The wearing of a cravat is a sign of sophistication and style. Only the most self-assured can carry it off. Look at Cary Grant in To Catch a Thief, or, David Niven telling us The Moon’s a Balloon, or the dear Master himself, Noel Coward, accessorized with smoking jacket, tinkling the ivories, saying how he would go through life in First or Third Class, but never Second. Yes, it takes considerable confidence to wear one, for it signifies a sense of the wearer’s identity and self-importance.

Elvis Costello wears a cravat in this documentary on the making of his 1981 album, Almost Blue. He carries it off, in his own way. In much the same way as the Post-Punk, New Wave singer made this album of classic Country and Western covers his very own.

It was an inspired decision, one perhaps touched by genius. At the height of his Indie Pop success, Elvis moved to Nashville, hooked up with legendary producer Billy Sherrill, and learned to make a near perfect C&W album.

The South Bank Show followed Elvis Costello during the making of Almost Blue, and captured almost the whole process by which Sherrill and Costello chose, worked on and recorded the album. It is an excellent documentary, revealing the talent, arrogance and self-belief required to make a landmark album, or to wear a cravat.
 

 
I really like this Game of Thrones meets The Big Lebowski screenprint, available through Gallery 1988 for $40.00.

Via reddit

 
A handsome young Duglas T Stewart of BMX Bandits gave this brief tour of his favorite things for 1980s pop show FSd. Amongst the items on display in Duglas’ den were: a fan’s portrait made from sticky-back plastic, records by Village People, The Beach Boys and Throbbing Gristle (nuff said?), and his plastic fish tank. This will go in some way to explaining why BMX Bandits are one of the most beloved, beautiful and inspiring bands of all time. As has been said by others in the documentary film Serious Drugs, BMX Bandits’ music is like being hugged by all the people you love, all at the same time. Pretty heart-warming.

Duglas’s piece to camera segues into a quick clip of Wray Gunn and the Rockets, featuring a very young Keith Warwick, now with The New Piccadillys, before we return to Duglas and BMX Bandits performing a subversively delightful version of “(You Gotta) Fight For the Right (To Party!)”

Serious Drugs - The Film about BMX Bandits is to be shown at the Portobello Film Festival, in London on 7 September 2012, check here for details.
 

 
Previously on Dangerous Minds

 
The great author Robertson Davies felt he never quite belonged. To what? or to whom? he never made quite certain, but he described an itinerant childhood in Canada that made him feel distant which gave him a necessary ruthlessness and watchful quality that made him more agreeable towards the solitary toil of writing.

His father was a newspaperman, a publisher and editor, who became a politician. To escape from under his father’s strong and domineering personality, Roberston decided to focus on his own strengths and ambitions. At first he decided to be an actor. He moved to England, studied at Oxford University. But when he returned to Canada, he worked for twenty years as a newspaperman. He still harbored his own ambitions. At night, he started writing the plays and books that made him one of the twentieth century’s most respected writers.

At the time of this interview in 1973, Davies had completed Fifth Business and The Manticore, the first 2 volumes of his brilliant Deptford Trilogy, and was working on the third World of Wonders. The trilogy hangs on one incident that has dramatic and far-reaching consequences on a group of townspeople at the turn of the 20th century.

Davies was a genuinely learned man. His novels are filled with jokes, allusions, literary references and themes, that give bountiful pleasures to the reader.

In this interview, you will find him gently poking fun at himself and other scribes with this description of his trade: 

‘Writers are curious people, in that they tend to be withdrawn, they tend to be rather grumpy and unhappy, they tend to take offense very readily, and they tend to harbor grievances more than a great many people do, and they tend to be hypochondriacs.’

Davies had a great interest in psychology. He was influenced by Jung, but thought Freud had a dreadful reductive quality. Yet, he felt neither gave a full or satisfactory answer to what is experienced in life.

This interview wanders around its subject, encompassing his acting, his father, his childhood, his writing, his journalism, and his academic life. It is a rare look at one of fiction’s most intelligent writers.
 

 
Merv Griffin was always known for having slightly more outre guests than most of the other daytime talkshows of his era, but this October 6, 1965 interview with a nearly mute Andy Warhol and a much more talkative Edie Sedgwick must’ve been quite perplexing to American housewives when it originally aired.
 

 
Beloved mid-90s Nickelodeon children’s show, The Adventures of Pete & Pete had some of the coolest celebrity cameos of any American kid’s show, ever.

Here they all are, in one 9 and a half minute-long compilation video.

In order of appearance:

Patty Hearst
David Johansen
Ann Magnuson
Martin Donovan
Suzzy Roche (The Roches)
Sarah Shannon (Velocity Girl)
Chris Elliott
Bebe Neuwirth
Syd Straw
Steve Buscemi
Gordon Gano (Violent Femmes)
Janeane Garofalo
Debbie Harry
Heather Matarazzo
Kate Pierson
Michael Stipe
Marshall Crenshaw
Juliana Hatfield
Luscious Jackson
Iggy Pop
Hunter Thompson

The ULTIMATE Pete & Pete reunion will be a part of the fab Everything Is Festival! (co-sponsored by Cinefamily) on August 28th. On the stage of the historic Orpheum Theatre, Pete & Pete fans are promised “virtually the entire population of Wellsville (from its creators to its residents).” More information (and advance tickets) here.
 

 
Holy shit… has it really been a year since the last Everything Is Festival? Twelve months have passed since their last memorable pageant of complete and utter fuckedupedness? Apparently so because the new one, Everything is Festival III: The Domination, is nigh upon us and this year, it’s bigger and badder than ever: TEN FULL DAYS of description-defying mayhem.

If you live in Los Angeles and you love weird, insane, hilarious underground shit—then Everything Is Festival! is better than your Christmas, Halloween and birthday combined. It’s the film, video and music festival that feels like a holiday. But a really fucked-up holiday in a really fucked-up country.

Here’s a list of most of what’s happening between August 18th and the 28th at Cinefamily in Hollywood (and locations elsewhere) in no particular order. I’ve gone to both previous Everything Is Festivals and had my mind blown apart. I highly recommend the Schrab & Harmon’s Found Crap video screening and anything done specifically by the Everything Is Terrible collective. The EIF talent show with Nick Offerman and the Jeff Krulik retrospective show also look like fun. The found footage “battle” is another fucked-up treat..

Show & Tell w/ Joel Hodgson!
One of our favorite comedians ever, Joel Hodgson (the creator of Mystery Science Theater 3000 and Cinematic Titanic) will give us an evening’s worth of his personal archives. Not only might he avail us of his intense personal collection of ventriloquist dummies, but he’s also going to bring video material fro across his career, including the long-lost pilot The TV Wheel!

Everything is Terrible! Presents “The Rise and Fall of God” or “Religion’s Greatest Shits!” or “God Is Alive And Well And Living in Branson”
Since ‘07, the found-footage collective Everything Is Terrible! has not only amassed so much gooey analog gold that even sifting through it as a viewer proves to be a problem—but also a few “cease and desist” letters that have forced the gang to bury some of their weirdest and most outrageous stuff.  Well, fuck that!  For one very special show, EiT! is proud to present the greatest thing to ever happen to VHS: organized religion!  Whether you’re a God-fearing lunatic or an annoying atheist blowhard, let’s put our differences aside and laugh in the face of our Lord while demanding he proves his existence once and for all!  

G.L.O.W.: The Story of the Gorgeous Ladies Of Wrestling (director & Ladies of G.L.O.W. in person!)
G.L.O.W.: The Story of The Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling chronicles the rise and fall of the first ever all-female wrestling show through the stories of those who lived it.  For all of the women, working on G.L.O.W. was a unique and exciting experience that will bond them forever.  Director Brett Whitcomb and the ladies of G.L.O.W. themselves will be here in person for a panel unlike any other!  

Adult Swim’s “Off The Air” (creator David Hughes in person!)
When your show is called Off The Air and it’s on at 3AM, you’re almost daring viewers to hunt down and discover an incredible show like this.  Thankfully we did, and we cannot wait to share it with you.  Each episode starts with a simple theme (animals, food, etc.), and what happens next is hard to explain.  In an insanely short amount of time, the show’s creator David Hughes curates the most wonderfully bizarre and disturbingly beautiful short films of our time.   Dave Hughes will be here in person to show us unseen shorts, his favorite gems, and God knows what else!  

Schrab & Harmon’s Found Crap
Rob Schrab.  Dan Harmon.  Two creative visionaries who happen to collect jaw-droppingly funny found-footage.  In fact, they relate their obsession to their careers as creators of incredible film and television (Community, The Sarah Silverman Program, Monster House.)  Speaking of success, their Found Crap shows (this will be their sixth!) are some of Cinefamily’s most talked-about events.  Schrab & Harmon are living proof that watching Midwestern horror films and bad porno lead to success and power!

Alamo Drafthouse presents Miami Connection, with Y.K. Kim in Person!
There are films that we save for a rainy day—and, baby, it’s fucking pouring!  THE most entertaining film you will see.  Ever.  Directed by 9th-degree black belt philosopher/author/inspirational speaker Grandmaster Y.K. Kim, Miami Connection tells the story of fearless synth rock band Dragon Sound, as they embark on a roundhouse wreck-wave of crime-crushing justice in the streets of Orlando, FL.  “‘Miami Connection’ has repeatedly destroyed our audience in a more powerful way than anything else in the 15 years of our theater’s existence.” - Zack Carlson, Alamo Drafthouse

The Doug Benson Interruption: Everything is Festival Edition!
This Everything Is Festival Edition installment of Doug Benson’s Movie Interruption, where Doug and his friends (who, in the past, have included everyone from Brian Posehn to Sarah Silverman and Zack Galifianakis) chill on the front row couches, mics in hand, and say whatever hilarious thing pops into their heads while a movie of their choosing unfolds on the screen. We don’t know what wacky thing Doug is gonna cook up for us in honor of the festival, but we do know it will be hilarious and stoned.

Jeff Krulik’s ‘Parking Lot’ and Other Treasures
What do Neil Diamond, Harry Potter, and Judas Priest all have in common?  They all have obsessive fans—and they all have parking lots outside the venues they appear at.  The man who brought us 1986’s top-shelf, all-time classic Heavy Metal Parking Lot presents his favorite short films made over his thirty-year career in filmmaking.

An Evening With Longmont Potion Castle
The John Coltrane of crank calls is sitting himself down for a truly rare and intimate interview.  That’s right, THE only crank caller worth our continued attentions: his work is alternately hilarious, tripped out, nonsensical, infuriating, ridiculous, and straddles the line between totally genius and completely stupid. Whether he’s confusing innocent victims, picking fights with some of them, befriending others, posing as the UPS man wanting to deliver some centipedes, or tirelessly harassing Eddie Money—the man is a twisted genius.  Longmont will also perform live his one-man metal show that’s sure to shred your flesh!  This guy is your new hero, so get to know him well.

Found Footage Battle Royale 2012
Think your collection of YouTube videos and VHS tapes is the best in the biz? Well, prove it, creep! This is a Found Footage Battle Royale of viral video insanity—and we’re daring you to bring your A-game, and go head-to-head with your own kind!  We want to see your weird, funny, insane clips that you’ve always wanted to show publicly — think of it like WWF wrestling, but with videos instead of all that greasy groping stuff.  Sixteen brave souls enter the competition—only one leaves alive!

Silver Screen Kitty Queens: The Art of the Cat Film
Everyone here at Everything Is Festival and Cinefamily loves kitty cats—no, we really LOVE KITTY FREAKIN’ CATS!! In honor of our four-legged brethren, we’re putting together the cuddliest, most snuggly, adorable and highly informative cat videostravaganza ever. Some of you may have heard about the Internet Cat Video Festival at Minneapolis’s Walker Art Center—the first ever of its kind. Well, we’re flying its founder, Katie Hill, for a special L.A. sneak peek of her event. The show also includes the L.A. premiere of CatCam, the SXSW Audience Award-winning short documentary about a German engineer who attached a camera to his outdoor adventurer cat’s collar, to see what happens. That’s just a taste of what’s included in this program, with more announcements to come. You’re sure to PURRRR with delight! MEOW!

Ultimate ‘Pete and Pete’ Reunion
Every generation thinks the kids stuff they grew up with is best ever made–and those of us who grew up with Pete and Pete may actually be right. While it only lasted three seasons (1993-1996), The Adventures of Pete and Pete imprinted a generation with its magical and moving mixture of mystery, sweetness, strangeness, and humor — how we remember childhood at its best. As Cinefamily’s Everything is Festival comes to a close, and FYF Fest begins, we are excited to unite our powers for good and bring to you the Ultimate Pete and Pete Reunion to end all Pete and Pete reunion shows. We’ll assemble on one stage virtually the entire population of Wellsville (from its creators to its residents), to wax nostalgic about the quintessential show about nostalgia, to explicate inside jokes, to deconstruct the immaculate mechanism behind the show’s making, and to have a great time. We’ll be flashing Petunia tattoos, eating Mr. Tastee ice cream, getting “loaded” on Orange Lazarus, and, for the first and (maybe) last time in history, listening to our favorite songs live from the band POLARIS — who are reuniting for this special show. This is Woodstock for Kreb Scouts, kiddies, and you’ll wanna say you were there (or you’ll be lying about it later, anyways.) Clear your calendar. Get on a plane. Evade the International Adult Conspiracy. Just don’t be a jerkweed, and do what it takes, cause you don’t wanna miss this show!

More information—and ticket booking—at the Cinefamily website
 

 
Little Britain‘s Matt Lucas voices this darkly hilarious animation Welcome to Glaringly, in which a man visits an old friend in a sinister town with alarming consequences.

Written and directed by Grant Orchard and produced by Nicola Black, from Blackwatch Media, for Channel 4’s Mesh scheme.
 

 
Choice clips of Public Image Limited, performing live at Zeche Bochum, Germany, for Rockpalast in 1983.

John Lydon was 5 years into his PiL experiment, and having either kicked out or split from the band’s original members, was now teamed-up with a band of session musicians (who acquit themselves admirably), and regular drummer Martin Atkins. Lydon seems happy that he is now in charge and gives a great performance of his “greatest hits”, a similar version of which would be released as the double EP record Live in Tokyo.

Track Listing

01. “Public Image”
02. “Annalisa”
03. “Religion”
04. “Memories”
05. “Flowers of Romance”
06. “Solitaire”
07. “Chant”
08. “Anarchy in the UK”
09. “(This is Not a) Love Song”
10. “Low Life”
11. “Under the House”
12. “Bad Life”
13. “Public Image”
 

 
More choice chunks of PiL on ‘Rockpalast’, after the jump…
 

 
This vintage footage of Vangelis playing around on his synthesisers at Nemo Studios in London, is equal parts beautiful and terrifying. What an incredible, intense, truly psychedelic sound he is creating! And what a crazy head space he must have been in to live and work in this environment every day.

According to YouTube uploader Nimanty:

[The] recording of this performance took place [on] Spanish Television in 1982, [and] also when Neuronium (Michel Huygen) visited Vangelis to perform together.

Some enhancement of the original video tape with denoising, contrast improvement and color correction.

Sound remastering for better clearity and stereo imaging.

The sound on this is great - thank you Nimanty!