gordon profile picture

gordon

From The Desk of Mental Mannequin

About Me

Big day for me,, Rolling Stone magazine here in Germany just put out a new issue with the "most defining moments in the history of rock music", and right near the end, is a huge story about Is This It, and how I met and produced The Strokes first records. I am very happy to see it, and bought my own copy on Friedrichstrasse in Berlin today. There's also a brilliant on-line article that looks cool and amazing even if you don't read German.. http://www.rollingstone.de/content/features/gordon_raphael/ its about 6 pages of more in depth stories and outlooks about those times. Vielen Danke to Rolling Stone, Axel for writing it, and Germany for giving me a great head rush of entertainment and fumes!Check This out..... I saw this guy Virgil Fox play live in Seattle with a psychedelic light show. It was probably my first ever trance induced spiritual experience. He says alot of amazing perfect stuff in this You Tube clip. astounding.------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------------------ ------------------------------------------------------------ -----------------------"The affectless gaze, the diffracted grace..."What?" The bored languor, the wasted pallor, the chic freakiness, the basically passive astonishment, the enthralling secret knowledge..."What?" The childlike gum-chewing naivete, the glamour rooted in despair, the perfected otherness, the wispiness and the shadowy voyeristic, vaguely sinister aura. The pale, soft spoken magical presence. The chalklike, skin and bones -parchmentlike, Reptilian and almost blue. "Stop it, I have to pee!" - Andy Warhol

My Interests

Non verbal communication, Poetry, Rhythm, Exotic sounds-both human and mechanical. Electricity, Touring and taking photos, Making Films that have the same effect as powerful drugs, Piano, Jimi Hendrix, Psychedelic Posters from the 1968-1973. Space Rock, Iggy Pop, Wendy Carlos (most notably her music from the film A Clockwork Orange), God, Experimantal Sex In Space, Exploding judgements and preconceptions in general, www.myspace.com/Absinthee, Listening to intense rainstorms, The Olympic Rainforrest in Washington State USA (mystical and gorgeous- beyond) Kissing, Hieronymous Bosch, Pieter Breughal, Jeff Buckley, Roy Harper, "The Silent Corner And The Empty Stage" by Peter Hammill. Kate Bush, Julian Casablancas and his 4 musical best friends, Rainbows (especially circular ones, double ones or ones with extra colours!--yes I've seen those). People who have enough willpower to not let too many habits overtake their spontaneous nature, Stars (astral bodies not fake celebrities), making juice (fresh fruit and otherwise!), Marshall Amps, Hammond Organs and Leslie Speakers..... and of course everyone knows about me and the ARP Odyssey.

I'd like to meet:

Unique creative spirits, gifted musicians kissed by madness, shimmering artists, fabulous creatures, people with hypnotic voices, with transporting voices that have Some Things to say. God and His Wife, Aleister Crowley, David Bowie, DJ Rap, A Dolphin, Jesus and Krishna and Their Girlfriends. People whose ideas and energy can transform parts of THIS reality and THESE planets into a massively cooler place to live........ freaky punks, shameless dreamers!! and others.

Music:

molecule expansion, cell division, beauty treatments...etc

Movies:

Marx Brothers movies, Bufallo 66, THX 1138, A Clockwork Orange, The Red Shoes Ballet (1948 version), Nosferatu by Herzog, played by Klaus Kinski, Fellini films, Jean Cocteau films, Jean Renoir films, Buttman's European Vacation, Skinny Puppy "Aint It Dead Yet?", The Jimi Hendrix documentary, Andy Warhol's: Heat, Trash and Bad.

Television:

I never look at TV. I guess one thing I dont need to my mindsucked dry by a television programmed by braindead corporations, empty vacuous governments or imagination-less networks. I've used to be into other drugs, but TV wasnt one of them.

Books:

Please Kill Me (the oral history of punk music) by Legs McNeil, Setting The Record Straight by (Hendrix's producer) Eddie Kramer, Candy by Terry Southern, The Flowers Of Evil by Charles Baudelaire, Writings of Arthur Rimbaud, The Book Of Tokens (about Tarot) by Paul Foster Case, 777 by Aleister Crowley, Fight Club

Heroes:

Ceanne DeRohan, Einstein, Karl Marx, John Lennon, Jon Anderson, Roy Harper, Led Zeppelin, Alice Cooper, Frank Zappa, Fabrizio Moretti, Pete Libertine, R. Crumb, Janis Joplin, Jesus, Jules Verne, Edgar Allan Poe, Sarah C. Maguire, Baudelaire, Dahnny Reed, Pony Maurice, My Mum and Dad and 2 Sisters, K. Spangle, Anna Mercedes, K. Emerson, Mahavishnu John McLaughlin, God,Harpo Marx,Tor R Midtskog, Bob Moog, Wendy Carlos, Bosch, Dali, Jean Cocteau, Ziggy Stardust, Siouxsie and the Banshees, DEVO, The Sex Pistols, Mark Chung, The Satellites from Mallorca, Moses Schneider, Mahavishnu Orchestra, Steve Kirk, Narada Michael Walden, Kill Kenada, Regina Spektor, Jerry Lewis. Skin, Sara Hawley, Bear Creek Studio, Super 700 in Berlin, Skinny Puppy, Josephine Dombrowski, Jefferson Chatham Rubicam and Josie Lazo

My Blog

when you hear fabulous new songs

Go directly to http://www.myspace.com/evaloft Listen to The Observers and Footsteps. We just produced these songs in the tremendous town of Halle(Salle) GERMANY. these musicians totally rock, and thei...
Posted by gordon on Mon, 20 Aug 2007 04:55:00 PST

A poem from my old notebook

1) A picture of a person is better than a person (cuz)- it takes up less space and doesn't hurt as much when she says goodbye...... A statue of a person is better than a person cuz it stays real...
Posted by gordon on Tue, 07 Feb 2006 11:12:00 PST

From The Desk Of Mental Mannequin

Still havent found what I'm looking for, so i am reopening all the recordings from the past few years and getting the most juice out of them as possible. I want to make a new and better record label f...
Posted by gordon on Sat, 14 Jan 2006 03:22:00 PST

whats happening now

Berlin and Mexico City: Two amazing places, that have alot in common. I now live in Berlin next to a huge park...riding my new red bicycle through trees and cool views of European city. great food ...
Posted by gordon on Sun, 08 Jan 2006 01:36:00 PST

christmas funn

left new york yesterday for christmas in london. i really feel more at home in the Uk and europe than in george w's amerikkka. its so conservative and homogenous there...and the music's just dreadful....
Posted by gordon on Mon, 01 Jan 1900 12:00:00 PST

well, Black Light Plays the V festival this weekend

I have an ARP odyssey synthesizer and am happiest when making music, and meeting very creative and unique individuals. I have a website called www.shoplifterrecords.co.uk and we feature alot of very o...
Posted by gordon on Mon, 01 Jan 1900 12:00:00 PST