Medora

I've lamented for a while that so far this year, I have yet to see a film that knocked my socks off. I saw that film last night - Medora. Medora is a documentary about the loosing basketball team the Hornets and how the players attempt to cope with their lives in a small town in Indiana who has seen its glory days come and go. The idea for this film came from an article in the New York Times.

I was on the edge of my seat the entire time; it was hard to watch at times. My brother and I were lived with my grandmother in a small town not far from Medora. I could really relate to their lives. Tossing kids around like last years lawn ornaments is really tough to deal with. Anyway....

Medora is an absolutely amazing film. Interviews with older folks who talk about the glory days, scenes of bleak, endless harvested corn fields with criss-crossing railroad tracks, abandoned trailer courts near the river, and 16mm home movie clips tell the tale of a small town struggling to keep its identity and pride in its local school system.

Medora won some well deserved accolades from the film festival.

BTW, I have a brick from the Medora Brick Plant.

I wanna see my smiling face on the cover of the Rolling Stone...

Dr Hook and the Medicine Show made this song a hit in 1973. It's always been an honor to be on the cover. Kudos to Rolling Stone for the article on Tsarnaev, but do not immortalize him on the cover.

I remember back in the 1990's when James Brown, editor at British GQ was fired after including Rommel and "the Nazis" in a feature about the best-dressed men of the 20th century. You just don't go there.

I challenge Rolling Stone magazine to put Charles Ramsey on the cover. Now that's what I call a hero!

The Not So Mysterious Randy Polumbo

Love Stream #2

I blogged about Randy Polumbo and Shari Elf back in 2009.  I'd met them both in 2006 @ the Good Folk Fest in Louisville and hadn't actually read anything about them for a couple of years. There were a handful of pictures of Randy's work on his website and Shari made mention of him on her website. During my little chit chat with them that day, I mentioned that I liked Randy's work too. He seemed so puzzled - how had I seen his work?  He seemed very reluctant to post pics about his work. Times have changed...

A couple of weeks ago I wondered how the two of them were doing. Randy lived in New York and Shari lived in Joshua Tree, CA. He bought a house in Joshua Tree and sort of made it his own. I guess he rents the place out when he's not there. 

Randy's work has evolved and just exploded! His original LED lit dildo and condom alien light bouquets have evolved into blown glass sculptures that resemble the original material in shape and form, but now appear as fields of alien flowers installed in converted 1960's airstream trailers. 

Here's an interview that contains pictures of some of the early items I saw and in this article in Men's Health, Randy shares ideas for obtaining items to repurpose. In this interview he talks about his abusive dad and how that pushed the brothers to make it on their own. This repurpose stuff really interests me. I managed to bag a small pallet from Lowe's; we'll see how that goes. I want to stain it and put rollers on the bottom and possibly a piece of glass on top. 

What ever happened to long distance relationship? Don't know the details, but it seems that the new woman in Randy's life is Meghan Boody. He no doubt kept running into Meghan at various art venues in New York. 

Venice Home and Garden Tour

Ok, darn, so I've already missed the 2013 Venice Home and Garden Tour. Like, I was going to actually make it there anyway. My ideas of Venice, CA are stuck in the '70's - Surf's up, Dude! Uh....I'm way off here, aren't I? The canals are the attraction for me. I have a kayak (quite unused these days) and it would be cool to just pop in and scoot around the neighborhood. I love Catherine Hardwicke's version of Venice in the 70's ala The Lord's of Dog Town (which, btw, is one of my favorite movies) The film contains my favorite Heath Ledger role - Skip Engblom. Check out Stacy Peralta's Dogtown and Z-Boys skate culture documentary for some great 70's CA pics.

Yeah....these aren't surf shack hangouts; these are very high end homes.

I stumbled onto an article about John Frane's 1930's bungle. I like the architectural element of stacking bricks around an above ground fire pit (I know - "pit" is the opposite of "above ground").



Back to Catherine... there are quite a few scenes shot in the inside of Catherine Hardwicke's Venice Beach home. Her home is a nod to the surf culture of yore and she has some really quirky art work that gives the place some personality. That's what I thought all Venice Homes looked like. Uh....no.

M*A*S*H + IBM + Atari

The cast of TV version of M*A*S*H (not to be confused with the movie version of M*A*S*H) did a series of personal computer adds back in 1987. They're all so happy!



Before the IBM gig, Alan Alda did a series of commercials for Atari. The one below from 1984 is a hoot! "Serial link peripherals"....How many takes did that one take? So.....if Alan Alda isn't his dad.....who is he? It's kind of creepy he's getting dressed in a dorm room.



Oh my - this are so cute.



Oh dear.

Therapy Helps Troubled Teens Rethink Crime

I heard this story on NPR on the way into work yesterday. Late one night in November 2007, Amadou Cisse was accousted by a young man named Demetrius Warren. Warren demanded Cisse's backpack and water bottle. Warren ends up shooting Cisse at point-blank range. The case prompts the folks from the University of Chicago's  Crime Lab to perform a "social autopsy" on every youth homicide for a year. They found out that the conventional ways we think about crime doesn't make sense. They found that the majority of youth homicides are hastily planned sudden altercations that have terrible consequences because one of the parties has a gun and decides to use it.