“When groundbreaking television writer Dennis Potter learned he was dying of cancer, he sat down with Melvyn Bragg for a final interview. The subject of media mogul Rupert Murdoch came up.”

Yes it did! OUTSTANDING!
 

 
Thank you, Jonathan Owen!

 
I love this photo because I totally understand the use of a wastepaper basket as a hat. You gotta use what’s around you when you’re broke and trying to improvise on the spot. 

In the 70s I wanted to be Wonder Woman real bad, but I was stuck with a shitty Dorothy Hamill haircut my mother had given me. So, I put one of my mother’s dishtowels on my head for the long luscious locks-look and was completely convinced I was fooling the world. 

(via Nistagmus)

 
Christopher Walken gives the tale of The Three Little Pigs a wiseguy spin in this very funny clip from British TV show Saturday Zoo hosted by Jonathan Ross. This aired in 1993.
 

 
Thanks to Open Culture

 
This commercial for Vivident will stick to the underside of your brain like a piece of gum to your shoe.
 

 
Via copyranter

 
Dante at ModCinema recently sent me a another volume of his fantastic 2-hour Colorspace compilations exploring the “mod” aestheitic of the 60s/70s.

As I wrote before about the first volume: “Professional graphic designers and design snobs will love it.” One of the ultimate DVDs to leave on at a party. Colorspace Vol 2 might even be better than than its predecessor and that’s a hard act to follow:

Modcinema presents its second two hour compilation of vintage movie trailers, music, and TV ads exploring 60’s/70’s pop culture. This volume features appearances by Raquel Welch, Marianne Faithfull, Soft Machine, Jane Birkin, Cher, Ronnie Bird, Serge Gainsbourg, Nancy & Lee, Johnny Harris Orchestra, Michel Polnareff, Tammi Terrell, Annie Girardot, Shocking Blue, Françoise Hardy, The Carpenters, Anna Karina, and Los Bravos. Fabulous 60’s fashions by André Courrèges, Mary Quaint, Paco Rabanne, choreographed dancing and so more! Plus it comes with cool artwork!

Video quality is A+. Order a copy of Colorspace Vol. 2 at ModCinema.com

Below, one of the treats in store for purchasers of Colorspace Vol. 2, Lee Hazelwood and Nancy Sinatra sing “Some Velvet Morning” on her 1968 NBC TV special, Movin’ With Nancy.
 

 
Not only is oldstream UK media tearing itself apart right now, previously picked on figures are getting their own back too. For the benefit of non-UK readers, “mincemeat” is also known as “ground beef”, and that is exactly what comic Steve Coogan makes of former deputy features editor for News Of The World, Paul McMullan, on last night’s BBC Newsnight program’s round table discussion concerning the phone-hacking scandal, the closure of NotW by Rupert Murdoch, and his still possible takeover of the BSkyB TV network. Paul McMullan is no stranger to celebrity revenge, as a covertly-recorded pub conversation between himself and Hugh Grant, in which he admitted the extent of the NotW’s phone-hacking activities, and which was then published in the New Statesman, was responsible for reopening this whole media can of worms.
 

 
Steve Coogan has had a tussle with the tabloids before, when it was claimed he was having an affair with Courtney Love (which was denied by both parties, but which caught the public imagination). But what’s going on here is not simply revenge - as Coogan rightly points out in his very first sentence, Paul McMullan is a walking PR disaster for the tabloid press and News international. He comes across as oily, evasive, self-interested and a hypocrite - perfectly fitting the public image of everything bad about tabloid-level journalists.

Journos love to pick on politicians, but in the British public imagination they are second only to them in terms of being disliked. I’ve always wondered if they know this and pick on politicos and celebs to deflect attention from themselves, or if they genuinely, honestly, believe they are doing some kind of public service. According to McMullan it’s the latter (though I can’t believe that he is completely unaware of the level of animosity the public has for him and those in his trade).

So perhaps they really are that self-deluded, but the other thought echoing through my mind during all of this coverage is “these people work/live/breathe the media - so how can they look so bad on the TV screen?”. OK so the press seem to be trying to outdo each other to find the worst picture of Rebekah Brooks, but also take for instance News International’s Director of Corporate Affairs Simon Greenberg (interviewed here by Channel 4 News’ Jon Snow) or Roger Alton, Joint Executive Editor of The Times (also owned by parent company News international). These people deal in exposé, guilt-admission and subsequent rehabilitation for a living. So why aren’t they acting humbled, the way they tell everyone else they should act?

Interestingly, Paul McMullan has had some bad things to say about his then editor Brooks (neé Wade) recently. Brooks, more than anyone, is the central figure in this row, and it is claimed that Murdoch has sacrificed the oldest running, and most widely circulated newspaper in British history, just to protect her. But McMullan is not the only disgruntled former employee of NotW willing to dish the dirt - internet hype has been building around a Twitter account that has gone online during the last couple of days called ExNOTWjourno. The account is run by a journalist who has now found herself jobless, and who intends spill the beans on life behind the scenes of NotW under Rebekah Brooks, in a new blog. According to the account there are now 16 newly unemployed journalists working on dishing the dirt (and running stories planned for the last ever publication of NotW tomorrow), and the blog is due to go online sometime this evening. This is going to get interesting…

Previously on Dangerous Minds:
Who benefits by Rupert Murdoch sacrificing the ‘News Of The World’?
The phone-hacking scandal that may finish Rupert Murdoch’s ambitions

 
Lou Reed and his specialized mullet dispense words of hard-earned street wisdom. You know, for the kids.

Drgz: I stp’d.
U shu’nt strt.

 
With thanks to Ian Schultz

 
Nick Cave and Neko Case cover The Zombies’ “She’s Not There” for the season premier of True Blood.

The Bayou feel comes courtesy of Louisiana musician CC Adcock who arranged the tune.

The video/music mashup was put together by Mr. Jonathan Sprig.
 

 
Peter Falk’s death today will bring back memories to Boomers and Gen X-ers of his title role as the good-natured and shambling L.A. detective in the ‘70s TV show Columbo. But by the time he donned that character’s famous trenchcoat, he had about 15 years of acting under his belt, most famously in gangster roles in films like Murder Inc. and Frank Capra’s last, Pocketful of Miracles. (Of course, he augmented the Columbo years with amazing performances like his role as Nick in John Cassavettes’s masterful A Woman Under The Influence.)

He also appeared as the Chief of Police in Joseph Strick’s 1963 adaptation of Jean Genet’s surreal play The Balcony. The film stayed faithful generally to Genet’s meditation on revolution, counter-revolution, and nationalism, which is set in a brothel/movie set/fantasy factory designed for its authoritarian allegorical characters while unrest boils over in the fictional country outside.

Here’s Falk’s big segment after his character breaks up the party. May he rest in peace.
 

 
Militant agnostic and general pessimist Woody Allen spars good-naturedly with Rev. Billy Graham during this engaging interview from The Woody Allen Show, on September 21, 1969. Topics of discussion include the meaning of life, pre-martial sex and marijuana.

Allen reminisced about the encounter in an interview with Commonweal in 2010:

I was with Billy Graham once, and he said that even if it turned out in the end that there is no God and the universe is empty, he would still have had a better life than me. I understand that. If you can delude yourself by believing that there is some kind of Santa Claus out there who is going to bail you out in the end, then it will help you get through. Even if you are proven wrong in the end, you would have had a better life.

My father, bless him, has tried that same argument on me, to about the same effect…
 

 
Part II is here.