| Dangerous Minds (2024)

08.19.2012

11:05 am

Topics:

Tags:

The British Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) website, has a rather unfortunate (some people may say deliberate) juxtaposition of images on its homepage.

The page shows William Hague, the First Secretary of State, and Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs center-frame with his comments about Wikileakes founder Julian Assange, who made an Eva Peron-like appearance at a balcony of the Ecuador Embassy in London today. Now note the item top corner on:

“Balcony Incidents - 13 incidents of falls this year”

Coincidence? Unfortunate gaffe? Or, wishful thinking? I think we should be told.



With thanks to Sarah Smith

08.19.2012

10:07 am

Topics:

Tags:

Just a reminder to our Los Angeles readers that tonight marks the start of the third annual Everything Is Festival, co-sponsored by Everything is Terrible!, Cinefamily and Cinespia

Tonight the festivities kick off with the former cast members of the much-loved Comedy Central cult hit Mystery Science Theater 3000 who now go by the collective name of Cinematic Titanic:

Join us at the gorgeous Saban Theatre, where we’ll watch our favorite Mystery Science Theater 3000 stars and writers — Joel Hodgson, Trace Beaulieu, Frank Conniff, J. Elvis Weinstein and Mary Jo Pehl — in their new incarnation Cinematic Titanic, riffing their way through Ted V. Mikels’ The Doll Squad (the 1973 film that has been rumored to have been the inspiration for “Charlie’s Angels”) on a gigantic screen, in a newly-restored 1930s movie palace. It’s fair to say an entire generation of comedy fans are deeply indebted to these gurus of riffery for their reference-heavy jokes, their goofy spirit, and the thousands of hours’ worth of good times they gave us all. As well, the fact that many of us Earth citizens were exposed for the first time to otherworldly mutant film classics like Pod People, Manos: The Hands Of Fate and the Joe D’Amato sword-and-sorcery anti-epic Cave Dwellers (aka Ator, The Flying Eagle) makes MST3Knot just a landmark of experimental television comedy, but a tireless missionary of B-movie culture. They truly brought all these cinematic oddities to the masses! Plus, our partners at Cinespia are bringing DJs, Cinefamily’s gonna bring the crazy pre-show action and plenty of special surprises, and there’s gonna be a huge afterparty!

Back at Cinefamily home-base, the festival picks up again on Monday night with more MST3000 shenanigans when Joel Hodgson takes part in Cinefamily’s Show & Tell series.

The Saban Theatre, 8440 Wilshire Blvd., Beverly Hills, CA, 7pm

08.19.2012

12:19 am

Topics:

Tags:

Follow Paul Ryan Gosling on Twitter.

Via Liberals Are Cool

08.18.2012

05:32 pm

Topics:

Tags:

For Bonzo Dog fans, this is the equivalent of finding the Holy Grail. The original edit and soundtrack of The Adventures of the Son of Exploding Sausage - the rarely seen Bonzo Dog Band film from 1969. It’s the Bonzo’s own Magical Mystery Tour (yes, I know they were in that), a film with no real story, just a day-in-the-countryside, with some children and a farm. You’d probably get arrested for trying something like that now… Here’s how the BFI database describes it:

The Bonzo Dog Band drive into the country in a truck, unload their equipment in some woods only to find some of it taken away by some children. They eat and play at a party, and the Bonzos play a number of instrumentals in a stable yard, including `Rockaliser Baby’, `We are Normal’ and `Quiet Walks and Summer Talks’. At the end they are driven away in a white car. Note: No words are sung. Featured alongside the Bonzo Dog Band are the children Amanda, Jennifer and Ashley Lees, Edward Roebuck, and Olivia Smith.

Clips from this film have been on YouTube over the years, usually with “words sung”, but this original instrumental soundtrack is fantastic, which as one comment on YouTube says:

‘Not just a funky old time jazz band. They give early Pink Floyd a run for their money here.’

Ah, tis true. So, if you like Vivian, Neil and co. (and why not?), do make yourself some tea and scones, and settle down and enjoy this lovely trip to the delightful world of The Bonzo Dog Band.

Bonus clips of The Bonzos, after the jump…

08.18.2012

03:18 pm

Topics:

Tags:

puss* Riot has changed how the world views Russia.

Help Free puss* Riot here.

Via ART Ukraine

08.18.2012

03:10 am

Topics:

Tags:

Hotter than sh*t South Korean director Kim Ji-woon has created a handful of my favorite films of the past decade, I Saw the Devil, The Good, the Bad, the Weird, A Bittersweet Life and A Tale of Two Sisters . It should be very interesting to see if he can resurrect Arnold Schwarzenegger as an action star or at least make him weirdly compelling (which shouldn’t be too hard) in the upcoming The Last Stand, Ji-woon’s first American film.

Ji-woon knows his way around genre film-making and can mix brutal violence with black comedy in ways that would make Tarantino envious. My bet is Ji-woon and Schwarzenegger are going to blow minds with this one.

Ji-woon’s I Saw the Devil was in my top 10 of 2010 and is perhaps one of the most beautiful and grueling films I’ve ever experienced. For those of you who haven’t seen his films, be prepared to be stunned. A Tale Of Two Sisters is a good place to start.

Kim Ji-woon may be one of the few Asian directors to make the Hollywood transition without losing his mojo. I think he’s got the spine and guts for it….and he’s a badass.

I’m keeping fingers crossed that The Last Stand will be added to the line-up to this year’s Fantastic Fest, which Dangerous Minds will of course be attending.

08.17.2012

07:07 pm

Topics:

Tags:

Fighting against our intellectual and spiritual enslavement, the incomparable Anne Pigalle premieres her new show L’âme érotique, at the Hotel Bijou, Broadstairs in Kent, on August, 23.

The exquisite Anne is one of the world’s great chanteuses, and this new show brings together an intimate salon of her photography, her poetry, her discourse and of course, her brilliant singing.

The show’s title comes from Anne’s last spoken word disc L’âme érotique, which showcased a selection of twenty-one erotically charged poems, each with their own musical accompaniment. The poems dealt with love, sex, and soul, and was a fantastic oeuvre that ranged from the personal (“You Give Me Asthma”, “Lunch”) through the comic and the Surreal to the sexually explicit (“Saint org*sm”, “X Amount” and “Erotica de toi”). Throughout is Anne’s richly seductive voice sounds as intimate as a kiss. It’s a fabulous mix, and for fans of the legendary Miss Pigalle, and for first timers, it’s a breathless, arousing and unforgettable introduction.

If you are in the UK, then this is your chance to see the legendary Anne Pigalle at her very best. Check here for details, a dn below a selection of Ms. Pigalle’s erotic photographs.

A selection of Anne Pigalle’s erotic photographs, after the jump…

Previously on Dangerous Minds

08.17.2012

01:50 pm

Topics:

Tags:

Strange, but true, in the early 80s, Frank Zappa joined showbiz celebs like Nipsey Russell, Scatman Crothers, Erik Estrada, Henny Youngman, and One Day at a Time mom, Bonnie Franklin, to record radio PSAs for the American Dental Association. The spots admonished kids to brush, floss and go for regular dental check-ups. Here are three of them: “Dental Floss Tycoon,” “Trick Or Treat” and “Keep Your Teeth.”

If you haven’t heard yet, Universal Music Group is re-releasing the entire Frank Zappa oeuvre and the first dozen of his 60s and early 70s albums—everything from 1966’s Freak Out! to the 1972 live set, Just Another Band From L.A.—are already out.

You can get more information and updates on the Frank Zappa remasters by following Jeff Newelt’s Twitter feed.

Thank you Wilson Smith!

08.17.2012

01:00 pm

Topics:

Tags:

The YouTube description says, “An ingenious door in a Chicago parking garage will not “die with his music inside of him.”

Via BuzzFeed

08.17.2012

12:53 pm

Topics:

Tags:

The Illuminator projecting on the Russian Consulate in NYC last night

This came prior to Judge Marina Syrova’s court handing down a two year prison sentence today when the feminist punk band was found guilty of “hooliganism driven by religious hatred.”

Our imprisonment has served as a clear and obvious sign that the whole country is being robbed of freedom. And this threat of annihilating the freeing, emancipatory forces in Russia – that’s what causes me to be enraged. Seeing the large in the small, the trend in the sign, the common in the individual.

Second-Wave Feminists said the personal is political. That’s how it is. The puss* Riot case has shown how the individual troubles of three people facing charges of hooliganism can give life to a political movement. A single case of repression and persecution against those who had the courage to Speak in an authoritarian country has shaken the world: its activists, punks, pop stars, and government members, its comedians and ecologists, its feminists and its masculinists, its Islamic theologians, and those Christians who are praying for puss* Riot.

The personal has become political. The puss* Riot case has brought together as one forces so multidirectional, I still have trouble believing this isn’t a dream. The impossible is happening in contemporary Russian politics: a demanding, persistent, powerful and consistent impact of society on its government.

I am thankful to everyone who has said “Free puss* Riot!” Right now, all of us are participating a large and important political Event that the Putin regime is having an ever more difficult time controlling. Whatever the upcoming verdict for puss* Riot, we – and you – are already winning. Because we have learned to rage, and to speak politically.

puss* Riot is happy that we have been able to spur a truly collective action, and that your political passion has proven to be so strong, it has cleared the barriers of language, culture, surroundings, and economic and political status. Kant would say that he sees no other reason for this Miracle besides man’s moral beginning. Thank you for this Miracle

Defense lawyers for puss* Riot said they would appeal the verdict, although they are pessimistic about it being overturned.

“Under no circ*mstances will the girls ask for a pardon (from Putin),” said attorney Mark Feygin. “They will not beg and humiliate themselves before such a bastard.”

puss* Riot—Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, 22, Maria Alekhina, 24, and Yekaterina Samutsevich, 30—have been dubbed prisoners of conscience by Amnesty International.

Hat tip to Exile on Moan Street