Solunars by Aldebaran Sidereal Academy

Jim Eshelman wrote: Wed Sep 22, 2021 5:40 pm Anger, Kenneth. Feb 3, 1927, 1:55 AM PST, Santa Monica, CA (AA).

If there would ever be a chart to make me reconsider my near-dismissal of the importance of signs on the angles, it would be Kenneth Anger's, with Leo on MC and Scorpio rising.

RIP Kenneth Anger, impactful counterculture filmmaker and author with a large, remarkable, influential body of work. In person, he was a hybrid of curious elf and bigger-than-life roaring, idiosyncratic fabulousness.

I knew him for a time when he lived in LA (at the level of he was at my house, I was at his, I gave him a really bad cold one time). Every room of his house (painted in a different color and with its own "old movie scene" flavor) had an altar to Rudolph Valentino, who was the object of his deep devotion - except one small space that, instead, was devoted to Marlene Dietrich. (He would rapidly correct anyone who pronounced it "Mar-leen": "It's Mar-LAY-nuh, darling, get it right."

His films were visually stunning, ground-breaking, and cultural affronts which, however, would today seem less extreme to a first-time viewer. (His three-minute fetish film Kustom Kar Kommandos would today seem a little hot and very stylized, but it's still a beautiful piece of work.) This makes clear how much has shifted in our culture and in filmmaking. He had a hand in permanently shifting the art world.

Having not seen him in years, I can't say I'll miss him (though it would have been nice to see him again). His body of work is his voice, and that still sings proudly.