Florida Rocks Again! #11: Florida Freak Out

FLORIDA ROCKS AGAIN! #11: Florida Freak Out!

Host Mal Thursday takes you on an hour-long trip to the psychedelic side of the Sunshine State, as a series of ’60s garage combos turn up their fuzz-boxes and wax poetic about blowing their sun-bleached minds. This episode includes such long-lost classics as We The People’s “When I Arrive,” the Kollektion’s “Savage Lost” (Florida Rocks Again! co-producer Jeff Lemlich named his essential book about Florida garage bands after this regional hit), and the Birdwatchers’ “Mary, Mary (It’s to You That I Belong),” described by lead singer Sammy Hall in his autobiography Hooked on a Good Thing as “a love song to marijuana.”

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD NOW!

Playlist:

THE BITTER IND: Hands Are Only to See
HOUR GLASS: In a Time
THE SECOND COMING: She Has Funny Cars
THE BIRDWATCHERS: Mary, Mary (It’s to You That I Belong)
THE BURLINGTON SQUIRES: World
THE KOLLEKTION: Savage Lost
WHITE WITCH: It’s So Nice to Be Stoned
THE GENERATION GAP: Plastic Faces
PURPLE UNDERGROUND: Count Back
WE THE PEOPLE: When I Arrive
MOUSE & THE BOYS: Xcedrin Headache #69
ECHO: Sunshine of Your Love
PAINTED FACES: Blackhearted Susan
THE SHY GUYS" Black Lightening Light
THE “FANTASTIC” GROUP: Land of Lakes
THE ROCKING ROADRUNNERS: Urban Meadows
THE NEIGHBORHOOD OF LOVE: Miss Blue and Three-Quarter
THE UNDERTAKERS (Orlando): Love So Dear

Series Hosted by Mal Thursday
Written & Produced by JM Dobies
Co-Produced by Jeff Lemlich

The Brilliant Early Work of Mimsy Farmer, Vol. 1

When looking at the career of Mimsy Farmer, it is the brilliant early work that stands out.

From her fresh-scrubbed turn in 1963's Spencer's Mountain to her good girl gone bad roles in such drive-in exploitation classics as Hot Rods to Hell to international productions like Road to Salinas and More, Mimsy always delivered.

In the first of several entries taking a loving look at Farmer's greatest performances, we examine Mimsy's role as a troubled teen in 1967's Riot on Sunset Strip, one of my all-time favorite films.

RIOT ON SUNSET STRIP (1967)

"Meet the Hippies...the Teenyboppers with their too-tight capris...and the Pot-Partygoers - out for a new thrill...a new kick! See for yourself their Mod, mad world... without law or license, morals or manners, God or goal!....The most shocking film of our generation!"

Mimsy plays Andy, the disaffected teenage daughter of LAPD sergeant Aldo Ray and his ex-wife, a whiskey-swilling hag, played by producer Sam Katzman's wife, Hortense. We must assume that Andy is adopted, as there is no way such a knockout could result from the coupling of these two gargoyles. Anyhoo, Andy goes to live with her father and transfers to a new high school, where she falls in with a gang of swingin' teens who are out for kicks. They congregate at Pandora's Box on the Sunset Strip, where they are serenaded by the Standells and Chocolate Watchband. Andy draws the attention of creepy rich kid and would-be hippie mystic Herbie, who invites her to a party, where he doses her with LSD. Andy freaks out, then does a wild interpretative dance. Herbie and his pals then guide her upstairs to the master bedroom, where they have their way with her.

When the cops bust the party, Andy's father discovers what has been done to her. Mayhem, and the riot of the title, ensues.

Farmer is tough but tender, alternately shy and sultry in the part, and beautiful throughout. She's got all the right P's: pretty, petulant, peroxide blonde. When she does her freak-out dance, her bouffant comes undone and she moves like a wild animal. Incredible.

The film's neanderthal attitude toward sexual assault is somewhat apalling, of course, but it is a product of its time.

Next: HOT RODS TO HELL (1967)

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Big Bosoms and Square Jaws

I discovered the films of Russ Meyer during my college days in the mid-'80s, when I studied quality lit by day and immersed myself in low culture by night. Musically, I went for '60s garage; I was reading a steady diet of '40s and '50s paperbacks, especially the work of Jim Thompson; and in terms of cinema, I loved '60s sexploitation, especially Russ Meyer movies.

Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill! was, and still is, my favorite. Although it contains no nudity, it is the ultimate RM flick, with over-endowed superwomen kicking ass, taking names, and spitting out hilariously hardboiled dialogue. I proceeded to work my way through the Meyer oeuvre, seeing everything the man directed, with the exception of some of his early "nudie cuties" that followed in the wake of his first big hit, The Immoral Mr. Teas. The Wall Street Journal dubbed Meyer "King Leer," while Charles Keating and others called him a "smut peddler."

Big Bosoms and Square Jaws by Jimmy McDonough is as definitive a biography of Russell Albion Meyer as we're likely to get, and is certainly more informative than Meyer's 1500-page autobiography, A Clean Breast. I'd read The Ghastly One, McDonough's bio of skid row filmmaker Andy Milligan, but not Shakey, his massive biography of Neil Young. McDonough writes slangy, hipster prose that tells the story of RM and his obsession with big tits in an intoxicating, compelling way.

The book is chock full of hilarious and wonderfully bizarre anecdotes and observations from a wide range of RM associates, including many of his incredible leading ladies. Erica Gavin, who starred in two of Russ's greatest hits, Vixen and Beyond the Valley of the Dolls, offers this insightful summation of Meyer's character: "Russ was just a big old teddy bear - a teddy bear who liked to watch you undress through a window and masturbate."

Things don't end well for Meyer, as he slips into senile dementia and spends much of the last several years of his life as a prisoner in his own home.

If you're a fan of '50s cheesecake photography, or '60s and '70s sexploitation "sinema," you're probably already a big fan of Meyer's work. If so, you should read this book, the hardcover of which can be had cheap at barnesandnoble.com or stores like Half Price Books.

It's buxotic!

Ready Steady Go! 2.1.08 at Beerland

Cedar Fever

Folks round these parts call it cedar fever.

This time of year, the cedars release tons of airborne allergens, and Austin is in the epicenter of a region-wide pollen cloud. I have never been all that susceptible to allergies, but this one's a humdinger. My head feels like it's in a vise, and if the locals weren't constantly reassuring me that it's just the fever, I'd be at the nearest hospital right now.

I slept 12 hours last night and feel no better today.

I'm on the job instead of at the ER, because I get paid to be here and I'd have to pay a lot of money to go to the ER. My insurance doesn't kick in until February 1st.

Gotta love the health care system in this country. Don't get me started.

Anyway, I took an antihistamine and it's not helping a whole lot. That cedar pollen must be some bad stuff. I got the fever, and I got it bad.

JMD on "Friday Night Lights" This Week

Don't blink or you'll miss me, but the first of several episodes of Friday Night Lights in which I appear as a featured extra airs Friday night at 9 ET on NBC. I'm playing one of the local press.

Look for me when the opposing coach goes mental. I'll be that indiscernible blur on the sideline.