the institutionalized man

charles manson, the father of reality television.




who does he remind you of?

i really hope herzog isn't next

Michelangelo Antonioni, one of the most innovative and distinctive film-makers of the 20th century, has died at the age of 94. The Italian director died at his home in Rome on Monday evening, less than 24 hours after the death of Ingmar Bergman - that other great giant of European art-house cinema.

via the guardian.

i just got into antonioni, having purchased the passenger recently w/ out ever having seen it. it seemed like one of those rare films you could take a gamble on + be paid handsomely. needless to say, it was a risk worth taking.

(insert some pun on a van halen song title here)

bring back glam has three clips of all three incarnations of van halen performing "ain't talkin' 'bout love" live. the first clip is w/ gary cherone, the second w/ hagar, and the third w/ roth. cherone, whose era was notoriously ill-advised, is easily the worst. he's an interesting performer to watch, but his voice is weak. it sucks because the dude had immeasurable odds stacked against him. it's bad enough to have to fill roth's shoes, but roth's and hagar's? as much as i dig evh for what he's done w/ guitar, it's basically impossible to deny the fact that all the derision in van halen is most likely because of him. if you're in a band + you go through three lead singers, what is the constant in that equation? now even michael anthony is out of the band. the only people evh can get along w/ on any longterm basis seem to be blood relatives. i say these things because evh changed the way people approached rock guitar + it'd be rad if the dude could give us some more music before he keels over. as a guitar player, it's damned near impossible not to be influenced by him in some way. even if you hate him + his style, you're still affected by him. anyway, for me hagar will always be the best vocalist of the three, but as far as all that pure rock n' roll shit goes, roth is easily the quintessential van halen frontman. the band sounds the best in the roth-era clip (alex is going overkill w/ kick drum-- you're not in krisiun, dude), even though roth himself approaches the vocals as a sort of afterthought-- wowee, i'm sooooo getting head tonight by an 18-year-old-- oh, fuck: looks like i missed that chorus. zow, can i get some panties in my face or what!?

take me to the moor

i'm bored, feeling retarded, and unable to focus on schoolwork, of which i have a shitload to do. i'm listening to the smiths, so here is my top 10 list of smith songs:


10. panic
9. handsome devil
8. some girls are bigger than others
7. please please let me get what i want
6. this charming man
5. the headmaster ritual
4. how soon is now?
3. oscillate wildly
2. last night i dreamt that somebody loved me
1. suffer little children

i know i left out some "fan faves" but for me, these songs are the band's best. i also realize that "how soon is now?" is played out, but i can't help it-- it was the song that turned me onto the band. i was all of 11 or 12 when my older brother came under morrissey's spell, yet i found his whining deplorable. but try as hard as i might, "how soon is now?" became something of an obsession of mine. these days, though, i prefer the single release of the song-- not only is it succinct, but i think its edit is more effective than the studio version.

tom snyder

tom snyder died yesterday. here he is interviewing john lydon + keith levene.



part II:



lydon is his usual warm, comedic self whilst levene is high out of his skull + resembles something along the lines of a frightened pomeranian.

snyder, the poor bastard, had no idea what he was getting himself into messing about w/ lydon's nuttiness. he + lydon have some terrific back-and-forth at about the 3:34 mark in the first clip where snyder asks why pil is so against rock n' roll, which, of course, prompts lydon to rant majestically on the subject. this, inevitably, segues into the sex pistols:

snyder: who thought of the name the sex pistols?
lydon: some animal. i can't remember. it doesn't matter, it's history.
snyder: well, i think history matters--
lydon: history does not matter. i mean, your program is called tomorrow. there must be a reason behind that.
snyder: unless we remember our yesterdays, there can be no tomorrows.
lydon: (mocking)

christ, were these two married or what?

in any event, this is riveting stuff. you rarely, if ever, see this sort of thing on tv anymore.

i give up

are you a hipster? of course not. do you know anyone who identifies themselves as a hipster? anyone? no, right? yet supposedly hipsters are everywhere (well, "everywhere" if you live in or near a big city). so how can hipsters be everywhere if no one considers themselves one, probably doesn't consider any of their friends one, and, most important, actively despises them? face it, there's a good chance you're a goddamned hipster. to find out for sure, here's a checklist (since you + all your "non-hipster" friends are all about lists). if you're a hipster, you:

-have a strong opinion on cory kennedy
-have bought at least two things from urban outfitters
-have bought a thing or two from bustedtees, threadless or durkl
-have seen the brown bunny + have a strong opinion on it
-have a strong opinion on vice
-enjoy paper + nylon magazine
-either own or will own a mac
-have either lived in, will live in, or have a strong desire to live in (any or all of the following):

i. l.a.
ii. new york
iii. austin
iv. portland
v. tokyo

-know someone, or know someone who knows someone, who has modeled for american apparel
-are totally over american apparel + their "porn ads"
-are alarmed over all these new anti-smoking laws
-are known for your troubling drunk dialings
-own at least 5 pairs of sunglasses that take up around 70% of your face
-think the like is lame, but claim to love them because everyone else does
-hooked up w/ at least three people at that lcd soundsystem show
-would live in target if at all possible
-make fun of metro park but secretly wouldn't mind working there
-have been telling your friends that you're gonna beat the douche who jacked your visor, but we both know that you won't because you're afraid
-hate on paris but would bone her/hang out w/ her if you ever got the chance
-have lived on a steady diet of: pizza, beer, sushi, in-n-out (if you live in l.a.), pop rox, pixie stix, cupcakes, enchiladas, coke, and SSRIs for the past three years
-still wear your trucker hat around your room when no one's watching ("it's mesh, man-- it breathes!" it's okay, i understand)
-are so riddled w/ insecurity that you compensate by indulging in douchey behavior + mire every gesture + comment w/ so much irony that even you can't tell when you're being serious or not anymore

and lastly, but most importantly, you

-swear up + down that you're not a hipster

want to read the most obnoxious shit in the world?

here you go.

people like this are destroying art. they must be stopped.