As a fan of documentaries, I have a special fetish for particularly awful examples of the genre. Nick Broomfield’s Kurt & Courtney takes the cake, as the hilariously desperate filmmaker interviews the least credible sources ever seen on film. More recently, The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill concluded with the documentarian jumping out from behind […]
Chas Bowie
Posted inMovies & TV
Bareback Mountain
All the Pretty Cowboys
Shortly after the buzz began for Brokeback Mountain, Ang Lee’s tough and beautiful adaptation of E. Annie Proulx’s short story (adapted for the screen by western writer Larry McMurtry and Diana Ossana), a Wyoming playwright, Sandy Dixon, gave a vitriolic interview to the Casper Star Tribune. She claimed never to have met a gay cowboy, […]
Posted inArt
Velveteria Museum of Velvet Paintings
Good taste is the residue of someone else’s privilege.
Posted inArt
Thanks, Just Looking
2006 Oregon Biennial—Our Picks
Okay artists. The deadline to apply for the Oregon Biennial is less than a month away (for details, hit http://web.pam.org/asp/templates/page.asp?pageID=53). The show, which should be an amazing, museum-quality showcase of the best artwork made in our state, was pummeled by the press in 2003. Many questioned curator Bruce Guenther’s conservative selections from the 900-plus entries […]
Posted inArt
Will Rogan
We are currently living in the age of Awkward Sweetness, AKA the New Sincerity. The movement
Posted inArt
Anna Fidler
Anna Fidler’s new exhibition at Pulliam Deffenbaugh Gallery, Oblivious Peninsulas, indicates a substantial
Posted inMovies & TV
Klump’s Cracker Cousin
Just Friends: Like a Sitcom! That Never Ends!
During this new abortion of a movie, Just Friends, I was shocked at how many times a PG-13 film could use the word “pussy.” In less exciting news, here’s a brief synopsis: Chris (Ryan Reynolds) is a big pussy who, in high school, used to be fat. Now his job is to babysit a bitchy […]
Posted inNews
Kato Unplugged
A Heart-to-Heart with Kato Kaelin: a Man Who Shares the Same Birthday as Barbie (No, Really)
Would someone care to explain to me what Brian “Kato” Kaelin did to become a walking punch line? Was it the teased-out faux-mullet? The goofy name? 10 years after his reluctant introduction to America, people still treat Kato like an ironic D-lister on par with Pauly Shore and the “Where’s the Beef” Lady. Kato, of […]
Posted inArt
Thanks, Just Looking
Art:21: Art in the 21st Century
Contemporary art, by its very nature, resists the televised experience. Art, like poetry, is about slowing down, paying closer attention, and dissolving philosophies. Hardly television’s forte. Art:21, the most successful television series on contemporary artists to date, just finished up its third season on PBS last month. The show introduces viewers to many of the […]
Posted inMusic
M.I.A. Hawks Hondas
What, No Hybrid?
“Don’t sell out to be product pushers”—M.I.A., “Galang,” as heard on her 2005 album Arular “Blaze a Laze Galang a Lang a Lang Lang”—M.I.A., “Galang,” as heard in the new Honda Civic commercial This presents a bit of a problem for fans of Maya Arulpragasam, AKA M.I.A. (don’t call her Mia). Touted as one of […]
Posted inMusic
Adult. Regresses
We Blame Raven Symone
Conventional wisdom holds that once a sitcom adds a new member to the lineup, shit’s about to go downhill with quickness. We all remember how unfunny the Huxtables got once Raven Symone joined the fray. And we won’t even get into the Malcolm in the Middle/baby Jamie debacle…. Unfortunately, the same principle of overcrowding begetting […]
Posted inMovies & TV
Emo Cinema, Minus the Emo
Steve Martin’s Back. Thank Christ.
Not only is Shopgirl a great movie featuring a Bill-Murray-like career turn for Steve Martin, the film’s strengths are great enough to force me to reconsider other films that I’ve enjoyed. Shopgirl (from Martin’s own adaptation of his novella) is a sweet and tender love story that eschews irony and sarcasm as well as treacly […]