Yard Sale

We have a lot of stuff we've been putting down in storage. Things our family gave us, some lamps, some side tables...so garage sale! I'm part nervous part excited about doing this in the better weather. So we're also going to put some painted furniture in the sale. I am working on this table I got from Andy who moved. I'm not sure about it being in the sale...but thought I'd post it and show my stages of painting. The legs are going to be covered in ink and felt pen graffiti and lots of messy paint. Probably even some greys blacks and reds. The "canvas" is wide open right now...Yesteday I painted it white and began some pink harlequin/argyle on the table top. I pretty much suspect that Andy won't want this back...ha! Yikes! I'm having a blast coming up with ideas...I want it "street bohemian chic" :)


We've got this book shelf for the yard sale too. We both workd on painting these shelves. Stagg and I usually collaborate on painting furniture...but he has a chair he's working on and I've got the table. I like the High Tension motif from that ultra cool movie...chick with a chain saw...sweet!


We're also putting this huge Floorcloth into sale...it's approximately 7' by 10'. We collaborated on making this piece...below:

Savoy Music

I have been going through some photos...oh god...it's like organizing photos is a lifelong deal. One file for transferring pics from camera, then moving them into iPhoto and categories..but I like that it pretty much has removed going to the camera shop to get pics developed. I used to rush down to Yonge Street to a big "Japan Camera" for a one hour photo developement...it's nice that we can get pictures so fast. The joke is...I've got pics I haven't even sorted....and then you sort and find some gems. I completely was thrilled to find these pictures of the Savoy Music in Eunice, Lousianna. We went there with Mister Anchovy and Tuffy P and landed up meeting Marc Savoy. What a treat! Stagg and I bought some cds of Savoy Family and a video of "How To Cajun Dance".


A great little film above... with archival photos.If you have ten minutes it's really interesting! About 2 minutes into it are Marc and Ann Savoy.

The video above looks like it could have been made by Guy Maddin! :)


Savoy holds a degree in chemical engineering but his primary income is derived from his accordion-making business, based at his Savoy Music Center in Eunice, Louisiana. His wife is the singer and guitarist Ann Savoy, whom he met in 1975. He has performed with Dewey Balfa, D. L. Menard, and Michael Doucet, the latter of whom he plays with in the Savoy-Doucet Band.


RELATED LINKS:

1.) LSU
2.) Savoy Music web page.

Foley Artists, Memories, Dreams and Non-Verbal Languages

Zookeeper's Workbook. Photographed by Guy Maddin, edited by John Gurdebeke.

"The Foley artist on a film crew is the person who creates many of the natural, everyday sound effects in a film, which are recorded during a session with a recording engineer. Before the session, a project will be cued, with notes kept about what sounds need to be created during the foley session. Often, the project will have a sound supervisor who will dictate what sounds need to be covered in a foley session and what needs to be created by special (audio) effects, which is generally left to the sound designer.

Sound effects and foley are added during post-production to dialog and real effects that were picked up by microphones on-set. Sometimes (especially in the case of cartoons, many Italian films, and almost all Bollywood films) there is no sound recorded on-location, and all the sounds need to be added by the foley artist and sound designer, and dubber. The Foley artist may also accent existing sounds to make them more effective—enhancing the sounds of a fistfight may require thumping watermelons or cracking bamboo. Many Foley artists take pride in devising their own sound effects apparatuses, often using simple, commonly found materials. Some making-of featurettes show Foley artists at work.
The term Foley artist is named after Jack Foley, one of the earliest and best-known Hollywood practitioners of the art. Foley began his career in the film industry as a stand-in and screenwriter during the silent era, and later helped Universal make the transition from silent movies to talkies."

Here is a great web page about The Art of Foley.

I was very surprised that Stagg not only liked this movie but kind of related to it. I think My Winnipeg might be Guy Maddin's best film, I think maybe it's my favourite at any rate. Last year Stagg's good friend Darrick had a dvd copy of The Saddest Music In The World. Darrick was "You have to see this strange weird psycho movie". I said, "Hey, I took a workshop with Maddin for a week once, I love the guy!". There is a thread of something common among some of my favourite independent film makers, Guy Maddin, David Lynch, Lisa Steel/Kim Tomczak, Ken Russell, and Werner Herzog. They seem to make movies that work on some level below the intellect, on a physiological level or as Maddin says "neurological waves". But more than that, having met them (except for Russell...who I would love to meet in person) they all also seem to have another quality in common. These film makers have a very down to earth organic attitude towards life and making images. My family has a lot of roots in Winnipeg. When my sister and I were small, my dad went to college there. He went because of a service with the military where you go to university then become an officer. My parents met, fell in love and married in Winnipeg. My mum grew up there, and my grandfather worked for the railroad as a dispatcher. We always were on trains (or planes or the road) when I was growing up and Maddin's film has a wonderful depiction of the value of trains to people in Winnipeg. We used to take the train every weekend in the summers to go to my grandmothers camp. Back then, it didn't have any road access! Isn't that a bizarre concept!? Stagg found it horrifying ha ha that we would go somewhere we couldn't get away from in a car. It is very funny. My sister and I have both been attracted to the scenario ever since as we both have travelled to "wild areas" throughout our adult lives. Maddins' film has a wonderful set of scenes about the paranormal. This really reminded me of some of my childhood memories. My mother and grandmother had unconventional interests in "Spirituality". In contrast my father was a diehard atheist, but my mother was heavily into anything supernatural or mystical. She followed tarot, card readers, psychic healers, we went to churches that healed people. We went to Hindu temples. We read about UFOs at the dinner table. I remember going with our parents to see an Egyptian death mask exhibit and my mum just so into it, asking us if we could feel the spirits of the mummies. So in My Winnipeg when there are seances...I immediately recalled y mothers seance parties, where we were sent to bed but of course we tried to spy on the activities. Apparently, Winnipeg has a massive interest in paranormal activities more than any other center in North America. Who knew?




I think the above interview is a "must see". Maddin is so cool about manipulating and messing with images. I agree with Werner Herzog that one of the primary jobs of an artist is making more and more images for a visual language. A broader stronger non-verbal language. Maddin explains in this interview how he filmed My Winnipeg on HD digital...but landed up re-filming it by projecting it on his refrigerator!!!! I love that!!! Check out how one of his goals is to make film how a child makes a drawing "right from feeling to the page". I believe this is the most important feature of a good novel or film or painting etc. Didn't Picasso say he spent the rest of his life trying to unlearn his art training and to paint like a child?


I love that Maddin has Foley artists performing during this film. I used to love going to see Metropolis and having a live pianist play or a small band play the soundtrack to the movie. Crispin Glover makes an interesting point in this interview about how with such good home theatres maybe having such live performances with a film will attract people back to cinema in theatres? I recommend watching this last video because you can see the Foley artists for a bit at work. Really cool stuff!

Grey Britain

Punk band Gallows is streaming their new album Grey Britain all week at their myspace page before the official release, May 4. (thanks DTW)

Billy Bob Redux

Billy Bob Thornton talks about Toronto and that lame reporter. Love you Billy Bob!

Two Cats With Big Hearts And A Moving Van

Morgan and Nico (inside the box) helping with the box inspections. What you didn't know you have to inspect boxes when you move?



Our friend Andy got a fantastic new job that is great for his future in magazines and editing. I am very happy that Andy got a great new job...but sad he is moving away because his job is in another state. I had a big cry. I'm terrible with goodbyes...but I am pretty glad we got to work together. Andy has already started his new job at a Gun Magazine but came back to town to finish moving. We had a riot with Art Group and hes just a great guy. Everyone at Art Group asks about him and they say "you've got to go where the work is".

His friend Joe, Stagg and our neighbour Jessica all got together at Andy's to help him move and have snacks and beer.

Stress-Relieving Philosophy

Uriah Heep by Fred Barnard

There are some people in the world who are desperate. You can find a number of these folks on the internet, or at work, even at church, and they are so obsessed with being "liked" they write or speak every thought in mitigated speech. You know, cloying and on the fence. They never really say what they think and they trie to cover "all sides" of an argument...that way everyone will like them. They long to divide and split those who oppose them and to win a popularity contest or the favours of greed, power or attention. This person is just a cleverly disguised shit. So is the woman who fucked over my poor dad. She acts like Martha Stewart, even naming one of her cats Martha Stewart, she smiles and was sickly fat trying to pass as cozy and warm. A Martha Stewart from hell because everyone in her life got sick, kind of like Munchausen's. She was just a cleverly disguised shit. Or what about those people who have always done it better and sooner than someone else? Someone at work tells an anecdote about having a good Italian meal...and then there is that guy, he's had it in Italy. With a Count, in a castle, ten years ago, made by a woman with a five hundred year old secret recipe. You know the type. One upping type. A cleverly disguised shit. We've all gotten sucked into the games of these vampires at one time or another.

You know what, they are like Charles Dickens character Uriah Heep. I watched a BBC porduction of David Copperfeild a couple of weeks ago and was wowed by how he had portrayed these shits so well in that character.

You can find these shits all over the world and their sole purpose is to be a dream smasher and to shit on others. It is hard to remember that we should just laugh to our selves and walk the fuck away. Do not lose sleep over a shit. William Burroughs really understood this...

"Burroughs explicitly linked his philosophy to Manichaeism-a third century Persian religion. Manichaeism was founded by a young preacher, Mani in the early to mid third century of the common era. Mani was heavily influenced by Gnostic Christianity-calling himself a "disciple of Christ" and the Paraclete", or biblical healer. The Manichaens incorporated many existing belief systems into their worldview. From Manichaenism and Gnosticim, they appointed a strongly held belief in cosmic dualism. It is in this sense that Burroughs links his philosophy to that of the third century religion. Burrough's fiction and nonfiction work (as the two are not readily separable) are best characterized as mythology. He himself described his effort as writing the mythology for the space age. His philosophy has many parallels to early Gnosticism that go beyond this simple invocation of Manichaeism dualism.

Burroughs first encountered the concept of the Johnson Family while still a boy reading the book You Can't Win by Jack Black. First published in the 1920's Black's autobiographical account of hobo life was immensely popular in it's day. Burroughs describes the Johnsons in The Place of Dead Roads:

"The Johnson Family was a turn-of-the-century expression to designate good bums and thieves. It was elaborated into a code of conduct. A Johnson honors his obligations. His word is good and he is a good man to do business with. A Johnson minds his own business. He is not a snoopy, self-righteous, trouble-making person. A Johnson will not stand by while someone is drowning or trapped under a burning car."

In his essay "The Johnson Family" Burroughs elaborates on the Johnson's philosophical placement within his mythic system-explicitly linked them to Manichaeistic dualism:

"The Johnson Family formulates a Manichaen position where good and evil are in conflict and the outcome is at this point uncertain. It is not an eternal conflict since one or the other must win a final victory."

In contrast to the honorable world of hobos and criminals, Burroughs describes a type of person known simply as a "Shit". Unlike the Johnsons, Shits are obsessed with minding other people's business. They are the town busy body, the preacher, the lawman. Shits are incapable of taking the honorable road of each-to-his-own. Burroughs describes the situation in his essay "My Own Business" thus:

"This world would be a pretty easy and pleasant place to live in if everybody could just mind his own business and let others do the same. But a wise old black faggot said to me years ago: 'Some people are shits, darling.' I was never able to forget it."

In Burroughs mythology, the world is one of conflict between the Johnsons and the Shits. A Shit is one who is obsessively sure of his own position at the cost of all other vantages. Burroughs describes Shits as incapable of minding "their own business because they have no business of their own to mind, any more than a small pox virus has." This is more than an offhand analogy. For Burroughs, Shits are, in actuality, virus occupied hosts-chronically infected by what he terms the Right virus. "The mark of a basic Shit," Burroughs reminds us, "is that he has to be right."

The war between the Johnsons and the Shits is an epic one that runs throughout Burroughs writing. Though of immense proportions, like the Gnostic battle between good and evil, the cosmic war is not figured across eternity. It has an end and, for Burroughs, that end is imaginable. It does not come without immense conflict, however. Burroughs tells his reader, "The people in power will not disappear voluntarily." There is no turning back, once the battle is met. "Once one take up arms against a bunch of shits there is no way back. Lay down your arms and they will kill you." Hell hath no vociferous fury than an endangered parasite." And remember, "The wild boys take no prisoners." "full article here

Seven Stories

1. 'Tragedy'. Hero with a fatal flaw meets tragic end. Macbeth or
Madame Bovary.

2. 'Comedy'. Not necessary laugh-out-loud, but always with a happy ending, typically of romantic fulfilment, as in Jane Austen.

3. 'Overcoming the Monster'. As in Frankenstein or 'Jaws'. Its psychological appeal is obvious and eternal.

4. 'Voyage and Return'. Booker argues that stories as diverse as Alice
in Wonderland and H G Wells' The Time Machine and Coleridge's The Rime of the Ancient Mariner follow the same archetypal structure of personal development through leaving, then returning home.

5. 'Quest'. Whether the quest is for a holy grail, a whale, or a kidnapped child it is the plot that links a lot of the most popular fiction. The quest plot links Lords of the Rings with Moby Dick and a thousand others in between.

6. 'Rags to Riches'. The riches in question can be literal or metaphoric. See Cinderella, David Copperfield, Pygmalion.

7. 'Rebirth'. The 'rebirth' plot - where a central character suddenly finds a new reason for living - can be seen in A Christmas Carol, It's a Wonderful Life, Crime and Punishment and Peer Gynt.

J.G. Ballard R.I.P.

JG Ballard's novels, disquieting, visionary and often apocalyptic fables of technological and social anarchy set him at the very pinnacle of contemporary writing.
The self-professed "architect of dreams, sometimes nightmares" enjoyed a cult status, and Steven Spielberg's film of his book Empire of the Sun brought him a a popular fanbase, too.
Fusing external landscapes of futuristic visions with the internal workings of his characters' minds, Ballard created a series of montages in which the world was, in turns, flooded, desiccated, crystallised and concreted over.

He was, some said, the seer of the post-Hiroshima age.
Born in Shanghai in 1930, the son of a British executive, James Graham Ballard lived in style in the city's international settlement, until Japanese forces swept in during December 1941 and his life changed forever.

The three years which he spent in a Japanese internment camp moulded the young Jim Ballard's vision of the world, and influenced all of his works, where a sense of "the world turned upside down" is an all-pervading and recurrent theme.
Ballard finally returned to Britain, by now "like a foreign country", and later abandoned his medical studies at Cambridge to become a writer.

In 1953 Ballard joined the RAF and was sent to the RCAF flight-training base in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, Canada. There he discovered science fiction in American magazines. While in the RAF, he also wrote his first science fiction story, "Passport to Eternity", as a pastiche and summary of the American science fiction he had read. From BBC
In 1953 Ballard joined the RAF and was sent to the RCAF flight-training base in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, Canada. There he discovered science fiction in American magazines. While in the RAF, he also wrote his first science fiction story, "Passport to Eternity", as a pastiche and summary of the American science fiction he had read.


Cronenberg made this into a notorious film.

This was also a fantastic movie starring young Christian Bale.

If you haven't read at least these three novels above, well you've got some fantastic reading ahead of you. Ballard was the real deal.

Waking Up Nerdy

Thanks to a new law, Canada will bestow citizenship Friday on what its government believes could be hundreds of thousands of unsuspecting foreigners, most of them Americans.

The April 17 amendment to Canada's Citizenship Act automatically restores Canadian nationality to many people forced to renounce it when they became citizens of another country. It also grants citizenship to their children.

The Canadian government doesn't know the precise number or location of individuals affected by the legislation. But it believes most are U.S. citizens, a spokeswoman for Canada's immigration office said. U.S. Department of Homeland Security records show 240,000 Canadians were naturalized in the U.S. from 1948 to 1977; the new law fixes problems that occurred during those years.

To reach that amorphous group of beneficiaries, the Canadian government has turned to YouTube. It's running an ad there titled "Waking up Canadian," in which a man awakens on April 17 to a room festooned with red-and-white Canadian flags. He's met by a welcoming committee consisting of two stuffed plush moose, a hockey player, and a member of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.

Eligible individuals automatically become Canadian citizens. But they don't get proof of that citizenship unless they apply for it, meaning other countries -- including those that allow people to be citizens of only one nation -- won't be alerted, according to the immigration office spokeswoman. Those people also may renounce their citizenship rights, she said.

The citizenship bonanza is the byproduct of a decadeslong struggle by a motley group of people who claim they were unfairly denied or lost their Canadian nationality. Canadian families who crossed the border in 1947 to 1977 to have their babies in a U.S. hospital found those children weren't recognized as Canadians unless the families registered them with the government. Some foreign brides of Canadian World War II servicemen lost their citizenship if they stayed out of the country for a decade or more.

Then there are the Canadian Mennonites who moved to Mexico in the 1920s to the 1960s. When their children and grandchildren returned to Canada, many found their nationality unclear.

Some such cases languished in litigation for years. Others surfaced in 2007, when new U.S. rules requiring passports for travel between Canada and the U.S. uncovered significant numbers of people who thought they were Canadian, but weren't. The old rules were "quite intricate," said Bill Janzen, an immigration lobbyist in Ottawa for the Mennonite Central Committee of Canada.

The new law offers citizenship to many individuals now in limbo. It also stops the previous practice of granting citizenship in perpetuity to children of Canadians born abroad, limiting eligibility to children of parents born in Canada. From Wall Street Journal

Miriam

Yesterday's Drawings

Last night when Stagg gets home he says check out these drawings. I look at them and kind of laugh...I say they're great...but now you have to go see what I drew today...we couldn't have more different drawings!

And these two are mine! I did these while at Art Group yesterday. I almost never draw like this not since high school. I thought it was so funny there is Stagg drawing skulls and vices and I might as well be drawing unicorns. Heh heh.

It's kind of spooky though...because I didn't notice that I was drawing all these "hand" images.

Art Group was awesome yesterday...last week Stagg was on holiday so he came too and he met some cool people. We've given away all the art supplies and sketch books we had donated...so I need to get more donations. I also want to arrange a little fundraiser. I was thinking of some kind of coffeeshop party...like see if a cafe will lend us their space for a party.

Meanwhile a couple of the people who have taken art sketch books with them...have come back to the group to show us what they've worked on. It's amazing...you know how the idea of sometimes kids "slip through the fingers of a school system" is an adage...well there are people who have slipped through decades. I mean the reality...that people who have had jobs or been in school...and had all this artistic talent and drive...and no one facilitated it...no one hoed in on it. Like...at one point some of these people had jobs. They had this talent and it kills me hat no one noticed their talent and visual intelligence and hand to eye coordination. It breaks my heart. If any employers stop by here...think about this...what hidden talents are int he people who work for you? What could be discovered about someone you work with and helped to blossom into new ways of working. Oh I could just pull my hair out.

We've had some busy days at Art Group. Last week when Stagg was there a whole family came in, uncles, two mums dad and two little kids and a newborn. The kids went crazy for about an hour then boom gone. I really want to come up with more ways to build up this service and experience for everyone involved...hmm...have to put on my thinking cap...

Collaboration

Stagg warming up his guitar pedal. We did some fun fooling around with images and music for The Slut's Bedroom. Stagg and I seem to work together pretty well on collaborating. It's a really fun exprience to work with someone else in imagination. But it doesn't always work out. somehow Stagg and I manage to find a way to make some artwork together. I love we can do this. We had the best time making soundtrack and images. We made a floorcloth once here...For an art show with both of our work in the same space like an installation.




And here is the floorcloth we collaborated on.

Never Give Up Your Dreams

I got a e-mail message from a pal, Lee, at an online bookclub last night and you've got to check it out. He sent me this awesome video link....I was crying my eyes out...it's just a lovely video...here...

I always forget that Simon Cowell has a whole other world in U.K. And I've not seen this video before...and it sure seems popular, over 5 million viewers!

Wow...since I looked at this video and posted it here...there have been 2 more million viewers. That's whack!

Shhesh Lee, thanks man...you were way ahead of the wave. This video was on the news when I got home from work!

(24 hourrs later...5 million more viewers, crazy)

A Pendulum Swing

Life has been a bit strange for the last few months...and the weird part is...I can't really talk about it. Everything is great...but we have had to do a lot of paperwork since getting married. The thing is...if there was a ever a person who was terrible at bureaucracy...it's me. Only there is another person too. Stagg is also terrible at the grind of performing for bureaucracy. He hasn't felt really stressed out by it...But two people who aren't into "the man" or paperwork or paying attention to "labels"...it makes for a massive inertia of sorts ha ha.

And for the months of January and a little into February...I did feel stressed out. Like I say...I can't get into all the details. But an example...I went to the doctors. I've never had to pay for a doctor before. It is a medical exam regarding all the paperwork. And for some reason...the idea of it being for government, and paying for it...I got really nervous. I got tested for TB and AIDS and stuff. It turned out to be actually a kind of fun event. Stagg went with me for the first visit...and the doctors were really nice and such. It turned out...get this...feeling kid of romantic! We also had to put together paperwork documenting a "proof of courtship". Stagg and I wrote some love letters with some pretty racy things in them before we got married. Face it, we had a long distance relationship for years. Can you say talk dirty? And...we need to add some of them to our paperwork! When I told Stagg this, I thought he would get freaked out. Instead, he was like..."I'll read them to the whole world!"

Easy trigger.

Okay dirty boy.

:)

So some of the process has been fun. Like we compiled pictures of Mister Anchovy and Tuffy P and us driving to Nashville and Memphis in 2005.

But I didn't sleep well in January...and felt always restless...and worried...how was all this goig to turn out.

Anyways...by March I think I just wore myself out worrying about "are we gonna live in Canada" versus "are we gonna live in U.S." Whats going to happen. I've always been such a strong independent person who makes decisions based on what I feel...not on what others want me to do...that I think this must have really touched a nerve with me....

But by March I felt this load come off my shoulders like...hey the voice of Doris Day in Hitchcocks movie The Man Who Knew Too Much trickled in "que sera sera"...

It's like I moved from paranoia into acceptance in March and April...and things have just kind of puttered along. I'm sleeping and feel a sense of peace. Like we are in "win/win" situation. We have no idea how we are going to finish paying our legal processes or what the outcome is going to be....but Stagg seems so cool about it all and I am just glad that we as of this week...have all the paperwork done!

And for two slackers when it comes to paperwork...this feels like a major accomplishment.

And the best thing is, I need to thank friends who have been really cool about all this. And my daughter. This has been a strange time for our whole family. Total support for getting married, and family and friends patient while we are in this process. I am so grateful for my friends in Chicago who just stayed kind of cool during this. My neighbour Jessica has beena godsend as has my pal Andy who went to Art Group with me for volunteer work. Working has been amazing too because it feels so rewarding and to give my time to Chicago and meet so many amazing artists who live outside or challenging situations has really been inspiring. The volunteer work just immediately takes me out of my ego. It puts the whole world in perspective of priorities. I am sure that the love of my blog friends, family and friends and this volunteer work are much more healing than I even realize at this time.

Friends give each other the benefit of the doubt. They count to ten when we do something stupid...or they believe we will figure out how "to do the right thing".

And friends are there even when we can't always talk about everything we are going through...it's like they have an intuition and give it time without jumping to conclusions. Friends are a refuge among all the doubts of life. (and bureaucracy)

:)


I am so glad for the people who visit here at this blog, for my daughters support while I ran off and moved away from her town, and for friends, and my family. Last night Martina called me from Toronto because Quentin Tarantino was on American Idol. She knows how much I love him...and although I was recording the show...it was great to hear from her and have someone know what you dig. Just from a pop culture event, even! And it just made me think of all the people who are so patient with Stagg and I while we are wondering if we are in limbo...and not really able to talk about it much.

Thanks and I love you all!

QT Mentors AI

I loved Lady Ga Ga on american Idol last week. This week Quentan Tarantino was really fun as a mentor for the contestants to do themes from movies. There was a great intro like a trailer for QT and music by RZA...but I can't find it online. But here is Adam Lambert...who I think will win. Lambert is my favourite! He's so Elvis meets Bowie.


And I just found this weird funny interview:



STOKED!!! Stagg and I are hoping Inglorious Basterds might have some Sgt. Rock flavour...

The Slut's Bedroom

Okay, I wrote and filmed this in the late 90's on an Arriflex 16mm camera. It took me a week to edit it, old school, on a Steambeck suite. Like 14 hours a day. I used to edit films with my bare hands...now it's done through non-linear methods where you can jump all over the place. In the old days you taped a film together after lining up the sound (recorded on an analog type machine called a Nagra) I've been really lucky to experience several ways of thinking about editing in my lifetime and each format has it's own unique fascination for me. I put this together in a slightly new version so I could load it on YouTube. Projecting the original film is really a lot prettier. I've transferred this film onto video in the past and more recently onto dvd format. But in the original reds are very red, the blues and pinks and yellows rich...but here...time has been a little cruel. But I like how it looks like half of it was filmed fifty years ago. It's very retro looking now. I also like how removed it is from the original as if it's a story within a story within well whatever. I hope my visitors have a couple extra minutes to watch this...and don't worry if you don't "like" it...I know it's a little weird. It's a little bit about storytelling, about the editing process, about being a girl, about memory, about tv versus film. I wanted to make a film with a woman doing all the things that are stereotypically feared/hated by men in some societies.

Can you believe...I also submitted this to the Toronto Film Festival. It totally got rejected...but the rejection letter was worth it "Dear Candy Minx, thank you for submitting The Slut's Bedroom for consideration but..." I don't know where I got the balls to do such...but I did. Getting rejected from a major film festival does wonders for building up one's confidence by building up ones thick skin.

Never be afraid to take risks! It's fun to use your imagination!

The Black Angels

RELATED LINKS:

1.) SPIN Magazine
2.) And this is a very good video (same song as above) by The Black Angels but I couldn't get the code..
3.) A recent interview with guitarist Christian Bland.

YYY SNL

6 Months!

Times

Heads Up!

I love Kristen Wiig. She makes me laugh like crazy. I've been loving Saturday Night Live this season, probably a lot because of Wiig. And tonight...heads up...Yeah Yeah Yeahs are on SNL!!!!

Stagg Says "Don't Listen To The Haters"

...and watch the unedited version...

...and I say "I love ya Billy Bob, don't let them smash your dreams!"



I first saw this presentation of the interview with Billy Bob...and I thought...what a car wreck....


Then I saw the whole interview, and you know what? I think the journalist made some mistakes...


Comparing the presentation of these two videos is very interesting. Notice how CNN has edited out the rest of the band? I think the CBC journalist, Ghomeshi, was insensitive to a guests request...aand arrangements...to keep some ttopics off the discussion. Stagg says the journalist was deliberatly inciting and provoking Thornton. I agree. Thornton might be very pissed off looking...but Ghomeshi is being provocative...he has a lot of attitude himself if you look at his face. He knows he is being a shit-disturber rather than an interested interviewer.

Billy Bob Thornton has his reasons for being suspicious of media and the "star maker machinery",. Probably more than a lot of performers he has been fucked up the ass by media and Hollywood and production companies. He might be more "paranoid" seeming than some other artists and actors...but he has good reason. Often the media is part of "the man". Ghomeshi came off as part of "the establishment" in my opinion. Thornton purposely requests...that some topics are off-limits, and the reporter acknowledges that he knew of the request!

Thornton is a lot like Sean Penn, Bob Dylan, Debra Winger, Joaquin Phoenix, Salvador Dali ...in that he has been labeled and judged on his personal potential eccentricities as well as his imaginative work.

Can you imagine if part of your job was answering gossipy questions? Can you imagine if part of your job was always being marginalized and placed within limits? The very nature of artistic freedom is to reject marginalization and limiting labels...to be put in a box...to be limited...Can you imagine if in order to get a paycheque you had to have "press junkets"?

Some music and cute Boxmasters videos...

Billy Bob Thornton & The Boxmasters' sound combines the influence of the Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Kinks, and the Animals, fused with Johnny Cash, Merle Haggard, Buck Owens, Roy Acuff and Hank Williams. Fashioned after a 1960's-era mod band (including matching suits and ties!), The Boxmasters' upbeat rhythms and infectious arrangements contrast sardonically with the very dark themes they explore lyrically. The tension that the disparity between the subject matter and the music creates lends itself to a truly unique musical experience that could only be produced by The Boxmasters.


He was booed by the crowd at Massey Hall when he referred to the incident onstage and met with catcalls of “Here comes the gravy.”

Ghomeshi’s interview with Thornton has already become a sensation and received media coverage around the world.

Billy Bob might have been mighty grouchy in the cbc interview...but Ghomeshi had heard from his producers that Thornton didn't want his acting job to be part of the interview process. I think Billy Bob wanted to deflect attention from himslef and have his bandmates be the interview...and for some reason cbc missed the nuance in that act. I think the fans at Massey Hall who allegedly booed the band later after the cbc interview need to lighten up and remember...us Canadians are like mashed potatoes without gravy...only usually we can laugh about ourselves.

Shame on the Massy Hall audience.

And shame on Ghomeshi.

If someone says they don't want to talk about something...fucking listen to them...it means...they don't wanna talk about it.

Billy Bob Thornton is gettng a bad rap for this interview...but I think Ghomeshi made a lot of mistakes and was unprofessional. And I think the folks at Massey Hall the other night were fucking assholes.

I've been to a lot of concerts at Massey hall...and acoss Canada and it's true...Billy Bob Thornton is right us Canucks are like mashed potatoes...Canadians can be real stick-in-the-muds. Especially at a boring joint for live music like Massey Hall. Once at a James Brown concert outside...I was dancing and all these people behind me started yelling "Sit down!" Sit down? At a James Brown concert?

All those mashed potato Canadians...and you know who you are...sitting lamely during a concert?...Go fuck yourselves...

Billy Bob Thornton is one of the good guys.

Friday Night Music

Bobby Womack was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame last week. I absolutely love this song "Across 110th Street" from a movie by the same name starring Anthony Quinn and Yaphet Kotto. Quintan Tarrantino used this song on his movie Jackie Brown and Ridley Scott used it on American Gangster. Congratulations Bobby Womack!

The first woman who played rock and roll...Wanda Jackson also inducted this past week. Congrats Ms. Jackson! Roseanne Cash inducted her...nice!

Flea inducted Metallica into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame...and his speech is just so awesome. One of the best speeches ever in this awards ceremony.

Two turntables and a microphone! This induction speech by Eminem is also awesome for Run DMC.

Rare Visit

The other day at the Chicago Cultural Centre...we saw an amazing show of photographs. They were taken, over a period of a few years of the inside of African American churches in Chicago. The artists statement began by saying that we have become used to churches on tv as super huge and organized and rich. We might forget that many churches are in reclaimed spaces and serve intimate neighbourhood groups. These are some of the best sets of photographs I've seen ina long time. I want to go back and buy a few of the catalogues as soon as possible The photographers name is Dave Jordano and he is brilliant! If you are in the Chiago area...these are spaces yo might never ever see and these photographs are magic. You must see this art show and the Cultural Centre is open free to the public.

Related Links:

1.) Interview with Dave Jordano
2.) Museum of Contemporary Photography.
3.) Review of Jordano's recent photos.
4.) MORE.
5.) Photos...In Washington, D.C.

A Great Walk

As I said this morning, in previous post, Stagg and I decided to walk downtown. Google maps said 2 hours and 9 minutes. We did it in 2 hours and 15 minutes...but we stopped twice. Stagg is now taking a well deserved wolf nap.





We saw two new pieces of public art downtown today and this was one of them. The original painting titled American Gothic is part of the Art Institutes collection. I don't know about this I must say. I guess it is good for tourists and might get a few folks into the art galleries.

The view from our lawyers office right over Millenium Park and an awesome view of the lake. We have a weird coincidence...the lawyer I found, who I liked his attitude and voice...used to be one of Stagg's mums students!

We finished up with the lawyer just before noon so we took our lunches that we packed into the Cultural Centre. Just in time for a jazz band in downstairs main lobby and a piano playing upstairs.