Hasselhoff Honestly Hates 'Hammered' Hypotheses

There is no way that David Hasselhoff gets hammered all the time. For instance, at Wimbleton when he was trying to persuade-talk-go nuts to get into the press area and was 'ejected', it was only because he was innocently asking directions to somewhere else in the complex.

Later, when he cut himself while shaving and then walked into a chandelier which omitted shards of glass all over his face and arms, it was again - just losing ones way through a hotel room.

Now at Heathrow Airport, while being taken away from a flight by a little airport buggy (giddy with glee and waving), he again was merely misunderstood. It was 'his choice' to take a later flight according to his publicist, Judy Katz; "Due to a new medication prescribed on Tuesday by his doctor in London for an infection to his injured hand, Mr Hasselhoff became ill at Heathrow airport and requested to be put on a later flight".

ERASERHEAD dir. David Lynch, 1977

Because of that cute little panda I couldn't help myself but show a few images from one of my favorite films - ERASERHEAD. For those who haven't been initiated (that means you Miss Litzi) into the world of David Lynch and his first film, I must warn you - it can give you nightmares that tap into a place you've never been before, or it can be one of the most uplifting experiences of your life. I laughed, squirmed and fell into the latter category and have been a fan of David Lynch for many a year. I must say that the title of my blog comes from a poignant line that Laura Palmer says to Agent Cooper in TWIN PEAKS.

Ohh!!

A new born giant panda cries out in an incubator in Wolong, China. The mother gained notoriety when she escaped captivity remaining at large for four and a half years. She gave birth to the female cub on July 22, which was only eight months after she was recaptured. The cub was conceived through artificial insemination at the China Wolong Giant Panda Protection and Research Center in Sichuan Province and weighs 160 grams. Even though David Lynch's ERASERHEAD comes to mind when I see these pictures, I still feel gooey at the wonder of it all.

Mum seems to be doing well but craves a few creature comforts.

Deadwood Lives On?

Ian McShane (Al Swearegen) communicates with Mr. Wu (Keone Young)

David Milch, the creator of DEADWOOD, has teamed up with designers at Western Lifestyle Clothing and accessories company Billy Martin to produce a new 'Misfit' boot. There are also plans to follow the boot line with clothing and accessories inspired by DEADWOOD such as Victorian-style silk and velvet bodices and waistcoats. This is all well and good but I wish they could have extended the show beyond the third season. Its one of those gems that rarely sees the light of day on the telly - thank goodness for HBO.

Town Meetings at The Gem (notable character second from left is Doc Cochran played by one of my all time favorites Brad Dourif)

Joanie Stubbs (Kim Dickens) and Maddie (Alice Krige) form a doomed alliance.

Alma Garret (Molly Parker) climbs a powerful ladder.

Kindred spirits - Lee with Francis Wolcott (Garret Dilahunt). Diahunt previously played Jack McCall in DEADWOOD's first season - the man who shot Wild Bill Hickcok.

Teeth

Nicky the Pygmy hippopotamus is having her teeth cleaned with a new giant (5ft) toothbrush at London Zoo. The Zoo's two hippos, named Nicky and Thug, have a pink and blue toothbrush respectively - lucky.

Man Ray

I watched Andrew Denton's show ENOUGH ROPE last night and was squirming in my seat trying to get a handle on Chrissy Amphlett. A few months ago I wrote a brief review of her book PLEASURE AND PAIN - MY LIFE in which she decribes her rock and roll experience with THE DIVINYLS and her battle with the bottle. I feel the same way now as I did then, unconvinced that she is really delving into her soul but trying to entertain with a story that is muted by how she wants to be perceived. She kept doing this thing with her eyes as if she was Sally Fields in SYBIL (dir. Daniel Petrie, 1976) where her head would lower slowly ferreting her chin to her chest. The next answer would follow muffled and confused as if having an LSD flashback. Why this annoyed-bemused-bored me was that all the answers she was giving to Denton's questions were straight from the book she was promoting. In her favor I must say her acoustic version of 'I Touch Myself' was intriguing to say the least.

I couldn't just go off to bed at this stage which leads me to my next uncomfortable encounter on the couch - a live autopsy on SBS. Professor Gunther Von Hagens (pictured above) who performs the autopsy has a strange physical similarity to the famous German artist Joseph Beuys. Strange is probably the wrong word - the right word is deliberate. Anyway, within the first few minutes of the program he is slicing the skin off the corpse he has hanging in the middle of the set with his scalpel to reveal what lies beneath. The ease in which he does this is sort of like a butcher getting your favorite cut of meat (that one's for you Miss Litzi!), and the skin just folds away to be hung up like the facade that it is.

This brings me to Man Ray. His pictures came to this morning, stirring from dreams of dead bodies and Chrissy Amplett's acoustic number. What has always drawn me to Man Ray apart from him being part of the Surrealists and referencing the importance of dreams is his textural perception. It's close to the bone.

Ingres Violin 1924

Noire et Blanche 1926

Primat de la matiere sur la pensee (Matter primes thought) 1929

Dear Man Ray (solarized self-portrait) 1930

A l'heure de l'observatoire, les Amoureux 1934

Clowns Did Bring Us 'CAPTURING THE FRIEDMANS'

These two clowns are taking part in the First Congress of Clowns in San Salvador as we speak. This pose was done during a class of physical skills for clowns. About one hundred clowns from Mexico, Guatemala, Peru and El Salvador take part of this congress in which they discuss about their benefits, financial assistance, and new skills to make people laugh. I'm a member of about half the population that can't stand clowns but ever since I saw the best documentary of 2003, 'CAPTURING THE FRIEDMANS' I must thank them for one thing, and that this compulsory viewing documentary came in to fruition.


Andrew Jarecki started to make a film about professional clowns and in the process met David Friedman (pictured left), New York's most successful party clown. It turned out that David had a huge store of home movies, reaching back to the 1950s. They are home movies of a pretty middle of the road American family. Slapstick being the order of the day, they are nonsensical, normal, verging on yawn material. Andrew Jarecki: "And finally he said to me one day, well, if you're going to refocus the film and it's going to be about my family, I should tell you that in addition to the 25 hours of home movies I gave you in the beginning of my father and my family during happy times, there are another 25 hours of home videos that I started taking after the police showed up at my house." This revelation becomes the basis for the documentary and the home movies bloat with meaning.

The Friedman Family

Jarecki uses all kinds of material to explore one of the most bizarre sexual abuse cases in American legal history. David's father Arnold and his 18-year-old brother Jesse were charged with sex crimes against young boys that were allegedly carried out over a period of years in their Great Neck, Long Island home (they had set up a computer skills course in the basement). The film brings up questionable methods by which the police investigators at the time used to attain evidence such as the manner in which the alleged victims were questioned. It also uncovers old letters which reveal the sexual history of the father. The accounts from all family members conflict then match up and then implode again. It filters through how impossible it was for any of the boys in the family to have any objective distance from what there father may have done (or Jesse for that matter) or what he was really like as a human being. Only the mother obtains this distance but with major consequences. Utimately the test of this film is whether you can stand to be left in the dark about who is telling the truth and why your personal feelings about what really happened change with every blink of your exasperated eyes.

Andrew Jarecki: "I think interestingly, even the people who are telling you things that don't turn out to be true very often don't know it. It's not that they're lying. It's that they've completely convinced themselves over time that their version of events is correct."

Jesse and Arnie Friedman

There are a few websites worth visiting for more reading, one is run by Jesse Friedman himself and the other gives you some great insights into the film with some eerie back ground sound bites so make sure your speakers are on.

Heather Mills Her Own Devastating Handiwork

Heather Mills (pictured left) has stopped any contact between her daughter, Beatrice and her ex-stepchild Stella McCartney (below right). The ex-model? has decided enough is enough; "Heather and Stella are at war. It is as simple as that. The pair have disliked each other for years but always put on a brave public face for Paul's sake. Heather does not want Bea to see Stella ever again."

It seems that Mills has had her poor old ex Paul McCartney's phone wires tapped and over heard Stella bitching to her Dad about how she is a 'liar!' and that she is a really dumb campaigner for her anti-landmine and animal rights causes. To top it all off Stella believes that Heather was really a 'high-class prostitute'. Well you could have blown us all over with a feather but it was the straw that broke the camel's back. Heather played the tape to Paul and he went white as a sheet begging that he 'adores Stella' and has been relying on her. Bea is his baby girl and she means the world to him. Heather new this was the only ace left in her hand.

Helen Reddy Receives Recognition

Helen Reddy who sang the feminist anthem 'I Am Woman' generating both joy and angst, is being inducted into the ARIA's Icons Hall of Fame at Melbourne's Regent Theatre on August 16. "It will be a fun night and it is really unexpected because I never recorded in Australia," said Reddy from her Sydney home.

Thinking about the upcoming event, Reddy now 64 muses; "It is rather striking when you are an old fart to see pictures of yourself looking young and slim and active". Reddy has retired from performing and now works as a hypnotherapist, "this kind of closes the circle very nicely". Her other big hits included 'Delta Dawn', 'Angie Baby' and 'I Can't Hear You No More'. Good on you Helen, I still love 'I Am Woman' (except when someone is hogging the microphone at karaoke).

Leaving the sixties image behind

Recent times - Reddy with her half sister, Toni Lamond

Space Walk

Astronaut Piers J. Sellers (foreground) and Michael E. Fossum, STS-121 mission specialists, work in tandem on the shuttle's Remote Manipulator System/Orbiter Booster Sensor System during the mission's first scheduled session of extravehicular activity. Discovery is scheduled to be docked with the International Space Station until the 14th of July and return to Florida on the 16th. I wonder what the exhilaration must feel like stepping out to see what they see?

Sellers and Fossum suiting up in the Quest Airlock of the International Space Station.

The International Space Station's view of the bottom of Discovery's crew cabin and its thermal protection tiles.

The Running Of The Bulls - Day 3

PAMPLONA, SPAIN: The running of the bulls is part of the nine-day annual Fiesta to honor San Fermin, the patron saint of Pamplona. Thousands of runners brave the 902 yard route to the bull ring. Its great to see the tables turned!

Rod's Roger Rarely Random

Here is Penny Lancaster and Rod Stewart at the Berkeley Square Ball, Berkeley Square July 6, 2006 London, England.

History has an uncanny way of repeating itself when it comes to women and Rod Stewart. Penny Lancaster, Brit Ekland, Alana Hamilton and Rachel Hunter all look as if they have been cast out of the same mould. Lets take a trip down memory lane and soon you will understand the history of Rod's Roger.

Rod with Brit Ekland, 1975

Rod married Alana Hamilton in 1979

Rod married Rachel Hunter in 1990

All kilted up and engaged to Penny (set to marry in '07).

What Do These Three Cloaked People Have In Common?

Its Annie Lennox, Billy Connolly and Tilda Swinton receiving honorary degrees from the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama. These sort of events improve the profile of the school that hands them out I suppose so good on them for the photo opportunities. I think all three are top stuff in their respective careers though.

Annie is still looking great these days and has teamed up with Dave Stewart again to revive the EURYTHMICS. I have such fond memories of this band. I remember being at a party in the early eighties and a nice fellow in the kitchen asked me if I knew what band was playing on the record player and I confidently responded 'Its the EURYTHMICS!'. Being mutually impressed with our amazing music knowledge we became the best of friends and always laugh about our first real connection.

I have a love hate relationship with Billy Connolly. Sometimes he's all over the television like a rash being a really annoying-Scottish-nutter and then at other times when my patience will allow me he is really funny when he does his stand up performances. Normally I hate stand up - I just can't stand it - it makes me nervous for the performer and for myself (I would sit through SEINFELD quite happily but always feel let down and embarrassed when Jerry would have his mundane stand up moments - thank goodness Larry David helped write the show). He has a way of making the most personal details of his married life to Pamela Stephenson sound so familiar on one hand and then just stupid and funny on the other. They met performing comedy together and later she became a clinical psychologist specializing in sexual behavior - she would write about their relationship in BILLY which she also detailed Connolly's sexual abuse by his father.

Tilda Swinton is one of those elusive alien type people that pop up in films when you least expect it. I first saw her in ORLANDO dir. Sally Potter, 1992. She would flitter and flutter through many films until I saw her in VANILLA SKY dir. Cameron Crowe, 2001. I loved VANILLA SKY I must confess. I feel like its a confession because most people hate it and there is the Tom Cruise factor (he fell in love with Penelope Cruz and then divorced Nicole Kidman around this time). It touches something in me which can only be described as the tenderness of regret. Anyway back to Tilda, she has recently starred in THE CHRONICLES OF NARNIA dir. Andrew Adamson, 2005 but more notably in the best film of 2005, BROKEN FLOWERS dir. Jim Jarmusch.

Pierre Huyghe At The Tate

This is the first solo exhibition in the UK by French artist Pierre Huyghe aptly named 'Celebration Park'. Huyghe's work features puppet shows, village fetes and natural history films. A hotchpotch of ideas that mould an aesthetic feast for the eyes. His dreamy world is fable like and worth watching. He's a bit of a French dish as well. Exhibition starts the 5th of July and ends the 17th September 2006.