El Suicidio de Maleva Ferreyra

This is the Spanish translation of Public Suicide Fad Hits Argentina by Frederick Furby from Argentina.

I am looking for people to to translate this post into German and Korean. Email me if you are interested.

French translation here (en Français).

Warning! Graphic footage! Do not watch if you are easily upset!

La moda del suicidio público se ha expandido a Argentina. Arriba esta el video en vivo del suicidio de Mario "Malevo" Ferreyra, un ex-funcionario policial argentino. Se suicidó en vivo en la televisión en la provincia de Tucumán, Argentina. Hay una version de 8,4 MB del video con mejor resolución que se puede descargar en este sitio.

Malevo Ferreyra era Jefe de la Brigada de Investigaciones de Estado de Tucumán en Argentina en los finales de 1970 en el apogeo de la Guerra Sucia. En 1993, fue condenado por asesinar a tres ladrones en 1991.

Él se escapó de la corte agarrando una granada de mano en cada mano (!) y más tarde se entregó después de que el ex gobernador de la provincia redujera su sentencia. Cumplió siete años por los asesinatos. Él gobernó Tucumán con mano de hierro, antes, durante y después de la Guerra Sucia.

Se emitió una orden de arresto contra él por la Guardia Nacional ayer por secuestro y tortura durante la Guerra Sucia. Los crímenes fueron cometidos cuando se sirvió en un depósito secreto de armas convertido en un centro de detencion durante la Guerra Sucia. Justo antes de que la policía viniera a arrestarlo, se suicidó enfrente de su esposa e hijos en TV nacional.

Él recien terminaba la entrevista con el canal de TV Cronica en la cima de un tanque de agua en su casa rural en Tucumán. Su casa estaba rodeada por policias y él iba a ser arrestado en pocos minutos. El protesto su inocencia, y después dijo "Hasta siempre, Maria (te amare por siempre, Maria)," desenfundó una pistola calibre .45 de su bota y se disparó detrás de la oreja. Murió camino al hospital unos momentos después.

Después de que se disparara en la cabeza, su hijo lo abrazo y su hija entró en pánico.

Familiares de las víctimas dijeron que el suicidio era parte de un pacto de silencio que aseguraba que Ferreyra no testificara contra sus ex-colegas.

La política argentina es asquerosa, y algunas veces mortal, negocios, con mucha impunidad, pero eso parece que esta cambiando.

Una foto típica de "El Malevo" con su usual sombrero. Parece una forma dificil de vivir compañeros. Su nombre tal vez viene de la famosa película muda de un muy conocido director argentino José A. Ferreyra (mismo apellido) de 1921 llamada La Maleva. No estoy seguro de qué trata la película. Ferreyra es un apellido común en Argentina. El nombre puede ser también en honor a un famoso futbolista argentino llamado Osmar "Malevo" Ferreyra (video).

Aquí hay otra foto de "El Malevo". No estoy seguro de qué esta pasando aca, ni quién es la mujer. Él parece tener un caracter muy rudo. Al igual que esos hombres al rededor de él. La política provincial argentina es desagradable, es cosa dura y difícil. Una especie de mezcla entre siciliano y mexicano. Muchos de los tipos duros en el poder usan todo su peso político, no nada de constitucional, las detenciones políticas y los ataques, el hostigamiento y los ataques a periodistas, jueces corruptos y venales. Las cosas usuales.

Tucumán es un algo en retroceso, "central" provincia en el interior de la Argentina. Es agrícola allí en su mayoría, con una gran cantidad de cultivo de caña de azúcar. Los policías y los políticos en esta parte de la Argentina son algunos de los más brutales, venales, exclusivistas y corruptos del país.

La Mode du Suicide en Public Arrive à l'Argentine

This is the French translation of the Public Suicide Fad Comes to Argentina post, translated by Natalie from France.

I am looking for people to to translate this post into German and Korean. Email me if you are interested.

Spanish version (en Español).

Attention! Personnes sensibles s’abstenir!!!

La mode du suicide en public s’est répandue en Argentine. Ci-dessus la vidéo du suicide en direct à la télé de Mario « Malevo » Ferreyra, un ancient policier. Il s’est suicidé en direct dans la province de Tucumàn en Argentine. Ici vous pouvez télécharger la vidéo avec une résolution plus haute.

Malevo Ferreyra était le chef de la brigade d’investigation de l’état du Tucumàn en Argentine dans les dernières années ’70 au plus fort de la sale guerre. En 1993, il fut condamné pour le meurtre de trois voleurs en 1991.

Il s’est échappé du tribunal en empoignant une grenade dans chaque main et plus tard s’est livré à la police après que le gouverneur de la province ait réduit sa peine. Il a fait sept ans de prison pour les meurtres. Il a dirigé Tucuman d’une main de fer, pendant et après la sale guerre.

Le mandat d’arrêt emis hier par la Garde Nationale pour enlevement et torture durant la sale guerre. Les crimes ont été commis alors qu’il était en service dans un dépôt secret d’armes « déguisé » en centre de détention. Juste avant que la police vienne l’arrêter, il s’est suicidé devant sa femme, ses enfants et les caméras de la télé nationale.

Il venait à peine de terminer une interview pour la chaine Cronica, juché sur une citerne d’eau, dans sa demeure à Tucuman. Sa maison était cernée par la police et il aurait été arrêté sous peu. Il a clamé son innocence, puis dit « Hasta siempre, Maria (je t’aimerai toujours Maria), ensuite il a sorti son calibre 45 de sa botte et s’est tiré une balle derrière l’oreille. Il est mort sur le chemin de l’hôpital peu après.

Après qu’il se soit tiré dans la tête, son fils l’a pris dans ses bras et sa fille a paniqué.

Les familles des victimes ont affirmé que le suicide faisait part d’un pacte secret qui assurerait que Ferreyra ne puisse témoigner contre ses anciens collègues.

La politique argentine est moche, et quelquefois mortelle, les affaires se font parfois en toute impunité, mais il parait que cela est en train de changer.

Une image typique de "el malevo" avec son sombrero habituel. Un air de mauvais garçon. Le nom vient peut-être du film muet dirigé par le très connu réalisateur argentin José A. Ferreyra de 1921 appelé La Maleva. Je ne suis sûr de l’histoire du film. Ferreyra est un nom de famille très répandu en Argentine. Le nom pourrait venir aussi d’un jeu de mots sur le pseudo d’un footballeur argentin nommé Osmar "Malevo" Ferreyra (vidéo).

Voici une autre photo de El Malevo. Je ne suis pas sûr de ce qu’il se passe ici, ni de qui soit la femme. C’est un individu brutal et les gars qui sont avec lui le sont également. La politique locale est extrêmement pourrie. Une sorte de croisement entre la Sicile et le Mexique. Un tas des robustes gars au pouvoir sévissaient dans le coin, pas trop légalement, commettant des arrestations arbitraires, agressions, harcèlement à des journalistes, corruption de juges. Comme d’habitude.

Tucuman se trouve quelque peu en arrière, c’est une province de l’arrière-pays argentin. Très rurale, avec beaucoup de champs de canne à sucre. Les flics et les hommes politiques de cette partie de l’Argentine sont parmi les plus brutaux, avides, fermés et corrompus du pays.

Il y a encore des Indiens qui vivent dans cette partie d’Argentine et les gens sont bien plus métissés que dans le reste du pays. Ce n’est pas la terre des gauchos et non plus la Pampa. Ça ressemble plutôt aux contreforts des Andes.

Dans le milieu des années 70 cette région fut le fief du mouvement d’un foyer révolutionnaire peu connu, piloté par le ERP (l’armée révolutionnaire du peuple). Il a échoué comme tous les autres mouvements. Le ERP fut ensuite anéanti par la sale guerre, il a abandonné la lutte armée et est devenu un mouvement politique qui existe encore aujourd’hui.

Quelqu’un veut un Budd Dwyer? Ici la vidéo de son suicide en direct à la télé (attention). Le sang sort de son nez comme une cascade....

J’ai trouvé le dossier de Christine Chubbuck, un autre suicide en public, cette fois d’une présentatrice de journal télévisé pendant son émission (!), c’est particulièrement poignant.

Trouble de la personnalité évitante.

Je n’aime pas diagnostiquer la mort, mais il semble qu’elle ait les symptômes du trouble de la Voilà une bonne vue d’ensemble de la maladie. Je pense que je n’ai jamais rencontré une personne ayant ces symptômes. Le signe principal est une grande susceptibilité au rejet ou au refus. J’ai connu des gens ayant en partie ce symptôme, si on les critique ils semblent sur le point de fondre en larmes, souvent ils se mettent en colère. Et ce sont des adultes, mûrs, de 40 ans. Je pense qu’ils sont des bébés, mais peut-être devrais-je être plus indulgent, car je ne suis moi-même pas tout à fait normal.

Je consultais un psychanalyste dans le temps, à qui j’ai demandé si j’étais un "évitant." Un de mes jeux favoris est le syndrome du patient psychiatrique , il consiste à parcourir le DSM (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual, Manuel Diagnostic et Statistique des Troubles Mentaux.) en ayant peur d’avoir toutes les maladies du livre. Il m’a répondu que non, parce qu’il m’avait critiqué et que je l’avais bien pris. Il a dit qu’il avait eu 7 ou 8 évitants, et que dès qu’on les critiquait en thérapie ils se levaient et partaient du cabinet pour ne plus jamais revenir. C’est dire la gravité de la chose.

Pour dire la vérité, je ne me soucis guère que les gens m’aiment ou pas, tant qu’ils ne me tournent pas autours. Je serais très content d’avoir de jolies femmes qui viennent par ici tous les jours, me baisent, en prétendant m’aimer, alors qu’elles me détestent profondément. Tant qu’elles prétendent que je leur plait, tout va bien. Peu m’importe ce qui ce passe dans l’âme autrui.

Je ne crains pas non plus d’être rejeté. Au bout d’un million de fois, on s’habitue. J’imagine que si j’étais effrayé par chaque refus essuyé, je serais probablement tout le temps dépressif. On doit s’y faire, tout le monde n’est pas obligé de vous aimer, nous sommes dans un pays libre. De plus, j’ai moi-même rejeté des tas de gens, donc on récolte ce que l’on sème.

Chubbuk semblait être dans un terrible état de régression, presque une enfant lorsqu’elle quittait le boulot, en dépit d’une grande professionnalité au travail. Un cas étrange.

Je n’avais jamais entendu parler du cas Dwyer ou Chubbuck avant internet.

Il n’y a pas de vidéo disponible concernant le suicide de Chubbuck, mais ici il y a une courte séquence d’elle sur Youtube. Il y a aussi un morceau tiré de Boulevard of Broken Dreams, une émission de variété (video). La police a confisqué tous les enregistrements du suicide, comme preuves, puis les a remis à la famille.

Dans l’excellent film Network (1976) le personnage principal, un présentateur télé menace de suicider en direct.

Public Suicide Fad Hits Argentina

I am looking for people to to translate this post into German and Korean. Email me if you are interested.

French translation here (en Français). Spanish version (en Español).

Warning! Graphic footage! Do not watch if you are easily upset!

The public suicide fad has spread to Argentina. Above is the video of the live TV suicide of Mario "Malevo" Ferreyra, an Argentine former police official. He killed himself on live TV in Tucumán Province, Argentina. An 8.4 MB version of the video with better resolution can be downloaded on this site here.

Malevo Ferreyra was Chief of the Brigade of Investigations of the State Tucumán in Argentina in the late 1970's at the height of the Dirty War. In 1993, he was convicted for murdering three robbers in 1991.

He escaped from the courthouse clutching a hand grenade in each hand (!) and later turned himself in after the former governor of the province reduced his sentence. He served seven years for the killings. He ruled Tucumán with an iron fist before, during and after the Dirty War.

A warrant was issued by the National Guard yesterday for his arrest for kidnapping and torture during the Dirty War. The crimes were committed when he served at a secret weapons-depot-turned-detention center during the Dirty War. Just before the police were coming to arrest him, he committed suicide in front of his wife and kids on national TV.

He had just finished an interview the TV station Cronica on top of a water tank at his rural home in Tucumán. His home was surrounded by police and he would be arrested shortly. He protested his innocence, then said, "Hasta siempre, Maria (I will love you forever, Maria)," pulled out a .45 caliber revolver from his boot and shot himself behind the ear. He died on his way to the hospital shortly afterward.

After he shot himself in the head, his son embraced him and his daughter panicked.

Families of the victims say that the suicide was part of a pact of silence that would ensure that Ferreyra would not have to testify against his former colleagues.

Argentine politics is nasty, and sometimes deadly, business, with a lot of impunity, but that seems to be changing.

A typical image if "El Malevo" with his usual sombrero. Looks like a hard-living fellow. The name may come from a famous silent movie by the well-known Argentine director José A. Ferreyra (same surname) from 1921 called, La Maleva. I'm not sure what the movie is about. Ferreyra is a common surname in Argentina. The name may also be a play on a nickname of a famous Argentine soccer player Osmar "Malevo" Ferreyra (video).


Here is another photo of El Malevo. I'm not sure what is going on here, or who the woman is. He looks like a pretty rough character. So do those guys around him. Argentine provincial politics is nasty, hardcore stuff. Sort of a cross between Sicily and Mexico. Lot of tough guys in power throwing their weight around, not much of a rule of law, political arrests and attacks, harassment of and attacks on journalists, corrupt and venal judges. The usual stuff.

Tucumán is a somewhat backwards, "provincial" province in the hinterlands of Argentina. It's mostly agricultural back there, with a lot of sugar cane cultivation. The cops and politicians in this part of Argentina are some of the most brutal, venal, clannish and corrupt in the country.

There are still Indians living in this part of Argentina, and people are much more Mestizo here than in the rest of the country. It isn't gaucho country, and it's not the Pampas. More like the foothills of the Andes.

In the mid-70's, this province was the scene of a little-known foco revolutionary movement led by the ERP (People's Revolutionary Army). It failed, as all foco-inspired movements did. The ERP was then devastated by the Dirty War - they were history 1 1/2 years into the counterinsurgency. The ERP has long since abandoned armed struggle and now exists as a political movement.

Budd Dwyer, anyone? Video of Budd Dwyer's live TV suicide here (warning: graphic). Jesus Christ man, the blood runs out of his nose like a waterfall.

I found the case of Christine Chubbuck, another public suicide, this time of a newscaster on live TV during her broadcast (!) to be particularly poignant.

I don't like to diagnose the dead, but it looks like she had traits of Avoidant Personality Disorder . It's something like social phobia, but a lot more pervasive. What's odd is that she had such an extroverted job and most avoidants are serious introverts.

The symptoms are there: the lack of romantic relationships despite a tremendous desire for one and her beauty, good job, education and brains; the unrequited love for a colleague at work who would not reciprocate.

And at the same time, whenever people at work made friendly gestures towards her, she would blow them off. This is the "get them before they get me" mentality. I will reject them before they reject me. It's perverse, but like a lot of perverse stuff, has its own crazy logic.

Good overview of APD. I don't think I have ever known one. The primary symptom is extreme hypersensitivity to rejection. I've known people who have some of the hypersensitivity though. If you criticize them, they look like they are going to burst into tears. Then they often get really angry. These are grown "adults", say 40 years old. I think they are babies, but maybe I should be kinder, since I'm not exactly normal myself.

I had a therapist once and I asked him if I was an avoidant. One of my games is "Psychiatric Medical Patient Syndrome" - going through the DSM and worrying I have every illness in the book. He said, no, because he had criticized me and I took it well. He said he had had 7-8 avoidants, and as soon as you criticize them in therapy, they get up and walk out of the office and never come back. That's about the size of it.

Truth is, I really don't care if people like me or not, as long as they hang around with me. I would be perfectly content to have beautiful women coming over here every day, screwing my brains out, pretending to like me, but actually hating my guts. As long as they pretend to like me, it's all good. I don't care what's in someone's deepest soul.

I'm also not freaked out by rejection. After about the millionth time, you pretty much get used to it. I figure if I freaked out about every little rejecting encounter I get, I'd probably be continuously suicidally depressed. You have to make it through life somehow. No one has to like you anyway, it's a free country. Plus I've rejected lots of people myself, so what comes around, goes around.

Chubbuck also seemed to be awfully regressed into an almost childhood state when off work, despite being an uber-professional on the job. Strange case.

I had never heard of Dwyer's or Chubbuck's case until the Internet.

There are no available videos of the Chubbuck suicide, but there are five seconds of Chubbuck footage here on Youtube. There is also a Chubbuck segment on The Boulevard of Broken Dreams, a TV show (video clip). The police confiscated all of the Chubbuck suicide tapes as evidence of a crime and turned them over to the family.

In the excellent movie Network (1974) "I'm mad as Hell and I'm not going to take it anymore!", the lead, a TV newscaster, threatens to commit suicide on live TV.

The LA Punk Rock Scene - Why Are These People Still Alive?

Did you know the Germs got back together and are playing again, and there is a new movie about them? They're like 50 years old (my age)! Still up there playing like kids. Weird. Lorna Doom and Pat Smear look fantastic too, like they spent the last 25 yrs in a health spa (check this pic).

They look healthy (mentally and physically) and happy. Check out this pic and great interview. At 50, I've concluded that there's no alternative to those three.

No way can you keep up that lifestyle for long. Don Bolles had a hard life with drug addiction and alcoholism, but he's doing OK too. Darby Crash is dead, but they've got some famous actor, Shane West, to take his place. I was into that early LA punk rock scene, and I saw the Germs live on the last day of the 1970's at the Hong Kong Cafe in downtown LA.

The lead from 45 Grave, Dinah Cancer, is back playing again, and she looks great too (photo from 3 years ago), although she was on heroin for about 12 years as I recall. She must be 50! 50 years old and still running around all dressed up like a ghoul. Haha, Morticia, here we come.

She got married a couple of times and had a kid. I knew her husband Paul Cutler (he played in 45 Grave) - nicest guy you've ever met. I also knew Darby Crash a bit and my brother knew Don Bolles (he said Don was a really nice guy).

What's weird is a lot of those really insane, craziest of the crazy hardcore punk rocker maniacs were really nice people if you got to know them. A lot of them were on star trips - they could be like, "Who are you? I'm a rock star! Why should I say hi to you?" But if you could get past that, most of them were really cool. They weren't mean, cold, nasty, unfriendly, arrogant, or anything like that. Their fans could be real idiots though.

Lorna Doom (she is really lovely in this pic) is really famous for opening the way to females in punk rock music. I also knew Ann DeJarnett and the rest of the band from Mnemonic Devices, who later went on to release a couple of albums solo.

I also know John Doe and Exene from X and Gina and Jane from the Go-Go's (That was before they were hugely famous!). Jane was a really friendly, spirited, spunky, mischievous girl - feminine but not submissive, playful and happy. She looks good in a recent photo too. She's into straight-lacing, and some people think she plays at being dominatrix. The woman I met didn't seem like the type, but who knows?

Gina was kind of an anxious introverted type at the time, but she was really nice though. She still looks good today.

Both Jane and Gina, have gone on to acting careers and the Go-Gos still play around. John Doe of X has gone on to a very successful movie career. Exene still looks good too, and X still tours. Back in the day she looked like this, and this. Live, X was out of this world! I saw them at the Whiskey a-go-go.

I saw them in 1980 at the Cuckoo's Nest in Costa Mesa and they were already getting huge in that scene, but they were not on MTV yet! I was backstage with the Go-Go's at that show. They looked like this at the time - beautiful young women!

I also knew Chuck Dukowski of Black Flag when he looked like this.

Black Flag was a big second wave LA punk band, and at that time, the scene was getting dangerous - especially Black Flag concerts, because that really brought out the morons. I remember everyone crowded around while some teenage moron "did the worm" on broken glass on the floor." You did the worm by rolling around on the ground like a worm. If you did it on glass, I guess you got cut. I certainly never did anything that stupid!

Later that nite, I got into a fight with five idiot Nazi punks at once. Obviously, they started it. All I remember was flying in the air and coming down with a Heineken bottle in my hand. One of the scumbags was lying on the ground, the beer bottle was in my hand, and damned if I wasn't going to hit him in the head with it. Lucky for him, he kicked up with his legs and send me flying again. Being a 22 year old Peter Pan type, of course I landed on my feet.

Chuck's a great guy; really friendly, and he's quite intelligent. Last time I saw him, he was sitting outside a laundromat in Hermosa Beach reading Marquis de Sade. Haha! This is how he looks now. He looks pretty good too (new band), and he's a father with four kids. That's hard to believe.

Honestly, I was into that scene from early 1979-on and I can't believe any of those people are still alive. The whole scene seemed almost suicidal.

Hell, I can't believe I'm still alive. I drink two glasses of wine a day, and my only vice is coffee. I've pretty much given up dope, except I smoke weed once in a while (but haven't in some time). I work out, I'm a health food maniac, fast regularly, take supplements and herbs, etc.

WTF Is the Matter With You? Part 2

That question is directed to Thistle Harlequin.

I won't upload the movie, and I think it's copyrighted anyway. It's pornographic, and we don't host porn on the site. Rarely, we link to it, if there is some artistic or political reason. In this case, it's more art or performance art than porn per se.

It's called Putrid Sex Object, a movie performed by Thistle Harlequin (adults only, and don't watch unless you want to be horribly grossed out).

This is part of what my artist brother calls the new art - "that gross, sick, fag shit." He says this is the new thing in art, because everything else has been done already.

Examples include Aliza Shvarts' abortion jelly exhibit where she gave herself repeated miscarriages via morning-after pills after inseminating herself and then filmed the miscarriages, bottled them and exhibited them in an exhibit. Except the whole exhibit never came off, but that was part of the performance.

Our very own Who Dares Wings is an artist in Seattle who makes Disasterware and something called Spone Funerary Ware - granulated calcified human cremains (cremated bones of dead people) over a porcelain slip in a riff on the time-honored tradition of bone china, which was made in part with ground human bone.

He also makes things like porcelain vases and teapots with Hitler's face on them with things like "Forgiveness" inscribed below.

There was a guy in New York who was doing some of this art using dead embalmed bodies. He would take the bodies and then pose them in all these weird positions and then take pictures of himself intermingled with the dead bodies. The cops finally had enough of the publicity and raided the guy - I guess what he was doing was illegal. He was getting the bodies from Mexico.

Along the same lines are Andres Serrano's Piss Christ, a crucifix photographed in a jar of urine.

There is another fellow, Hermann Nitsch, who takes cow carcasses, slits them open, then makes himself look like a crucifix with the cow carcass as a "cross" background. He ends up covered in blood. His friends stand around him and they all get covered with blood too. There's blood all over the ground and they shoot a photo of the whole thing and wa-la, instant art!

Women are bottling their own menstrual fluid and using the blood to make blood paintings. It's called menstrual art.

Along the same lines, in Putrid Sex Object, Thistle Harlequin, a gay man, plays a woman who is wandering through a haunted house at night getting more and more frightened. Finally, she comes into a room where they are some severed cow's heads on the floor.

She falls to her knees, starts licking the cow's head and then starts playing with it, getting blood all over her body. Then he pulls out a penis and it turns out it's just some fag drag queen. He then puts his penis in the cow's head and fucks it for a while, pulls out, and jacks off while covered with cow entrails. That's it.

That's called art I guess.

Wow, we really are reaching the end of civilization, are we not?

My opinion on all this sick art is much the same as my brother's. I'm not impressed.

This is just gross, sick, fucked up stuff. Art is supposed to make you react, and in a way, it is supposed to be "beautiful." It's not supposed to be ugly, sick, repulsive and nauseating. Yes, we are all familiar with shit, puke, wet farts, mucus, snot, piss, blood, dead stuff and dead people, menstrual fluid, on and on. Why frame it up and call it art? Color me confused. Plus it's not even funny; it's just gross.

Truth is, modern art has just clean run out of ideas. There's nothing left to do. This is all that's left, pushing the final boundaries. After this? I have no idea. Kill people? Kill yourself? Who knows.

Seriously, there's nothing left.

Buy a famous sculpture, call the cameras in, gather around you and your artist friends, and smash it to bits? Done. The Surrealists were doing this stuff back in the 1930's.

Duchamp made a sculpture of a toilet and then he shipped it to a museum. He called it "Toilet" or something dumb like that. Along the way, it got partially destroyed via shipping. The museum called him up all apologetic and said, "Oh, we are so sorry that your sculpture got so messed up."

He rushed over to the museum, looked at his ruined sculpture and said, "NO! This is perfect! Better than the original!" It went on to become a famous sculpture. Surrealism was always a bit of a joke. The destroyed sculpture is better than the real one - OK, that's funny.

The Surrealists would run out in the streets of Paris in the 1930's and assault priests walking by in their habits. Assault them, with fists and kicks. No one got seriously hurt, but the Surrealists called that Performance Art - assaulting a priest in habit. OK, that's funny too.

There are artist - musician types out there now who hold "concerts" where they show up on stage and then lower these sound speakers from the ceiling. The speakers dangle about ten feet above people's heads, just out of reach. Then they turn up the speakers really loud with this extremely annoying noise playing right out of reach of the audience.

The audience gets more and more angry while the performer stands up on stage, laughs at them and insults them. OK, I have to admit, that's pretty funny.

I believe there are similar artists out there who will schedule a show and advertise all the cool stuff they are going to do during the show. They cover the stage with all these props and it looks like a good show is going to happen. The theater fills up with suckers who shelled out $20/ticket.

The performer's not there.

After a bit, someone comes out and says that the performer was delayed but will be there shortly. This goes on for a bit, and the big gag is that the performer never shows up. On purpose. The audience slows drifts away angrily over about an hour demanding a refund, but there will be none. That was show. No artist. You got burned. Performance art!

I have to admit that's pretty humorous. Man Ray would have looked at that and said, "Two thumbs up."

I saw the Germs at the Hong Kong Cafe on December 31, 1979. It was Darby Crash on vocals, Pat Smear on guitar, Lorna Doom on bass and Don Bolles on drums.

Joanna Went, performance artist, opened for them. She came out looking totally nuts, all made up like a clown, wearing some stupid outfit. Shrieking, "Catatooooonic! Schizophreeeeeeenic!" (that's all I remember), etc. etc." with these really wild eyes.

She had on what looked like a football jersey on top with what looked like shoulder pads. She tore open the shoulder pads while screeching incoherently. Inside, the shoulder pads were packed with vast quantities of shredded cheddar cheese. Then she started to throw it at us, the audience. We threw it back at the bitch.

I went to the bathroom.

Darby Crash came in, saw me, and asked in this totally gay faggot voice, "Heeeey, you got any Tuuuinols?" Tuinols are a depressant pill.

I thought for a second, looked up and said, "No, but I have some Tuinol cigarettes. Want to buy any?"

He got this sneering smile on his face, and snorted, "Tuinol cigarettes!?" and walked away.

That was my only encounter with the famous Darby Crash.

Pretty soon, the Hong Kong Cafe was full of flying shredded cheese and you could hardly even see anything. Through it all, Joanna was screeching away. OK, that was pretty funny.

The Germs played next. They all wore black leather jackets with a blue circle on the sleeve - that was their emblem. They were out of this world, of course.

Darby Crash was crouching at the back of the stage with a sneer on his face. Everybody was throwing stuff at him - that was the idea - throw stuff at Darby. We took the ice out of our drinks and threw ice at Darby Crash. He crouched down at the rear of the stage like a tiger, loving the abuse and singing like a maniac.

Germs (GI), produced by Joan Jett, is one of the best albums I have ever heard. There's also a great cut, Lion's Share, recorded by Jack Nitzsche, on the soundtrack to the movie, Cruising (1980) - good movie, starring Al Pacino and directed by the great director William Friedkin. The Cruising soundtrack is a great album, too. Reformed band, The Germs Return.

Don Bolles turned into an alcoholic and goes to AA meetings with his alcoholic girlfriend. He has a long history of drug abuse and run-in's with the law. Darby killed himself (see below). Pat Smear went on the form the Foo Fighters.

Lorna, Don and Pat reformed the band, with actor Shane West as the new Darby Crash, and they go on tour. Here's the new band, and Lorna is as beautiful as ever. Myspace page. They must be pushing 50 now. Punks til death. Heck, why not?

Later, Darby Crash deliberately OD'd on heroin as part of a suicide pact with some idiot punk chick. I never hung around with these nuts, but some people I know did. They would do stuff like get drunk and hit people over the head with beer bottles - supposedly Pat Smear did that once.

Great article on the Germs from the Orange County Weekly.

We were leaving the cafe at 2 AM. The LA punkers, drunk and menacing, were outside the cafe throwing beer bottles against the wall and watching them smash. We moved away quickly.

We were walking through an alley back to the car, drunk and stoned. Someone came reeling behind us, walking very fast. We turned around. There was a young man about 25 years old. He had glasses on, but he had been hurt somehow. One of the glasses lenses was smashed over his eye.

He was holding his eye with the smashed glasses lens, and there was blood pouring out of the area around his eye as he reeled drunkenly down the alley. We didn't know if he had gotten beat up while drunk, or if he was really drunk and had fallen down, but he was in bad shape. We got out of his way before he would have crashed into us. He moved past us, careening back and forth down the alley, dripping blood all the way.

"Let's help him," I said.

"No way!"

We looked at each other and both said, "Wow! Let's get out of here!"

We hurried to the car and drove home on the empty LA freeway, dodging the drunken vehicles along the way.

It was the end of the Seventies, but it may as well have been the end of the century.

WTF Is the Matter With You? Part 1

You want to be a WHAT? I'm just asking. I've been freaking out all day over this article. It's hard to comprehend that there are people who are this weird.

I can handle the self-harm emo idiots, though I think it's unbelievably stupid.

When I meet these burner and cutter morons, I sometimes tell them flat out to their faces what stupid fucks they are. After all, they deserve it. If they feel bad about it, I go easy on them, but if they're proud of it, I lay into them hard.

The conversation usually goes like this.

We're sitting around with a bunch of people when one of these stupid young women says with an evil smile on her face, "I'm a cutter. I cut myself today."

I give a look like she picked the dog food out of its bowl on the ground and is stuffing her face with it. Then I stand up, point my finger and her and ask, "You know what?"

"What?" She asks.

"You're a stupid fucking asshole! You cut yourself, you moron! You're an idiot!"

Usually everyone else starts getting freaked out and telling me to sit down and shut up by that point. Then I usually get up and leave.

In Oakhurst, there was a club of idiot young women who were cutting themselves. They called themselves "Oakhurst Cutters" or something. They were also proud of their psych dx's (Why would anyone be?) and all the drugs they were on (Why would anyone brag about that?). The most prominent psych dx was obviously Borderline Personality Disorder, and they were often on atypical antipsychotics.

You guys out there, if you know any BPD females, just get away from them. Actually, that applies to women too. Nobody needs to have people like this in their lives. Let the Borderlines make friends with each other, except they can't. For all you Borderlines out there, I'm sorry you are so fucked up and mentally ill, but you really need to get help, you know?

When your mental disorder turns you to into an idiotic child doodling in coloring books at a nice restaurant with dolls sitting on the table or a person with God knows how many fake personalities you fade into and out of all the time just to be a walking freak show, or when it turns you into a screeching, raging freak-o, I mean, why should anyone associate with you? Especially when you're doing it all on purpose?

BPD has to be the worst mental disorder on Earth as far as tolerating the person. I had a friend who was in the early stages of paranoid schizophrenia. I hung out with him about every day for a year, while everyone kept telling me to get the Hell away from him. I wasn't scared of him.

I was trying to read his mind (to try to gauge what he was thinking to see if he was dangerous) all the time anyway, trying to figure him out, and I always felt secure. We used to get in arguments about the voices coming out my car radio even when it was turned off, but all in all, he was a pleasant and interesting fellow, ultimately with too many problems for me to deal with though.

I have a friend who's involved goes to mental health group therapy stuff. She's bipolar, and I can (barely) live with that. She likes to regale me with the latest tales of the horrible Borderlines in her group, who are despised by everyone in group. My response is always the same. I shake my head and say, "Hell, just take em out and shoot em." Then I laugh uncontrollably, because I think that's a hilarious thing to say.

When I do this, no one else laughs, and everyone looks at me like I'm a monster.

Good.

I really wonder how many of these idiots are Borderlines? And I wonder if the DSM is going to recognize Body Integrity Identity Disorder (BIID)?

BIID website, for the "transabled". How weird can you get? This is really disturbing!

It's also a paraphilia. It's tied in to sex, of course, and most sufferers are males, like a lot of really disturbing mental conditions.

There's also a paraphilia for the (probably guys) who get turned on by amputees. They prefer legs over arms, single limbs over multiple, and stumps over no stumps.

There was a porn star named Long Jean Silver ( biography here, adult content) back in the 70's who was an amputee. She had a stump for a leg. I recall references to her stump. Good-looking blond. I saw some of her movies, but I can't say that the fact that one of her legs had been hacked off turned me on. It was kinda gross, actually.

They have their own sicko websites and a whole list of abbreviations for what kind of amputations turn them on or that they desire for themselves.

The whole thing falls under the rubric of attraction to disability, which is some sort of a paraphilia. Wiki has a huge article about it, which is weird because I'd never heard of it before.

Then there are the legions of fakers out there, the disability pretenders, screwing it up for all the real hardcores who are dying to chop their fingers and legs off and have sex with women's stumps and whatnot. These clowns pretend to be disabled, use canes, crutches and wheelchairs, etc.

Now this I am more familiar with, as this is sliding into the territory of hypochondriasis, which unfortunately I have experience with, as I've known some hardcore hypochondriacs very well.

With some of the pretenders, they start maneuvering into hardcore territory by causing tissue necrosis via cutting off their blood supply. I'm familiar with this too, as it's heading into Munchausen's Syndrome. That's really weird in its own right.

I recall this one Munchausen's patient who kept showing up in hospitals with infections. They finally figured out she was diluting her own shit with water and injecting it into her veins. I've heard of dopers scoring some shit to shoot up, but that takes it to another level.

Boxing Helena (1993) is a movie, supposedly well-done, about a surgeon with this weird fetish who kidnaps a woman after her car accident, chops both of her legs off, and then later chops both of her arms off. The whole time she is being a ballbreaking bitch and telling him what an impotent wussy weenieboy he is.

Hmm. That's probably why he chopped her limbs off in the first place. I've had a few women treat me like that, and for sure I felt like taking a machete to em, though of course I never did.

Later she falls in love with him, I guess because she always thought her arms and legs were ugly anyway. Now he's got some female human caterpillar or whatever to have sex with, so I guess he's happy too.

I heard there was some guy in a large US city some decades ago who was a four-limbed amputee. They called him Caterpillar Man. Of course, this is why skateboards were created, so Caterpillar People could move around town. He figured out how to lie down on a skateboard and ride around town, and he was quite a sight to see. The story was that he was one mean SOB though, and he screamed and yelled at everyone around.

If I was a Human Worm never to sprout wings and turn into a Human Butterfly, I guess I'd be pissed too.

Then again, there's always the circus.

A disability devotee or "devotee" is one who desires a disabled partner.
Abasiophilia is a paraphilia for those who desire partners who limp, are on crutches, carry canes, are in walkers or use wheelchairs. When an abasiophiliac sees a neck brace, spinal brace, leg brace or prosthetic limb, he gets a hardon.

Whatever.

Abasiophilia was a lot more common back in the staid 1950's than in our twisted and evil 21st Century. That was at the height of the polio epidemic, and there were all these hotties hobbling around with leg braces, and a lot of guys got hooked and couldn't quit. Wow, that is too weird. Of all the bad things polio did to the human race, it also created a generation of perverts. Good God.

Crash (1996) was a famous movie along the same lines. There are weirdos in there who get turned on leg braces, scars on the body, violent and deadly car crashes, and all sorts of sick, messed up stuff. Pretty soon all of the leads are having sex with each other, gay, straight and otherwise.

The film ends when the lead deliberately crashes his car so he can damage his and his girlfriend's bodies, I guess so he can have the ultimate petit mort or something.

Fortunately, I never subjected myself to either Crash or Boxing Helena.

It's never too late in life to add a new perversion to a man's list, but I think I'll pass on all this weirdness.

Although I am actively trying to promote a type of disability fetishism called glasses fetishism. I know there are legions of women out there who get all week-kneed thinking of doing it with us four-eyed fuckers. You all just need to come out of your shells now. Nothing to be ashamed of.

We are venturing into the weird world of clothes fetishism. These are almost all guys. Here you have the idiots who break into women's apartments and only steal their underwear and guys who get jobs at shoe stores so they can caress feet all day.

My Mom worked for a psychologist once and this weird shoe fetishist used to call up now and again pretending to seek treatment. Then he would start in asking my Mom what kind of shoes she was wearing as his breathing got labored. He was a barrel of ticks; he kept the whole office laughing.

Sexmaniacman tells me that many women (mostly young women 18-35) have an uncontrollable leather fetish. If you're a young, sexy, good-looking guy, get yourself an old beatup 1950's James Dean leather jacket and then strut around and act really hard, tough and somewhat menacing and intimidating like Marlon Brando in The Wild One.

He says he wore that jacket out to clubs and concerts all the time and women, total strangers, were always drooling and rubbing their hands on his jacket as they moved past him. Worked great on a date too, sort of like Spanish Fly woven over your chest. He insists that leather turns young women into animals.

I always thought it was horrible that the Nazis took the mentally ill out and shot them, but after meeting some Borderlines and these BIID idiots, a single bullet sounds like the best cure of all.

Right. Hell, just take em out and shoot em. Why not?

Time To Ban the Internet

Incredible.

I found myself laughing when I first heard about this story, but although I realized I should not be laughing, I kept on laughing anyway. This story is just too absurd. When I read about the father's reaction, I quit laughing.

I admit I am a bit exasperated with folks who keep trying to kill themselves over and over. A part of me lines up with the social worker who got so tired of listening to the guy threatening suicide over the line that he drove over to the guy's house and helped him do it.

That part of me says, "Hell, just kill yourself already."

I've known an attempted suicide, close to me. It was a one-time thing, I heard about it soon after he tried it, and I don't think he will do it again. I think it had to do with some psych drugs he was taking (Xanax in this case). Folks like that surely need to be saved. Those that are constantly attempting suicide, I am not sure.

(Now) famous Myspace page of his friend who announces that he's dead to the world, many folks' first confirmation.

(Now) famous thread on Bodybuilding.com, a response to the famous thread that started the thing (now deleted, but here is the cached version of "Ask a Guy Who Is Going To OD (Again) Tonight Anything". On that thread, some folks were apparently encouraging him to go ahead and do it. The thread also contains his famous suicide note.

However, there seems to be an earlier thread here, "I'm Trippin on Bars on My Webcam" . Followed by a warning thread to the mods to call the police here: "Mods?!".

If you click on his profile on the site, it takes you to a link saying, "The BodySpace Member you are attempting to locate is inactive." I should say so.

His site on Justin.tv, http://www.justin.tv/feels_like_ecstacy, has been removed, and there is no cached version. I've been on the site before, and it's really strange, but it's also a lot of fun. Mostly young people on there. If you're older, they call you "pedophile" for even showing up on the channel. Age discrimination.

His MySpace page is here. He seems to have lots of luck with the ladies. Judging by that, I can't see the suicidal ideation, but I'm starting to think this stuff is due to chemicals in the brain.

Some folks on the bodybuilding forum were getting tired of him coming there and threatening to kill himself over and over. Guess they won't have to worry about that anymore.

He's wasn't a boy, but he was a teenager. He was 19, and he was Black, with a beautiful White girlfriend and a young son. White nationalists are encouraged to find some obscure racial angle here. I always heard young Blacks had a low suicide rate, but it has been going in recent years, and epidemiologists are shaking their heads trying to figure it out.

He was Abraham K. Biggs (aka Candyman), 19, of Pembroke Pines, Florida, near Miami.

MySpace page here. Looks like he has lots of luck with the ladies and I can't understand someone like that killing themselves, but I've always thought this is a chemical thing in the brain.

The people who were egging him on are a bunch of idiots. And I think someone should have called the cops, but apparently everyone just thought it was a joke, and he was always threatening anyway. This Dadaist or Kafkaesque charade went on for 10 hours.

Much is made of the fact that he stopped moving at 11 AM and the cops didn't show up til 3:30 PM, by which time he was history, but I'm pretty sure he was already gone by 11.

At one time, there were ~1,500 people watching the feels_like_ecstacy channel. That's the way the site works. You will be on a channel and suddenly it will pile up with visitors for no reason.

Justin.tv is based in San Fransisco. 185 people were viewing the feels_like_ecstacy channel when the cops showed up.

What's With This Chick, Anyway?

LOL.

She's Jewish, too. You know shit like this just drives the anti-Semites crazy.

Continuing a trend exemplified here, here (Hermann Nitsch), here, here, etc. etc.

And our very own commenter Whodareswings. I guess you'll have to ask him for samples, though. Or you can buy the book.