Fans of Chris Smith (American Movie, The Yes Men) can look forward to the indie director’s upcoming release, Collapse.  In it, Smith gives the Errol Morris treatment to Michael Ruppert, the one-time cop turned investigative journalist.

Here’s what Apple’s Trailer site has to say about Collapse which, curiously, is listed as both a documentary and a horror film (but then again, if you know about Ruppert, maybe it’s not so curious at all):

Americans generally like to hear good news. They like to believe that a new President will right old wrongs, that clean energy will replace dirty oil, and that fresh thinking will set the economy straight.  American pundits tend to restrain their pessimism and to hope for the best.  But is anyone prepared for the worst?  Michael Ruppert is a different kind of American.  He predicted the current financial crisis in his self-published newsletter ?

 
“Each series is comprised of either a single photobooth strip or multiple photogbooth images of the same person—sometimes, as is the case with the first and last series, taken over the course of many years.”
 
Square America: Moving Pictures
 
(via J-Walk Blog)

 
Fascinating story in this month’s W about the late filmmaker Ingmar Bergman‘s private retreat on the Swedish island of

Our super smart friend Charles Hugh Smith posts another must-read essay at his Of Two Minds blog:

When it comes to post-bubble retraces, the fundamental reasons may not matter as much as the technical case for a full reversion to pre-bubble prices. We all know the fundamental reasons why housing shot up—a credit bubble of epic proportions plus securitization, fraud and low interest rates, to name but a few factors—and why housing has plummeted: foreclosures and inventory are rising, tightening of credit standards by private lenders, etc.

But the ultimate predictor of price is technical: speculative bubbles retrace to their pre-bubble prices, or in many cases even crash below those levels.

Those arguing the fundamentals are always grasping at various straws to support the case that prices won’t drop all the way back to pre-bubble levels, and they’re always wrong.

Read more at Of Two Minds

 
Politically Corrected: What’s small, cuddly, and likelier than a Build-A-Bear to initiate a workers’ revolt?  The Communist Cuddle Doll.  Castro looks cooler with that cigar, but I’ve got my eyes on Lenin—he looks like my Grandfather!  And, yes, “The Boss,” should not ever be confused with Kim Jong-Il, but if the Dear Leader can bring pizza to Pyongyang and stop that missile testing, maybe he’ll make next year’s collection?

(via TrendHunter)

 
Flickr user, EYE-talian, has a wonderful photostream of hundreds of masks collected from around the world. EYE-talian says, “I’ve been collecting masks since 1989 when I first purchased a mask in Cancun, Mexico. I was intrigued by the weird hallucinogenic Mexican masks because they looked similar to the oddball sketches I was doing at the time.

On subsequent visits I purchased additional masks, usually buying the most unusual masks I could find and/or what my budget and baggage limits would allow. In the meantime, I stumbled upon some very cool German paper mache, and starched buckram Halloween masks at antique shows around Cincinnati and picked those up as well. I never had any intention of amassing a formal “collection” but one thing lead to another and then…. Holy Shit… Ebay!

Besides Ebay, a few of the masks were given to me by fellow collectors and a handful were purchased at local import shops. Yes I have way too many, and unfortunately don’t have room to display them all. I began taking photos of them a few years ago as a record of what I had, and eventually ran across Flickr and decided to post them there.”
 
Visit Eye-talian’s The Maskatorium
 
EYE-talian ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. NO USE AUTHORIZED WITHOUT PERMISSION.

 
Portly, balding, comic R&B singer Har Mar Superstar, yes, he of the overactive libido, is hardly anyone’s idea of a dreamboat, but that has not stopped the performer (real name Sean Tillman) from being the most buzz-worthy man in pop music today. Har Mar’s latest CD, “Dark Touches,” seems to be everywhere you turn, both online and off.

His latest single, “Tall Boy,” was originally written for Britney Spears, but rejected by her management. Undaunted, Tillman recorded the song himself, but without switching the gender roles for an amusing, off-kilter, homoerotic approach.

The “Tall Boy” video features spacesuits, ray guns and famous friends like Eva Mendes, “Arrested Development” actress Alia Shawkat and comedian Eric Wareheim. The clip, directed by prestigious L.A.-based design shop Tomorrow’s Brightest Minds, has been making the rounds as a popular viral video.

Har Mar (who has also gone under the monikers Sean Na Na and Calvin Krime professionally) has seen his star rise to unexpected heights in the last few years and he’s picked up some famous friends along the way. It’s recently been announced that Tillman has co-written an HBO pilot with his co-stars in Drew Barrymore’s “Whip It,” Ellen Page and Shawkat, with the working title ?

 
It used to be—well back in the 1980s at least—that Joey Arias was one of New York’s best-kept secrets. His outrageous drag and cabaret performances—often channeling doomed jazz chanteuse Billie Holiday with uncanny accuracy—made him the talk of the town. Arias became a bit of a Gotham legend with noteworthy appearances with Klaus Nomi (the pair sang back-up for David Bowie on “SNL”) at the annual Wigstock drag festival and with his arch portrayal of Joan Crawford in a staged Christmas spoof of “Mommy Dearest.” Arias also took memorable turns in films like “To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Love Julie Newmar” and “Big Top Pee-wee” as Shim, the half man/half woman. Eventually, even Manhattan got too small to hold Arias’ unique talents and the performer made the move to Las Vegas as the Mistress of Seduction at the adult-themed Cirque du Soleil show, Zumanity.

Now Arias is preparing to make a Los Angeles homecoming—he was raised here and was a founding member of the Groundlings comedy troupe—with an extended run at REDCAT of his new show, “Arias With a Twist.”

The “twist” in question is famed puppeteer Basil Twist (who is also collaborating with Pee-Wee Herman for his comeback shows). A “one person show” with six hidden puppeteers, “Arias With a Twist” seems sure not to disappoint Joey’s admirers. The show begins with Arias being probed by aliens while performing Led Zeppelin’s “Kashmir” before being ejected from their spacecraft and landing in a jungle. Costumes for the show were designed by Thierry Mugler and Chris March. The show, which just completed a run in Stockholm, has been nominated for a 2009 Drama Desk Award for Unique Theatrical Experience.

“Arias With a Twist” runs from Nov. 18 to Dec. 13, Wednesdays through Saturdays at 8:30 p.m., Sundays at 7 p.m.
(Added performance Nov. 24; No performance Nov. 26). Tickets: $35 to $40 [Students $28 to $32]. Call the REDCAT box office for more information (213) 237-2800 or visit www.redcat.org

 
Cross posting this from Brand X

 
The twin suicides of Jeremy Blake and Theresa Duncan a few years back was the closing chapter to a story that somehow managed to combine all the darker elements of Hollywood, Scientology and the New York art world:

Duncan and Blake formed a popular couple on the downtown New York and Venice, Calif., art scenes.  She was one of the first video game designers for girls, and his “digital paintings”—kaleidoscopic images shown on plasma screens—established him as a rising star on the circuit.  The couple descended into a paranoid spiral when the artists developed a consuming belief that government and religious organizations were conspiring against them.  She killed herself in 2007.  Blake found her body on the floor of their bedroom, and walked into the Atlantic Ocean a week later, ending his life.

Well, according to today’s Variety, Gus Van Sant and Bret Easton Ellis are now teaming up to give that story, naturally, a screenplay.  For source material, Van Sant (Milk) and Ellis (Less Than Zero) plan on using The Golden Suicides, Vanity Fair’s posthumous profile of Blake and Duncan.

It’s a moving portrait of two people very much in love—as well as a harrowing depiction of how draining and hermetic the pair found the creative process.  That their spiral downward came at a time when they were both poised for greater career success makes their twin suicides as tragic as it is haunting.

For abundant evidence of Duncan’s smarts and style, you can check out her still maintained website: TheWitOfTheStaircase.  Blake is probably best known for his cover art on Beck’s Sea Change, and the “colorful undulations” used during the opening credits of Paul Thomas Anderson’s Punch Drunk Love.

But Blake himself was also a filmmaker.  His Winchester trilogy, inspired by the story of Sarah Winchester and her family’s “Mystery House,” was shown at the San Francisco MOMA in ‘05.  Century 21, the trilogy’s final installment, attempts to “explore the sickness—and the sexiness—of American violence.” 

Thanks to Ubu, you can watch it below:

In Variety: Scribes Make Suicide Pact

In The Guardian: Gus Van Sant and Bret Easton Ellis Join Forces On Film

In Vanity Fair: The Golden Suicides

The greatest music video ever filmed? Perhaps, perhaps. Marianne Faithfull sings. Derek Jarman directs.

Another warning to the youth of today from the regal statesmen of the counterculture.

Aaaand with that I believe that the Dangerous Minds Stones Quota has officially been broken.