Gus Van Zandt's, "Elephant"

35MM, COLOUR, DOLBY DIGITAL, 81 MINUTES, USA, ENGLISH / DIRECTOR/SCRIPT/EDITOR: GUS VAN SANT / CINEMATOGRAPHER: HARRIS SAVIDES / PRODUCTION CO: BLUE RELIEF PRODUCTIONS, FEARMAKERS STUDIOS, HBO FILMS, MENO FILMS, PIE FILMS INC. / PRINT SOURCE/RIGHTS: RIALTO FILMS, 2003

Gus Van Sant’s Palm d’Or winning Elephant is an examination of violence made explicit by the 1999 Columbine massacre. The title references Alan Clarke’s 1989 film about violence in Northern Ireland, and that film’s proverbial ‘elephant’ in the room that no one wants to acknowledge. Extended tracking shots survey the school’s topography, repeating the interaction between students from different perspectives, all interconnected as the film spirals towards tragedy. The film points simultaneously to the senseless consequences of the scenario, the cultural context of modern entertainment, the co-opting of historical signifiers and the confused sexuality of the two killers.

"Now remember to have fun."

Never Joke About Appearances Or Taste

A lively wit and a humorous disposition are essential for a good courtier, and there are times when vulgarity is appropriate and engaging.

But avoid any kind of joke about appearance or taste, two highly sensitive areas, especially with those above you.

Do not even try it when you are away from them.

You will dig your own grave.

Gabrielle Luizzi

Gabrielle Luizzi and "She" being tied to the Vespa for a midnight ride through the Cahuenga Pass.
Los Angeles, California
Polaroid Spectra

Howard Hughes On Santa Monica Blvd.

According to Ted Carpentier, police on Santa Monica Boulevard arrested Hughes for picking up a boy prostitute and compelling the boy to give him fellatio in his Chevrolet. He was taken to the precinct, fingerprinted, and asked for his identity. Instead of responding, he wrote out a check for one million dollars and signed it Howard Hughes.

After his ID was checked, he was released with no further questions asked. Carpentier said that Hughes, now forty-five, was finding it harder to find men who were attracted to him physically (though he retained the thinness that was mandatory in most gay circles, he looked older than his age, and was gaunt). So he would pay, and extravagantly, for the services of call boys, supplied by a well-known male madam.

Bruno Kayan

Serlin Associates

paris

126, boulevard bineau
92200 neuilly sur seine - france
tel: +33 (0)1 41 43 24 24
fax: +33 (0)1 4143 24 23
info@serlinassociates.com

london

unit 445 highgate studios
53 -79 highgate road london nw5 1 tl
tel: +44 (0)20 7424 8888
fax: +44 (0)20 7424 8889
info@serlinassociates.com

Billy Gibbons

Billy tucked his beard in so that no one would recognize him while we went a lookin' for movie stars, television personalities, and recording artists.

Sunset Plaza
Los Angeles, California
Last century

The Goodbye

There's gonna be a long goodbye on this rainy hill.

I can stand in rain in all kinds of temperature and control my shakes to be really quick tremors or giant quakers and baby when I do my quakes I could be the scenery in a blockbuster movie on the first night at the drive-in. The kind where the state troopers have to tell all the people stoppin' on the side of the highway to move on and move on quickly and safely.

Buckle up now. Buckle up for the greatest show on earth.

Miami Florida

Fog in Miami.

Don't Call Me Dude

Pages 83, 84, 85, 171,172, 181, and 187 ripped, tossed or hidden from the Encyclopedia Of Mayhem.

Marie-Therese

Marie-Therese recalled that the King and Queen continued to be threatended in front of their children. Her brother would cry and tremble when he heard the jailers describe the ways in which they were going to torture and kill the King. Marie-Therese wrote that her father would respond with 'calm and contemptuous silence'. Her mother always maintained her dignity and poise in front of the guards, but on September 2, a three-day massacre began in the city that broke the Queen's resolve.

On day two of the slaughter the Princesse de Lamballe was taken from La Force on to the streets of Paris, decapitated, disemboweled and her breasts cut off. The Baronne de Courtot was convinced that the murder had been carried out on the orders of the Duc d' Orleans in order to taunt the Queen and benefit his wife. The Princess's head was placed on one pole, her mutilated body on another. A mob bearing the two pikes then marched to the Temple Prison where the prison guards let them into the courtyard and paraded Lamballe's head under the Queen's window. According to Marie-Therese, the jailer, Rocher, shouted with joy upon seeing the head. Although the mob screamed for the Queen to appear at her window, she did not. When questioned by the King as to what was going on outside, a young officer replied: 'Well, if you want to know, it is the head of Mme de Lamballe they wish to show you.' The Queen was overcome with terror and Marie-Therese recalled that her mother cried all night.

Deerhoof

Satami Matsuzaki of Deerhoof.

Bristol Palin: Isn't there some Jap girl in that band?!

Kool Marder: They have a good beat and you can dance to them.

GOD: The best band in the world.

Nancy Cassaro

"If I hear of one more shark giving birth by immaculate conception, I will no longer go past the mailbox at my house."

The Monster Of Florence

The summer of 1985 was one of the hottest in recent memory. A serious drought gripped Tuscany, and the hills of Florence lay stunned and prostrate under the sun, the ground cracking, the leaves turning brown and falling from the trees.

The city's aqueducts began to dry up, and priests led their congregations in fervent prayer to the Lord for rain.

Along with the heat, fear of the Monster hung over the city like a stifling blanket.

Down In The Valley

Edward Norton in "Down In The Valley"
David Jacobson, writer and director
Element Films
2005

And Then There Were Four Then There Were

Harry Goaz

Harley Peyton

Ray Wise

Russ Tamblyn

Last century in Madrid Spain.

Bill Reid Hollywood Producer

My next to oldest brother told me that she used to be a go-go dancer on the Vanilla Fudge Tour 1972 after she graduated from William & Mary.

Cathe Smothers

Cathe riding "Apache" bareback in Ojai, California. Apache is a trained wild Mustang that was rescued.

Kevin Murphy told me that if Cathe has only one arm in the air, she is either scrolling through iTunes or texting.

David On David. That's Mr. Lowery To You.

I forgot to mention that when I got on the plane en route to Birmingham this past Thursday, the lady at security took a gander at my drivers' license and said "Oh, it's you!" This either means that I've hit a new apex in traveling (which may be true, but I've also got a long way to go) or, more likely, that I have an instantly recognizable license.

Now I'm in Chicago, where I took a second photo, this one depicting my famous pink backpack, the Pelican case containing one of the "St. Nick" hard drives, and Frank Ross' feet.

Yoko Ono: Let's Make A Deal

Ono got down to business. "What do you know about us?" she quizzed Geffen.

Geffen responded truthfully that he only knew only some of Lennon's records.

"What about my music?" she asked.

"Well, I've never heard any of your records."

"Really," Ono said. "That doesn't sould like a very good reason for me to make a deal with you."

"I'm a big fan of John's, and I have a great deal of respect for the two of you, and we do a very good job. We're a good record company."

"What do you mean you're a good record company?" Ono fired back. "You haven't put out a record yet!"

"Well, we're gonna be great," Geffen said.

"'Gonna be,' 'gonna be,' who knows about 'gonna be'?"

When Ono next asked Geffen what he planned to pay them, he reverted to one of his tried-and-true dealmaking tricks, refusing to be the first to state a figure. He had learned his lesson since 1972. When Ono insisted that Geffen throw out a number, Geffen calmly declined. "You have to tell me what you want,' he said, "and if I can give it to you, I will, and if I can't, I won't."

Ono relented and told Geffen she and Lennon were hunting for at least a million dollars per album. Geffen had already promised similar terms to Donna Summer and Elton John, so he did not hesitate before agreeing. "OK, we've got a deal," replied Geffen.

"Oh no, we haven't," she said. "That's just what I want. I don't know that I want it from you. I'll think about it. I'll call you later."

The next morning, Ono called Geffen and asked him to come to the office at the Dakota again. When he arrived, Ono spelled out a few more of the details that she wanted in the contract. Geffen quickly accepted.

"Don't you want to hear the music first?" she asked.

"No, I'll wait until whenever you want to play it for me."

Unknowingly, Geffen had passed that test, too. "If you wanted to hear the music before you made the deal, we wouldn't have gone with you," Ono said. She shook Geffen's hand.

It was only then that Ono called for John to come join them in her white office. It was the first time Geffen had seen Lennon since 1975.

Jan Sharp

Wrist Mounted Adjustable Rapid Flame Cannon
Jan Sharp, patent pending 2006

The Heart Is A Lonely Hunter

They rode very slow for about half a mile out of town, and then suddenly she saw Bubber.

The lights of the car showed him up in front of them very plain. It was funny.

He was walking along the edge of the road and he had his thumb out trying to get a ride.

Portia's butcher knife was stuck in his belt, and on the wide, dark road he looked so small that it was like he was five years old instead of seven.