This latest gem to be excavated from that endless trove of inscrutable weirdness known as Soviet era Ukrainian TV is a small masterpiece of people’s collective comedy. I’m sure there’s a lesson to be learned somewhere in all of this. But no matter ,I’m a sucker for peppy musical numbers that involve deconstructed instruments, factories, mimes and sausages. That’s entertainment !
Thanks Yewknee !
Above, Katja Kean in Pink Prison, shot on the same prison set as Dancer in the Dark.
Although this is hardly a secret In Europe, few American fans of Oscar-nominated Danish director Lars von Trier are aware of the fact that the controversial Dogme auteur responsible for films like Antichrist, Breaking the Waves, Dancer in the Dark and Dogville, also produces porno films.
“High Art” porn, to be sure, von Trier’s company Zentropa has owned two subsidiary companies, first Puzzy Power, then Innocent Pictures, aimed at the elusive female/couples sex film market. The goal is/was to produce porn with mainstream cinema production values and their movies have few anatomical close-ups of female genitalia. A Puzzy Power manifesto laid out the original company’s aims and can be read here.
Nevertheless, they are hardcore fuck flicks, with two of them, Constance (1998) and Pink Prison (1999) starring Danish porn actress Katja Kean, who’s best described as Denmark’s Jenna Jameson (Kean, also called Katja K, is a crossover to the world of TV comedy and the lingerie business).
Lars von Trier himself is said to have little to do with the films, himself, except for signing off on them, and in a free-thinking country like Denmark, of course, pornography has never had the shame associated with it as in other countries. A 2005 film called All About Anna, starring mainstream Danish actress and singer, Gry Bay, and the third sex film produced by Zentropa, was their biggest success.
Innocent Pictures has also produced a hardcore gay feature, HotMen CoolBoyz, which starred bloody LA-based performance artist Ron Athey. It is the only hardcore gay porn film ever produced by a mainstream studio.
Okay, Mike Libby’s Insect Lab creations are not functional robot-insect cyborgs, but they’re so gosh darn pretty to look at. Prices can range anywhere between $400 to $1700. Now, when is Mike going to take it a step further and introduce us to our new robot-insect overlords?
Borrowing from science fiction and fact, Insect Lab customizes real insect specimens with antique watch parts and other technological components. From ladybugs to grasshoppers, each is individually hand adorned, and original- a unique celebration of the contradictions between nature and technology.
View more “insect-robot cyborgs” after the jump…
Swiss artist Zimoun creates spellbinding audio-based installations. This one in particular, using towers of cardboard boxes really floats my boat. Such a warm and strangely soothing sound and no computers involved. Just tons of tiny motors gently beating and scraping on the re-purposed corrugated paper products. I could listen for hours.
Much more after the jump…
They would probably sound a little like this. Hey, at least they look good while they’re doing it.
(via Das Kraftfuttermischwerk)
Lenny Bruce doing his famous airplane glue bit on the Steve Allen Show in 1958. A classic. I’ve heard this routine on record and read it on the page, but I’ve never seen Lenny perform it live.
Thanks to Josie for uploading this to Youtube.
Marvel at the patented Jabberwocky wordplay of Pete “The Mad Daddy” Myers on “What is a Fisteris?” Myers was a rock and roll radio madman of the late 50s and 60s in Cleveland and New York. He killed himself in 1968, despondent over professional problems.
I first heard this on one of those Cramps-related “Born Bad” compilations. It’s too bad Myers didn’t record more gems like this or he’d be a cult figure today. Read the “Mad Daddy” Pete Myers biography here.
“Fisterises like pretty girls named Ingaborg with silver snoopers in their hair, sometimes moping about the snurds and limrocks they’ve loved and lost, sobbing big teedle-dools. Like everyone, they dislike artichokes for breakfast when the bumblebugger’s gone.”
Via PCL LinkDump
Little Annie AKA Annie Anxiety Bandez, has collaborated with a who’s who of avant garde musicians: Coil, Marc Almond Adrian Sherwood, Kid Congo Powers, Crass, Rubella Ballet and Nurse With Wound.
Her 2006 album, Songs from the Coalmine Canary was co-produced by Antony Hegarty. “Strangelove,” a song from the album co-written with Hegarty, was used as the soundtrack for a Levi’s campaign in 2007, going on to win a Cannes Bronze Lion award for “Best Use of Music.”
Tomorrow night, Little Annie and the fab Baby Dee are the opening acts for Marc Almond at the Philharmonic Hall in Liverpool and for several more UK gigs after that. What a great triple bill.
When I was 18-years-old, I saw her performing at a Crass gig at the Islington Bingo Hall. She stuck her hand down my friend’s pants!
Genderful, her latest album, with Paul Wallfischl is just out on Southern Records. The following statement was put on YouTube along with the video for “Billy Martin Requiem”:
December 1 marks the 22nd annual World AIDS Day, and while there is still no “cure” for or viable vaccine against HIV, the positive strides made battling the virus over the last few years are undeniable. New drugs are making what was a death sentence now a manageable - if serious and chronic - condition. Generic versions of these medications, along with ambitious public health policies are helping make real inroads against the disease in the developing world. There is space for much optimism this year. But what’s lost sometimes with the good news is a space to contemplate what has been lost to us - irrevocably. The talent unrealized, the creativity and vitality extinguished, the knowledge and experience that won’t be passed on to new generations - this was and continues to be the fall out from the AIDS epidemic.
At first I wondered why in the world Little Annie was singing about Billy Martin of all people, but DO keep watching, it’ll make sense. This is a really catchy song, too.
Thank you Tim Harris!
Glenn Beck thrives off criticism, it’s what gives him credibility. Ideally, it would be best to ignore him, but that is easier said than done. So, let’s turn Glenn Beck on his head. Let’s turn him upside down.
I think it was Norman Mailer who once suggested turning pictures of Lyndon B. Johnson upside down as a protest against the Vietnam War, now we can do something similar. Wherever there is a book by Mr Beck, turn it upside down. Move it to fiction by all means, but turn it upside down. When the American flag is inverted it means distress. Turning Glenn Beck upside down will mean the same - here is a middle-aged man who is deeply distressed. Go do it.
Turn Glenn Beck upside down today—and everyday.
When people see Mr Beck’s image upside down, they’ll know he cannot be taken seriously.
Let’s make it a meme to turn Glenn Beck upside down whenever and wherever we find him. We who cannot stand what Glenn Beck stands for how he preys on the thick and dim-witted and how he divides this country for personal gain and hubris need to make our distaste for the man known.
Have fun.
Songkick posted this chart on their blog and it confirms something I’ve known since I moved to Austin: it’s one rockin’ little city.
The biggest surprise: no New York City.
We analyzed rock shows per capita in 2010–where rock includes everything from emo to indie. We hope you’ll agree that the list is surprising. Austin really earns its title of live-music capital of the world. It’s also nice to see Denver, Seattle, Portland, and Nashville on the list, since our hunch was that they’re hotbeds of good live music. (If our lean start-up nerdery has taught us anything, it’s measure measure measure and validate assumptions… Pity the fool who doesn’t use metrics.) The average rock show ticket prices are surprising too. Who knew it was so expensive to see a rock concert in Las Vegas?
To compute the Rock Score, Songkick analyzed its database of more than 1.8 million concerts for rock artists’ 2010 tour dates, where rock includes alternative, indie, punk, classic rock, metal, emo, and rock. Songkick analyzed which cities have the most rock concerts per capita, giving the top city, Austin, a score of 100. All other cities are then ranked against this score—Madison has 78% as many rock concerts per capita as Austin, New Orleans 57%, and so on.
The ten most rocking cities in the U.S. by number of live rock shows per capita include:
• Austin, Texas – 100 Rock Score; average ticket price of $23.30
• Madison, Wisconsin – 78 Rock Score; average ticket price of $13.05
• New Orleans, Louisiana – 57 Rock Score; average ticket price of $16.89
• Las Vegas, Nevada – 51 Rock Score; average ticket price of $62.76
• Denver, Colorado – 44 Rock Score; average ticket price of $33.24
• Milwaukee, Wisconsin – 38 Rock Score; average ticket price of $17.66
• The Twin Cities Minneapolis – 36 Rock Score; average ticket price of $11.36
• Seattle, Washington – 35 Rock Score; average ticket price of $11.75
• Portland, Oregon – 35 Rock Score; average ticket price of $10.33
• Nashville, Tennessee – 34 Rock Score; average ticket price of $20.13