Ralph Bakshi apparently loaded some sneaky images of Mighty Mouse snorting coke in the 1980s Saturday morning cartoon. Hey, look, how do you think those poor animators work all night? Oh, I’m sorry, unless they’re chained to a desk in Southeast Asia… and hey, even then. Probably especially then. How else are they going to think like 8-year-olds constantly?

Fans of edgy animation and cartoon vice rejoiced this week, as the infamous 1987-1988 Saturday morning series “Mighty Mouse: The New Adventures” finally hit DVD.  From the warped minds of Ralph Bakshi (“Fritz the Cat”) and John Kricfalusi (“Ren & Stimpy”), the show is often cited as a precursor to the era of wacky, subversive TV animation. So why the hold up on the DVD release? Well, it might have something to do with a controversial episode where the superhero mouse sniffed a very suspicious-looking white powder.

Premiering on CBS in November of 1987, “Mighty Mouse: The New Adventures” stood out in a field crowded with the mediocre likes of “Foofur” and “The Pound Puppies.” (This was a time when “The Smurfs” dominated two hours of prime Saturday morning real estate on NBC.) Bakshi—who began his animation career at Terrytoons, home of the original Mighty Mouse—assembled a team of future animation stars like Bruce Timm (“Batman: The Animated Series”) and “Wall-E” director Andrew Stanton, and granted them the creative freedom to poke fun at classic animation and superheroes (with characters like the Dark Knight stand-in Bat-Bat) in the guise of an innocuous Saturday morning ‘toon. As Kricfaulsi recently told Wired, the era of edgy, “creator-driven” animation that many credit “Ren & Stimpy” with starting actually kicked off two years earlier with “Mighty Mouse.”

But the show often veered into territory too risque for the Tiffany Network, including having characters shower together and hinting in a dream sequence that Mighty’s gal Pearl Pureheart had an illegitimate child with nemesis The Cow. The biggest controversy (and perhaps part of the reason why the show is remembered today) arose from the episode “The Littlest Tramp,” where Mighty Mouse is shown sniffing what appeared to be cocaine.

(ComicsAlliance: New Adventures of Mighty Mouse)

(Unfiltered: The Complete Ralph Bakshi, The Force Behind Fritz the Cat, Mighty Mouse, Cool World, and The Lord of the Rings)

 
The new decade’s barely 8 days old, but I’m already sensing a developing continuing theme.  Consider this: a zeitgeisty popstar whose authenticity is a subject of endless debate assumes a role in a company whose hallmark products no longer exist!

Lady Gaga’s success continues this week, with the announcement that the singer has been made a creative director of Polaroid.  Despite the fact that the traditional analogue Polaroid cameras were discontinued last year, the company continues to sell a range of digital products and sees Lady Gaga as the ideal spokesperson for a “speciality line.”

“I am so proud to announce my new partnership with Polaroid as the creative director and inventor of speciality projects,” said the pop star.  “The Haus of Gaga has been developing prototypes in the vein of fashion/technology/photography innovation, blending the iconic history of Polaroid and instant film with the digital era.  Lifestyle, music, art, fashion: I am so excited to extend myself behind the scenes as a designer, and as my father puts it, finally have a real job.”

It is not clear what role the 23-year-old singer will play at the 73-year-old imaging company, but Polaroid confirmed “new products by Lady Gaga will hit retail shelves starting in late 2010.”

Well, The Guardian might not know what role she’ll be playing, but readers of Dangerous Minds certainly have a good idea—it rhymes with “moccult!”

Previously in Dangerous Minds:
God Hates Lady Gaga: The Song

Lady Gaga and the Dead-Planet Grotesque

Lady Gaga, Michael Jackson: Puppets Of The Illuminati!

 
Bowie turns 63 (!) today, and as much as his music continues to resonate, his roles in film, be they bit (Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me, The Last Temptation of Christ), or starring (The Man Who Fell To Earth, Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence), are no less enduring.

The “otherness” Bowie exerts as an onscreen presence, in my eyes, always seems matched by the obvious thoughtfulness he injects into his roles.  And now, thanks to YouTube, we can turn to the accompanying, mostly silent, clip to see where it all started. 

Directed by Michael Armstrong, The Image stars Michael Byrne, who plays an artist tortured by Bowie when his painting of him “comes to life.”  Here’s what Cinebeats says of the ‘67 short:

David Bowie plays the mysterious apparition who is haunting the artist and his unusual good looks and other-worldly appearance are used to great effect here.  Bowie was just 20-years-old when he made his acting debut, but he had studied with the avant-garde performance artist and actor Lindsay Kemp who included elements of Mime and Butoh into his teaching.  Bowie obviously made use of the skills he developed studying under Kemp for his role in The Image and his wordless performance as an unrelenting spectre is undoubtedly the most memorable element of this short film.

The Image was shot in just three days, but its official debut was held off for 2 years.  And due to its relatively violent content, it was one of the first British features to receive an X rating.

 
To learn more about The Image, visit the official Michael Armstrong website

 
Thanks Nigel!

Say what you will about Barack Obama, I have to say that taking responsibility for the Christmas terrorist plot intelligence failure is, well, the most (by which I mean the only) mature act I’ve seen from a president, ever. Call it the kinder, gentler face of fascism, but this?

 
Tara, Brad and myself are all total “Lost” nuts. We’ve seen every single episode, and I have to say, it almost never, ever lets me down. It takes episodic television to an entirely new level. It’s television as an art form, really. We can’t wait for the new season to start.

Via io9

 
Howard Stern’s take on Sarah Palin’s audio book. Truly hilarious and definitely NSFW. You just know she’s going to complain to the media and/or try to sue him when she gets wind of this.

Thank you Ynohtna Oimefue!

 
This is one of the most insane things I’ve ever heard. Talk about bravery! (To say nothing of a steady hand). In 1961, a Soviet surgeon named Leonid Rogozov, then 27-years-old, and a member of the party of the 6th Soviet Antarctic expedition felt lower abdominal pain. What happened next is probably fairly obvious from the photograph!

In 1959 Leonid Rogozov graduated from the Institute and was immediately accepted to the surgery clinical residency. However, his studies at the residency were broken off for some time due to Leonid’s trip to Antarctica in September, 1960 as a doctor of the 6th Soviet Antarctic expedition to Novolazarevskaya station.

During this expedition there happened an event that made a 27-year old surgeon world-famous.

In the 4th month of the wintering, in April, 29th, 1961, Leonid showed disturbing symptoms: weakness, nausea, fever and pain in a right iliac region. The following day his temperature got even higher. Being the only doctor in the expedition consisting of 13 people, Leonid diagnosed himself: acute appendicitis. There were no planes at any of the nearest stations, besides, adverse weather conditions would not allow to fly to Novolazarevskaya anyway. In order to save the sick member of a polar expedition there was needed an urgent operation on site. And the only way out was to operate on himself.

At night, on the 30th of April, 1961, the surgeon was being helped by a mechanical engineer and a meteorologist who were giving him the medical instruments and holding a small mirror at his belly. Lying half bent on the left side, the doctor made a local anesthesia with novocaine solution and made a 12cm incision in the right iliac region with a scalpel. Either watching in the mirror or by touch he removed an inflamed appendix and injected antibiotic in the abdominal cavity. In 30 or 40 minutes from the beginning of the operation there developed a faint and giddiness and the surgeon had to make pauses for some rest. Nevertheless, by midnight the operation lasting 1 hour and 45 minutes was over. In five days the temperature normalized, in two days more – the stitches were taken out.

You think you’re tough? You ain’t tough!

Via English-Russia

 
Dangerous Minds pal Brian Butler has a new short film that’s part of a film festival coming up in Los Angeles soon. Brian was a producer on the Disinformation series with me a while back, helming two of the show’s more memorable segments: the feuding Satanists and Rocketboy, the real life superhero/half cat. He also introduced me to Uncle Goddamn. Brian also contributed the great essay on Marjorie Cameron, Cameron: The Wormwood Star to my Book of Lies anthology. For these reasons and more, I shall be forever grateful. The video clip below is a shorter version of Night of Pan that was made for a Beijing arts festival, the full version will be shown at the Projections festival. It’s pretty striking, I think you’ll agree!

From the press release:

Brian Butler’s Night of Pan Premiers in LA at Projections Festival, January 16 at Roberts & Tilton

Los Angeles, CA: Noted filmmaker, artist and musician Brian Butler (www.brianbutler.com) will premier his short film, “Night of Pan” in Los Angeles on January 16 at 7:30pm at the opening of Projections, a festival of rare and hard to see films including other directors such as Spike Jonze, Harmony Korine, Jean-Luc Goddard, and Miranda July . Projections was curated by Aaron Rose an artist, film director, writer, musician, and independent curator most noted as the co-curator of the successful museum exhibition and book Beautiful Losers: Contemporary Art & Street Culture which toured the world through 2008.

Projections takes place at the Roberts & Tilton Gallery, 5801 Washington Boulevard, between La Cienega Boulevard and Fairfax Avenue, in Culver City, California from January 16 to February 20, 2010. In addition to screening on January 16, “Night of Pan” will also be screened in a loop at the gallery on February 18, 2010.

“Night of Pan” is a seven and a half minute film featuring film auteur Kenneth Anger and actor Vincent Gallo. The film has been screened in various versions internationally in Beijing, Lisbon, Cannes, Athens, Rome, Berlin and elsewhere, but never in Butler’s base, Los Angeles.

In the film, Anger, Gallo, and Butler depict an occult ritual that symbolizes the stage of ego death in the process of spiritual attainment.

Brian Butler is a multidisciplinary artist who creates works around dark magical themes. He had worked extensively as a producer on director Kenneth Anger’s recent work. Additionally he has written for Dazed & Confused and performs along with Anger in the band Technicolor Skull.

 
This one is pretty self explanatory. Tickets are only $35 in advance, but the ballroom only holds 400 so you’d better act fast if you want to attend.

Thank you Julien Nitzberg!