Above, Mister Merlin, in his youth, and Quentin Crisp… well past his.

Reacting to the Facebook “gay kiss” scandal, Dangerous Minds pal Jesse Merlin, currently appearing (headless!) as Dr. Carl Hill in Stuart Gordon’s Re-Animator: The Musical at the Steve Allen Theater in Hollywood, sent us this droll example of the Crisp wit.:

Right before I started hanging out with Quentin Crisp on a weekly basis, there was a gay scandal at the little greek-owned restaurant he frequented: The “Cooper Square Restaurant” on 2nd ave at 5th street.  He ate there every day and the owners were very kind and respectful.

Well, apparently a gay couple was kissing there (when quentin wasn’t around, presumably) and the owner snapped up their menus, said “No sex in this restaurant!” and threw them out.  It may or not have been a messy kiss depending on who you ask.

Well, they organized a huge kiss-in at the restaurant and embarrassed the hell out of the owner, who eventually apologized with seeming-sincerity.  But my favorite part of the whole episode was when one of the two kissing troublemakers (who happened to be the doorman at my drama school nearby) called Quentin to ask for his support on the subject.

“I only eat there.  I don’t know what you want from me.”

He was totally unimpressed with the protest idea and wanted nothing to do with it.  But he did laugh about the owners possibly throwing *him* out:

“They can hardly throw me out.  They’re Greeks.  They invented the beastly thing.”

 
Via Deface Value comes this marvelous collection of authentically found and intentionally altered LP sleeves.
 

 

 

 

 

 
Many more after the jump…

 
Smoke ‘em if you got ‘em. Happy 4/20!

(via Twisted Vintage NSFW)

 
A painting of Julian Assange taking a leak has won this year’s Bald Archy Prize, reports Australia’s Daily Telegraph:

The caricature by French artist Xavier Ghazi portrays the WikiLeaks founder with his trousers around his ankles, urinating into a top hat with the US flag on it.

The Bald Archy - a parody of the Archibald Prize for portraiture - is a competition of humorous works of art, making fun of Australian celebrities and politicians.

The exhibition and prize is advertised as the only one in the world judged by a sulphur-crested cockatoo named Maude.

There were 46 finalists in this year’s competition, with “the two Jules”, Julia Gillard and Julian Assange dominating the competition, founder Peter Batey said at the announcement in Sydney on Tuesday.

Ghazi, 60, said he had first thought of calling his painting Pissing Off The Empire.

“Having a leak in Uncle Sam’s hat is pissing off the empire,” he told reporters.

“It’s not as much about the US as it is about global power and instruments of domination.”

It was Ghazi’s fourth time to win the $5000 prize, now in its 18th year.

He said the win was particularly meaningful to him as he has had “a horrible three or four past years”.

“Professionally I lost my teaching jobs, I lost my job for a newspaper I used to work with and I’m turning blind in my right eye,” he said.

 
Previously on DM

Video of Julian Assange owning the dance floor

Julian Assange Coloring Book

 
Extreme Ironing has been described as an “activity that combines the danger and excitement of an ‘extreme’ sport with the satisfaction of a well pressed shirt.” The Daily Telegraph reports on a “mystery man” seen ironing a shirt on a section of England’s M1 motorway, between the junctions for Selvage Lane and Glendor Garden. (Un)Fortunately the section was closed due to an earlier fire, which doesn’t exactly make it that extreme, perhaps it was just a dress rehearsal?

The trend for extreme ironing was started by rock climber Phil Shaw, in Leicester in 1997 when he mixed his liking for extreme sports with the mundane, household chore.
 

 
From a one-off collaborative 1979 LP by Italian composer Roberto Cacciapaglia and American born singer Ann Steel, this is a wacky and wonderful clip and the song itself contains much to love. I’m mainly intrigued by her yellow canteen.
 

 
bonus track: Find Your Way

 
Thanks Kurt Ralske !

 
These wonderfully bizarre ads for Mentos Marbels were illustrated by artist Deelip Khomane for advertising agency Ogilvy & Mather in Mumbai, India.

Imagine a candy so sour it will drive you to suicide. An odd approach to selling a product, but it got my attention. The wheel of life and death spins off some dark humor.
 

 

 
Via copyranter

 
No shit. Just in time for the release this weekend of the nearly universally panned film adaptation of Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged (even the conservative reviewers are slating it) comes this hilarious information from TIME magazine. Yes Virginia, there is an Ayn Rand fan dating site!

There are about 12,700 dating profiles on the Atlasphere, which Joshua Zader, 37, founded in 2003 after attending a few Rand-related conferences. “I realized that all the single people were using the conferences to search for another Ayn Rand fan they could fall in love with,” says Zader, who modeled the site after Match.com’s pay-to-view profile system. But the Atlasphere also functions as a social network (with some 22,000 nondating profiles) in which members can contribute essays and articles.

I asked Zader how someone who espouses a me-first philosophy can also maintain a loving relationship. “Ayn Rand has a great quote in The Fountainhead,” he told me. “She writes that a person cannot say ‘I love you’ without first being able to say the I.”

It sort of makes sense for Objectivists to have their own dating site, doesn’t it? I mean the rest of us just find them so damned objectionable…. Find your very own Dagny Taggart, Hank Reardon, Francisco d’Anconia or John Galt (chances are it’s a pretty dude-heavy, Republican-heavy and no doubt idiot-heavy crowd) at the Atlasphere. The women there probably all look like Pamela Geller. It’s frightening to even contemplate this.

What if they breed?

Below, the worst trailer of all time?
 

Laramie and Ted proudly wear pink to raise awareness of breast cancer.
 
“In 1962, a little boy was born, and his dream, and his goal, was to own a monkey.”

Thus begins the inspiring tale of Tim “Wild Thang” Lepard and his amazing posse of dog riding monkeys, Team Ghost Riders. Lepard has been on the road with his extraordinary performers since 1989 and has no peer when it comes to teaching a monkey the fine art of riding a dog.

Once clothed in their miniature chaps and ornate costumes, Lepard said the monkeys “climb on, get adjusted and hang on.” He said the monkeys will be tethered to the collies to prevent a bucked Capuchin, known for their “organ-grinding” abilities, from running amuck into the crowd.

Like his hero Elvis Presley, Lepard was destined for big things.

I was born in 1962 in Memphis, TN and hang my hat at home on the outskirts of Tupelo, MS.  I guess that is why I feel I have a bit of Elvis in my soul. I have been involved with rodeo for 28 yrs and began my career riding bulls which evolved into bullfighting.  In 1988 I won the title of Mesquite Champion Bullfighter.  While fighting bulls at Mesquite, mentor, Jimmy Anderson told me “You can go to a rodeo and find twenty macho guys that think they’re bullfighters, but you’re only going to find one funny man and that’s you”.  Fellow bullrider Lane Frost was also at Mesquite and asked me if I had ever thought about fighting bulls and clowning for a living.  It meant something to me for a Champion like Lane Frost to see my potential and so I seriously began rodeoing and made rodeo my career.

It hasn’t been an easy road for Lepard. He’s paid his dues. But in the end, Tim found his true calling.

After nine major surgeries encountered while fighting bulls, I began to put together the dog and monkey act and concentrated on comedy.  I wanted an act that no one would forget in rodeo and felt performing with three dogs and three monkeys would accomplish my goal.”

Tim’s website is a celebration of all that is good about man, monkeys and hounds. A hoot and a half. The guy has a vision and he’s living it.

Of all the videos I’ve seen of monkeys riding dogs, this is by far the most epic - the Gone With The Wind or Battleship Potemkin of monkeys riding dogs videos.

If I were younger and smaller and a monkey, I’d run away from home and join Team Ghost Riders.
 

 
Sleep with angels forever in your very own custom made Jonathan Ross casket from British company Creative Coffins. The company is “committed to providing a green alternative to traditional wooden coffins” by using cartonboard materials.

Our individually designed cartonboard coffins provide for a more eco-friendly funeral and, most importantly, the range of carefully created styles will help you find a design that truly reflects the personality of your loved one.