“Homeland is Racist”

I love these kinds of stories…

‘Homeland is racist’: artists sneak subversive graffiti on to TV show

The Wind Rises – My Review

J. Giambrone

Miyazaki’s Banality of Evil?

I’m going to be in the minority and say that The Wind Rises is a shame. It’s a shame that this will be Hayao Miyazaki’s final film. Perhaps there is more here than one can appreciate in one viewing. I’m not certain, but it feels like a disjointed experience.

The main character is a weapon designer, helping the empire of Japan enter the industrial murder age, just prior to World War Two. This is not a problem for him in the slightest. He just wants to design the best airplanes, despite what they are used for, such as bombing China or wherever. There is a complete disconnect, and World War Two itself is presented only in detached dream settings. It is simply a byproduct of the art of airplane design. The world may go up in flames elsewhere, but the planes are beautiful. It is this…

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Call to Artist Activists

Call to Creative Action

CALL TO ACTION: The USDAC calls on all artists and creative activists to use our gifts for peace and justice, sharing images, performances, experiences, writings, and other works of art that raise awareness, build connection, cultivate empathy, and inspire action.

The murder of Michael Brown (and Eric Garner, Renisha McBride, Jonathan Ferrell, Jordan Davis, Sean Bell, Trayvon Martin, Oscar Grant, and so many others) and the suppression of basic rights in Ferguson, MO (and so many other places) compel us to ask these questions:

• Who are we as a people? 
• What do we stand for? 
• How do we want to be remembered?

As a culture of punishment? Or a culture that values every human life, promoting true public safety grounded in justice and love?

As artists and creative activists, we understand that even as our present crises arise from economic and political conditions, these crises are rooted in culture.

• Official violence is a cultural issue. 
• The denial of human rights is a cultural issue. 
• Racism is a cultural issue.

We join together in affirming to all public officials and policymakers that a culture of punishment cannot stand. We join together in applying our gifts to the public gatherings, organizing campaigns, and policy proposals that will support positive change. We stand together with generations of creative activists in communities across the nation who have been envisioning and working toward a world of equity and safety for all.

Cont’d

 

After Party Image Dump

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Grand Dump of Imagery, Spring 2014

That super-fantastic spring cleaning all the children have been waiting for…

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cult Classic: Sound of Noise (2010)

True to my word, I put Sound of Noise at the top of the queue after watching Brian Trenchard-Smith’s Trailer From Hell. This is such an off the wall, off-beat import, from Sweden.  I suppose it takes a certain personality to appreciate wacky satire, and of course the film didn’t do much at the US box office. Foreign numbers were difficult to hunt down.

But if you want to know what to expect, see this short film version they produced prior to the feature…

Music for One Apartment and Six Drummers

The film plays with the idea of art-terrorists, musicians challenging society’s expectations and the status quo.  Deadly serious, like Red Brigades, these drummer-provocateurs go to absurd lengths in the name of art.  The film also has a magical element affecting the tone deaf cop who’s hot on their trail.

Lagging slightly near the end, the best stunts are right up front as the project gets ramped up.  Their first gig, in a hospital surgery theater, steals the show.  Definitely pump up the volume.

Sound of Noise has that European perspective that confuses and repulses Americans.  Good.  No danger of a bad Hollywood remake anytime soon.

4/5

Women Artists Discriminated Against (short)

 

Censored from the history books…

GUARDIAN VIDEO

 

Photo Dump of the Apocalypse

 

 

 

 

Requiem For a Romance (short)

more

Image Dump: Resurrection

 

 

 

 

 

UTR: High Art (1998)

 

The second I saw the poster I knew I was seeing this film.  I think of the 1990s as the golden age of indie cinema, underrated and perhaps in need of revisiting.  Many geeks overrate the 1970s, chock full of nostalgia.  But most 70’s films don’t hold up at all, unless you’re into bell bottoms and corporate funk.

High Art is one of the first serious lesbian dramas to get some distribution in theaters.  It’s a fascinating character centered story about some New York artists and publishers, and I just couldn’t look away.  Ally Sheedy returns as an aging, retired photographer who is now addicted to heroin and floundering away.  The younger Radha Mitchell discovers her living in her building, and tries to convince Sheedy to come and take photographs for the magazine she works for.

As Syd (Mitchell) is drawn into Lucy’s world (Sheedy), her own life is set in relief.  Living a boring lower level TV yuppie life with her boyfriend seems cold and un-engaging compared to the twisted life that Lucy has lived.

The two are thrust together to work on a series of photos for the next issue.  Of course Syd is eventually seduced, leading to the film’s climax, a series of provocative photographs of the two in bed, photos never meant to released.

 

Art of Punk: Dead Kennedys

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CiMLQqNFTyI&feature=player_embedded

Another from Dangerous Minds

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