“@mtvnews: Beyoncé, Rihanna & Katy Perry send prayers to #Oklahoma #PrayForOklahoma”I feel like an idiot now…I only sent money.

— Ricky Gervais (@rickygervais) May 21, 2013

 
Right on, Ricky!

 
U.K. band Savages’ absolutely great debut album Silence Yourself will without a doubt be making an appearance on my end-of-the year best-of list for 2013. It’s an exhilarating punchy growl of guitars and drums that evoke Siouxsie and The Banshees, The Bunnymen, PJ Harvey slinging the guitar instead of auto-harp and the primal assault of the Bush Tetras. It’s a triumph of hardkicking rock ‘n’ roll from start to finish. And the record comes on transparent vinyl. Cool. 

The group starts the American leg of their International tour in July and will be appearing in my hometown of Austin for ACL.

Here’s a solid 13 minutes of Savages performing live at KEXP studios in Seattle.
 

 
This South African commercial from Allan Gray Investment, with creative by the King James agency, is really a showstopper.

In all my years of advertising, I have never seen a treatment that was so detailed, so carefully thought through, and so deeply researched, than the treatment Keith gave us when pitching to handle this commercial. From beginning to end, his commitment to the job bordered on obsession.” says Alistair King, Executive Creative Director at King James.

“This was an incredibly challenging board, says Rose. You just take it for granted that James Dean is so iconic, so to go and mess with him and replan his life, if it doesn’t work its like you’re desecrating his memory.”

 
This fire escape from the 19th century is such a simple design, I wonder why it never caught on? Perhaps, it was not possible to maintain the structural integrity in high temperatures, and people would be unable to slide down to safety without being cooked. Mind you, fire escapes aside, this would be a fun way to leave work on a Friday.
 
Via Paraphilia Magazine
 

 
Damn, just when you thought you’ve seen all of ‘em, here it comes, hands down the best marriage equality meme EVER.

Whoever came up with this wonderfully droll Bewitched meets the “Red Equal Sign” gag deserves… something. I don’t know what that “something” is, but give me time to think about it. Something really good.

It’s a pity that Samantha Stevens can’t just wiggle her magic nose and bestow full civil rights upon our gay brothers and sisters. Even a witch has to get out there and make some noise for marriage equality!

Previously on Dangerous Minds:
Campy fun: Paul Lynde sings and dances to ‘Bad, Bad, Leroy Brown’

Via WOW Report

 
I was impressed as fuck by Noel Fielding’s clever “dog whistle” homage to Kenneth Anger (and Roy Wood) in the opening credits to his Luxury Comedy TV series (see below), but just imagine seeing someone walking down the street wearing one of these limited edition embroidered “Lucifer Rising” jackets from La Boca:

We’re very excited to have a very limited re-release of our ‘Lucifer’ jacket for Sixpack France. Designed as a tribute to the jacket worn in Kenneth Anger’s 1972 masterpiece Lucifer Rising, the original release sold out long ago, and has since become one or our most requested pieces. This new release is limited to less than 100 worldwide, and we have a few available in our shop now.
Also available in-store exclusively at Citadium Paris.

Previously on Dangerous Minds:
Lucifer Rising: Jimmy Page’s insane, amazing, unused soundtrack to the Kenneth Anger film
 

 
Consisting mostly of a live set shot just before they became worldwide sensations, Eurythmics’ Sweet Dreams Video Album (aka “Live from Heaven”) captures Annie Lennox and Dave Stewart at their most experimental. Within a year, they’d go from being a struggling band lugging their own equipment around to grossing more than some small countries.

This endearing performance was shot at Heaven, London’s notorious gay “superclub” in 1983 (known at the time for its amazing lasers—among other things—which are used throughout).  At this point, Annie Lennox was in her gender-bending “Grace Jones” mode, and sports a man’s suit, hat and bright red hair.

Plus claymation!
 

 
Sissy Spacek puffing on her smokey treat in-between shots on the set of Carrie in 1976.

Let’s assume this is a cigarette.

 
Talking Heads perform a previously unheard version of “Psycho Killer” featuring Arthur Russell on cello. Superb.
 

 
Previously on Dangerous Minds

Pseeco Keeler: Awkward Talking Heads performance on French TV, 1978

 
H/T Dazed & Confused and Chris Frantz!
 

 
Guardian film critic Peter Bradshaw called La Danza de la Realidad (“The Dance Of Reality”), Chilean cinematic trickster Alejandro Jodorowsky’s first film in 23 years, “a triumphant return, which mixes autobiography, politics, torture and fantasy to exuberant, moving effect.”

La Danza de la Realidad was shot in Jodorowsky’s hometown of Tocopilla, deep in the Chilean desert. The film, which premiered at Cannes tells the story, sort of, of the his Communist father, Jaime Jodorowsky, with whom the director obviously had a very complex relationship:

Of course, the entire story is swathed in surreal mythology, dream logic and instant day-glo legend, resembling Fellini, Tod Browning, Emir Kusturica, and many more. You can’t be sure how to extract conventional autobiography from this. Despite the title, there is more “dance” than “reality” — and that is the point. Or part of the point. For the first time, Jodorowsky is coming close to telling us how personal evasiveness has governed his film-making style; his flights of fancy are flights of pain, flights from childhood and flights from reality. And now he is using his transformative style to come to terms with and change the past and to confer on his father some of the heroism that he never attained in real life.

As a child, young Alejandro is played by Jeremias Herskowits, and as an old man by the director himself, who cuts a distinguished, Haneke-like figure with his white hair and trimmed beard. His father Jaime is played by the director’s son Brontis Jodorowsky, which lends the project an intriguingly Freudian flavour. (Until this moment, I thought the scene in Michael Powell’s Peeping Tom in which the director dropped creepy-crawlies on his son’s pillow was the roughest father-son moment in cinema. But here Jodorowsky films a scene in which Jaime is tortured by the state police, and a naked Brontis Jodorowsky has electrodes attached to his testicles in full camera view. Ouch.)

Cannes 2013: La Danza de la Realidad (The Dance Of Reality) - first look review (The Guardian)