Author: Lisa Derrick

Well, we got through the red carpet, though many of the stars’ outfits didn’t! Yikes! So now it’s onto the Academy Awards themselves, with co-hosts Alec Baldwin and Steve Martin.

We’ve got our super liveblog team in place, and that includes you, glamorous Firepups, at home in your satin pajamas and tiaras; as well as Los Angeles-based fashionista/lifestyle consultant Janet Grey, who’s been feeding me one liners during the red carpet, and reality show star and radio personality Cat Noel.

Here are our special guests from the Writers Guild of America-East:

Michael Winship, WGAE President and senior writer on Bill Moyers Journal.

Fred Graver, Emmy Winner and founder of iLarious, Creator of VH1’s Best Week Ever, Letterman, In Living Color & pretty much everything else you’ve ever seen.

John Marshall, Emmy nominated writer from The Chris Rock Show, Politically Incorrect, The Electric Company.

Caissie St.Onge, Best Week Ever, The Rosie O’Donnell Show.

Justin DiLauro, CBS News Promo writer (and master of brevity).

Bonnie Datt, The Confirmed Bachelors and fashion blogger for Racked.com.

Dan McCoy, 9am Meeting, two time Channey Award winner shown on Channel 101 New York.

Dan McNamara, The Bear, The Cloud and God seen on Comedy Central and Atom.com and “Amazing The Lion” on the Independent Comedy Network.

Timothy Michael Cooper, Concierge: The Series.

Lowell Peterson, WGAE Executive Director.

This year the Best Picture category is kinda wonky. There are ten nominees instead of the usual five, and Academy members were asked to rank them in order rather vote on just one. If Hurt Locker wins, expect James Cameron to need Cialis for awhile, since it’s directed by his ex-wife Katherine Bigelow. Granted, he’s been really supportive of her work, but–um…

I have my predictions in all categories, but I’ll save them for the comments.

The categories are below, we’ll be updating along the way with winners in bold italics; and we’ll be having a raucous good time gossiping, joking and commenting. Thanks for joining in!

Nominees for the 82nd annual Academy Awards

Best picture

“Avatar”
“The Blind Side”
“District 9″
“An Education”
“The Hurt Locker”
“Inglourious Basterds”
“Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire”
“A Serious Man”
“Up”
“Up in the Air”

Best actor

Jeff Bridges, “Crazy Heart”
George Clooney, “Up in the Air”
Colin Firth, “A Single Man”
Morgan Freeman, “Invictus”
Jeremy Renner, “The Hurt Locker

Best actress

Sandra Bullock, “The Blind Side”
Helen Mirren, “The Last Station”
Carey Mulligan, “An Education”
Gabourey Sidibe, “Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire”
Meryl Streep, “Julie & Julia”

Best supporting actor

Matt Damon, “Invictus”
Woody Harrelson, “The Messenger”
Christopher Plummer, “The Last Station”
Stanley Tucci, “The Lovely Bones”
Christoph Waltz, “Inglourious Basterds”

Best supporting actress

Penelope Cruz, “Nine”
Vera Farmiga, “Up in the Air”
Maggie Gyllenhaal, “Crazy Heart”
Anna Kendrick, “Up in the Air”
Mo’Nique, “Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire”

Best director

James Cameron, “Avatar”
Kathryn Bigelow, “The Hurt Locker”
Lee Daniels, “Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire”
Quentin Tarantino, “Inglourious Basterds”
Jason Reitman, “Up in the Air”

Best animated feature

“Coraline”
“Fantastic Mr Fox”
“The Princess and the Frog”
“The Secret of Kells”
“Up”

Best foreign language film

“Ajami” (Israel)
“El Secreto de Sus Ojos” (Argentina)
“The Milk of Sorrow” (Peru)
“The Prophet” (France)
“The White Ribbon” (Germany)

Best screenplay (original)

“The Hurt Locker,” written by Mark Boal
“Inglourious Basterds,” written by Quentin Tarantino
“The Messenger,” written by Alessandro Camon and Oren Moverman
“A Serious Man,” written by Joel Coen and Ethan Coen
“Up,” screenplay by Bob Peterson, Pete Docter; story by Pete Docter, Bob Peterson, Tom McCarthy

Best screenplay (adapted)

“District 9,” written by Neill Blomkamp and Terri Tatchell
“An Education,” screenplay by Nick Hornby
“In the Loop,” screenplay by Jesse Armstrong, Simon Blackwell, Armando Iannucci, Tony Roche
“Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire,” screenplay by Geoffrey Fletcher
“Up in the Air,” screenplay by Jason Reitman and Sheldon Turner

Best music (original score)

“Avatar” James Horner
“Fantastic Mr. Fox” Alexandre Desplat
“The Hurt Locker” Marco Beltrami and Buck Sanders
“Sherlock Holmes” Hans Zimmer
“Up” Michael Giacchino

Best music (original song)

“Almost There” from “The Princess and the Frog,” music and lyrics by Randy Newman
“Down in New Orleans” from “The Princess and the Frog,” music and lyrics by Randy Newman
“Loin de Paname” from “Paris 36,” music by Reinhardt Wagner and lyrics by Frank Thomas
“Take It All” from “Nine,” music and lyrics by Maury Yeston
“The Weary Kind (Theme from Crazy Heart)” from “Crazy Heart,” music and lyrics by Ryan Bingham and T Bone Burnett

Best art direction

“Avatar” art direction: Rick Carter and Robert Stromberg; set decoration: Kim Sinclair
“The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus” art direction: Dave Warren and Anastasia Masaro; set decoration: Caroline Smith
“Nine” art direction: John Myhre; set decoration: Gordon Sim
“Sherlock Holmes” art direction: Sarah Greenwood; set decoration: Katie Spencer
“The Young Victoria” art direction: Patrice Vermette; set decoration: Maggie Gray

Best cinematography

“Avatar” Mauro Fiore
“Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince” Bruno Delbonnel
“The Hurt Locker” Barry Ackroyd
“Inglourious Basterds” Robert Richardson
“The White Ribbon” Christian Berger

Best costume design

“Bright Star” Janet Patterson
“Coco Before Chanel” Catherine Leterrier
“The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus” Monique Prudhomme
“Nine” Colleen Atwood
“The Young Victoria” Sandy Powell

Best documentary (feature)

“Burma VJ” Anders Østergaard and Lise Lense-Møller
“The Cove” Nominees to be determined
“Food, Inc.” Robert Kenner and Elise Pearlstein
“The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers” Judith Ehrlich and Rick Goldsmith
“Which Way Home” Rebecca Cammisa

Best documentary (short subject)

“China’s Unnatural Disaster: The Tears of Sichuan Province” Jon Alpert and Matthew O’Neill
“The Last Campaign of Governor Booth Gardner” Daniel Junge and Henry Ansbacher
“The Last Truck: Closing of a GM Plant” Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert
“Music by Prudence” Roger Ross Williams and Elinor Burkett
“Rabbit à la Berlin” Bartek Konopka and Anna Wydra

Best film editing

“Avatar” Stephen Rivkin, John Refoua and James Cameron
“District 9″ Julian Clarke
“The Hurt Locker” Bob Murawski and Chris Innis
“Inglourious Basterds” Sally Menke
“Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire” Joe Klotz

Best makeup

“Il Divo” Aldo Signoretti and Vittorio Sodano
“Star Trek” Barney Burman, Mindy Hall and Joel Harlow
“The Young Victoria” Jon Henry Gordon and Jenny Shircore

Best short film (animated)

“French Roast” Fabrice O. Joubert
“Granny O’Grimm’s Sleeping Beauty” Nicky Phelan and Darragh O’Connell
“The Lady and the Reaper (La Dama y la Muerte)” Javier Recio Gracia
“Logorama” Nicolas Schmerkin
“A Matter of Loaf and Death” Nick Park

Best short film (live action)

“The Door” Juanita Wilson and James Flynn
“Instead of Abracadabra” Patrik Eklund and Mathias Fjellström
“Kavi” Gregg Helvey
“Miracle Fish” Luke Doolan and Drew Bailey
“The New Tenants” Joachim Back and Tivi Magnusson

Best sound editing

“Avatar” Christopher Boyes and Gwendolyn Yates Whittle
“The Hurt Locker” Paul N.J. Ottosson
“Inglourious Basterds” Wylie Stateman
“Star Trek” Mark Stoeckinger and Alan Rankin
“Up” Michael Silvers and Tom Myers

Best sound mixing

“Avatar” Christopher Boyes, Gary Summers, Andy Nelson and Tony Johnson
“The Hurt Locker” Paul N.J. Ottosson and Ray Beckett
“Inglourious Basterds” Michael Minkler, Tony Lamberti and Mark Ulano
“Star Trek” Anna Behlmer, Andy Nelson and Peter J. Devlin
“Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen” Greg P. Russell, Gary Summers and Geoffrey Patterson

Best visual effects

“Avatar” Joe Letteri, Stephen Rosenbaum, Richard Baneham and Andrew R. Jones
“District 9″ Dan Kaufman, Peter Muyzers, Robert Habros and Matt Aitken
“Star Trek” Roger Guyett, Russell Earl, Paul Kavanagh and Burt Dalton

Tags: Academy Awards, liveblog, Oscars, Writers Guild of America

 

The red carpet arrivals are always an opportunity to dish and delight on who’s wearing what, and let’s face it, the red carpet’s a huge product placement for designers and jewels, as well as for the arrivees’ latest project. But also a great way to get some fashion tips and don’ts.

We are thrilled to have members of the Writers Guild of America joining in on liveblogging this and the later Oscar broadcast which starts at 5pm PST/8pm EST. The WGA and Firedoglake have a storied history, going back to the Writers Strike in 2007, when FDL founder Jane Hamsher who, before becoming the political force she is today produced such films as Natural Born Killers, From Hell, Apt Pupil, and Permanent Midnight. Jane put the full force of FDL behind the WGA, with five dozen posts from her and other FDL writers about the strike and walking the picket lines herself.

Les Moonves made $28.6 million last year. It’s awfully hard to accept this overweening concern for the future of the industry and simultaneously justify that kind of executive compensation. The average WGA member makes about $5000 a year…Howie Klein and I joined the writers the other day in the picket line and had a whole lot of fun.

Words are the life blood of our culture, in the beginning was the word, ya know. Words are our stock in trade, we live on our wit. And, Firepups, don’t be shy about asking the writers questions about themselves and their work!

Tags: Academy Awards, liveblog, Oscars, Writers Guild of America

 

Art, politics, racism, hypocrisy. Walter Annenberg, the Philadelphia Inquirer, old money and Republicans versus a New Deal self-made man. An astounding art collection–considered the single most import art collection of  first half of the 20th century–apparently pillaged against the wishes of its founder.  And all of it began with a cure for venereal disease.  Don Argott’s The Art of the Steal, featuring John Anderson, author of, Art Held Hostage: The Battle Over The Barnes Collection is an in depth, exciting look at the destruction of the Barnes’ collection by its trustees and the city of Philadelphia.

Dr. Albert C. Barnes was born in a lower class area of Philadelphia and worked his way through medical school as boxer. He patented Argyrol, a silver based compound used to treat VD in World War I, and enjoyed his fortune while collecting Impressionist and Modern art which he hung with care in his Merion, Pennsylvania mansion. In 1951, Barnes was killed in a car crash; his will stipulated that his collection remain intact and in its present location.

During his life, Barnes, a New Deal Democrat, was despised by Old Philadelphia. At first the moneyed elite ridiculed his collection of Matisse, Cezanne, Picasso, Renoir, Rousseau. And then, when this art become hot and valued, they begged to see it. But Barnes thumbed his nose at the “Phila-stines” who had rejected the works’ beauty, refusing to let any pieces be exhibited at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Instead he created an art school and foundation. Barnes only allowed his collection to seen by students, or those who  asked and who he felt should see it. He would gladly open his doors to a plumber from the Bronx, while ignoring the pleas of world famous art critics or multi-millionaires.

All this annoyed the bejesus out of  Philadelphia’s upper crust, especially  Walter Annenberg–art collector, newspaper owner, Nixon pal and Ambassador to the Court of St James–who had an axe to grind against the Democrats. And Barnes became was his local whetstone. Annenberg, whose jabs in the Philadelphia Inquirer didn’t affect the doctor while alive, went after the collection once the owner was dead, with the help of Richard Glanton.

Glanton took over as trustee via his ties to Lincoln University, the historically black institution to which Barnes willed control of his foundation. At one point Glanton and Annenberg discussed selling off a portion of the collection to pay for the upkeep of the Barnes mansion and grounds. At issue, said Glanton, were preservation and climate control. And money. Glanton claimed the Barnes Trust was near broke.

The art world had a fit over the idea of the sale, and Glanston backed down. Kind of. Instead of selling pieces, Glanton violated the terms of the trust and took the art on tour and opened the Barnes house to crowds. Neighbors complained about the bus loads of art fans being brought in and parking lot being fast tracked. The term “carpet bagger” was used by a Merion resident in reference to Glanton and a civil right lawsuit ensued; more of trust’s money was spent. Glanton and Lincoln University were removed as trustees and the Pennsylvania Attorney General  took over. A showing of the art opened at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, horrifying Barnes’ supporters.

And in the end, the Annenberg Foundation and the Pew Foundation, the very same old money crowd Barnes despised, gained control of the collection which is slated to open in a new, specially designed building next year along the Benjamin Franklin Parkway.

Blasphemy! Theft! Malfeasance!

goes one set of arguments. And the others:

Art should be accessible to all. Art should be preserved in a secure environment. This will make money and draw tourists. And besides, the trust was so mismanaged, the state had to step in.

NB: The Art of the Steal was financed by Lenny Feinberg, a former Barnes Foundation student. Every creation has a perspective, and smartly, this documentary gives both sides a voice. How you choose to interpret the motives of all those involved is a function of the self’s reaction to art.

 

So for a while I have been researching psychics, something that comes naturally to me, and is part of a long term project. I used to work in a occult supply shop, studied fortune telling scams, went undercover as a phone psychic (a really depressing job) and have just been around this stuff for ages. Literally.

In the course of my recent investigations–and FYI psychism is subjective, and

just learning the future will change it

so there’s always that out for a fortune teller–I came across a really goofy psychic on a psychic hotline. But oddly his predictions were fairly accurate though he was pretty nuts, a freaky old hippie Druid, lets call him OHD, who talked a lot. About himself. At $1.99 a minute. But his reading were adequately accurate, especially with time frames, and there was something endearing about him.

When you sign up for these psychic websites you get a private email account so the psychics can send you offers, predictions, and their schedules. OHD would send out these blasts about astrology and the tarot cards and how much he loathes Republicans, along with complaining about his computer and his former roommate. Once he mentioned his real name and the California city he was in. His rants were pretty funny.

Today though his email got worrisome. He began with explaining his financial straits. Somehow he’d overdrawn his account by a few dollars (math is hard) and was now over $700 in debt to Bank of America, which meant that his SSI check for March would get sucked up to cover the overdraft charges. He wrote that his life was useless, that he had no purpose, that he was going to kill himself because he felt old and pointless and had no future. (Yes, I recognize the irony of psychic who see no future for himself).

He sent out six versions of that email in under two hours. And while yes, it was plea for people to hire him to explain their lousy love life or give the hope for a better tomorrow, there was an underlying desperation and sense of futility, anguish and fear.

What could I do? What should I do? Well, yeah, there wasn’t really much of an option because he was talking about killing himself.

With the info he’d given in an old email and  using whitepages.com, I found his address.  I called the city-funded suicide hotline in his hometown, but no one answered (oh that’s helpful!), then I tried the Senior Services Department and got through to a really nice lady who took me seriously even when I said “psychic hotline.” She said she would track him down via SSI and have a welfare drop-in done by the police.

I waited a few hours then checked on the psychic service’s website, saw OHD’s “available” button was lit up (my roommate wondered if he must have escaped the butterfly net or even if anything had been done)  and clicked the “connect me” link–he’d sent me five free minutes in one of his emails, so what the hey, every story needs an ending.

“Hey, this is Old Hippie Druid, how are you? What’s on your mind?”

“Just checking in for a general reading, how are you?”

The floodgates opened to me, a stranger:

“Wow, the cops came today to check on me because SSI heard I was suicidal, and I was doing a phone reading, so that was few bucks, and they let me finish and we talked and stuff and it was cool because they hate Republicans as much as me and one of the cops hates Bank of America too because they are trying to take away his house. I had called a suicide prevention hotline earlier, but they didn’t help, they didn’t seem to have a solution and I hung up thinking they hadn;t talked me out of it. But the cops came by because  they said SSI had called them about me. And so anyway, let’s shuffle the cards for you…”

Not exactly the preamble one would like from an all knowing seer, but even the Oracle of Delphi was human.

He did a quick reading for me, not that I needed one; I just wanted to find out more about his situation. And he we was willing to tell me on my dime. I learned that he uses a food bank twice month

Two bags of whatever. It’s always a surprise.

His new roommate also uses the food bank. A friend of his is covering his phone/internet service for March so he can continue to work on psychic hotline, but he is still stuck in the overdraft hole which will be filled by his March SSI check, despite calling B of A and pleading with them. He’s on SSI’s work furlough program which means he can suppliment his income up to $300 a month–he makes about $150 as psychic–and not lose his government assistance, but he is not entitled to food stamps.

OHD is just one of many thousands of  Californians teetering on the brink, trying to get by as best they can. He’s just a guy, someone I’ve spoken to maybe three times in a year. But he is representative of so many people in my state, my country who are totally screwed right now.

I am grateful to the Senior Services staff for taking action and making the calls they did to check on him and that the police took the time to visit him. That’s our tax dollars at work in a good way.

Now if he’s just right about those Lotto numbers…

 

California queer history is storied and rich. Before there was Stonewall, there was the Black Cat riot in Silver Lake. On These Shoulders We Stand explores Los Angeles’ place in LGBT history from the mid-1960s through the 1980s, right before the AIDS crisis.

Using archival footage and interviews with pioneering activists, director/producer Glenne McElhinney takes us through One and the Mattachine Society, the lesbian controversy that disrupted the National Organization for Women.

History is made by people whose individual and collective acts shape and affect the world.  These activists, many of whom are now in their 70s and 80s, hold valuable stories, personal and societal, and by sharing with us their experiences, they show us how each one of can make a difference.  It is wonderful that the history and stories of seniors is being documented. These vital and important stories can give hope and inspiration in the movement for civil marriage equality, and remind us that gay or straight, our seniors have stories we need to hear, to record and to cherish, because without our past, our future is empty.

 

Lowbrow art–which embraces and celebrates hot rod, surf and cartoon iconography so uniquely Southern Californian–hit the public full force when Robert Williams’ pop Bosch painting Appetite for Destruction was slated to be the cover art for the eponymous Guns N’ Roses album. Hue and cries, strum und drang exploded from concerned feminists and parents over the artwork’s themes of sex, drugs and decadence. Condemned as corrupt art–shades of Weimar Republic–the painting became the inner sleeve lining.

The term “Lowbrow,” meant as a commentary on the more idealistic, romanticized Highbrow art movements, comes from the title of Williams’ first book The Lowbrow Art of Robert Williams. While Williams never meant for the term to define or crystallize a burgeoning movement, it stuck as a handy term to explain the emerging art of Coop, The Pizz, Raymond Pettibone, Shag, Mark Ryden, Anthony Ausgang, and others.

Over the past decades, Lowbrow has morphed–or split depending on the school of thought–into Pop Surrealism. Popular iconography transposes into multi-layered symbols which are at once easily accessible yet fraught with layers of meaning that hinge on the individual’s ability to respond, react and parse. Or not.

There’s a fascination with the underground river of America culture, dark obsessions and childhood pleasures, combining these with bold verve and, at times, ironic commentary. In a complex and sardonic twist, Lowbrow art has become very collectible and is now considered high art, despite its “low” themes.

Anthony Ausgang, whose vibrant, playful cartoon cats inhabit a universe of warping walls, often facing impending disaster, surfs now to the top of mainstream recognition with his album cover art for the Grammy award winning, multi-platinum band MGMT’s sophomore release Congratulations. Featuring a two headed cartoony creature frantically escaping a wave that takes the form of giant, oddly melancholy fanged feline, the cover–perhaps a commentary on fame–caused some strong reactions from fans. (It was released exclusively to BoingBoing before the music media got a look–a very populist statement). Sample comments for websites include:

F*ck this nu-primitive/half-ironic-80s/hipster/american apparel/adam ant bullsh*t. Let’s try a little sincerity for God’s sake.

I remember back in the day when it was cool to hate things that were popular. But then hating popular things became too popular to do that. So I hate it.

Im not too impressed with this album cover. I have a feeling their new record is going to suck.

It probably grows on you like everything else MGMT makes. Unexpected, but that was just what I was expecting. I bet it fits the album or they probably drew it on an acid trip. They are the best new band. There new live songs that I’ve heard sound really good

Mapplethorpe photographed Patti Smith for Horses, Warhol famously created the Velvet Underground’s banana, so the crossover of art and music is nothing new. But that this cover is causing fans such complex distress, perhaps worrying them that their beloved musicians have changed direction, shows the power of an image to affect perception; which should always be art’s end, and certainly what Lowbrow and Pop Surrealism have achieved over the past three decades.

 

Perfect for Lupercalia, the Roman festival for fertility and health, we give you Dirt! The Movie, a whimsical, intellectual, witty and cautionary look at the life sustaining mix of minerals and microorganisms that coat our planet like a skin.

Where would we be without dirt–well gosh we wouldn’t be. Mud is matrix of life, it grows our food, it can build our homes. Man and microbes share paragraphs of the same DNA..ashes to ashes, dust to dust, we are dirt.

Creation myths from around the world have Man being made from the earth. Adam means dirt or clay. The ground is what you experience when you drink wine, and a glass of water is really dinosaur poo.

My grandma used to say that to be healthy you need to eat a peck of dirt before you die, but now we are destroying the nutrients in the ground, polluting it and stripping it away by over paving, industrialized monocultures crops, over using nitrogenated fertilizers, strip mining, logging, wars…Oh Mother Earth, what have we done to your rich skin? One third of world’s top soil has disappeared and with that deserts grow and algae blooms. And its place 100 million trees are turned in 20 billion mail order catalogs.

When humans arrived 2 million years ago, everything changed for dirt. And from that moment on, the fate of dirt and humans has been intimately linked.

And as the soil disappears, life disappeared. In India over the last decade over 200,000 farmers have killed themselves–many by drinking the pesticide they can no longer afford to buy in order to grow the industrialized crops required by the marketplace.

Dirt! The Movie makes the strong point that there is a clear link between human degradation and environmental degradation. Floods, drought, climate change and war are related to how we treat dirt. Lack of arable land is at the root of conflicts in the Sudan and foot riots in Haiti, the roots of starving children in our inner cities and in refugee camps.

We need to build an agriculture as sustainable as the ecosystems we have destroyed. But how? If all of Ethiopia turned to sustainable, biodiverse agriculture, the nation could feed the entire African continent. In area of the United States farmers are working towards that goal as well. Community gardens, planting native plants in our gardens, “green roof” gardens on top of urban buildings, composting: All of these can help our dirt.

Dirt gives kids hope as they grow gardens and plant trees; working in gardens helps prisoners find rehabilitation. Dirt heals our souls, nourishes our bodies. Support dirt. Get dirty in the dirt!

 

South Carolina has nifty new tool in the battle against terrorism: A form that must be filled out in duplicate and filed with the Secretary of State. With a $5 fee and stamped, self-addressed envelope. And don’t forget–you need to list the other members of your group and attach copies of minutes and bylaws where applicable, along with outlining your fundamental beliefs!

Scofflaws face a $25,000 fine and up to 10 years in prison. Yes, as SC blog FitsNews says, it’s “bureaucracy for terrorists.” God knows, we’ve all been terrorized by bureaucracy, time to turn the tables!

Passed last year and now official, the “Subversive Activities Registration Act,” states that:

[E]very member of a subversive organization, or an organization subject to foreign control, every foreign agent and every person who advocates, teaches, advises or practices the duty, necessity or propriety of controlling, conducting, seizing or overthrowing the government of the United States … shall register with the Secretary of State.

The Subversive Registration Act states that “fraternal” and “patriotic” groups are exempt from the law, but only if they don’t “contemplate the overthrow of the government.”

Cool for militias, I guess. But what if a militia feels the government in power is actually anti-American, and contrary to a government by the people, for the people?

The law also gives subversive organizations “subject to foreign control” 30 days to register with the state after setting up shop in South Carolina. Or else the paper police will come after you. Kinda like if you don’t buy your marijuana tax stamp.

[H/T FitsNews]

 

Warning: The webisodes based on this trailer contain extremely adult themes and images. NSFW. 18 and over only.

John Roecker’s new web show Svengali is a gender-bending parody of television detective shows, riffing on cliches and plunging headfirst into a cesspool of camp. Svengali is described by Roecker as possessing

epic bad taste proportions

This is not an exaggeration.

Writer/director/star Roecker–oh let’s call him an auteur a la John Waters with same sense of epater la bourgeoisie and “hey kids, let’s put on a show” optimism–plays the title character, a disgraced LAPD officer who must solve a grotesque and grisly murder in order to get his badge back.

But the case is fraught with danger, professionally and personally, as he reconnects with Daisy Chain, the hooker with a heart of gold who is at the center of the case, and at center of Det. Svengali’s personal torment. Rancid’s Tim Armstrong guest stars as criminal mastermind the Professor in the first webisode; Jane Weidlin appears in an upcoming episode, with more surprise guests each week.

Svengali is a romp that crystalizes Roecker’s body of work to date which skewers and distorts societal conventions, his aesthetic combining high, low brow and folk arts into a modern pastiche of transgressive and inspiring images and actions based on do-it-yourself sensibility. Svengali is puerile, witty, utterly lacking boundaries, with an underlying core of tenderness and hope, like Roecker himself.

In 1995  Roecker pried open his mind and put it on sale at You’ve Got Bad Taste, a Silver Lake shop trading on kitsch and cultural artifacts, ranging from vintage board games and action figures to John Wayne Gacy’s paintings, then staged a massive punk rock art and photo show at the prestigious Track 26 at Bergamot Station, giving credence and gravitas to Los Angeles punk, a style which had long been ignored and overlooked.

Punk rock is at the foundation of Roecker’s soul, his drive to create. It showed him–like so many of us–that we could be free and outside of conventions, that art could be a way of life and that living through creating dreams into reality is the key.

While running You’ve Got Bad Taste, Roecker was also making Live Freaky Die Freaky, a stop-action animation musical based on the Mason murders starring Green Day’s Billie Joe Armstrong in the lead role as Charlie “Hanson,” and Rancid’s Tim Armstrong (who also produced the flick through Hellcat Films, a new division of his record label) as the narrator. Travis Barker, Benji and Joel Madden from Good Charlotte, X’s John Doe, Asia Argento, Jane Wiedlin, and Kelly Osbourne all had roles in what is considered one of the most offensive, yet hilarious, movies ever made.  Roecker told the LA Weekly

I wanted to push the envelope, and I wanted to go so far as to actually offend both the liberals and the right. I think I have succeeded.

Roecker also documented the making of Green Day’s American Idiot, creating the feature Heart Like a Hand Grenade an evocative, provocative masterpiece which premiered in 2009. And he directed the 2008 Here!Tv series Everything You Wanted to Know About Gay Porn Stars*but were afraid to ask.

Topics covered in these revealing interviews include the impact of drugs on the industry, the dangers behind unprotected sex, depression, and the stigmas and drawbacks one must cope with when starring in the gay porn industry. Despite these very serious topics, the show manages to show us the lighter sides of these hunky entertainers, some of whom have very interesting and uplifting stories to tell.

John Roecker can and does offend some sensibilities–gay and straight, left and right, punk and square–but he is a force in underground film and art that cannot be denied. He is controversial, informed, outrageous, insightful and inspiring. Roecker is a true artist, his medium is pop culture and the disruption of societal conceits, reveling in punk rock DIY, blending his love of film and high art with low brow culture, Romantic decadence and modern nihilism, then infusing them with a sense of hope and possibility as he manifests his visions.

 

Looks like Palin pulled a sleight of hand during last night’s post-speech Tea Party Q&A, using notes on her palm to scoot through the hard parts of the the question:

When we have a conservative house and a conservative senate, as soon as that happens, what do you think are the top three things that have to get done?

She managed her number one

We have to reign in the spending of course….

but then had to look at her handy notes to start a rambling spew about the energy resources under God’s green earth and the need to return America to being a God fearing nation where it’s okay to acknowledge our Creator.

[h/t oliver willis]

 

O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay! Sarah Palin speaks at the Tea Party Dinner, the high point of controversy-plagued Tea Bag Nation convention.

The suspense is delightful, for surely the news of the First Dude’s emails have reached the Tea Party citizenry. How will they react to Palin? With gushing love? With suspicion that perhaps the precious Sarah is not all she’s set herself up to be? Or will they blindly embrace her for want of a better idol?

What themes will she touch on? And just as importantly, what rhetorical devices will she employ? The wink? The folksy faux poet? The brave frontier woman?

Join us in deconstructing Palin as we liveblog her speech–both MSNBC and CSPAN are carrying it.

 

Pork is more than meat or a verb; it’s an aphrodisiac, according to Argentina’s President Cristina Fernandez.

I’ve just been told something I didn’t know; that eating pork improves your sex life … I’d say it’s a lot nicer to eat a bit of grilled pork than take Viagra

She said she recently ate pork and

things went very well that weekend, so it could well be true.

And speaking of wild weekends: Sarah Palin, who is appearing at the weirdly and highly dysfunctional Tea Party Convention in Nashville this weekend says

I thought long and hard about my participation in this weekend’s event. At the end of the day, my decision came down to this: It’s important to keep faith with people who put a little bit of their faith in you. Everyone attending this event is a soldier in the cause. Some of them will be driving hundreds of miles to Nashville. I made a commitment to them to be there, and I am going to honor it.

Tea Partiers have that pesky Big Government to blame for losing other their conservative pin-up girls. A House ethics committee review insisted last week that Reps. Michelle Bachmann of Minnesota and Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee withdraw from Tea Party Nation because the uses of any proceeds from the event haven’t been established. Oops.

Well, at least we know where Sarah’s proceeds are going:

I will not benefit financially from speaking at this event. My only goal is to support the grassroots activists who are fighting for responsible, limited government — and our Constitution. In that spirit, any compensation for my appearance will go right back to the cause.

Fox News clarifies what Palin will do with her speaking fee, which they reported as being $100,000 (other reports state $115,000).

She said she will donate the money to campaigns, candidates and issues. As a down payment for Palin’s fee, [organizer Judson] Phillips reportedly borrowed $50,000, much of it from a baseball card mogul. He missed his first payment.

I wonder if her PAC is on that list.  Ex-Gov GILF then heads to Searchlight, NV to kick off Tea Party Express III.

 

This film is NSFW and contains manga and anime images which in the US would be sold to only those over 18.

Manga Mad explores the Japanese fascination–obsession really–with manga and all things anime. There is a manga for everyone, form history buff to baseball fans to romance readers. The Japanese comic culture is the country’s big export and their own biggest pop culture phenomenon.  Manga are read by everyone from geeky fan boys (otaku) and girls (who delight in boy on boy love stories), to doctors, lawyers, office ladies and salarymen.

Comics provide stress relief; readers can lose themselves in fantasy worlds where big eyed characters lead amazing surreal, often highly sexualized, lives. There are no taboos in manga, while Japanese society itself is rigid and conformist.

The escapism of manga and anime (animation) has created whole live worlds where fans dress as fantasies of their own creation,  visit Akibara Electric Town, a manga mecca, and fixate on certain Lolita-like characters in a state of “moe” or budding love.

Manga has a huge psycho-sexual side to it, explored in Manga Mad.  Uniforms are the norm for always young and perky female characters, and during times of economic recession, the women–girls really– are drawn with bigger breasts. Naked breasts.  In fact there’s a whole of sex that goes on in mangas, some of it “moe” and some of involving bondage and rather rough stuff.  and tentacles. And slugs. This has raised concerns that sexually explicit manga should not be sold in convenience stores, yet artist are concerned that if sexy mangas were banned, men would the watch pornographic films which is believed to be less healthy.

Director Ray Castle traces the development of manga as an art form and a cultural expression from  ideographs to woodblock images of the Edo period to present time, showing the development of manga and anime as a pop culture expression.

Manga fuses utter cuteness with themes of lust, passion and violence, exposing the dichotomy of Japanese society. Manga Mad explores that split and the underlying reasons behind it, while giving us a look and some of the more extreme manga art and interviews with creators, publishers and sellers.

Watch – Manga Mad

 

At first, it appeared that the Texas State Board of Education had made a mistake in banning the children’s book Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?, written by Bill Martin Jr., from a proposal for the third-grade reading section. The Fort Worth Star-Telegram reports:

Board member Pat Hardy, R-Weatherford, who made the motion, cited books Bill Martin had written for adults that contain “very strong critiques of capitalism and the American system.”…

Hardy said she was trusting the research of another board member, Terri Leo, R-Spring, when she made her motion and comments about Martin’s writing. Leo had sent her an e-mail alerting her to Bill Martin Jr.’s listing on the Borders .com Web site as the author of Ethical Marxism.

A simple case of “The Internets, ur doin it worng?” Did similar names lead to the children’s book author being confused with a philosophy professor at DePaul University in Chicago who wrote Ethical Marxism? Or perhaps, there is something more sinister hidden in the words of Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? and the school board made the right decision. Let us examine the opening passage:

Brown bear, brown bear, what do you see? I see a red bird looking at me.

Red bird, red bird, what do you see?

The bear is a symbol for the former USSR, a Marxist state. Red is the color that represented the USSR, hence the term “pinko” for American communist sympathizers. Obviously this is indoctrination.

The red bird then sees a yellow duck. Yellow is the color of cowards, and “duck” is not only a bird but a way to avoid a blow. The commies are seeing a coward! Is that any way to teach our children?

Later there is a frog! Yes, the French are in this book. And we all know about the French and their elitist semiotics and deconstructionist views. Why, there are no decent all-American animals in Brown Bear–just commies, cowards and elitists.

 

The award winning documentary Favela Rising shows the power of music as a force for social change and how one man’s vision can save a community.

Rio de Janeiro is known for beaches, for Carnaval, for the giant statue of Jesus…but behind and beneath are the favelas, the shantytown slums of Rio.  The 600 favelas operate as their own communities, but as one resident points out, the residents’ opportunities for advancement are limited because of their zip code.

Extreme poverty rules the favelas, along with drug lords who rule through torture, murder and money. In 1993, when four policemen were killed in Vigário Geral, one of the poorest favelas, police retaliated by killing 21 innocent people. And out of this was born Grupo Cultural AfroReggae, a music and cultural movement, created counteract the violent drug industry and police oppression.

After starting a newspaper featuring hip hop and local music,  the group started a cultural center, and using traditional drumming, martial arts and dance, as well as recycling projects, recruited children and teens off the streets taught them tools for social change through self improvement and pride.  At one concert a drug lord thanked Anderson Sa,  GCAR’s front man, for keeping his little brother out of crime.

Music empowered the favela, and Banda AfroReggae was signed to Universal Music Group, vowing to put the money they made back into community projects and  expand into other favelas, taking into account what those communities needed rather than imposing an action plan. They kept these promises, and continued to improve lives in Before GCAR began, there were 125 drug lords in the Vigário Geral community; by 2001 that number had dwindled to 25.

But when a truce between a neighboring favela Lucas and Vigário Geral errupts into violence, Anderson and his fellow community leaders are put at risk as a lynch mob descends on them, spurred by rumors of Anderson rapping a girl and taking hostages. Anderson stays waits for the mob, because he says that to run would be to be admitting guilt.

Anderson and a drug lord from Lucas who part of the mob begin talking and the situation resolves, as Anderson explains that they are not for one drug cartel or another, but a voice in the community, a loud voice…

And then Anderson’s voice is nearly extinguished as he suffers a freak accident and is left paralyzed from the neck down. His neurosurgeon, familiar with AfroReggae, does the surgery for free, part of his doctor’s politics, that those who can pay, do and those who can’t shouldn’t.

Miracles do occur, and as Anderson says the favela’s spine has always been broken. Prayers are answered and Anderson walk again, and within months is performing on stage with AfroReggae.

Favela Rising was shot in part by a group called Nos do Cinema using the crew’s DV equipment. Our guest Matt Mochary and co-director Jeff Zimbalist would sometimes leave cameras with the children when they returned to New York. The utter violent realism of the footage is in sharp contrast to the music and movement of hope crated by AfroReggae.