Tastemaker

Congratulations to everyone who worked on "Year of the Fish" for inclusion in the Sundance Spectrum series!

Congratulations Gregg Araki, whose "stoner-epic, screwball-comedy "Smiley Face"" will be in the Midnite Series. Last year, festival-goers got to see his disturbing, poingant feature "Mysterious Skin." -HCS

In The Guardian:
A parade of prostitutes and their clients aimed at naming and shaming sex workers in southern China has sparked a backlash by an unusual coalition of lawyers, academics and the All-China Women's Federation.
As part of a two-month crackdown on vice in the booming city of Shenzhen, public security officers handcuffed about 100 women and some of their male customers, dressed them in bright yellow prison tunics and hauled them through the streets.

The parade, which took place on November 29, attracted large crowds of curious onlookers.
Although the women tried to cover their faces with surgical masks, it was not enough to hide their identities because police revealed their names, hometowns and dates of birth while publicly sentencing them all to 15 days in prison.

In a sign of the increased consciousness of individual versus social rights, police were criticised for going too far.

"I think the parade is a violation of human rights," said Ai Xiaoming, a professor at Guangdong's Sun Yat-Set University. "The public humiliation may frighten people, but it is not a good way for resolving problems. And it is not fair - why are only sex criminals paraded in public? What about people guilty of graft and corruption?"

The All-China Women's Federation has filed a formal protest with the ministry of public security, saying the parade was "old-fashioned, damaging to social harmony" and "an insult to all the women in China".

There was a surge of critical comment on internet bulletin boards about the ethical problems of the punishment. Legal questions were also raised by Yao Jianguo of the Shanghai Promise Law Firm, who has written a letter of complaint to the National People's Congress in which he accused the police of acting illegally and violating human dignity.

The resurgence of the "skin-and-flesh" trade has become increasingly visible since the start of China's free market economic reforms in the late 1970s.

Among the most notorious centres are Shenzhen and Zhuhai - the biggest mainland cities near wealthy Hong Kong - where there are streets full of pink-lit karaoke centres and massage parlours.

Previous attempts to tackle the industry have had mixed results. Three years ago, the organisers of an orgy by more than 200 Japanese sex tourists and local prostitutes were sentenced to life imprisonment. Earlier this year, thousands of armed police were deployed in Shenzhen to quash a protest by more than 3,000 prostitutes and karaoke hostesses who were left without jobs after the closure of massage parlours and discos.

· Jonathan Watts in Beijing with additional reporting by Huang Lisha

From Hollywood Reporter

Hair High
5 Dec 2006 10:12am EST - By Frank Scheck
NEW YORK -- Animator Bill Plympton's unique brand of anarchic, gross-out humor is very much on display in his feature-length spoof of high school romances and gothic horror tales. The tale of a perfect teen couple -- a head cheerleader (Sarah Silverman) and star quarterback (Dermot Mulroney) -- whose romance becomes unglued thanks to the arrival of a geeky new student (Eric Gilliland) who comes between them, "Hair High" plays like a demented, animated cross between "Grease" and "Carrie".

Plympton's distinctive, hand-drawn style can be a little tough to take at feature length, and this film, like his previous full-length efforts, again demonstrates that narrative is not his strong suit.

But there's no denying the hilarity of the sight gags on display, from a sexually rampaging chicken mascot at a high school football game to a biology teacher literally throwing his guts up to an army of decomposing bodies rising from their watery graves.

As usual, Plympton's animation is definitely not for the kids, with a preponderance here of ribald and vulgar visuals that are not for the squeamish.

This effort features, for the first time in Plympton's oeuvre, a plethora of name performers providing the voices. Besides the aforementioned, other notables lending their aural talents include Keith and David Carradine, Martha Plimpton, Craig Bierko, Justin Long, Matt Groening and Ed Begley Jr.

- Congratulations Bill! - HCS

Ummm, didn't I mention there are cool things to do in Williamsburg this week? Hell yeah. Southside Lounge now boasts a teeny STAGE for live music, and on Tuesday Nite you can enjoy Erin & Her Cello (8pm) and Daniel Zaitchik (10pm) for FREE.

Southside Lounge
41 Broadway (between Wythe and Kent)
Williamsburg, Brooklyn
(718) 387-3182

If you're not a Southside friend yet, add us!

Hey All,

So last week I mentioned a FREE performance tonite of the newset work by theatre-genius Dan Fishback, and today Gawker gave him a HEADLINE!!! So the secret is out - go, dear friends, go to Galapagos tonite:

As it appears in Gawker:

To Do: Barbara Bush Loves The Gays

In "Waiting for Barbara," the first daughter debates whether or not her stable of gays will "destroy each other in a frenzy of queer vitriol and repressed Ivy League rage or do lots of coke, make out, and forget what happened the next morning." Go because playwright Dan Fishback worked so hard during last night's rehearsal, he broke his glasses in his costar's crotch.

- And that's a true story - HCS

Thursday, South Africa officially became the 5th country in the world to legalize gay marriage. Let's hope this starts a trend. -HCS

New questions on the US Citizenship Test:

Why does the United States have three branches of government?
Name two rights that are only for US citizens
Name two cabinet-level positions
Name one important idea found in the Declaration of Independence
What does the Constitution do?

info from BBC World News

This list just left me doing my own rabid musings on what DOES the Constitution do? I'm personally of the belief that people and culture (and their needs) grow and change over time, and that the beliefs we hold dear also grow and change. I'm a believer in throwing off the bonds of tyranny, but does that mean we have to take the Old set of rules made by people who may or may not have actually held beliefs similar to our present-day beliefs, and kowtow to the Old forever? Puritans had no voice or land in England, they were disenfranchised by Charles I before cutting off his head, disenfranchised by Charles II during the restoration, they came here and created their own religious communities which were not so tolerant of dissidence. Whigs had no land, they came to America and grabbed land. James Stuart Duke of York needed money, he created the West India Company to import slaves, and Virginia ate them up. Don't you think it's time to base our current government on our current ideals??? My beliefs run concurrent with the thinking of many of the Royal Society members (some of whom were indeed Founders of this nation) - push the envelope, find out what things are made of, question the world as it exists, imagine the world as it could be. -HCS

Congratulations to Choking Man and averyone at GhostRobot for winning the Gotham Award for Best Film Never Seen In a Theatre Near You. Granted, a bit of a sting comes with this award, but it's still a mark of being recognized for excellent work by the industry! -HCS

Short summary of Choking Man on IMDB - The social anxiety of a morbidly shy Ecuadorian dishwasher working in a Queens diner provides the psychological engine that powers this blend of drama and magical realism.

Iraq for Sale: The War Profiteers is the story of what happens to everyday Americans when corporations go to war.

Acclaimed director Robert Greenwald (Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price, Outfoxed, and Uncovered) takes you inside the lives of soldiers, truck drivers, widows and children who have been changed forever as a result of corporate greed in the reconstruction of Iraq. Iraq for Sale uncovers the connections between private security companies making a killing in Iraq and the decision makers who allow them to do so.

To learn more, or find another screening to attend, please visit:
http://iraqforsale.bravenewtheaters.com/

Screening of "Iraq for Sale: The War Profiteers"
Sunday, December 03 07:30 PM
Truth Film Series
32 Watts Street
NYC, New York 10013

HOSTED BY: greenback productions.
Tickets are FREE. RSVP required.

For more details and to RSVP, please visit: IraqForSale

The Sundance Film Festival Picks are in!!! Congratulations to Teeth (and producer Joyce Pierpoline and writer/director Mitchell Lictenstein) for their great work, we'll see Teeth in competition at the festival. Check out their pic and the article in NY Times You rock, you rock so hard.

For a full list of the 64 films accepted, go to Variety

Just in on Wonkette: Again with the military blocking Wonkette so our fighting forces won’t be exposed to inane exchanges from Late Night Shots. A Wonkette operative at a U.S. Army base in Europe sent us this shocking evidence. (Tastemaker Readers, click on the link to Wonkette to see a screen capture of the "Forbidden by Rating Check" notice that one soldier got when he tried to access the site) We asked the soldier to try some other political sites and report back, but he hasn’t answered because the Army killed him, probably.

Dear Pentagon IT Pricks: The election’s over, Iraq is lost and Rumsfeld’s out. Please let soldiers read websites so they can have some of those freedoms you people are always defending for Iraqis or whatever. Thanks.

Reported on AP:
QUINCY, Mass. - John Russo has been a victim of identity theft. So when he was asked to fork over a photo ID just to be seated at an IHOP pancake restaurant, he flipped.

"You want my license? I'm going for pancakes, I'm not buying the Hope diamond,' and they refused to seat us," Russo said, recounting his experience this week at the Quincy IHOP.

The restaurant now has agreed to reverse the policy of requiring customers to turn over their driver's licenses before they can order — a rule that was enacted to discourage "dine and dash" thefts.

-The article continues on, the most salient fact being that the restaurant was holding 40 drivers licenses hostage while their owners ate. -HCS

Congratulations to Flannel Pajamas for extending its run at the Angelika in NYC! Three weeks (so far) instead of one. You go, team! Here's what someone on IMDB had to say:

Julianne Nicholson gives that brave and tortured performance that every actor dreams of. Despite spending half the film in the nude that is not the reason why it is "brave" as some critics like to throw in when someone does spend screen time like that. It's what she does when she's clothed and unclothed and her expression of words, her facial transformations in an instance, and even more, giving Nicole a sensitivity and humanity of sheer velocity. In the coming years, I have a feeling we could be hearing Nicholson's name at some award ceremonies.

I happen to agree. Both Julianne and Justin are talented, subtle actors. Julianne also has a great heart, and it shines thru. Luminous, I believe, is the word. -HCS

From CNN:
CNN correspondent John Roberts, who recently returned from Iraq, says that U.S. television has been unable to convey the extent of the chaos that currently wracks that country. "The place is a mess. It's an absolute mess," Roberts told The Washington Post's Howard Kurtz on CNN's Reliable Sources. "There is nowhere you can go in the Baghdad area as a Western journalist without an escort, where you could feel safe from being kidnapped, shot at, whatever. The amount of death that's on the streets of Baghdad for U.S. forces and for the Iraqi people is at an astronomical level." Roberts said that he saw the results of an attack on a Humvee in which the U.S. soldier seated in the passenger seat was "disintegrated" by the projectile. He said he watched the driver die on the roadside. None of that could be shown on television, Roberts observed. "The pictures on television are sanitized compared to what they are on the ground. ... It's too raw for television. It's too personal for the families who were involved, because the fellow who I saw on the ground, Howie, he was ripped apart. And that's just not the sort of thing that you want a family to know."

And there's the rub: the REALITY is too horrible to bear, but in order to change what is real, we must be able to admit it is ACTUALLY HAPPENING. And we do that by being brave enough to bear witness, and by confronting our own feelings of helplessness as we watch our government smear our human rights reputation and our children's blood all over the sand. -HCS

EVERYONE, I am a huge fan of this writer-misician-performer, and here is an opportunity to see a workshop of his newest play for FREE! It's next monday, mark it on your calendar. -HCS

Monday, December 4, 8:00pm (FREE)
Galapagos Art Space (70 North 6th St. BKLN)
Off-Stage Fright Productions Presents:

WAITING FOR BARBARA

an upsetting new comedy by DAN FISHBACK
starring Dan Fishback & Max Steele, directed by Michael Schulman,
with a special guest appearance by Julie Lake.


The president's daughter loves her some gays. And they love her back! - especially Davenport Rosenfeld (Fishback) and Bryce Oliver Wilson (Steele). But when she's late to pick them up for a party celebrating the bombing of Bagdhad, our heroes begin to freak out. Will they destroy each other in a frenzy of queer vitriol and repressed Ivy League rage? - or will they do lots of coke, make out, and forget what happened the next morning? There's only one way to find out.

"Waiting For Barbara" is the latest in a string of queer political performances by playwright Dan Fishback, including last summer's "PLEASE LET ME LOVE YOU," about Michael Jackson and the war in Iraq. Also a high-powered secretary, Fishback based "Waiting For Barbara" on workday Myspace conversations with fellow receptionist and co-performer Max Steele.

This WORKSHOP PREMIERE will be followed by a talk-back, so stick around to help the artists develop their deranged comedy.

From NBC News: When the U.S. government's version of the United Way handed out hundreds of millions of dollars to charities last year, its largesse extended to more than 1,280 nonprofit organizations that collectively owe $36 million in taxes dating back as far as 1988.

At the same time, other federal agencies gave $1.6 billion in grants to at least 170 of the delinquent charities, which account for nearly 6 percent of the approximately 22,700 charities funded by the Combined Federal Campaign.

And every one of 15 charities that underwent a detailed audit by investigators at the Government Accountability Office was found to be engaged in “abusive and potentially criminal activity,” according to a report on the investigation.
The GAO referred the charities to the Internal Revenue Service, for criminal investigation and collection.

Among them was a mental health clinic that owed more than $1.5 million and has a track record of failure to remit payroll taxes stretching back for 15 years. The director of the clinic, the report said, diverted the tax money to pay his own salary and that of some employees.

Meanwhile, a drug and alcohol rehab center that owed more than $70,000 in taxes managed to find money to buy a boat for its executive director's use.

“Rather than fulfill their role as trustees … the directors and senior officers diverted the money for charity-related expenses, including their own salaries, some of which were in excess of $100,000,” according to the GAO report, which drew little notice when it was released in July.


The people responsible for vetting the CFC charities and managing the money that federal employees contribute every year have been scrambling to reform the system since the congressionally ordered investigation uncovered the delinquent tax problems. But the effort has run into roadblocks, including a law that prohibits managers of the CFC fund from even checking whether charities that get its money might be committing tax fraud.

Hey All, I'll be taking Thursday and Friday off for feasting! Tawk to ya Monday, xoxox, Hil

BRASILIA, Brazil — The mayor of a small Brazilian town has begun handing out free Viagra, spicing up the sex lives of dozens of elderly men and their partners.

"Since we started the free distribution of sexual stimulants, our elderly population changed. They're much happier," said Joao de Souza Luz, the mayor of Novo Santo Antonio, a small town in the central state of Mato Grosso.

Souza Luz said 68 men over the age of 60 had already signed up for the program, which was approved by the town's legislature and has been dubbed "Happy Penis," or "PintoAlegre" in Portuguese. -Reuters

Shocking fans who had assumed that director Peter Jackson, who was responsible for the Lord of the Rings trilogy, would direct The Hobbit -- a kind of prequel to those films -- and another Lord of the Rings epic, Jackson said on theonering.net website Sunday that he had been advised by New Line that the studio "would no longer be requiring our services on The Hobbit ...[and] was now actively looking to hire another filmmaker." Jackson said that the studio cited the ongoing lawsuit that Jackson filed against New Line in June of 2005, charging that the studio had committed fraud in reporting the revenue for 2001's The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, which allegedly resulted in Jackson being underpaid millions of dollars. If the notice from New Line was a ploy to induce Jackson to drop or settle the lawsuit -- as Jackson seems to suggest in his message to "Ringers" -- it apparently failed to achieve its objective. In the message, Jackson said that he was "very sorry our involvement with The Hobbit has been ended in this way. ... This outcome is not what we anticipated or wanted, but neither do we see any positive value in bitterness and rancor. We now have no choice but to let the idea of a film of The Hobbit go and move forward with other projects." -IMDB News

NEW YORK ART BOOK FAIR
Printed Matter, Inc. is presenting this first annual fair of, "contemporary art books, art catalogues, artists' books, art periodicals, and 'zines offered for sale by over 70 international publishers, booksellers, and antiquarian dealers." There will be tons of interesting events and whatnot, with participants like Creative Time and Performa. I just read in the Times Style section that "Black is Back," so dust off that black turtleneck and head down.

Date: November 17th - 19th
Time: Fri. & Sat. 11am-7pm, Sun. 11am-5pm
Location: 548 W. 22nd St. (btwn. 10th & 11th Ave.)
Cost: Free

(Ok guys, Creative Time is also responsible for some of the best raves I ever went to. Anyone remember the parties at The Anchorage?)

BURNING NEW YORK BOOK RELEASE
Gingko Press comes strong with this sequel to Broken Windows, featuring the latest and greatest graf artists burning walls in NYC. The evening will include live beatboxing by Semerock, Yako, Kid Lucky, and D-Cross and DJ TRS spinning (& scratching!) old-school hip hop. I'd advise to there early before all the unsavory vandals drink up all the beer! (HCS: Kid Lucky is an old friend from the poetry slam days)

Burning New York Book Release
Date: Friday, November 17th
Time: 7:00pm - 9:00pm
Location: Bowery Tattoo (334 Bowery btwn Great Jones & Bond)
Cost: Free
Open Bar: Brahma Beer

MEGA-TASTING AT USQ WINES
My mouth just waters at the chance to taste over 100 different bottles of wine in a single afternoon. In honor of the upcoming holiday season, Union Square Wines is having their biggest tasting of the year today so stop by and give your palate a crash course in oenology.

Date: Saturday, November 18th
Time: 12:00pm - 6:00pm
Location: USQ Wines (140 4th Ave at 13th St)
Cost: Free

It's finally here! Sundance programmers are finalizing their choices, and the calls are going out. Congratulations to - damn, I am not allowed to tell you who got accepted yet. I am biting my lip. I am dying to tell you guys who got the nod already!!! Ok, ok, I promise to reveal the lucky ones on Monday.

'Flannel Pajamas'
BY GENE SEYMOUR
Newsday Staff Writer

As raw and biting as a December morning in Montauk, writer-director Jeff Lipsky's depiction of modern metropolitan romance honors the sensibilities of both John Cassavetes and Ingmar Bergman, whose "Scenes From a Marriage" could have easily provided Lipsky with a title.

to read the rest of the review, click here.

This just in from my friend Spyro at Tokion magazine:

TOKION and Dewar's White label are running an awesome contest for film makers with short (3-5) documentary style films. The prizes rock and you get your film screened in NY, Boston, Seatle, Portland and LA -
read on.

TOKION Magazine and Dewar's White Label present the KING OF DOC! Contest

Call for Entries
Send us your own 3-5 minute documentary inspired by the following themes:

MISTAKES
Some people are always looking for new kinds of mistakes to make.

CHEAP LOVE
Talk is cheap until it gets into love letters

INTEGRITY
A man's reputation is that which is not found out about him.

All submissions will be judged by TOKION editors as well as by a panel of our celebrity judges including:
Jonathan Caouette, Filmmaker - Tarnation
Ondi Timoner, Filmaker - "DiG!"
Bruce Sinofsky, Filmaker - Metallica: Some Kind of Monster

The Winners:
We will be flying the three winners to NYC to screen the winning films with us. We will screen your film, have a party in your honor, as well as give you the opportunity to be questioned by an audience of your peers regarding the creative process that was involved in creating your film.

The grand prize winner will be offered a $5000 contract with Dewar's White Label to produce Dewar's White Labels next brand-education film. We're also throwing in a new Apple MacBook Pro laptop and a copy of Apple's Final Cut Pro 5.1 production suite. The second and third prize winners will receive a complete software prize package from SONY worth over $1800 - including SONY Vegas Pro and Cinescore.

Eligibility and Details:
All entrants must submit at least three copies of their film on either DVD, Mini DV or VHS format.
You must be at least 25 years old to submit a film into the KING OF DOC contest.
All entrants must include return address and contact information including current phone number, email and photocopy of valid ID (driver's license, non-driver state ID, passport) stating age.

TOKION/Dewar's White Label is not responsible for returning any submissions.
Submissions must be postmarked no later than Dec 11th 2006.
Submissions should be sent to TOKION KING OF DOC contest C/O TOKION
Magazine 341 Lafayette Street, Suite 587, New York, NY 10012.
Winners will allow films to be screened by Dewar's White Label at Dewar's White Label events.
Winning films may also appear in additional future Dewar's promotional spots.
For all contest info log onto www.tokion.com/kingofdoccontest.

Highly Recommended. Some very INFORMED conspiracy theorists. The host Brian Michaels, has, on occasion, materialized in front of me with hot-off-the-declassified-list documents that have blown my mind - documents without outside commentary, documents straight out of the Dept. of Justice files that outline such outrageous plans as their 1950's program aimed at plowing a US airliner into a Miami buliding in an effort to win support against the Cubans. You get my drift.

Truth in SoHo on a Sunday afternoon.
WHAT: Screening of "9/11 Press For Truth"
WHEN: Sunday, November 26 02:00 PM
WHERE: Truth Film Series
32 Watts Street
NYC, New York 10013

HOSTED BY: brian michels.
Tickets are FREE. RSVP required.

For more details and to RSVP, please visit:
http://pressfortruth.bravenewtheaters.com/screening/show/...

Sugarshack Burlesque at the SOUTHSIDE LOUNGE!!!!

41 Broadway at Wythe
Williamsburg, Brooklyn
9:30pm
Free Admission!!!!!!!!!!



The line up this month is:
Host Anita Cookie
Performances by: RunAround Sue, Roja Rouge, Ginger Fringe, Amelia Danger
Go-GO by: Paloma Negra
DJ: Joanne
http://www.myspace.com/sugarshackburlesque

www.myspace.com/southsidelounge

According to Washington insiders, there are moves afoot to dump Vice President Dick Cheney and replace him with either John McCain or Rudolph Giuliani prior to the 2008 presidential election. Whoever succeeds Cheney will be able to campaign for the presidency with the perks that come with being an incumbent Vice President.
Since the increasingly-besieged Cheney has signaled he has no intention of voluntarily stepping down, the strategy by the Bush camp may be to force him out by presenting evidence before Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald that it was Cheney who was responsible for the compromise of CIA non-proliferation covert officer Valerie Plame Wilson and her Brewster Jennings & Associates cover firm.

Observers note the unusual professional relationship between Fitzgerald and Karl Rove's defense attorney Robert Luskin. Insiders believe that Fitzgerald may be proffered a carefully crafted deal by Luskin whereby Rove will testify to Cheney's primary role in the outing of Mrs. Wilson and her firm. The sealed indictment of Rove will then be retired permanently. If such a deal is worked out, Fitzgerald may then offer a deal to Lewis I. "Scooter" Libby, Cheney's former Chief of Staff, to also testify against Cheney. With such double-barreled testimony, President Bush will then be compelled to ask Cheney for his resignation or face a very nasty and public indictment.
-Wayne Madesn

I feel so warm and fuzzy. I am DYING to watch Cheney go rabid against his own peeps. This is DELICIOUS.

So I (and many other people) have been working for days and days on the details involved with getting a film Premiere and Party off with a bang, and tonite is the nite!! Flannel Pajamas premieres at the Village East Cinemas on 2nd Ave and 12th St. at 7pm, so if you want to see Justin Kirk (Weeds, Angels in America) or Julianne Nicholson (Law & Order CI, Ally McBeal) stepping out, you know where to loiter! Premiere Party at undisclosed-location.

Flannel Pajamas opens to the general public on Wed. November 15th at Angelika (and other screens in other cities). If I see you at the party tonite, give me a kiss for ordering all the beer and wine!