Nagi Noda, the Japanese artist/designer/director behind groundbreaking music videos and spots passed away on Sunday, September 7. She was 35.

Noda had experienced ongoing complications related to a bad car accident last year that resulted in chronic pain. The exact cause of death was not specified.


Beyond being a brilliant artist and wonderful talent, Nagi was one of the most incredibly unique spirits that I have known," says Sheila Stepanek, CEO/EP Partizan US, which represented Noda. "Our thoughts and prayers are with her family and friends." Stepanek says that Noda passed "in her Mark Ryden dress, Chanel boots, perfect make-up with Viktor & Rolf lace black eye lashes."


website | link

Only 35 years old. Such a talent. She also did those hair hats I've had on here before.

The teaser trailer for W. which based on the life and presidency of George W. Bush. It is directed by Oliver Stone and stars Josh Brolin as George W. Bush.

link | via | more

I'm excited about this one.

THE INVISIBLE FOREST
by Antero Alli

"An obsessed theatre director brings his troupe out to a forest to ritualize his version of French Surrealist Antonin Artaud's vision of a mythic theatre of gods, ghosts and spirits. They stay at a privately owned campground that includes its own cook, a deaf
mute woman whose secret spirituality engages the hallucinagenic mushrooms that grow wild in the woods. Unbeknownst to the group are her good intentions of spiking their final night's meal with these mushrooms so they may enter and engage the spirit realm, that she believes, they are truly looking for."

The film played in select film festivals around California in June. However you can buy the DVD and view the trailer and 4 minute excerpt from the film.

The "The Mind Is A Liar And A Whore" (2007) dvd and others are also available.

Journal | Website | Other Films by Antero Alli

THE WALRUS SPEAKS

from sasha frere-jones...
This one is self-explanatory. Here’s the description included on the video’s YouTube page:

In 1969, a 14-year-old Beatle fanatic named Jerry Levitan, armed with a reel-to-reel tape deck, snuck into John Lennon’s hotel room in Toronto and convinced John to do an interview about peace. 38 years later, Jerry has produced a film about it. Using the original interview recording as the soundtrack, director Josh Raskin has woven a visual narrative which tenderly romances Lennon’s every word in a cascading flood of multipronged animation. Raskin marries the terrifyingly genius pen work of James Braithwaite with masterful digital illustration by Alex Kurina, resulting in a spell-binding vessel for Lennon’s boundless wit, and timeless message.

Lennon talks about his problems entering the United States and his general feelings about the economics of war. Levitan reports that some of his friends—Canadians!—don’t like the Beatles because they smoke marijuana and are “hippies.” Lennon suspects that “squares” are involved.

The animation is gorgeous, though not “terrifyingly genius.” And I recommend going to the YouTube page and clicking on “Watch in high quality.” via

I MET THE WALRUS

GONZO - 7/4/08

From Oscar-wining director Alex Gibney and producer Graydon Carter comes a probing look into the uncanny life of national treasure and gonzo journalism inventor Dr. Hunter S. Thompson. A fast moving, wildly entertaining documentary with an iconic soundtrack, the film addresses the major touchstones in Thompson’s life-his intense and ill fated relationship with the Hell’s Angels, his near-successful bid for the office of sheriff in Aspen in 1970, the notorious story behind the landmark Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, his deep involvement in Senator George McGovern’s 1972 presidential campaign, and much more. Narrated by Johnny Depp.

see trailer | imdb

Werner Herzog and David Lynch are teaming for "My Son, My Son," a horror-tinged murder drama based on a true story.

Herzog and his longtime assistant director Herbert Golder co-wrote "Son," loosely based on the true story of a San Diego man who acts out a Sophocles play in his mind and kills his mother with a sword. The low-budget feature will flash back and forth from the murder scene to the disturbed man's story. A guerrilla-style digital video shoot on Coronado Island is tentatively set for March.

In a separate development, Lynch's Absurda production company has attached Asia Argento and Udo Kier to star with Nick Nolte in Alejandro Jodorowsky's metaphysical gangster movie "King Shot."

Marilyn Manson is touted to appear as a prophet in the "Sin City"-style film, which producer Eric Bassett said has enough sex and violence to guarantee an NC-17 rating.

Lynch is executive producing both projects, and Absurda is repping their sales rights in the Cannes market.

"Son" is produced by Eric Bassett, who also is producing "King" with his Absurda colleague Norm Hill and Clavis Films' Simon Shandor.

Herzog, repped by Gersh, is having a busy 2008. He was set to film "Son" in the summer but postponed it to direct Nicolas Cage in a remake of Abel Ferrara's "Bad Lieutenant" starting in July. In the fall, he will shoot the Victorian-era drama "The Piano Tuner" for Focus Features.

All kinds of good film news! [via], link

It Might Get Loud

Davis Guggenheim has completed filming on a documentary that will look at the story of the electric guitar from the point of view of three significant rock musicians: the Edge, Jimmy Page and Jack White.

Guggenheim, director-producer of "An Inconvenient Truth" and "Deadwood," directed and co-produced "It Might Get Loud," which Thomas Tull financed and produced. The Little Film Co. will represent the pic in Cannes.

Led Zeppelin's Page, U2's the Edge and White, leader of the White Stripes and the Raconteurs, were chosen for their impact across three different generations -- from Page's 1960s days as a session musician and a member of the Yardbirds into the Edge's unique sound developed in the '80s through White's current work. Each explains and demonstrates how he changed the sound of the electric guitar to suit his own style. Pic includes a jam session featuring the three guitarists.

Can't wait to see this. I know that Julie and Frank are looking forward to it.

link | variety | imdb

The Golden Suicides
by Vanity Fair

When Theresa Duncan, 40, took her own life on July 10, followed a week later by her boyfriend, Jeremy Blake, 35, their friends were stunned and the press was fascinated: what had destroyed this glamorous couple, stars of New York’s multi-media art world, still madly in love after 12 years?

Lovely Theresa Duncan liked to go for drives along the Pacific Coast Highway in her butter-colored Alfa Romeo Spider, listening to Steely Dan. She liked the band for the stories they told about hard-luck characters. Some of their lyrics were read at her funeral, on July 21, in Lapeer, Michigan, her hometown.

When she moved to Los Angeles, Duncan had a two-picture deal with Fox Searchlight and had written and directed a pilot for Oxygen Media. She had "my boyfriend Jeremy Blake"—she was always bringing him up—literally the poster boy of the 2001 "BitStreams" exhibition of digital art at the Whitney Museum. That same year, Blake had been tapped by director Paul Thomas Anderson to create a hallucinogenic dream sequence for Punch Drunk Love, and singer-songwriter Beck had asked him to do a series of covers and a video for his album Sea Change (both released in 2002).

And then, something began to go very wrong. Read More...

Photograph by Bret Haller

Worms
Uploaded by www-microbia-nl

This experimental underground music video shows debutant singer Lolly Jane Blue on her way down the earth layers; a journey leading to a swirling underwater climax.

www.silvanderwoerd.com - video director
www.lollyjaneblue.com - singer songwriter.

The Beginning: May 2004
»FBI Abducts Artist, Seizes Art
»Feds Unable to Distinguish Art from Bioterrorism
»Grieving Artist Denied Access to Deceased Wife's Body
[Read More]

The Latest: October 11, 2007

SICKNESS, "ABSURD" DOJ PROSECUTION FORCE SCIENTIST TO PLEAD IN PRECEDENT-SETTING CASE
Scientist's Wife and Daughter Comment on Case

Buffalo, NY - Today in Federal District Court, Dr. Robert Ferrell, Professor of Human Genetics at the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health, under tremendous pressure, pled guilty to lesser charges rather than facing a prolonged trial for federal charges of "mail fraud" and "wire fraud" in a surreal post-PATRIOT Act legal case that has attracted worldwide attention.

"From the beginning, this has been a persecution, not a prosecution. Although I have not seen the final agreement, the initial versions contained incorrect and irrelevant information," said Dr. Dianne Raeke Ferrell, Dr. Ferrell's wife and an Associate Professor of Special Education and Clinical Services at Indiana University of Pennsylvania. (To read Gentry Ferrell's full statement, please visit:
http://caedefensefund.org/press/ferrellplea.html)

PLEA COMES AMIDST OVERWHELMING PUBLIC SUPPORT FOR DEFENDANTS

The plea bargain agreement comes at a time of overwhelming public support for the two defendants. A film about the case, Strange Culture - directed by Lynn Hershman Leeson and featuring Tilda Swinton (Chronicles of Narnia, Michael Clayton), Thomas Jay Ryan (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind), and Peter Coyote (E.T., Erin Brockovich) - has drawn widespread critical praise and public interest, with screenings in dozens of U.S. cities after its selection to open both the 2007 Human Rights Watch International Film Festival and the Berlin International Film Festival documentary section. An October 1 screening of the film at the Museum of Modern
Art in New York City drew a crowd of 400 who stayed for an hour afterward for a discussion with Professor Kurtz, director Hershman Leeson, and actress Tilda Swinton. Special benefit screenings of the film in numerous cities have raised thousands of dollars to offset the two defendants' escalating legal costs.

BACKGROUND TO THE CASE

The legal nightmare of renowned scientist Dr. Robert Ferrell and artist and professor Dr. Steven Kurtz began in May 2004. Professor Kurtz and his late wife Hope were founding members of the internationally exhibited art and theater collective Critical Art Ensemble. Over the past decade cultural institutions worldwide have commissioned and hosted Critical Art Ensemble's participatory theater projects that help the general public understand biotechnology and the many issues surrounding it. In May 2004 the Kurtzes were preparing a project examining genetically modified agriculture for the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art, when Hope Kurtz died of heart failure. Detectives who responded to Professor Kurtz's 911 call deemed the couple's art suspicious, and called the FBI. Within hours the artist was illegally detained as a suspected "bioterrorist" as dozens of federal agents in Hazmat suits sifted through his work and impounded his computers, manuscripts, books, his cat, and even his wife's body.

For more information about the case, including extensive documentation, please visit CAE Defense Fund
News Story
Yahoo Group
Critical Art Ensemble

Strange Culture: DEC 11 it will air on Sundance Channel, then it will go to DVD sales.

"Redacted" stuns Venice

A new film about the real-life rape and killing of a 14-year-old Iraqi girl by U.S. soldiers who also murdered her family stunned the Venice festival, with shocking images that left some viewers in tears.

"Redacted", by U.S. director Brian De Palma, is one of at least eight American films on the war in Iraq due for release in the next few months and the first of two movies on the conflict screening in Venice's main competition.

Inspired by one of the most serious crimes committed by American soldiers in Iraq since the 2003 invasion, it is a harrowing indictment of the conflict and spares the audience no brutality to get its message across.

De Palma, 66, whose "Casualties of War" in 1989 told a similar tale of abuse by American soldiers in Vietnam, makes no secret of the goal he is hoping to achieve with the film's images, all based on real material he found on the Internet.

"The movie is an attempt to bring the reality of what is happening in Iraq to the American people," he told reporters after a press screening.

"The pictures are what will stop the war. One only hopes that these images will get the public incensed enough to motivate their Congressmen to vote against this war," he said.

Abeer Qasim Hamza al-Janabi was gang raped, killed and burnt by American soldiers in Mahmudiya, south of Baghdad, in March 2006. Her parents and younger daughter were also killed.

Five soldiers have since been charged with the attack. Four of them have been given sentences of between 5 and 110 years.

"IT'S ALL ON THE INTERNET" Continued...

WONDERWALL (1968)

An eccentric, lovable scientist falls in love with the girl next door - in an unusual way. Set in 1960's London, Wonderwall tells the story of a reclusive professor who becomes obsessed with a stunning model called Penny Lane. A psychedelic fantasy steeped in voyeurism, this film features a musical score by George Harrison with musical contributions from Eric Clapton and Ravi Shankar. Dutch designers The Fool, were set designers for the movie.

I like this film; but I like strange, psychedelic films so view it with caution it that's not your usual fare. It may remind you somewhat of Jodorowsky or Fellini. It's been showing on television lately and you can also get it at Netflix and at Yahoo!.

Warner Bros. is teaming with Depp's Infinitum-Nihil and Graham King's GK Films to develop a feature based on the '60s daytime supernatural sudser "Dark Shadows."

Depp, who is coming off "Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End" and who just wrapped the Tim Burton-directed "Sweeney Todd," is next expected to star in "Shantaram," a Mira Nair-directed adaptation of the Gregory David Roberts novel that Depp, King and Plan B are producing for Warner Bros. Depp, King and WB are also mobilizing to make a film about the life of Alexander Litvinenko, with Depp poised to play the former KGB agent, who was fatally poisoned.

link

Dark Shadows could be fun. And the Litvinenko story must be told; it may as well be Depp.

Mods and Rockers Festival: Skidoo

Writer Paul Krassner shares his recollections about the 1968 acid-comedy film Skidoo directed by Otto Preminger. The movie has its first 35mm screening in Los Angeles in over 25 years on Saturday July 14 at the Mods & Rockers Film Festival in Hollywood.

Timothy Leary had a certain sense of pride about the prominent people he and his associates had introduced to the psychedelic revolution. He once told me the names of some of the folks whose lives had been changed by taking LSD. Among them: director Otto Preminger, actor Cary Grant, conservative think-tanker Herman Kahn, Alcoholics Anonymous founder Bill Wilson, Time magazine publishers Henry and Clare Booth Luce.

"But," Leary told me, "I consider Otto Preminger one of our failures."

...(Preminger's) Skidoo was pro-acid propaganda thinly disguised as a comedy adventure. However, LSD was not the reason that the FBI was annoyed with the film. Rather, according to Gleason's FBI files, they objected to one scene in the script where a file cabinet is stolen from an FBI building. Gleason was later approved as a special FBI contact in the entertainment business.

One of the characters in Skidoo was a Mafia chieftain named God. Screenwriter Bill Cannon had suggested Groucho Marx for the part. Preminger said it wasn't a good idea, but since they were already shooting, and that particular character was needed on the set in three days, Groucho got the job. During one scene, Preminger was screaming instructions at him.

Groucho yelled back, "Are you drunk?"

When Skidoo was released in 1968, Tim Leary saw it, and he cheerfully admitted, "I was fooled by Otto Preminger. He's much hipper than me."

Krassner's just got tons of good stories, doesn't he?

link

Second Annual David Lynch Weekend * May 25-28 * Memorial Day Weekend featuring Filmmaker David Lynch, Quantum Physicists John Hagelin, and Singer/Songwriter Donovan at the Maharishi University of Management. There will also be live brainwave demonstrations on meditataion and transcending.

Through David’s work, thousands of students are learning the creativity-enhancing, stress-reducing Transcendental Meditation technique in the US and around the world. David is now launching a new program "Teaching One Million Students to Meditate."

link

Catching the Big Fish: Meditation Consciousness and Creativity - washingtonpost.com New David Lynch book and transcript from the online chat today on the Washington Post where he discusses films and transcendental meditation.

Welcome to the bizarre universe of Alejandro Jodorowsky, a monstrous talent whose alchemical insights and sublime freak-outs epitomize an era of rare cinematic enlightenment-- provocative and psychedelic on a grand scale.

Thanks to the end of a bitter 30-year feud, the deranged, gruesome films of Jodorowsky have finally been released. (The films we've previously seen have been poor quality bootlegs.)

Amazon has a May 1, shipping date for this DVD package with El Topo, Fando Y Lis, and The Holy Mountain. It also includes a DVD of Jodorowsky's never-before-released first film, La Cravate and the La Constellation Jodorowsky doc and more interviews, scripts and such.

David Lynch And His Favorite Cow Team Up To Drum Up Interest In 'Inland Empire'

from the website:

"David Lynch RIGHT NOW is sitting on the corner of Hollywood and La Brea with a cow on a leash and a picture of Laura Dern that says For Your Consideration. He also has a sign that says "without cows there would be no cheese in the Inland Empire". This is one of those things that a person needs to see. I wish I wasn't chained to a desk."

That is one crazy bastard. But he's a talented one.

link

'He created his own universe and became its star'

Director David Cronenberg explains the debt he owes to Andy Warhol's bizarre and chillingly prophetic work

Empire is the classic. It was outrageous - yet somehow it worked. An eight-hour shot of the Empire State Building, it was high concept, not in the Hollywood sense, but the art sense. It's got potency, resonance. Andy even said the Empire State Building was a star. It's so New York, which was the centre of the artistic universe at the time, the 1960s. That's why I decided to begin the Andy Warhol show I am curating with Empire.

Andy Warhol Supernova: Stars, Deaths and Disasters, 1962-64, curated by David Cronenberg, is at the Art Gallery of Ontario in Toronto, Canada, until October 22. Details: 001 416 979 6648 or Ago.net.

Guardian Unlimited Arts | Arts features | David Cronenberg: on Andy Warhol

Is there anyone who could film something similar to an eight-hour shot of the Empire State Building and present it as art today? Probably not.

We Need More Harmony!
WEHT Harmony Korine? He blazed a path in the subterranean world in the mid 90s as a film director and screen writer and everyone wanted to work with him. I'm just a little surprised he's not made more films. He's currently listed as Director of a film called Mister Lonely on IMDB and some of those photos, including one of the great Werner Herzog who's also in the film, can be found here.

UPDATE: From the For What It's Worth department -- Jodorowsky just sent Twitch Films 4 storyboards (3 black and white and 1 colored) for his new movie "King Shot". Nick Nolte and Marilyn Manson will star in this movie, being said to be a "metaphysical spaghetti gangster film".

[link]


El Topo Soundtrack

The god that hangs over all weird movies is Alejandro Jodorowsky, a director whose work is so consistently weird and offbeat you can guarantee it will never be claimed by the mainstream. The personality of Jodorowsky himself hangs over and is inseparable from his films, he seems to exude the physical electricity and magnetism of a cult leader, while his biography is impossible to differentiate from his self-aggrandizing. His films are designed not as entertainment but as mystical, transcendental experiences.

Nicely researched post about El Topo and the soundtrack from the movie at the Dinosaur Gardens website. Listed are 7 songs in mp3 format. link. You will also find the soundtrack to the Holy Mountain film.

There's something so mesmerizing about John Malkovich that makes me want to watch closely his every move and movie. His new film has him playing an Englishman who pretends he is Stanley Kubrick in what is billed as a "true-ish" story about a conman who duped dozens of people into thinking he was the reclusive director. Love him.

Link

Bukowski: Born Into This is just out on DVD. This is the definitive documentary about Charles Bukowski and features tons of footage of the late poet doing what he does best: reading, writing, drinking, fighting and talking about women. The extras alone can entertain you for hours; they include commentary by director John Dullaghan, home movie footage, extended interviews and footage of Bono and Tom Waits reading Bukowski's poetry. If you like what you see, check out the site for Factotum, a new movie starring Matt Dillon as Bukowski's alter-ego, Henry Chinaski.

One lump or two? Is it a teakettle or a dildo? Link [via]

Los Angeles Alternative is an online weekly newspaper of people, arts and ideas that rivals LAWeekly.

Surreal & Visionary Artist of the 21st Century - They are ALL here and then some. Link

All We Are Saying is a documentary about the music business directed by Rosanna Arquette. The film features her interviews with Stevie Nicks, Chrissie Hynde, Joni Mitchell, Radiohead's Thom Yorke, Patti Smith, Yoko Ono, Andre 3000, Elton John and a billion other musicians about how they balance their lives with their art. You can catch it on Showtime this month, where it's also available on demand.

OutThereRadio - topics related to the occult, government conspiracy and the paranormal.

Freezerbox - Online magazine with a wide range of topics, from arms control to political, economy to film.

Overheard: "Why do they keep remaking bad movies? You know the one that sucked but it had the beaver shot? Let's make another one where it looks like Sharon Stone's got ZZ Top in a scissor hold."

Filmmaker Antero Alli and Singer Sylvi Pickering (aka Sylvi Alli and married to Antero) have a nice site with articles and essays on visionary filmmakers, music, an oracle deck, art and more from their lives in Berkeley. I've had a satisfied trip thru their Vertical Pool. The Sitemap or Links may be a good place to begin.

WebTrail - Thunderbolt Pagoda, NCAA, Droopy C**k, Used Condoms, Magick, Tantric Popart

"...so High '60s that you emerge from its 20-minute vision perched full-lotus on a cloud of incense, chatting with a white rabbit and smoking a banana." The ultimate comic-book attraction, however, is Ira Cohen's 1968 Invasion of Thunderbolt Pagoda—part "Dr. Strange," part Inauguration of the Pleasure Dome. Directed by Ira Cohen Link

Did you burst your bracket yet? Watch the NCAA Tournament live at work.

Tantric Pop-Art by Julian Murphy

From the page: "Do you mean Droopy C**k?" "It was as if I'd been smacked with a right hook. I started repeating 'Drew Peacock' over and over again. Then I thought - what have we done?" Link

AOL had this link on their homepage today about "The Cheapest Person I Know". One person washes and re-uses paper plates. One person orders water at a restaurant, adds lemon and sugar that's already on the table to make lemonade -- all for the price of a glass of water. Someone glued a quarter to the floor to razz their co-worker who finally bought a $2.00 device to pry it up. But the worst frugal item so far has got to be the one that re-uses condoms. Washes them out and re-uses them. That ain't frugal. That's just plain stupid.

Today's Quote
"It's far too late for anything but magick, as the future is clearly up for grabs." - Antero Alli

WEBTRAIL - Born, Explore!, Crispin, Cohen, King, Lovelock & Blangha

'Leonard Cohen: I'm Your Man' is a low-key and impressive music documentary that screened at Sundance on Saturday. Australian director Lian Lunson builds her film around a recent Australian concert at which musicians from Rufus Wainwright to Jarvis Cocker, Beth Orton and Nick Cave covered a set-list of Cohen numbers. We see Cohen performing for the benefit of her film, and after a minute, the camera pulls back to reveal his backing-band. It's U2. Rufus doing 'Hallelujah' is a fucking masterpiece. So good it hurts [MORE...]

Chapter One of the new book, 'Cell' by Stephen King

Born Magazine - Exquisite Art & Lit Collaboration. Link

Flickr: Explore! - Flickr labs have been hard at work creating a way to show you some of the most awesome photos on Flickr.

News on the uber imaginative Crispin Hellion Glover and his long time project, "What Is It?" which prompted one reviewer to exclaim, "Like Fellini on psychedelics-- wildly creative but completely twisted." He's been working on this project f o r e v e r. Link from the excellent insider's film news CineMadMag.

The current 'Reality' of Gaia - Thirty years ago, the scientist James Lovelock worked out that the Earth possessed a planetary-scale control system which kept the environment fit for life. He called it Gaia, and the theory has become widely accepted. Now, he believes mankind's abuse of the environment is making that mechanism work against us. His astonishing conclusion - that climate change is already insoluble, and life on Earth will never be the same again. Link

What is Blangha? Blangha is a contraction of the words "blog" and "sangha." The Blangha is an aggregator of news feeds from a community of Zen-oriented Buddhist bloggers.

This website looks best when viewed on company time.

Hollywood Calls On Area's Weirdness

Director David Arquette is seeking 200 locals to be extras in a movie he’s going to film in Santa Cruz, California.

"The Tripper" is about a conservative man - a fan of Ronald Reagan - and his dislike for hippies. The man and his killer dog Nancy stalk a group of free-loving hippies while they’re attending an outdoor music and camping festival.

The movie crew is looking for people with tattoos, body piercings and beards – anything that represents the organic image of Santa Cruz. The movie is expected to be filmed here during the next few weeks.

Link

Indie distributor IFC Films said Monday it secured U.S. theatrical rights to experimental filmmaker Matthew Barney's "Drawing Restraint 9." It will debut March 29 at New York's IFC Center, with regional distribution to follow.

"Restraint" is the latest feature film from art-world darling Barney, who wrote, directed and starred in several movies as part of his "Cremaster Cycle" from 1995 to 2002. It is his first onscreen collaboration with wife Bjork, the famed musician who also scored the film, which marks her return to acting after an acclaimed turn in Lars von Trier's "Dancer in the Dark." [MORE...]

Link

"Nuclear War Against Iran"

By Michel Chossudovsky
globalresearch.ca
1-5-06

The launching of an outright war using nuclear warheads against Iran is now in the final planning stages.

Coalition partners, which include the US, Israel and Turkey are in "an advanced stage of readiness".

Various military exercises have been conducted, starting in early 2005. In turn, the Iranian Armed Forces have also conducted large scale military maneuvers in the Persian Gulf in December in anticipation of a US sponsored attack.

Since early 2005, there has been intense shuttle diplomacy between Washington, Tel Aviv, Ankara and NATO headquarters in Brussels.

In recent developments, CIA Director Porter Goss on a mission to Ankara, requested Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan "to provide political and logistic support for air strikes against Iranian nuclear and military targets." Goss reportedly asked " for special cooperation from Turkish intelligence to help prepare and monitor the operation." (DDP, 30 December 2005).

In turn, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has given the green light to the Israeli Armed Forces to launch the attacks by the end of March:

All top Israeli officials have pronounced the end of March, 2006, as the deadline for launching a military assault on Iran.... The end of March date also coincides with the IAEA report to the UN on Iran's nuclear energy program. Israeli policymakers believe that their threats may influence the report, or at least force the kind of ambiguities, which can be exploited by its overseas supporters to promote Security Council sanctions or justify Israeli military action. [More]

I used to think that Nixon was the worst president I'd ever voted against. This seed was planted ages ago and after the prerequiste amount of fear-mongering, the public will be aggitated enough to support this assault, too. If the latest news on an impending strike on Iran doesn't worry you, you may not have a pulse.

[Link - via Zim Zalabim]

Interview with Stephen Gaghan, Director and Writer of Syriana

"… and they’re all back! Just look at them! They’re all like a hundred and ten years old, they cut their teeth under the first Nixon administration ... they hang upside down like vampire bats when they’re out of power and they wait around. It’s the same guys: ‘Hey, don’t conserve energy! There’s no problem! Party on!’"

"... and I’d noticed some times when you could be in somebody’s house, and it could be a totally genteel type of drug dealer, or it could be a more gangster-y drug dealer, but whatever – there was often something similar about them, which is they have children, and the children are staring at violent television, cartoons or some shit, and they’re eating sugar-coated breakfast cereal and they look malnourished, there’s a handgun on the table – there’s always a handgun on the table, like on a coffee table or a table, and it’s so unsettling, and the TV’s going and you’re looking at the handgun and the children are over there and you want to say, 'I’ve got this great parenting book by Mary Hartsell and I just want to give it to you, because I think you could use some advice on parenting. …' But you don’t say that – because that would be breaking an unwritten code. And the unwritten code is the guy has something you need, and you really need it, and you’re not going to fucking bum him out."

It's a very compelling and raw interview and I'm anxious to see if this movie follows his vision.

[MORE »]
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Did you know.......?

...that Andy Warhol created his version of A Clockwork Orange...SIX YEARS BEFORE it was even released? He called his movie, Vinyl; both are taken from Anthony Burgess' novel.

Jodorowsky : “Peace Is Yours.”

"You are excrement. You can change yourself into gold", Alejandro Jodorowsky explains in his film The Holy Mountain. Because Jodorowsky the alchemist uses his work as an athanor. The initiation is made up of films (Fando & Lys, El Topo, Santa Sangre...), of strip cartoons (L’Incal, created with Moebius, La Caste des Métabarrons, created with Giménez...), of books and of the Tarot.

”...Peace can be true, we have evidence of it... The evidence - here it is - you see here we have a miracle. Look at the pleasure that this cat has in communicating with a human being. I’m not his master, I’m only a human being. It could take exactly the same pleasure with you. Do you want to see? Take the cat...You see... Stroke it... Here it is, it’s yours. Peace is yours.”

Alexandro Jodorowsky indeed dispenses the philosophy of the Tarot each Wednesday in a Parisian cafe, just to help those who suffer. The poet sows the seeds of consciousness. This interview took place a few minutes before one of these readings.

I like that he's seen petting a cat, writing poetry, and giving tarot readings. Sure helps to put a more normal face on this amazing director of very bizarre films.

More... - Via

Tilda Swinton To Play Nico

"Asylum" and "Young Adam" director David Mackenzie has selected Tilda Swinton to play Nico in his upcoming biopic of the same name, from a script by David and Janet Peoples (Blade Runner) according to Suicide Girls.


Nico (born Christa Paffgen) was a fashion model, actress, and composer. She is best known as the female lead vocalist (along with male lead Lou Reed) on the 1967 debut album by the American rock and roll band, The Velvet Underground.

The date and location of Nico's birth are disputed. Most sources state October 16, 1938, Cologne, Germany. However, at least two other sources have put her birth date at March 15, 1943, in Budapest, Hungary. She died in 1988.

Link

ADP - Bob Dylan has given the go-ahead for a big-screen movie about his life. Director Todd Haynes is searching for a black woman to play Dylan -- she will be one of seven different actors who will portray the musician during different eras of his career. Todd Haynes, the Oscar-nominated director, confirmed last week that he is searching for a woman who can do justice to the short white Jewish singer’s 'inner blackness', although the producers aren't convinced. Costing £30m, the film is due for release next year under the title, I’m Not There: Suppositions on a Film Concerning Dylan. [more...] (ADP-Another Dylan Post)

Get a reading from The Goddess Tarot Oracle to find what your goddess has in store for you. (via: etherealgirl)

{BlogNod}
Lauren's Feministe is a very smart and witty interactive blog. There's Open Blogging where anyone can post. Like Open Mic Night, but for blogging. And also the Random 10 on Fridays for listing random songs that are currently playing on your ipod or music device. Good content with an intelligent voice should keep you busy reading for a long time.

Asheville Full Moon Gatherings - Our next event will be Friday, March 25th to celebrate the Full Moon in Libra and the Sun in Aries.

Today's Quote
Dance, when you’re broken open.
Dance, if you’ve torn the bandage off.
Dance, in the middle of fighting.
Dance in your blood.
Dance, when you are perfectly free.
~Rumi

Psychedelic medicine: Mind bending, health giving
JOHN HALPERN clearly remembers what made him change his mind about psychedelic drugs. It was the early 1990s and the young medical student at a hospital in Brooklyn, New York, was getting frustrated that he could not do more to help the alcoholics and addicts in his care. He sounded off to an older psychiatrist, who mentioned that LSD and related drugs had once been considered promising treatments for addiction. "I was so fascinated that I did all this research," Halpern recalls. "I was reading all these papers from the 60s and going, whoa, wait a minute! How come nobody's talking about this?"

More than a decade later, Halpern is now an associate director of substance abuse research at Harvard University's McLean Hospital and is at the forefront of a revival of research into psychedelic medicine. He recently received approval from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to give late-stage cancer patients the psychedelic drug MDMA, also known as ecstasy. He is also laying the groundwork for testing LSD as a treatment for dreaded super-migraines known as cluster headaches.

Say, I wonder if my doc would be open to some psychedelic therapy? My own personal psychedelic therapy doesn't seem to help my cluster (fucking) headaches one damn bit.

(link via mousemusings via New Scientist)

Sunday Driving

A mixed-race, bisexual outsider who was socialized in the club culture of her small English town, Helen Walsh fled to Barcelona, Spain, at 16, where she worked fixing up prostitutes and johns before moving to Liverpool, cleaning up her act and sitting down to write a novel. Considered one of the raciest tales of British sex-and-drug culture since Irvine Welsh's "Trainspotting," "Brass" has earned Walsh a lot of hype and, because it's so well written, possible staying power as well. Worth looking into. more »

Crystal Ball Stolen - The crystal, used as a tool by mediums and for curing disease, belonged to maverick philosopher, mathematician and astrologer John Dee, a consultant to Elizabeth I. Fine, comprehensive post with graphics by DW on Dee @ Invisible College; more »

Santa got drunk yesterday. He cursed. He smoked. He took off his clothes in public. It was Santacon, an annual gathering of nasty Santas, in which some 500 naughty Clauses marched through the city, shouting, drinking, raising gentle mayhem. Santarchy; more »

Roald Dahl's Charlie & The Chocolate Factory directed by Tim Burton is looking mighty nice. Film Pics; seen @ Jenn's

Sunday Quote - In the depth of winter I finally learned that within me lay an invincible summer.
~Albert Camus

Sundance Film Festival - January 20 - 30, 2005
Just a few of the films I'd like to see next year.

Strangers With Candy / Director: Paul Dinello; Screenwriters: Stephen Colbert (From The Daily Show), Paul Dinello, and Amy Sedaris. Absolultely LOVED the television series which was cancelled after three years, and can't wait for the movie. more »

This Revolution - Director: Stephen Marshall is a topical story about Iraq and the relationships involving protesters, soldiers, photogs, and more. Synopsis and video can be found on GNN.

What Is It? / Director & Writer: Crispin Hellion Glover. What Is It? is a bewildering, unnerving, surreal, blackly comic film from the visionary mind of Crispin Glover that tells the inner and outer struggles of a young man facing villains and demons on multiple planes. Fairuza Balk does a voice in the film.

Reefer Madness (The Musical) / Director: Andy Fickman; Screenwriter: Dan Studney and Kevin Murphy. (A remake of the classic which has been a recent play and was released on DVD this year). We all know the story by now of how someone ends up at the house of evil, takes a hit from a funny cigarette and freaks out.
more »

America's Biggest Dick - Dramatic Shorts Category, Director: Bryan Boyce. Unable to find any info on this one, but if it's about somebody named Richard, I'm going to be ill.

Sundance Festival

Weekend Webtrail

New article on Chilean-born director Alejandro Jodorowsky, who is best known for his psychedelic, violent movies (El Topo, The Holy Mountain), but he has also been, at one time or another during his 75 years on Earth, the mime protégé of Marcel Marceau, a surrealist performance artist, an esoteric comic-book author, and a tarot card reader. He recently spoke about "Psychomagic," a healing practice developed by Jodorowsky that "uses the language of the subconscious to undo our deepest knots, phobias, fixations, and obsessions." more »

Keith Richards and Johnny Depp hire CREEM hacks to polish first draft of Pirates Of The Caribbean: Treasures Of The Lost Abyss? more »

How to use a hand puppet to get dates. Hey, guys, you may have been doing it all wrong. Link via jwalk

Watch Me Turn 30 - is a photo documented blog that's nicely executed.

James Lee Burke - One of my favorite authors with a new article in January Magazine. more »

Pool betting on Dylan's setlists. 60 Minutes interview Sunday night was good. link

Haiku For You
I've been abducted
And replaced by a geezer
Though she wears my clothes

Today's Quote
One must still have chaos in oneself to give birth to a dancing star. ~Nietzsche

Finally. My server was down over the weekend to move from MA to NY and is due to be up and running today by noon.