I love this movie. Just as much the third time as the first. I chose this doc over others I haven’t seen just to spread the gospel that is Herb & Dorothy. A quaint & sentimental hit about a librarian & postal worker who met, went to art school, decided others made art better and thus became two of the most prolific art collectors of modern time.
Buying multiple pieces at a time from rising artists straight from the lofts themselves, the Vogels bypassed the expensive galleries and began emmassing a collection fit for the Rockefellers, canvassing their entire apartment in New York City, from the walls to the closets to under the bed.
This is a love story in two: between two people and a couple and their art. Life (and art) is about love. And this movie gives me hearts for eyes.
Where the skateboard scene became the art scene, where a group of friends converged in a New York storefront art space in the ‘90s, Beautiful Losers was beautifully filmed just as mainstream success came to many of the artists & many had gone their separate ways.With old footage from other documentaries and home movies, amazing interviews & so much art by the likes of Ed Templeton, Barry McGhee, Mike Mills, Margaret Killgaren, Shepard Fairey & my beloved Harmony Korine.
Like children never grown up, these were the lost boys (& girls), making art for themselves & for each other & they lived for it. From skateboarding and punk rock and graffiti to the cover of Giant Robot and write ups in the biggest art mags on the scene, this doc is cotton candy when you’re stoned.
Oh, Billy Pappas, such a simply sweet man with a dream, such a simpleton. We follow him from the conception of his life’s work, through the process of working on a simple drawing for nearly 10 years, to the aftermath & his simple dream of meeting David Hockney (british artist extraordinaire) & having his idol exalt him into yesterday’s fine art world of expensive portraits,
This documentary may not be the most inspirational for artists but I fullheartedly recommend it for the realness of Billy’s story, of the heartbreak and obsession that so many artists out there can empathize with. It’s about living out a dream, a lofty dream that you have to kill yourself over to achieve and even then success is the smoky façade of David Hockney’s scowl.
Henry Darger died in 1973 & only upon his death did anyone fall into the Realms of the Unreal, the fascinating secret world of an orphan boy turned reclusive janitor. Stacks and stacks of thousands of pages of writing, journals, an autobiography, a 15, 000 page novel, hundreds of paintings, many of them over 10 feet long and double sided. A self-taught artist who built his mixed media creations out of coloring books and children’s magazines, his Vivian Girls were his life and a fascinating case study into this mysterious artist who’s outsider leanings went on to inspire and shock la nouvelle génération d'enfants de l'extérieur.
Bringing his children to life, the war scenes, the butterfly girls with male genitalia, the paintings animated, this film is superb in immersing the viewer into the world of the Vivian Girls and into the mind frame of the strange madness and lovely artist Henry Darger himself.
D.I.Y. or Die: How to Survive as an Independent Artist (2002)
Director: Michael W. Dean
This documentary starts out with the filmmaker asking the woman on screen, “What’s DIY mean to you?” and the answer that follows is the typical response you’d hear from a documentary called D.I.Y. or Die: “Answer your own damned questions, live your own damned life” and all the anti-corporatist platitudes we as artists need to hear sometimes.
With interviews from J Mascis of Dinosaur Jr, Ian MacKaye of Fugazi, Jim Rose (without his Circus Sideshow), Lydia Lunch to up & comers on the scene, simple questions are responded to with complex, drug addled and poetic answers. Not that great for a Friday night looking for a fantastic plot, but definitely a film I would suggest keeping near the computer, the paintbrushes, the amp or camera, because we all need a little inspiration sometimes, ‘cause the world is all DIY or die, baby.
You would think that with the repeal of don't ask don't tell, the gradual acceptance of gay marriage from state to state, and the Obama administration finally supporting gay marriage it would be hard for a few slurs from alleged homophobe and Braves coach to get any traction in the media. But famed attorney Gloria Allred had to showed the country that a a base ball bat in the wrong hands could be a weapon of intolerance. Even though Roger McDowell's alleged behavior has been widely repudiated since Allred's press conference, and the coach will likely face a substantial fine and perhaps a suspension , the best thing to come out of the whole event was the 26 seconds of maple to palm penetration that is now circulating You tube.
The Kill the gays bill or Uganda Anti-Homosexuality Bill that has been floating in the ether for nearly two years in the Country of Uganda is currently being brought up for a vote yesterday but thanks to opposition support voting has been postponed, however the people who drafted the bill are doing everything in their power to have a vote on on Friday 13th to ensure that in Uganda killing "fags" is okay. According the proposed law, those who are found harboring homosexuals or keeping their orientation a secret from the Ugandan authorities could find themselves facing life imprisonment and any groups, companies, or media outlets that supports LGBT rights are also targeted by this bill.
In another sad twist, the American involvement in this possible Ugandan genocide has not been completely on the side of the opposition. Opportunistic evangelicals who make up the family and have the ear of many conservative members of the white house have been supporting the countries dictator. The Family has been supporting MP David Bahati for years and his kill the gays legislation covertly since it was introduced in 2009. The group has been able to stay out of the spot light in the states for years, considered by the uninitiated or politically ignorant to be nothing more than a prayer group.
However there is active opposition in the west in the form of petitions to stop the progress of the bill . But for the groups and individuals opposing the legislation on the ground in Uganda the price could take the form of severe beatings and extended incarceration. To Ugandan supporters of the bill, and in many cases their western counter parts, homosexuality is a scheme of active recruitment, a scheme which spent $15 million dollars in 2010 to recruit children into being gay, according to David Bahati himself as he spoke to Rachel Maddow. These people see themselves as crusaders against the gay agenda and many think that they were anointed to that purpose in the United States.
