A Kenneth Anger Christmas - Red, Blue and Green.

A few years ago, I went to see Dr. Kenneth Anger speak and present some newly-restored versions of his films at UCLA.  After the show, Dr. Anger took some questions from the audience. One, a tubby, sycophantic nerd, stood up and bleated, "Dr. Anger - I've seen all of your films and followed your works for the past several decades and I was wondering if you could potentially clear up a conundrum I've had all that time," in a nasal, "I've never left my parents' basement except to go to Radio Shack or the Comix Knoll" sort of voice. 

He continued - "In your brilliant film Fireworks, the protagonist ends up with an artificial Christmas tree on his head before waking up next to an electrically-charged gentleman of undisclosed origin.  I was wondering - what, exactly, is the significance of the Christmas tree to this film?"

Now Anger, at this time well into his 80s and clearly losing what little grasp on reality he ever had, took to the microphone to answer this geek's attempt at being cerebral.

"Christmas as a holiday actually predates Christianity," he started. "It was a pagan holiday in which druids performed human sacrifices. Chunks of human flesh were hung on the tree and then the birds came, carrying the little messages up." He paused. "It was much more beautiful than the perverted version of it we have today, don't you think?" Not really an answer to the acolyte's question, but who cares. 

My friend Chad, who had accompanied me, and I were trying so hard not to laugh at Anger's non-answer that we almost had to leave the auditorium.

* * *

My introduction to Dr. Kenneth Anger came at the Harley House - a big sort of "pervert commune" behind the Harley-Davidson dealership in Swannanoa, North Carolina. Lots of my best friends lived there and they had parties all the time, so I was pretty much a staple round those parts.

Now, on one particular evening, I had dropped quite a substantial amount of our good friend LSD (Give me a break. I was 20) and was lounging appropriately, when my friend Norn - who always always always always ALWAYS had some new and wonderful thing for everyone to see or hear - pulled a VHS tape out of his satchel full o' miracles and said, "put this in! we've got to watch this RIGHT NOW!" By then, most people who knew him had figured that it was best not to question his judgment in such situations, so the owner of the VCR followed Norn's orders.

I didn't know what was going to happen, but I knew it would be good. A logo appeared on the screen - "Puck Productions. What Fools These Mortals Be!" I liked it so far, and agreed with its sentiment. The screen went black, and then titles appeared - "A film by Anger." and "Rabbit's Moon." A gong chimed, and then a sped-up black-and-white tale that combined a Japanese myth of the rabbit in the moon with the famous characters Pierrot, Harlequin and Columbina unfolded before my dilated, hallucinating eyes. Was what I was witnessing real, or a product of the acid?

The film, accompanied by the addictive soundtrack song "It Came In the Night" by the band A Raincoat, burned itself into my brain. After it was over, I wanted to watch it again - but I think I was the only one who had done drugs that evening, and everyone else had different agendas. I finally saw it again, and it turned out it hadn't been the LSD - that movie really WAS that awesome.

I learned a lot about Dr. Anger - his fascination with Aleister Crowley, his relationship with Manson-associate Bobby Beausoleil, his books Hollywood Babylon I and II, his tempestuous stay with our dear friend Dr. Anton Szandor LaVey in the Black House, and his hatred of pretty much everyone in the world make him a very interesting fella, to put it mildly.

Over the years I managed to procure my own copies of Kenneth Anger's short films - Eaux D'artifice, Fireworks, Inauguration of the Pleasuredome, Invocation of my Demon Brother, Lucifer Rising, Puce Moment, Kustom Kar Kommandos, and yes, Rabbit's Moon.

Now, there was one Kenneth Anger film - Scorpio Rising - that I had actually been reading about for years and years. My hero and personal deity Mr. John Waters wrote in several essays of his adoration of the film, stating that he had run away from Baltimore to New York City just to see it. Another, lesser hero, Mr. Andy Warhol, loved the film and had it shown at one of his incarnations of The Factory. David Lynch, Martin Scorsese, and other prominent film nerds stated their reverence for the film, either outwardly or through their work.

There was just one problem - it wasn't available in the United States. Its soundtrack - which Anger had never bothered to acquire rights for - featured the likes of Elvis Presley, Ricky Nelson, Martha Reeves, Ray Charles, and more. THIS was the Kenneth Anger movie I wanted to see. Its non-story followed the lives of several New York City bikers as they primped for a party and repaired their "hogs." Homoerotic, the film was banned in many places (you can see dingers for a split second, plus there is heavy anti-Christian imagery - but who can blame anyone for that?).

I despaired that I would ever get to see the film. Then, I went to New York City to visit several friends, and I discovered a bootleg copy of it in the Kim's Underground on the corner of, as Amy Sedaris puts it, "Faggot and Cocksucker Streets" (Bleecker and Christopher) in the Village. Let me tell you, I snatched that god damn thing up faster than a hobo picks up his Mad Dog 20/20. This was years ago.

The film didn't disappoint me. Its rock-n-roll soundtrack complemented the gorgeous and at times unsettling images in the film. Plus, there are two really cute siamese cats that yawn and lounge about. Who can beat that?

The Scorpio Rising Track List:

Ricky Nelson - "Fools Rush In (Where Angels Fear to Tread)"
Little Peggy March - "Wind-Up Doll"
The Angels - "My Boyfriend's Back"
Bobby Vinton - "Blue Velvet"
Elvis Presley - "(You're the) Devil in Disguise"
Ray Charles - "Hit The Road Jack"
Martha Reeves and the Vandellas - "(Love Is Like A) Heat Wave"
The Crystals - "He's a Rebel"
Claudine Clark - "Party Lights"
Kris Jensen - "Torture"
Gene McDaniels - "Point Of No Return"
Little Peggy March - "I Will Follow Him"
Surfaris - "Wipe Out"

Download the Soundtrack, as compiled by me, right ->HERE.<- 

Now, the film is available on DVD. Our friends at Fantoma took YEARS to get the rights for the soundtrack and remaster the movie (along with the rest of Anger's oeuvre), releasing it in Volume II of The Films of Kenneth Anger.

If I were you, I'd buy both of them. They're good with or without the acid.