When I was growing up, I could read the Village Voice in the local library and fancied myself “up” on what was going on in New York, at the age of 14, even though I had never been anywhere even close to the island of Manhattan. Having said that, if I wasn’t exactly an expert on New York City per se, I was at least an expert on each and every issue of the Village Voice. (And you can tell a lot about a city from its alt weekly, let’s just say. Reading between the lines = very easy with the Village Voice. True now, and true then.)
But in my hometown, one thing I couldn’t experience, even vicariously, was the insane cable access world of Manhattan Cable, now known as the Manhattan Neighborhood Network.I’d read about shows like Ugly George, where a fat asshole in a silver-lame jumpsuit carried a video-camera (the huge old fashioned kind with the outboard decks) around New York and asked women to take their clothes off for him. Many did. Many more told him to fuck off and die. There was also Glenn O’Brien’s TV Party, which I longed to see, it was so glamorous sounding, there was Al Goldstein’s racy Midnight Blue, but most intriguing of all for me, living in Wheeling, WV where nothing ever happened, were Andy Warhol’s cable access programs. I loved the idea that anyone who wanted to have their own TV show could do so and saw myself having one myself one day (and I did, The Infinity Factory talkshow, which was on for over 2 years opposite ER!)
A great website I just discovered called Zamboni has files of a few of the Warhol programs for streaming and download. Other shows are knocking around out there, too. Many famous faces here including Halston, Pee-wee Herman, Debbie Harry and John Waters.
Depending on who you are, this is either the funniest thing ever posted on YouTube or else a total bore. I don’t think there is a middle ground, You were duly warned.
The gals in the moshpit at the Gathering of the Juggalos, 2009. Oh my.
Via @ericwareheim on Twitter
...Or so they claim. Regardless, this is a spooky and moving experiment worthy of your 10 minutes. Extra points for the dead simple, primitive but super effective music. (evidently a bit of Kate Bush’s “Hello Earth” looped and messed with. Thanks, Troy. No wonder I liked it !).
Here’s something cooler than a canary in a coal mine: Tadpoles genetically engineered to glow when they encounter water pollution.
African clawed frog tadpoles modified with jellyfish genes show promise as a faster and less expensive way to detect pollution than traditional methods, say a University of Wyoming professor and researchers in France. What’s more, the green-glowing tadpoles indicate whether pollution exists in a form that can be absorbed by an organism and therefore might be dangerous to people. That’s more difficult with conventional methods.
“We’re tracking dosages that would show up in terms of development in either a person or a tadpole,” said Paul Johnson, a physics and astronomy professor at the University of Wyoming. Some tadpoles have been engineered to light up in response to metals. Others fluoresce when exposed to pollution from plastic that might cause health problems by mimicking the hormone estrogen.
Here’s an odd collection of hand-drawn movie posters for temporary cinemas in Ghana. From This Blog Rules:
Temporary cinemas became common in Ghana in the 80s because of video cassette technology. When ?
David Mitchell, writing in the Arkansas Law Review, argues that a new trial is warranted for the so-called West Memphis 3. If the Supreme Court reads the Arkansas Law Review, things might begin to look a little brighter for Damien Echols, Jason Baldwin and Jessie Misskelley.
The first paragraph from the press release below is rather telling, don’t you think? Still an Arkansas judge turned down their requests for new trials!
New evidence in the case revealed that while no DNA of the convicted young men was found at the crime scene, DNA from Terry Hobbs, stepfather of Stevie Branch, was found in the ligature binding the hands and feet of one of the other children. In addition, some of the country?
I know the Star Wars mashups are getting a bit redundant. However, this one is pretty darn clever and amusing.
(via misterhonk)
Recall the pilfered Warhols of all the sports legends of a couple of months ago? The original Polaroids that Andy Warol shot that served as the basis for these portraits were on display at the Danzinger Projects gallery in New York recently. There’s a gallery of them here.
It’s says that Warhol always used a Polaroid Big Shot camera. I want one! Polaroid is stupid for not trying to keep their instant cameras going for artists. It they did an “Andy Warhol Edition” of the Big Shot, I would so be there…
