Monthly Archives: February 2010

Frank Rich drives home a chilling thesis in his column in today’s New York Times, charged by a recent Times expose by David Barstow, who spent months investigating the personalities and ground forces of the disparate Tea Party movement.

Where so many of these people seem to recognize the outlines of the corporate empire that has enveloped us, they mistakenly turn against their government and its potential relief from the forces that actually dispossessed them.

Security camera footage from the 8.8 earthquake in Chile, one of the biggest earthquakes in 100 years.  This footage doesn’t show toppling walls or people whatsoever.  What it does show is an immensely violent shaking of the landscape that is terrifying, as if the surface of the neighborhood had been turned into a popcorn popper.  What is so astonishing to see for just a few seconds is a disaster that lasted 90 seconds, far longer than a professional bull rider lasts, and under far more favorable circumstances.

After Obama allowed only a single, stern-looking photo to be released of his meeting with the exiled Tibetan leader, this TMZ-style paparazzi pic captures the Dalai llama being shown out the back door of the White House along with the trash, in his trademark sandals looking like a sad streaker in D.C. winter.

Nothing personal, Dalai, but China owns $800 Billion in American Ass Equities, and the mistress treatment is necessary when U.S.-China relations are so archly enacted in this SNL piece:

Here is another video roll-in seen in the Upright Citizens Brigade movie, Wild Girls Gone, now available for pre-sale in the iTunes store.  In this video from the 1980’s, Doreen (Amy Poehler) accepts her prize for winning the “Best Jello Ass Contest,” back in her prime as the town’s ass contest queen.  Her boyfriend Terry (Matt Walsh) cheers her on.

The Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) has been a prime target for conservative groups and politicians. Truthout sat down with Bertha Lewis, CEO and chief organizer for ACORN to discuss the recent events and the state of the organization.

(Continue reading at Truthout)

This short is a roll-in seen several times in the background of the forthcoming Upright Citizens Brigade film, Wild Girls Gone, available next month on iTunes.  Why a student documentary about lumberjacks?  Dramatically speaking, it is a device which helps spur the B storyline.  Comically speaking, the entire lumberjack genre remains unexplored, virgin territory.

This is a deleted scene from the forthcoming Upright Citizens Brigade movie I directed, Wild Girls Gone, available next month on iTunes.  In this scene, Will Arnett appears as a shady pawn shop proprietor.

Daniel Ellsberg at UCLA following the screening of his just-nominated documentary about the Pentagon Papers, with the film’s co-director Rick Goldsmith.  The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers is an impressive, magnificent history of the whistle blower, the war machine, and Nixon’s profane vindictiveness.