Fast Forward Again 1969

In the following issue dated August 15th - 21st 1969

You now have this on page 2. 

And the repeated symbol that looks like  ... um the symbol used by the Zodiac Killer. 

The Zodiac Killer was a serial killer who operated in Northern California in the late 1960s and early 1970s. The killer's identity remains unknown. The Zodiac murdered victims in Benicia, Vallejo, Lake Berryessa, and San Francisco between December 1968 and October 1969. Four men and three women between the ages of 16 and 29 were targeted. The killer originated the name "Zodiac" in a series of taunting letters sent to the local Bay Area press. These letters included four cryptograms (or ciphers). Of the four cryptograms sent, only one has been definitively solved.

I'm not saying the IT were advertising Zodiac. I'm just saying in the previous issue you have Jerry Cornelius, Racism, the Fourth Reich, and sundry, and now in the next issue you get the repeated symbol that the Zodiac Killer used. 

Letters from the Zodiac

The solution to Zodiac's 408-symbol cipher. The meaning, if any, of the final eighteen letters has not been determined. On August 1, 1969, three letters prepared by the killer were received at the Vallejo Times Herald, the San Francisco Chronicle, and The San Francisco Examiner. The nearly identical letters took credit for the shootings at Lake Herman Road and Blue Rock Springs.

Oh. And let's not forget the 3 Winged Beetle style Citreon 2CVs that appear at the top of the page. And the one that comes crashing through without wings. You should be saying "what the fuck???" right now.

International Times Fast Forward

It's not that I got impatient. It's just archives allow you to zip back and forth through time. 


By the time 1969 had rolled around, there's an entirely different staff, and look to the International Times. It still gets the attention of John Lennon (we'll discuss later, as the IT interviews his penis about "Two Virgins.") but its focus, and layout is much different. It has more pages, colour layouts, and a more encompassing look at what was happening in London, and the world at the time. 

What was I looking for? 

Something happening in August 1969. And if the International Times had any indications ... of anything. Strolling through Issue No.61, August 1st - 14th, 1969, you come across this interesting cartoon. 

The Adventures of Jerry Cornelius. Now of course I'm taking this cartoon out of context with its previous entries. I just wanted to see if something was said in August of 1969. And I find this. Despite its obvious racism, it has a funny kind of, well, how do you say. Timely kind of nature to it. If one looks to August 1969 and things of Helter Skelter, and people receiving messages, and final solutions. If one would like to of course. 

I just thought it interesting. 

The Adventures of Jerry Cornelius: The English Assassin [with Richard Glyn Jones, M. John Harrison & Michael Moorcock] (cs) International Times 1969; parts 6, 7 (incomplete) and 9-14 only, some seemingly revised. 

I'm unfamiliar with the other two authors, but Michael Moorcock I'm well acquainted with. In the previous issue of IT, Jerry & Catherine had taken on Pope Paul and the Vatican. (Pope Paul VI in this case.) This issue continues on with that. I'm going to be paying a lot of attention to issue No.61 of the IT. Sometime soon. 

Also note. Jerry has a person he receives the message from. Operator number 237. 

International Times Issue No.3

November 14-27/1s

A look into the International Times once again. I'm actually quite enjoying this. I'm learning a lot.
it3 Nov 14 - 27 1966: William Burroughs –first appearance of The Invisible Generation 1) - continued in


PAGE ONE

Challenor, Evans ... Aberfan?
This article discusses the death of a half-caste 2 year old infant that was burned to death in 1961.
I'm actually trying to find details of this incident online and running into trouble, even searching through Sir Edmund Davis (Davies) and his comments about the case. Bonsam Heath was the name of the child, but that only yielded a document on Vampire Mythology. (???)

24 Hour City
Plans to make London a 24 hour city by the IT crowd. An editorial. (Sidenote: It's still not a 24 hour city. They failed.)

PAGE TWO

The Editor Speaks
An apparent tirade about being accused of being a Fascist and/or a drug pusher. Editor (Tom McGrath) claims he is much worse.

Ezra Pound
McGrath tells of the lack of Pound material in the third issue of IT, because of the Ezra Pound Estate claimed IT had no right to publish his speeches. Lawyers involved.

Who is Martin Bradley?
That's my question as well! He's been bugging me since issue 1 as I can't find much about him, but he has a very high profile at the magazine. Well this might answer it. McGrath responds to an angry letter from George Andrews. Remember George?

MAN OF GRASS
George Andrews is interviewed by Bradley Martin, in regards to the publication of the Book of Grass: Anthology on Indian Hemp, written in collaboration with Simon Vinkenoog.

Yep! That George. He signs the letter, dear Tom McGrath alias Bradley Martin. He goes on to correct McGrath's statements made in the article. He's actually quite offended by how some of his statements were taken out of context, and that a friend of his was insulted in the article. Amongst other things. McGrath chooses not to respond to many points brought up, other than whether he is Bradley Martin or not. He does not apologise for any of the issues Andrews had with the article at all. He seems to have more fun playing the game of whether Bradley Martin exists or not.

Let me not judge. But I kinda don't like McGrath already.

Bradley Martin
Non-events bureau article. Basically an update of present goings on in the drug world. Hashish, marijuana, police arrests etc. Interesting thing "Bradley" mentions is that "EMI are in a position to import an LP called LSD by arrangement with the US company Capitol. Publications are putting up their own bands on dealer advertising for this record. Your dealer will stock it if you ask long enough."

Interesting.

Interpot Report No.4 : BRAIN
 The jist of this entry is about the Minister of Health and the drug addiction something or other. I try to follow the article, but frankly I get bored halfway through! But it does mention some names that might be wise to keep in mind, certain Members of Parliament.

PAGE THREE

Miles
An article about how hard it is to find books by beat poets. Ginsberg, Ferlinghetti, Snyder are mentioned. It's more than just that of course. It's about publication, distribution, the banning of certain authors etc.

What's This Then, Eh?
A cartoon where two men find what appears to be a tuft of grass sticking through an open hole. We pan back to see it's actually a gigantic human head underneath, obscured from their view.

Advertisement/FYI
Dutch Sigma Centre Opens
(see back to Issue No.2 entry. http://drtomoculus.blogspot.com/2013/06/international-times-issue-2.html)

London News
Mike Kustow article about The Royal Shakespeare Company holding a discussion about putting the facts on stage. (Maybe about that very thing Mairowitz and Brook were seemingly arguing about in Issue 2.)

Hugh MacDiarmid. Appearing at Jeanetta Cochrane Theatre.

Hugh MacDiarmid is the pen name of Christopher Murray Grieve (11 August 1892 – 9 September 1978), a significant Scottish poet of the 20th century. He was instrumental in creating a Scottish version of modernism and was a leading light in the Scottish Renaissance of the 20th century. Unusually for a first generation modernist, he was a communist; unusually for a communist, however, he was a committed Scottish nationalist. He wrote both in English and in literary Scots (often referred to as Lallans).

In 2010, letters were discovered showing that he believed a Nazi invasion of Britain would benefit Scotland. In a letter sent from Whalsay, Shetland, in April 1941, he wrote: “On balance I regard the Axis powers, tho’ more violently evil for the time being, less dangerous than our own government in the long run and indistinguishable in purpose." A year earlier, in June 1940, he wrote: “Although the Germans are appalling enough, they cannot win, but the British and French bourgeoisie can and they are a far greater enemy. If the Germans win they could not hold their gain for long, but if the French and British win it will be infinitely more difficult to get rid of them.” Marc Horne in the Daily Telegraph commented: "MacDiarmid flirted with fascism in his early thirties, when he believed it was a doctrine of the left. In two articles written in 1923, Plea for a Scottish Fascism and Programme for a Scottish Fascism, he appeared to support Mussolini’s regime. By the 1930s however, following Mussolini’s lurch to the right, his position had changed and he castigated Neville Chamberlain over his appeasement of Hitler’s expansionism." Deirdre Grieve, MacDiarmid’s daughter-in-law and literary executor, noted: “I think he entertained almost every ideal it was possible to entertain at one point or another."

Viet Engines
News of Fords of Dagenham sending diesel lorry engines out to Vietnam. 

Ford Dagenham is a major automotive factory located in Dagenham, London, United Kingdom operated by the Ford of Britain subsidiary of Ford Motor Company. The plant opened in 1931 and has produced 10,980,368 cars and over 37,000,000 engines in its history. It covers around 475 acres and has received over £800 million of capital investment since the year 2000.

Accidental Ballet
Announcement of the Royal Ballet's new season opening on 15th November 1966.

The Most Beautiful Apple
Yoko Ono, the Japanese avant garde artist - composer who has been in England this summer, is presenting an evening of new works entitled "Music of the Mind", at the Jeanetta Cochrane Theatre.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cochrane_Theatre

This is the article that goes into Ono's Unfinished paintings exhibition which had opened the week before, quite unfinished and still being set up in the early morning hours of the 8th. With a visit from Roman Polanski. See previous blog entry http://drtomoculus.blogspot.com/2012/10/14th-november-1966.html



PAGE FOUR

Poets in Public Vs Arts Council by Pat Jones
Arts Council considers establishing a poetry centre to coordinate readings, festivals etc. What follows are letters between Poets in Public and the Arts Council when this plan is aborted.

Advertisement
Michael White & The Traverse Theatre present Yoko Ono at the Jeanette Cochrane Theatre 17th November. The Traverse Theatre is a theatre in Edinburgh, Scotland. It was founded in 1963.

For Michael White aka "Chalky", please follow this link.
http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/chalky-the-film

And so began Gracie's journey of discovery of the incredible legacy, life and loves of Michael White. Gracie has completed extensive interviews with Michael and 50 of his closest friends and colleagues – Yoko Ono, Naomi Watts, Lorne Michaels, John Waters, Barry Humphries to name a few.

Bertrand Russell
Statement on the International War Crimes Tribunal.

The Russell Tribunal, also known as the International War Crimes Tribunal or Russell-Sartre Tribunal, was a private body organized by British philosopher Bertrand Russell and hosted by French philosopher and playwright Jean-Paul Sartre. Along with Ken Coates, Ralph Schoenman, Julio Cortázar and several others, the tribunal investigated and evaluated American foreign policy and military intervention in Vietnam, following the 1954 defeat of French forces at the Battle of Dien Bien Phu and the establishment of North and South Vietnam.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russell_Tribunal

See? Learning a lot by just taking a closer look at the IT all the time :)
 (I still don't like McGrath though. Andrews had a legitimate complaint. He barely addressed it.)

PAGE FIVE

Seedy Bee by Criton (sp) Tomazos


Interesting document comes up when you look for Criton Tomazos, who takes over Seedy Bee for  Jeff Nuttall in this issue. Criton Tomazos and Underground Art in the 1960s by Stephen Carruthers Dublin Institute of Technology.

Criton Tomazos (b.1940) is an artist of Greek-Cypriot origin who has
been living in England since 1956. He formed part of a circle of artists in the 1960s loosely associated around a number of informal groupings, including Arts Together, Writers Forum, Sigma, Group H and Environmental Forum. In examining his work in the 1960s in the context of the artists with whom he collaborated, the originality and prescience of his contribution to a variety of sixties and seventies art movements becomes apparent.

Anyway. Vera Groin finally finds Albert Hall. I can't even describe this entry of Seedy Bee to you. It just has to be seen. http://www.internationaltimes.it/archive/WebImages/IT_1966-11-14_B-IT-Volume-1_Iss-3_005.jpg

Censorshi p/t -2

Goes into an article about Strass Paraskos, a Greek Cypriot artist, awaiting trial for two pictures removed from the Leeds Institute Gallery by police. Them Greek Cypriots hey? That's the second time on one page they've been brought up. Greece's Fascist Takeover in 1967 was the stuff of dreams in 1966 though.

The Greek military junta of 1967–1974 (alternatively "The Regime of the Colonels" (Greek: Το καθεστώς των Συνταγματαρχών, To kathestos ton Syntagmatarhon), or in Greece "The Junta",was a series of right-wing military juntas that ruled Greece following the 1967 Greek coup d'état led by a group of colonels on 21 April 1967. The dictatorship ended in July 1974.

That has a very interesting history itself. You should go check it out. ;)

A few advertisements appear at the bottom of this page. I chased up Bernard Stone of the Turret Bookshop.  http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/2005/feb/10/guardianobituaries.booksobituaries

And the Drian Galleries

A single-minded woman who forged swathes through the London art scene, Halima Nalecz worked for over 40 years jump-starting important careers. Born in Antonowo near Vilnius in Lithuania she fled through war-torn Europe living variously in Moscow, Odessa, Turkey, Palestine, Lebanon before settling in London in 1947. She trained as an artist in both London and Paris and her work evolved from non-figurative to figurative, in a style instantly recognisable and clearly pointing to her East European roots. In 1956 along with fellow artists Denis Bowen and Frank Avray Wilson, she opened the New Vision Centre near London's Marble Arch. It was specifically aimed at artists who were deemed unworthy stylistically of exhibiting their work in the prestigious Bond Street galleries and its environs. A year later Nalecz opened the Drian Galleries, located in Porchester Place, Bayswater thus continuing the New Vision philosophy. She gave the first big exhibitions in England to John Bellany, William Crozier, Michael Sandle, Yaacov Agam, Douglas Portway and many more emerging artists of the period. The gallery continued after Nalecz’s death in 2008.

Bookshop 85

The first bookshop in this road was at 107 in 1872. The trade picked up again with a second-hand bookshop at 81 from 1965-75; this overlapped with Bookshop 85 at no 85 in the 1970s. Primrose Hill Books has been the longest-lasting bookshop in Regent’s Park Road.
http://primrosehillhistory.org/?p=108

Nudes Truth and Heuristics

Academy of Visual Arts. Ad mentions Jean Straker. Straker caused a lot of controversy in 1960's Soho, London. Hard to find a comprehensive account of what happened, other than he defended himself in court. Straker was always insistent that his work was art – not pornography, but the authorities at the time weren’t convinced. In 1967 Straker had many of his prints confiscated and he was prosecuted under the 1959 Obscene Publications Act. 
http://www.culture24.org.uk/art/photography+%26+film/art62041

PAGE SIX

William S. Burroughs "The Invisible Generation"
A series of situation where a tape recorder is used to create new forms of meeting between people and new forms of engagement with the media.The Invisible Generation was also a contemporary art project conceived by artist Per Hüttner and Curator Daniele Balit and organized by Vision Forum, inspired by Burroughs writings.

In my opinion, when you bring in William S. Burroughs to your little London rag, you've just brought in the big guns. Nothing against anyone aforementioned, but as a contributor or presence at IT, this is it. It would be like inviting Jack Kerouac to write for your high school newspaper. And he said yes. Be forewarned though. If you read The Invisible Generation, you will also note that punctuation is invisible as well. Burroughs doesn't bother seeing it.

I seriously need to read this piece.

PAGE SEVEN

Morton Feldman
Morton and Alan Beckett return from Issue No.2 for a full interview and feature in this issue. Feldman speaks of his first meeting with John Cage. He also discusses Jackson Pollock, Karlheinz Stockhausen and Pierre Boulez. 

PAGE EIGHT

Jakov Lind: Of Cowboys and Cannibals

Jakov Lind (born Heinz Jakov Landwirth, 10 February 1927 in Vienna – 16 February 2007 in London) was an Austrian-British writer. As an 11-year old boy from a Jewish family, he left Austria after the Anschluss (his parents had immigrated to Palestine before Germany annexed Austria), found temporary refuge in Holland, and succeeded in surviving inside Nazi Germany by assuming a Dutch identity: that of Jan Gerrit Overbeek. During this time, he worked on a barge in the Rhine, transporting goods between Holland and Germany.

The title of this piece by Lind may derive from his short story Journey Through the Night

“Journey through the Night,” concerns two men in a train compartment: a mad cannibal and his prospective victim-meal. That this is a comic story about how to value life becomes obvious, but what feels even more true is how the story shows that nothing in life is actually very funny. (Incidentally, cannibalism, Lind’s tongue-in-cheek metaphor for human relations, appears often in these beautiful stories.) “All is vanity,” Lind writes in this tale reminiscent of Witold Gombrowicz. “You’ve got to die, only you don’t want to. You don’t have to live, but you want to. Only necessary things are important. Big fish eat little ones, the lark eats the worm and yet how sweetly he sings. . .”

Of Cowboys and Cannibals is actually a very interesting article about Lind's impressions of America. There were four Americas he says: One was Shirley Temple and Mickey Rooney. The second Charlie Chaplin. The third was Al Capone and Chicago. The fourth was fiction invented by Karl May. 

Karl Friedrich May (25 February 1842 – 30 March 1912) was a popular German writer, noted mainly for adventure novels set in the American Old West (best known for the characters of Winnetou and Old Shatterhand) and similar books set in the Orient and Middle East (with Kara Ben Nemsi and Hadschi Halef Omar).

I just have to stop here and say, I really love research. I really do. I love finding out things. Shirley Temple and Mickey Rooney. Yep know their names. Charlie Chaplin. Yep! Al Capone and Chicago. Of course! Karl May. Who???? I had no idea who Karl May was. Now I do. Am I a better person for it? Is it not trivial in the end? I don't think so. Because now I know what Jakov Lind was talking about. I understand him better and what he's trying to communicate. I have made an effort to understand where he's coming from and his perceptions. It's not trivial. It's communication and education. If Lind came up to me now and said, hey I got these four Americas, and rattled them off to me, I'd know all 4 now. I think that's the excellent side of research. Knowing things.


PAGE NINE

Rubber with Violence by Ray Durgnat.

Does that name not say to you, surely that's made up. But it's not. This piece is about latex rubber clothing, and The People. He opens by saying, In spirit IT and The People have something in common. The People snoops, exposes, doesn't like people being conned by crooked business firms. IT doesn't like people being conned by capital-C-Culture.

I have yet to find who The People actually were. Obviously another underground paper floating around London. It urges me to take a look at the book Underground: The London Alternative Press, 1966-74 by Nigel Fountain. In a review of this period of Underground press upheaval, the following quote:

So what survived? In his book Underground: the London Alternative Press 1966-74, Nigel Fountain noted that the right saw the baleful effect of the "revolting students" of the Sixties in the "revolting teachers" of the Eighties. He added that "the issues raised by the underground press in all its forms, IT, Mole Express, Frendz, Grass Eye, Black Dwarf, Ink, Oz, 7 Days, even Gandalf's Garden, were never resolved. The arguments about self-activity, about the failures of reform, the limitation of conventional politics, the need to step outside an alienated system, were never refuted. History filed them for future reference."
He quoted Richard Neville's reflections on his former colleagues: "Some grew rich. Some grew wiser. Some have fallen dead as junkies. Some have suffered. But it was a period of intellectual ferment. It was a compost heap." Now that we are in an environmentally conscious age, it is only fitting that we should value this compost.

Further investigation is needed. It's just finding the resources.

PAGE TEN

Books: The Exploits of the Incomparable Mulla Nasrudin by Idries Shah
Jonathan Cape 30/s

From AMAZON:
Idries Shah takes us to the very heart of this mysterious mentor, the Mulla Nasrudin. Skillful contemporary retellings of hundreds of collected stories and sayings bring the unmistakable -- often backhanded -- wisdom, wit and charm of the timeless jokester to life.The Mulla and his stories appear in literature and oral traditions from the Middle East to Greece, Russia, France -- even China. Many nations claim Nasrudin as a native son, the Turks going so far as to exhibit a grave with his date of death as 386. But nobody really knows who he was or where he came from.

According to a legend dating from at least the 13th century, Nasrudin was snatched as a schoolboy from the clutches of the "Old Villain" -- the crude system of thought that ensnares man -- to carry through the ages the message of how to escape. He was chosen because he could make people laugh, and humor has a way of slipping through the cracks of the most rigid thinking habits.Today -- as they have for centuries -- the Sufis use these stories as teaching exercises, in part to momentarily "freeze" situations in which states of mind can be recognized. In these delightful volumes, Shah not only gives the Mulla a proper vehicle for our times, he proves that the centuries-old stories and quips of Nasrudin are still some of the funniest jokes in the world.

I can't tell if the IT actually liked this book! It comes across very derogatory and dismissive, compared to Amazon's current take of it. References to Bob Hope and Spike Milligan? Ah well, nevermind. 

The Investigation by Peter Weiss
Calder and Boyars/35s by David Mairowitz
A far more glowing review for this piece on political theatre.

Peter Ulrich Weiss (8 November 1916 – 10 May 1982) was a German writer, painter, graphic artist, and experimental filmmaker of adopted Swedish nationality. He is particularly known for his plays Marat/Sade and The Investigation and his novel The Aesthetics of Resistance.

The Penguin John Lennon by Selim
Penguin £1,000,000

This article appears ... upside down. Selim is Miles backwards. It mentions The Famous Five. Have a look.

Who are the Famous Five. 

The Famous Five through Woenow Abbey

By John Lennon.

It was holiday time for the famous five by Enig Blyter; Tom, Stan, Dave, Nigel, Berniss, Arthur, Harry, Wee Jockey, Matoombo, and Craig? For the past 17 years the fabled fibe had been forming into adverntures on varicose islands and secrete vallets with their famous ill bred dog, Cragesmure. Their popular Uncle Philpole with his popular curly white hair and his rugged red weather battered face and his popular fisherman's boots and his big junky sweater and his little cottage.

'Gruddly Pod, Gruddly Pod,' the train seemed to say, 'Gruddy Pod, we're on our holidays,' and they were. Pon arrival they noticed a mysterious starnger who bode no ill?

'Oi what's this 'ere,' he said from behind.

'We're the famous fire by Greenod Bladder,' replied Tom, Stan, Dave, Nigel, Berniss, Arthur, Harry, Wee Jocky, Matoombo, and Craig?, and they were.

'Don't you dare go on the mysterious Woenow Abbey Hill.'

That night by the light of their faithful dog Cragesmure, they talked Craig and Mtoombo into foing the dirty worj. Soon they were at Woenow Attlee grazine upone an olde crypped who turned round to be the furtive stranger.

'Keep off the grass,' he asked frae a great hat.

Matoombo sprange and soon overpowdered the old crypt with a halfhelsie. Craig? quickly fried the old crypt together.

'Wart is the secrete of Woebeat Dobby?' Craig? asked.

'Yer can beat me but ne'er ye'll learn the secrete,' he answered from a green hut.

'Anything you say may be used in Everton against you,' said Harry. And it was. 

The Presence of Le Parc by P.R.Meed
Argentinian artist Julio Le Parc' exhibition in Paris.


PAGE ELEVEN

Reviews of Jazz, Films and Art
Notable film: Onibaba by Kaneto Shindo (1964) 
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0058430/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Onibaba_film
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaneto_Shindo

Typing in Kaneto Shindo + Yoko Ono yields some interesting results. Moreso on Japanese Avant Garde movements post WWII, but interesting reading. 

Aesthetic Language: Tokyo 1955 - 1970 A New Avant Garde

Aesthetic Language

Tokyo 1955-1970: A New Avant-Garde
- See more at: http://www.aestheticamagazine.com/aesthetic-language#sthash.vbCr8yEd.dpuf

http://www.aestheticamagazine.com/aesthetic-language

Challenor, Evans, Aberfan
Continued from PAGE ONE. 

Jakov Lind
Continued from PAGE EIGHT

Another advertisment for Kim Fowley's "Lights"

PAGE TWELVE

What's Happening / Unclassified Ads /Where to buy IT.

Looking through those that sold IT amongst the Robert Fraser Gallery, Freeman Syndicate and others. I'm looking for something, but I'm not sure what. Maybe it'll turn up later, it's still November 1966. 

Remind me to look into Robert Irwin's "Satan Wants Me" (1999)

That winds up issue No.3 of the International Times. We have our first discrepancy with the magical 9th November, 1966 I met Yoko story, you have the appearance and namedrop of Roman Polanski, an upside down advertisement with backwards author for The Penguin Lennon and various other tidbits and tales of swinging London. Did anything stand out? Hmm. A couple of things. Issue 2 was more revelatory. Doesn't mean Issue 3 wasn't. It just gave me the impression I don't like the editor. 








 

PA T T ER N

This is the pattern.

5, 2. That easy. What should follow in the sequence next is another album that shows 3 of them looking right, and one looking forward. Which would be Ringo in the sequence. 5 albums of group or individual shots, and then a pattern of 2 with a member looking forward while others face away, and then back to the sequence of 5 albums. 

Though Sentimental Journey was first, Beaucoups of Blues leaves him looking right all on his own. Will he ever get his turn?? But this leads us to the next question. Does it carry through to their individual solo albums? Good question. 

Sequences and Signals

It's back to the Shadowlands momentarily. 

If one has read entries in this previous series (labels are included for Doktor Apple, To the Left ... etc.) what was established was that there was a pattern on Beatles albums. I addressed both the UK and USA versions of their catalogue to show you this pattern. The question is, is it an artistic decision (carried out over 7 years?), or does it follow a pattern for a set effect. Does it have a purpose?

There is no reason for Beatles to keep looking right on their album covers though. Not without some forethought, and adherence to a set sequence. It kind of works like Pink Floyd's UMMAGUMMA (1969)

As can be seen, there is a sequence. 

Gilmour sits in chair. 

Waters sits just outside door. 

Mason stands outside and looks skyward.

Wright is on his back, and balances his legs in the air. 

Look to the framed picture and you can see the sequence has changed. 

Waters sits in the chair.

Mason sits just outside the door.

Wright stands outside and looks skyward.

Gilmour is on his back, and balances his legs in the air. 

Within the picture is another picture, and the sequence has changed again. And etc. It gives the effect that this could go on "forever." Always repeating this sequence, as you go further and further into the framed picture of pictures. In fact, the album cover itself says this is part of the framed picture. Endlessly. 

The Beatles albums are no different. The sequence is just told over a longer time frame. 

Let's begin.

1. Group shot. Ringo/Paul/George/John.

2. Group shot. John/George/Paul/Ringo

3. Individual shots. John/George/Paul/Ringo. Ringo looks to his right in the last photo. 

4. Group shot. George/John/Ringo/Paul.

5. Group shot. George/John/Paul/Ringo.

6. Group shot. George/John/Ringo/Paul. John looks forward. 

7. Group illustration/photos. George looks forward. 

8. Group shot. John/Ringo/Paul/George.

9. Group shot. Ummm really hard to tell who is who. I'm not even going to guess. I do believe the Rabbit is George though.

10. Nothing. Blank.

11. Group illustration. George/Paul/John/Ringo.

12. Group shot. George/Paul/Ringo/John.

13. Individual shots. Paul looks forward. 

In the Ummagumma type fashion, the next appearance of individual shots, or a group photo, should have Ringo looking forward. The order is the same as what is depicted on With the Beatles / A Hard Day's Night. John. George. Paul. Ringo. 

The second and third albums merely reverse the order of the first album Please Please Me. Ringo. Paul. George. John. 

Albums 4 , 5 and 6 switch Paul and Ringo back and forth. George and John remain constant. 

Album 7 is an illustration. Go clockwise, John. George. Ringo. Paul. John and George are now "switched." Album 6 John looks forward. Album 7 George looks forward. 

Album 8 John and George remain in position, Ringo and Paul are moved to the centre, but remain in their last held position of order. 

Album 9, don't know. Ain't even going to guess. 

Album 11. The pairings are switched. George/John. Paul/Ringo. It appears as George. Paul. John. Ringo. But remember the last sequence.  John/Ringo/Paul/George. We know Paul & Ringo alternate, and George /John is a constant, except in the instance when one of them is looking directly forward while the others look right. 

Album 12. George. Paul. Ringo. John. Now John and Ringo switch. 

Album 13, Paul looks forward.

Believe me. I know this looks obsessive compulsive. But there definitely is a pattern here. It can't be ignored that they manage to make sure 3 Beatles look right, while 1 looks directly forward. And it is spread out over albums, but is in the same order they appear on albums 2 and 3. John. George. Paul. Ringo. If this were a sequential math problem, you know the ones you got at school where you're supposed to figure out what comes next in the sequence, you'd be saying I don't care who comes next!!! Just let me go to lunch. 

But who does come next in sequence. What would be the next album cover based on the pattern, IF The Beatles had continued on? We know that the next person to look forward while the others look right has to be Ringo. He's the only one remaining that has not been given chance to do it. We also know he's the first to look right on an album cover. 

Can we find a sequence in Group shot/Individual shots?

Well, the first two albums are group shots. The 3rd is individual. But then the next 8 albums are ... group shots/illustrations etc. And then the last is individual. That's not even a Fibonacci sequence is it. 0, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13

2 albums are cartoon/illustration. One is a blank cover. One album they're in disguise. Another album they're in character. Hmmm. 

There IS a pattern here. The switching back and forth of Ringo and Paul is consistent. The mostly constant pairings of John/George to Paul/Ringo. The looking right / one faces forward. And the last album seems to artistically state with this pattern, that the one who looks right too much, is going to be framed in red/blood. If there's a message at all. It's just an interesting sequence played out over 13 albums. UK style. 

Hmmm.

The Amazing Plastic Man

This is just Are You Tall Or Not Part Deux in a series of whether Paul is 5ft 11 like a hundred Beatles books insist ...


Or he's a bit taller. Depending on who has a camera at the right time to catch his sudden growth spurts and declines. He's so touchy about it! If you search out those Muhummad Ali (Cassius Clay) pictures with The Beatles from 1964, where they're all wearing the same kind of shoe, you'll see 5ft 11 is a good estimate for George, John and Paul. Especially when compared to the 6ft 5 Cassius Clay, and the 5ft 7 Ringo Starr. 

Got some problems down here though. Well, depending on who photographs them. 

The top left (yours) picture in 1965, where they are standing against a wall. John has his right leg bent, but his left leg is straight. This means his height is compromised by whether his left foot is flush with his body, or angled out. But you can tell by drawing a straight line from George's eyes, to John's eyes, that his height is not compromised that greatly, as his height is almost equal to George's. Should it be? Yes. They are shown in multiple photos being practically the same height, a reported 5ft 11. Paul's knees are both bent. If he stands straight up, do you think he will be taller than both John and George by a fair degree? I do. But the pictures that accompany this one tell you he is taller than John and George. Well, except for a couple of them, where he's the same height. And those hundreds of Beatles books that tell you John, Paul and George were all 5ft 11. Well they aren't here.

And as I've said in Part One. Both George and John are wearing higher heeled shoes than both Paul and Ringo. Paul's giving both George and John a bit of slack in the final picture, because he's almost at his natural height. Well, one of the Paul's is. The other one fits in quite nicely with the 5ft 11, we are all the same height except for little Ringo here mythology. 

You should be saying right now ... this is fucked up!!!!

Because it is. You know it is. Stop fighting it. There have been two all along. They just told you one was dead so it stopped you thinking how could that be, and got you looking for dates and events and some telltale sign that a car accident happened. Or appealing to your sense of injustice that the real Paul's death was never told, or that he ... might be out there somewhere still. That yearning. Or that fabled, they could get back together one day kind of wish fulfillment urge that settles in the brain and heart. And the possibilities endless. 

You were tricked. Wake up. And it's very possible all 4 were complicit in it. And it's possible 2 of them stopped being complicit. And were murdered. Well we know John was right? And someone tried to do it to George. Why would it be necessary to get rid of these two people, if by all accounts the PLAN worked. And millions of people held up these individuals as gods and could do no wrong. And most definitely had nothing to do with Charles Manson. Or any social disobedience cultural revolution nonsense. They were just four good guys singing about peace and love (and bashing people's heads in with a hammer, and dropping clues that one of them got decapitated, and not paying their dedicated roadie very much money at all for all his dedication.) 

There's a method to the madness. You better believe that. 

Are You Tall Or Not?

All images are from the year 1963. 

One thing I can't help but notice, is how small Paul's face is compared to John and George. His features are tiny. In this first picture, Paul's height is noticeable. Even though George is not keeping in line with the suggested pose, you can tell by Paul's shoulders there is a definite incline as you approach his position in line. It goes up. George the shortest of the 3, Paul the tallest. The only thing that stops Paul being completely taller than John, is that tiny little face he's got. Compare to John and George. Paul's features are tiny. Both John and George are broad faced as it were.

And again. Paul has definitely got some height to him.

Until you get to this.Where did all that height go now. He actually looks like a child compared to George, John and Ringo. It's an exaggeration yeah. But look at him! What's going on here? What's happened?

Now standing next to George Martin outside EMI. Both he and John are at about the same distance from the camera, even though apart from eachother. You can still tell that John is somewhat bigger and taller than Paul by quite a degree. 

I've seen this photo many times at other sites, but it serves again as a good illustration of what the f .... is going on here. What do you notice about the shoes? It seems to me Paul is the only one that isn't wearing heels. This brings his height down a bit. So if Ringo in heels is almost as tall as Paul standing right next to him, how is it in the first two shots that Paul is clearly the tallest of the group. Is he wearing high heels we can't see to make his height shoot up that much that he almost "towers" over Ringo in one setting, but thanks to a slight decline in the hill, Ringo wearing heels and Paul not, that he is almost shoulder to shoulder in height with 5ft 7 Ringo? Maybe this is not the best photo to select, they are on an uneven surface, Paul's head is lowered, he's not wearing heels, and Ringo's on the decline of the hill. BUT!

But look how tiny George looks compared to him here at this performance. The Paul in the above photo looks to be about the same body frame size as George. But below he's now suddenly Mr.Big Man on Campus. And George looks like ... well. Tiny. 

Now you've got George Martin again. In the previous picture with him in it, he looks much taller in height than Paul. But here they are. Standing far apart. But look at him! Just judging from the previous picture of Paul standing right next to George Martin, does this look like the same person here? This person is obviously taller, but not as tall as Martin. Not far off though!

Whoah whoah whoah wait. What is this now? Even if John wasn't slightly bending his knee, there is one clear tallest Beatle here. And that's Paul. By a long shot.Didn't we just see him almost dwarfed by John Lennon's head not a few pictures ago? And I can tell you this, they are all wearing heels in this picture, and I'll show you how I know.

HEELS. Even sitting down Paul seems incredibly long legged and just a taller person in general to the others.

What the fuck. Really. AND Paul's wearing the shortest version of the heel! Look at the heels on George and John's shoes. Now go back up to that picture of them standing up. They NEED those heels to even appear somewhat as tall as Paul. He's actually cutting them a break by wearing barely a heel at all!