Lobotomy Room
@lobotomyroom.bsky.social
Like the Shangri-Las song, I'm good-bad, but not evil. DJ and promoter of the Lobotomy Room club at Fontaine's bar in Dalston. Faster. Further. Filthier. It’s sleazy. It’s grubby. It’s trashy. You’ll love it. My Linktree: https://linktr.ee/garussell1969
Happy Pink Halloween! I mean happy #ValentinesDay! Why not extend the swooning romantic vibes until Thurs 19 Feb and join us at Fontaine’s in Dalston when the FREE monthly #LobotomyRoom film club presents Morocco (1930)? Starring #MarleneDietrich and Gary Cooper! Info: tinyurl.com/3k8r8he9 #precode
February 14, 2026 at 3:04 PM
Happy Pink Halloween! I mean happy #ValentinesDay! Why not extend the swooning romantic vibes until Thurs 19 Feb and join us at Fontaine’s in Dalston when the FREE monthly #LobotomyRoom film club presents Morocco (1930)? Starring #MarleneDietrich and Gary Cooper! Info: tinyurl.com/3k8r8he9 #precode
Happy 65th birthday to scowling, ultra-intense American hardcore punk Renaissance man (and tattooed muscle daddy icon!) #HenryRollins (b. 13 February 1961)! I’d argue Rollins is at his ferocious howl-of-alienation best on Hot Animal Machine (1987). Pic: Rollins photographed by Rick McGinnis, 1988.
February 13, 2026 at 12:32 PM
Happy 65th birthday to scowling, ultra-intense American hardcore punk Renaissance man (and tattooed muscle daddy icon!) #HenryRollins (b. 13 February 1961)! I’d argue Rollins is at his ferocious howl-of-alienation best on Hot Animal Machine (1987). Pic: Rollins photographed by Rick McGinnis, 1988.
Happy 93rd birthday to glorious mid-twentieth century screen goddess, “lavender blonde” and Candy Darling’s favourite actress - Kim Novak (née Marilyn Pauline Novak, 13 February 1933)! I love Novak best in Vertigo (1958), Bell, Book and Candle (1958) and The Legend of Lylah Clare (1968). #kimnovak
February 13, 2026 at 9:55 AM
Happy 93rd birthday to glorious mid-twentieth century screen goddess, “lavender blonde” and Candy Darling’s favourite actress - Kim Novak (née Marilyn Pauline Novak, 13 February 1933)! I love Novak best in Vertigo (1958), Bell, Book and Candle (1958) and The Legend of Lylah Clare (1968). #kimnovak
Died 65 years ago today: trailblazing Chinese American screen diva of the twenties and thirties, stage and television actress and cabaret star #AnnaMayWong (née Wong Liu Tsong, 3 January 1905 – 10 February 1961. It’s somehow perfect that her Chinese name translates as “Yellow Frosted Willow”).
February 10, 2026 at 4:04 PM
Died 65 years ago today: trailblazing Chinese American screen diva of the twenties and thirties, stage and television actress and cabaret star #AnnaMayWong (née Wong Liu Tsong, 3 January 1905 – 10 February 1961. It’s somehow perfect that her Chinese name translates as “Yellow Frosted Willow”).
Released on this day (9 February 1980) by ZE Records: stark, eerie death jazz masterpiece Queen of Siam, the debut solo album by luscious No Wave death kitten #LydiaLunch, described by AllMusic guide as “a putrid classic of style and substance.” Pic: portrait of Lunch by Ebet Roberts, 1980. #nowave
February 9, 2026 at 5:28 PM
Released on this day (9 February 1980) by ZE Records: stark, eerie death jazz masterpiece Queen of Siam, the debut solo album by luscious No Wave death kitten #LydiaLunch, described by AllMusic guide as “a putrid classic of style and substance.” Pic: portrait of Lunch by Ebet Roberts, 1980. #nowave
Born 105 years ago today: scandalous golden age Hollywood screen diva and glamour icon Lana Turner (née Julia Jean Turner, 8 February 1921 - 29 June 1995). Pictured: Turner as pagan priestess Samarra in 1955 MGM biblical epic The Prodigal. #lanaturner #lobotomyroom #biblicalepic #exotica #kitsch
February 8, 2026 at 3:18 PM
Born 105 years ago today: scandalous golden age Hollywood screen diva and glamour icon Lana Turner (née Julia Jean Turner, 8 February 1921 - 29 June 1995). Pictured: Turner as pagan priestess Samarra in 1955 MGM biblical epic The Prodigal. #lanaturner #lobotomyroom #biblicalepic #exotica #kitsch
Born 95 years ago today: cinema’s quintessential doomed bongo drum-playing 1950s bad boy and personification of teenage angst, #JamesDean (8 February 1931 – 30 September 1955) – one of the most lusciously photogenic actors of all time. Pic: Dean during production of his final film Giant (1956).
February 8, 2026 at 9:18 AM
Born 95 years ago today: cinema’s quintessential doomed bongo drum-playing 1950s bad boy and personification of teenage angst, #JamesDean (8 February 1931 – 30 September 1955) – one of the most lusciously photogenic actors of all time. Pic: Dean during production of his final film Giant (1956).
Born 99 years ago today: ultimate black-clad, throaty-voiced, morbidly beautiful French beatnik chanteuse, actress, eyeliner role model, proto-goth and Morticia Addams lookalike Juliette Gréco (7 Feb 1927 - 23 Sept 2020). Pic: Gréco at the Bobino music hall in Paris in November 1951. #juliettegreco
February 7, 2026 at 10:45 AM
Born 99 years ago today: ultimate black-clad, throaty-voiced, morbidly beautiful French beatnik chanteuse, actress, eyeliner role model, proto-goth and Morticia Addams lookalike Juliette Gréco (7 Feb 1927 - 23 Sept 2020). Pic: Gréco at the Bobino music hall in Paris in November 1951. #juliettegreco
Died on this day: statuesque #RussMeyer leading lady (John Waters describes her performance in Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill! "one of the best villains in screen history”), tassel-twisting burlesque queen and all-round ultra-vixen, the fiercely bodacious #TuraSatana (10 July 1938 - 4 February 2011).
February 4, 2026 at 5:46 PM
Died on this day: statuesque #RussMeyer leading lady (John Waters describes her performance in Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill! "one of the best villains in screen history”), tassel-twisting burlesque queen and all-round ultra-vixen, the fiercely bodacious #TuraSatana (10 July 1938 - 4 February 2011).
BOTD: His Satanic Majesty, pioneering experimental underground filmmaker (whose work fired the imaginations of the likes of David Lynch, John Waters and Martin Scorsese), author, provocateur, Hollywood sorcerer and occultist #KennethAnger (Kenneth Wilbur Anglemyer, 3 February 1927 – 11 May 2023).
February 3, 2026 at 11:48 AM
BOTD: His Satanic Majesty, pioneering experimental underground filmmaker (whose work fired the imaginations of the likes of David Lynch, John Waters and Martin Scorsese), author, provocateur, Hollywood sorcerer and occultist #KennethAnger (Kenneth Wilbur Anglemyer, 3 February 1927 – 11 May 2023).
On this day 70 years ago (2 February 1956), wildly scurrilous scandal rag Whisper ran a lurid cover story exposé accusing television horror movie hostess #Vampira (aka #MailaNurmi) of casting a voodoo hex on #JamesDean and causing his fatal 1955 car crash! Scan via The Drunken Severed Head blog.
February 2, 2026 at 6:48 PM
On this day 70 years ago (2 February 1956), wildly scurrilous scandal rag Whisper ran a lurid cover story exposé accusing television horror movie hostess #Vampira (aka #MailaNurmi) of casting a voodoo hex on #JamesDean and causing his fatal 1955 car crash! Scan via The Drunken Severed Head blog.
Happy birthday to high priestess of punk, the fierce and uncompromising #ExeneCervenka (née Christene Lee Cervenka, 1 February 1956)! The spooky poetess / twisted bride / voodoo dolly / intense frontwoman of definitive Los Angeles punk band X turns 70 today. Portrait of Exene by Jim Jocoy, 1979.
February 1, 2026 at 6:29 PM
Happy birthday to high priestess of punk, the fierce and uncompromising #ExeneCervenka (née Christene Lee Cervenka, 1 February 1956)! The spooky poetess / twisted bride / voodoo dolly / intense frontwoman of definitive Los Angeles punk band X turns 70 today. Portrait of Exene by Jim Jocoy, 1979.
Died on this day: sultry #LizabethScott (29 September 1922 - 31 January 2015). For decades Scott was bedeviled by comparisons to the more famous Lauren Bacall but she’s been reappraised as one of the most haunting and enigmatic of 40s and 50s actresses and an essential figure in film noir. #filmnoir
January 31, 2026 at 2:55 PM
Died on this day: sultry #LizabethScott (29 September 1922 - 31 January 2015). For decades Scott was bedeviled by comparisons to the more famous Lauren Bacall but she’s been reappraised as one of the most haunting and enigmatic of 40s and 50s actresses and an essential figure in film noir. #filmnoir
OTD: hard-living, tempestuous bad girl of rhythm and blues #EttaJames (née Jamesetta Hawkins, 25 Jan 1938 - 20 Jan 2012). I venerate her outrageous 1960s look of platinum blonde bouffant wigs and thick winged Cleopatra-style liquid eyeliner, when she looked like an escapee from a John Waters movie.
January 25, 2026 at 10:28 AM
OTD: hard-living, tempestuous bad girl of rhythm and blues #EttaJames (née Jamesetta Hawkins, 25 Jan 1938 - 20 Jan 2012). I venerate her outrageous 1960s look of platinum blonde bouffant wigs and thick winged Cleopatra-style liquid eyeliner, when she looked like an escapee from a John Waters movie.
Born 80 years ago today: sensationally beautiful sloe-eyed burlesque dancer turned Russ Meyer glamazon Haji (24 Jan 1946 - 9 Aug 2013). The bodacious Haji graced five of Meyer’s sexploitation masterpieces - most famously, Faster Pussycat! Kill! Kill! (1965) (pictured). #russmeyer #lobotomyroom #haji
January 24, 2026 at 6:15 PM
Born 80 years ago today: sensationally beautiful sloe-eyed burlesque dancer turned Russ Meyer glamazon Haji (24 Jan 1946 - 9 Aug 2013). The bodacious Haji graced five of Meyer’s sexploitation masterpieces - most famously, Faster Pussycat! Kill! Kill! (1965) (pictured). #russmeyer #lobotomyroom #haji
BOTD: French actress #JeanneMoreau (23 Jan 1928 – 31 July 2017), a powerful presence in mid-20th century European art cinema. My favourite Moreau performances would include Les Amants (1958), Diary of a Chambermaid (1963), Mademoiselle (1966), The Bride Wore Black (1968) and Querelle (1982). #kween
January 23, 2026 at 12:40 PM
BOTD: French actress #JeanneMoreau (23 Jan 1928 – 31 July 2017), a powerful presence in mid-20th century European art cinema. My favourite Moreau performances would include Les Amants (1958), Diary of a Chambermaid (1963), Mademoiselle (1966), The Bride Wore Black (1968) and Querelle (1982). #kween
BOTD 80 years ago: twisted visionary, high potentate of cult cinema and the man Mel Brooks famously called “Jimmy Stewart from Mars”, #DavidLynch (20 January 1946 – 16 January 2025). Pic: “shattered glass portrait” of Lynch by photographer Jean-Christian Bourcart at the 1990 Cannes Film Festival.
January 20, 2026 at 3:36 PM
BOTD 80 years ago: twisted visionary, high potentate of cult cinema and the man Mel Brooks famously called “Jimmy Stewart from Mars”, #DavidLynch (20 January 1946 – 16 January 2025). Pic: “shattered glass portrait” of Lynch by photographer Jean-Christian Bourcart at the 1990 Cannes Film Festival.
The temperamental and intense Eartha Kitten "helping" me change the sheets on Friday morning. #earthakitten #thatbadeartha #britishbluecat #britishblueshorthaircat #catsoftheinternet #lobotomyroom
January 18, 2026 at 2:54 PM
The temperamental and intense Eartha Kitten "helping" me change the sheets on Friday morning. #earthakitten #thatbadeartha #britishbluecat #britishblueshorthaircat #catsoftheinternet #lobotomyroom
BOTD: the most feline of mid-20th century sex kittens, triple threat, sultry bedroom-voiced chanteuse, definitive Catwoman, gay icon and the woman described by Kenneth Tynan as “the vocal soul of every Siamese cat who ever lived” – the perennially fierce Miss #EarthaKitt (17 Jan 1927 – 25 Dec 2008)!
January 17, 2026 at 10:08 AM
BOTD: the most feline of mid-20th century sex kittens, triple threat, sultry bedroom-voiced chanteuse, definitive Catwoman, gay icon and the woman described by Kenneth Tynan as “the vocal soul of every Siamese cat who ever lived” – the perennially fierce Miss #EarthaKitt (17 Jan 1927 – 25 Dec 2008)!
Died one year ago today: twisted visionary, high potentate of cult cinema and the man Mel Brooks famously once labelled “Jimmy Stewart from Mars”, #DavidLynch (20 January 1946 – 16 January 2025). Pic: portrait of Lynch and Isabella Rossellini by Helmut Newton, 1988. #lobotomyroom #cultcinema
January 16, 2026 at 2:53 PM
Died one year ago today: twisted visionary, high potentate of cult cinema and the man Mel Brooks famously once labelled “Jimmy Stewart from Mars”, #DavidLynch (20 January 1946 – 16 January 2025). Pic: portrait of Lynch and Isabella Rossellini by Helmut Newton, 1988. #lobotomyroom #cultcinema
Happy 85th birthday to mesmerizing screen diva and – as Bruce La Bruce puts it – the possessor of “one of the great faces of modern cinema” #FayeDunaway (born 14 Jan 1941). The 2024 documentary Faye by Laurent Bouzereau is a must-watch. Pic: the bitter tears of Faye Dunaway by Jerry Schatzberg, 1966
January 14, 2026 at 5:49 PM
Happy 85th birthday to mesmerizing screen diva and – as Bruce La Bruce puts it – the possessor of “one of the great faces of modern cinema” #FayeDunaway (born 14 Jan 1941). The 2024 documentary Faye by Laurent Bouzereau is a must-watch. Pic: the bitter tears of Faye Dunaway by Jerry Schatzberg, 1966
Died 20 years ago today: scene-stealing American character actress #ShelleyWinters (18 Aug 1920 - 14 Jan 2006), who progressed from blowzy sexpot starlet in the 1940s to earth mother of New York’s Actor’s Studio in the 1950s to hagsploitation scream queen in the 70s. Pictured: Winters in 1955.
January 14, 2026 at 5:46 PM
Died 20 years ago today: scene-stealing American character actress #ShelleyWinters (18 Aug 1920 - 14 Jan 2006), who progressed from blowzy sexpot starlet in the 1940s to earth mother of New York’s Actor’s Studio in the 1950s to hagsploitation scream queen in the 70s. Pictured: Winters in 1955.
BOTD: R&B queen Ruth Brown (12 Jan 1928 - 17 Nov 2006). I saw Miss Rhythm perform several times over the years at Viva Las Vegas Rockabilly weekenders. Even in declining health she rocked the house. “The doctors told me I’d never walk again,” she’d declare. “And here I am!” #ruthbrown #lobotomyroom
January 12, 2026 at 11:29 AM
BOTD: R&B queen Ruth Brown (12 Jan 1928 - 17 Nov 2006). I saw Miss Rhythm perform several times over the years at Viva Las Vegas Rockabilly weekenders. Even in declining health she rocked the house. “The doctors told me I’d never walk again,” she’d declare. “And here I am!” #ruthbrown #lobotomyroom
Light a black candle! The fabulous Finnish American actress and pin-up model Maila Nurmi (11 December 1922 – 10 January 2008) – better known as cadaverous wraith cheek-boned 1950s horror movie hostess Vampira – died on this day. #vampira #mailanurmi #lobotomyroom #glamourghoul #plan9fromouterspace
January 10, 2026 at 1:08 PM
Light a black candle! The fabulous Finnish American actress and pin-up model Maila Nurmi (11 December 1922 – 10 January 2008) – better known as cadaverous wraith cheek-boned 1950s horror movie hostess Vampira – died on this day. #vampira #mailanurmi #lobotomyroom #glamourghoul #plan9fromouterspace
Inspired by Will Sloan’s excellent recent monograph Ed Wood: Made in Hollywood USA, I wrote a “think piece” about the disorienting and demented world of twisted visionary Edward D Wood Jr for Filthy Dreams (the “blog that analyses culture through a queer lens”). Link: tinyurl.com/m2tx6bf7 #edwood
January 9, 2026 at 5:16 PM
Inspired by Will Sloan’s excellent recent monograph Ed Wood: Made in Hollywood USA, I wrote a “think piece” about the disorienting and demented world of twisted visionary Edward D Wood Jr for Filthy Dreams (the “blog that analyses culture through a queer lens”). Link: tinyurl.com/m2tx6bf7 #edwood