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Nazis Discuss Finding Hitler’s Corpse
01.13.2010
04:49 pm
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Newly discovered: a tape recording of Nazi officers describing the moment they found the body of Adolf Hitler in his Berlin bunker.  While the recording was made on October 25, 1956, in a courtroom in Berchtesgaden (the place of Hitler’s Bavarian mountaintop retreat), it was unearthed only recently by researchers for the German Spiegel TV channel.

Among those giving evidence that day were Otto Guensche, an SS officer, and Heinz Linge, a valet, who first discovered the corpses of Hitler and his new bride Eva Braun.  The men speak under oath of entering the Fuehrer’s study after hearing shots ring out on April 30 1945.  “When I entered to my left I saw Hitler on the sofa,” said Linge, who died in 1980.  “Hitler had his head bent forward somewhat and I could see a bullethole approximately the size of a penny on the right side of the temple.”

Guensche, who went to his death in 1983 refusing to give details about the dictator’s end, said: “Hitler sat on the arm of the sofa with his head hanging down on the right shoulder which was itself hanging limp over the back of the sofa.  On the right side was the bullet hole.”

From that point, on Guensche and Linge started removing the bodies and preparing them for cremation.  After Berlin fell—and before their story went very far—the pair were captured by the Soviets and whisked off to Moscow.  Their testimony lay hidden all this time in Munich’s public records office. 

Recording Of Nazi Officers Who Found Hitler’s Body Released

Posted by Bradley Novicoff
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01.13.2010
04:49 pm
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Burroughs: The Movie
01.13.2010
04:35 pm
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Some fresh Burroughs loot was just added to the mountain of treasure that is Ubu: the entirety of Howard Brookner’s Burroughs: The Movie.  Previously available on VHS only (a used copy on Amazon runs you 40 bucks), Burroughs: The Movie was released in ‘85 by poet, Warhol associate, and dial-a-poem instigator, John Giorno, through his Giorno Poetry Systems.

The film features such familiar-but-always-welcome luminaries as Allen Ginsberg, Brion Gysin, Francis Bacon, Patti Smith, and Terry Southern.  And while there’s a new Burroughs doc just around the corner, there’s still plenty of juicy bits in Burroughs: The Movie.  Don’t miss Lauren Hutton introducing Burroughs as “the greatest living writer in America,” before his first appearance on Saturday Night Live (he reads an excerpt of Naked Lunch, by the way!).

Sadly—and unusual for Ubu—Burroughs: The Movie is unembeddable, but to quickly have your ticket exploded just click here.

Posted by Bradley Novicoff
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01.13.2010
04:35 pm
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Pat Robertson Blames The Haitian Tragedy On A “Devil Pact”
01.13.2010
03:15 pm
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Last time it was Halloween candy, now it’s earthquakes.  Is there ANYTHING shameful opportunist Pat Robertson can’t link to some infernal cause?!

“Something happened a long time ago in Haiti, and people might not want to talk about it,” he said.  “They were under the heel of the French…and they got together and swore a pact to the devil.  They said, ‘We will serve you if you’ll get us free from the French.’  “True story.  And the devil said, ‘OK, it’s a deal,’” Robertson said. “Ever since, they have been cursed by one thing after another.”

 
The full, Christian Broadcasting Network take on the tragedy can be found here.

(via Politico)

Posted by Bradley Novicoff
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01.13.2010
03:15 pm
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Kate Clark’s Humanimal Sculptures
01.12.2010
11:49 pm
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Really insane and/or terrifying humanimal sculptures by artist Kate Clark. This sorta reminds me of a post I did a while back on Alex Kovas: Freaky Manimal Model.

From Kate’s website:

Offering a heavy hand of irreverent wit striped with compassion, Kate Clark’s sculptures ask viewers to disregard pretense and to apprehend the idea of emotional uncertainty. Although the artist embarks on a journey towards shocking and repelling viewers as they recognize and reject the thing?

Posted by Tara McGinley
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01.12.2010
11:49 pm
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MOCA hires Jeffrey Deitch: NYC’s loss is L.A.‘s gain
01.12.2010
11:08 pm
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It’s considered by some to be a controversial appointment, but the news of New York gallerist Jeffrey Deitch taking over the top spot at the embattled Museum of Contemporary Art comes off as a stroke of genius to us.

Speaking myself as a longtime New Yorker—before I finally wised up and put down roots in Los Angeles— I’ve long regarded the rise of Deitch and his Soho galleries to be the best—as in the single best—thing to happen to Gotham’s art world since, well, Andy Warhol died. That’s saying a lot, obviously. Deitch’s shows and opening-night parties were always the highlight of art-world socializing, mixing the highbrow and lowbrow crowds in way that only someone with Deitch’s Rolodex and social connections could deliver. His championing of emerging stars such as Ryan McGinness, Kembra Pfahler and E.V. Day was never short of visionary, and the art scene of Los Angeles gained much with Eli Broad and the MOCA board’s unanimous vote of confidence in Deitch’s hiring.

A great deal of the brouhaha seems to revolve around the fact that Deitch is an actual businessman, and a successful one at that, when it’s customary for museum directors to be cherry-picked from other museums or academic posts. Why this might prove detrimental to his performance in the job—Deitch is a Harvard MBA, a good business head is something MOCA desperately needs—is a complete mystery to us, but there have been calls for Deitch to divest himself of what must be a fairly substantial (to say nothing of quite valuable)  collection of Modern art. Why? Should Eli Broad and David Geffen be required to do the same? Because Deitch has proved himself to be a shrewd operator in his chosen field of endeavor, he should therefore be penalized? Makes no sense. It’s hardly like the guy is a corporate lobbyist. This is the art world, after all. This is the way it’s supposed to work…

I, for one, welcome the arrival of Jeffery Deitch to the best coast with open arms. Smart move, MOCA, just make sure you spell my name right on the guest list.

Cross posting this from Brand X

Posted by Richard Metzger
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01.12.2010
11:08 pm
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Steven Severin: From Siouxsie to Music to Silents
01.12.2010
10:58 pm
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In his Los Angeles live solo debut, goth legend Steven Severin (he of Siouxsie and the Banshees fame) will be appearing at the Cinefamily/Silent Movie Theater for two evenings, adding moody live scores to several surrealist silent shorts (including Germaine Dulac’s “The Seashell and the Clergyman,” a collaboration with Antonin Artaud). The second night will see Severin premiering a “trance-inducing” new score for Jean Cocteau’s 1930 film “Blood Of A Poet.”

Jan. 13-14, $15 on Jan. 13; $17 on Jan. 14; 8 p.m., Cinefamily at Silent Movie Theater, 611 N Fairfax Ave., Los Angeles; (323) 655-2510
 

Cross posting this from Brand X

Posted by Richard Metzger
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01.12.2010
10:58 pm
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The Mandalas of A. T. Mann
01.12.2010
06:56 pm
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Check out the incredible mandalas of A. T. Mann, mandala painter extraordinaire, who has assessed the world’s sacred traditions to create some of the most impressive mandala art I’ve seen. A trained architect, Mann (whose actual name is indeed Alden Taylor Mann) has been designing these works since the seventies, as well as writing on a huge panopoly of subjects, largely on astrology and tarot. You can see his works at the site linked below.

(A. T. Mann’s Sacred Arts)

(A. T. Mann: A New Vision of Astrology)

Posted by Jason Louv
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01.12.2010
06:56 pm
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Rubin Museum Tracks Cosmic Cycles
01.12.2010
06:46 pm
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The Rubin Museum in NY, a formidable midtown institution dedicated mostly to preserving Tibetan thangkas (and a hell of a place to spend a day), has opened a new exhibit tracking mankind’s efforts at depicting the cosmos. Can’t think of a more impressive, or important topic for an art exhibit. (A lot less boring than another round of snooze-inducing works on “identity politics,” for f*k’s sake.)

In the Grilandus Inventum, a beautifully-preserved handwritten Italian book from 1506-07 currently on display at the Rubin Museum of Art in New York, there is a figure of a man surrounded by zodiacal signs. In his left hand, he holds an armillary sphere, a celestial sphere with the Earth at the center of the universe, in accord with pre-Copernican astronomy. Lines from the zodiacal signs connect to Zodiac Man’s body parts. The lesson is clear: man is governed by the cosmos.

The medieval manuscript depicting Zodiac Man is part of the Visions of the Cosmos exhibit, the Rubin’s examination of the ways in which humans have conceived of their place in the universe over the centuries.

Since antiquity, humans have pondered the meaning of the universe, crafting creation myths and cosmologies to explain the heavens: the seasonal change of the night sky, the movements of the planets, the beauty of the Milky Way. That the planets and constellations are somehow responsible for earthly affairs was a common theme to the cosmologies of many cultures.

Visions of the Cosmos also depicts Hindu, Jain and Buddhist worldviews through carefully selected works including 18th century Tibetan Buddhist scrolls, loose leaf Jain manuscripts from the 16th century, black stone Hindu statues from the 11th and 12th centuries.

(New Scientist: The Cosmos Cycles On)

(Rubin Museum: The Illustrated Dhammapada)

Posted by Jason Louv
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01.12.2010
06:46 pm
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Elvis: Transhumanist
01.12.2010
06:38 pm
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h+ Magazine points to this great 3quarksdaily essay about Elvis as a transhumanist. I’ll buy that one. 20th century celebrity was basically a transhumanist strategy anyway, and Elvis was, well, the king…

Occasionally an idea will come to mind that’s claimed quickly and eloquently by someone else before you have a chance to execute it.  When Michael Jackson died I began dabbling with the subject of Jackson as Transhumanist, but my piece was only half-written when RU Sirius pretty much nailed the topic.  Nick Gillespie at Reason found the key lines from Sirius:  “Michael Jackson is obviously not an example of transhumanism to be followed.  But he is a signpost on the road to post-humanity. I believe the future will study him from that perspective, and in some odd way, it will learn from his many mistakes.”

Well said, and lesson learned:  When it comes to the world of ideas, if you snooze you lose.  (Unless you enhance your work capabilities with Provigil, of course, in which case you won’t do as much snoozing.)  But although the Michael Jackson moment has come and gone, a new event was commemorated this week:  the 75th birthday of Elvis Presley. Elvis was the primogenitor, the Omo I of rock and roll culture.  He didn’t just “ship a lot of units,” as they used to say in the record biz (back when there was a record biz.)  He changed everything.

Elvis was certainly considered different.  From his early days on he was an agent of radical transformation in sexuality, culture, and appearance.  At nineteen, he and his musicians seemed so unusual to the announcer at the Louisiana Hayride that he was asked, on the air, “You all geared up with your band there?”

“I’m all geared up!”  Elvis answered.

(3quarksdaily: Was Elvis a transhumanist?)

(Jack Womack: Elvissey)

Posted by Jason Louv
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01.12.2010
06:38 pm
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Guy Has Glasses Tattooed On His Face
01.12.2010
05:35 pm
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Consider this a bookend to last week’s adventure in tattooing!  Oh wait—adventures!

UPDATED: It appears this may be a bit of viral advertising for RayBans.  You got to hand it to ‘em, though.  I imagine they made the guy’s tat just off enough from a real pair of RayBans to make it look more plausible/less suspicious. 

 
(via Gawker)

Posted by Bradley Novicoff
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01.12.2010
05:35 pm
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