Jay Leno on Orprah

Even Oprah is mad at him!

I didn't see it, but apparently Oprah was picking on Jay Leno when he appeared in her show. Some coverage described Leno as whining. He did make an unkind comment about Conan's low ratings.

And apparently Oprah was siding with Conan, too. Told Leno that a joke he made about Letterman molesting his employees was "beneath him". This was in response to Letterman calling Leno "Big Jaw", or something.

Well, It's not Leno's fault he has a big jaw. But no one forced Letterman to have a love nest right there in his office where he would commit outrages against the innocence of junior staffers.

Jimmy Kimmel making fun of Leno on Oprah

"I don't think going on a comedy show and making jokes qualifies as a 'sucker punch'," he said.

He went in to say that his mistake when he went on Leno's show was thinking that Jay would have anything to say other than what was on the cue cards. He thought Leno would talk back, like comedians do.

Oprah's got nothing to brag about

Oprah's a monster. She was the one responsible for the state of these day time talk shows. Phil Donahue had a serious, respectable, informative show. The Oprah came along, stole his format and did shows on alien abductions and demonic possession. Donahue wouldn't sink to her level and he was run out. Then Oprah announced she was going to be classy for a change.

Word is that the reason she's retiring is that a new book is coming out about her and her disgusting show.

Leno and Letterman

Now, going back to the Tonight Show battle between Letterman and Leno, it seems that Johnny Carson, even though he made Leno his regular guest host, still intended to have David Letterman take over The Tonight Show, but Letterman was thwarted by Leno's backroom deals.

And then you have the FAKE child stars

There was the case of an old man who appeared on 20/20 or some such show claiming that he played Buckwheat in the old Little Rascals movies. Now he was reduced to working as an elderly bag boy in a grocery store.

Of course it was a lie. Buckwheat worked as a technician at Technicolor and had died a few years earlier.

There have been others. Old timers who usually claim to have played a non-existent character named Stinky in the Little Rascals.

Cha-ka

There was little Phillip Paley. I remember seeing him on The Flip Wilson Show. He was a little martial artist. He got a black belt at age 9 at Chuck Norris's karate school. He flipped Johnny Carson on The Tonight Show and beat up Flip Wilson.

I remember being angry about that. It was fake! He didn't really beat up Flip Wilson! He was the youngest person to have a black belt in karate, and he was slightly younger than me, which meant that I would never be the youngest person to hold a black belt in karate. The fact that I didn't study karate was beside the point.



Paley went on to play Cha-ka on Land of the Lost. He spent hours being made up, was on a set sweating all day in the ape suit.

Imagine his chagrin years later when someone called Rodney Sheppard, part of some sort of "band" called Sugar Ray falsely claimed over a number of years to have played Cha-ka. This became part of his official biography. Phillip Paley was aware of it and finally did something about when it appeared in an issue of People magazine.

Paley's lawyers sent a letter and the "musicians" put out a statement announcing that it turned out that Sheppard hadn't played Cha-ka after all.

Kenneth Anger

You can't expect complete honesty from a devil worshipper, I suppose, but Kenneth Anger, the underground filmmaker claimed for years to have played the changeling prince in the old movie, A Midsummer Night's Dream.



I don't know if Anger was in the thing at all. They list him as an extra in imdb.com. But the changeling prince was played by a girl named Sheila Brown.

I can't find the reference to it now, but Anger claimed that there was as accident during the filming and the costumes of of the children playing fairies caught fire which explained his life of sado-masochism.

Is it really so wrong?

I guess it's impossible now, with imdb.com. But if you could claim to have been a child star in a movie that never existed, would it be so terrible? Isn't show business all fake anyway? Aren't you just getting into the spirit of it?

Is it any worse than Steven Spielberg telling that stupid story about how he sneaked into a movie studio and the studio executives were so impressed them gave him a job? It was all a lie, disproven years ago. Just like his claim to have been a victim of anti-Semitism in high school. He used that story when people questioned his qualification to direct The Color Purple. Reporters went to his school expecting to do a story on how Spielberg was persecuted and instead discovered it was a lie. Which makes me doubt the rather implausible story he told after making Schindler's List---that an old timer used his concentration camp tattoo to show him that if you turn a 6 upside down, it looks like a nine.

So why should Hollywood bigwigs be the only ones allowed to lie?

Random Appropriation of the Day!

"Headdress Bobby Pins" from lulus.com. Description reads:

Dress up those lovely locks with our Headdress Bobby Pins! Choose from a pair of either pewter or brass pins for a cute new look. Features a chieftain coin at the tip of a 2" long pin. Coin has a .5" diameter. Comes in a set of two. Man made materials. Imported.

Headdress Bobby Pins: http://www.lulus.com/products/Headdress+Bobby+Pins/18752.html

(Thanks Sees!)

Amy Winehouse wants to remove her Blake tattoo

Amy Winehouse is not only famous for her music or her problems with drugs, alcohol her wild nights out, she is also known for her many tattoos!

And there's one that's much talked about at the moment: the one on her heart in the shape of a pocket where it is written "Blake's", which meant that her heart belonged to Blake Fielder-Civil!

But while rumors say that the couple is about to remarry, the tattoo artist of the singer reveals that she came to see him asking to cover this permanent tattoo.

We don't know the motives behind her decision but she has a fwe options : to cover it with another design or to try laser treatment to remove the tattoo.


We might find out more about her decision after they marry again....or not.

Model posing in blue designer saree

Photoshop glowing edges art of a Indian female model posing in Black & Blue designer saree.

 FAMOUS ART QUOTES, MUSIC QUOTES, PAINTING QUOTES, FILM MAKING QUOTES, PHOTOGRAPHY QUOTES:

That's the trouble with directors--always biting the hand that lays the golden egg.
~ Sam Goldwyn

As far as I am concerned, a painting speaks for itself. What is the use of giving explanations, when all is said and done? A painter has only one language.
~ Pablo Picasso

No place is boring, if you've had a good night's sleep and have a pocket full of unexposed film.
~ Robert Adams, Darkroom & Creative Camera Techniques, May 1995

It's weird that photographers spend years or even a whole lifetime, trying to capture moments that added together, don't even amount to a couple of hours.
~ James Lalropui Keivom

Appropriations at Disney World Part 3: Disney Wilderness Lodge

yeah, that's a Navajo rug coke machine. Welcome to Disney's Wilderness Lodge! The pictures that follow are all from the lobby of the hotel, which describes its decor as:

Taking inspiration from the early 1900s—a time when the spirit of the American pioneer soared—and cues from Native American cultures, the theme of being in harmony with nature winds through Disney's Wilderness Lodge—inside and out. Authentic decor and genuine artifacts pay homage to ancient Native American cultures and the pioneering spirit of early American explorers

note the use of the words "authentic" and "genuine". After the jump, a million pictures of "authenticity" at its best. I also recommend a look at their website here.

some gorgeous moccasins in a display case, but with no description or anything to note if they're Native made, or where or when they're from.

from farther away--Plains style, eastern woodlands style...all together.

The first of a couple "Native" headdresses, the description on it read "inspired by a 19th century crow headdress." More like inspired by an ostrich.

This gem sits behind the check-in desk. If you can't tell from the picture it's a "peace pipe" with mickey mouse ears.

a line of cradle boards behind the reception desk (again with no descriptions or anything)

I found this juxtaposition nice...the Indian landscape with lincoln logs for the kids to practice being "pioneers"

Lamp at the restaurant

another "inspired by" headdress, this one "19th century Sioux"

apologies for the dark picture, but this is the totem pole that runs from the floor to the ceiling in the lobby

rug on the wall in the gift shop

Buckskin "dress" in the gift shop (it's actually just one layer, made to look like a dress)

lighting in the gift shop

Tipi lighting in the lobby

drum lighting outside the bathrooms

Disney totem pole outside the gift shop

"inspired by a 19th century crow headdress" I believe the exact words out of my mouth were: "omygod it looks like an effing muppet"

back of the muppet headdress, sorry my camera is bad at low light photos

see? totally the same.
(gotta love the labyrinth)

northwest coast designs on the pool bar

random artifacts thrown in a display case. Monica pointed out that most people would assume the horse hair on the right was a scalp (it's not).

Wall decoration: "inspired by 19th century sioux winter count"

Fireplace screen...they're making smoke signals.

Finally, for comparison's sake, the display case next to the fireplace. Rocks, Natives--same thing, right?

Wilderness Lodge webpage: http://disneyworld.disney.go.com/resorts/wilderness-lodge-resort/

Random Appropriation of the Day!

Diesel ad (via sociological images). UFO? check. Headdress/Speedo/neon trainers combo? check. Random? you betcha! (click for the full pic)

link to the sociological images article: http://contexts.org/socimages/2010/01/27/be-stupid/

Tommy Tomahawk Update: School Board votes 3-2 to keep mascot

Stilwell Public Schools’ board votes to keep Tommy Tomahawk

Looks like Stilwell High School will keep it's new mascot, after the school board hosted a special meeting in the school gym to hear "both sides" of the argument. The board heard from speakers from each side of the issue, and ultimately voted 3-2 in favor of the mascot.

A disheartening and upsetting decision, to say the least. But I think Cherokee Nation representative Dr. Morton put an interesting spin on it, advocating for more lessons about Cherokee culture and life ways to let the students come to their own conclusions:

Morton, a longtime Stilwell resident, said he appreciated the opinion of everyone in attendance, especially the students, but the school might need to teach more Cherokee concepts to the children.

“Naturally, it is a student project and students are very protective of their projects, as well as they should be,” he said. “Perhaps a more in-depth understanding of Cherokee culture, Cherokee life ways and Cherokee history would cause a person not to want Tommy Tomahawk to represent them as a people.”

Many of the attendees who were against the mascot were not happy with the vote, and will likely keep fighting for its removal or a "compromise" that would allow the students to keep the mascot, if it were a less stereotypical and offensive image.

As board president Eli Pumpkin (who voted against Tommy) said, they could have a least picked a better representation:

“I’m from this community, and I’ve got a lot of calls from Native Americans in this district and they’ve certainly been offended,” he said. “I think we could’ve done a better job with what we picked. I think we made him look awful ugly.”

The problem with a "better" representation is that research has shown even "positive" or "neutral" images (think Disney's Pocahontas) of American Indians cause reductions in self esteem and self worth for Native students--even if they report "positive associations" with the mascots.

Meaning, if you show a Native student a picture of Chief Wahoo, Pocahontas, or Tommy Tomahawk, they may say that it doesn't bother them, but then when they are given a survey on self esteem or self worth, their scores significantly drop. I mean significantly.

Stephanie Fryberg, a professor at the University of Arizona, has done most of her work in the field of images of Native Americans in relation to self esteem, self worth, and possible selves for Indian students. The abstract from one of her papers sums up her findings:

Four studies examined the consequences of American Indian mascots and other
prevalent representations of American Indians on aspects of the self-concept for American Indian students. When exposed to Chief Wahoo, Chief Illinwek, Pocahontas, or other common American Indian images, American Indian students generated positive associations, but reported depressed state self-esteem, and community worth, and fewer achievement-related possible selves. We suggest that American Indian mascots are harmful because they remind American Indians of the limited ways others see them and, in this way, constrain how they can see themselves.

The entire article can be read online here, and I highly recommend it.

So, in conclusion, I encourage Stilwell residents and CN citizens to keep fighting against Tommy Tomahawk--letting him stay in any form does more than perpetuate stereotypes, it damages students' self esteem and future possible selves.



See earlier post for background information: http://nativeappropriations.blogspot.com/2010/01/stilwell-high-schools-new-mascot.html

Stilwell Public Schools’ board votes to keep Tommy Tomahawk (I recommend the video as well, on the righthand side)

Of Warrior Chiefs and Indian Princesses: The Psychological Consequences of American Indian Mascots (Fryberg's article)

Shriya Saran actress of tamil movie Kutty

South Indian actress Shriya Saran in designer half saree.

FAMOUS ART QUOTES, MUSIC QUOTES, PAINTING QUOTES, FILM MAKING QUOTES, PHOTOGRAPHY QUOTES:

The best approach is to let the film make itself, to let it grow organically, day by day. To find the rhythm of the director. To match a script to its space. To gain the confidence of the actors. To regulate the mood (good or bad) of the cast and crew.
~ Wong Kar-wai

The creative act lasts but a brief moment, a lightning instant of give-and-take, just long enough for you to level the camera and to trap the fleeting prey in your little box.
~ Henri Cartier Bresson

Photographers deal in things which are continually vanishing and when they have vanished there is no contrivance on earth which can make them come back again.
~ Henri Cartier-Bresson

A jazz musician is a juggler who uses harmonies instead of oranges.
~ Benny Green

Meeno Peluce

Meeno Peluce. He's Punky Brewster's brother. He was one of the kids in the original Amityville Horror movie. He even seemed to have done a stunt, falling on the basement stairs.

Later he played Tanner in The Bad New Bears TV series, he played the kid on a western sit-com, Best of the West, and, finally, he was the kid in the series Voyagers, which was sort of a cross between Terry Gilliam's Time Bandits and the TV show Quantum Leap. I read he works as a photographer now---I'm not sure.

As a child actor, Meeno had a knack for crying. I hope he was one of those kids who could cry on cue, because if not, the demands of the show must have left him an emotional wreck. He was to crying what Bruce Lee was to martial arts. Well. What Ernie Reyes, Jr., was to martial arts.

I remember him from Best of the West, which I sort of liked at the time. Meeno's TV father went on to be Ricky Schroder's TV father on Silver Spoons. I had seen but didn't remember him in The Bad News Bears TV show which I didn't like. And I did remember him in The Amityville Horror. I wondered how they got him to do his own stunt, or if they somehow got a tiny stunt double for him. Maybe he just tripped and fell and they kept the cameras rolling.

Anyway, I don't really have anything to say about him. I just happened to come across a set of DVDs of the show Voyagers.

Meeno's co-star on the show, Jon-Erik Hexum died just a year after the show left the air. He was killed in a tragic accident with a prop gun on the set of another show.




It's surprising when you look at the number of actors who have been injured or killed on the job.

Dick York's career ended because of a back injury he suffered in a movie. William Shatner's ears have been ringing ever since an episode of Star Trek where an explosion was set off too close to him---he was close to suicide because of it once. If you've seen the movie Ed Wood, you know about Bela Lugosi's problem. Linda Blair suffered a broken back in The Exorcist. No one knew about it at the time, but it caused her problems later, and Ellen Burstyn has suffered back problems because of a shot where she falls on the floor in that movie.

Noah Hathaway did a number of his own stunts in The Neverending Story, even though he was only about 12. But before filming began, they took him out to practice horseback riding for the movie. He fell off the horse and broke his back. He was in the hospital for a month before filming on the movie began. Years later, he was working as a dancer but had to quit because of back problems.

Roy Kinnear, who appeared in Help! and Sherlock Holmes' Smarter Brother was killed in a horseback riding accident while filming The Return of the Musketeers.

Acting is surprisingly dangerous work. And there are other unpleasant things about it.

In a TV documentary about The Brady Bunch, they talked about their Hawaiian vacation episode.

Peter really didn't want the tarantula on him. But he had to do it.

Sherwood Schwartz didn't care. He just said that there was more to being an actor than saying your lines.

Ellen Burstyn tells young actors not to be generous with their bodies. Don't volunteer to do stunts. It's not worth it.

And directors need to be extremely careful about the health of safety of their cast and crew.

Charles Grodin, writing about the filming of the movie King Kong mentioned that the director did not want to risk having actors run through a real jungle. It was too dangerous. He had to fight with Dino De Larentis over spending the money to construct a set for the scene.

Native Link Roundup

• Russian Ice Dance Tribute to Aborigines Offensive to Aborigines

"They have got the whole thing wrong," said Stephen Page, artistic director of the respected indigenous group, the Bangarra Dance Company. Page said there were no traditional movements in the routine, the music sounded more like it came from India or Africa than Aboriginal Australia and the body paint looked like "a three-year-old child had drawn it on"... "Probably the elders in the bush would be laughing because they would be saying, 'Look how stupid these fellas are,' " he said."

• Sundance Announces Native Film Lineup

"Sundance Institute’s Native American & Indigenous Program is pleased to announce its line up for the Sundance Film Festival’s 2010 Native Forum.The films in this line-up competed on a global scale against 10,000 film submissions to be programmed at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival. These films are either written, directed or produced by Native American, Maori, Aboriginal & Inuit filmmakers."

• Professor Pushes for More Native Art on Campus

"The Yale University Art Gallery has Asian, African and even Indo-Pacific departments, but it is largely lacking in collections from closer to home — American Indian art. Now, one professor is trying to change that." (full disclosure: it quotes my sister!)

• Michael Steele's "Honest Injun" Comment Sparks Backlash

"Some consider the word "injun" to be as offensive as the N-word, but apparently Republican National Chairman Michael Steele didn't know that when he tried to underscore a point earlier this week by saying, "Honest injun on that."

• Montrose Indians Mascot Raises Some Objections

"The president of the advisory panel to the Ute Indian Museum in Montrose isn’t too happy with the local high school. Earlier this month, an unnamed student at Montrose High School painted his face black and red, adorned himself in American Indian headdress and whooped and howled at a basketball game."

• "Shall the Pueblos be Civilized?" (via sociological images)

"It’s a great example of how Whites felt entirely comfortable discussing what the future of American Indians should be, either romanticizing them as noble savages or insisting on their cultural backwardness, without any sense that Indians themselves might have any ideas on the issue worth paying attention to."

(Thanks to Kayla, Michele, and Nikke for the tips!)

Random Appropriation of the Day!

From the wall of an optometrist in Hilo, Hawaii. So many weird things about this one.

(Thanks Leon!)

Visitor trips and tears £80 million Picasso Painting!

A student viting New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art halved the value of a Pablo Picasso to £40million - after stumbling into it and causing a rip. The female student who will not be named, made a 6in tear in the lower right-hand corner of the painting. It is estimated that the painting can be fully repaired, leaving just a small line, but because of the damage, the value of the painting, previously estimated at £80 million will never recover and is now estimated at £40 million. It is a lot of money when you consider that she just lost her balance during the art class which can happen anywhere to any of us. Collectors are not really interested in painting or any objects if they have been repaired. The most valuable works of art are always in the state of origin, as intended or left by the artist.

Museum officials will not identify the student and they have confirmed that the 105-year-old painting will be fixed in time for the museum's Picasso exhibition in April.

Bengal Cotton checks saree

Photoshop art of a Indian female model posing in Bengal cotton weaving checks and butti Saree.

FAMOUS ART QUOTES, MUSIC QUOTES, PAINTING QUOTES, FILM MAKING QUOTES, PHOTOGRAPHY QUOTES:

Music, when soft voices die
Vibrates in the memory.
~ Percy Bysshe Shelley

Who sees the human face correctly: the photographer, the mirror, or the painter?
~ Pablo Picasso

I experience a period of frightening clarity in those moments when nature is so beautiful. I am no longer sure of myself, and the paintings appear as in a dream.
~ Vincent van Gogh

The aim of every artist is to arrest motion, which is life, by artificial means and hold it fixed so that a hundred years later, when a stranger looks at it, it moves again since it is life.
~ William Faulkner

Appropriations at Disney World Part 2: Epcot and Animal Kingdom

Most of my pictures from Epcot come from the "World Showcase" which could be a dissertation in itself--it was fascinating to see which aspects and icons from countries they chose to feature, which were omitted, and how little explanation was given with the structures and images.

The picture above (and most that follow) comes from the Canadian village, which was almost exclusively Native themed--while interestingly the American Village looked like a stereotypical new England town:
Anyway, after the jump, lots of photos of Canadian First Nations Appropriations, a few Mayan/Aztec appropriations, followed by some disturbing representations of Indigenous Africans at Disney's Animal Kingdom.

behind the totem pole you can see the rest of the Canadian Village--pretty nondescript

More Canadian Village

They had "traditional" masks to take pictures with outside the village


Behind the cash register inside the "trading post"

Trading Post

Souvenir coin machine inside trading post

Dream catchers for sale

Apparently the dream catchers are from a "100% Native Owned" company. hmm.

Now we go to Mexico!

Indigenous imagery on the front of the pyramid structure

Pyramid in the Mexican Village

Moving on to Animal Kingdom, which is partially set in a fictitious, purposely aged and run-down "African Outpost" called "Harambe" which (thanks google) means "coming together as one" in Swahili. Sorry for all those quotation marks. I only snapped a couple photos of things that just stopped me in my tracks:

Get your picture taken with a Real African! I was just struck how these men were put in the same role as Mickey or Donald Duck--characters on display.

Look kids, you can get your face painted like a tiger, or a butterfly, or...

an African Ceremony?!

Still to come, photos from the Disney Wilderness Lodge, a luxury resort that is completely Native themed. Think totem poles, winter counts, peace pipes, and lincoln logs all rolled into one decor.