Note to reader: the following post is allegorical, and should not be taken to mean that Eviliz, her agents, her great aunt, her downstairs neighbor and/or her hairdresser acknowledge any resemblance between the man with the Starship Enterprise on his stomach to persons living, dead and/or incarcerated in Corcoran, CA.
Patty just saw this 2006 documentary about self proclaimed anarchist, womanizer, "skate park cult leader" entrepreneur and anger management problem sufferer, Brewce Martin (
cough cough Charlie). He's a hella nice guy, but he's just been "hit with a bullshit felonious assault charge."
Brewce is extremely charismatic, and dabbles in music. He has also been skating a long, long time. His mother says that as a kid he was "violent" so she encouraged his skating as a way to channel his aggression.
At the beginning of the documentary, Brewce is living with the lovely, mohawked Halo Whitelight, mother of his 14 month old child (Brewce's other child is 20 year old Brandon "Hellskull" Martin). Halo understands that Brewce has a "fidelity problem," but she is convinced that he has recently changed for her. She is quite a firecracker and got her college's administration to start a lactation room program when her child was born.
By the end of the documentary Bruce gets caught cheatin' and Halo has moved out.
Brewce tuned in, turned on and dropped out of Generation X back in the 90's to run what appears to be the Spahn Ranch of Rutland, Ohio.
Members of his loose knit (
cough cough) "Family" are known as the Citizens Instigating Anarchy, or the CIA (
cough SLA cough ELF cough cough International Court of Retribution). One kid recalls being cautioned about Skatopia: "Don't go out there! They'll steal your car keys! They'll beat you up! They'll make you stay!"
The people of Rutland "think we are worshipping the devil out here," Brewce laughs. "I'm just keeping my cultees in line."
Brewce has got plenty of (
cough) redheaded "young love" camped out on his property for a good part of the year. He encourages them to enjoy the "wonders of nature" (
cough cough or you don't get off). "Papa Brewce takes care of us so we do a lot of shit for him."
He's got plenty of horny old geezers out there doing shit for him, too.
Somehow, with all the work gettin' done, everyone still remains perpetually broke. One kid actually admits to having eaten dumpster food.
These are actual people! This is not some low(er) budget reboot of "Leslie, Thy Name is Evil." Oh, and BTW: Brewce has been in Rolling Stone, just like
(insert name of musical/political/religious/spaceship/personality cult leader here, cough cough).
Sex, Drugs, Rock n Roll and Violence: people will always and forever love reading about lifestyles that contain them. Anyone (
cough) who is perceived to have an excess of them is a very dangerous man, indeed.
Check it out!
In the 3rd picture from the top Brewce seems to be showing "brain". You gotta have balls to do that.....
ReplyDeleteOK Patty, I just put it in my Instant Queue. I'll watch it this weekend. You come up with the coolest stuff.
ReplyDeleteThat two story shack with the pink paint, bicycles and the kids sitting on the steps bears an uncanny resemblance tho those bungalows that still exist in the Snake Pit.
ReplyDeleteI don't think I ever saw anyone skateboard neckid before.
ReplyDeleteUhhh....Just woke up....drinking coffee...opened up Eviliz, and saw a man on a skateboard....nude....and his BALLS! My eyes....my eyes....
ReplyDeleteMatt said...
ReplyDeleteThat two story shack with the pink paint, bicycles and the kids sitting on the steps bears an uncanny resemblance tho those bungalows that still exist in the Snake Pit.
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When I saw it it made me wonder if it looks anything like the spiral staircase.
In the picture under the girl smoking a joint there's a naked guy with long hair. That picture reminds me that guy that I think was named Kevin in the original Manson movie where they're all at the waterfall. Wasn't Kevin suspected of being an FBI informant?
I read somewhere that they thought he was because he suddenly left. I'm thinking he suddenly left because the drugs wore off at some point and the weirdness of the situation probably freaked him out.
Very interesting find...
ReplyDeleteTHE "Family" is gone, but I think as long as we have such a divide in our class system there will always be those who have nothing- and therefore nothing to loose- who migrate together to find some kind of feeling of family and sense of belonging.
And hey if you can get sex, drugs, and rock and roll in the equation- all the more better lol
Personally- there have been quite a few times in my younger years when if I was aware of such a place...
who knows?
Patty's first boyfriend whom she is still in touch with due to the magic of Facebook has a Christian based youth skateboarding club in LA. Patty asked him about Skatopia: he says there is another place like this in Colorado. He is not a fan of either. Having been a wild child himself, he knows that hanging in a place like this could mean the beginning of the end for some kids. Things that make you go, hmmmmmm.
ReplyDeletePS hi Saint
Hi Patty ;)
ReplyDeleteWhat is the recipe for the summer of discontent? You could compare enterprises such as Corriganville which was a former movie set turned tourist destination. Just four miles down Santa Susana Pass Road, but without the hippie infestation or weird vibes; how come?
ReplyDeleteCorriganville (copy and paste numbers into Google Maps to see sites)
34.26431,-118.654114
Spahn’s Movie Ranch
34.271758,-118.616424
The initial ingredient appears to be the same. A remote area with some structures to serve as a housing complex, with both offering services to the public, except Spahn’s was on a smaller and shrinking scale. The inhabitants of Spahn’s also made a habit of menacing the local villagers, while engaging in theft, and attracting another element of society with equal or less appeal in the form of bikers. The music, drugs, and sex weren’t really the concern compared to the display of weapons, stolen vehicles, and cadre of leering male workers at the horse rental operations. It was the discovery of stolen vehicles which brought the police presence and not the drugs, or sex being supplied by the unlimited supply of unfathomably beautiful girls, frolicking about the Spahn property. That part was crafted by the press, and sex sells.
Another element needed appears to be some sort of behavior which is at least, two standard deviations outside the norm. I’ve not read any news articles or books about anyone who balanced their checkbook, after working 9 to 5, M to F, for 35 years. Who wants to read about themselves? So ANY nefarious activity would qualify, while having the luxury of being scarcely documented or verifiable, allowing for a thorough insemination of myth and lore. Brainwashing, hypnosis, and charisma replace abject desperation which leads to entering a lifestyle akin to the Spahn Ranch. LSD represents more since the government used it in mind control experiments! It’s OK to ignore the fact the government abandoned LSD for the simple reason that it didn’t work, keep selling the sizzle. But all this “analysis” won’t arrive until the opus magnum of behaving badly is delivered in the form of death.
The common thread among the Manson, Jim Jones, and Heaven’s Gate Families isn’t the isolation, drugs, charismatic or despotic leadership, or their ability to live freely; it was death combined with those other attributes which keep the event well outside society’s norm.
Skatopia may share many similar attributes with the Family and Manson, but they are allowed the basic rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness; just so long as they don’t interfere with another’s ability to do the same.
Hi St.
ReplyDeletePass the blunt, por favor (it's early enough).
lol its on its way
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately, Farflung is correct. Communes of like-minded castoffs are not unheard of. They all just fly under the radar of the media because the elements of murder and mayhem are absent. If TLB didn't occur we'd have never heard of Manson. They would have been just a nuisance to the people of Chatsworth and LASO.
ReplyDeletePatty thinks folks are now more tolerant of "alternate" lifestyles. Back in the day, people living on communes were viewed as...what else...communists. McCarthyism was not yet dead. Today people are cool with communism: its the socialists that are "wrecking" the nation...
ReplyDeleteDoc,
ReplyDeleteFor a different reason, I've been trying to remember Kevin's name for a couple of days. Thank for posting the answer. The person standing to the right of the smoke reminds me of him too but, I'm pretty sure that person is wearing a bikini so, I think it's a girl.
orwhut said...
ReplyDeleteDoc,
For a different reason, I've been trying to remember Kevin's name for a couple of days. Thank for posting the answer. The person standing to the right of the smoke reminds me of him too but, I'm pretty sure that person is wearing a bikini so, I think it's a girl.
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That's who I was talking about. I didn't notice the bikini which is strange for me. I usually notice bikinis.
Panamint Patty said...
ReplyDeleteToday people are cool with communism: its the socialists that are "wrecking" the nation...
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I couldn't agree with you more.....
Doc,
ReplyDeleteThere's a split screen shot in "Manson" where, just as a naked girl with a blue bandana leaves the shot, a naked person with light colored hair is seen, standing on a rock, infront of a waterfall. Is the one who you suspect is Kevin and do you know the identity of the girl in the blue bandana?
orwhut said...
ReplyDeleteDoc,
There's a split screen shot in "Manson" where, just as a naked girl with a blue bandana leaves the shot, a naked person with light colored hair is seen, standing on a rock, infront of a waterfall. Is the one who you suspect is Kevin and do you know the identity of the girl in the blue bandana?
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Yeah, that's the one who I think is Kevin. If I remember correctly the girl in the blue bandana was Kay Wallace but I'm not positive about that.
Thanks again, Doc. I've been trying to identify those two for years. Kevin and the skating commune girl are standing in similar positions and it's difficult to determine the sex of either.
ReplyDeleteHey Patty, have you seen "The Wild Wonderful Whites of West Virginia"? It's on Netflix. A film crew follows a white trash family around for a year. It's hilarious and sad. Definitely worth watching.
ReplyDeletePatty loves that one! Jesco White has a tattoo of Elvis and Charles Manson: his two heroes. Patty almost posted about that one.
ReplyDeleteBad vibes and Ouija board analysis.
ReplyDeleteGood thing that Cielo home was razed in order to release the long trapped spirits and mojo. But that’s in sophisticated Los Angeles where homes of misfortune can be erased, like the Beverly Hills house where Bugsy Siegel was shot while reading a newspaper, or turned into a museum like ‘Greystone Mansion’ where Edward Doheny’s son and “private secretary” (not that there’s anything wrong with that) Hugh Plunket were both found dead in a murder suicide. There’s some confusion as to who killed whom in this crime, which according to Doheny Sr. didn’t involve any manlove, because Doheny Jr. was married. To a woman. So there.
Other California locations where more homicides occurred simply pass to the next owner with little fanfare. Take Dorothea Puente, who poisoned around nine tenants in her boarding house, then buried them in her backyard. That’s some scary stuff there, knowing that many people died in the home after eating a poisoned meal, then buried in a little unofficial cemetery just steps away. It’s like a fusion of ‘Tell-Tale Heart’, ‘Poltergeist’, and ‘Psycho’ with a female Norman Bates. How would someone cope with such a motif?
Here’s just what a couple has done with that Sacramento house of horrors:
The Re-Bates Motel
Isn’t that scary? Aren’t they plagued by curiosity seekers? Or is it simply a nice example of Victorian architecture with some extra history, which now goes largely unnoticed? Dorothea kept here pencil sharp while in prison by writing a book also…. a cookbook. Dorothea died a couple years ago at the threatening age of 82, long after being sentenced to life without parole by Judge Michael Virga.
Some may be familiar with the Virga name as Squeaky’s lawyer for the President Ford assassination attempt trial was John Virga, who is the brother of the judge in the Puente trial. Now the Family connection has been made, thus keeping the degrees of separation complete.
Farf we are soooooo lucky to have you. A lot of days Patty will check in just to see if you have been here. BTW Patty sees nothing wrong with the Puente house. Gallows humor is a way a lot of people cope with the unimagineable. Patty worked in hospitals for many years. some of it is just so WRONG that you just have to laugh. And, by attracting attention to the house, they are also keeping the history alive (pun intended). Otherwise a hundred years of solitude kicks in and its all forgotten.
ReplyDeleteFarflung said...
ReplyDeleteTake Dorothea Puente, who poisoned around nine tenants in her boarding house, then buried them in her backyard.
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Back then, I had to go to court for a traffic ticket and I parked on F St, a few blocks from the courthouse because at the time I didn't want to spend the money for parking. I walked by Puente's house while the digging was going on. I didn't stay and watch but that's my claim to fame on that case. Also, I had a coworker from Fanny Ann's that lived on F St I think near 12th St which would be 2 blocks away. I used to go to his house all the time and due the congested parking in downtown Sacramento, sometimes I had to park a couple of blocks away. I wonder if I ever saw Dorothea or any of her victims.
Here’s my claim to fame regarding Fanny Ann’s:
ReplyDeleteI did my usual third beer pee break and entered the women’s restroom just like a boss. I was a little embarrassed and it gave me flashbacks of my childhood where…..
My father would take me to the feed and supply store in town to get some barbed wire, bales of alfalfa, and…. some pants for the boy. That’s right, I would get a couple pair of Dickies between the apiary supplies and salt licks. My mother would insist that I try on each pair as not to be stuck with some ill fitting clothes. Well the feed store didn’t have a fitting room, but they did have a room where receipts were counted by three or four middle aged women, using push button adding machines with a handle somewhat like a slot machine. I would be sooooo shy and hesitant about taking off my pants in front of those ladies. But I’m over that now, and actually look forward to such rare events, with or without the inclusion of a feed store. See dad, I’m a man now.
Farflung said...
ReplyDeleteHere’s my claim to fame regarding Fanny Ann’s:
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I worked there part time in the mid 80s. I worked just enough hours to get my drinks half price. It was my 2d home on the weekends. I met a lot of young ladies and was fresh out of the military. My former wife worked part time at the Firehouse Restaurant down a block and across the street and that's how we met.
Hey Doc, Mr. Patty's ex wife worked at the firehouse too! LOL
ReplyDeletePanamint Patty said...
ReplyDeleteHey Doc, Mr. Patty's ex wife worked at the firehouse too! LOL
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From '86 to '89?
94 to 99. :)
ReplyDeleteHey DOC SIERRA thanks for mentioning the wild whites of West Virginia. Just saw it - what a trip!
ReplyDeleteHank 3's contribution to it a major plus.
I was gonna mention Jesco's tats but I see the fabulously Patty already beat me to it.
I'm glad you liked it Max. The first time I watched it I watched it on my iPhone. My family has seen it and they loved it. Sad that a new mother is snorting Oxycontin in the hospital while here baby needs her milk. A lot of other sad stories in the movie but a lot of funny stuff too. I liked when Jesco was talking about a conversation that Jesus had with Moses......
ReplyDeletePeople just aren't pretty enough any more. None of these would have been acceptable at Spahn, male or female.
ReplyDelete