For Elliott

Artist and photographer Adarsha Benjamin channels Jean Seberg and Joan of Arc; surrounded by Daniel Johnston’s drawings in Silverlake,  California.

“When Scorpio Rising was — we’ve forgotten, in a sense, that it was a groundbreaker, legally. Because there are only a few flashes of nudity, genitalia, whatever in the film, I mean, they’re very, very short and, if you blink, you won’t even see them. At any rate, when it was shown, at the Cinema — it was called the Cinema on Western Avenue in Hollywood — the premiere run, someone denounced it to the Hollywood vice squad and they raided the theater and took the print. And the case had to go to the California Supreme Court to be freed and then it became, like, a landmark case of redeeming social merit. That was the phrase that was used to justify that it wasn’t pornography. And, indeed, there’s nothing pornographic about it. Somebody had to break the ice and have that kind of case at that time to establish the freedom, because, before then, the police could seize anything they wanted to…” – Kenneth Anger (Excerpt from Interview with Pam Grady)

Bruce Byron worked as a motorcycle messenger in Manhattan. His zodiac sign was Scorpio, and so he called himself that, as well as carrying at all times the scorpion amulet which he is seen kissing and holding in the film. The honorable discharge certificate from the United States Marine Corps, on the wall above his bed, was his own.

[All caps taken from Kenneth Anger's 1964 film Scorpio Rising.]

Download soundtrack HERE.

Etta James ÷ “Sunday Kind of Love”

Clockwise From Top: (1) Tattoo of a devil (2) A tattooing expert picks design into shoulder of head gambler’s mistress. (3) Tattoo representing God of Sun, Fire and Water (4) Man’s back tattooed with image of a man dancing with a chrysanthemum, a design known as the “Gambler’s Tattoo.”

Sneakers, khaki one pieces, flannel, denim, pomade, cigarettes, rifles; nostalgia for summer days gone.