Any opinions? Does it take longer to load or something?

I want this one so bad, boys!

From the most excellent Funk and Jazz Sets on Flickr

Hollywood Reporter - Hollywood looking to capitalize on candidate's fame: "Love her or hate her -- there doesn't seem to be much middle ground with Palin -- the 44-year-old hockey mom has captured the public imagination in a way no politician has since, well, Barack Obama.

But as more and more polls cast doubt on the McCain-Palin ticket, producers and agents across the entertainment world are discussing possibilities for capitalizing on her fame, ranging from an Oprah-style syndicated talk show to a Sean Hannity-like perch in cable news or on radio.

"Any television person who sees the numbers when she appears on anything would say Sarah Palin would be great," said veteran morning-show producer Steve Friedman, citing the double-digit ratings gains her appearances on "Saturday Night Live" and "CBS Evening News" generated. "The passion she has on each side, love and hate, makes television people say, 'Wow, imagine the viewership.' "

Via Shoutwire

The Guardian's Campaign Diary will keep you up to date: "More and more questions emerge over the horrible story of the McCain campaign worker who says she was attacked in the street in Pittsburgh by a black man who carved the letter ’B’ on her face and told her: "You are going to be a Barack supporter." Police now plan to administer a lie-detector test over contradictions in her account. "If the incident turns out to be a hoax," writes a senior Fox News executive, "Senator McCain’s quest for the presidency is over, forever linked to race-baiting."

KDKA a little while ago: Police sources tell KDKA that a campaign worker has now confessed to making up a story that a mugger attacked her and cut the letter "B" in her face after seeing her McCain bumper sticker.

Via Warren Ellis

Alex Winter & Tom Stern - 90s style

The trailer is over here!

A thinking man's stupid comedy. A vain actor, his best friend, and an activist end up at a mutant freak farm run by a weirdo scientist.

This was supposed to be a Butthole Surfers film and the first cut still had that mutant who could ejaculate the word Satan in the snow. It's also got Keanu Reeves wearing a dog costume and Mr. T as the bearded lady. Great movie!

Old fans should have a look at the outtakes and other stuff over at Freekland, the website that Alex Winter, Tom Stern and Tim Burns built. You can also find scans of the comic book version , that great old article from "Film Threat" and other goodies over there.

Here's what the boys have to say: "20th. Century Fox originally had such high expectations for the movie known as Freaked that they devised a line of toys , a comic book , and a novel adaptation of the film to correspond with its release. Unfortunately, with the departure of Fox president Joe Roth, FREAKED got put on the back burner, and didn't receive the wide release and studio backing originally envisioned. FREAKED was eventually released on video and there it sat, garnering handfuls of positive reviews and converting new fans through word of mouth alone. Now, it has been digitally re-mastered (no, not by Jimmy Page) and given the deluxe treatment by Anchor Bay in a deluxe 2-DVD set, 12 years after its initial release for the world to finally enjoy. Also, check out our exclusive outtakes collection.

Freaked featured an amazing all-star soundtrack including the works of the Butthole Surfers, Henry Rollins, Paul Leary, Blind Idiot God, and even a full-fledged Parliament Funkadelic reunion on the title track. Plans for the soundtrack never took shape either so now, all we have is the film. If one lessen can be taken from the troubled history of this lost gem, it's that 12 milkmen IS theoretically possible... 13 is just silly! "

Good old Henry recorded this exclusive track for Freaked (also known as "Hideous Mutant Freekz", an underappreciated comedy from 1993 I've been mentioning a million times at least.

Why do I have to think about Lex Luthor when I'm reading about Bill Gates's new adventure...? Also makes me think of a company called EEE. Yes, the "Everything Except Shoes" people!

And what is it with the "Tank", Billy?

Kirklandviews.com: "Just months after his Microsoft farewell, Bill Gates is quietly creating a new company — complete with high-tech office space, a cryptic name and even its own trademark. Public documents describe the new Gates entity — bgC3 LLC — as a 'think tank.'"

Without Companies like EEE, Microsoft and bg3 LLC we wouldn't need all that charity, folks!

Der große Kapitalismuskritiker Schenk mit seinem besten Song zur "FINANCIAL CRISIS". Ladies und Gentlemen....

The Guardian: Adrian Searle on The Killing Machine an installation by Janet Cardiff and George Bures Miller: "The Killing Machine is based on the device in Kafka's 1919 short story In the Penal Colony. This has never struck me as one of Kafka's better works. At the heart of the tale is a fiendish mechanised harrow that carves or tattoos the sentence handed down to the prisoner into his flesh. Kafka seems to relish his detailing of all the embellishments and refinements too much. The artists, according to the catalogue, were also thinking about the death penalty in America.

The Killing Machine comes at the very end of their exhibition. It is the coup de grâce, the finale, the main attraction. But it's a flop. No one is even mildly appalled. We've seen and heard too much for this to touch us. Show us how waterboarding works. Show me those pictures from Abu Ghraib again, or those things the junta did down in Argentina. How about a public stoning? Compared with real life, this is entertainment."

It's weird to look at this while suicide bombers post their videos on YouTube and all that...

U B U W E B : "Playwright and novelist Yukio Mishima foreshadowed his own violent suicide with this ravishing short feature, his only foray into filmmaking, yet made with the expressiveness and confidence of a true cinema artist. All prints of Patriotism (Yûkoku), which depicts the seppuku of a army officer, were destroyed after Mishima's death in 1970, though the negative was saved, and the film resurfaced thirty-five years later. New viewers will be stunned at the depth and clarity of Mishima's vision, as well as his graphic depictions of sex and death."

Watch the video or download avi with click to the right: Yûkoku aka Patriotism aka Rite of Love & Death (1966)

Art, architecture and the financial crisis back in the old days. Originally aired on US television in 1997

Playlist with all episodes of "American Visions"

Interesting way of presenting financial news and commentary with funny 3D animals.

"Spekuklationen" zur Verschwörungstheorie der Woche und inzwischen auch schon Updates in der Sache.

"The site allows users to quickly build their own 3D video clips out of a variety of models and backdrops using an intuitive drag and drop interface."

Xtranormal is a lot of fun. No, really! All it needs is some sort of import-function to create your own textures.

Here is the first episode of "The Tommy Blank Show". I put it together in 2 minutes.

Menassat: "In the most recent fatwa circulating on the Internet, Sheikh Muhammad Saleh Al-Munjid, who is associated with the Sunni Islamist Al-Majd (The Glory) satellite TV channel, is seen warning viewers not to watch channels that "mix poison with honey, presenting a fragile version of true Islam, resorting to unvirtuous paths."

The fatwa, or religious edict, made by Sheikh Al-Munjid was just the latest example of a complicated religious media war that has been raging in the Muslim world. It was in fact clearly directed towards Al-Majd's rival satellite channel, Al-Risala (The Message).

Al-Akhbar was unable get a reaction or a confirmation from Sheikh Al-Munjid about this most recent fatwa because he was apparently busy defending himself from criticism about an undisputedly real fatwa he issued calling for the assassination of one of the West's most beloved symbols: Mickey Mouse.

WATCH SHEIKH AL-MUNJID DISCUSS MICKEY MOUSE

Vanity Fair has a great story: "In the seven decades since his mysterious death, bluesman Robert Johnson’s legend has grown—the tragically short life, the “crossroads” tale of supernatural talent, the genuine gift that inspired Dylan, Clapton, and other greats—but his image remains elusive: only two photos of Johnson have ever been seen by the public. In 2005, on eBay, guitar maven Zeke Schein thought he’d found a third. Schein’s quest to authenticate the picture only led to more questions, both about Johnson himself and about who controls his valuable legacy."

The photograph bought on eBay by Zeke Schein, who believes it depicts Robert Johnson, left, and fellow bluesman Johnny Shines. © 2007 Claud Johnson.

A toast to the artist! I worked as a consultant/editor on this for a whole year!

Rirkrit Tiravanija - CHEW THE FAT Sundays at 1 p.m. and 3 p.m. Mondays at 2 p.m. and 3:30 p.m. Friday, November 14, and Tuesday, December 2, at 8 p.m. In conjunction with the exhibition, Tiravanija’s documentary film provides a perspective on the art of the 1990s through interviews with artists, including those participating in the exhibition.

Part of the Theanyspacewhatever (October 24, 2008–January 7, 2009, Guggenheim, New York)

INFO: "During the 1990s a number of artists claimed the exhibition as their medium. Working independently or in various collaborative constellations, they eschewed the individual object in favor of the exhibition environment as a dynamic arena, ever expanding its physical and temporal parameters. Using the museum as a springboard for work that reaches beyond the visual arts, their work often commingles with other disciplines such as architecture, design, and theater, engaging directly with the vicissitudes of everyday life to offer subtle moments of transformation. This loose affiliation of artists, each of whom now boasts strong, independent careers, periodically and randomly joins forces to create a variety of projects. The Guggenheim Museum has extended an invitation to a core group of these artists—Angela Bulloch, Maurizio Cattelan, Liam Gillick, Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster, Douglas Gordon, Carsten Höller, Pierre Huyghe, Jorge Pardo, Philippe Parreno, and Rirkrit Tiravanija—to collectively formulate a scenario for an exhibition, one that will reflect and articulate the unique nature of their practices. Organized by the museum’s Chief Curator, Nancy Spector, in close collaboration with the artists, the exhibition will present a genealogy of their shared history through site-specific installations of new, often self-reflexive works created on the occasion of this project."

More: TTDocs.com

This has been all over the place, but some folks haven't seen this site yet nonetheless! Good work!

Girls, you're gonna like this one!

Download the MP3 here!

Via IO9: A Rocky Horror Remake I Can Get Behind

Stalking Tarantino:

• The set for the new Tarantino is somewhere between Sebnitz/ Hertigswalde and Ottendorf in Saxonry, 40 km outside of Dresden
• Tarantino and his folks are at the Hotel „Elbresidenz" in Bad Schandau.

The Great Schlep: "The Great Schlep aims to have Jewish grandchildren visit their grandparents in Florida, educate them about Obama, and therefore swing the crucial Florida vote in his favor. Don’t have grandparents in Florida? Not Jewish? No problem! You can still become a schlepper and make change happen in 2008, simply by talking to your relatives about Obama."

Supertouchart.com: "Street art aficionados and cynical phenomenologists (we don’t know any of those) have been long awaiting SIR BANKSY’s official New York debut but surely even the most imaginative punter couldn’t have guessed that the Bristol Bad Boy’s first show in the Apple would come in the form of a mock pet store with nothing inside for sale.

That’s exactly what the “street art” king’s adoring public got, however, when the doors to The Village Petstore and Charcoal Grill opened at 89 7th Avenue (between Bleeker and West 4th) last Thursday, October 9th, revealing what seemed from the outside to be a small West Village pet shop stocked not with purring kittens and wiggly puppies, but a more sinister menagerie. Inside, animatronic chicken nuggets, porno watching monkeys, coexisted alongside ageing tweety birds,

swimming fish sticks, and suggestively writing caged hot dogs, in what can only be described as an entirely unique visual critique of the state of animal husbandry in the modern world. In the words of Banksy himself, “New Yorkers don’t care about art, they care about pets. So I’m exhibiting them instead. I wanted to make art that questioned our relationship with animals and the ethics and sustainability of factory farming, but it ended up as chicken nuggets singing. I took all the money I made exploiting an animal in my last show and used it to fund a new show about the exploitation of animals. If its art and you can see it from the street, I guess it could still be considered street art.” The show is open for viewing from 10am—12am daily and remains on view until Halloween."

Visit The Village Petstore and Charcoal Grill on the web and watch the videos.

New York Times Review

Resist is a new film to be released in 2009 with Gael Garcia Bernal.

"Resist is bringing you a live webcast with Gael Garcia Bernal, supported by Amnesty International UK

How will decentralised communications networks shift the way we understand poverty and our power to resist its causes?

Join the debate online on October 16th New York: 10am / London: 3pm / Mumbai: 7.30pm

Global media conglomerates no longer monopolise the ability to transmit messages both locally and internationally. The use of the internet, mobile phones, satellite radio and the declining cost of media technologies have transformed the way individuals and communities voice their concerns. Many have argued that these decentralised communications networks have lead to an increasingly democratic and accessible media culture. Yet there has been little discussion around how these networks might impact our understanding of poverty as well as serve as a means to resist its causes.

This event will ask how we can harness the power of these networks in order to more effectively depict and understand the complex web of reasons behind the existence of poverty. And can these networks in the long run open up a space for people who live in poverty to participate in the culture of political life?"

The Panel

Gael Garcia Bernal is an actor whose credits include The Motorcycle Diaries, Amores Perros and Babel. He is currently making the Resist documentary to be released in 2010.

Colm Ó Cuanacháin is Senior Director of Campaigns with Amnesty International. He has held a number of other roles in Amnesty, including Secretary General of the organisation's Irish Section. He worked formerly as Head of Campaigns with ActionAid International.

Roland Harwood is Director of Open Innovation at NESTA. He heads up NESTA's Connect programme, which supports innovation through extreme collaboration. Flagship projects include working with Sir Tim Berners-Lee on the future of the web.

Wai Mun Yoon is a digital strategist and consultant who has over a decade of experience of using innovative technologies and emerging media platforms to communicate with global audiences.

Frank Kozik’s latest color of his Ho Chi Minh bust has released. Featuring the head of one of the world’s most revered communist leaders, the bust is cast in a slightly reflective purple hue complete with symbolic hat and AK-47. Ho Chi Minh is of a part similarly Communist-themed collection of busts including Mao Zedong and Josef Stalin. Available now at CardboardSpaceshipToys.com.