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Psychedelic Glue Sniffing Hillbillies
08.01.2010
03:12 am
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Is Craig Smith’s no-budget 8mm Psychedelic Glue Sniffing Hillbillies the spawn of John Water’s bad seed, the white trash pappy to Harmony Korine’s Gummo or the most twisted home movie ever made? Is it a brilliant cinematic statement about America’s marginalized underclass or just a reel of crap celluloid found in the bottom of a grab bag at a West Virginia garage sale? Or, who gives a shit? Pound back a few Rolling Rocks and swim into the celluloid oil slick that is Psychedelic Glue Sniffing Hillbilles.

For the the fullblown glue sniffing experience buy the DVD at gluesniffcom. “It’s more fun than a two-headed tractor pull.”

Posted by Marc Campbell
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08.01.2010
03:12 am
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Before The Devils: Bad-Boy Director Ken Russell Calls Down the Angels in 1958
07.31.2010
11:37 pm
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As the British New Wave of filmmaking took off in the late-‘50s, filmmaker Ken Russell went a slightly different route than his cinema-verite-obsessed colleagues with his 26-minute Amerlia and the Angel. Armed with a hefty £300 budget (half of it supplied by the British Film Institute), the 30-year-old newly married and converted Catholic director got Mercedes Quadros, the nine-year-old daughter of the Uruguayan ambassador to London to play Amelia for this imagistic religiously allegorical romp through the City.

Though silent like his previous two shorts, Amelia features spoken narration, which adds to its storybook quality. Russell submitted the film to the BBC, which hired him to make documentaries, and gave him the skills he’d need to eventually become the iconoclastic director of The Devils, Tommy, Altered States, Gothic, and Lair of the White Worm.

Michael Brooke at the BFI website notes:

Despite the film’s minuscule budget, there are numerous imaginative touches: the choreography of the angel ballet at the start (drawing on Russell’s own training as a dancer), the butterfly wallpaper mocking the loss of Amelia’s wings, the hand-held camera mimicking a child’s eye view of the crowded streets, the almost Expressionist treatment of Amelia’s ascent of the stairs (including a surreal shot that initially appears as an empty dress descending of its own accord), and the ascent of the artist into the heavens on a ladder (against a backdrop of painted clouds) before descending with the precious wings.

 

See Part II and more after the jump!
 

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Posted by Ron Nachmann
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07.31.2010
11:37 pm
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John Callahan, Cartoonist Who Found Humor In The Dark Side Of Life : R.I.P.
07.31.2010
08:20 pm
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John Callahan, known for his dark, crude and morbidly funny cartoons has died.

Considering the shitty hand that life dealt him and the shit he brought upon himself, it’s a miracle that Callahan found anything funny. He never knew his birth parents and as a child was sexually molested by a female teacher. He turned to alcohol at the age of 14 to deal with the pain of having been abused. A full-blown alcoholic by the age of 21, he was involved in a car accident when the driver, a friend, ran the vehicle into a lightpole at 90mph. The crash severed Callahan’s spine, leaving him a quadriplegic.

What was a potentially hopeless situation became a profound turning point in Callahan’s life. He gave up booze and became an artist.  After a long period of physical therapy he was able to hold a pen in his hand. He started creating the cartoons that brought him notoriety and fans like Richard Pryor, Robin Williams, Bill Plympton and Gary Larson. His autobiography ‘Don’t Worry, He Won’t Get Far on Foot’ became a bestseller.

Callahan was 59 when he died on July 24th. The causes were complications of quadriplegia and respiratory problems. His politically incorrect slaps at the status quo and unflinching honesty will be missed.  John was the kind of turd in the punchbowl that keeps us from drinking the Koolaid.

‘I Think I was An Alcoholic’ was animated by Callahan and ‘Touch Me Some Place I Can Feel’ is a clip from a documentary of the same name about Callahan.
 
see ‘Touch Me Some Place I Can Feel’  after the jump…

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Posted by Marc Campbell
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07.31.2010
08:20 pm
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Rock Posters Printed In Human Blood
07.31.2010
03:12 pm
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Some people bleed for their art.

French graphic designer Metastazis and Polish artist Zbiniew M. Blielak combined forces to create this poster for Swedish metal band Watain. Instead of conventional screenprint ink, they used human blood. Metastazis describes his art as being ‘scandalous yet refined.’ The Watain poster lives up to his credo.

111 posters were printed.
 
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more bloody good photos after the jump

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Posted by Marc Campbell
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07.31.2010
03:12 pm
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The Internet Animal Orchestra
07.31.2010
03:00 pm
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Forgive me for posting two autotuned videos in a row, but this is really quite cool. The Internet Animal Orchestra AKA ‘Autotune The Zoos’.

thanks rathergood

Posted by Marc Campbell
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07.31.2010
03:00 pm
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Saturday Morning Bliss: Cat Stevens ‘I Love My Dog’
07.31.2010
02:12 pm
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Posted by Tara McGinley
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07.31.2010
02:12 pm
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The Gregory Brothers : The Bed Intruder Song
07.31.2010
01:59 pm
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Brooklyn’s Gregory Brothers, who’ve done dozens of these, have done it again, a little remix masterpiece. They’ve auto-tuned a news report into a song that actually holds up as a song. The keyboard ending is a bit lame, but otherwise this is both funny and kind of moving.

After Antoine Dodson, a young hero from Huntsville, AL, saves his sister from an attack, he sings an important message both to his community and to the attacker himself. Evan Gregory then proceeds to play a heartfelt cover of the resulting song.

he’s climbin in your windows
he’s snatchin your people up
tryna rape em so y’all need to
hide your kids, hide your wife
hide your kids, hide your wife
hide your kids, hide your wife
and hide your husband
cuz they’re rapin errbody out here

 

 

Posted by Marc Campbell
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07.31.2010
01:59 pm
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White Rabbit, The Bearded Boy, Black Booty And The Mystic Arts Of 2 Live Crew
07.31.2010
04:02 am
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Director Andreas Nilsson’s video for Miike Snow’s ‘The Rabbit’ is definitely bubblingly up into my top ten of 2010. The set design, color, choreography and little dude with beard coalesce into three minutes and 36 seconds of vibrant, color saturated bliss. Black is beautiful…and so is red, green, yellow and blue.

And the 2 Live Crew album cover is Baby Beard’s Holy Grail.

Posted by Marc Campbell
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07.31.2010
04:02 am
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‘Underwear’: Top Ten Videos Of 2010…So Far
07.31.2010
03:35 am
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I’m starting to compile my choices for best videos for 2010 and this is a contender.

Dan Scheinert and Dan Kwan directed this slice of visual deliciousness for Icelandic electro poppers FM Belfast. Using variable speeds, warping, time displacement, jump cuts and stop motion, the two Daniels have created a mindbendingly cool video. And the song Underwear ain’t bad either.

Posted by Marc Campbell
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07.31.2010
03:35 am
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Trailer From The New Movie By Romain Gavras, Director Of M.I.A.‘s Controversial ‘Born Free’ video
07.31.2010
12:36 am
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Romain Gavras directed the controversial video for M.I.A.‘s song ‘Born Free.’ That’s the one where redheaded kids (gingers) are blown away to a sample of Suicide’s ‘Ghost Rider.’ Here’s the trailer for Romain’s feature length debut, Notre Jour Viendra, which was originally called Redheads. It looks quite compelling and I’m looking forward to seeing it. The visuals are striking and it stars one of my favorite actors, Vincent Cassell.

Posted by Marc Campbell
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07.31.2010
12:36 am
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Rusty Rat Rods From Hell
07.30.2010
07:10 pm
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A rat rod is an old car or truck, usually from the 1920s thru to the 50s, that’s been stripped down and rebuilt using parts that date from the same era as the original automobile. A rat rod may be seriously stripped down, without hoods or fenders. They’re the punk rock rods of the hot rod scene, expressing the individuality of their owners. Aesthetically, the more rust the better.

I shot these at The Lonestar Rod And Custom Roundup in Austin this year. Music is by The Damned, Mink DeVille and The Modern Lovers.

A lot of a young cats in the Chicano community in Austin are rat rod aficionados.

The first video features a particularly groovy rusty rat rod tricked out with hydraulics and a Jack Daniels bottle containing radiator coolant. This is a low rider for people with exceptional style.

The second video contains rat motorcycles and more rat rods.

 
More rat rods after the jump…

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Posted by Marc Campbell
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07.30.2010
07:10 pm
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A pair of interesting Andy Warhol-related items
07.30.2010
07:10 pm
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Two cool Andy Warhol items came to my attention today that I wanted to share here. First of all, the charming letter sent to the artist in 1964 by William MacFarland, the Product Marketing Manager of the Campbell Soup Company, congratulating him on the success of his then young career and offering to send over a couple of cases of tomato soup.

The video below is a 90 second condensation of the 23 minutes Warhol spent painting a BMW M1 race car. Roy Lichtenstein and Alexander Calder also painted “art cars” for the German auto giant.
 

 
Via Letters of Note/Jalopnik.

Posted by Richard Metzger
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07.30.2010
07:10 pm
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Bloody Slabs Of Human Flesh On Display In Times Square
07.30.2010
06:20 pm
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PETA’s ‘Meat Tray Demonstration’ yesterday in Times Square featured bloodied human beings wrapped in meat trays like slabs of beef. The point is a good one. Flesh is flesh, no matter the source. And seeing humans depicted as steaks and pork chops puts the whole concept of eating creatures with faces into grisly perspective. Meat is murder.
 
Read about the demonstration at the Peta Files.

Posted by Marc Campbell
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07.30.2010
06:20 pm
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Matt Taibbi on the Andrew Breitbart kerfuffle
07.30.2010
05:15 pm
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In case you missed it, America’s best political writer, Matt Taibbi weighed in on L’affair Breitbart on the Rolling Stone blog:

I’ve decided it isn’t even necessary to have the debate over whether or not the Tea Partiers are racists. It’s enough to point out that the Tea Party and its sympathizers contain too many people like Andrew Breitbart (the idiot blogger from the Big Government website who originally posted the Sherrod video), Bill O’Reilly, and Glenn Beck, all of whom popped huge public woodies the moment the Sherrod video surfaced.

It’s just not necessary to say whether or not these people are racists. All that needs to be pointed out is that when they get a chance to gape at a video purporting to show a black Obama official confessing to having mistreated a white farmer (it turned out to be the opposite of that, of course), or a tape of Black Panther King Shamir talking about “killing cracker babies,” the word that best describes the emotions they display at these times is glee.

They enjoy these morbid stories about offenses to white dignity way too much. I caught Glenn Beck talking about some case involving a Black Panther who was intimidating people at a voting booth back in 2008—the guy had this pervy smile on his face that made him look exactly like one of those creepy dudes sitting hunched over at the edge of the bed playing the cuckold in cheating-wife porn videos. Over the Black Panthers! Who the hell has even seen a Black Panther since the seventies? The whole thing reminds me of that Chris Rock routine about Native Americans—“When was the last time you saw two Indians?”

I love how he ends the piece by asking “Is anyone else dreading 2012?”

I feel ya, dude. It’s going to be an all out brawl. 2012 might be the year the American republic ends up so frayed as to be ungovernable. The rightwing has backed itself so far into a corner that there is almost no way that they can still walk it back anymore. People are going to die during the next national election cycle. 2008 was merely the opening act. It’s already fucking fucked up. The rhetoric is so mean and hateful that the next step is easy to predict: Violence. 

Looked at from one point of view, the whole Axis of Idiocy (Fox News, tea baggers, conservative Christians) thing we’re seeing in this country is nothing short of a mass mobilization of some of the meanest and stupidest people to publicly present themselves that I have witnessed in my entire life. Don’t get me wrong, I consider most of these sad, deluded fools to be people whose time will somewhat quickly come to an end. The Tea party is a manifestation, by and large, of cranky old white people. They’ll be dying soon enough and their grandchildren will not be replenishing their ranks. It’s just not going to work that way. the demographics all but prohibit it from happening. Still, even if, historically speaking, it’ll be temporary, what happens in the meantime is going to make for a really trying couple of decades, ‘cause there is a mean genie that’s gotten out of the bottle and he ain’t going back in anytime soon.

The Tea Party is Perverted and Irrelevant (Rolling Stone)

Posted by Richard Metzger
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07.30.2010
05:15 pm
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Exene Cervenka’s Punk Rock Western To Aid Gulf Coast Recovery
07.30.2010
03:54 pm
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Exene Cervenka, the director of photography and co-writer on Modi Frank’s 1986 silent western Bad Day, is making the film available on her website to help raise money for Gulf Coast residents.

Shot at a secret location near Chatsworth, California, the short film features an inspired cast of irregulars playing the residents of a small town on a bad day. Call it what you will: a cow-punk time capsule, a mock-Western, a guerrilla film forerunner – or just plain proof of a time when everyone didn’t take themselves so seriously.

“Bad Day” has a cool cast that includes, John Doe (X), Dave Alvin (Blasters), Kevin Costner, Michael Blake and Chris Desjardin (The Flesheaters).

A portion of the proceeds from “Bad Day” are going to the Gulf Coast aid organization the Committee for Plaquemines Recovery that helps the people affected in the Gulf region.

Now available for the first time as a digital download Viewers will be able to “pay” whatever they choose for the download.  Please view at www.baddaymovie.com
 

Posted by Marc Campbell
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07.30.2010
03:54 pm
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