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Glenn Beck vows to take down ‘Glee’
06.15.2012
04:14 pm
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Glenn Beck told the assembled at the Faith & Freedom Coalition conference in Washington today that he’s giving up on the Van Jones hater stuff and fixing his aim at Glee:

“A year ago I was watching the show ‘Glee’ with my wife and we watched it like this,” Beck said making the motion of his jaw dropping. “It’s horrifying some of the things that they’re teaching high schoolers.But it’s brilliantly done. It’s brilliantly done.”

At first, Beck says he was despondent. “I said at the end of it, we lose,” he said. “There’s no way to beat that.”

But it didn’t take long for Beck to snap out of his funk and start devising a way to defeat “Glee.” Beck’s secret weapon: what he jokingly calls “the Oedipus Project” (“because the left will be making out with me,” he explained to BuzzFeed this week). Essentially, the plan is to produce a conservative alternative to “Glee” that is covert enough in its conservatism to not turn people away.

“We’ve spent a year now trying to put together a push-back with artists with music, but not the stereotypical conservative Lee Greenwood music,” he told the crowd at FFC.

Beck told BuzzFeed in a recent interview. ““The conservative movement needs a Dick Clark, and I hope to fill some of that vacuum.”

I can kinda see Glenn Beck as America’s oldest teenager…

Via TPM
 

Posted by Richard Metzger
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06.15.2012
04:14 pm
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Get up to speed with ‘Breaking Bad’ before the new season starts
06.15.2012
12:54 pm
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Kiss the Cook by STEOTCH
 
Here’s a superb chronological recap of series 1-4 of Breaking Bad set to Clint Mansell’s “Requiem for a Dream (Orchestral Version).”

The big “reveal” in the last 30 seconds of the season finale last year was one of the single most mind-bending moments of television, ever. If you’ve been trying to get your friends and family to watch the show, the above video is a great way to get them caught up before the season 5 premiere on July 15th.
 

 
Via High Definite

Posted by Tara McGinley
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06.15.2012
12:54 pm
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Patti Smith Group on Letterman: Fuck yeah!
06.14.2012
12:58 am
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The Patti Smith Group on the Letterman show, June 12.

Patti just keeps getting better and better. 65 years old and absolutely unstoppable.

Yeah that’s Bootsy.

Posted by Marc Campbell
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06.14.2012
12:58 am
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Bring me the head of George W Bush: ‘Game of Thrones’ puts former POTUS on a spike
06.13.2012
07:47 pm
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In the commentary track on the tenth episode of the first season of HBO’s Game of Thrones DVD, David Benioff, co-creator of the show reveals an amusing secret about one of the severed heads seen on spikes: “The last head on the left is George Bush” and then his partner chimes in “George Bush’s head appears in a couple beheading scenes.”

“It’s not a choice, it’s not a political statement,” explained Benioff. “It’s just, we had to use what heads we had around.”

A likely story…

They’ve got the video at io9

 

Posted by Richard Metzger
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06.13.2012
07:47 pm
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‘Phantom of the Paradise’ Tribute Concert & Paul Williams live at Cinefamily!
06.12.2012
01:57 pm
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Holy-motherfucking shit, our friends at Cinefamily (here in sunny Los Angeles) have outdone themselves (yet again) for what looks like an incredibly fun time this coming Saturday night:

An Evening With Paul Williams
Why are there so few songs about rainbows? Because Paul Williams wrote the absolute definitive one for all-time with “The Rainbow Connection”, and no one else since has dared to go near the rainbow zone. This one feat alone doesn’t make a career—but the theme song to “The Love Boat” and huge chart hits for The Carpenters, Barbra Streisand, Helen Reddy and Three Dog Night sure do, as well as the smash soundtracks for Phantom of the Paradise, Bugsy Malone, Emmet Otter’s Jug-Band Christmas and A Star Is Born, all in conjunction with an incredible acting career in which he’s played boy geniuses (The Loved One), sleazy businessmen (Smokey And The Bandit) and monkey dudes (Battle For The Planet of the Apes). WHEW!

Short in stature but towering in talent and charisma, Paul Williams was one of the faces of 1970s American pop culture—you couldn’t tune into late-night TV without seeing his joyful, bespectacled grin. Deserving of every accolade every bestowed to him, Paul is a national treasure, one fully deserving of rediscovery. Join us as we sit down with this living legend for a juicy career-spanning convo, moderated by Steven Kessler (director of the brand-new doc Paul Williams: Still Alive) and peppered with rare archival footage of Paul at his best! 

Phantom of the Paradise Tribute Concert
One of the most intense, baroque and satirical films of Brian De Palma’s filmography deserved an equally shimmering, catchy and reference-laden rock score—and that’s exactly what Paul Williams bestowed upon De Palma’s 1974 movie musical masterpiece Phantom of the Paradise. Starring in the film as well as singing several of its cult-hit earworms, Paul cemented an unforgettable legacy as “Swan,” the Svengali-like evil spirit chairman of Death Records—in addition to penning other soulful, memorable numbers for his co-stars, tunes that giddily run the gamut from glam rock sleaze to doo-wop parody, singer-songwriter sensitivity and beyond. The Phantom songbook is instantly hummable and forever meaningful to lovers of pop pastiche—and after our live Q&A session with Paui, it’s time for a full-on live tribute show to this epic showstopping soundtrack! The evening’s vocalists include Eryn Young, Django and Sam Stewart, Sierra Swan, Tim Young and Heather Porcaro—and the band is manned by Tim Young, Kaveh, Aaron Sterling and Steve Porcaro. Thrill to this ace team’s renditions of “Faust,” “Old Souls,” “The Hell of It” and more!

An Evening With Paul Williams begins at 6:00pm and the Phantom of the Paradise Tribute Concert begins at 8:30pm, Saturday June 16th. Get tickets here.

(The evening prior, Cinefamily will be screening a Paul Williams double bill of The Muppet Movie and Phantom of the Paradise. Info here.)

Previously on Dangerous Minds:
Paul Williams sings in his ‘Planet of the Apes’ make-up

Below, Paul Williams sings “Just an Old-Fashioned Love Song” on The Muppet Show:
 

Posted by Richard Metzger
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06.12.2012
01:57 pm
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Joe Strummer: Two TV interviews from 1988
06.12.2012
10:24 am
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Deux interviews avec le Joe Strummer filmed for French television’s Rapido from 1988. Each clip has different interview footage with Strummer, but the same archive and performance material.

Strummer enthuses about Shane MacGowan and The Pogues (and is seen performing with the band in concert on “I Fought the Law” and “London Calling”); explains why he writes (like Paul Simon) for his generation; why each young generation should have their own musical revolution; and why Hip-Hop / rap is for “yuppies”.
 

 
Interview part deux avec Mnsr. Strummer, after le jump…
 

READ ON
Posted by Paul Gallagher
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06.12.2012
10:24 am
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Batgirl demands equal pay from Batman and Robin in 1960s PSA
06.11.2012
11:27 am
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Batgirl is definetly not messin’ around. If she doesn’t get equal pay, she’ll let that cheapskate Caped Crusader and his Boy Wonder sidekick die. What happens next?!

I wonder if “Peggy Olson” was the copywriter for this commercial? Could be!
 

 
Via BuzzFeed

Posted by Tara McGinley
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06.11.2012
11:27 am
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Rainer Werner Fassbinder died 30 years ago today
06.10.2012
03:40 pm
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When she found him in the early hours of the morning, it seemed as if he was sleeping. Lying on the bed, with an ink-marked script beside him. Still dressed, his shoes carelessly kicked off, a television flickering in the corner. The room smelled of smoke and sweat. She noticed the table lamp was still on, his pack of cigarettes, an overfilled ashtray. It seemed as if he’d fallen asleep as he worked on his latest screenplay Rosa L., a film about the revolutionary socialist Rosa Luxemburg. He looked pale. An unlit cigarette drooped from his lips, a small trickle of blood glistened from one nostril. For four years, Juliane Lorenz had been his partner, she had seen him tired out like this before, falling asleep while working late at night, geed-up by cocaine and alcohol, but this time there was something different. Juliane listened. He was too quiet. When he slept he snored. But now, all she heard - the ticking clock, the television, the hush of traffic outside - was his silence. Rainer Werner Fassbinder was dead.

It’s still hard to believe Fassbinder managed to do so much in his short thirty-seven years of life. That fact he was working on a script at the moment he died, says everything about his dedication to his art. In less than fifteen years, Fassbinder made forty feature films, three short films; four TV series, twenty-four stage plays and four radio plays. He also acted in thirty-six productions and worked scriptwriter, cameraman, composer, designer, editor, producer and theater manager.

Born into a middle class family, his father was a doctor who worked near Munich’s red light district. His mother helped with her husband, and neither had much time for their son. After their divorce, Fassbinder lived with his mother, who worked as a translator but was often absent, hospitalized with tuberculosis. Then, Fassbinder spent his time with neighbors, listening to their life stories or, going on his own to the cinema - he later claimed he saw a film a day during his childhood.

“The cinema was the family life I never had at home.”

His favorite films were melodramas, his favorite director Douglas Sirk, of whom Fassbinder said:

“The important thing to learn from Douglas Sirk’s movies is that on the screen you are allowed to, or better still, supposed to, enlarge people’s ordinary feelings—as small as they may be—as much as possible.”

Fassbinder started writing plays, and read about the Spanish playwright Lope de Vega, who had over 1,800 plays attributed to him. This became the gold standard to which Fassbinder aimed his ambitions. At eighteen, he joined a theater group, and the first hint of his incredible talents and ambitions became apparent.

Within two months of joining the Action Theater group, he became its leader. This proved too much for other, older members, who led to the group’s disbandment. Fassbinder then created a new company and drew together a team, or family of actors - Peer Raben, Harry Baer, Kurt Raab, Hanna Schygulla and Irm Hermann - who were to work with him until his death.

His first movie was a “deconstruction of the gangster films”, called Love is Colder than Death, it caused considerable controversy at its premiere at the Berlin Film Festival in 1969, where Fassbinder was jeered and denounced as a “dilletante” by members of the audience. Even so, it established his reputation as a talent to watch, and led on to his next film,  Katzelmacher, which was adapted from his stage play. It was the start of his movie career that saw such an unparalleled output. Everything in Fassbinder’s life went towards his film-making. He was often ruthless and allegedly pimped some of the theater group actresses to raise money for his films.

“I would like to build a house with my films. Some are the cellars, others the walls, still others the windows. But I hope in the end it will be a house.”

The turning point came in 1971 with the release of The Merchant of the Four Seasons, the tale of a merchant who is slowly destroyed by circumstances beyond his control. the story epitomized Fassbinder’s world view as tragedy. Life was battled out against insurmountable odds, at great cost to its players. Though his films were often described as “bleak”, I never found them less than engrossing, for the theme to all his films is love - the cost love has on us all.

During the 1970s and 1980s, Fassbinder made such unforgettable films as The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant (1972) (adapted form his play); World on a Wire (1973); his first major international success Fear Eats the Soul (1974), the story of love between an older woman and Moroccan immigrant, played by Fassbinder’s then lover El Hadi ben Salem; Effi Briest (1974); Fox and His Friends (1975); Mother Küsters Goes to Heaven (1975); Despair, his first English film, with a script adapted by Tom Stoppard form the novel by Vladimir Nabokov; In a Year of Thirteen Moons (1978), Fassbinder’s bleakest and personal movie, made in response to the suicide of his lover, Armin Meier; The Marriage of Maria Braun (1978), which became a breakthrough movie in America; Berlin Alexanderplatz (1980), a 13-hour TV series adapted form Alfred Döblin’s novel; Lili Marleen (1981), another big budget English movie; Veronika Voss (1982) which was inspired by Billy Wilder’s Sunset Boulevard; and his last major feature, which progressed cinematic narrative in a new and original way, Querelle (1982), adapted form the novel by Jean Genet. Fassbinder had just finished editing Querelle when he died.

The official cause of his death was “an overdose of cocaine and sleeping pills”. The cost of his lifestyle and his ambition took too great a toll. Before he died, his body had bloated from an excess of drink, food and drugs, and he once said, he became fat to make it harder to be loved. Fassbinder used his body, as he used chain-smoking, or his excessive drinking, as means to protect and distance himself from others. His sense of being unloved or, of being unworthy of love, stemmed from the parental indifference of his childhood. When he was older, he often treated his lovers and those closest to him badly, testing their loyalty and love for him. Emotionally, Fassbinder was childlike, as he always searched for that imagined lack, which would make him feel loved. It was this, Fassbinder’s own emotional biography that underscored his films.

Thirty years after his death, we can more fully appreciate the scale and quality of Fassbinder’s genius; and see the real beauty of the man who was Rainer Werner Fassbinder.
 

 

Posted by Paul Gallagher
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06.10.2012
03:40 pm
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Frank Booth in ‘What’s That Smell?’
06.09.2012
07:18 pm
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Dennis Hopper does Frank Booth on “What’s That Smell?,” Saturday Night Live, May 1987.

Thanks to Mike Webber for helping me locate this very hard to find clip.
 


Posted by Marc Campbell
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06.09.2012
07:18 pm
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Bill Maher to Occupy: Stop camping out!
06.09.2012
01:40 pm
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Last night on his HBO program, Real Time, Bill Maher compared OWS’s real world political gains to the Tea party’s decidedly more concrete electoral accomplishments and reveals a stark truth for the movement…

Minds have been changed, now what up, OWS?
 

Posted by Richard Metzger
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06.09.2012
01:40 pm
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