I found this blog by accidents – looking for the publisher of a Chubby Checker song. The first time I stumbled across a great blog by someone I know personally and I didn’t know he was doing it!

Berlin Beatet Bestes is where Andreas Michalke presents his odd vinyl findings. I think it’s just 7”s. He has a talent for finding incredible stuff of all kinds (and not just records). Often with great sleeves – being a comic book artist he wouldn’t let a nice artwork illustration pass by. It took a while until I gathered how to listen to his samples in the stream player on the right sidebar. Maybe this would be a good plug-in for his WordPress? He could have the sound where the article is – and not alphabetically crammed into a small box. Anyway, I totally dig this. Check out the thorough descriptions he writes for the records. He loves vinyl oddities. If you’re similarly adjusted have a look and a listen.

Hawaii 1963. A guy walks down to the shore with his red 5′ board in hand, paddles out and catches some waves. And rides them well, like he does so every day. A shortboard! In 1963! OK, it’s a paipo board which is usually ridden on the belly. It’s radical! Check out how close he rides to the wall towards the end. His body english is very relaxed there. Phew!

PAIPO Boarding 1963, Val Ching

Legendary Surfers highly recommends this. So I’m sure this is a good read. If you don’t know who Miki Dora was you haven’t seen many sixties surf films. He was one of the original Malibu locals until he was so pissed off by the crowds that he left to tour the world. He worked as a stuntman in the Beach Party movies. He was not known for riding big surf, but he would do it, like in Ride The Wild Surf. If I remember correctly, there are rides from that season in Endless Summer. Of course he’s also featured at Malibu in that film, were he displays his perfect command of that classic California right hand pointbreak. When I mixed the first Surf me Up, Scotty! album, they sent me a short audio clip of Miki Dora talking on the beach, to mix it under the music. Where they found it I have no idea.

Here’s the author’s (David Rensin) page.

Here’s a Miki Dora interview on YouTube.

This is another beautiful trailer for a new surf video. I like the unusual and extreme choice of boards ridden and the impressionistic piano music. It works very nice, and casts yet another light on surfing. Very, very nice

Thanks to 70percent.org

Rare 60s Standel guitars

Mosrite guitars promotional print

Rare vintage Gretsch guitars

Coral (vintage Danelectro) guitars

Let me add that they are so dark for a reason: they will drop way into the background, you still see enough details. It’s like wearing shades, dig? The size is 1280×1024 pixels.

Flickr: Photos & Video from Mr. Miff

You can also get my surf music related (partly) desktop icons here.

This is going to be fun!

Monday night, April 14th, 7 – 10 pm PST:
Come celebrate Martin Denny’s 98th birthday on Strike’s Kitsch Niche! Strike will celebrate the Earl of Exotica with a 3-hour exotica special! Tune in to hear his attempt to play a track off of every Martin Denny record, do an extended Quiet Village cover set, play some rare Tiki Room stuff, and play one of the rarest exotica records in existence…a vocal version of Quiet Village sung by Darla Hood of Our Gang fame!! Don’t miss this alluring and enticing night of beautiful and strange music this Monday from 7 – 10 pm PST, only on LuxuriaMusic!

From the LuxuriaMusic newsletter.

I knew about this big back-catalogue re-issue being planned before, but I somehow never could view the web-page until now.

Arthur Lyman died a couple of years ago, and it was a great loss to the people into Exotica and Tiki as he was still performing. He used to play with Martin Denny before he ventured out with his own group. Both artists released similar styled albums, but Lyman kept more Hawai’i in his music as the sixties went on, being hawaiian might be a reason. He had some of the deepest, most atmospheric and soulful Exotica recordings, combining authentic ethnic instrumentation with modern jazz. Another interesting point of note are humorous tunes he often selected to appear towards the end of his LPs. He may not have had a Sandy Warner on the covers, but many are very beautiful, classic Exotica designs. Taboo 2 had an authentic shrunken head on the front, until it was repackaged with a shot from the Pele roll of film.

Kevin Crossman writes on the Exotica list:

Collectors has released 18 Lyman albums in their entirety as 9 two-fer CDs.
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Don’t be fooled by lame, generic cover art. each release has the cover of both LPs printed in full color. All you have to do is take the front booklet out and fold it backwards to show the cool orig Lp cover art! The CD also contains a reprint of one of the Lp back covers
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Look for the double titles separated by a slash. Steer clear of the Greatest Hits package – it is not bad but I’m sure you would rather have the full experience of a Lyman lp in its original format
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go to Collectors’ Choice Music

Every once in a while a man takes his life into his own hands. I can’t wait to see this! I guess Paskowitz should be a household name to a guy with a 9ft Malibu in the corner of his home office, but I’m afraid you have to look elsewhere for further info on this obviously very special family. Wait, the movie should make me that much wiser.

Surfwise – A film by Doug Pray

Over at Cleanestline.com Gerry Lopez writes about his experience with a standing wave. It’s a nice and long text, that I will give a second look on the sofa, apparently coming from his book Surf is Where You Find It. That is a title after my taste. This should be every surfer’s motto, how else could the crowds be dispensed?

… Since it’s gone, I guess there’s no reason to keep the secret any longer. What we had was a pretty neat surf spot almost 200 miles from the ocean. For the last three years, it’s been double top secret. Even so, like everything else in the surfing world, the word got out. That’s why it got taken away. Too many people knew and were having too much fun.
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We got talking and discovered that he never had ridden a wave in the ocean. He had surfed a few other standing waves in the area, but had just heard about this one. His board was Oregon-made in a shop out in Lincoln City. He found it in a second hand store here in our desert town and it worked well for him.
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The Cleanest Line: The Demise of the Ditch

They are so cute, posting movie stills like there’s no tomorrow. I love these movies, too. It’s amazing how soulful the pictures come across, even with the motion taken out of them. I saw many of these on N3 growing up, and some still range among my all time favorites. And it’s Jean-Paul Belmondo’s birthday today, cheers!

The Fashion Spot