March 25, 2006
Orson Welles Is From Outer Space
Now up on Google Video is a delectable selection of videos from old movie reels taken from The National Archives. 1930s footage from the Dept. of the Interior, United Newsreel Motion Pictures from WWII (check out this clip about the WACs, the Air Force's female division), and NASA films. It's loads of fun.
Among the NASA films is Who's Out There? The lost masterpiece of Orson Welles, for serious. He's all gray-bearded and bloated and he narrates in his crazy voice. The camera work is full of weird zooms and there are all these random old people. It is totally out of control. Out of control. I mean, WTF? Orson Welles is making a freaking motion picture reel about freaking aliens for freaking NASA.
I wish the archive had more. It's missing, for instance, what has to be one of the most frightening 9 minutes of film of all time. I mean, of course, the Duck and Cover film. No wonder our parents are so fucked up. It's seriously creepy. Watch the part about sunburns. Oh, and when all the children flee the yard, leaving their jump rope behind:
While we're on the subject of government propaganda, I also really love this:
Ok, it's the East German government, but whatevs. Here's the description:
Strange mixture of propaganda and advertising from former East Germany, late 1958. The first half celebrates the progress the communist country made promotes how fantastic the Christmas supply available at state-owned Konsum shops is.
No wonder I find it so soothing, so soothing.
Posted by hissycat at 07:46 AM | Comments (5)
March 01, 2006
"I Just Thought They Make Great Pussies Nowadays," Says Asia Argento
This will be my last J.T. Leroy post, I swear. I feel that once The Heart Is Deceitful Above All Things is released into theaters, the J.T. Leroy will finally be allowed to die a natural death and go gentle into that dark night of the film canister forgotten on a shelf. It's easier that way.
Meanwhile, Asia Argento raved, raved like she had a lightbulb or two loose in the attic! Today's Gawker reports back from the premiere, director Q&A and after-party:
Argento gave quite a performance during the Q&A following the screening. When she was asked how the revelation that Leroy was nonexistant affected the movie's impact, she began a beautiful ramble. To heavily paraphrase: "What is truth? Am I telling you the fucking truth right now? How do you know what the fucking truth is?" She then talked about her personal experience with J.T. and how she had now idea he didn't exist until everyone else found out about it. "I mean, I slept with J.T. I touched his pussy. I just thought they make great pussies these days. I don't know. I couldn't see, it was dark. He said he was on hormones, that was why the boobs were there. I just thought they make great pussies nowadays." Move along folks, nothing to see here.
Posted by hissycat at 12:51 PM | Comments (8143)
February 06, 2006
More Musical Theater!
In mid-December, Steve, The Guy I've Been Seeing, began introducing me to some of his friends-- not at all unusual for such a situation, I'd say, in fact, judging from what I've seen the people do on the TV, this is what the people do when they are doing "the dating": They meet each other's friends and/ or pet cats. As I met more of Steve's friends, a pattern began to emerge: a goodly percentage of them were male, and straight. This is not all that unusual for such a situation either, I suppose, except that given the circles I spin in, such quantities of straight men seemed downright exotic. I suppose, actually, that I'm friends with some straight men, but they're the kind of straight men who tend to be the rumored to be gay from time to time, to wear tight pants, and to have more female friends than male. I forgot that people, in the world, watch sports.
Anyway, a while ago, in December again, I was joking with Steve about how I might have to readjust my socially appropriate meter which, let's be honest, is pretty wonky by anyone's standards. I said something like, "Oh, I'm just so out of touch with this crowd. I have no idea what these straights go in for these days. How do they feel about Liza Minelli and buttplugs? Oh no, whatever will we talk about?"
So on Thursday, Steve, straight friend Nick and I were at Steve's apartment smoking pot, etc. There had been some intention of watching Dead Man but Steve forgot to rent it, so to the closet it was to look for something else. It was there that the fateful DVD was discovered: My Fair Lady!
Nick: We could watch My Fair Lady ha ha ha! Because Steve owns it ha ha!
Me: Ha ha!
Steve: Ok!
Nick: The only way I'd watch that is if we got really ridiculously stoned first and then watched it!
Me: Ha.
Steve: Ok!
And then we did. It was totally the same dynamic that leads to group sex situations. People are fucked up, joking around, maybe flirting a little, teasing each other, and then there's one person who is just not kidding at all and suddenly you don't where your bra went, what that girl from your freshman dorm is doing here and frankly you're better off not knowing who the erection pressing against your leg belongs to, because the high's wearing thin and you're going to want to start locating the closest exits NOW. I imagine. I mean, I'm just guessing here. In this case, of course, instead of the whole realizing you're missing your panties thing, it was more that the "Street Where You Live" musical number is beginning and Nick, looking flushed and embaressed, is making a hasty departure for home, but you catch my drift-- no one was comfortable making eye contact afterwards.
Bringing this all full circle, later that night, when Steve and I were going to bed, I said to Steve, "hey, Steve, remember how, a while ago, I was all, 'I guess it's going to be an adjustment being around all your straight friends, and I didn't know what to expect; I didn't know how hanging out with them would be different from hanging out with my gay friends? Well, now I know. It's pretty much the same. Except, you know, straight guys, apparently, watch a lot MORE MUSICAL THEATER."
Posted by hissycat at 02:48 PM | Comments (4)
October 28, 2005
This Demographic Has A Terrible Aftertaste
One would hope that the sentence "They live and eat and breathe the demographic." would be the most grisly of whatever article it comes nestled in. Terrifyingly, the sentence, which appears in yesterday's NYTimes article about Simon Spotlight Entertainment, a new imprint of Simon & Schuster "devoted to pop culture for reader age 18-35," was not.
In case you were not aware, these are the people we have to thank for this minor masterpiece and the novelization of Napolean Dynamite. Things to look forward to: the hilariously! titled "Sippy Cups Are Not For Chardonnay," a book about fantasy football, and a The L Word tie-in called "Same Sex In The City."
In short, SSE is the reification of everything vomitacious and dispicable about Publishing: they are interested in making money, not good books ("'The thing that impresses me most about our editors is that they understand that it's not all about the book,' she said. 'It's about the money you can make from that book.'"); they are entirely market-- and marketing-- driven (. . ."when the series 'The L Word' was burning up Showtime on cable television . . . They gathered a focus group of about a dozen gay women to talk about what type of book they would want to read. . . It is not exactly a formula, Ms. Bergstrom said. 'But we usually know what we want to publish,' she said. 'It's then a matter of wrapping the right author and spokesperson around it.'"); authors are selected for celebrity, not writing ("what we decide to publish is greatly affected by our publicity department - who we can get on 'The Daily Show' or who might be great on a radio tour."); they are the whores of a vertically-integrated media conglomerate (Viacom) that is designed to produce cyclicly-reinforced crap in a closed system ("'most of [SSE's authors] have platforms in other media,'" Ms. Bergstrom said recently."; "the imprint sponsors events with the likes of Jane magazine"; "At one recent meeting, the staff was batting around ideas related to celebrities and MTV"; "What Simon Spotlight Entertainment has done - rather successfully in its first year in business - is to tap quickly into pop culture currents."). The entire SSE imprint is, essentially, a PR department for recycled celebrities.
Not that there is anything shocking about what the article reveals. Still, there is something really eerily Stepford Publishers about the piece. Everyone-- the journalist, the subjects-- is so blithely indifferent to the media or publishing ethics. No, more than indifferent-- they seem completely unaware that there are ethics in media and publishing. The opening anecdote of the SSE head skipping Frankfurt in favor of the Aspen Comedy Festival is delivered without irony. There is the suggestion of iconoclasm in the assertion "that an editorial assistant would be given that level of responsibility is evidence that the imprint does not hew to the traditional hierarchies in many publishing companies," would be funny if their corporate whoredom wasn't so dreadful and frightening.
What, exactly, was the aforementioned 25-year-old editorial assisstant responsible for?
"One book of pictures and quotations from the film [Napolean Dynomite] is already in stores, and another, a flipbook of Napoleon's sweet dance moves, is on the way."
Posted by hissycat at 11:12 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
October 21, 2005
I Spy A Hobbitt
Like, oh my god, girlfriends, you will totally flip out when I tell you who I saw tonight. Oh. Ma. Gahd. Sit down. No, really sit down. Can you guess? I'll give you three hints:
Elijah Wood! Elijah Wood! Elijah Wood!
I saw Elijah Wood! Like, ahhhhh!
Actually, I really did see Elijah Wood. I went to the Gogol Bordello concert tonight with Caroline, Zuzka, Tess, and Brett (yes, that Brett-- the one I just broke up with).
Brett, Zuzka and I stepped outside at some point towards the end of the lame-ass opener to have a smoke. Zuzka returned in search of a vodka shot, while Brett and I remained for cig #2. About three drags in, he walked by. I looked at Brett for confirmation. Stoned and drunk (did I mention who I was there with?), I couldn't be sure if I was halucinating or what.
"Yes," Brett said, before I could get a word out of my mouth.
"Is--?"
"Yes."
I looked over Elijah Wood, who was leaning against a lamp post, having a smoke, then looked back at Brett. "I just need to be sure," I said, "that you you see--"
"A hobbitt," said Brett. "I see a hobbitt."
We spread the news to our co-horts back inside. Gogol was taking for freaking ever to get on stage. After about forty minutes of waiting, I turned to Brett. "Elijah Wood must be taking a crap or something," I said by way of explanation. But, no. Tess (or someone) spotted him about ten yards behind us. His full denim ensemble was topped by a large yellow cowboy hat, naturally, as no doubt he chose the LARGE YELLOW HAT to avoid calling attention to himself.
Well kids, and here's the shocker. I mean, I know the kid's totally flamingly gay gay gay, but, man oh man, he sure does dance funny.
Oh right, and the concert was totally great.
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October 13, 2005
Bet You Didn't Know.
The Shining is the feel-good movie of the year.
Posted by hissycat at 03:22 PM | Comments (4) | TrackBack
August 12, 2005
Bloody Murder
I Can't Wait for the Movie
Bloodier than Leopold and Loeb! More salacious that Parker and Hume!
I'm really into True Crime. Especially when it involves 1)Complicated plotting 2) Elaborate psychoses and/ or folie a deux 3)Sex, Revenge, Jealousy, Money and whatever else is reeking of Scandal.
I'm so absorbed by this caseinvolving a 14-year-old boy who orchestrated his own murder viainternet chat-rooms under guise of an impressive array ofpersonnas. There will always be a special place in my heart forthe Hume-Parker case, but this definately beats that German guy whopaid someone to torture and murder him and eat his penis. Itdoesn't beat it in terms of gore-- the German sounds more gorey-- butin terms of the imaginitiveness and ingenuity that the boy used incrafting his own murder (I mean, the German essentailly posted aMurderer Wanted ad and then interviewed candidates for the position)and the sheer, impenetrable bizarreness of actions and motivations on the part of the boy (I mean, there's something slightlyhackneyed about overtly sexualized murders involving S&M perverts.. . like, I've already seen that Law and Order), the 14-year-oldtotally wins.
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Posted by hissycat at 02:50 PM | Comments (3) | TrackBack
August 08, 2005
9 to 5
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But it also made me kind of depressed. Like, it made me really,really wish I was there in the late '70s and early-to-mid '80s, whenthere was a big, kinda mainstream feminist movement. What Ireally like about 9-to-5 is how non-indivdualist the message is and howearnest it is. I mean, there are a lot of '80s movies about'strong women,' even ones in suits, but the heroine's triumph oversexist assumptions and blahdiblah in the business world (you know,besides making it with a shiny-toothed man) is always anexceptional, personal triumph. I mean, she may be VP, but noother woman is getting any help from her. 9 to 5 has a lovely,indulging fantasy to it-- of hogtieing the boss and unmanning him withDays of Our Lives and soap digests-- but it also outlines what it wouldtake to make the workplace more fair and equitable and just all-aroundbetter: daycare, flexible hours and job-share, employer-sponsered AAmeetings, and a more personal touch (i.e. house plants and schoolpictures). The working mothers and wheel-chair using person inthe final scene, when you see the new, improved workplace? Thetotally gratuitous sex-positive speech Jane Fonda gives herex-husband? Fuck yes, I love this movie.
I know it's unhip to rat on whatever feminishy movement is aroundthese days. No, it's not that I want to complain about'third-wave' feminism, but after watching 9 to 5, I just feel likewhatever feminist sentiment remains these days is channeled into suchsmall, such personal feats of self-expression or visibility ortheorizing or blahdiblah or else into expressing how omnipresentinjustice and fucked-upness is and how it is impossible to reallychange the system in any meaningful way. Sometimes I just wantsomething neat and practical, like the ERA, that I could get behind.
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Posted by hissycat at 04:40 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack