Big Drunk Rabbit

Here's a flawed but instructive walk cycle I made while trapped in my apartment waiting for the maddening holiday traffic to subside. Idd'n't Cuuuuute???

More Screen Savers For The Kids

Screen Saver

Here's your FREE bloggy-blog screen saver. Wow! Just click and download. That's all ya' gotta do folks! I want these distributed all around the globe, especially the polar ice caps where it really counts! So do your part today!

Lyric Contest Mk:II

Go ahead, throw some lyrics at me. I'll create a completed recorded tune to the one I like the most. We've done this before & we can get through it again.

Ready?... GO!!!

*note: contestants relinquish all rights to material submitted. all copyrights from finished recording become geritopia property. subsequent product merchandising, records, hats, cd's are licensed to geritopia and all geritopia subsidiaries, including, but not limited to: squaresville records and money-hungry-chimps inc. geritopia reserves the right to hang lyricist by the ankles and collect all loose change that falls to the ground, including car keys but exempting passes to all andrew lloyd webber musicals, which remain sole property of contestant, if so willing and expressed.

Last Gasp on The Open Hearth

I was digging through the vaults and found these beautiful color frame-grabs from my movie: The Open Hearth (May 7th posting below). The original film was shot in 3-strip Technicolor by Greg Toland but, because of various disputes with the studio brass, my negatives were thrown into the ocean along with the lot from Welles' "Magnificent Ambersons". I'll never forgive RKO for that. Out of work and out of luck, Open Hearth was re-shot on recycled video stock. I was determined to see this project to fruition, in keeping with my auteur leanings. We eliminated all the dance numbers, exploding cars and elaborate crane shots; 'secured Herbie and Tony's participation by offering "points" on spec. In the end, it was brought in slightly over-budget at $ 10.00. The Open Hearth premiered in someone's butt... I forget whose it was.

the acropolis

hermes

antigone

zeuss

Nostradamus Scores Again

I gotta say, there's really something very troubling about any product mascot who would cannibalize his own for a buck (and I do mean for a buck-buck-buck!!!). The Pollo Campero food chain invasion has begun. Their mascot shows no sign of remorse as he delightedly holds a plate piled high with the broiled remains of his brothers and sisters. What kind of monstrous icon is this? Why not add a salivating Mr. Potatohead plucking some fries from the plate? It just makes me nauseous.

Double-barrel to the back,
or just the glazed look of greed?

Close-up reveals mascot maintaining composure
under some kind of duress... hmmm.

I hear the food's pretty good there at PC.

For the love of Pete

I've brightened up the contrast and fixed the out-of-synch-ness on the previous posting's movie. Go back and watch it again. Now you can see things.

Joey Polanski, where are you?

Big Fun at the Open Hearth

The "Open Hearth" was my first attempt at documentary --and it shows. It was shot whilst moonlighting with camera equipment from a local cable company. This nine-minute short offers a slice of suburban nightlife during the height of the Reagan-Era.

Folks, give it up for "TNT"! They're a two-man music combo fronted by a tuxedoed Herbie Tepper. Mr. Tepper knows how to push the entertainment envelope. He cajoles his audience by shining a flashlight into their faces; does spot-on impressions of TV's Columbo; sings all the great lounge lizard standards and punctuates jokes with rim-shots from his own drum kit. In a stirring patriotic finale, TNT performs an "olympic medley" as a nod to the sporting event taking place in LA that year. All the while, laid-back musical partner Tony Gianini stokes the musical engine behind Tepper's "complete entertainer" showcase.

"Nucular"

At the conclusion of Kubrick's classic Dr. Strangelove there's a ballet of nuclear explosions set against a wistful "We'll Meet Again". The result was the quintessence of black comedy. More recently, the pairing of music and repetitive declassified atomic test footage has become a genre unto itself.
Tired of the usual grind of skateboard and/or surf movies with their predictable driving guitar soundtracks? Then move on up to countless hours of atomic blast movies, where ANY music score will add to the irony and fun! And, of course, you can easily find 'em on YouTube.com. Luckily for you I've done all the hard work and provided the following highlights:

Pure Armageddon abandonment Here

Same footage, different soundtrack Here

Mash-Up style Here

Holocost gone Classical Here

Extremely scary underground blast Here

...and more Here, Here, & Here

Below is my favorite (yet not entirely musical) clip which pits mannequins -"Mr. and Mrs. America"- against a very severe atomic heat rash.

Mandatory Viewing

Crunchy Golden Chums of Pop

actual size

Here's my impromptu sketch of The Gold State's performance, which took place earlier this evening on the west-side of LA. It was a good, but too brief, set. Many fine feathered friends attended, ta'boot. Such events are a much better alternative to the usual way I spend my Sundays, which typically means staring off into space and drooling. I'm glad that I didn't have to drive all the way to Pedro or Long Beach this time. From now on, everyone brings their band into my town for my convenience.

Treasures from Uncle John's Sock Drawer

Unifinished titles to an unfinished show called "Impact Family". The concept featured a cartoon family (Dottie, Matt & Zoe) flying through space in a car. They continue into deep space searching the dial for a decent radio station, never to be heard from again. All of them wear the same eerie consternated expression for no reason other than I thought it was amusing.

Throw me some money and I'll finish it.

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And Another Dandy's Inferno Clip

OK, this was all my friend Tony's idea. I was just the hired hand who held the camera and tended to the "stunt cat" between takes. I thought that maybe, just maybe, if I put these movies up here that someone would notice... that I'd get some respect. That's all, just a little respect.

Enjoy.

Contractual Post

Fellow Kids,

I'm all grown up now and I'm all out of ironic comments. From here on I'm only going to write poetry about seagulls and tips on understanding escrow --plus, delicious new bundt cake recipes. I've consumed enough at Walmart and watched enough TV for 50 men, and now I am made whole in the eyes of social workers everywhere. A distilled and pliant man. I hereby surrender my soul to a future of shuffleboard tournaments and an I.V. line full of iced tea. I used to afraid of this sort of life, surrounded by doilies and porcelain figurines of dutch girls with geese. But, I must say, it's like a pair of soft slippers padding on purple clouds here on the "other side". You'll just have to carry on and don't worry about me.

ZZzZzzzzzzzzzz...

Meanwhile, here's a nice photo of an old firehouse in downtown LA that I took several months back. They don't make firehouses like they used to. They're not as cute. I think Donald Duck worked here in the 30's.

What's it all about Mr. Aquanaut Man?

Eat your heart out Matthew Barney

A few installation shots from 2001.

In retrospect, I'm not sure what we were thinking, but here's the result. The cowboy video (see previous post) was on the TV looping perpetually. [I dropped a plank of lumber on my foot during construction, shedding a toenail from my big toe. I knew that cowboys don't cry, so neither did I.] There were four installations in the gallery. The LA Weekly reviewed the show but made no mention of Aquanaut. That's the price you pay for being too conceptually firebrand.

inspiration: rolls of southwestern wallpaper

aficionados of fine art and excellent brew;
both of these guys look familiar

a desert oasis mood lamp

generic production still

AQUANAUT

Mortality and Dated References

Sometimes people ask me, "How do you keep your hands so soft, so supple?" And of course I tell them "Palmolive dishwashing liquid". Then I pick the person off the floor and go on to explain, "Once I discovered how youthful-looking Palmolive detergent got my hands, I began to build a whole lifestyle around it".

Now I top all my foods off with a dollop of Palmolive liquid. I take sips of it from a flask throughout the day. As a result, I have a continuous flow of soap bubbles percolating from my nostrils. People seem to stay their distance (except for asking about my amzingly soft hands). I am at peace.

madge died in '04