I wouldn't say I'm a rabid fan of "Donnie Darko", the 2001 indie sensation starring a then-unknown Jake Gyllenal in a story about....well, I still don't know what it was about. But I kinda enjoyed it's weird, moody style even though it was pretty damn confusing. Something about a schizo high school student who dreams of a big scary bunny that causes a plane crash leading to the end of the world. I do remember there was all this cool 80's music...like real college radio stuff by Joy Division and Echo & The Bunnymen. That I appreciated.
"Donnie Darko" was written and directed by Richard Kelly and, given the subject matter and the artsy feel of the film, I imagined it the feverish work of some real Tarantino-like film geek. Apparently not. Here's a picture of Mr. Kelly (on the left...why are director's always pointing?) from a profile in yesterday's New York TIMES and, suprisingly, the director of this super dark movie is kinda cute. In fact, he might even be borderline hot. Regardless, I am adding him to my Kinda Cute pantheon anyway because he is certainly not how I expected the director of that film to look. To use a pop culture analogy, it's sorta like the reverse of the Susan Boyle effect.
Anyway, "Donnie Darko" developed a cult following and Kelly made another movie called "Southland" which I believe was also about the end of the world, though I didn't see it. Now, he's traded up and done a big studio movie which sounds semi-intriguing. It's called "The Box" with Cameron Diaz playing some suburban mom in the 70's gets a million bucks if she hits a big red buttton that will randonly kill someone in the world. Weird, right? But at least it sounds like it has a plot so I think I'll check it out.
While trawling The Awl for my weekly taste of weird, I came across this German TV commercial for donating money to charity. It is not your average Unicefad..that is for sure. But then again, Germany is not your average country. Though the commercial uses a classic narrative cliche that has been the basis for more than a few features and shorts, it does so with style and wit....all under one minute.
I put the original Star Trek movie on my Netflix after seeing "Close Encounters" earlier this summer at Bryant Park and loving it. I have to say "Star Trek: The Motion Picture" doesn't hold up as well, even in the reedited version available on DVD. It plays like a very long episode of TOS which would have been fine if it was 50 minutes long. Unfortunately, it's 136 minutes long which earned it the fanboy tag "Star Trek: The Slow Motion Picture."
Like this year's "Star Trek" reboot, Bones steals the show and his scenes with Kirk and the old gang always crackle. Another standout is the lovely and mysterious beauty of Persis Khambatta, the bald Deltan who has an odd dual role in the film, playing Lt. Ilia and a robotic version of herself in a dangerously short mini-dress.
Joining the crew of the Enterprise was Persis' big break, having been Miss India in the 1960's and a well-known fashion/makeup model, most famously for Revlon. Unfortunately, her career didn't exactly hit warp drive after her role in "Star Trek". Her most notable role was in 1981's "Nighthawks" and a final part in the pilot episode of "Lois & Clark", playing the Indian ambassador....what imaginative casting!
In 1998, she suffered a heart attack and died suddenly. Her age is listed as 47 on Imdb and 49 on Wikipedia. Either way it seems too early....she was such a striking and enigmatic figure. It's a shame she didn't take off and have a more vibrant career. Her Hollywood debut, however, remains memorable. Even if the movie isn't all I remembered it to be.
Earlier this year, Maine's legislature passed a bill which gave gays and lesbians same rights as heterosexual couples to be married under the laws of that state. This was not a so-called activist court in action. It was a measure brought forth by the state's elected representatives and signed by the state's popular elected governor. Still, the so-called Christians started gathering signatures and spreading fear and now Maine's marriage equality is up for the entire state to vote on this November.
When Maine was considering the original bill, there were extensive public hearings held with a great deal of public comment. Recently, a statement in support of equality for all by an 86 year old WWII vet has been making the rounds on the blogs. It is moving and beautiful in its simplicity. Too bad this guy wasn't around for the Prop 8 battle last year...
If you'd like to donate to help defeat Maine's Proposition 1, go here. They need all the help they can get.
Herb & Dorothy Vogel are well-known in the New York art world. For more than 40 years, they have been ubiquitous on the art scene. Sometimes attending as many as 25 shows a week, they were avid collectors who amassed a modernist treasure trove of more than 3,500 works of art which cluttered their small NYC apartment.
Soon they will be well known to the entire country as they have donated their entire collection to the National Gallery of Art. Their donation, however, was so massive that it overwhelmed the National. The museum could only absorb 1,000 works. So the solution they all came up with for the balance of this material was to give 50 works to a museum in each of the 50 states. A non-profit was formed called 50 x 50 and the crates have been arriving, like an early Christmas present, at museums across the country this Fall.
I found out about these unique artistic philanthropists via a movie that aired this weekend on PBS called "Herb & Dorothy". It's a documentary about how they started collecting art in the mid-1960's on their modest salaries as a postal worked and librarian. They collected mostly modern work by artists like Sol LeWitt and Chuck Close. What's amazing about their story is how their passion for art, not money, inspired and sustained their collecting. The tag line of the movies is "You don't have to be a Rockefeller to collect art".
The Vogel's are true patrons of the arts whose generosity will now be shared with the nation by this unique arrangement. They are an inspiring couple with an amazing story. The movie captures their unique relationship beautifully and is well-worth seeing.
I had a bit of a cold over the weekend so I stayed home and caught up on my Internet TV viewing. I've been enjoying the new thriller series "FlashForward" on ABC, loved the season premiere of "Ugly Betty" which remains one of the funniest shows out there, and saw the latest episode of "Fringe", Fox's "Twilight Zone"/"X-Files"/"CSI" mash-up which is surprisingly compelling.
Also, I reconnected with an old favorite that's now available for free on Hulu: the original UK version of "Queer As Folk". Having re-watched the first two episodes, I can report that this show is just as brilliant and shocking as it was 10 years ago when it premiered on Channel 4. It's hard to compare it to the American remake as the UK QAF was a short run series, with only 10 episodes while the Showtime version ran a soapy 5 years. But, overall, it is truly an example of excellent television with great writing, casting, music and some unforgettable scenes/lines, some of which I still find myself quoting (i.e. "I'm doin' it! I'm really doin' it!"). Worth seeing again...or for the first time.
Butt Magazine is known for it's sexy photos and quirky Q/A's. Of course, the pix can be hot....like the spread of Jake from Scissor Sisters. But like Playboy of days gone by, you can honestly say you read it for the interviews. They are that good--both for the wide range of interviewees as well as the slightly oddball and intimate style of questioning.
Recently, the BUTT blog started a feature where the magazine's editors set two people up on blind dates. The first lucky couple met in Chicago last week and the results were posted in two separate Q/A's. It's a sweet and funny "he said-he said" account of the first date experience. And the guys' pix are cute too. :)
I've previously posted about the new Tron movie and it's awesome trailer. Last month, Disney finally revealed the official release date for "Tron Legacy": December 17, 2010. So yeah...there's still some waiting involved. But in the meantime, I found this very cool music video made up solely of footage from the original "Tron". It's very effectively cut to the electro beats of Patrick Cowley's disco dance hit "Megatron Man", a song which I've heard recently on the DJ Will playlist at Vandam. This is a remix so it's a little long but, since they've used all the good CGI-parts of "Tron", it's easier than renting the DVD. :)
As some of you know, my sweet tooth does not only apply to donuts. I enjoy cupcakes, cakes, brownies, cookies....basically any sort of baked good with chocolate somewhere in the mix.
I sometimes check in on the blog Cake Wrecks, which specializes in disasterously decorated professionally made cakes. Now there is a Cake Wrecks book out with some hilarious pictures of various cake mishaps. Spelling mistakes are very common, of course, as is writing "nothing" and "leave space blank" when the decorator was told to write nothing. Classic. However, even though they are made of sugar, some of these cakes would even give me pause to actually eat them: a current trend has pregnant bellies with feet poking out of them made for baby showers!
Today's TIMES features an article about all these crazy cakes and the woman behind the blog, Jen Yates, as well as a great slide show of various cakey-disasters she's discovered over the years. I loved these pics because not only does all that icing make me hungry, it also makes me laugh. That's certainly a sweet combo to get the day started right.
One thing that was most striking about the March for Equality was the diversity of the crowd. As a blogger on Huffinton Post noted, it wasn't just a bunch of gay white men marching. Not that there's anything wrong with that. :) But Sunday's march was truly a rainbow coalition of black and white, hispanic and asian, gay and straight, rural and urban, trannie and leather, single and married. There were even a surprising numbers of kids marching along with their parents, some who were holding wonderful signs about their parents like "Let my mom's marry". Sweet.
Standing in front of the White House, I shot a video of the marchers passing by. In this randomly selected, 35 seconds of the March, the diversity of the crowd is both striking and heartening. Today's Washington Post has a great editorial stating "FULL EQUALITY for gays and lesbians is the civil rights issue of our time." As the March visibly demonstrates, it's an issue with a growing coalition of supporters that make this movement unique and creates a broad, universal imperative for action. Now is the time! So let your representatives in Congress (as well as Ms. Pelosi and Mr. Reid) know how you feel about equal rights for all.
I wouldn't say I'm a rabid fan of "Donnie Darko", the 2001 indie sensation starring a then-unknown Jake Gyllenal in a story about....well, I still don't know what it was about. But I kinda enjoyed it's weird, moody style even though it was pretty damn confusing. Something about a schizo high school student who dreams of a big scary bunny that causes a plane crash leading to the end of the world. I do remember there was all this cool 80's music...like real college radio stuff by Joy Division and Echo & The Bunnymen. That I appreciated. 
