Oh boy, did I have fun when I stumbled across —Marcus—‘s photostream. It’s chock full of thousands of inexpilcable images—some we’ve seen before and others that are brand-new. I enjoyed myself immensely with the quirky randomness and I think you will too! Visit—Marcus—‘s photostream
Here’s a website dedicated to the art of “Asian posing.” The creator of the site, Steve, claims to suffer from a condition known as the Cute Asian Girls Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (CAGOCD). Steve says:
Simply smiling in a photo is so boring, why not strike a pose? Asians are notorious for their quirky and cute poses and this site focuses on documenting these poses. To help you recognize various poses, visual aids will be provided courtesy of popular Korean, Japanese, and Chinese models. The site?
I probably should have blogged about Torchwood: Children of Earth yesterday, when it started its five consecutive nights run, but BBC America (and the newly launched BBC America HD channel) is airing the previous night’s show before the new episode starts each night (and there are plenty of other ways to catch up obviously).
For those of you who agreed with me about how much I hated the new Harry Potter movie, believe me again when I tell you that the new Torchwood season three mini-series is one of the finest, most action-packed, unpredictable, FREAKY and most deeply moving sci-fi tales I’ve ever seen. Totally raises the bar for the genre in so many, many ways.
Torchwood: Children of Earth boasts one of the most intelligent and sophisticated long form scripts in the history of the genre. I don’t want to give anything away to American viewers who still have four shows left to go, but my god when you find out what the aliens really want with the kids, WHOA, it is fucking dark! The lead actors John Barrowman, Eve Myles and Gareth David-Lloyd are terrific and guest star Peter Capaldi proves once again that he’s one of Britain’s finest acting talents. It’s truly a milestone.
It’s also a new high water mark for the already illustrious career of creator, lead writer and executive producer Russell T. Davies (“Queer as Folk,” “Doctor Who”) who had this to say about his multi-layered tale: ?
I am really enjoying Psychoville the new seven part BBC2 comedy series from the League of Gentlemen’s Steve Pemberton and Reece Shearsmith. I am an absolute League of Gentlemen fanatic (as anyone who knows me can tell you) and Psychoville’s seven episode run has me in TV heaven.
Attempting to make a comedic series as complex and multi-layered as, say, “24” or “Lost” and with distinctly Hitchcockian elements in abundance (ep #4 is one continuous shot!), Pemberton and Shearsmith’s script ties together several disparate characters: Maureen and David Sowerbutts, a mother-son serial killer duo; Mr. Jelly, a bitter one-armed alcoholic party clown for hire; Oscar Lomax, a blind millionaire who collects Beanie Babies; Joy Aston (played by Dawn French), a nurse who believe a doll is her real son and a dwarf actor with telekinesis trying to hide his “midget porn” past.
All six are connected by a mysterious letter they all receive that simply reads: “I know what you did.”
Welcome to Psychoville by co-creator Reece Shearsmith
Psychoville: the new home of horror comedy
Video interview with Steve Pemberton and Reece Shearsmith
Witness “The Spectrum” a fantastically psychedelic carnival fun house designed by Keith Albarn (father of Damon Albarn, a man considered a musical god in this household). Sadly this British Pathe film short is probably the only thing that remains of it and there is little to no information about it anywhere on the Internet. I’d have loved a chance to see this in person!
Watching this I got to thinking about a different druggy funhouse on this side of the pond—also no longer standing—the infamous Palladium night club of New York City. Once the fabled Palladium Ballroom, where Judy Garland, Frank Sinatra, Frank Zappa, Patti Smith, The Clash and Lou Reed all played, the Palladium reopened in 1985 owned by former jailbirds Steve Rubell and Ian Schrager, who had previously run Studio 54. Artists like Francesco Clemente, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Keith Haring, Kenny Scharf, Laurie Anderson and Arata Isozaki were all commissioned to build installations.
The staircase was amazing (especially if you were super high!) and the Basquiat mural behind the upstairs bar was nothing short of astonishing (and really huge). A house would crash from the ceiling onto the dance floor like the one that killed the Wicked Witch of the West. It was a fantastically decadent place to spend one’s youth. Now it’s an NYU dorm with a Trader Joe’s grocery store downstairs! (I wonder if they were able to preserve the Basquiat? It was painted on the wall and probably as valuable as the real estate itself).
Beautiful, erotic, phantasmagoric, the films of Kenneth Anger are a national treasure. Mick Jagger, Jimmy Page, Marianne Faithfull, Anton LaVey, and a parade of other 60s luminaries collaborate on this selection of short films. They range from rich mystical imagery and visual essays of psychedelic color to insider documentary footage of bikers and a glittering love letter to early black and white film. Bring blankets, picnic dinner and drinks for the lawn. Please join us under the stars for this very special screening with one of our most legendary filmmakers.
Sunday, July 19th
Hollywood Forever Cemetery
6000 Santa Monica Blvd (at Gower)
Gates 7:30 pm movie 9:00 pm
$10 donation tickets available at gate
Parking available inside
Well, there is simply no beating around the bush about this one. No mitigating factors. Nope, none. The new Harry Potter film, “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince” is absolutely fucking terrible. Not a disaster, just a total bore, which is worse. Please don’t shoot the messenger, I sincerely expected to like it, but man oh man does it suck. It’s mind-numbingly bad. The pacing is all wrong. It felt like we were in that theater for about seventeen hours. My wife hated it even more than I did.
After a fantastically conceived opening sequence (one of the finest I’ve ever seen, brilliantly executed) my first thought for this review was “Harry Potter franchise kicks it up a notch! Or two!” I was fantasizing about my blurby superlatives showing up on movie posters, but… sadly t’was not to be. After the first ten minutes the film quickly dropped off in energy and intelligence. After 30 minutes, the suckiness picked up speed. Much of the script made no sense. Some—like all the villains—characters’ actions seem to have no motivation whatsoever. Aside from one or two action-oriented scenes (the Quidditch matches were remarkable), it was an absolute snoozefest.
Looks great, same great cast, all the right ingredients, I grant you that, but I will say it again: The new Harry Potter movie is godawful.
I know what you’re thinking. Your kids will still love it. Guess again. Your kids will hate it and get restless after 30 minutes. So will you. No one would love it unless the studio was paying them to love it. I don’t think the people who worked on it or acted in it love it. No one would like this movie. It’s shite. The word of mouth will be horrible.
If you read this far and you still plan to see “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince”... as you are sitting there watching one of the worst big budget films in recent memory, a total piece of shit, remember this review and don’t say I didn’t warn you. Because I did.
And if you want to know how I really feel…
LOST Season 5 might have gone out with its usual bang, but that doesn’t mean the summer ahead can’t still be long and hot. When you’re done combing through Lostpedia’s The Incident theory page (it’s endless, I know), you might want to dip a toe, or something, into the wacky alt waters of Lost slash (fan) fiction. A 3-way between Ben, Locke and Richard…sure, why not? Desmond choosing Sayid over Penny…yeah, I can see that! What I find fascinating about these HIGHLY detailed reconfigurings, of course, is not the nature of the participants or their transgressions, but how they expose that nagging, near-universal hunger to see our hopes, dreams, fantasies—whatever they may be—projected through the prism of popular culture. Then again, maybe there’s just a LOT of people out there who wanna see Jack and Sawyer feeding each other mangos!
Mr. Metzger and I always giggle about how I once shared a dojo with the original LAND OF THE LOST “Chaka,” Philip Paley. We very seldom sparred together (he was older, ranked higher) but I think I could have totally Sleestaked his ass using a bit of the old “ST.”