Valley Road generally floods out during any flood. Going through the Mengel Pass route would add a few more hours (due to the slow speeds).

Ed Sanders wrote in his book The Family that Charles Manson did associate with the Gypsy Jokers, mostly in  San Jose. Tenerelli was a Gypsy Joker, so the connection is there. Tenerelli also lived in Culver City, which is about half way between Hollywood and Beverly Hills. It's really hard to take it as a coincidence that Tenerelli was from Los Angeles, and a Gypsy Joker AND was in the vicinity of Death Valley.

I should also point out that Ed Sanders wrote that the Gypsy Jokers were heavily into the occult, and Sanders made the point to mention that Tenerelli's VW was discarded over Father Crowley Vista, which is obviously a similar name to Aleister Crowley. Manson was apprehended October 12, 1969 which was Aleister Crowley's birthday. Odd parallels, but they are always worth mentioning.

I personally think that it would have been easy for someone like Tex Watson to get Tenerelli, stage his death to look like a suicide and then put his car over the mountainside to get rid of it. But even though Tenerelli's death was supposed to look like a suicide, and was ruled one at first, his blood was in that car that went over the ravine and his death has since been tagged as a homicide. So whoever got rid of the car was no career criminal - unless they expected the car to crash and explode like in the movies, thus getting rid of the blood evidence.

Tenerelli was killed October 2, 1969 and Tex Watson fled Barker Ranch October 3, 1969. Watson stayed in Olancha, which is directly south of Bishop on 395 so Watson knew that area. That makes Watson a viable suspect.

I am sure the authorities have taken all of these parallels into consideration and more than likely one of the reasons they were so adamant about obtaining the Watson tapes. Hopefully this case can one day be solved and since Tenerelli was involved with a gang like the Gypsy Jokers, his death more than likely a result of that lifestyle. But, that said lifestyle may have been why may have associated with Watson, the Family or even Manson.

 

DebS here to add a little something.  Thanks JC for checking all this out and reporting back to us! 

After Liz set up this post I wanted to make sure that the victim's name was spelled correctly so I went to Ancestry . com to check that out.  I found that Filippo Tenerelli's name was spelled a couple of different ways, so any misspelling of the name has not been done out of disrespect.

What I did find was very interesting.  Tenerelli was a naturalized US citizen and he had just been naturalized the July before he was killed.  I find it hard to believe that he could become a US citizen and be in the Gypsy Jokers.  They do pretty thorough background checks and I really don't think that a 1%'er would pass the sniff test.  I emailed JC about this, he agreed and said I could add the info to his post.

Though the name is spelled slightly different on the two records the birth date is the same.  The naturalization record gives a Culver City address and the newspaper articles about Tenerelli say that he was from Culver City.