The new generation of public intellectuals and pundits owes a lot to guys like Chalmers Johnson, who died yesterday at 79. This guy was one of the foremost experts on both America’s ascension as an empire and its inevitable decline, and he wrote the now-classic books Blowback and The Sorrows of Empire
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Like Noam Chomsky and Gore Vidal, Johnson’s formed his worldview during the Cold War; his friend the progressive realist Steve Clemons calls him “a one time hard-right national security hawk” in the great piece he wrote today about the man. Most of us discovered Johnson after the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991 and he’d cultivated his views about American imperialism. The Left in this country loved the irony of this academic with the old-school-Establishment-wonk demeanor breathing fire against Yankee hegemony. He’ll be missed.
 

 
Norris Church Mailer (1949-2010), the sixth and final wife of the late novelist, Norman Mailer, has died today after a long battle with cancer, it has been announced.

It is with profound sadness that we announce the passing of Norris Church Mailer, widow of Norman Mailer, who died November 21, 2010, after a long and valiant struggle with cancer. Norris was many things to many people. She was an unusually gifted and talented writer, an insightful observer of the human condition, both as novelist and memoirist.

She was an acclaimed professional painter and illustrator, as well as a teacher in her native Arkansas and then a beautiful fashion model in New York. She was the pilgrim soul who captured and won Norman’s heart and mind and who shared with him the last three decades of his life. She was a loving mother and adored stepmother, the glue that held together the eclectic Mailer clan. And she was a good, passionate and generous friend for so many of us who came to know, admire and love her.

Announcement from the Norman Mailer Society.
 

 
Our favorite masked bandits return. First cat burglary, now carpetbagging. I’m just waiting for serial killing.
 

 
Previously on Dangerous Minds

 
With thanks to Timothy Paxton
 

 
Both my inner and outer six-year-old are squealing with glee over this absolutely flabbergasting new work by the ultimate Los Angeles artist, Chris Burden.
I can’t wait to see this in person.
 

 
Thanks, Nicole Panter !

 
It’s that time of year when department stores fill their shelves with all those things you do not need. Today I spied this on display in one well-known high street store, Monty Python’s Mr. Creosote Vomiting Figure. This allegedly “collectable toy” originally went on sale in 2004, and according to its advertising pitch:

This is the first item ever made based on the Monty Python movie, The Meaning of Life. Squeeze Mr. Creosote and he vomits! Let go, and the vomit slides sickeningly back into his mouth and down his throat. Splatter fans, this is a must-have!

“Splatter fans”? It must have been a splatter fan who wrote this 5 star review on Amazon.com:

I love this little thing!!! It’s extremely amusing! You might even say that it’s more amusing than a slinky…okay…maybe not…BUT STILL!!! It’s pretty awesome!!!

Personally, I’d opt for the Slinky, but I doubt that’d help the Pythons get even richer.  So, if the vomiting doll doesn’t appeal then perhaps you can be tempted with a box of Mr. Creosote’s Wafer Thin Mints? 
 

 
Totally twisted Sid and Nancy amigurmi by artist Croshame.

Croshame’s Antigurumi Gallery

Previously on Dangerous Minds:
Knitted Kraftwerk

(via TDW via Superpunch)

 
Does former Miss America and Fox News personality, Gretchen Carlson play dumb—deliberately—for the money? I have my suspicions. After all, it’s not exactly easy for a Stanford and Oxford-educated person—as Carlson is—to really get down on the level of Steve “The Dumbest Man on TV!” Doocey, one of her co-hosts on “Fox and Friends.” I mean Steve Doocey? That’s pretty fuckin’ stupid. (He’s the Jerry Hubbard of Fox News and that’s really saying something. He even makes Rick Sanchez seem… well, less stupid).

Then again, Rep. Michele Bachmann herself was one of Carlson’s nannies growing up. (It all makes a strange, sad sense now, doesn’t it?)

Here, Carlson talks to a young boy who has had a near death experience (NDE) under anesthesia, and his father. They’ve written a book called Heaven is For Real. The takeaway? God is a very big person and he can fit the whole world in his hands, Jesus has a dazzling smile and there are no old people in Heaven. Gretchen seems to like this quaint notion. It seems to give the 44-year-old former Miss America comfort that she’ll be all raptured up there in the clouds with Jesus and the rest of the Republicans at the peak of her physical beauty. (Note that the kid doesn’t seem to buy a single word of what he’s saying, even though his father does seem to believe it, or badly wants it to be true).

Is pretending to be stupid, when you’re (probably) not that stupid the least dignified thing someone can do, even for a big paycheck? Wearing an El Pollo Loco Chicken costume is at least an honest way to make a living. Porn seems less degrading in many respects…
 

 
Via Joe My God

 
With all the Apple fanboy media attention paid this past week to the fact that the Beatles catalog was finally showing up on iTunes—like this is some kind of big deal to the man on the street—one nifty lil’ bit of news that most certainly was worth perking up for, got left out of a lot of the coverage: Until the end of the year, you can watch, for free on iTunes, the most amazing complete Beatles show you’ve ever seen. A show that was literally their first American concert, shot just two days after their Ed Sullivan TV debut, at the Washington Coliseum on February 11, 1964.

It’s amazing to see this. As the story is told, when they began to play, they had no idea what to expect. Recent concerts in Paris were played to unenthusiastic audiences. The between song banter assumes that the audience is not familiar with certain numbers, although this is seen to be demonstrably untrue, as the band, of course realize. And they are lovin’ it. The energy is palpable, and the entire set is one big 35-minute long adrenaline shot, as exciting to watch today as was then, but the added meta-historical layer of seeing the Beatles do an entire concert the very week they went from being up and comers to the most important musicians of the later half of the 20th century and beyond, is kinda cool, too.

The performance here is way better than the one captured in color at Shea Stadiumd a year later. That film was more about the insanity of Beatlemania than the music, anyway. Here, musically, they are tight as hell. This has been bootlegged forever, but never seen in good quality like this. Trust me, if you’re a Beatles fan, this will blow your mind… out in a car.

When you go to iTunes, you’ll be confronted with a box of Beatles related information. Click on “Play the Concert.” Do it. Do it now.

 
Here’s the first in a series of obscure (at least to me) international rock and roll videos that I’ll be sharing over the course of the next few months. I hope you enjoy them.

Hungarian band Bergendy formed in the late 1950’s as a jazz group and went through a bunch of personal and artistic changes through the 60’s and 70’s. When these two videos were made, the band, fronted by Demjen Ferenc (the man with the exploding hair-do), were playing a poppy mix of rock and latin-tinged funk with a some oompah and little bit of Queen thrown in. Bergendy and Ferenc are still recording and performing.

Nothing groundbreaking here, but the videos are an interesting window on Hungarian pop culture and the flesh-flecked shores of Lake Balaton.
 

Tessa Hughes-Freeland’s ‘Baby Doll’ is a tiny slice of cinema-verite from 1982 about the girls working the now defunct Baby Doll Lounge on Church and White St. in downtown Manhattan. It captures a moment before NYC got sanitized.

A lot of the dancers working at the Baby Doll were the girlfriends of rock musicians, so it was a bit of a punk hangout. A red velvet curtain separated the Baby Doll Lounge into two sections; bikini and topless. I knew more than one young rock and roller who fell in love with a stripper at the Baby Doll. “Let me take you away from all of this. Escape with me to my 4th floor walk-up on Ave. B. You deserve better than this.” But the girls had the power, they were making good money, better than most musicians.

My preferred strip joint was Billy’s Topless where students from the Fashion Institute of Technology were known to dance on their lunch break. Billy’s is gone. In its place stands a bagel joint.

From Tessa’s website:

Tessa Hughes-Freeland’s films have been shown in a variety of venues, from international museums to seedy bars. The subject matter of her films is confrontational, transgressive, provocative and poetic.  She works in a wide variety of mediums and formats. The personality of her work makes it hard to categorize.