Woody Allen back when he was funny. From the UK/US co-production, Hippodrome, a television program shot in London showcasing the best European circus acts of the day.
 

 
Okay, my mind was pretty much blown by The Justice League XXX trailer. With a storyline of “When a great evil threatens porn’s very existence, The Justice League of Porn Stars Heroes comes together to battle The Legion of Poon”...  what could go wrong? 

 
(via EPICponyz)

 
A heavy 30 foot plus camera jib (boom/crane) fell into the audience this morning at the start of Orchestral Maneuvers In The Dark’s concert during SXSW. At 1 a.m. the giant metal rigging smashed into the first few rows of people standing in front of the stage immediately knocking them to the ground. The extent of the injuries are unknown at this time but it appeared that there were no fatalities. There was blood and people were being led from the scene in stretchers.

I was shooting video at the show and was acutely aware throughout the night of the intimidating jib and it’s position just above the heads of the audience. People were complaining about having to duck to avoid the giant metal arm and its wiring. In my opinion, it was an accident waiting to happen. The jib operators were either inexperienced or just plain reckless.

Marconi19d commented on The Daily Swarm website: “Thank you boom operator! You grazed my head about 5 times as the wires dangled from the huge camera rig that floated above us…but that was not enough, so why not go for it all and just drop the whole thing on me and several people who shed blood at Stubbs for SXSW. My first one and I will never forget this!:”

One concert goer who mistook me for a reporter told me she overheard the crew operating the jib complain that they had had problems with it all evening.

Several photographers were prevented from photographing or filming the scene by the cops and venue security. A reporter for the Austin Statesmen was reputedly ejected for trying to shoot photos. Who were security protecting? The injured? Or the venue, the jib operators, SXSW and the sponsors of the show?

Andy McCluskey of OMD joked “Shall we wait for the lawsuits or shall we start?” When he realized the severity of the situation he turned somber and the band left the stage.

With the cops and security playing tough guys, I may be the only one on the scene to have shot footage of the incident as it happened. I will gladly give it to anyone who was injured in this sad sad accident if it can help in any way.

My fiancee Mirgun was literally a matter of inches from the falling boom. It was gutwrenching for both of us. I was shooting video in another location and there were several minutes in which I was in a panic thinking she might have been injured. The photo at the top of this article was taken by her just as the boom crashed in front of the stage. You can see the hands of someone trying to lift it off of themselves. Damn.

The medics handled the situation efficiently and compassionately. Other than a few overzealous cops and junior G-Men in t-shirts that shouted “security”, the men and women whose jobs it was to rescue the injured were swift and sure.

Update: Austin 360 reports that SXSW did not authorize the video shoot. “We did not know about this video shoot,” said Roland Swenson, spokesman for SXSW who added that there are about 400 crews who are doing video shoots at venues throughout the conference. “It didn’t come through our process. He said that the Steve Madden company that sponsored the show at Stubbs hired another firm, On Slot, to do the video shoot. The video production company (On Slot) set up the equipment. We looked at the equipment and couldn’t tell if it was equipment failure or user error.”

According to KXAN television, four people were injured and the injuries were not life-threatening.

Update 3/21: Andy McCluskey of OMD discusses the camera jib accident and his SXSW experience:

Andy - No.
 

 
Update 3/21: Austin print and TV media continue to downplay the injuries sustained by the four people injured by the camera boom collapse calling their injuries “minor.”  I am beginning to wonder whether there may be a cover-up going in Austin to protect the reputation of the local cash cow that is SXSW.
 
See a photo of a “minor” injury after the jump….

 
It’s not enough that British early-twenty-something film nut Charlie Lyne’s Ultra Culture is one of the best cinema blogs around.

Oh no. He’s also gotta do stuff like Death / Hitchcock, a wonderful tribute to a legend, and one of the most anxiety-inducing and ultimately satisfying short simultaneous montages you may ever see.

Dare you to watch it just once.
 

 
Previously on Dangerous Minds:
24 Second Psycho
Psycho at 50: Zizek’s Three Floors of the Mind
Happy Birthday, Hitchcock: The Dali Dream of Spellbound

 
Al Qaeda is releasing a new glossy magazine for women called The Majestic Woman. Dubbed the “Jihad Cosmo” the magazine includes beauty tips for women (“stay indoors and wear a hijab”), how to find a jihadist husband, fashion advice, and suicide bombings. The front cover shows a sub-machine gun with a small insert picture of a veiled woman. According to The Week the 31-page glossy contains:

...advice for singles on “marrying a mujahideen,” a beauty column urging women to improve their complexion by keeping their faces covered and staying indoors, and an interview with the widow of a suicide bomber who praises her late husband’s bravery. A preview for the next issue promises more skin-care tips and instructions on how to wage electronic jihad.

But is The Majestic Woman for real?

Well, it’s definitely out there in the world, but its origins seem murky. The magazine is reportedly being distributed online by the same al Qaeda media group that publishes Inspire, a glossy magazine aimed at young Muslim extremists whose authenticity has also been questioned. Slate’s KJ Dell’Antonia notes that the Middle East Observatory hasn’t claimed the magazine as a product of al Qaeda, and U.S. analysts haven’t weighed in. In any case, says Dell’Antonia, “neither beauty tips nor man-catching advice seem consistent with the womanly ideals of the conservative Muslim, and it’s hard to reconcile a cover image of a woman posing with a sub-machine gun with a culture that does not allow women to drive.”

via KFMW

So I watched this 45 second time-lapse video (above) of a cigarette burning in reverse called “Chasing Smoke.” After watching this, I got curious and wondered if it was actually possible to smoke an entire cigarette in less than 45 seconds? Well, it is. The gentlemen in the video below demonstrates how to finish off a smoky treat in just 40 seconds! Quite a… uh… talent!  Must’ve taken years of practice and years off his life…
 

 
A 15-year-old, Hugh Cornwell poses with his first band Emil and The Detectives in 1964. The band was formed by guitarist Richard Thompson (on the far right of picture). who went on to Fairport Convention, while Cornwell found fame as frontman with The Stranglers. Cornwell talked about this early snapshot in the Telegraph Magazine:

I remember getting the violin bass guitar I’m holding here, I was about 15 and had saved up £50 for it. Before then I’d been playing a homemade version with a neck the thickness of a plank of wood. Richard Thompson (on the far right) suggested I learn to play bass because he was forming Emil and the Detectives (the band in the picture) and he needed a bass player, so he taught me. We were good friends from school and we played each other music that we had discovered, like the Rolling Stones and the Who. Richard’s older sister, Perri, who was the social secretary at the Hornsey College of Art in north London, would book us to play parties and pay us £30 per gig. Our biggest claim to fame was supporting Helen Sahpiro at the Ionic cinema in Golders Green. But after we took our O-level [exams] we lost touch. The next I heard he was the lead guitarist in Fairport Convention…

...In August 2008 I was doing a festival outside Madrid and the promoter said, ‘If we hurry we can catch the end of Richard Thompson’s set.’ I couldn’t believe it. I hadn’t seen Richard in 30 years. We had a big huggy reunion and now we’re back in touch it’s really lovely. When I played in LA last year he came to watch and I suggested that we play a song together. I chose “Tobacco Road” by the Nashville Teens, which was a number one hit in the 1960s and was one of the first songs we learnt together.

Hugh Cornwell tours the UK April 6-17, details here.
 
More early pics and performances of pop stars, including Lemmy, Bowie and Davy Jones, after the jump…
 

 
In Marina Abramović‘s “Balkan Erotic Epic,” the “grandmother of performance art” beats Matthew Barney at his own game. In the piece, Abramović explores pagan Serbian fertility rituals and the use of sex magick to affect everyday life. One example is how a woman would keep a fish tucked into her vagina overnight and then make a powder of it to add to her man’s coffee. After he drinks it, he will never stray… or at least that’s the idea.

This major new work and multi-channel video installation explores how sexuality was defined in Balkan pagan traditions. Abramovic researched Serbian folklore and discovered many instances of the employment of eroticism to address everyday issues. For example, if it rained too much the women of the village would run into the fields and lift their skirts in an attempt to scare the gods and end the rain. Sweeping cinematic projections and animations play alongside contextual readings as Abramovic and amateur actors dress in traditional costumes and reanimate myth.

Through eroticism, the human attempts to make himself equal with the gods. In Balkan folklore, men and women sought to preserve indestructible energies through the use of the erotic. They believed that erotic energy was something non-human that could only come from higher forces.

Various explicit acts were performed for a variety of purposes; to promote the growth of crops, to heal a sick child, to protect against evil spirits and so forth.

Abramovic’s interest lies in what can be learned from these ancient traditions viewed now in a contemporary context.

This is seriously, seriously NOT safe for work, you have been warned…
 

 
After the jump, Lady Gaga on Marina Abramović.

 
With Johnny Thunders, Jerry Nolan and Arthur Kane gone, the reconstituted New York Dolls’ albums sound like David Johansen’s solo albums. Not a bad thing, but man do I miss the street vibe the dead Dolls brought to the mix.

The debut single, “Fool For You Baby,” from David and Syl Sylvain’s new album Dancing Backward in High Heels, could be a mid-70s Rolling Stones’ tune with guitars on mute. The Dolls may be dancing backwards but they’re definitely not wearing high heels anymore.

The absence of Johnny Thunders is a huge missing ingredient in The Dolls’ new material. Proof you can’t put your arms around a memory. And maybe David and Syl aren’t even trying to resurrect the past. But calling themselves The New York Dolls certainly begs comparisons.
 

 
Ohhh, this book looks way more interesting than Space Cat Meets Mars. Ruthven Todd would be so proud.

Below, a video of “A damn cat eating mushrooms.” 

 
(via Twisted Vintage)