Countdown to Manson Family Reunion

If you’re a follower an interested observer of the Manson Family, these are exciting times indeed. News from the California desert is that the Manson Family might have murdered other people at the Barker Ranch in the final weeks before they were caught.

The alleged victims were likely individuals drawn into the ambit of the family who did not quite fit in. Rather than getting voted off the ranch, they were invited to take a walk with Charles Manson to get some night air.

Digging at the Barker Ranch is expected to start on May 20.

Not surprisingly former Manson Family members still in prison (Steve Grogan AKA Clem AKA Scramblehead who had a role in the murder of Shorty Shea is the only member to be released) who nurse some hope of getting out before they need diapers are understandably uneasy.

Charles “Tex” Watson who became a born again Christian in the 1970s and founded a prison ministry is particularly uptight. Although he has virtually no chance of being released, it would be a little unseemly for a preacher man who has presumably come clean and hopes to run free again in the afterlife to be implicated in additional murders. He has a posted a cautiously worded statement denying any involvement.

Interestingly, Lynette “Squeaky” Fromme, who, at least until recently, is one of only a handful of Manson adherents to stay true, has apparently offered to help authorities.

In the movie “Helter Skelter,” Charles Manson, as played by the great Steve Railsback (who must of have gotten pigeon-holed because he went on play Ed Gein in a movie of an even more prolific killer) elucidates his worldview that drew in the braless former prom queens and high school class officers. At the end of day whether you’re a politician or a grubby madman, it’s all about effective salesmanship. Manson was a closer.

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Park Slope to Darren Star: Please Find Different Neighborhood to Taint with Your Hack Network Show About Yuppies

Look, Darren. Let’s just get something straight.

When Sex And The City made Manhattan into a glittery, all-white colony of the rich, navigated by a cloyingly insecure, materialistic, narrowly introspective sex writer with fabulous shoes, we all drank it up with a grain of salt (salt in this case being an overwhelming dose of good old-fashioned, status quo-enforcing, socioeconomic myopia… oh whatever.) Carrie proved herself to be a pretty shitty role model for women every time she “got to thinking,” which makes the pleasureability of the show all the more sinister, but the show did touch on a lot of ubiquitous relationship stuff, had great clothes in it, was often very funny, and if you happen to not be a rich white woman, well, tough luck! Your life story won’t make the network any money! Don’t be a Bitter Betty!

Manhattan is fair game for that. I mean, think about “Friends,” every romantic comedy shot in SoHo, etc etc. But Brooklyn still has a different legacy. I think of Spike Lee’s Do The Right Thing and She’s Gotta Have It, Saturday Night Fever, Dog Day Afternoon, Goodfellas, most recently The Squid and the Whale.

Yeah, Park Slope is full of yuppies and designer strollers and faux-hipsters and rich bobos and plenty of opportunities to Darren Starify the neighborhood. But we’re clinging to authenticity among outrageous gentrification, independent store owners losing leases, celebrities moving here to raise their chic-ly dressed toddlers, condos thrown up overnight in Gowanus. We don’t need anything helping it along. You’re gonna come here with your film crews and clog up the block and take over. Turn Park Slope into the faux-hood of grown-up Carrie Bradshaws. Make the Slope seem like it’s populated ENTIRELY by affluent, self-absorbed, fabulously dressed bourgeois breeders. It’s gonna suck.

That’s it. I’m going to get together a crew of old-timers and lesbians and meet you at the production site with burning pitchforks. I’ll round them up outside the Park Slope Food Co-op, stop at Tasti Delite for a vanilla cone with sprinkles and we’ll be ready to kick your ass.

But I don’t want to fight, Darren. So consider a different place. Staten Island perhaps? You can call it Sex and the Ferry!

The neglected borough is starving for attention. And they have a zoo! And the borough president is really into playgrounds! Trust me, you are gonna LOVE it there.

[CALL IT 'SLOPE IN THE CITY' - New York Post]

Grappling With Manhood Can Be Unbearably Cute

 

Armed with the literature of Freud, GQ Magazine and others, three ten year-olds use their powers of observation to guide them in the quest to be a better man. Featuring music from the Rainydayz Radiohead remixes, available for free at this website.