Survey Below From Segio Leone and the Infield Fly Role

1) What was the last movie you saw, either in a theater or on DVD, and why?
Wicker Man, the remake, b/c I wanted to see if it was as awful as i thought it was--cryptic, with mild horror, and mostly dull, the orginal seemed to be a v. time and place thing, which is a shame, b/c the central message seems to be one of lebutes main wrestling venues, not quite gender, but what happens when men and women start realising they hate each other, what happens with power when the sexes have been found out (though the scene thru the woods, on the first chase, at night, looks oddly like a kinkade w. the lights turned out, which i find really funny) (and molly parker is really sexy in it)

2) Name the cinematographer whose work you most look forward to seeing, and an example of one of his/her finest achievements.
Tobias A. Schliessler, Friday Night Lights and Dream Girls, w. FNL, the scenes in between, of small towns, and the usual robert frank aesthetics, are made grainy, without that grainess being used to symbolize much at all, those scenes were so well shot, and slowed down the movie, into a gorgeous, syrupy utopia...i havent seen dream girls, but i can imagine he can do equal things there.

3) Joe Don Baker or Bo Svenson?
Bo Svenson, aside from doing a fantastic, grizzled frontier work on kill bill, he has this great white trash aesthetic, including television work.

4) Name a moment from a movie that made you gasp (in horror, surprise, revelation…)
Bambi's dad being shot.

5) Your favorite movie about the movies.
Sunset Bvld, The Player, Bamboozled (though thats really television), i like the angry and deseprate better than the love songs

6) Your Favorite Fritz Lang movie.
Lets Divide this into two:
German M (nothing creepier, more effective, more elegant in its evil than peter lorre here)
American Rancho Notorious, cause it reminds me of Johnny Guitar

7) Describe the first time you ever recognized yourself in a movie.
this awful little gay love story, from the UK, cheap and sort of melodramatic, with really cheesy musical cues, called Beautiful Thing, embarassingly enough.

8) Carole Bouquet or Angela Molina?
i dont know enough

9) Name a movie that redeems the notion of nostalgia as something more than a bankable commodity.
im stuck on this one, but the first that came to mind was steel magnolias, because it seemed genuine and honest about life in the rural south, among women, and the pace, and the refusal to be anything but entertainment, seemed not to have any agenda but documenting that, it seems then, not to be current, but looking backwards (another answer--the best little whorehouse in texas, where easy and ready sex is cast as good clean fun, and that progress is attached to morality, is a sort of backwards lesson, but i like how sex for money is what is viewed w. rose coloured glasses, and intereference with that is viewed as problematic progress)

10) Favorite appearance by an athlete in an acting role.
Arnold Schwarzenegger as Conan the Barbarian

11) Favorite Hal Ashby movie.
Harold and Maude, because Ruth Connor had an amazing run in the 70s, after a long and complicated life, becaue it was erotic and tender, difficult and lovely, with morbid humour, well written, and decently shot...a cult classic that should be moved straight into the canon

12) Name the first double feature you’d program for opening night of your own revival theater.

Pink Narcissus, Wild is the Wind (set decoration as political subtext)

13) What’s the name of your revival theater?
The Holy Neville

14) Humphrey Bogart or Elliot Gould?
Elliot Gould, because he has this laid back sunbaked charm, and a hard new york edge; because he managed land half a dozen movies that worked as films and as satires, because he didnt look like he was working hard, and because he managed to be interesting, and basically good..i think i could live without bogart (i would have a problem w/o maltese and key largo) but i cannot imagine living without teh night they raided minskys, m*a*s*h, california split, bob and ted and carol and alice, or the two muppet movies,
he also has a sense of humour about himself, and his reputation, the v. funny, and v. hollywood deconstructions found in oceans 11 and oceans 12 are the only thing accessible in those monuments to inside baseball)

15) Favorite Robert Stevenson movie.
Mainstay of my childhood, and i think one of the first people who taught me about how to intergrate a huge variety of media into one text (including the under the sea set peice of bedknobs, and the dick van dyke penguin dance by marry poppins---i love some of the amazing music in marry poppins, and remember wondering fondly how they did the tea party scene, and i found myself comforted by the precise, and slightly sinister performances by both lansberry and andrews...i didnt like slapstick much as a kid, but loved the steampunk appliances that made flubber, i remember three generations of my family (granddad, mom, and i) weeping at the end of old yeller, the only time i saw my grandfather cry),forbidden planet was the first science fiction film i ever saw, and though it was not my introduction into space opera, i think ti was amongst the first times that i operationalised the other, fuck, i even watched the shaggy da on sundays thanks to the wonderful world of disney...i cannot choose

16) Describe your favorite moment in a movie that is memorable because of its use of sound.
Pyscho. I know its obvious, but come on, the shower scene soundtrack...scared the shit out of me, and synthesised 20th centuries history of discordance as a symbol of trauma, like the Black Angels Death Song by Crumb, but pop

17) Pink Flamingoes-- yes or no?
fuck yeah

18) Your favorite movie soundtrack score.
is it cheating to use a musical---Cabaret, if it is, then perhaps Badlands by Malick, for how low/broken the soundtrack matched the low/broken people and the low/broken landscape, the short idyll in the swamp, with the domesticity proteccted by cotton woods, the sounds of birds, nature, crickets, etc, as well as love is strange, makign the whole thing sound so ordinary, the least strange thing being love is strange, is one of those deep lingusitic ironies that is pure malick

19) Fay Wray or Naomi Watts?
Fay Wray, looked like she really wanted to fuck that monkey, Watts just looked like she wanted to fuck herself...

20) Is there a movie that would make you question the judgment and/or taste of a film critic, blogger or friend if you found out they were an advocate of it?

21) Pick a new category for the Oscars and its first deserving winner.
Best Porn Film, or even merge AVN with the academy. (Pirates or the new Michael Lucas remake of Caligula)

22) Favorite Paul Verhoeven movie.
everyones favourite pop refiensthal, starship troopers

23) What is it that you think movies do better than any other art form?
Spectacle.

24) Peter Ustinov or Albert Finney?
Finney is doing more interesting work, longer, from Tom Jones to Erin Brokovich

25) Favorite movie studio logo, as it appears before a theatrical feature.
MGM, i love the lion (and of course, the implications of body image as found in the columbia model)

26) Name the single most important book about the movies for you personally.
Waters Shock Value gave me permission to like movies for their own sake, and Thomsons New Biographical....allowed me to be eccentric, even in a form that was encylopedic.

27) Name the movie that features the best twist ending. (Please note the use of any “spoilers” in your answer.)
Snake Eyes by De Palma, not for its twist endings, but for its twist beginning, middle and end, and for eventually jettisioning any attempt at normal narrative spin

28) Favorite Francois Truffaut movie.
400 Blow, for all the usual reasons

29) Olivia Hussey or Claire Danes?
Claire Danes.

30) Your most memorable celebrity encounter.
Jake Gyllenhall, Yorkville, Toronto Film Week (he's dreaaaaaaamy)

31) When did you first realize that films were directed?
Oddly enogh, i think that the disney animated films did it, because they were so singualr in their viusal style, and the clues for what to look like, apperead like a string...

hope all you sexyfuckers had a happy jesus day, its been a week, so lets dump el links.

australia copyright wants to make hyperlinking illegal or against copyright--story herehere

amaznig japanese codexes of sea life, including squid, octopodes, sea horses, insects, tadpoles, amongst the 98 images, by an artist named Kurimoto Tanshu, Edo again. (apparently he wasa biologist and doctor, i imagine him sort of like the japaense under the sea equivlent of audobon, but i dont know much about him

the best thing about Carton Meier's photos of parking garages are:
a) they include no people
b) they are taken in broad day light
making them really odd and uncanny

eight american marinesare being charged with murder, for incidents in iraq.

one of the worlds largest collectiosn of ancient world gold, found in afghanistan, just before the whole (russia, america, taliban, america again) mess of the last 20 year,s thought to be melted down in a combo of cash conveience and iconoclastic fury, has been found--6 librarians hid it an an underground library...this makes me incredibly happy


Font Ideas for the Peach Project
(the designers of the new saks projects, reversed the black and white, printed them all on the same sheet, and then abstracted the text, into interchangeable blocks--so it looks like this:


sexy sexy GRINDHOUSE TRAILER, looks even more visceral than even i hoped, and the cast might be ideal (ie Rosario Dawson, Nicky Katt, Rose McGowan, Freddy Roderguiez, Kurt Russell) and almost a dozen who have less than 6 credits to their name (do you think when sofia and quentin were fucking they talked abuot outre casting?)


no comment


There is a large chance that Seriaan's TWA terminal for Idlewylde (now JFK) airport, is going to be torn down, so is progress...(i imagine that the entrance to the pearly gates, that long white tunnel mentioned when most people die, will look like this

Raja Ram Tiwari, (blesed be his name), helps families reunite, in one of the largest hindu festivals in india, with ten million people or more attending...story here



hippos after being loosed from a druglords private meniagere, are wrecking havok on the streets of Peurto Trafino Columbia

Photo Spread of a topless bar, from 1966 playboy, look for the Dusty Springfield coiffed blonde in the black sheer robe--sexy pages 4 and 5

Guillermo del Toro has done a whole illustrated production diary for Pan's Labryinthstory here, these are grotesque and beautiful enough to convince me to se the film


James Brown died,here his concert just after Martin Luther King, Jr died, preventing a riot in boston, is shamanic, excorising and calming an obv agitated crowd...

a great collection of picture stories before comics, from 350 to the jazz age.

On December 20th, I ordered 19 8x12s and 10 4x6s, making prints from digital problems via uploading on Wal Mart's website. There were some significant problems.

1) Two of the 4x6s were printed in such a way that it was not representational of the original image. Elements were absent, or uncentered, i have no idea how this happened.
2) The orders of 8x12s, one of 13 prints and one of 6 prints, were not printed.
3) When I called the Ft Saskatchewan photo center, the clerk I talked to had no idea what I was talking about, and suggested that I resend the images. I am nervous about doing this, because
a) two of the 4x6s were in an unacceptable condition
b) I still have 19 in the ether.

feature and audio interview with christenberry. lots of photos, of sculptural and photo work, including:

Green Warehouse, Newbern, Alabama, 1978
(obv. loving it for the various shades of green, and the subtle transitiosn)


Marietta Anton, 50, who now lives in Portugal's Algarve, was 25 when she was photographed naked by her boyfriend at the time, Sigmar Polke. After they split Polke went on to become a world famous artist, and the old pictures were valued at over £35,000. But when Anton's 15-year-old foster son Mehmet found the old snaps, he thought he had unearthed a secret porn stack, and proceeded to do what teenage boys will do. story here

commonweal on Borat...


Cover for Beyonce's single, Ring the Alarm, a certain Bunny Yeager energy, anyone have any clue who did it?

two fantastic glossy, artifical, picturebox constructions, by Jasper Steven Thomas, somewhere b/w cornell, the gilles and golden books, the first is penguins the second is easter

the US Army is becoming a strikebreaker, for the Goodyear plant, in Ohio, about Humvees...reminds one of Reagon and the ATC or some shit in the 30s, but with less press adn elss support


From the collected Prinessi...

photos of empty frames, large wall drawings of sentence diagramming, and some really gorgeous, geomoterically rigours abstractions, in subdued colours, lines curling adn straightening, seemingly out of its own volition, oil on wood, so the strings of oil reflect and oppose the grain of wood, in an almost magnetic way...i really love this guy.

michael crichton is crazy


NeW John Currin Painting, i like that any of the subtlty he ever had is lost, adn of course, the black lace gloves, equally early madonna and late Madame Barry, i mean hes getting better at painting, better constructed, the flesh tones seem real, and the texture, luminousity, all are there, but its cheap and tacky, and sort of sad (i like cheap, tacky, adn sort of sad---i guess that there is more attention paid to diminishing returns)


Opec Logo, looks like something from a mid 70s english kids show, way too cute for an economic oligarchy

more scandal at new life church, this time i think about boiz and girlz, though this is the juicy bit:
In 2002, Beard was reprimanded by church officials after he staged a missionary training drill using fake assault weapons. A SWAT team was put on alert after a passing motorist thought the guns were real. Brendle said that incident played a role in Beard's departure.



Tom Ackerman, Central Park 4, From Night One.
Ackerman is mostly known for his nudes, or his partial nudes, but his two night sieres are really pretty. There is a little too much of the decorative here, adn a bit too much of the 19th century, though digital, it could v. much be a daugertype or other chemical methods. The purity of the image, with the bridge providing a mirrored circle, infinte and lovely, preurban, in the center of urbanirty, and the lighting, and the crisp detailing, almost too romantic, with its aching for a lost world. all of this is cliche, adn i think what i am moved by is that willingness to be romantic, 19th century, parisian, formal, with out making any big deal about it. The nudes, and the rest of the night sieres are here look through them

china looking to drop american currency. and b/w that and Saudi Arabia freeing oil resevers if teh americans leave iraq, look forward to a signifiact depression in teh next 5 years...


From the year end people issue, even when he tries to be romantic, bush coems across as a fratboy rapist.

first
person discussion of an iraqi detainee

jsut give the jews their fucking menorahs

25 Red Cross workers kidnapped in Bagdhad, by people wearnig Iraqi War Uniforms.

The radical catholic org call to action (pro womens ordination, pro queer, pro opening the church, proV2) has been threatened with excommunication, esp. in the US, here

Chan Marshal explains that whole Avedon, pubes thing

the weekly standard on blackhawk, including discussion of their ophysical space

my visual list from sally mckay

new york cant figure out its water bills, charges people 6 figures, some people havent paid in years, the usual octopode clusterfuck of private capital and public resources that mark urbanity


The Narwahl Avenger

Lawmakers in Nigeria are debating a bill that would ban same-sex marriage and any form of association among gays, even sharing a meal at a restaurant.
Story here including context, and history.

soy makes you gay

instructions on how to hang photos on clotheslines, maybe for hulberts

good feature on Jay Baker, the punk preacher from LA--aside from thsi being no different then the hippie preachers in LA during the 70s, i worry that the novelty will make people avoid lookign hard at theology, and how a conserative in tatoos and piercings is still conserative (one is reminded of the recent problems Mars Hill has had with misogyny and calvinism, in Seattle)

Unit E at a prison outside Newton Illinois, provided single bedrooms, porcelian toilets, doorknobs, and comfort beyond most american prisoners it was only available to christians. a couple of interestnig things about this, most peoplein the prision thought that this was so problematic, and refused to particpiate, and it wasnt good behaviour or religious virtue, muslims. though common, were excluded. a lawsuit just stopped them.

great junk robots, made by brooklyn sculptors


one of my favourite Champion studio images

a bunch of brilliant examples of various epherema.


Rat Skeleton, Standfor Photonics

cute little tool that makes photos like 80s warhols.

SEmco organizes itself via anarchsit, non herichal principles, and makes 160m a year.

Stephen Lahey illustrates the Cadaver Synod, in a suitably creepy way.

Nashville Scene Poll

TOP TEN COUNTRY ALBUMS OF 2006:

1. This Old Road—Kris Kristofferson
In the Hebrew tradition, prophecy was not something either desired or sought after. I think of Kris Kristofferson, exhausted and hopeful, desperate that someone with more energy would take over, but no one ever comes. His is the closest that we have come to a Jeremiah.
2. Out of the Ashes—Jessi Colter
The interesting thing about the outlaw movement, was the inclusion of married couples or couples in relationships. Jessi Colter was on the first album that defined the genre, and has been singing since then. This could have been a broken mourning record, but she seems settled and happy, despite Waylon's loss. A wise piece of work, filled with hard fought sentiment. When she sings The Eye is On the Sparrow, for those 3 minutes, I am convinced that Jesus loves me.
3. Foothill Dandy—Cindy Bostle
I always wonder why the huge scene in Australia, folk, roots or country, hasn't really broken in America. Another example of an amazing singer and player, overlooked for the wrong geographical reasons.
4. These Animal Years—Josh Ritter
Calling him the next Dylan would be a horrible cliché, and anyways Frank Kogan has claimed that role for Ashley Simpson, but there is something cryptic, and real, and fractal here, that strikes me as close to Freewheeling as we are going to get. (Because every generation gets the Dylan he deserves) That said, Ritter can genuinely sing, and has a deep talent for couplets that tell the truth in plain speech, but is also capable of that allusion rich, difficult traps we have come to expect. Comforting, and calming, though it shouldn't be, considering how eschatological it is in places, or how much it is about losing his girlfriend in an unjust war, or any other examples of transcendent misery.
5. Someone Wrote Love-- George Canyon
He has a great voice, recorded this years great drinking song, can use the word Hoss properly, and loves his kid as much as his daddy—all of which would place him high on the list. But over and over, he mentions writing, and cleaning writing, the permanent and temporariness of writing, from carving on trees to paiting on water towers (in the albums great metaphor, he talks about how an old boyfriend wrote his lovers name on the water tower, and now he is going to have to clean it off, with turpentine and elbow grease.) I think that it might be too deep for Canyon, but the continued popping up, of that belief in the written word, and the recognizing of his fragility, made it for me.
6. Josh Turner—Your Man
Because his voice makes me melt
7. Black Cadillac—Roseanne Cash
Johnny Cash wasn't beneath any rhetorical trick, he could find, to make the story better, he was filled with cheap theatrics, and an alt-country queen talking about her dead daddy for an hour, shows that Roseanne has learned every one of her fathers lessons except humor and humility. So the album is leaden but unavoidable in its power.
8. Tom Waits—Orphans, etc.
Proving that the Silver Jew's David Berman was right, when he sang "all my favorite singers couldn't sing", this 3 CD set is an epic mess that proves Waites is a true American original, and one of the best interpretive singers in it's history. (It's sort of his Judy at Carnegie moment, when he collapses into cliché, and a performance so coded, it might as well be Kabuki, and it still works out rather amazingly, because its not the songs or the singer but the schtick that ever lasts. )
9. Rogue's Gallery –Various Artists
With all of this trendy obsession with Pirates being cute and ironic (see Pirates of the Caribbean, Pop Up Pete, Talk Like A Pirate Day, and Dave Eggers, for starter) one forgets important things about them—like how they raped, murdered, tortured and rogered there way through the centuries. This collection reminds us that folk songs come from somewhere, and pays attention to the context that is lost from cheapness.

10. We Shall Over Come: The Seeger Sessons- Bruce Springsteen
Because he managed to avoid this being a circle jerk of lefty banality, and actually rocked through a couple of numbers.

TOP TEN COUNTRY SINGLES OF 2006:

1. Not Ready To Make Nice—Dixie Chicks
Whiny and entitled bitches, who are trying to make a career at art, after a career at commerce didn't fulfill them enough, all of this can be forgiven listening here. There is an intensity, an overwrought, gothic gravitas, that makes the tempest seem like a tsunami.
2. Running Block—Toby Keith
It's cheap but it isn't as nasty as Toby thinks it is. But it continues Toby's continued belief in pleasure. For the first time, this pleasure might be tempered by a bit of responsibility, forgoing a pump and dump for a solid night of bros before hos love making . Also, how he sings the line "co-eds swimming nekkid" is the sexiest white trash phrasing in recent memory.
3. Stealing Kisses—Faith Hill
The single was this year; the album was last year. My biggest surprise was that I found myself loving Faith. She has become accustomed to her instrument, the warmth, and full-throated commitment to melancholy and desire had an intensity that reminds me of Dionne Warwick.
4. Like Red on a Rose--Alan Jackson
Alan finally gives up any attempts at commercialism, and signs onto old school countrypolitian, like Lee Ann Womack last year. It's not nearly as good, and the album is filled with patronizing clichés, but the man believes his pure and unadulterated schmaltz. There is something be said for a singer who is willing to genuinely engage lines like "I love you like all little children love pennies" I want it to be sung as a torch song, by someone who has known other pleasures besides hetero-pairbonding, but one takes what one is given.
5. Like We Never Loved At All—Tim McGraw/Faith Hill
That aforementioned torch song, and one of the best, made more interesting by noticing that though they seem relatively happy, all the best duets by them feature breaking up.
6. Settle for A Slow Down—Dierks Bentley
7. Hold My Beer (While I Kiss Your Girlfriend)—Aaron Pritchett
Famous in Canada, this linebacker of a man has more urban slickness then most hicks north of the 49th. A one-line joke song that is genuinely funny.
8. On The Shores of Old Mexico--George Strait
Elegiac, and gorgeous, here because it is so confident that memory and history can be as much of an aphrodisiac as power and youth.
9. Josh Turner: Your Man
Turner is the best singer this year, hands down, and this song makes me hard just thinking about it.
10. Amarillo Morning--Jason Aldean
There is something to be said for rural verisimilitude, and I think Aldean has it, more then almost any other singer working today, and I think that the feelings are legitimate. I have had conversations with family, and friends still on farms, and they seem broken, in ways that my mother never remembers. The hope that is in play here is a lot more effective then the butch posturing of someone like Montgomery Gentry. Because sometimes Daddy has to sell the farm, or the bank takes the farm away from daddy. That said, it creates an overly simplified dialectic, refusing responsibility or political responsibility for a complicated situation.

TOP FIVE COUNTRY REISSUES OF 2006:

1 Bob Willis and The Texas Playboys
A well-constructed, decently curated best-of, which has all of the seminal texts needed, in a cheap and available package.
2. Reflected: Greatest Hits Vol. 2 Tim McGraw
It is rare, that a greatest hits package seems necessary, and even rarer that the new song is as strong as the albums that preceded it. The warmth, emotional complexity, the raw encounters…Tim McGraw, I think is underrated in his capability for negotiating the contemporary thicket of suburban ennui. And he gets better and better, nothing embarrassing, nothing out of place here.
3. Country Heat 2007
I think that these work so well as time capsules, immediate, and shiny, they will tell us what we listened to in 1997, or 2000. There is something then, immediate, but forward looking, that the best of pop should achieve, and the Heat collections do it much better than the Now collections.
4. Hillbilly Hot Rod and Automobile Songs—V/A
From the amazing British company Jasmine Records, who sends me a catalog twice a year, chock full of cheap CDs of jazz, nostalgic and country CDs, no sexy packaging, no long essays, just the music. The comps are really good, because they don't go for either the obvious or the obscure. This collection has great Hot Rod songs, but extends and embraces the rest of mid-century automobile culture from there. 24 songs you never thought yo needed, till you had the album in your hand. Great Fun.
5.Johnny Bond-I Like My Chicken Frying Size
This boogie-woogie master provides the missing link between rockabilly and just plain rock, plus the best title of the year. Produced by the same company as Hillbilly Hot Rod.

COUNTRY MUSIC'S THREE BEST MALE VOCALISTS OF 2006:

1. Josh Turner
2. Tim McGraw
3. Jason Ritter



COUNTRY MUSIC'S THREE BEST FEMALE VOCALISTS OF 2006:

1. Cindy Bostle
2. Carrie Underwood
3. Faith Hill


COUNTRY MUSIC'S THREE BEST SONGWRITERS OF 2006:

1. Josh Ritter
2. Gordie Sampson
3.

COUNTRY MUSIC'S THREE BEST DUOS, TRIOS OR GROUPS OF 2006:

1. Montgomery Gentry
2. Tim Hill/Faith McGraw
3.

COUNTRY MUSIC'S THREE BEST INSTRUMENTALISTS OF 2006:

1. Emily Robison
2.
3.

COUNTRY MUSIC'S THREE BEST NEW ACTS OF 2006:

1. Taylor Swift
2. Chris Young
3.

COUNTRY MUSIC'S THREE BEST OVERALL ACTS OF 2006:

1. Josh Ritter
2. Tom Waites
3. Faith Hill

Fiction

49 Johnathon Lethem--5 short stories, forget the title, i think that Lethem is one of those writers that talks about the ennui of middle class boyhood, extended past natural limits, about men who are moorless, after femminism and queer rights left...his use of magic realism, and pop culture bricolouge, to the very core of his work, makes the peices more problematic, like springbound traps, but nessc. i loved two stories in this collection, the first, which uses a childhood game of murder adn then i never, to talk about the id, in a really coded way, and super goat man, the others didnt work quite as well, but an excellent volume

50) a dc newsprint collection of green lattern comics from the 50s, stupid fun

I am in Toronto from Jan 10th at 6:15 pm to Jan 20 at 1:45

Cute Child Abuse Prevention ad

new marvel comic intended as miltary agit-prop

paglia writes for US Magazine about Britney's cunt.

dozens of modern mecanix covers, from the 30s onward...this one is my favourite.




Continued Proof of the Brilliance of the New York Post

beautiful collection of edo dynasty japanese medical prints.


Gil Elvgren, pinup artist, did a sieres of works for the NRA, this is one of them.


Sexy Lady Pirate


MADD Canada spends only 19 per cent of its donations on programming

Van SMith. the brilliant and iconoclastic costume designer, for both Waters, and Divine, who was not allowed to work on broadway, when Hairspray won tony awards for best costume, died last week.

Broken Angel a masterpeice of outsider artchitechture, and tender attention towards both site and history, is being torn done b/c of building codes. Broken Angel is like the Winchester House, the Finster Estate, or Watts Tower, and to have it gone is to lose a little bit of that "old weird america".


David La Chapelle, Pamela Anderson, Playboy, 200(6/7)
The silver nitrate sumptiosuness, the texture of human and vegetable skin, the receding background, and the warmth of flesh, its an amazing shot, andalso the idea of lust growing like bamboo...and how much it reminds me of an unstudioed remix of Mizer's lighting or developing, and how Anderson has become LA"s Kiki, what with her work for Chapelle, Prince, and others.

I think a good old fashioned book burning, is perfectly proper, considering Pinochets legacy...

more messy semi abstraction, the print and poster work have a control of line and color, and the paitnings, have realyl interesting thigns to say about absensces and overpainting, sort of like the end point of twombly or ryman, in how they mantain space, and control eyes...and how they work as much from esasure and absence, as they do from presence (the opposite of markmaking is...?)

Jesus Kitsch

In a tearful videotaped message Sunday to his congregation, the senior pastor of a thriving evangelical megachurch in south metro Denver confessed to sexual relations with other men and announced he had voluntarily resigned his pulpit.

A month ago, the Rev. Paul Barnes of Grace Chapel in Doug las County preached to his 2,100-member congregation about integrity and grace in the aftermath of the Ted Haggard drugs-and-gay-sex scandal.

Now, the 54-year-old Barnes joins Haggard as a fallen evangelical minister who preached that homosexuality was a sin but grappled with a hidden life.
story herehe isnt very important or famous, but with the airforce scandals and these two mega church implosions, i might go to Colarado to get ready fascist manpussy

anorexia for hip nyers

some brilliant model trains, painted and handmade, by moscow craftsmen.


Street Writing, from the collection written on the city
more found here

remember all of thsoe symbolic, open, and beautiful passages abotuj cloverleaf exchanges as neural pathways, and high way design as secret kaballistic texts, in microserfs, by coupland--the blog thrilling wonder, collects dozens of photos of those same spaghetti transcendes

Kraak and Smaak - Money in the Bag, is a new song, dirty disco, house for pervs, the song is fantastic, but the video is even better, an ode to fucking as done by medical models of reporduction:



Rihana as Bratz Doll, unknown photog.

abstract landscapes in really delicate, muted pastel hues, cloudy, and quite lovely, by Kim Curtis. Looks like waht would happen if Rackham pushed his way into a Frankenthaler studio class. Avoid her paintings of people, though, mostly hack work.

a well written essay on the socio-political implications of the unveiled vagina, mostly britney's.

Conserative
jews allow both queer marriage and queer rabbbis, meaning 3 of the 6 major jewish brands have gone forward w. these (Reconstructionist, Reform, Conserative) vs (Orthodox, and various Hasids.)

Hershey makes a candybar version of Elvis's favourite sammie. My heart orgasms

thanks to global climate changes tornados are presently doing major damage to London housings.


From Macedonia, via Boing Boing

De La Renta proves that he is an unoriginal, banal, court desinger to the republcian ruling classes, by providing the same red two peice suit/gown for he kennedy honours, to the first lady ,and three other matrons

20 handpainted film posters from Ghana, similar to previously posted vietnamese and russian examples, but with local tropes, and some great unknown horror and Nollywood romances.

Josh Ritter These Animal Years:
One of the best written, most earnest albums of the year. A tender and delicate collection of thoughts on love, sex, war, protest and mourning. Has an amazing eye for detail, and is perfect for those moments of meloncholia when the listner is convinced the world will end very soon.

Beyonce
B Day
This is better than the Dream Girls soundtrack, because for the first time, she is unafraid of making her gorgeous voice ugly.

Fergie
The Duchess
Pure pop trash, mostly due to the production, would call it cryptic if the words actually meant anything. Sweaty, danceable, and not quite erotic, perfect for juinor high rainbow parties.

Christina Aguilera
Back to Basics
Remaking herself as a classy chanteuse was such a cliche move, and everything about the makeover, from the sailor chic to that cotton candy, vanilla halo of Jean Harlow hair, would be problematic and tired, if it weren't for the sheer effort. There is something charming in finally seeing the hardest working gamine in showbiz sweat.

Kelis
Was Here
The was, is the wrong word here, the tense should be is. An album that manages to be all things for all people, if they bothered to hear it, including difficult noise, gorgeous ballads, toxic nostaliga, and eroticism that straddles the line between raw and cooked. Everytime I heard it, something else slithered into my ear drums, lyrically, sonically, or otherwise.

Pharell
In My Mind
Just because of his pretty, pretty croon.

Kris Kristofferson
This Old World
The intensity of Kristofferson as moral authority never wavers, because he is so ambigous about his role.

Rouges Gallery
Pirates of the Caribbean is a movie of great stupidity, and even worse vulgarity, whose spectacle bores, but this well curated, and beautifully sung compliation done as an unoffical merchandise, brings the best rape and murder in English Balladry. Actually makes Pirates dangerous again, and romantic in a slit your throat kind of way. Best tracks include Lucinda Williams, Lou Reed, and oddly Sting.

Bruce Springsteen
The Seeger Sessions
The rumour is that Seeger hated it. That was the highlight, the rigid and obnoxious purity of Seeger, as saviour of the poor and downtrodden gets attacked by rollicking guitars and even harder drums. Considering that this could have been an orgy of self congratualtory lefty goop, it works as a lean, tough and hard album of good musical/poltical instincts.

Gnarls Barkley
St Elsewhere
I've heard singles from this album come out of cars, carnival rides, shopping at the mall, on television and on the radio, for months now. Each time a new single came, it was better then the last. the entire hsitory of pop music from Louis Armstrong to Justin Timberlake, from the Clash to LL Cool J, in a meta-contextual blender of smooth licks and hot pussy. Proves that Danger Mouse might be the greatest bricoluer in a generation that has given us nothing but.


Singles:
Bubba Sparxx/Scar
Ain't Life Grand
Bubba Sparxx's pyscho-geographic blending of southern musical tradition, comes to a natural conclusion, when he sings the immortal lines:
But y'all gettin sick of banjos and fiddle shit
I hit a lick with it, but now I'm feelin brand new
It's time to reinvent again and win again

Gwen Stefani
Wind it Up
This isnt even the first time that this song has been remixed in a pop way, but I am so enamoured by the glories of a well placed yodel, that anything that could put it back on the charts, goes on the list.

Johnny Cash
God's Gonna Cut You Down
Goth Camp, effective because he is Johnny Cash, and his basso profundo gives him the moral authority of Jeremiah. The all celebrity, black adn white, glam video made the song though, especially with Priscilal Presleys black mascara caking and streaking, like her mother on the Kings wedding day.


Franz Ferdinand
L Wells
Creamy, decadent, pseduo-european, and not nearly as naughty as it thinks it is, one of the best aural pleasures of the year.

Ludacris/Pharell Williams
Money Maker
There is something so rigorous and pure about how low these two voices go, its another anthem of late capital excess, and both stupid and kind of offensive morally, but the effect of the sound hypnotizes us into forgetting.


KT Turnstall
Black Horse and Cherry Tree
A remake of Faithful's North Country maid, anglo exoticism desinged for New York Hipsters, her voice, with all the angst and lovliness, strips it of any available presciousness.

Beyonce
Ring the Alarm
Ugly. It takes balls to make a single this ugly. and it hurts to listen to, all good things, extending talents, proves that she is one of the bst vocalists working today.

Justin Timberlake/Timbaland
Sexyback
Its the arrogance that does it. That he released a cult attack mp3 after Prince tried to reclaim the crown he lost 20 years ago, proves that the only way to prove who fuckable yuo are is to say it loudly, and with much panache. It's almsot riseable, if my cock didnt stand on attention faster than a marine at revelery.

Paris Hilton
Stars are Blind
Novelty and Blankess marks the entry into the third dynasty of a post warholian universe, or welcome to the age of Koons, without his moral authority.

Jeffry Loss
Williamsburg Will Oldham Horror Rough Trade
Because the only one funnier to laugh at then emo, is self conciously ironic indie hipsters. The only problem was that Williamsberg was dead in 2006, and even me, who lives in rural alberta, knows that.

Pazz and Jop List:

Albums
Artist Title Label Points
1. Josh Ritter The Animal Years V2/Ada 10
2. Beyonce B Day Sony 10
3. Fergie The Duchess Interscope 10
4. Christina Aguilera Back to Basics RCA 10
5. Kelis Was Here La Face 10
6. Pharell In My Mind Interscope 10
7. Kris Kristofferson This Old World New West 10
8. v/a Rouges Gallery Anti 10
9. Bruce Springsteen The Seeger Sessions Sony 10
10. Gnarls Barkley St Elsewhere Downtown 10
Singles
Artist Title Label
1. Bubba Sparxx/Scar Ain't Life Grand The Virgin
2. Gwen Stefani Wind It Up Interscope
3. Johnny Cash God's Gonna Cut You Down Lost Highway
4. Franz Ferdinand L Wells Domino
5. Ludacris/Pharell Williams Money Maker Def Jam
6. KT Turnstall Black Horse and Cherry Tree Virgin
7. Beyonce Ring the Alarm Sony
8. Justin Timberlake/Timbaland Sexyback Jive
9. Paris Hilton Stars are Blind Warner
10. Jeffry Loss Williamsburg Will Oldham Horror Rough Trade

so i got the idolator rival, the pazz and jop, the nashville times, and i am organizing an end of the year poll for left hip.

plus sallys.

aargh

novembers goals, to be finished in decemebr:
find place for the lisa yuskavage(sp)/lil annie fanny place
write a letter to jerome
plan christmas (TO Krew) (Andrew) (Glenys)


Decembers Deadlines
11th Country Poll
31st Flashforward
31st P and J


Decembers Goals
submit to silver skate
finish up the three articles
make prints/package for marcus
find a show
buy gifts
figure out deer
talk to rachel
isaacs/kurelek
send book proposal onward