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‘The Kid’: Paul McCartney talks about George Harrison
09.29.2011
03:32 pm
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DM pal Michael Simmons wrote the new MOJO cover story on George Harrison and they’ve posted his great new interview with Paul McCartney on the MOJO blog. Even hardcore Beatlemaniacs might find something new here:

MOJO: Years ago, John [Lennon] was quoted as saying that George was ‘the kid’ when the Beatles began and that John treated George as such. How long did that last?

PAUL: It probably lasted a couple of years. Just because of his age, in a group of men who’ve grown up together, particularly round about their teenage years - age matters. In John’s case, who was three years older than George - that meant a lot. John was probably a bit embarrassed at having sort of ‘a young kid’ around, just ‘cos that happens in a bunch of guys. It lasted for a little while. It was particularly noticeable when George got deported from Hamburg [in November 1960] for being underage. Otherwise, when he first joined the group, he was a very fresh-faced looking kid. I remember introducing him to John and thinking, Wow, there’s a little bit of an age difference. It wasn’t so much for me ‘cos I was kind of in the middle. But as we grew up it ceased to make a difference. And those kind of differences iron themselves out.

MOJO: I’m curious about George’s process in the studio. Do you recall any stand-out moments where George brought something in or made a song click?

PAUL: Oh yeah, sure. There were quite a few. I would think immediately of my song “And I Love Her” which I brought in pretty much as a finished song. But George put on do-do-do-do [sings the signature riff] which is very much a part of the song. Y’know, the opening riff. That, to me, made a stunning difference to the song and whenever I play the song now, I remember the moment George came up with it. That song would not be the same without it.

I think a lot of his solos were very distinctive and made the records. He didn’t sound like any other guitarist. The very early days we were really kids and we didn’t think at all professionally. We were just kids being led through this amazing wonderland of the music business. We didn’t know how it went at all - a fact that I’m kind of glad of ‘cos I think it meant that we made it up. So we ended up making things up that people then would later emulate rather than us emulating stuff that we’d been told.

In the very early days, it was pretty exciting. I remember going to auditions at Decca and each of us did pretty well, y’know. We were in a pub afterwards having a drink and kind of debriefing and coming down off the excitement, but we were still pretty high off it all. And I remember sitting at the bar with George and it became kind of a fun thing for us for years later. I would say, [adopts awed voice] When you sang [Goffin & King’s] “Take Good Care Of My Baby,” it was amazin’ man!’ I’m not sure we said ‘man’ or even ‘amazing’ in those days, but… That was a special little moment and it just became a thing between me and him: [awed voice again] ‘When you sang Take Good Care Of My Baby’...’

Part 2 is here. Below, the trailer for Martin Scorsese’s upcoming documentary George Harrison: Living In The Material World, out next month.
 

Posted by Richard Metzger
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09.29.2011
03:32 pm
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‘Mother of hip-hop’ Sylvia Robinson of Sugar Hill Records, RIP
09.29.2011
01:55 pm
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Sylvia Robinson, 75, the founder and CEO of the Sugar Hill Record label in the 1970s, died died this morning from congestive heart failure at Meadowlands Hospital in Secaucus, New Jersey, Sister to Sister reports.

It was Robinson’s idea to “sample” the sinewy bass-line of Chic’s “Good Times” and turn it into “Rapper’s Delight,” the first mainstream hip-hop hit. Robinson also produced “The Message” by Grandmaster Flash & the Furious Five and was part of soul duo Mickey & Sylvia.

Hip-Hop Happens (A 2005 profile of Robinson from Vanity Fair magazine by DM pal Steven Daly).
 

Posted by Richard Metzger
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09.29.2011
01:55 pm
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Voter fraud: Not just for conspiracy theorists anymore?
09.29.2011
01:28 pm
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Think voter fraud is just a paranoid conspiracy theory? Or maybe you see it as a possibility with these controversial DRE voting machines, but not a likelihood? You might want to take another look: In the video posted below, a Diebold (read it) touch-screen voting machine is shown to be easily hacked for cheap by Argonne National Lab’s Vulnerability Assessment Team (VAT). With a mod costing 10 bucks ($15 for the remote control) apparently even an amateur could do this.

The votes can be changed remotely from up to half a mile away!

From Salon:

The use of touch-screen Direct Recording Electronic (DRE) voting systems of the type Argonne demonstrated to be vulnerable to manipulation has declined in recent years due to security concerns, and the high cost of programming and maintenance. Nonetheless, the same type of DRE systems, or ones very similar, will once again be used by a significant part of the electorate on Election Day in 2012. According to Sean Flaherty, a policy analyst for VerifiedVoting.org, a nonpartisan e-voting watchdog group, “About one-third of registered voters live where the only way to vote on Election Day is to use a DRE.”

Almost all voters in states like Georgia, Maryland, Utah and Nevada, and the majority of voters in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Indiana and Texas, will vote on DREs on Election Day in 2012, says Flaherty. Voters in major municipalities such as Houston, Atlanta, Chicago and Pittsburgh will also line up in next year’s election to use DREs of the type hacked by the Argonne National Lab.

Think how easy it would be for a partisan operative to volunteer at a polling location to gain some alone time with one of these machines long enough to do what the guys do in this video. Or take it a step further and ask if you trust the programmers who maintain them? HOW would the layman know what to think? I’m not a conspiracy-minded person, but a conspiracy theory is not what I’m trying to get across here.

It’s the issue of uncertainty and how it could cause social unrest.

That’s why these machines should be outlawed. THE. ONLY. WAY. to protect against election fraud—or the suggestion OF it—is to dump these evil things and go back to paper ballets.

What I haven’t heard any of the commentators about this matter saying, but I think it’s worth contemplating is this: The mere plausible suggestion that these machines can be so easily manipulated and that voter fraud COULD OCCUR is far more of a pressing issue than any other facet of this matter (i.e. actual hacking occurring) .

Fast-forward to 2012, in your mind: If Barack Obama, the incumbent, wins by a landslide—or (legitimately) by ten votes in a country in Florida, it matters not a whit—VOTE FRAUD is going to be the rallying call of people who don’t like him. It will be the new “Birtherism,” mark my words.

It’s that sort of thing that’s a far bigger problem than any tampering of individual machines ever could be.

On the plus side, that happening is probably what would, in the end, see the DRE machines done away with. I think the Tea party-types are more worried about having it done to them, than doing it themselves (not that most of those confused folks would have the first clue how to, of course…)

As one of the YouTube wags commented: “Can we buy this for Diebold ATMs?” Good question!
 

Posted by Richard Metzger
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09.29.2011
01:28 pm
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Six-foot-tall Rick Perry ‘Chia Pet’ for sale on eBay
09.29.2011
01:07 pm
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Lovely one-of-a-kind terracotta planter of Rick Perry’s head up for auction on eBay. Jeff Koons must be kicking himself that he didn’t think of this first. Genius!

From the listing:

Rick Perry has a hole in his head.  Lots of them, in fact.   For sale is a 6’ terra cotta flower planter in an extraordinary likeness of Rick’s head.  The outline of his hair is surprisingly accurate, with holes throughout to grow lush grass, flowing ivy or flowering plants.  Prayer plants might be appropriate.

There’s a “buy it now” for $4500.

(via World of Wonder )

Posted by Tara McGinley
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09.29.2011
01:07 pm
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Punk isn’t dead…
09.29.2011
12:45 pm
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I don’t think there is really anything I can add to this.

(via reddit )

Posted by Tara McGinley
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09.29.2011
12:45 pm
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New twist: BBC’s ‘candid financial expert’ is really more of an attention whore
09.29.2011
11:05 am
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On Monday, the BBC’s supposed “financial expert,” Alessio Rastani, became the human face of the financial crisis within the space of a single day, when the video of him telling astonished newscasters that he goes to bed every night “dreaming of another recession” because for him, that’s “an opportunity,” went viral in a big way. The following morning, there was speculation that Rastani’s “candid” remarks were all part of an elaborate hoax played on the BBC by the Yes Men, who denied it.

Now, Rastani admits that he is, fact, not much of a trader, he’s more of an, um, in his own words, an “attention seeker.”

“They approached me,” he told The Telegraph. “I’m an attention seeker. That is the main reason I speak. That is the reason I agreed to go on the BBC. Trading is a like a hobby. It is not a business. I am a talker. I talk a lot. I love the whole idea of public speaking.”

So he’s more of a talker than a trader. A man who doesn’t own the house he lives in, but can sum up the financial crisis in just three minutes – a knack that escapes many financial commentators.

“I agreed to go on because I’m attention seeker,” he said on Tuesday. “But I meant every word I said.”

Good to know he’s a man of his word! Not that this new revelation about his resume in any way contradicts what Mr. Rastani actually said on BBC News about how Goldman Sachs runs the world and all that, but we thought you might like to know…

Is a blunt truth told by a liar—even when he’s more or less caught in the act—invalidated in any way? I don’t think so, the truth is the truth, even if, in this case, the messenger is far less than perfect. Everyone, even professional traders, knows what he said accurately describes the way rapacious final stages of capitalism really works. WHAT he said no one seems to hava a problem with!

Hoaxer, liar, blagger, chancer or merely an “attention seeker, no matter how you slice it, I’m just glad that someone said this out loud... It’s worth watching this clip one more time before you completely forgot about Alessio Rastani’s existence…
 

 
Thank you Chris Campion!

Posted by Richard Metzger
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09.29.2011
11:05 am
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More excellent cassette tape art from Sami Havia
09.29.2011
09:54 am
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Alice Cooper
 
Here is some more of that excellent “cassette art” (as used on the Aphex Twin post just below) by the Finnish artist Sami Havia. Sami’s website is here, but these are the only other examples I could find of this style, and they’re taken from the Today And Tomorrow blog. Maybe if we ask nicely he will start making more?
 

DJ Shadow
 

2 Unlimited
 

Public Enemy
 

 

Posted by Niall O'Conghaile
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09.29.2011
09:54 am
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Entire Monkees series re-released in two new DVD box sets
09.28.2011
07:46 pm
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Since Dangerous Minds is a safe haven for Monkees fanatics—Monkees producer and historian Andrew Sandoval is the guest on the DM talkshow this week— I would be remiss in my duties if I did not inform you fine people that all 58 of the original Monkees episodes have been re-released this week on DVD by Eagle Rock Entertainment and Rhino. This is the first time in nearly a decade that the entire series has been available. The old Rhino box sets were selling for obnoxious amounts of money. 

These two new box sets are fairly no-frills affairs, but they’re priced pretty low, so no complaints there. Aside from every weekly episode of the series, there is the 16mm pilot episode, select audio commentaries, and the Monkees’ Saturday morning TV commercials for Kelloggs. The picture quality is pretty okay, but from time to time you’ll see a stray hair or dust. Audio-wise, the supposed 5.1 surround track is a complete waste of time and the stereo option isn’t all that much better (I recommend just making it mono). It’s really a shame that they didn’t go back and do new transfers and proper audio upgrades (the content here, menus and all, mirrors the old Rhino releases). Then again, if you’d like to own the entire series, now you can, and the price is right for these new tri-fold box sets (both with liner notes from Andrew Sandoval).

Of special interest for Monkees fans is the chance to see the ill-fated final Monkees TV special featuring all four original Monkees. 33 1/3 Revolutions Per Monkee was Peter Tork’s final outing with the group until 1986. Musical guests on that show included Julie Driscoll, Brian Auger and the Trinity, Jerry Lee Lewis, Fats Domino, Little Richard, and The Buddy Miles Express.

Previously on Dangerous Minds:
Carole King’s ‘Porpoise Song’ demo
Head: The Monkees’ ‘Ulysses of a Hip New Hollywood’
The Monkees on ‘The Johnny Cash Show’
The Monkees’ FBI File
The First National Band: Michael Nesmith’s criminally overlooked post-Monkees country rock classics
After the Monkees gave us ‘Head,’ there was ‘33 1/3 Revolutions Per Monkee’

Below, the “Making the Monkees” documentary from the Smithsonian Channel:
 

Posted by Richard Metzger
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09.28.2011
07:46 pm
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Kate Bush: Vintage TV Show from Christmas 1979
09.28.2011
06:50 pm
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image
 
By heck, Christmas is getting earlier every year. It may be Rosh Hashanah, but the good citizens of Heywood, Lancashire, England, have their sights on Christmas, and have already lit up the town with their flickering festive lights.

Bah humbug, maybe, but I found it difficult not to share this freshly uploaded winter treat - the whole of Kate Bush’s Christmas Television Special from 1979. Filmed in October of that year, the show stars the beautiful songstress, together with her band and Peter Gabriel. While we have shown one song from this before, we have never managed to find the whole program online until now - and it’s been worth the wait. Enjoy.
 

 
Previously on Dangerous Minds

Kate Bush: Live at Hammersmith, London, 1979


 

 

Posted by Paul Gallagher
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09.28.2011
06:50 pm
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Cornish Acid: Aphex Twin MTV special from 1996
09.28.2011
06:10 pm
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“Come To Daddy” sleeve painted on “SAW2” cassettes by Sami Havia
 
This is a treat for fans of IDM and ambient music - a 70 minute, 1996 Aphex Twin special from MTV UK’s Party Zone dance program. There’s an interview with Richard James, numerous videos, some live footage from the Big Love festival, and an extended extract from the Warp Records’ film Westworld, a collaboration between Aphex Twin and visual artists Stakker.

There’s always been something about James that has struck me as bratty - from the tales of driving tanks through central London to numerous reports from friends of spending relatively large sums on tickets only for James not to play, or not to play properly. This interview doesn’t really do much to dispel that, but it does give a bit of insight into his working methods at the time, and goddamit his tunes are good. So sit back, relax, and zone out:
 

Posted by Niall O'Conghaile
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09.28.2011
06:10 pm
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‘We’re doomed’: ‘Wire’ creator David Simon on the end of America


 
David Simon, creator of The Wire and Treme, gives a sobering assessment of the future of America in these powerful clips from a 2007 talk at Loyola College.

Simon feels we’re headed for separate Americas, where the “haves” exploit the “have-nots,” and where human beings will lose their value. He faults “raw, unencumbered Capitalism” for making our country numb to the plight of the most vulnerable among us. America makes the wrong choices every time, he says, and unless we change, Simon predicts “we are doomed.”

The man is a genius, and as a writer and journalist, he’s explored the very darkest corners of our fraying “civilization”—trust me, this is really worth listening to… Keep in mind as you watch that this was recorded a year before the world economy did a belly-flop on concrete.
 

 
More of David Simon on the end of the American empire after the jump…

READ ON
Posted by Richard Metzger
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09.28.2011
05:54 pm
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East Village West: Ambitious exhibit of NYC’s fabled 70/80s art scene opens in LA
09.28.2011
01:54 pm
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Photo of Ann Magnuson at Club 57 by Robert Carrithers

The block quoted text below is a slightly edited email that Dangerous Minds pal Ann Magnuson sent me this morning regarding an amazing sounding art exhibit that she and artist Kenny Scharf are curating at the quirky Royal/T gallery in Los Angeles. Titled “East Village West” (in official partnership with “Pacific Standard Time: Art in L.A. 1945-1980”) the show aims to link the fabled New York neo-Dada art scene of the late 70s/early 80s that coalesced around Magnuson’s Club 57 nightclub with its campy Hollywood influences. In the words of the curators “Walt Disney, Russ Meyer, Roger Corman, The Beverly Hillbillies, Sonny & Cher, The Partridge Family, Hanna-Barbera, Ed Wood, Frankie Avalon and Annette Funicello, Sid and Marty Krofft, The Monkees, Herb Alpert & the Tijuana Brass, The Mamas & The Papas, the cast of Rowan & Martin’s LAUGH-IN, Famous Monsters of Filmland magazine, Rodney Bingenheimer and his glam rock English Disco and every Shindig-lovin’, hullabaloo-ing teenager who ever rioted on the Sunset Strip.”

This is a museum-quality show, another art world score for Royal/T.

The exhibit is primarily art and ephemera from the collections and archives of Kenny and myself. Funny enough, I was finally sorting through all my East Village memorabilia when Kenny called me and asked if I’d take on the lions share of this curating job as he has a big show coming up and is painting night and day. It’s become massive! We have paintings, sculpture, fashions, video, photographs, ephemera….it is really a museum quality show! We focus primarily on Club 57 but there are many other elements as well…

We have art by Keith Haring, Kenny Scharf, Jean-Michel Basquiat (one real and two of my fakes), Tseng Kwong Chi, John Sex, Kitty Brophy showing art she’s never shown before, Bruno Schmidt, Kenny Scharf, Ann Magnuson, Vincent Gallo, Frank Holliday, Scott Covert, Stefano Castronova, Nancy A. Kintisch, Greer Lankton’s Terri Toye doll, Paul Monroe, Plasticgod and Randy Focazio; photographs by Robert Carrithers, Harvey Wang, Ande Whyland, Lina Bertucci, Joseph Szkodzinski; video by Barry Shils, Steve Brown, Andy Rees, Tom Rubnitz, and others; fashions by Natasha Adonzio (Natasha N.Y.C.) and Katy K; special ‘vintage’ DJ mix by original Club 57 DJ Dany Johnson in the “Porta Party” installation pod; PLUS cool ephemera and rare video provided by original Club 57 members like Marc Shaiman & Scott Wittman, Kristian Hoffman, Howie Pyro, Naomi Regelson, Jerry Beck and so many more! PLUS excerpts from THE NOMI SONG (directed by Andrew Horn) and ARIAS WITH A TWIST (directed by Bobby Sheehan)!

We are showing a lot of John Sex’s art that has never been exhibited. He made these gorgeous silkscreens and several feature Klaus Nomi. We also have many of the beautiful large silkscreen posters he did for events at Club 57.

Joey Arias is sending us several of Klaus Nomi’ costumes.  The Victoria and Albert Museum’s Postmodernism show is currently showing two of Klaus’ costumes. They wanted the vinyl coat that we will be exhibiting (a very early costume of Klaus’ that he had made based on the Sixties plastic raincoat Howie Pyro stole out of his mother’s closet so Klaus could use it to create his Nomi character that he debuted at the New Wave Vaudeville show). Joey couldn’t find it when he was gathering items for the V&A but he finally did find it and he sent it to us! (Howie is also DJ at the opening).

There is a beautiful slide show featuring work from 5 different photographers on the scene. LOADS of video including live footage from Club 57 never shown. Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman (who won the Tony for HAIRSPRAY) did some of their first musicals at Club 57 and we have a clip from one of them. Clip from THE NOMI SONG about the New Wave Vaudeville show and clips from ARIAS WITH A TWIST to give the youngin’s a quick East Village history lesson.

Kenny Scharf videos (very Warholian if Warhol was a complete goofball), my MADE FOR TV, the video of the Ladies Auxilliary LADY WRESTLING night…

A compilation of our California influences that were transmitted into our still forming noggins via TV edited by Jonathon Stearns that I KNOW you are gonna love.

A special display for the Monster Movie Club (Howie Pyro lending us his MMC t-shirt).

Young members of the ‘new generation’ carrying on the tradition of Club 57 will be performing. Fresh off last seasons AMERICA’S GOT TALENT, Prince Poppycock will sing The Mumps song THAT FATAL CHARM to a track he is recording with Kristian Hoffman (who wrote the song). Another Hoffman hit is one originally sung by Klaus Nomi and sung by Timur of the Dime Museum who is simple astounding! Drag King Mo B. Dick is ‘coming out of retirement’ to do John Sex (John Waters says she is his favorite Drag King, she was featured in PECKER) , and more! (Everyone is listed in text below).

Austin Young is doing an on site art installation called CALIFORNIA NEW WAVE creating New Wave makeovers, Austin Young style.

Dany Johnson made a 4-hour DJ mix of her Club 57 favorites.

The list goes on! As you can see, the show and the opening in particular is going to be a bona fide old skool ART HAPPENING!

We encourage everyone to pull their pointy toed shoes and ripped fishnets out of mothballs and come on down!

We hope to inspire and encourage the young kids how to have fun and be wildly creative with no money! We did it during the first great recession, it can be done during the second!

The details: Royal/T presents East Village West, curated by Ann Magnuson and Kenny Scharf. From October 1, 2011 until January 10, 2012. Opening reception Saturday, October 1, 8-11pm

DJ Howie Pyro and performances by Prince Poppycock, Timur of The Dime Museum, Drag King “Mo B. Dick” as John Sex (along with “his” Bodacious Ta-Tas), Stacy Dawson Stearns, Gregory Barnett, and Meg Wolfe are The Psych-Out Dada Go-Go Family and of course Ann Magnuson and Kenny Scharf.

Plus video from Club 57 never before shown in public. Doughnuts are promised.

Below, a slideshow of some of Harvey Wang’s great photos of Club 57:
 

 

Posted by Richard Metzger
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09.28.2011
01:54 pm
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Inexplicable photo: George Carlin and hairy voodoo doll
09.28.2011
01:16 pm
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While rummaging around on the Internet trying to find a George Carlin action figure (which I did find, BTW), I stumbled across this bizarre image of a cut-out George Carlin waving at a hairy voodoo doll and thought I’d share. You’re welcome!

Posted by Tara McGinley
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09.28.2011
01:16 pm
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‘Snuff Box’ invades Los Angeles
09.28.2011
12:19 pm
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This weekend, Matt Berry (The IT Crowd) and Rich Fulcher (The Mighty Boosh) will descend upon Los Angeles to promote the release of their BBC cult comedy series Snuff Box on DVD by Severin Films. The DVD (which includes a bonus CD of Matt Berry’s excellent soundtrack music) will be in stores by October 11th, but Los Angelenos will be able to pick it up early at Amoeba Records where there will be a DVD signing October 1st at 4:30pm (You might want to get there earlier to see Rich in action as auctioneer for Amoeba’s Monthly Charity Auction at 4pm, I’m sure that will be memorable…).

Berry and Fulcher will also be appearing that night at The Upright Citizens Brigade at 10pm for a screening of two Snuff Box episodes and a Q&A. (Earlier that day, I’ll be interviewing them for the Dangerous Minds talkshow).

On Sunday, October 2nd at 7pm Berry & Fulcher will be appearing at Cinefamily for a screening and panel discussion co-hosted by Steve Agee and Rob Schrab of The Sarah Silverman Program (which both Matt and Rich have appeared in). Some live musical numbers are promised as well.

Below, an awkward date… Her last line is a stone classic, isn’t it?
 

Posted by Richard Metzger
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09.28.2011
12:19 pm
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Jesus’ Facebook profile photo
09.28.2011
11:38 am
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At least The Lord, Our Savior isn’t making “duckface.”

(via Cynical-C)

Posted by Tara McGinley
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09.28.2011
11:38 am
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