Tim Burton Exhibits Artwork at MoMA: One step closer to my Tim Burton hair doll!

WIRED.com recently ran a Q & A article on their website with my biggest idol, the wonderfully dark, Tim Burton where he discussed his new exhibit at the Museum of Modern Art in New York.  The exhibit is comprised of numerous sketches, paintings, storyboards, props, cartoons, and puppets created by the director himself.  The WIRED article isn’t very long and doesn’t go into great detail, but it’s just enough for those of you who, like me, find yourself cyberstalking Tim Burton.

Wired: Not many directors have retrospectives of their artwork and illustrations. How did having a fine arts background influence your directorial visions?

Burton: The films I grew up loving were very visual. They were the kinds of things that get etched in your memory. To me, film is a very visual thing, so I’m very grateful for my animation background. It’s kind of everything. It’s art, it’s design, it’s film. At that time all I wanted to be was an animator, but through the backdoor you learn how to do everything else. When you make an animated film you have to act it out, design the layouts, shoot it, and edit it. It was a great overall experience.

Wired: What’s your creative process? Do you find yourself doodling and suddenly you’ve got a character for a movie?

Burton: The whole sketching and drawing process to me is the equivalent to how some people write notes. I’ve never really felt like a writer. It was always a visual thing for me. With Jack Skellington, for example, that was just a doodle I kept drawing over and over and over for no apparent reason.

(more…)

read more

Target’s Comedienne, Maria Bamford, mocks WASPs, her family and herself!

Today was the dreaded “Black Friday” and I’m sure most of you precious snow flakes were out beating the shit out of one another in search of iPhones and laptops to give to your fat, fat children.  If you were like me however, you were sitting comfortably at home, puking up last night’s leftovers in hopes of getting a jump start on that New Year’s resolution.  Remember kids, nothing beats skinny!

I’m sure most of you also saw Target’s Black Friday “Two Day Sale” ads starring Comedienne Maria Bamford over the past couple of weeks.  If not, screw you!  You probably think you’re too good for television or perhaps you subscribe to some silly religion that forbids watching TV.  You know the kind that frowns upon marrying ethnics and makes you churn your own butter or burn your underwear when your done with them.

For those of you who don’t know her, Maria Bamford is the quirky little blond lady with the strange voice(s) who can occasionally be found performing in the Comedians of Comedy Tour along side Ratatouille‘s Patton Oswalt, The Hangover’s Zach Galifianakis, Eugene Mirman (he recently replaced Galifianakis) and Brian Posehn.

The “War Room” commercial (seen below) is the first of about seven Target “Two Day Sale” commercials currently running.  Justice and I have been fans of Ms. Bamford for several years now and we were thrilled to finally see her utilizing her talents in a national commercial and not whoring herself out to E! Entertainment’s red carpet show or something equally lame like an ARMY ad. (I’m looking at you 3 Doors Down)

You can check out the other “Two Day Sale” ads here.

A couple of years back Maria Bamford had her own web series, a low budget, single camera show called “The Maria Bamford Show.”  The premise: After struggling to pursue her career as a stand-up comedian in Los Angeles, Maria suffers from a nervous breakdown while on stage and is forced to move back home to Duluth, Minnesota to live with her parents.  It’s definitely worth your time if you, like me, gravitate toward self deprecating humor.

Here are the first four episodes of The Maria Bamford Show.

You can catch the rest of the episodes on Youtube here as well as check out her official site.

read more

ABC: America’s go to station for teaching women to shut the hell up, or else.

ABC’s “Good Morning America” is sending some  crazy mixed messages these days.

First they cancelled Adam Lambert’s performance because of all the homosexual juice he was spraying around all willy nilly and now they offer convicted domestic abuse fan, Chris Brown, an interview AND a live performance. The best part of this roller coaster of stupidity is that when contacted about the apparent homophobia, ABC had this to say.

“He (Adam Lambert) was not canceled over a gay kiss. He showed himself to be unpredictable on live TV.”

In other words, ABC is unsure whether or not Adam Lambert will start fisting patrons, but are positively assured that Chris Brown will start beating random woman. Classy ABC, classy.

ABC is hoping for the same ratings boost that Rihanna gave them during her Diane Sawyer interview, in which she described Chris Brown as soulless, when he was beating her silly.

Brown, who taped his interview with Roberts last weekend, was sentenced in August to six months’ labor and five years’ probation after he pleaded guilty to assaulting Rihanna in February.

The top ABC insider added: “Chris Brown’s interview was booked way before Adam Lambert took to the stage. It is to give him a chance to respond to Rihanna’s interview.

What exactly is there to respond to?

“Did you beat her?”

“Yes”

Interview over.

If you would like to call ABC and voice your displeasure or possibly recommend some other domestic abusers, feel free.

ABC Audience Relations
1-212-456-7477

read more

Palin gets punk’d…. again.

Canadian comedy show, “This hour has 22 minutes” has punk’d the gullible former Governor. Shocker…

The talk show sent its star, Mary Walsh, in character as “Marg Delahunty” in the hopes of getting Sarah to say something about the Canadian system of Health Care or something generally stupid on any subject. Never one to disappoint, Palin had this to say.

“Keep the faith” Palin said, “because common sense conservatism can be plugged in there in Canada too. In fact, Canada needs to reform its health care system and let the private sector take over some of what the government has absorbed.”

According to Mary, no one was allowed to ask any questions of Palin, even when having their book signed by her. Which is rather odd, considering how much “common sense you betchas” the woman carries around.

Awkward.

According to a recent poll, 90% of Canadians approve of their Health Care system, with a large majority thinking theirs is better than the U.S. despite the constant groans about waiting times for non emergency surgery.

read more

Watch: Robin Williams on Palin, Bono and “Old Dogs”.

I am not a huge fan of Robin Williams, but the man is incredibly talented and has great comedic timing. The only problem is, he makes me uncomfortable and anxious when I watch him on Television. He talks so fast and always interrupts people, so I am just waiting for the host to jump out of his seat and flip out, screaming about him never shutting the hell up, or some noise.

Just thinking about it makes me feel dizzy.

In this clip Williams  pokes fun at Palin (like that’s hard), mentions a U2 concert and shows a clip from his new movie.

A movie I have even less desire to see now that I have seen a preview.

I blame Seth Green.

read more

Adam Lambert to America, “I am not your babysitter.” CBS gets boner from lesbian kiss.

Adam Lambert sat down with some white woman on the Early Show and was impressively mature and intelligent. Not that I would think he would be anything other, but for as much as I post about him on here, I know very little about the man off  stage.

Adam held his own, in what appeared to be, a situation where the interviewer was attempting to push an agenda or hoping to make him feel guilty for his AMA performance. Once you watch the video, her bias is hard to ignore, but that could just be me paying attention and using my ears.. who knows?

When pressed about the issue Adam stated that he wasn’t a babysitter and that it was the job of the parents to be watching their own children, especially considering his performance appeared at almost 11 o clock at night. Parents in America are notorious for blaming television for the things that are being shown to their children, rarely taking responsibility for their child’s viewing habits.  This blame game reaches well beyond the gamut of live television or even sitcoms. Family Guy is often bombarded with this kind of lazy parenting and the show even references this from time to time.

Other than coming off non apologetic and intelligent, something else happened in this clip that you may have missed.

CBS blurred out the male on male kiss from Adam’s performance, but had no issue showing the Madonna/Britney incident from years earlier. This is even more noteworthy considering Adam draws attention to the apparent double standard in television and pop music, during his interview. CBS had responded to the double standard with this.

“We gave this some real thought. The Madonna image is very familiar and has appeared countless times including many times on morning television. The Adam Lambert image is a subject of great current controversy, has not been nearly as widely disseminated, and for all we know, may still lead to legal consequences.”

The logic behind this is questionable, simply being that if it was the act that was inappropriate and not the amount of times it was viewed, both images should have been deemed inappropriate. Homophobia is alive and well, no matter how often people attempt to paint Hollywood as a liberal bastion of gay sex. Trust me… it’s not. I lived there and I was rarely offered free homosexual sex… and you know I tried!

Gross.

read more

Jennifer Vanasco: How Adam Lambert Is Hurting Gay Marriage

In her article, which you can read here, Jennifer Vanasco, editor in chief of 365gay.com and Huffington Post.com contributor, takes aim at the former American Idol contestant and discusses the hypocrisy seated within Lambert’s AMA performance as well as his personal views on his sexuality.

“You told Out Magazine that you didn’t make a big deal out of your sexual orientation during American Idol once pictures of you kissing a man had been exposed because:

“I don’t understand why it has to be about my sexuality. I’m just not going to talk about it one way or another. . . . And then when those pictures came out, I was like, you know what? I thought maybe I’ll just own it and say, ‘Yeah, I’m gay.’ But I didn’t want to label myself.”

That’s interesting, Adam Lambert. When you were worried about winning a contest, you didn’t want to openly attest to being gay. (And, in fact, your people were worried that you would seem “too gay” on Out’s cover.) BUT, when you wanted to make a splash in public, when you wanted to get noticed – suddenly you were all about gay sexuality.”

Vanasco goes on to criticize Lambert for his timing and lack of responsibility as a pop culture figure during a period of political uncertainty for the LGBT community.

Personally I don’t agree with everything Vanasco says in her article.  I think she comes off a bit irrational and her article’s title doesn’t hide her disdain for Lambert as a public figure either, but she does have some valid points.  For ABC to even acknowledge the measly 1,500 complaints about Adam Lambert’s performance and then cancel his Good Morning America performance the following day, when the entire show was loaded with acts from straight, female performers shaking their beef baskets in front of the masses, was not only incredibly hypocritical but nothing more than a knee jerk reaction to a situation that needed no handling.

No matter what your views may be on the situation, one thing is clear.  It’s a telling sign of our society that a badly choreographed song and dance by a boy in eyeliner has more political sway than all of the elected representatives and grass roots campaigns combined.

I’m depressed now.  I need a little cake.

read more

Bakersfield has the cure for gays and it rhymes with schmull-shit.

Let me preface this article by saying I, in no way, intend to portray both sides of this argument with a neutral eye. I believe it does a great disservice to truth when we attempt to be objective about every subject. There is no more journalistic integrity in portraying the “positives” of reparative therapy than there is in being neutral on the subject of  segregation.

A recent news piece from KGET channel 17 delves into the myths about “reparative therapy“, that is, the idea that homosexuality can be cured through faith and any other number of unproven and potentially dangerous methods. The idea of repairing or changing someones sexuality may seem as comical as praying for lighter skin or changing ones ethnicity,  however,  in the world of abject stupidity, there are few fields that are not staffed with an army of professional extremists.

Phillip Lee, of His Way Out ministries will tell you, that not only is changing ones sexuality possible, but that he is living proof of it.

“I spent 17 years in what many refer to as the gay lifestyle,” Lee said. “I found out, like so many others, that to call homosexuality gay is a contradiction.”

No more of a contradiction than claiming faith is fact though, or so it would seem. I am sure I am just splitting hairs at this point… right.

Phillip runs his service out of a downtown Bakersfield office and claims to be working with 100 individuals dealing with identity issues and “sexual brokenness”, which isn’t an actual clinical term anymore than Taco Bell could be considered fine Mexican food. A quick search engine query will pull up several sites that link the creation and use of the term with churches and Christian ministry groups. The message here is pretty simple.

“When reality lets you down, make shit up.”

The problem with this type of activity is that these individuals are often dragged into these situations against their will, by poorly educated and ill informed parents. These “conversion therapy” procedures often do irreparable harm to their patients, causing immense self doubt, self hatred and shame. The process is so dangerous and controversial that the American Psychological Association has gone on record to oppose and discourage it, adding that no evidence has shown any such thing is possible, but plenty exists to demonstrate the harm it causes the patient.

Scientifically, there’s not enough evidence to measure the counseling effectiveness, said CSUB counseling psychology professor Kathleen Ritter, who says sexual orientation is a complex topic.

“The longest time that any population was followed in any study is six months so we don’t know if that initial ‘Oh I changed’ held.”

Ritter helped review the American Psychological Association’s guidelines http://www.apa.org/pi/lgbc/guidelines on sexual orientation and efforts to change it.

Through the guideline, the APA resolved homosexuality is not a mental disorder and mental health professionals should avoid telling clients they can change their sexual orientation through therapy or other treatments.

Ritter doesn’t suggest conversion therapy for her patients in her private practice, but says it would be unethical to persuade someone from using of it.

“We don’t want to look like we have the religious people on one end and psychologists on the other and that we’re fighting each other. Because that’s not true.” Ritter said.

I will take Kathleen Ritter’s last statement and expand upon it a little more. While this may not be about religion versus psychology, it has everything to do with reason and logic versus blind intolerance and ignorance. There is little point in arguing against that, but it still warrants being said.

Later on in the segment, Whitney Weddel, chair of the Bakersfield LGBTQ organization was introduced and offered another counter argument to the junk science that was being peddled.

Whitney goes on to say…

“For years in schools, people were forced to not be left handed. We know now these are wonderfully diverse ways of being normal,” said activist Whitney Weddell. “The 100 kids that come in with their parents, I wonder how many parents drag them in and are being forced to this therapy that is just a waste of time.”

There is currently a poll on the KGET website that asks its visitors to state whether they believe people can become “straight” through reparative therapy. The poll has gone up and down over the night, but there is still a dangerously high percentage of people who believe it’s possible. It is very unlikely that any of those people will be reading this, but in the off chance, let’s have a quick look at one of the many forms of this “healthy” and “loving” spiritual therapy.

If you can stand to watch the video long enough to get past her butchery of the English language, maybe you can answer me this. Is it wrong for me to find it so comical, that a people once bonded into slavery through the use of the Bible, are now using that same book to bond others?

If you visit, “His Way Out” ministries you will find a website that is in much need of a redesign and apparently money. The good lord seems to have the power to undo the mistakes he supposedly made, but lacks the ability to give his followers the money they need to continue. On closer inspection, there is plenty of false information on the website, as well as vague and conveniently shadow like speak about the actual process or outcome of these therapies. Outside of “working within the holy spirit of the lord”, there is little information on the actual process of turning one against their inner nature. It has long been believed that these therapies change no one, but are successful in shaming the individuals into denying their true identity.

It would seem to me that the Lord needs to worry less about homosexuals and more about those in need.

Might I suggest these people?

In the end, there is little to be said about this topic that is not already surrounding us. Discussing the pros and cons of these therapies is akin to weighing the downsides and upsides of being burned alive.  Sure, you may survive the process, but you will never be yourself again.

read more