Tuesday, June 28, 2016

Kenneth Anger's Invocation of My Demon Brother


I first discovered the homemade films by Anger while living around the corner from the Westerfeld House in San Francisco, where he shot some of them (Invocation features Manson family member Bobby Beausoleil, Church of Satan founder Anton LaVey, and music by Mick Jagger).


Aside from being arguably the most beautiful house in San Francisco, the house has a fascinating history. It's been occupied by Czarist Russians (known for awhile as the "Russian Embassy"), jazz musicians like John Handy, a theatre collective, and was eventually owned by Anger, who held Satanic rituals and kept pet tigers there — the tower used to have a pentagram on the floor, and there are claw marks from the cats on the walls to this day. The Grateful Dead and Charles Manson were frequent visitors.

Now the home is owned by a charming Victorian structure restorer who has lovingly rehabilitated it. It will be featured in a documentary, House of Legends, debuting this fall.

Read more about it at Curbed.

Interview with Gay Dillingham of Dying to Know

I chatted with filmmaker Gay Dillingham about sitting down two of the 20th century's most notorious anarchists, Timothy Leary and Ram Dass, for a final conversation. Read the full interview at 


David Bowie answers the Proust questionnaire

What is your idea of perfect happiness? Reading.
What is your most marked characteristic? Getting a word in edgewise.
What do you consider your greatest achievement? Discovering morning.
What is your greatest fear? Converting kilometers to miles.
Which historical figure do you most identify with? Santa Claus.
Which living person do you most admire? Elvis.
Who are your heroes in real life? The consumer.
What is the trait you most deplore in yourself? While in New York, tolerance. Outside of New York, intolerance.
What is the trait you most deplore in others? Talent.
What is your favorite journey? The road of artistic excess.
What do you consider the most overrated virtue? Sympathy and originality.
Which words or phrases do you most overuse? Chthonic, miasma.
What is your greatest regret? That I never wore bell-bottoms.
What is your current state of mind? Pregnant.
If you could change one thing about your family, what would it be? My fear of them (wife and son excluded).
What is your most treasured possession? A photograph held together by cellophane tape of Little Richard that I bought in 1958, and a pressed and dried chrysanthemum picked on my honeymoon in Kyoto.
What do you regard as the lowest depth of misery? Living in fear.
Where would you like to live? Northeast Bali or south Java.
What is your favorite occupation? Squishing paint about a senseless canvas.
hat is the quality you most like in a man? The ability to return books.
What is the quality you most like in a woman? The ability to burp on command.
What are your favorite names? Sears & Roebuck.
What is your motto? “What” is my motto.