For just this once I’m going to break my long-standing Beatles veto. I really didn’t think the world needed yet another Beatles blog post, but then this is just so ridiculously adorable it had to go up. Not only that it’s factually accurate! I’m pretty certain not many four-year-olds are aware that Ringo was not the original Beatles drummer:
With thanks to Wallace Wylie!
Ties are supposed to be “slimming.” Doesn’t work too well with Newt’s toned physique, does it?
The organizers of New Gingrich’s big money fundraiser in Washington, DC last night had the misfortune of choosing a location that has glass doors facing outwards on both sides of the ballroom. Dozens of mostly unemployed workers affiliated with “Take Back the Capitol” gathered at the entrance of the swanky Willard Hotel in downtown D.C., passed out fake $100 bills with Gingrich’s swollen head on them and chanted “The poor get poorer, the rich get rich, that’s the platform of Gingrich.” Earlier in the day, the group brought traffic to a near-standstill on K Street.
From a firsthand account of the protest from Mother Jones’ Andy Kroll:
Earlier, protesters had gathered outside the front doors of the Willard, chanting, “The poor get poorer, the rich get rich, that’s the platform of Gingrich.” They hoisted a “We are the 99%” banner, and the hotel locked several of its entrances.
The Gingrich fundraiser protest was part of “Take Back the Capitol,” a five-day, 99-percent-themed series of protests targeting lawmakers at popular fundraising and deal-making spots in DC, including the Capitol Hill Club, a GOP haunt, and Charlie Palmer Steakhouse, a favorite lunch spot for lobbyists and legislators a stone’s throw from Capitol. On Tuesday night, protesters lined the entrance to the swanky Lincoln restaurant to protest a fundraiser thrown by House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.). At least a dozen were arrested on Wednesday during a march on K Street, the symbolic heart of DC’s lobbying industry.
The protesters’ schedule includes a full day of events on Thursday, including actions at the Capitol Hill Club and elsewhere around DC. But no 1-percenter knows where they might strike next.
Beautiful. Turn up the heat on these bastards. Boil that Newt!
Earlier this week: OWS Takes the Fight to GOP Donors at Cantor Fundraiser (Mother Jones)
I’ve always thought of Quentin Tarantino’s loopy masterpiece as a case of the parts being better than the sum of the whole. So I don’t see this reconstruction as sacrilege. It’s an interesting experiment that illustrates how editing can alter the dynamic of a film. Tarantino’s use of flashbacks and flash forwards in PF gave the movie a kind of metaphysical spin that ultimately proved to be hollow. A mind game not a mind expander. But it did inspire a lot of directors to attempt to replicate Tarantino’s time folding in on itself approach to editing.
Pulp Fiction begins in the middle, goes backwards and forwards further and further in time, before returning and ending in the middle.
Here’s what happens when the movie gets all linear on your ass.
In pondering the best music of 2011, one must consider Joseph Arthur’s stunning album The Graduation Ceremony.
Over the course of the past 15 years, Arthur has created a body of work that is beautiful, mercurial, romantic and touched by more than a little heartbreak and betrayal. Joseph manages to deal with relationships gone bad, loneliness, drugs and New York City with a pained tenderness that recalls Nick Drake. He does so without being maudlin or self-pitying.
No mere poet of despair, Arthur has written songs that shimmer with a sweet spirituality built around big fat Beatlesque hooks and there are moments of deeply solid funkiness to some of his material that is positively Prince-like. As I said, he can be mercurial. From his early collaborations with Peter Gabriel and T- Bone Burnett to his self-produced albums released on his own label, Arthur has never shied away from experimentation while maintaining a consistently high level of artistry. I’ve never been disappointed by a Joseph Arthur album and I own them all.
In recent years, Joseph has become a painter with a growing reputation among gallery owners and art collectors. His paintings have become a part of his live performances. In the course of a set, Joseph will start and finish a painting. The effect is thrilling and the results are astonishingly good. Art at the speed of sound.
Joseph spent an afternoon with me at my house and I filmed him painting and talking about his music, art and poetry. The video features tracks from some of his past albums as well as his latest.
If you don’t already know him, let me introduce you to Joseph Arthur.
“Only connect,” said playwright Dennis Potter towards the end of his life, as he described the potential humans have to work together for the better. The line comes from E M Forster, who wrote:
‘Only connect the prose and the passion, and both will be exalted, and human love will be seen at its height.’
A connection was made between the Occupy Movement and one of the most senior figures of City regulation, in London today, which should set an example to those US cops dumb enough to still believe violence and pepper spray are the answer.
Hector Sants, chief executive of the Financial Services Authority (FSA) met with 10 members of the Occupy London, where they had a “fruitful and constructive” discussion on “a number of important issues”. The meeting took place in a Bedouin tent at St Ethelburga’s Center for Reconciliation, as part of the Church of England’s London Connection initiative on ethics and finance. After the meeting, Mr Sants said:
“The FSA is very firmly of the view, I’m very firmly of the view, that it’s very important we listen to everybody who wants to contribute to the debate about changing the financial system.
“They undoubtedly believe the financial system needs to change further - it has already changed a lot but it should change further.
“We had a very interesting discussion, a number of very interesting points were raised. I learned a lot, I listened and I got a very fruitful and constructive dialogue, which as far as I can judge I think all parties felt.”
“We were talking about the role the FSA plays in overseeing the financial system in the UK, how we are already going about trying to achieve significant change, and I was listening carefully to those areas where they would like to see further change.”
Also present were Ken Costa, former chairman of Lazard International and the Bishop of London, the Rt Reverend Dr Richard Chartres, who set up London Connection last month. According to Channel 4 News:
Leaving the meeting, Mr Costa said he thought there will be changes: “We’re looking at a number of initiatives and trying to establish the links between the informal sector, as I would call the meeting we had tonight, and the more formal establishment.” He added: “They are very well informed and have some important questions they want answered.”
Most of the protestors agreed tonight’s meeting went well, Mark Weaver said: “It’s a long road to a just world. Many topics came up, from fractional reserve banking to hedge funds to the very ethics that drive banking. I got the impression a lot of listening was going on.”
Richard Paton, a fellow protestor, said Hector Sants, “was suggesting that we get involved in the formal political process. Which is all well and good, but the reason that tents are popping up is because that process has failed. He certainly hasn’t given us any cause to go and pack up the camp. The issues are still there. ”
Ronan McNern of Occupy London said tonight’s meeting was about “initiating dialogue,” with the City and that the issue would not be solved in one 60 minute meeting.
On Tuesday night, Radiohead’s Thom Yorke joined Massive Attack’s 3D and UNKLE’s Tim Goldworthy for a 2 hour DJ set in the basement of the Occupy London Bank of Ideas Building (aka the former UBS’s building) in the City of London, where around one hundred specially invited people attended the event.
A record label, Occupation Records was also launched today, to raise money for Occupy London. A DVD and download will be released on 15 December.
TV Party hosted by Glenn O’ Brian was a New York City cable TV show that ran from 1978 to 1982. It had zero production values but a shitload of manic energy and lo-fi charm. Among the many musical guests that wandered onto the program were Blondie, The Fleshtones, Klaus Nomi, Kid Creole, David Byrne, The Clash and many more. It was also a magnet for artists like Robert Mapplethorpe and Jean-Michel Basquiat.
Directed by downtown auteur Amos Poe, TV Party brought some of what was happening in Manhattan’s rock clubs into your living room. I used to watch it while bathing in the bathtub located in the kitchen of my third floor walk-up on 27th street. $185 a month with a toilet up the hall. I thought it was quite glamorous.
Portrait of Noam Chomsky by Luca Del Baldo
America’s greatest public intellectual, prominent linguist, longtime MIT professor and tireless political activist, Noam Chomsky turns 83 today.
Hey c’mere. Smell this.
It smells like…
(At one point or another, Paul Giamatti, Benicio Del Toro, Sean Penn, Johnny Knoxville, Michael Chiklis and Jim Carey were all being discussed in relation to this atrocity. Methinks these gentlemen dodged career-killing bullets. This looks really, really terrible.)
A handy guide to sexting in 2011. Do teens and adults really use these?
(via The World’s Best Ever)
Of course I realize what the answer is to the question (“Because he’s a fucking idiot”) before I ask it, but why does Rick Perry think that a silly TV ad discussing the war on Chris’mus and teh gayz in the military is something that is going to endear him to Iowa caucus voters at a time when a record number of Americans are on food stamps?
And here I thought Republicans had appealing to dummies down to a science. If the Perry campaign is anything to go by, they’re slipping:
“I’m not ashamed to admit that I’m a Christian, but you don’t need to be in the pew every Sunday to know that there’s something wrong in this country when gays can serve openly in the military, but our kids can’t openly celebrate Christmas or pray in school.
As President, I’ll end Obama’s war on religion, and I’ll fight against liberal attacks on our religious heritage. Faith made America strong. It can make her strong again. I’m Rick Perry and I approve this message.”
As a supposedly “national” pol, perhaps Perry should be ashamed to admit that he approved this message. He really makes himself look absolutely fucking pathetic here. And really desperate, too.
According to every single polling I’ve read, even Iowa GOP voters who identify themselves as Tea party supporters do not have a strong interest in social issues with the economy in a state of shambles. Once again Perry ably demonstrates his political tin ear and why he’s just another Republican no-hoper in the party’s quest to oust Obama from the Oval Office.
Another classic fuck-up from Fox News. Via Animal New York:
Fox News attempted to cover the post-election-fraud protests in Moscow, but decided that the truth wasn’t exciting enough, so they spiced it up with some footage of the riots in Athens, thinking that no one would notice the fucking palm trees.
Yes, Russians feeling duped by Sunday’s documented, obnoxious election fraud are tense and angry, but without the specific fires-in-the-streets and scary revolution-y unrest imagery Fox News would have preferred… so they went ahead and repeatedly transplanted it from Greece.
Superb!
Here’s another winner: Fox News Fabricates Part of U.S. Constitution
Thank you Marina Galperina!
Creepy Christmas ornaments for your tree this holiday season from Michelle Scrimpsheron. You can order them at Michelle’s Etsy shop for around $17.00 per ornament.
Is it just me, or does the top ornament look like an eye from an Ood?
(via Super Punch)
In a move that will surely cause Georgia politicians of both parties to quake in fear, State Rep. Scott Holcomb (D-Atlanta) flicked the ears of Republicans in the statehouse by filing a bill last Friday requiring all state lawmakers to be drug tested.
The bill came in response to one filed last month by Republicans, who want the state to drug-test parents who apply for federal financial assistance. Holcomb, who represents parts of north DeKalb County, tweeted that “if required for the poor, we [lawmakers] need to do it, too.”
State lawmakers since Nov. 15 have been allowed to submit proposed laws and resolutions in advance of next year’s legislative session, which begins Jan. 9.
Standing ovation!
Back in October, Supreme released two decks designed by filmmaker/weirdo Harmony Korine which feature a ghostly Macaulay Culkin and a “Shirtless Man.” I’m not sure if they’re still being sold at the Supreme store locations, but I did find them for sale on eBay.
(via Lipstick Tracez)
