Jason Alexander Promotes Netflix Relief Fund

in Comedy, Film | July 28th, 2011

Ear­li­er this month, Net­flix upped its month­ly sub­scrip­tion by a good 60%, cre­at­ing what amount­ed to a bour­geois tragedy for many. If you sub­scribe to Net­flix, then fear not. Help may be on its way. Fun­ny­orDie feels your pain, and, with the help of Jason Alexan­der (you know him from Sein­feld), they’re pro­mot­ing the Net­flix Relief Fund. Wink.

If you plan on stick­ing with Net­flix, you can find here a great list of qual­i­ty films, all stream­able via the web. (If need­ed, snag a free one month sub­scrip­tion to Net­flix here.) Or if you’re look­ing for oth­er options, don’t miss our col­lec­tion of Free Movies Online, where you’re pret­ty much guar­an­teed to find some­thing you like…

A Heartfelt, Animated Tribute to Jim Henson

in Animation, Video - Arts & Culture | July 27th, 2011

Good luck stay­ing dry-eyed through this mov­ing trib­ute to Jim Hen­son, which fea­tures a group of pup­pets try­ing to cope with the death of their beloved cre­ator. It’s a long time since we’ve seen the so-called stages of grief dra­ma­tized so beau­ti­ful­ly and with such econ­o­my. (The film­mak­ers recent­ly fol­lowed up their 5‑minute short with a trail­er for what looks like a promis­ing fea­ture-length ver­sion.)

Hen­son fans may also want to check out his 1969 video primer on how to make pup­pets, as well as this new exhib­it at the Muse­um of the Mov­ing Image, which hosts a won­der­ful trib­ute to the pup­peteer’s long time col­lab­o­ra­tion with Frank Oz.

Sheer­ly Avni is a San Fran­cis­co-based arts and cul­ture writer. Her work has appeared in Salon, LA Week­ly, Moth­er Jones, and many oth­er pub­li­ca­tions. You can fol­low her on twit­ter at @sheerly.

50 Famous Academics & Scientists Talk About God

in Religion, Science, Video - Science | July 26th, 2011

Jonathan Parara­jas­ing­ham has pulled togeth­er a mon­tage of 50 renowned aca­d­e­mics, most­ly all sci­en­tists, talk­ing about their thoughts on the exis­tence of God. The list includes includes 16 Nobel prize win­ners, and a bun­dle of rec­og­niz­able names, includ­ing Richard Feyn­man, Steven Pinker, Oliv­er Sacks, Bertrand Rus­sell, Stephen Hawk­ing, and Leonard Susskind. The full list appears below the jump. (Click “more.”) Click here to find anoth­er 50 Aca­d­e­mics Talk­ing About God and 30 renowned writ­ers doing the same.

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Bill Graham’s Concert Vault: From Miles Davis to Bob Marley

in Music | July 26th, 2011

Wolf­gang Gra­jon­ca had a hard child­hood. Young and orphaned dur­ing World War II, Gra­jon­ca moved from Ger­many to Paris, Mar­seille and Lis­bon, and even­tu­al­ly the Unit­ed States by sea, each time stay­ing one step ahead of the west­ward-mov­ing Nazis. The 10 year old set­tled in New York, changed his name to Bill Gra­ham, lat­er fought in Korea, and head­ed to San Fran­cis­co, where he became a leg­endary con­cert pro­mot­er. Jef­fer­son Air­plane, The Grate­ful Dead, Coun­try Joe and The Fish, The Rolling Stones — Gra­ham put them all on the West coast stage.

The pro­mot­er of the Coun­ter­cul­ture was killed in a heli­copter crash in Octo­ber 1991 and left behind a huge trove of record­ings and mem­o­ra­bil­ia. Out of the ash­es arose Wolf­gang’s Vault, a web­site that ped­dles many Bill Gra­ham goods, but also fea­tures a good num­ber of free con­certs from the hey­day: The Who and Miles Davis (Tan­gle­wood, 1970), The All­man Broth­ers Band (New York, 1970), Mud­dy Waters (Los Ange­les, 1971), Bob Mar­ley and the Wail­ers and Tom Pet­ty & the Heart­break­ers (1978).  They’re all avail­able online, along with oth­er acts includ­ing Van Mor­ri­son, AC/DC, San­tana, The Band, and Cros­by, Stills & Nash. Jump into the col­lec­tion here.

Relat­ed Con­tent:

Free Grate­ful Dead Con­cert Archive

Fred­die Mer­cury, Live Aid (1985)

David Bowie and Bing Cros­by Sing Christ­mas Duet

The Seashell and the Clergyman: The World’s First Surrealist Film

in Film | July 26th, 2011

A few weeks ago, we post­ed New York Times crit­ic A.O.Scott’s thought­ful three-minute look back at the sur­re­al­ist clas­sic Un Chien Andalou. The 1929 Buñuel/Dalí pro­duc­tion may well be the world’s most famous bit of ear­ly sur­re­al­ist cin­e­ma, but it was not the first. That hon­or goes to anoth­er very strange (and indu­bitably sur­re­al) short film screened in Paris in 1928, prompt­ing the now infa­mous con­dem­na­tion from the British Board of Film Cen­sors. It insist­ed that the 31-minute film was “appar­ent­ly mean­ing­less.” They then added, “If there is a mean­ing, it is doubt­less objec­tion­able.”

The Seashell and the Cler­gy­man, based on Antonin Artaud’s screen­play about a priest who lusts after a Gen­er­al’s wife, was direct­ed by the cin­e­ma the­o­rist, jour­nal­ist, and crit­ic Ger­maine Dulac (1882–1942). Dulac was also a ground­break­ing fem­i­nist film­mak­er — she is best known today for The Smil­ing Mrs. Beudet (1923), a sem­i­nal silent film about a woman trapped in a love­less mar­riage.

You can find both in our col­lec­tion, 4,000+ Free Movies Online: Great Clas­sics, Indies, Noir, West­erns, Doc­u­men­taries & More.

Relat­ed Con­tent:

The Great Train Rob­bery: Where West­erns Began

A Trip to the Moon: Where Sci Fi Movies Began

Sal­vador Dali (and Oth­er VIPs) on “What’s My Line?”

Sheer­ly Avni is a San Fran­cis­co-based arts and cul­ture writer. Her work has appeared in Salon, LA Week­ly, Moth­er Jones, and many oth­er pub­li­ca­tions. You can fol­low her on twit­ter at @sheerly.

Donald Duck & Friends Star in World War II Propaganda Cartoons

in Film, History | July 25th, 2011

Dur­ing World War II, all hands were on deck, even in Hol­ly­wood. Many of Amer­i­ca and Britain’s finest film­mak­ers, from Hitch­cock to Frank Capra, were recruit­ed to cre­ate pro­pa­gan­da films to sup­port the war effort. (More on that here.) And the same went for Walt Dis­ney, who turned his lov­able car­toon char­ac­ters into good patri­ots.

In 1942, Dis­ney released “Der Fuehrer’s Face,” an anti-Nazi pro­pa­gan­da movie that bol­stered sup­port for the war, and even­tu­al­ly won the Acad­e­my Award for Best Ani­mat­ed Short Film. Then, a year lat­er, came The Spir­it of ’43, which fea­tures Don­ald Duck help­ing Amer­i­cans to under­stand why they need to pay their tax­es. Oth­er wartime Dis­ney shorts include Don­ald Gets Draft­ed (1942), The Old Army Game (1943), and Com­man­do Duck (1944). Then, com­ing out of this pro­pa­gan­da tra­di­tion, you’ll also find Don­ald Duck Meets Glenn Beck in Right Wing Radio Duck, a recent spoof by Jonathan McIn­tosh (of Rebel­lious Pix­els). It’s a good bit of fun.

Note: Der Fuehrer’s Face and The Spir­it of ’43 appear in the Ani­ma­tion sec­tion of our col­lec­tion, 4,000+ Free Movies Online: Great Clas­sics, Indies, Noir, West­erns, Doc­u­men­taries & More.

Relat­ed Con­tent:

How Dis­ney Car­toons Are Made

Disney’s Oscar-Win­ning Adven­tures in Music

Dr. Seuss’ World War II Pro­pa­gan­da Films: Your Job in Ger­many (1945) and Our Job in Japan(1946)

Remembering Amy Winehouse’s Better Days: Her American Debut

in Music | July 25th, 2011

Tal­ent­ed but trou­bled singer-song­writer Amy Wine­house was found dead in her Lon­don apart­ment on Sat­ur­day, July 23. The 27 year-old, whose deep voice had always expressed a lev­el of matu­ri­ty and soul­ful­ness that belied her age, was known to be strug­gling with drug addic­tion. In recent months, both her appear­ance and abil­i­ty to per­form live had dete­ri­o­rat­ed marked­ly.

Here she is in bet­ter days, mak­ing her Amer­i­can debut on The David Let­ter­man Show in 2007. For more back­ground on Wine­house­’s life and work, you can also check out The Girl Done Good, a free doc­u­men­tary avail­able at Snag Films. (Note: it is only avail­able in the US and Cana­da.)

Sheer­ly Avni is a San Fran­cis­co-based arts and cul­ture writer. Her work has appeared in Salon, LA Week­ly, Moth­er Jones, and many oth­er pub­li­ca­tions. You can fol­low her on twit­ter at @sheerly.

Hunter S. Thompson Gets Confronted by The Hell’s Angels (1967)

in Books, Literature | July 22nd, 2011

In 1965, the edi­tor of The Nation asked Hunter S. Thomp­son to write a sto­ry about the Hel­l’s Angels Motor­cy­cle Club, as they’re offi­cial­ly known. The arti­cle quick­ly led to a book deal, and, the next year, the Gonzo jour­nal­ist pub­lished Hel­l’s Angels: The Strange and Ter­ri­ble Saga of the Out­law Motor­cy­cle Gangs. Review­ing the book for The New York Times, Leo Lit­wak wrote:

Hunter Thomp­son entered this ter­ra incog­ni­ta [the world of the Hel­l’s Angels] to become its car­tog­ra­ph­er. For almost a year, he accom­pa­nied the Hel­l’s Angels on their ral­lies. He drank at their bars, exchanged home vis­its, record­ed their bru­tal­i­ties, viewed their sex­u­al caprices, became con­vert­ed to their motor­cy­cle mys­tique, and was so intrigued, as he puts it, that “I was no longer sure whether I was doing research on the Hel­l’s Angels or being slow­ly absorbed by them.” At the con­clu­sion of his year’s tenure the ambi­gu­i­ty of his posi­tion was end­ed when a group of Angels knocked him to the ground and stomped him…

Hunter Thomp­son has pre­sent­ed us with a close view of a world most of us would nev­er dare encounter, yet one with which we should be famil­iar. He has brought on stage men who have lost all options and are not rec­on­ciled to the loss. They have great resources for vio­lence which does­n’t as yet have any effec­tive focus. Thomp­son sug­gests that these few Angels are but the van­guard of a grow­ing army of dis­ap­pro­pri­at­ed, dis­af­fil­i­at­ed and des­per­ate men. There’s always the risk that some­how they may force the wrong options into being.

This clip, which aired on Cana­di­an tele­vi­sion in 1967, describes the cir­cum­stances that led up to the Angels giv­ing HST a beat down. The misog­y­ny that’s on dis­play will make you shud­der.

Relat­ed Con­tent

Hunter S. Thomp­son Inter­views Kei­th Richards

John­ny Depp Reads Let­ters from Hunter S. Thomp­son

Lucian Freud (1922 — 2011)

in Art, Video - Arts & Culture | July 22nd, 2011

Lucian Freud, dis­tin­guished artist and grand­son of Sig­mund Freud, died yes­ter­day at the age of 88. The painter was best known for his con­tri­bu­tions to fig­u­ra­tive art and his uncom­pro­mis­ing por­traits, which The New York Times has col­lect­ed in an impres­sive online gallery.

Freud was also known for his rig­or­ous (some would say cru­el) demands on his sub­jects. From his New York Times obit­u­ary:

To the artist and Freud biog­ra­ph­er Lawrence Gow­ing [Lucian Freud] said, “For me the paint is the per­son.” Mr. Freud’s dingy stu­dio became his artis­tic uni­verse, a grim the­ater in which his con­tort­ed sub­jects, stripped bare and there­fore uniden­ti­fi­able by class, sub­mit­ted to the artist’s unblink­ing, mer­ci­less inspec­tion.

You can learn more about Lucian Freud’s work and lega­cy through a dis­cus­sion of his paint­ing Stand­ing by the Rags at SmART His­to­ry (video post­ed above or click here).

Sheer­ly Avni is a San Fran­cis­co-based arts and cul­ture writer. Her work has appeared in Salon, LA Week­ly, Moth­er Jones, and many oth­er pub­li­ca­tions. You can fol­low her on twit­ter at @sheerly.

“You Just Don’t Get It, Do You?” — A Montage of Cinema’s Worst Cliché

in Film, Random | July 22nd, 2011

Jeff Smith, an inde­pen­dent film­mak­er from Indi­anapo­lis, must have spent quite a bit of time going through hun­dreds of movies to come up with his final mon­tage of 120 movies con­tain­ing the line “You just don’t get it, do you?”. If you want to invest some time as well, try to guess the movies first and then com­pare your results with the list of actu­al movies here.

If you enjoy guess­ing movies, you can take a look at Jef­f’s blog post “Name That Film,” in which he shows you tricky movie stills (don’t wor­ry, he also pro­vides the solu­tions).

By pro­fes­sion, Matthias Rasch­er teach­es Eng­lish and His­to­ry at a High School in north­ern Bavaria, Ger­many. In his free time he scours the web for good links and posts the best finds on Twit­ter.