ROUGH WINDOWS RADIO HOUR: 'THE MAN WHO FELL TO FLAGSTAFF' PROGRAM ART

I do a program illustration for each episode of The Rough Windows Radio Hour. This one is for 'The Man Who Fell To Flagstaff.'  Curiously, there's no Bowie in the mix -- but there is a full hour of great science fiction-related music from the Mahavishnu Orchestra, Pink Floyd, the Epoxies, Jane Weaver, Peter Howell, Kraftwerk and more.  Tune it in at night, around 11 pm, on Radio Free Flagstaff, 94.5 FM, KOII.

New Album from The Fucked Up Beat has 15 Unique Album Covers

The new album from The Fucked Up Beat "Investigates Strange Weather Patterns And The UFO Cults of Cold War Nevada" is available now at the thefuckedupbeat.bandcamp.com.  Each download of the album allows you to choose from 15 unique covers.  Here's a selection of four of them.

The first is by Anya Rymer of Brooklyn USA.

The second is by Mariana Borau, a Venezuelan artist based in Madrid, Spain.  marianaborau.com

Number three is by Thomas Schonne of Osnabruck, Germany.

And number four is by Shayne Gray of Toronto, Canada.  www.shaynegray.com

See the other eleven covers and download this fascinating album at the thefuckedupbeat.bandcamp.com

A New Release from The Fucked Up Beat

This is good news.  A new album from The Fucked Up Beat will be available tomorrow, March 20th.  It's called "Investigates Strange Weather Patterns and the UFO Cults of Cold War Nevada."  And it's every bit as strange and interesting as that name suggests.  I've listened to it many times since Monday.  I think it's fantastic!  More details in the days ahead.  Till then, why not visit The Fucked Up Beat -- click here .

A Cover for Ray Bradbury's 'Fahrenheit 451'

Another cover design for an imaginary edition of a book -- this time, for Ray Bradbury's 'Fahrenheit 451.'

A Cover for Yevgeny Zamyatin's "WE"

I recently read Yevgeny Zamyatin's 1924 science fiction novel "We."  Above is my cover design for an imaginary edition of the book.

Japanese 'Fahrenheit 451' Poster

Regular visitors to this site will be aware of my fondness for 'Fahrenheit 451.' I came across this striking Japanese poster for the film this morning. You can see more Japanese posters from the 'Swinging Sixties' here.

Sapphire

A quick marker sketch of Joanna Lumley as Sapphire in the 1979 British television series "Sapphire and Steel." I wouldn't be surprised if it's followed by a half-portrait of her partner sometime soon, as portrayed by David McCallum.

'The Fireman' -- An Audio Project inspired by the film 'Fahrenheit 451'

'THE FIREMAN' is an audio project I've been working on for some time now. It's a suite of musical settings inspired by the 1969 film 'Fahrenheit 451', directed by Francois Truffaut from the novel by Ray Bradbury. 'The Fireman' is a musical-mini-meta-headphone-movie -- an alternative universe version of the film. (It is more directly inspired by the film than Bradbury's novel.) It's a 29-minute audio daydream of a movie that's now almost fifty years old. You can hear it by clicking here. (Note: no dialog, music or sound effects are sampled from the film,)

Fahrenheit 451 - Oskar Werner as Montag

A sketch I did while watching the Truffaut film for about the millionth time. I absolutely love Oskar Werner's portrayal of Montag.

Ultraman Adversaries

The Audio Adventures of Mary Farfisa

Mary Farfisa is an Audio Wrangler. She lives on a planet called Derbyshire. Her job is to recapture vanished sounds from all over the Universe.

In this six-minute audio adventure, Mary explores a place of ancient musical rituals with her space-pony, Briscoe.

Click the MARY FARFISA link on the right of this page for an illustrated Mary Farfisa short story.

Caran D'ache Astronaut Tin Box

Artwork from a tin container of Caran D'ache coloured pencils. Not sure of the date, but I'm guessing early seventies. Painting is signed "Leffel."

'Roswell Radio Cult' by The Fucked Up Beat

In the movies of the 1950’s, the world was a sanitized and less bewildering place. But the sci-fi movies of that time were different.

In the sci-fi movies, the world was weird and disturbing. The government was conducting secret programs. Alien spacecrafts were crashing in the desert. The oceans were incubators for giant radioactive monsters. And mad scientists were everywhere, conducting bizarre experiments on their hapless victims.

This is the edgy psychological territory that “Roswell Radio Cult” by The Fucked Up Beat seems to place in. With track titles like ‘The Terror From Beyond/who traveled down highways of space and time’ and ‘The Groom Lake Flatwoods Monster/I’d like some gasoline please!’ it is an album built to inhabit that shadowy B- movie world.

The Fucked Up Beat is Eddie Palmer of New York and Brett Zehner of San Diego. They describe their music as ‘Experimental Schizo Noir Trip Hop.’ Regarding the album’s long, fantastic titles, Eddie Palmer says “On ‘Roswell,’ we wanted to create fake movie titles for American sci-fi movies of the 50’s. We usually finish all our song titles and the album name before we create the music. This gives us a thematic approach to each album, and a direction for the songs.”

The music on ‘Roswell Radio Cult’ supports this theme beautifully. But The Fucked Up Beat do not promote that concept so insistently that it becomes a limitation on the album’s musical or conceptual scope. The weird fusion of styles and beats and moods on ‘Roswell Radio Cult’ suggest places beyond one specific temporal, 
geographic or conceptual location. It’s great fuel for the imagination, and for highly personal psychic trips.

Listening to the album, it was easy to imagine it as a sci-fi soundtrack to my dad’s life in an alternate universe. Full of samples from American jazz songs of the 20’s and 30’s, ‘Roswell Radio Cult’ is largely built on the music he would have listened to.

In the real world, my dad did an honest day’s work, drove home, had a cold beer, and watched a ball game.

In the alternate universe that ‘Roswell Radio Cult’ suggests, he would have stopped in the desert after work to do peyote with the Mothman. When he got home, he would contact the saucers orbiting Earth on his short-wave radio. Then he would stay up most of the night, talking to little green men about The Plan.

The music on Roswell Radio Cult is extremely accomplished and inventively arranged. Beyond any conceptual framework or narrative the track titles might suggest, it stands up as a purely musical experience. It has many bizarre and abstract moments.  It also has plenty of outrageous and catchy grooves. This is experimental music that swings.

Perhaps the thing that impresses me most about the album, though, is how well it conveys a feeling of mystery. And, how well it suggests that we humans are a small part of a very big, and very strange, Universe.

This is a quality found only in the best works of science fiction, in any medium.

Japanese Sci-Fi Monster Toys