Diggin' to China

Required Viewing : Antichrist (dir. Lars Von Trier 2009)

2013-11-07T14:26:00.000-08:00

Perhaps one of the finest and most profoundly disturbing art-horror films ever conceived. It is a stunning, harrowing portrait of grief and obsession, of madness and mutilation. Antichrist infuriated audiences and shocked critics. Charlotte Gainsbourg rightfully walked away from the Cannes film festival withe the Best Actress Award (though isn't she always the best?). Directed by Lars Von Trier during a self admitted bought of terrible crippling depression the film is a black-hearted and surrealist fable of He (Willam DaFoe) and She (Charlotte Gainsbourg) reeling from the death of their infant son and their literal fall from Eden (their secluded cabin in the woods where all manner of ghastly things occur)

A profoundly serious and grotesque masterpiece, it also so boast rapturously beautiful cinematography, raw and powerful performances and brilliant direction.

Required Viewing : Black Moon ( 1975, dir. Louis Malle)

2013-10-19T03:16:00.003-07:00

Black Moon (1975) directed by Louis Malle

Scott Evans NAKED

2013-10-15T15:36:00.000-07:00

Openly gay actor Scott Evans seems to gain more press from his troubled personal life than from his solid acting chops (he's actually good-c'mon bro get it together). The brother of Captain America himself Chris Evans is no making waves for his rather solid something else. I mean no complaints from me I've always thought he was attractive and don't mind the nude shots at all.

See them after the jump.

Mattachine Social - Lovers

2013-08-10T19:30:00.000-07:00

SOOO The sordid back story of the video for LOVERS:

We originally shot a video in November 2012 for the single " Lovers" It was due out in January of 2013 and then...nothing... what ensued was a crazy battle to reclaim the footage from an "effects" person and then months of waiting while the former director hid the fact that he'd botched the footage and had no idea what he was doing with it. Eventually he quit in lieu of being fired (after 5 months asking for an additional 6 is not really kosher with a frustrated band) and several effects houses looked at the mess and basically said start from scratch. So we took the performance footage from the video, constituting 1/10 of the footage shot) and some nostalgic 90's dance party throwback realness and behold! Salvation in a salvage job!

We are very happy to have this for all of you.

http://mattachinesocial.com/
https://www.facebook.com/MattachineSo...
http://www.twitter/mattachineSBand

LYRICS
----------------------------------
Don't try any back talk
I know just where you've been
I can still smell his street off your freshly showered skin

Lover don't you lie to me
Lover don't you try
Love, forget the ways I ever made you mine

Gonna go out
Get my self a new lover
gonna go out
Get a real man
Get a real man (Get a real man)

Until its gone
Until I mend
I'm gonna make you
Break you down
There's no end

Honey I can take you Break you Rock you Make you mine

Illegal naked Sainted Sinners Clinically Divine

The written word Vidal and Austen form a lovers bond

Behind closed doors Hoover and Tolsen dressed and ruled the world

Until it's gone Until I mend I'm gonna make you Break you down There's no end
We're Oscar and Bosie and I feel my breaking back
Hay and Burnside Always ready for attack

All these arms around me
back and forth and side to side
Are these arms around me?
Take me for a ride All these arms around me
All these arms around me

Until it's gone
Until I mend
I'm gonna make you
Break you down
There's no end
Until it's gone
Until I mend I'm gonna make you
Break you down There's no end

All these arms around me
Take me for a ride
All these arms around me
All these arms around me

Sigur Rós -Brennisteinn

2013-06-15T13:18:00.001-07:00

"Brennisteinn " the first single from the surprisingly aggressive and muscular (and newly three-piece) Sigur Rós album "Kveikur".

David Lynch- The Big Dream (Preview)

2013-06-11T14:51:00.000-07:00

All around Renaissance-man David Lynch has a new record coming out entitled THE BIG DREAM , the follow up to his critically acclaimed Crazy Clown Time. A lot of people mistakenly thought perhaps that 2011's Crazy Clown Time was just a one-off album, ,a curio between film projects (his last film was the haunting and brilliant INLAND EMPIRE in 2006) Well no. Lynch is back with a stunning "modern blues" album (ie it sounds like the soundtrack to a David Lynch film) and it's a damn fine thing indeed..

The first single is a collaboration with Swedish singer Lykke Li. Check out it's evocative, hypnotic. and Lost Highway-like video after the jump.

Mattachine Social- Vacancy

2013-06-07T00:03:00.000-07:00

DISCLAIMER:
This is all shameless self-promotion:

Mattachine Social, my very own electrorock band, has a new ep coming out this month called Vacancy. Produced by the stellar Jesse Holt in Seattle, WA at the equally fantastic Remixlab studios (where we are currently finishing off our full length debut).

Vacancy is a set of more introspective, trip-hop influenced songs culled from our recordings working on the upcoming record (at one point the ep was nearly called SAD SONGS, which I rather liked) .
We thought we'd give everyone a sneak peek,

CLOSE:

Inspired by the life and death of Michael Llewellyn-Davies (all those boys sadden me really) this call and response plaintive ballad has gone from capping off our sets in a lo-fi dream pop way to being elevated here as possibly the saddest song Justin and I have written together (YET!) but still manages to find a sensual groove to crawl along the bedroom floor snaking its way to you.
Let us know what you think.

photo by Holly Andres

Next up Mattachine Social hits the stage at PrideNW (Portland Pride) along with Goddess and She, The Cliks, ANT and ANDY BELL of Earasure (!!!!) on SUNDAY June 16th !

Woodkid

2013-05-20T16:04:00.002-07:00

Currently on heavy rotation in my life is compositions by neofolk musician Woodkid,stage name for the Frenchman Yoann Lemoine. Sonically like the strange love child of Antony Hegarty and Patrick Wolf, Woodkid's songs are epic compositions of acoustic grace and full blown baroque orchestration with subtle electronic flourishes. His somber and epic black and white videos enhance the sensory overload his music provides.

Lemoine is a a sought after graphic designer, art director and music video director in addition to his impeccable song craft. He's helmed such mainstream success as "Teenage Dream" for Katy Perry, "Born to Die" for Lana Del Rey and "Back to December " for Taylor Swift.

None of those pop tunes can prepare you for Woodkid's own soundscapes however, and that is a very good thing. His keen eye for detail unspools across track after track on his debut ep Iron and in perfect form on the full lp THE GOLDEN AGE.

Check out a section of his singles after the jump.

TAN MOM

2013-05-20T15:39:00.002-07:00

Last we saw of out dear friend Tan Mom she was coco brown, leathery as a sofa and in deep trouble for taking her small child to atanning bed with her. Well She's back with a new single about her experiences... quite possibly the worste vanity project video I HAVE EVER SEEN/SORT OF HEARD WHILE SCREAMING WHY AT THE SCREEN!

BEHOLD after the jump

R.I.P. Jonathan Winters

2013-04-12T11:20:00.001-07:00

Comedian Jonathan Winters has died, he was 87. The actor starred in numerous film and television roles such as "Mork and Mindy" and "It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World" and "The Smurfs".

I'm going to remeber him as the voice of Grandpa Smurf and from my first introduction to him as a child- from an episode of Scooby-Doo...

Watch the insanity below.

Elysium (dir. Neil Blomkamp)

2013-04-09T21:09:00.000-07:00

Easily down one of the greatest contemporary science fiction films ever made was Neil Blomkamp's disturbing, visceral, and moving South African set masterpiece District 9. A film so out of left field yet so dead-on-the-money it even got a rare Oscar nomination for Best Picture, not something Science fiction and horror films often do. Blomkamp has returned with Matt Damon, Diego Luna, Sharito Copely (from District 9) and a perfectly cast Jodi Foster for the class warfare sci-fi film ELYSIUM

2159 Earth is a cesspool and the rich live in peaceful luxury in orbit on grand space stations/condos-the ultimate gated community. Until someone sets about restoring some balance to the equation...

Tom (dir. Vesa Kuosmanen and Henri Huttunen 2015)

2013-04-09T13:28:00.000-07:00

A feature film on Touko Laaksonen the man who became ubiquitous queer art icon Tom of Finland??? Yes please!
Here is the production teaser for the film set to lens next year for a 2015 release date.

Tuesday Time Out (Floria Sigismondi Day!)

2013-04-09T10:33:00.000-07:00

This Week's Tuesday Time out is focused less on the audio and more on the visual (though these are some choice tracks). The common thread are all these clips were directed by the übertalented director and visual artist Floria Sigismondi. Her iconic camera work and beautifully decayed art direction style made her work instantly memorable, the stuff of nightmares and wishes come true all at once.

Sigismondi is easily one of my visual art heroes. Shockrocker Marilyn Manson owes the bulk of his breakthrough success on her video work for him helping create the band's iconic look during this influential Antichrist Superstar era So today here's a smattering of her works.

Sigismondi still works steadily creating music videos for band s looking for a bit of edge to their marketing (um like Justin Timberlake?) and is a well respected fine art photographer. 2010 saw the release of her critically acclaimed feature film debut, the rock-n-roll biopic The Runaways starring Dakota Fanning , Michael Shannon and Kristen Stewart.

Courtney Love is SMOKING (in an Advert)

2013-04-03T09:42:00.001-07:00

Oh Courtney, perennial hot mess, actress, widow, rock star, spokeswoman...
The Hole -front woman pops up[ in this NJoy electronic cigarette advert, being very Courtney Love like.

Tuesday Time Out

2013-04-02T16:28:00.002-07:00

So the theme of this week's Tuesday Time Out is apparently songs with sexy video. I can't help it it's spring time, these things are on my mind I guess. Spring has SPRUNG.

Bjork - Pagan Poetry from samoa on Vimeo.

Placebo - Protege Moi (Uncensored Version) from Adrián Martínez Moliné on Vimeo.

Drake Bell nude (?!)

2013-04-01T09:32:00.002-07:00

Drake Bell, Not to be confused with former deGrassis star and rapper Drake (who we'd love to see strutting around in the buff) no this is quasi former kid star (he's now 26) Drake Bell of Nickalodeon's Drake and Josh and currently on the unthinkable horror that is ABC's SPLASH (you know diving with the "stars"). He's also the voice of Peter Parker on The Ultimate Spiderman.

Oh and he's also naked a lot on Twitter...

...which is kinda old news but I thought I'd hare anyway.

I get the first pic, nearly every guy has some version of this shot on their phone ready to sext to a "lucky" guy or gal at a moments notice... but given the crap angle of the second one I'm more inclined to think it was a candid snapped by a friend...which begs the question..who too that pic?

Light From Underground : James Bidgood and Pink Narcissus

2013-03-31T15:18:00.001-07:00

LIGHT FROM UNDERGROUND: a continuing series of under represented queer icons, personal heroes and trailblazers who helped make the world we have today a bit more beautiful and bearable.

Photographer, filmmaker, and window dresser James Bidgood has been more influential to art and erotica then can possibly be stated. Fewer know his name than should but without Bidgood and his art direction and style there would be no Pierre and Gilles (I'm a huge fan of theirs, but they blatantly ape from his play book) nor David LaChapelle. Fassbinder's film adaptation of Jean Genet's Queerelle owes quite the debt as well.

James Bidgood was a Parsons educated designer, costumer, and drag performer in the 1960's who dressed society matrons for the opera, did window designs for departments stores in New york City. He also had a penchant for shooting beautiful, nearly (and often completely) naked young men in lushly constructed sets of his own making in his down time. This body of work grew and grew creating quite the portfolio of influential images.

Bidgood only made a single film, the erotic fantasia Pink Narcissus - that singular work has inspired countless imitators.
I first became award of James Bidgood in the early 90's seeing some of his photo works and becoming completely smitten with the outrageously queer and theatrical quality of his work. It's a far cry from my own personal documentary style but his use of lighting and frank sexuality certainly have inspired me. Upon it's release the film was credited to Anonymous, with many more mainstream artists being given credit over the years for it's origin. Famously Andy Warhol long took credit for making Pink Narcissus. Frankly, as much as I am a devotee to Warhol, he lacked the concept romance to make something like this film.
Shot in his apartment from 1963-1970 and released in 1971 Pink Narcissus is an abstracted , largely dialogue free art film concerning the fantasies of a New York rent boy between johns. While this sounds like a low-rent porno nothing could be farther from the resulting film. Pink Narcissus is a sumptuously photographed color filled dream scape of a film. Visually arresting and filled with classical, jazz and pop films as a score. Sort of Kenneth Anger meets Last Year at Mariendbad, but without the satanism. Bidgood's aesthetic has helped define our modern concept of gayness as we know it. Erotic, masculine, camp and sensual- all at once.

Aperture writer Philip Gefter states in a profile piece on Bidgood

Necessity was the mother of invention for Bidgood, who created elaborate photographic tableaux in his small midtown Manhattan studio apartment. His first erotic series was an underwater epic called Water Colors, made in the early 1960s, in which he used a dancer from Club 82 named Jay Garvin as his subject. The underwater atmosphere is completely fabricated; the bottom of the ocean was created with silver lame spread across the floor of Bidgood's apartment; he made the arch of a cave out of waxed paper, and fashioned red lame into the shape of lobster. He coated Garvin with mineral oil and pasted glitter and sequins to his skin so the silver fabric under photographic lights would reflect on his body like water. For weeks at a time, Bigood would eat and sleep within the sets he constructed in his apartment.

Here was an artist who funded a film, and literally lived on its sets in his tiny New York City apartment for seven years. It's true independence, true originality. A sparkling under seen gem that is as fascinating and beautiful today as it was when it first unspooled all those years ago.

Watch it NOW

Lords of Salem (dir. Rob Zombie)

2013-03-31T13:09:00.004-07:00

Everyone knows I'm an unapologetic horror fan, and call me crazy but I actually love Rob Zombie. I don't even hate his re-envisioning of Halloween (the first of the two films is quite strong, though I'll concede his sequel while having some surreal and beautiful moments is uneven). House of 1000 Corpses is good campy fun and his quasi sequel The Devil's Rejects is just plain brilliant (if at times borderline torture porn in the first half) and well The Haunted World of El Superbeasto were I a straight stoner dude- I'd LOVE that one) ... But of all his films LORDS OF SALEM (in theaters April 19th) might be the film for me.

Lords of Salem promises to be a 70's-style psychological horror film (with witches, curses, revenge! ) featuring grand, sweeping cinematography and slow building suspense. It's a welcome break from his aesthetic of hillbilly horror (hellbilly?)

Zombie has brought together a spectacularly packed cast of so many genre vets that many have had their scenes cut or diminished (hmm blu-ray director's cut for Halloween?) Lords of Salem is presenting itself as a strange beast .

-from IMDB-
Heidi DJs at the local radio station, and together with the two Hermans (Whitey and Munster) forms part of the ‘Big H Radio Team’. A mysterious wooden box containing a vinyl record arrives for Heidi, "a gift from the Lords". She assumes it's a rock band on a mission to spread their word. As Heidi and Whitey play the Lords’ record, it starts to play backwards, and Heidi experiences a flashback to a past trauma. Later, Whitey plays the Lords’ record, dubbing them the Lords of Salem, and to his surprise, the record plays normally and is a massive hit with listeners. The arrival of another wooden box from the Lords presents the Big H team with free tickets, posters and records to host a gig in Salem. Soon Heidi and her cohorts find that the gig is far from the rock spectacle they’re expecting; the original Lords of Salem are returning, and they’re out for blood.

Wicker Man vs The Teletubies

2013-03-31T12:14:00.001-07:00

It's time for the rites of spring, welcome the new year !
To celebrate rebirth and fertility sometimes you got to make some sacrifices.
Robin Hardy's The Wicker Man is one of my favorite horror films and the Teletubbies kind of scare me so this is a brilliantly perfect mash up.

Happy Easter

2013-03-31T09:59:00.001-07:00

For those of you out there who celebrate this Christian(formerly pagan) holiday HAPPY EASTER!

Rankin and Bass are heroes of mine from their stop-motion wonders like Rudolph the red-nosed Reindeer to their feature film works like The Last Unicorn to iconic tv series Thundercats (from which they inadvertently helped start what would become the much beloved and critically acclaimed Studio Ghibli.) they created masterworks... except when they didn't.

Sure you know cult classics like Mad Monster Party but they have films like The Leperchaun's Christmas!? And the L Frank Baum supremely weird The Life and Adventurers of Santa Claus.

Our dear friend Matthew is coming over tonight in what has become a strange Easter/Rite of Spring for us: screening of the truly bizarre The Easter Bunny is Coming to Town..sure we could do the equally odd Here Comes Peter Cotton Tail, but this film from 1977 tries to spin the tale with folksy down home charm and using the exact same format as Santa Claus is Coming to Town...except with singing chikens in the vein of the Andrews Sisters.

So after a few minutes of digging around on the interwebs I realized the entire film is here for me to share with all of you out there ENJOY!

Two Dogs (dir. Sarah Sherman and Zachary Ray Sherman)

2013-03-29T09:34:00.002-07:00

Portland Oregon's Sherman Siblings are making their feature film debut. .. and could use some help funding their dream (as do all struggling artists-you should see my piecemeal financial plan on Spark-there's a reason that took 3 years to shoot).

People always want to read a new novel, graphic novel, listen to a new band, record, see a film or a play, got to an art opening... well where do you think these magical arts come from? This is a job, a very hard one despite some thoughts on the life of an artist. Artists are at the core of civilized culture and yet the least appreciated these days...so help a brother (and sister ) out if you can HERE.

Two Dogs tells the tale of Julie, a Los Angeles East-sider who can't quite get "it" right. When she meets handsome theater actor Martin and claims to be a playwright -- more than a stretch from her cleaning-lady day job -- she must quickly hatch a plan. Recruiting her free-spirited but unreliable brother to act opposite Martin proves the perfect recipe for an always accidental path of destruction and desperation that only worsens with Julie's penchant for beer, gossip and anything sweet.

Set in a community of "artists" who have "opinions" about "things", Two Dogs will have you wincing ... and laughing ... but mostly wincing as Julie's attempts to secure Martin's love continuously flop, bringing to surface the difficulties of 20's-dom in a city where everybody is a somebody and nobody is what they say.

Gentleman Reg- Waiting Around For Gold

2013-03-28T14:07:00.003-07:00

Leisure Life - The Album by Gentleman Reg As a long time fan of queer Canadian rocker Gentleman Reg a new album is always an exciting prospect. His jangly guitars and singular, breathy voice has lead to many a sing-a-longs in the shower (the Boyfriend Song, It's Not Safe are two particularly good ones for such occasions) and the new record promises to be no exception. "Waiting around for Gold" the lead single from Leisure Life is one of those tracks where you hear the lyrics and immediately wish you had written them. So direct and so honest but still poetic and musical.

Leisure Life Gentleman Reg's follow up to 2009's excellent Jet Black was released as three eps then compiled into a condensed version for a full album release- similar to the way Swedish indiepop star Robyn released her brilliant album Body Talk in 2010 .

Truthfully I'm a tad on the fence about the clip that accompanies the single. I'm not sure why it doesn't quite connect for me, but the song itself is gold.

Yeah Yeah Yeahs- Sacriliage

2013-03-28T06:18:00.000-07:00

The NYC -based band The Yeah Yeah Yeahs have always had a solid if sporadic out put, Three full albums and two fists full of eps and Singles (not to mention singer Karen O's brilliant work for the soundtrack to the film Where The Wild Thing Are) the band has always maintained a high quality of artistic integrity and control over their work and their image.

Fan reaction to the new album art has been shockingly negative. I personally kind of dig its CGI Garbage Pail kids vibe and reminds me of 90's grunge bands (Alice in Chains springs to mind for some reason) . The Art work was designed by South Korean born animator Beomsik Shimbe Shim (check out Shimbe's work here)
While Fans might not like the phantasmagorical vibe of the cover art, it does nothing to prepare them for the first clip from the new album...

Sacrilege , the lead single off their upcoming new album Mosquito (due out April 15 in the UK/16th in the US-happy birthday to me) has arrived with a stunning modern day witch hunt-themed clip directed by Megaforce and starring the lovely and talented Lily Cole (Rage, the Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, Doctor Who)

DuckTales Remastered!

2013-03-22T12:46:00.003-07:00

Few video games get me as nostalgic and excited as the Disney/Capcom brilliance that is DuckTales. Long acknowledged for its excellent music score, and challenging/ hella fun game play DuckTales was one of the original NES' best side scrolling platform jumpers. I distinctly remember beating the game and in my tiny sickly kid excitement having a full blown asthma attack that took me to the hospital...but whatever-I beat DuckTales!

Well now that blast of wholesome summer fun is back!

DuckTales Remastered is the same great game with a whole new HD makeover! Launching this summer on Xbox Live, PSN, and WiiU DuckTales will be back and slightly better than ever.

All the graphics are being redrawn in HD drawn by original DuckTales cartoon artists, with 3D backgrounds at WayForward, with the game's much lauded original music remixed and ready for hours of game play!

Kyle Orland for Arstechina reports:

The game is based heavily on the NES classic—about 70 percent of the content will be exactly the same, while 30 percent will be slightly re-tuned, a producer said. The similarities could actually be considered a feature rather than a problem, though, considering that the original game was a bona fide masterpiece created by some of Capcom's best talent. There will be a few new side features, too, such as a tutorial stage, cutscene introductions for characters, a museum, and a section that lets you do the "classic jump into the money bin," which is apparently very popular in play testing.

I'm ready to waste some time this summer!!! OOO OOO!

(hums along)
Life is like a hurricane here in Duckburg
Race cars, lasers, aeroplanes - it's a duck blur
You might solve a mystery or rewrite history

Duck Tales, Oo-oo
Tales of derring-do, bad and good luck tales, oo-oo

D-d-d-danger, watch behind you - there's a stranger out to find you
What to do? Just grab onto some Duck Tales, oo-oo!
Not pony tails or cotton tails but Duck Tales, oo-oo!

When it seems they're headed for the final curtain
Bold deduction never fails, that's for certain
The worst of messes become successes!

Duck Tales, Oo-oo
Tales of derring-do, bad and good luck tales, oo-oo
Not pony tails or cotton tails but Duck Tales, oo-oo!

source: http://www.lyricsondemand.com/

Star Trek Into Darkness

2013-03-22T02:59:00.001-07:00

Okay fine I'm a closet Trekkie at times.... but come on... Star Trek was JJ Abrams best work in years (along with the underrated Super 8) and with the rather comely cast back (core crew of the USS Enterprise: Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Zoe Saldana, Anton Yelchin, Simon Pegg, Karl Urban, and John Cho) and the addition of Alice Eve and Sherlock himself Benedict Cumberbatch (more-than-likely-as nemesis Khan)

Oh and it looks amazing Spring/Summer fun.