Tuesday, Jul 22
The Daily Freak Show
Even though he'd already shot The Daily Freak Show's episode 43, earlier that evening, in the wee-wee hours of the night James got the urge to dress up and go out again. Wearing a leopard-print top and matching turban, James went to the hot new club, Shits & Giggles, in downtown LA. There, he was greeted by glamorous hostesses Barbie Q and Zackary Drucker, and inside ran into the likes of WOW's own Steven Corfe and Blake Jacobs, art-porn auteur Bruce La Bruce, Ron Athey, Selene Luna, Squeaky Blonde, scores of fabulously dressed girls and cute cute boys, and Shits & Giggles DJs slash founders Victor Rodriguez and Chris Bowen. Turned out to be quite the romp.
Tuesday, Jul 22
Some Like It Hot, Some Like a Raging Inferno
For an upcoming documentary exploring history's most notorious "death machines," the World of Wonder production staff built a 20-foot-tall Wicker Man reproduction – and promptly set it on fire. Sacrificial Wicker Man burning rituals date back to the ancient Celts and a description written by none other than Julius Caesar himself. If a real Wicker Man sacrifice was anything like this modern-day attempt, it would have been completely creepy and cruel. Caesar wrote that the ancient Celts strapped condemned criminals and farm animals inside as part of an elaborate fertility rite.
– Text and photo by Nick Perlmuter
Fair's Fair
It looks as if Vanity Fair is feeling a bit jealous of all the attention garnered by The New Yorker magazine's spoof of Obama last week and have decided to throw their own log unto the lampoon bonfire with a spoof of John and Cindy McCain. The cover illustration depicts John McCain standing with the aid of a walker inside the Oval Office while giving a "terrorist fist jab" to his wife Cindy, who is clutching a mound of prescription pills with her other hand. And to complete the picture, a portrait of George W Bush hangs above the fireplace that holds a smoldering Constitution. I guess with Vanity Fair, all is fair in love, war, and political spoofs. As it should be.
– AguynamedWayne
Not Only But Also: As We Were Saying
Well, isn't this convenient. A clip from the original At the Movies, featuring Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert, reviewing the 1992 comedy Stop! or My Mom Will Shoot, starring Sylvester Stallone and, yes, Estelle Getty. (via Golden Fiddle)
Crazians: We're Still Here
Moye Ishimoto writes:
I’m still alive! At first I thought all the Crazians went crazian on me (what does that even mean?) and I’d never recover, but lo and behold, I’m still here. And guess what else is still here? The CRAZIANS! art show, which will be up at the WOW Storefront Gallery until August 8th. And no, I will not shut up about it until then. Three more weeks to go!
Featured above are two original pieces by John Lee, a freelance illustrator, printer, and writer based in Kansas City, Missouri. Wait, what? Kansas City? (I said that aloud in my head like those Old El Paso salsa-in-a-jar commercials, where the old cowboys would discover that their usual brand of salsa was made in New York City. New York CITY? Because you know, a mass-produced jarred salsa from General Mills is much more authentic than anyway else.)
Moving right along… John Lee’s two works are entitled the Battle of Anghiari and Battle of Cascina, both of which were inspired by the drawings of Michelangelo and Da Vinci depicting the two Florentine battles. John wrote that he interpreted the two illustrations with a more modern lens:
I kind of took a contemporary take on them; in the Anghiari print, instead of equine combat, I honed in on violence in the (ever-diminishing) natural world aka I've been watching way too much Blue Planet lately. And in the Cascina print, instead of showing a fight between bathing fighters, I showed some 4th-generation warfare (fighters, insurgents, etc. blending in with the populace) participants near an abandoned and war-torn public swimming pool.
Awesome, right? Right. Don’t you dare disagree with me. We have a limited amount of letterpress prints (numbered and signed) of these two pieces available. Each individual piece goes for $100, or $175 for the pair, or $250 for the framed pair hanging in our gallery.
– Moye Ishimoto
Ben & Ben: The Replacements
When the At the Movies guys on the left dropped the signature "thumbs up/thumbs down" rating system made famous by Siskel and Ebert, it was the beginning of the end for them, eventually leading to their being dropped from the show and now they'll be shopping their ingenious "see it/skip it" system elsewhere. Meanwhile, the guys on the right, both named Ben, have been fingered by ABC brass to replace the guys on the left. If anyone cares, Anne Thompson has the full story at Variety.
Bale Bond
It could be that, after all the drama, the assault Christian Bale was accused of perpetrating on his mother Jenny, a circus-dancer and clown (at left, with Bale), and his "computer professional" sister Sharon (right) was merely verbal, perhaps accompanied by a firm push. And who hasn't done that? The LA Times' Elizabeth Snead describes the Bale family as "complicated." And whose isn't? (Photos: Famous and BNPS via Daily Mail)
Madison Hildebrand's Open House
Top-listed real estate agent Madison Hildebrand, star of seasons 1 and 2 of World of Wonder's Million Dollar Listing, recently found a nice spread for himself – inside the pages of Playgirl. Out now. And so's the magazine. Ba-dum-bum.
Tim Hancock: HOD at WOW in UK
Congratulations to producer Tim Hancock on being promoted to head of development at World of Wonder's London headquarters. Hancock, who joined the company in 2005, told Broadcast Now that he intends to build upon the company's reputation for "partial insanity" as well as expand the production of "high art" programming. Hancock helped develop BBC3's Dart Tarts and Channel 4's The World's Biggest Penis before working on his first production role on thisisaknife, C4's first online-only show that had over 100 episodes. But we figure it was his hair that got him promoted.
Notes Fenton: "An example of this partial insanity is that Tim took his rather dry normal email work address, thancock@worldofwonder.co.uk, and inserted a space after the 4th letter to get...than cock. This has proved very successful in getting the attention of the executives at television networks."
The Courtship of Tricia and Philip
Philip Smith, the Broadway-mogul husband of YouTube star Tricia Walsh Smith, was finally granted a divorce from her yesterday on the grounds of cruel and inhuman treatment. Said the Manhattan judge who presided over the case: "She has attempted to turn the life of her husband into a soap opera by directing, writing, acting in, and producing a melodrama." And he wasn't being metaphorical. He said the prenuptial agreement, signed three weeks before the couple's 1999 wedding, which provides Walsh Smith with $750,000 if the marriage is dissolved, was valid. Now Walsh-Smith, sadly only $750,000 richer, must vacate their Park Avenue apartment within 30 days.
World of Wonder reached Walsh Smith today by phone and she had this to say: "Yesterday I did not get justice in the courtroom. I have to leave the home I lived in for nine years without even a stick of furniture. I am saddened at the glee that some are expressing at my misfortune. I loved my husband – never cheated on him and I am being thrown out like the trash. To say I am sad is an understatement."
