"From the 1920s to the 1950s, the X-ray was used to sell—and entertain. And as the marketing of entertainment and fun focused more and more on individual experience, the X-ray took on another dimension in popular culture: the novelty. The modern concept of the X-ray was freed from its physics and its machinery. It could simultaneously encompass all it had connoted or represented throughout its development: mystery, scientific progress, danger, revelation, exposure, invasion, health, and death. It became something one could purchase and possess rather than patronize."

Although the dangers of X-ray exposure were increasingly understood by clinicians and laypeople, they became sources of entertainment.

Superman is commonly perceived to be from the Planet Krypton. In fact, his origins point to a more humble beginning in Cleveland. Artist-signed & numbered fine art print by Drew Friedman of Superman creators Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster issued today in limited edition of 12.
http://www.drewfriedman.net/prints/siegel-and-shuster.html

Superman is commonly perceived to be from the Planet Krypton. In fact, his origins point to a more humble beginning in Cleveland.
http://www.drewfriedman.net/prints/siegel-and-shuster.html

Beth Sorrentino revisits NYC for two solo shows: Friday at the Delancey, Monday at Rockwood Music Hall. New album is Would You Like To Go, a tribute to Curt Boettcher: http://bit.ly/1iymAMP

The Kickstarter campaign for the projected MOONDOG documentary ends at noon (Eastern) on Thursday 6/26. They are still short of the goal. If you love Moondog's music, please contribute. If you don't love Moondog's music, you don't know Moondog's music. http://kck.st/1puWucw

The inspirational true story of Moondog, the legendary musician and New York icon whose life was an unexpected, outrageous adventure.

R.I.P. — a class act and one of the icons of Hard Bop. If you're unfamiliar with Silver's music, where to start? Anywhere and everywhere. He also founded the Jazz Messengers before turning the reins over to Art Blakey.

He created a rhythmic style that combined R&B, gospel and jazz that became known as "hard bop," and performed with such jazz greats as Stan Getz and Miles Davis.

"In the Victorian era, when hemlines below the ankles still ensured a polite woman’s modesty, the threat and promise of exposure offered harmless titillation and excitement. The body, private thoughts, and one’s 'true nature'—was anything safe from prying X-rays? The basic technology that made simple X-ray set-ups easy to create and portable had predictable results. What do you get when you combine a desire for mildly illicit thrills with affordability and ubiquity? Popular entertainment and cheap novelties."

Over a century ago, the X-ray fast became the product that every modern physician needed to own and use.

Final day—goal not yet reached. Please contribute to WFMU, where despite a veneer of gaiety, our DJs are sodden with world-weariness and foreboding.

Help WFMU continue to make fun and adventurous freeform radio by pledging your support during our annual fundraising Marathon, February 23 - March 9!

"On Nov. 8, 1895, German physics professor Wilhelm Röntgen stumbled on X-rays while experimenting in a darkened room with Crookes tubes — a type of cathode ray tube­. Directing the tube at a screen coated with fluorescent material, he found that, though the tube was wrapped in black paper, the screen lit up; the tube emitted some kind of light wave. Placing objects between tube and screen, he discovered he could see 'inside' them. Subjecting his hand to the same treatment, he saw his own bones, darkened within the translucent outlines of skin. Finally, substituting a photographic plate for the fluorescent screen, he produced the first X-ray using his wife Berthe’s hand as the subject. Upon seeing the result, she allegedly screamed, 'I have seen my own death!'”

By Lisa Hirschfield: "The history and impact of the X-ray in medicine and science is well-documented. Its history and impact in popular culture­ has received far less attention."

I am quoted, and author Michael Hall drew extensively from sources found at my site http://ProducerTomWilson.com.

Tom Wilson, a Harvard-educated Republican from Waco who helped launch the careers of Bob Dylan, Simon and Garfunkel, Lou Reed, and a few other musicians you might have heard of.

Beth Sorrentino has been composing & recording, hopes to soon be performing. New FB page (below). Website: http://BethSorrentino.com. US release of her album, "Would You Like to Go: A Curt Boettcher Songbook," planned for Spring 2014. Angelic voice, superlative musician. Hear "The Island" on Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/bethsorrentino/the-island

INDUSTRIAL MUSICALS this afternoon on my WFMU radio program with Sport Murphy, Steve Young, and Laura Lindgren, from 4:30-6:00 (Eastern). Songs about life insurance, corrosion-free silicone, Westinghouse appliances, and Ford tractors. Broadway meets Madison Avenue, with unintentionally hilarious results.

Listen online: http://wfmu.org/playlists/shows/53238

With eye-popping visuals, excerpts from confounding and hilarious lyrics, and witty commentary by Steve Young and Sport Murphy, who also contributes original artwork, EVERYTHING’S COMING UP PROFITS brings the lost world of industrial musicals to vivid, astonishing life.

November 11 — Honoring our men and women who have served. There are many swimmers, but few lifeguards. Donate at the link.

Discover Paralyzed Veterans of America and their devotion to helping veterans in all aspects of their lives through education, assistance and other programs.

Sunday Nov 3 (WNYC.org): "Steve Young, a writer for David Letterman, and musician/writer/artist Sport Murphy have been marveling at and collecting Industrial Musical LPs for years, and now they've created a lavish, humorous coffee table book titled Everything's Coming Up Profits: The Golden Age of Industrial Musicals. David Garland's Spinning on Air welcomes Young and Murphy to the WNYC Studio to talk about and play examples of this genre which though it may seem like an artifact from an alternate reality, or a strange hoax, is, in fact, fact."

Marshall Crenshaw's "Bottomless Pit" radio show on WFUV tonight features the first of a two-part salute to a towering figure in late 20th century popular music, the record producer Tom Wilson. Airs from 10pm to midnight (Eastern).

http://producertomwilson.com

Molotkow: "Greg Sestero's book 'The Disaster Artist' is hilarious, but, as with the film [The Room], you sometimes feel bad for laughing: despite all the tyranny, it stings to see how much suffering went into the film’s conception and how much heart went into its making. Wiseau and his audience have a compact: he accepts their laughter; they come in droves. Does it matter what they’re laughing at? That, of course, is the big question at the heart of outsider art."

Greg Sestero starred in Wiseau's "The Room," which some call the “greatest bad movie ever made.”

WFMU is raising funds to renovate our ground floor and transform it into a multi-media performance space and radio theater. Most radio stations would solicit million$ from mega-donors, but we're doing it in small steps. We're almost ready to invite the public in for live music, broadcasts, performances, films, art shows and special events, but we need to raise $200,000 to bring the space up to code and purchase basic audio equipment to complete the process.

Help WFMU build the Studio of Tomorrow performance space by pledging your support this October!