Laurel Canyon

[thurnundtaxis]

Here's what one simple searchquery on google returned:

BUSINESS PEOPLE; Punk Rock and Military Jobs Lead to Mattel Video Games

William Novak, a top video game designer for Mattel Inc., is probably one of the few employees working for a $1 billion corporation with a resume that boasts of founding two punk rock record labels.

Mr. Novak was in New York recently to recieve an award from Popular Science magazine for his role in designing Mattel's Power Glove, a popular new electronic toy. Mr. Novak, who is 39 years old, said he was deeply honored by the award.

Mr. Novak's received a master's degree in fine arts from the Center for Contemporary Music at Mills College in Oakland, Calif. In 1976, he founded two San Franciso Bay area punk rock labels, Dumb Records and Nth Degree.

He migrated to Southern California in 1982 to take part in the first video game explosion as a designer for Sega Enterprises Ltd., a Japanese maker of video games and machines. Before joining Mattel, Mr. Novak worked as an independent contractor for Teledyne Systems, designing targeting devices for Navy anti-submarine helicopters.

full story: http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/s ... .google.nl

Now I'm going to google some bands signed to those two labels, who knows maybe some member of one of them had an underage girlfriend at one time or maybe had a friend killed in mysterious circumstances and work from there i guess..

Oh boy, the plot thickens already:

Little known facts about the first Dumb Record:

RU21: The father of a girl I went with in New York was a race car driver in the 1950s. He named his race car RU21. Unlike today, using letters and numbers like that wasnt really done, or I didnt know about it. I thought it was cool so I used it for my song about trying to get into a girls pants while worrying she might be jailbait

Cool! Let us know when you've written an 18-part series of articles detailing what you've found out about how many of these type of odd connections you find within a relatively small group of highly influential "cultural pioneers" of the punk rock era, and if you do find the same rather substantial amount of "spook"-y information as McGowan has put together about the Laurel Canyon scene, you can then proceed to tell us how its all just an absurd series of coincidences that only looks like a conspiracy to paranoid pattern seekers with an unhealthy attachment towards confirmation bias.

[sunny]

Cool! Let us know when you've written an 18-part series of articles detailing what you've found out about how many of these type of odd connections you find within a relatively small group of highly influential "cultural pioneers" of the punk rock era, and if you do find the same rather substantial amount of "spook"-y information as McGowan has put together about the Laurel Canyon scene, you can then proceed to tell us how its all just an absurd series of coincidences that only looks like a conspiracy to paranoid pattern seekers with an unhealthy attachment towards confirmation bias.

These are really the key phrases. A relatively small group, all with spook-y backgrounds, had an enormous influence on the culture. If they did not all descend upon the LC at the same time at the instigation of spymasters they certainly, in a perfect storm of happy coincidences, hit upon the perfect spook-y formula for detouring an entire generation away from more crucial, and critically dangerous to the elites, political pursuits. Let's not forget that some of these creeps had little to no musical talent or skill but kept getting gigs and record deals--almost as if they were being sponsored. The legends of how some of them were 'discovered' are laughable. As has been stated before, the counterculture as such didn't have much, if anything, to do with radical political activism. turn on, tune in, drop out

[82_28]

There may be some interest in our passing finds of things about Laurel Canyon at Classified Humanity.

I just posted this:



The Laurel Canyon tag is here:

http://classifiedhumanity.com/tagged/Laurel%20Canyon

I have a lost post in there though, I just realized. There's a big one about an actress, who I can't recall who was murdered in like the 1930s under mysterious circumstances. Almost anything about Laurel Canyon that pops up in the Seattle Times archives deals with mysterious murders since I took up this hobby and website. QED.

[sunny]

There's a big one about an actress, who I can't recall who was murdered in like the 1930s under mysterious circumstances.

You're probably thinking of Thelma Todd.

[82_28]

Yep. Indeed. Thanks, sunny.

http://classifiedhumanity.com/tagged/Thelma%20Todd

Maybe that isn't Laurel Canyon though. I have some other links at the above link if anyone wants to check it out.

[Nordic]

Let's not forget that some of these creeps had little to no musical talent or skill but kept getting gigs and record deals--almost as if they were being sponsored. The legends of how some of them were 'discovered' are laughable. As has been stated before, the counterculture as such didn't have much, if anything, to do with radical political activism. turn on, tune in, drop out

Well a similar thing happened in the film business after "Easy Rider" came out. Basically when that super cheap indie movie came out, and was made in spite of Studio Brass acting as gatekeepers, and it made just a shitload of money, suddenly the Executives (the story goes) realized they didn't know a damn thing about what would make people go to the movies.

The result was the Golden Age of American movie making, from about 1967 to the early 70's. Artists were given some serious carte blanche in those days because, well, it was working, and the corporate guys had no clue why it was working, so they just sorta let them go for several years.

I'm not an expert on the music biz but I would hazard a guess that a similar thing happened then. I remember my parents and grandparents complaining that Led Zeppelin and bands like that were "just noise" and shaking their heads. I would suppose that a lot of music execs their same age thought the same thing, but kept signing acts that sounded sorta like anybody else to see what would stick to the wall.

A similar thing happened with the Grunge scene in the early 90's, the last time pop music was any good.

I'm not ruling out what you're saying, Sunny, and maybe that theory is 100% right. But I remember a hell of a lot of good music coming out around that same period of time, 1967 to 1974 or so, and it wasn't corporate. If it was guided by corporations or the CIA, it would have SUCKED.

Hell, maybe Disco was CIA spookery.

It is coincidental (using the term in its literal sense) that the demise of both really great rock music, and really great movies occurred at the same time the Vietnam War basically ended.

[DrVolin]

The result was the Golden Age of American movie making,

Vanishing case in Point.

[sunny]

But I remember a hell of a lot of good music coming out around that same period of time, 1967 to 1974 or so

I cannot disagree.

Hell, maybe Disco was CIA spookery.

No, Disco was the Devil's music.

(actually, although I too had 'Disco Sucks' bumper stickers, I quite enjoy some of it these days. )

[82_28]

The result was the Golden Age of American movie making,

Vanishing case in Point.

"Vanishing Point"

Grow up children, don't you suffer
At the hands of one another
If you like a sleeping demon
Listen can you hear him weeping
Tears of joy and tears of sorrow
He buys love to sell tomorrow

My life ain't no holiday
I've been through the point of no return
I've seen what a man can do
I've seen all the hate of a woman too

Feel your heartbeat lose the rhythm
He can't touch the world we live in
Life is short but love is strong
There lies a hope that I have found
And if you try you'll find it too
Remember why I'm telling you

My life ain't no holiday
I've been through the point of no return
I've seen what a man can do
I've seen all the hate of a woman too

And they gave him away
Like in 'Whistle Down The Wind'
By the look on his face
He never gave in

[DrVolin]

[82_28]

Drvolin, thanks. I've been meaning to watch that film but totally spaced the name of it. I've seen the beginning of it. But it has a whole bunch of ancient Denver footage in it and it has been recommended to me numerous times by people who know how into history I am and that I'm from Denver at whatnot. Damn. Thanks again!

[DrVolin]

You won't regret it.

[norton ash]

Duel 1971 dir. Steven Spielberg
Two Lane Blacktop 1971 dir. Monte Hellman
Vanishing Point 1971 dir. Richard Sarafian

Highway paranoia, alienation, nemesis stories of 1971.

There's a killer on the road
Riders on the Storm, 1971.

[IanEye]

.

in honor of the last American hero to whom speed means freedom of the soul.



the question is not when's he gonna stop, but who is gonna stop him.

.

[Joe Hillshoist]

Beat me to it Ianeye