Thursday, June 25, 2009

Michael Jackson 1958 - 2009



Michael Jackson was a beacon of light for humanity and all its eccentricities. He was a symbol of forward thinking evolutionary progress- for the powers of transformation that we have as a species now. He realized one doesn’t have to be the color they were born or the gender they were born. In this day and age, with science where it's at, we can move past archaic concepts like these- you can be whatever you want, and Michael was living proof. He harnessed creative energy and changed the world with it. He was one of our all time greatest dancers, singers, and arrangers- on par with James Brown.

But anyone shattering the status quo and living such a highly visible alternative lifestyle will inevitably be taken down by the forces that be: the people that are afraid of change and things that they don’t understand. These people found opportunistic families that Michael was nice enough to help to “make their dreams come true” and used them to slander him and rob him of his money and dignity. Throughout the trial that acquitted him the media portrayed him as a freak because he identified with Peter Pan and was into plastic surgery. One media meme led to the next and now in the majority public opinion- he is guilty. It is sickening. All his accusers admitted they were forced into lying about what happened to them. Their parents admitted they were extorting him for money, a fact sadly left out of the news. I know people that worked closely for and with Michael for decades and they say the charges against him are ridiculous. The “jesus juice” story was cooked up by a writer for Vanity Fair trying to make a name for herself by riding on the back of the Gloved One, just like that irresponsible sad excuse for a news reporter- Martin Basheer, a condescending morally righteous scumbag. I know a woman who followed the trial religiously and was there everyday. She was so convinced of his innocence she made a marionette puppet of him and marched across the country with it. This is how much people love MJ!

But all that is beside the point. What matters is the joy that Michael brought to the millions of people throughout the world with his music. Just hit after hit, groove after groove, shaking booties of all shapes and colors. That is his legacy. Go back and watch him do his thing in his prime- he is one of the greatest entertainers of all time, not to mention arguably the most famous person ever. I mean, how much more powerful can one man get?? Michael Jackson was walking, talking, empowering evolution and he challenged people’s perceptions of what it means to be a human being. And, boy, could he move.



My mother tells me that when I was 7 I bought Thriller and had a little "Michael Jackson Radio" and did the moonwalk around the house.

Thursday, June 11, 2009

DVD Review: Traitor


Ok, Ok we get it! All Muslims want to kill as many innocent people as possible! Americans good! Muslims bad! This film is nothing more than more right-wing propaganda. It tries to play off this intention with a few ‘tolerant’ one-liners but the message is overwhelmingly prejudiced. The FBI cops are righteous and smart, all the Muslims are deadly killers. Cheadle is the American bred non- violent faithful Muslim caught in the middle.

The film plays like a bad episode of 24. Intense situations build up only to dissolve with lazy writing cop-outs like “oh, I have a stomach ache” in order to move the plot along. The dialogue, brought to us by Jeffery Nachmanoff, who wrote “The Day After Tomorrow”, is heavy-handed and unimaginably cheesy. Most lines are standard Hollywood crap lifted from other films. The weird thing is that the one and only Steve Martin wrote the initial story. Even more mind-boggling is why he would hand it off to a hack like Nachmanoff.

Every role would have benefited from better, lesser known talent instead of rich actor dudes that are in every other crappy movie. Not that it was an exceptionally good movie, but Body of Lies is a better take on similar material, even if Dicaprio is poorly cast as well. Cheadle just isn’t believable in the role. That last conversation between him and Guy Pierce is one of the most cringe-inducingly corny I’ve seen in recent memory. My roommate actually got mad at me for bringing this home.

In conclusion, if you are a conservative ideologue or republican moron looking for justifications for your judgmental world-view, this movie is for you. Everyone else, stay the fuck away.

Wednesday, June 10, 2009

Final Flesh


Final Flesh is a film by Vernon Chapman, one of the creators of PFFR, Xavier: Renegade Angel and Wonder Showzen. He screened the film last night in LA to a packed house at the Silent Movie Theater. The films set-up is this: There are porn companies online that do custom porn. You can send in whatever your fantasy is and they will act it out, record it, and send you the tape. Well, Vern wrote a series of absurd scripts for the porn actors to do- weird and bizarre shit, no sex. He made it so the actors thought he would be getting off on it- not turning their videos into art films. He presented the films exactly as he received them- the companies did all the titling and editing. The result is very twisted, often times gross, and always funny. The film is in four parts. The first begins with three black actors talking around a table moments before the Atom Bomb is about to drop. One of the ladies goes into the shower and pours a jar of ‘neglected children’s tears’ over herself in an erotic manner. Read into this what you will… She goes on to give birth to a piece of raw meat that she breastfeeds. And that’s just the beginning; the parts get progressively crazier from there. Check out the DVD that will be released by Drag City later this year.

I couldnt find any images online from the film so I just put the PFFR logo...