Before anyone gets carried away getting all biblical on the asses of the UK looters, it’s best to remember that the people in positions of power have been getting away with much worse crimes for years now. This brilliant open letter to the parents of the UK’s Prime Minister by the writer Nathaniel Tappley makes that abundantly clear with facts, figures and more than a pinch of humor. And yes, before anyone mentions, he does know that Mr Cameron’s father died last year, his point being that he is reflecting assumptions about parenting that Cameron regularly makes.
“Are they really surprised that this country’s culture is swamped in greed, in the acquisition of material things, in a lust for consumer goods of the most base kind? Really?
...
Our politicians are for sale and they do not care who knows it.
Oh yes, and then there’s the expenses thing. Widescale abuse of the very systems they designed, almost all of them grasping what they could while they remained MPs, to build their nest egg for the future at the public’s expense. They even now whine on Twitter about having their expenses claims for getting back to Parliament while much of the country is on fire subject to any examination. True public servants.
The last few days have revealed some truths, and some heartening truths. The fact that the #riotcleanup crews had organised themselves before David Cameron even made time for a public statement is heartening. The fact that local communities came together to keep their neighbourhoods safe when the police failed is heartening. The fact that there were peace vigils being organised (even as the police tried to dissuade people) is heartening.
There is hope for this country. But we must stop looking upwards for it. The politicians are the ones leading the charge into the gutter.”
Read the whole letter here - it’s worth it.
If you’ve ever wanted to look like Hercule Poirot while smoking your weed—now is your chance! Etsy seller Hedcraft makes these fantastic hand-blown mustache pipes for $39.95 each.
(via reddit)
After the UK riots, a little light relief with Photoshop Looters, a Tumblr site dedicated to photo-shopped pix of rioters, looters and other hooded marauders.
View more here, or you can submit your pix at photoshoplooter at gmail dot com
More photo-shop looters, after the jump…
Edy’s ice cream expert and taste-tester, John, demonstrates how to savor the vanilla bean.
As one YouTuber points out, “If I remember correctly, this guy was featured on Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous and his tongue alone was insured for millions of dollars.”
(via Cynical-C)
Who’s this fresh-faced New Waver with the asymmetric poodle hairdo? (Hint: It’s not one of the Thompson Twins).
Nope, it’s future Nine Inch Nails frontman Trent Reznor back in the early 1980s playing and singing a cover of Billy Idol’s “Eyes Without a Face” with his Cleveland, OH band-mates in “The Urge.”
Both astonishing and completely ridiculous.
More baby-faced New Waver Trent Reznor after the jump!
Thank you kindly Michael Backes!
Here is a rare and rather wonderful piece of Kenneth Williams’ archive: his brilliant interpretation of Nikolai Gogol’s farcical short story Diary of a Madman .
In 1963, Kenneth Williams agreed to narrate an animated version of Gogol’s Diary of a Madman for film-maker Richard Williams. The pair had previously worked together on the short cartoon Love Me Love Me. According to the splendid biography Born Brilliant: The Life of Kenneth Williams by Christopher Stevens:
Gogol’s story gave lunatic scope to [Kenneth] Williams’s voices. It told of a lonely clerk, who is driven out of his wits by unrequited love until he succumbs to delusions that, as the uncrowned king of Spain, he is spied upon by talking dogs.
In a recording session that stretched for more than six hours without a break, Williams read from the clerk’s diary in a halting voice, like a man on a window-ledge who cannot will himself to suicide. Other personalities pierced the reading - the sadism of the office supervisor, the contempt of the boss’s daughter, the shrill proclamations of King Ferdinand VIII. ‘I was pretty hard on him, and made him read passages again and again to get the right effect. It freaked him out,’ Richard Williams recalled. ‘At one point he walked out of the studio and I had to run after him. It was a block and a half before I caught up and persuaded him to come back.’ Full of repetition and bitter nonsense, the piece is almost nauseating as the clerk slops and flounders towards insanity. While no recordings exist of Williams in his most unsettling stage roles, Diary of a Madman is proof of his merciless gift for sustained, upsetting performance.
Sadly the animation was never completed, but this incredible recording was later re-edited by the BBC and broadcast on Radio 4 in 1991.
Dramatization by James Burke
Music by Peter Shade
Directed by Richard Williams
Produced by Ned Chaillet
Re-mixed for radio by John Whitehall
Previously on Dangerous Minds
Kenneth Williams: Stop Messin’ About
Bonus - Kenneth Williams reads a classic ‘Just William’ tale, after the jump…
The Your Name Here Story produced by the Calvin Company in 1960, longtime makers of “industrial films,” is the ultimate generic 16mm industrial film, built around every script and visual cliche in the Calvin arsenal. It’s wonderfully droll commentary on the process of making industrial films and of working with “budget conscious” (read “cheap”) clients. The Calvin Company made hundreds of industrial films from the 1930s until the early 1980s when they closed after more than four decades. Famed director Robert Altman got his start as a Calvin Company director in the 1950s.
The by-now legendary satire, The Your Name Here Story was apparently made for a yearly company workshop seminar to humorously instruct new employees on Calvin production tropes and poke fun at what they were doing. Read more about the Calvin Company at Archive.org.
Thank you Taylor Jessen of beautiful downtown Burbank!
Previously on Dangerous Minds:
Freddie Mercury’s eyeball jumpsuit
Pop stars and their packages
Rock Stars and their Mustaches
(via Cherry Bombed)
