Philosopher and media critic Douglas Rushkoff has written several books, graphic novels and comics and now he’s actually in a comic, playing himself in “Taking Back the World,” an installment of Seth Kushner’s innovative Culture Pop series at the Activate Comix site.
For a brief period in the late 1940s, Salvador Dali and Walt Disney Studios collaborated on some animation projects, one of which, “Destino,” actually got made. Performance artist Paul McCarthy, known for spinning Disney into nightmares, ventures into the realm of the comically absurd in The Painter (1995). Satirizing William de Kooning, the abstract impressionists, and artists in general. The Painter (1995) mimics, in its lo-tech way, the outrages of Dali and Bunuel’s Un Chien Andalou with a deranged Mouseketeers on brown acid vibe. In his own weird, transgressive, way, McCarthy takes up where Dali and Disney left off, drawing from pop culture, the high and the low, and tossing them into the Cuisinart of his feverish and fertile imagination. Imagine Snow White and Pinocchio starring in a collaboration between Takashi Miike and Pee Wee Herman.
The Painter (1995) is a brilliant interrogation of the senility and late paintings of Willem de Kooning, complete with collectors and dealers puppet-mastering around him. It’s a video deploying, as so many of his videos do, the mise-en-scène of instructional television (from the Galloping Gourmet to Martha Stewart), but one in which the painter mumbles and cries: ‘You can’t do it anymore you can’t do it anymore.’ And later: ‘I can’t do this anymore.’ He means painting, he means art-making, he may mean life. At the end of The Painter the artist gets up on a table, pulls down his pants and a collector with a protuberant fake nose sniffs at his bare arse, McCarthy’s own.”
Here’s The Painter in all of its visceral glory, where art is more than an extension of consciousness, it’s an extension of the lower gastrointestinal tract.
Dangerous Minds pal Rod Stanley, the editor of the mighty Dazed and Confused magazine, and photographer Chris Saunders recently made a trip to Nigeria and returned with a short film about the country’s vibrant musical scene:
At the end of last year, Dazed travelled to Lagos, Nigeria, for the third annual MTV Africa Music Awards, an event that had drawn performers from all over the continent, as well as a few international names such as Chuck D, Eve and Rick Ross. The real stars for me on this trip though were all the African performers that we spoke to, photographed and partied with while we were there – people like Uganda’s party boys Radio & Weasel, Nigeria’s first lady of R&B Sasha, Angola’s colourful kuduro crew Cabo Snoop, and the Democratic Republic of Congo’s fashion-mad Fally Ipupa.
Many of them told stories of how a lack of a royalty system and widespread music piracy are hampering the development of their music industry, and how they see themselves as a pioneers laying the groundwork for the generation that will follow them. This short film introduces all of the above and more, with some of their music videos and the insanely hectic atmosphere of the city of Lagos itself.
This collection of short films comes from The House of Automata, a specialist company that restores, builds and maintains historic and antique automata, and make new ones to commission.
Two highlights from this incredible collection are the eerie but quite magical automated harpist by Vichy, and life-like “Nancy - the automaton”.
More videos from The House of Automata can be seen here.
A wonderful discovery from the archives of Mills College For Women, long a hotbed of revolutionary musical experimentation. This early 50’s newsreel of Harry Partch conducting the students on his battery of self-invented and built instruments (Partch famously described himself as a composer seduced into carpentry) is entirely too brief. Fortunately, due to the Youtubes, there’s been an explosion of materials on the great man for one and all to discover. I include as a bonus but a few of the lesser viewed examples of his greatness and encourage explorers to seek out recordings of Partch’s utterly unique music.
Harry Partch Music Studio a short film by Madeline Tourtelot circa late 50’s. (in two parts)
Another anthologizing of an obscure yet highly worthy of attention animated film maker from our friends at Network Awesome. This time the subject is Estonian director Priit Pärn.
To be sure, these are powerful films. Parn uses a style that’s inspired many other animators, most notably, the Klasky Csupo animation studio, creators of Rugrats and Ahh Real Monsters. Stylistically, it’s sometimes jarring and unnerving; ragged drawings with intense colors and often mind-bending instrumental music, that all serves to create an incredible experience. There is very little in the way of dialogue, and far less in the way of context; there is no real immediately discernable narrative. In fact, a cursory viewing of Pärn’s work, might just appear to be a collage of ideas, loosely strung together in the hopes of creating a story. However, one must dig in deeper to see the true, haunting beauty of Parn’s work.
Video playlist:
Hotel E (1992)
Time Out
Breakfast On The Grass (1987)
The Triangle (1982)
a short interview with Priit Pärn
Frank & Wendy (latest film, still being completed)
In Flagranti are a dance production duo consisting of Alex Gloor and Sasha Crnobrnja. who have been releasing records on labels like RVNG and Gomma for the best part of a decade. Their use of naggingly familiar disco samples combined with some old school analog electro synths has brought them a very loyal following all over the world, and seen them gain support from disparate scenes such as disco, Cosmic and electro-house.
But it’s not just about the music with these guys - Alex Gloor is also a very talented visual artist, and In Flagranti are as well known for their sleeves and videos as they are for their sounds. Making heavy use of vintage soft core porn imagery, the band have made accompanying videos for many of their tracks, and their upcoming album Worse For Wear (Codek Records) is no different. For these new tunes Gloor has hit a rich stream of found footage documenting the seedier side of New York in the late Seventies and early Eighties, featuring a lot of street kids, porno shop fronts and pissed off looking taxi drivers. Also featured in various videos are the Jonestown massacre, the infamous Ugly George cable TV show, and security footage of a bank robbery.
While definitely coming from the “club” side of visual montage, this isn’t full of annoying strobe editing and cheap computer graphics. Editing is in fact kept to a minimum and the visuals (in tandem with the music) are allowed to do all the talking themselves. My favorite clip is the appropriately titled “On The Fringe”, which features some battered and bruised looking street kids. I wonder where they are now?
“On The Fringe” and the rest of the album are all after the jump, but in the meantime to whet your appetite here’s “Latter Day Methods” (ft Ugly George) and the Worse For Wear album promo clip. You can buy Worse For Wearhere (so far it’s only available in the States on import) and there is more info on In Flagranti here.
In Flagranti - Worse For Wear album teaser 3
In Flagranti - “Latter-Day Methods”
After the jump the complete Worse For Wear videos.
Donna Douglas, who played the “critter-loving bombshell Elly May Clampett” in the hit 1960s TV series The Beverly Hillbillies is suing Barbie manufacturers, Mattel over its Elly May Barbie doll. The actress filed a federal lawsuit, in Louisiana, which claims Mattel is “engaging in the unauthorized use of (her) name, likeness, image and attributes” as Elly May, as CNN reports:
Douglas never gave Mattel permission to market the doll or use her endorsement to promote it, according to court papers. Yet, the suit says, a photo of Douglas in character as Elly May is used in the packaging, and Mattel boasts in promotional material that the doll “captures the essence of the classic ‘60s TV character and show.”
Mattel said through a spokesman that the company “licensed the rights to ‘Beverly Hillbillies’ for this product through the appropriate channels.” Douglas’ attorney, Philip J. Shaheen, did not respond to requests for comment.
Douglas’ suit seeks damages in excess of $75,000 for each of four alleged violations of her right to control her public image, likeness, endorsements and publicity as Elly May Clampett, a character closely identified with her. She is demanding a jury trial.
1. Barbie’s real name is Barbie Millicent Roberts
2. She is from Willows, Wisconsin, and went to Willows High School
3. She was based on a German doll called Bild Lilli
4. Barbie is 52-years-old, having been introduced in 1959
5. The first Barbie doll cost $3 (£2)
6. She has had more than 50 pets.
7. Her boyfriend Ken first appeared in 1961
8. They split up in 2004 after 43 years
9. Barbie has had more than 80 careers including fashion model, Olympic athlete, astronaut and palaeontologist
10. She has run for the White House twice as “President Barbie”
A full selection of celebrity Barbies can be seen here.
Here’s the third installment of MoPapparani’s ambitious video tribute to fictional rock bands in film and television.
Featured in compilation three are:
01 - A. D. D. (The Rocker)
02 - Infant Sorrow (Get Him to the Greek)
03 - Buckaroo Banzai and the Hong Kong Cavaliers
(The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension)
04 - Hard Core Logo (Hard Core Logo)
05 - Eddie and the Cruisers (Eddie and the Cruisers)
06 - The Commitments (The Commitments)
07 - Cherry Bomb (Howard the Duck)
08 - Strange Fruit (Still Crazy)
09 - Hedwig and the Angry Inch (Hedwig and the Angry Inch)
10 - El Mariachi (Desperado)
11 - Bad Blake (Crazy Heart)
12 - B-Rabbit (8 Mile)
13 - Young Caesar (Get Rich or Die Tryin’)
14 - DJay (Hustle & Flow)
15 - Yonica Babyyeah (War, Inc.)
16 - Sexual Chocolate (Coming to America)
17 - Lili Von Shtupp (Blazing Saddles)
18 - Freddy Fredrickson (That Thing You Do!)
19 - Willie Scott (Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom)
20 - Breathless Mahoney (Dick Tracy)
21 - Emma Murdoch (Dark City)
22 - The Chantrellines (That Thing You Do!)
23 - Du Jour (Josie and the Pussycats)
24 - Rex Manning (Empire Records)
25 - PoP (Music and Lyrics)
26 - Reverend Cleophus James & the Triple Rock Baptist Church Choir
(The Blues Brothers)
27 - The Muses (Disney’s Hercules)
28 - Curtis Salgado (The Blues Brothers)
29 - Rachel Marron (The Bodyguard)
30 - The Beets (Doug)
31 - Fat Albert and the Junkyard Band (Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids)
32 - The Banana Splits (The Banana Splits)
33 - The Blowholes (The Adventures of Pete & Pete)
34 - Stephen and the Colberts (The Colbert Report)
35 - Chef (South Park)
36 - The Archies (The Archie Show)
37 - Zack Attack (Saved by the Bell)
38 - Titannica (Mr. Show with Bob and David)
39 - Timmy and the Lords of the Underworld (South Park)
40 - Dethklok (Metalocalypse)