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Saturday, March 15, 2003
Gus Van Sant on his new experiment in film time, GerryVan Sant drew on the influence of experimental filmmakers from his younger days, like Stan Brakhage and Chantal Akerman, as well as contemporary Hungarian director Béla Tarr. Breaking from the comparatively quick-cutting of traditional Hollywood films, "Gerry" often goes several minutes without a single edit.
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Quelle dommage, as they say in France Looks like that fire sale of Bréton's collection is happening in April See previous post.
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Thursday, March 13, 2003
Art Spiegelman (Maus) quits The New Yorker due to "the widespread conformism of the mass media in the Bush era" [memepool](Q) Do you consider yourself a victim of September 11? "Exactly so. From the time that the Twin Towers fell, it seems as if I've been living in internal exile, or like a political dissident confined to an island. I no longer feel in harmony with American culture, especially now that the entire media has become conservative and tremendously timid. Unfortunately, even The New Yorker has not escaped this trend: Remnick is unable to accept the challenge, while, on the contrary, I am more and more inclined to provocation."
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UPI "Religion Correspondent" revels in "postmodern rot" as Dutch woman to marry selfIn more ways than one, Jennifer ought to be congratulated. Intentionally or unintentionally, she is taking the Mickey out of a nutty society determined to deconstruct matrimony, a state most religions and cultures have since time immemorial held up as holy and essential for the health of communities and nations. Um. . .OK.
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Wednesday, March 12, 2003
Beastie Boys release anti-war song "In a World Gone Mad" on their website as a free downloadWell I'm not pro Bush and I'm not pro Saddam We need these fools to remain calm George Bush you're looking like Zoolander Trying to play tough for the camera What am I on crazy pills? We've got to stop it Get your hand out my grandma's pocket We need health care more than going to war You think it's democracy they're fighting for?
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Tuesday, March 11, 2003
Newsbytes on search engines: Search Engine Showdown
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Monday, March 10, 2003
Nice to see Twyla's still at it I used to go see her troupe in New York back in the 80s, Catherine Wheel, Little Deuce Coupe and all. Always a lot of fun, even though I didn't know dick about dance and didn't feel the need to know more.
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In a shaken, broke, newly prurient New York, burlesque is backAs the country gears up for war, there's an eerie similarity to the World War II era. More than one person wonders if people just need a little escapism amid increasingly dire straits. "Going to a burlesque night is a great way not to think about troubles," says Lady Ace, a member of the Bombshell! Girls, a burlesque troupe that performs the Slipper Room on March 23. History confirms this. "Burlesque thrives on depression," wrote Irving Zeidman in his 1967 book The American Burlesque Show. "Prettier girls are obtainable at burlesque wages, and the unemployed or indigent male reverts to simple and less expensive forms of entertainment." The same is true for down-and-out downtown residents who frequent affordable venues like the Slipper Room or the Marquee, the sister performance space to Marion's Continental, where they can watch divas like Darling Star, Harvest Moon, and the bodacious troupe the Glamazons tickle the ribs while titillating the libido. At first I thought -- right, since 9/11 anything from another, more "innocent" era is going to thrive (how many times will America lose its innocence? -- I posted once before about this). But perhaps it's natural that in an age when you can get pretty much anything you can imagine online -- and lots of it for free, one way or another -- it makes sense that live, cheap risqué entertainment would make a comeback. Anf there's a conceptual edge to some of these new shows too.Nostalgia, it seems, is also in high demand. Even though burlesque was frequently dismissed in its heyday for being lewd, today the "kute kuties" hark back to a more innocent time. "Smart people under 30 know they've missed something entirely and are interested in seeing something not coming through a monitor," says Show's owner, Norman Gosney. But the new burlesque isn't simply a throwback. "The thing that's interesting about the revival is that so many people doing it are very, very aware of the history and yet are reinventing the form," says Kimb Giunta, an assistant curator at the New York Museum of Sex. Today's performers are edgier than their predecessors. They twist gender roles in their skits: MsTickle's belly-dance strip ends by revealing a merkin -- fake pubic hair -- in her crotch area as well as a full beard, while Lady Ace portrays a stressed-out career woman who lets loose to Van Halen's "Ain't Talkin' 'Bout Love." "We are not so concerned with duplicating [classic burlesque]," says Lady Ace. "We do things with something sick and twisted thrown in." Julie Atlas Muz, who many consider to be the most conceptual of the new guard, has a routine where she breaks free of rope à la Houdini while stripping down to pasties and not much else. "Julie is the cutting edge of burlesque, period," says *BOB*. "A lot of girls are doing completely new things." *BOB* could just as easily be talking about herself. At Fez, she slips out of a shiny gold lamé gown and then makes a martini using her breasts?which, it should be noted, are considerable. (They are an F cup.) She tops off the confection by producing two olives from the depths of her underpants, before offering it to a red-faced customer in the front row.
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CNN says: "Blogging goes mainstream"...what once seemed like a passing fancy has morphed into a cutting-edge phenomenon that may provide the platform for the Internet's next wave of innovation and moneymaking opportunities. [...] Dr. Pepper/Seven Up is already testing this theory by mining the Blogosphere to launch an unusual marketing campaign for a new flavored milk drink called Raging Cow. [...] Richards Interactive also created a blog, ostensibly written by the raging cow herself, punctuated with the slogan, "The Revolution Will Be Homogenized." Mercy. Current poll percentiles:Yes, I blog - 26 No, but will blog - 19 Don't intend to blog - 55
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Sunday, March 09, 2003
No escape Common Criminals: L.A. Crime Stories by Larry Fondation: reviewSeething with the energy of streets, bars and bedrooms, Los Angeles author Larry Fondation?s second book reads like a collaboration among Elmore Leonard, Dennis Cooper and Eminem. Its author may well be the best unknown writer in America -- and this brilliant collection of short fiction will probably not change that.
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Mad Mel? OK. So here's the list: Mel Gibson-- is making a $25mil film about Jesus Christ in Latin and Aramaic -- without subtitles. -- is a member of the Catholic traditionalists who think the Church went astray after the Council of Trent in the 16th century, and only attend Mass spoken in Latin (and don't eat meat on Friday, and whose female members wear headdresses in church). -- is in fact the sole benefactor of a traditionalist chapel being built near Malibu. -- whose father Hutton -- who thinks the Holocaust never happened and calls the Pope the "Koran Kisser" -- is clearly his inspiration (Hutton also thinks the 9/11 attacks were done "by remote control" and that al Qaeda had nothing to do with them -- I'll reserve judgment on that til more facts are in). -- who has only spoken about speaking about his beliefs on The O'Reilly Factor -- in only the most circumspect way. Gotta respect him for sticking to his guns. And I may agree with some of the conspiratorial questions his father brings up (not concerning the Holocaust, mind you) -- Mel won't say exactly what he believes. But . . . wow. Oh -- and he's optioned the film rights to O'Reilly's mystery novel.
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Youssou N'Dour cancels US tour in war protest
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