Tuesday, August 04, 2009

Still and Forever in the News



The 20th Century's murderous little jack-in-the-box, Charles Manson, pops up when you least expect him, but often enough that he can practically be thought of as a continuity device.


  • Be sure to read, at the Huffington Thing, John Waters' essay on Leslie Van Houten and why it's ridiculous that she's still in prison. It's an entertaining, thought provoking trip down Manson Memory Lane, which Waters has done many times before, but is welcome to as often as he likes. Essential reading.
  • Last week I got all excited by the prospects of Chuckles hooking up with hairdo scofflaw Phil Spector in prison. After all, there's only one degree of separation between them, thanks to the Beach Boys. This story is probably spurious, but it filled my head with visions of Manson crooning "Be My Baby" accompanied by legions of sweet, vacant looking background singers with long, straight hair.
  • On Friday, Greta von Whatshername takes the week off Sarah Palin to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the Tate/LaBianca murders. Guest stars will include Vincent Bugliosi and Sharon Tate's stupid sister.
  • The Guardian, on Sunday, caught up with Linda Kasabian.
  • The New York Times rehashed everything.
  • Bringing everything full circle, the Baltimore Sun wrote about John Waters writing about Charles Manson.

4 comments:

Civic Center said...

I love the phrase "continuity device" when referring to our Favorite Bogeyman. Whenever you need the public to get hysterical about hippies or leftists or what-have-you, Charlie does just sort of appear magically all over the media.

Anonymous said...

The Spector-Manosn note is a hoax.

Sharkbabe said...

The Waters piece was tons of interesting, as were the (largely negative toward Ms. Van H) comments.

Both the Sanders and Bugliosi books just overloaded my Evil Disturb-o-Meter to a degree I still haven't shaken, and it's been decades.

Manson was just two-bit megalomaniacal psycho, but damn he killed so much more than a bunch of lives.

Distributorcap said...

what no one talked to Roman Polanski?