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Category Archives: Art
Artist H.R. Giger Dead at 74
Spokespeople from the Giger Museum have just announced that the Swiss surrealist artist H.R. Giger passed away yesterday of injuries sustained from a fall. His work could be considered prophetic for its explorations of the relationship between organic life and technology, a vision he called “biomechanical”. He was best known for his influential design work for the “Alien” movies. Prior to that he collaborated with cult director Alejandro Jodorowsky on a proposed film adaptation of Dune that was unfortunately never made.
Giger is also known amongst certain free speech activists and punk rock fans for his involvement in the trial of Jello Biafra (the lead singer of the Dead Kennedys), who was prosecuted for distributing copies of the supposedly obscene Giger painting “Landscape XX” with the album “Frankenchrist”. Though Biafra won the case, the legal battle nearly bankrupted his label Alternative Tentacles. Giger’s work has also been featured in Omni magazine and inspired the interior design of bars located in Tokyo, New York and Switzerland. Interviews with Giger are featured in the documentary “Jodorowsky’s Dune” which is currently playing in theaters. Rest in peace H.R. Giger.
Saturday Matinee: Elite Squad
“Elite Squad” (2007) is a gritty and smart action/political thriller set in Rio de Janeiro circa 1997. It’s a typical police procedural drama on the surface, but director José Padilha instills it with a political complexity and cynicism likely gained by his first-hand experiences making his previous film, the excellent documentary “Bus 174” (2002). The plot centers on Captain Nascimento, leader of a special forces team who intends to quit his post but must first find a successor who can navigate not just the street level criminality of the poverty stricken city but the government’s rampant corruption, incompetence and stifling bureaucracy as well. As accomplished as the film is, the 2010 sequel, “Elite Squad 2: The Enemy Within” is even more emotionally and intellectually compelling and politically scathing.
Watch the full film here.
Two for Tuesday
Saturday Matinee: The Cube
“The Cube” (1969), not to be confused with “Cube” the 1997 cult film, was directed by Jim Henson and first aired as part of NBC’s weekly anthology show Experiment in Television. The film’s absurdist plot centers on a man who finds himself trapped in an empty room. However, others are free to enter and leave providing him with a series of puzzling existential encounters.
Bonus short film:
Two for Tuesday
Saturday Matinee: Skidoo
Skidoo: the LSD-fuelled Alcatraz movie with Groucho, Jackie Gleason, Carol Channing, Lurch, and everyone else
By Cory Doctorow
Source: BoingBoing
On our family holiday this summer, we had the great good fortune to be shown around Alcatraz Island by Ranger Craig Glassner — among other things, the Ranger responsible for the excellent documentary about the Occupation by Indians of All Tribes that is screened in the visitor center there. Craig let slip that his favorite Alcatraz movie is Skidoo, the 1968 Otto Preminger wacky stoner comedy with Groucho Marx, Jackie Gleason, Carol Channing, Burgess Meredith, Ted “Lurch” Cassidy, and just about every character actor you’ve ever enjoyed.
It’s an LSD-fuelled romp about a retired hit-man (Jackie Gleason) who voluntarily sends himself to Alcatraz to kill his best friend, who has betrayed the mob-boss of all bosses (played by Groucho Marx, who appears to either be stoned or simply method acting in many of his scenes). Meanwhile, the mobster’s daughter has fallen in with a wandering tribe of hippies who get taken in by her mother, Carol Channing, and end up involved in a jail-break that coincides with a mass dosing of Owsley’s finest LSD for everyone on the prison island.
It’s got trippy dance numbers, silly comedy, hippies, and, well, everything. It’s out on DVD after a long purgatory on the trashheap of history. I just watched it. It is something. It is something else.
After the Crash 