Most inspired comment in the wake of the tiger attack in SF: “Et tu, Tony?”

Kenny and Willie—two in-bred, retarded white tigers; Kenny’s shown above—are still waiting for their money.

The year of nappy-headed hos, the year Eddie Murphy kept quitting, the year of the Jena Six, the year Bill Cosby quit being funny (Or was that more like ‘83?), the year of Barack Obama’s potential, we also learned that Kara Walker and Clarence Thomas are seething with a black rage nearly indistinguishable from each other. Walker’s show won near-universal praise–indeed, I rated it my favorite art show of 2007 (post forthcoming)–while Thomas’s won, predictably, near-universal condemnation. (”The problem with black-and-white portraits is also that they produce cartoons where there might have been nuance” is actually a line from a review of Thomas’s book.) But the anger (and sometimes loathing) seem to come from the same place in black psychology. In some upcoming posts, the Ghosts will look for these similarities, as well as elaborating on the year in racism that was.

Palazzo sent along the link above, of a man that suffers a severe, bizarre form of leprosy that makes him look as if he’s growing roots. Couldn’t resist posting when I came across the video of the man that suddenly turned a deep, dark shade of blue.

From DG Super Friend Christopher Palazzo comes my favorite find all week: A Flickr group dedicated to old porno stills. Awesome. Most of them evoke what I thought Europe would be like, when I was 14.

Director File’s 10-best list for 2007. Amazing stuff here, needless to say. Special props though to the vids for The Liars, and Justice’s D.A.N.C.E. (of course) and Grizzly Bear (pictured above; love the the flowery crystalline private parts). But no Battles? For shame.

One little footnote: The font in which “Dance” is written in the video looks based on Milton Glaser’s Baby Teeth, which was the inspiration for Pop Lock, the font of our upcoming logotype.

Via the ever-excellent Kottke.

I doubt that America—which has never suffered through Communism and prefers its morning cereal with milk rather than vodka—will ever produce something this awesome: Apparently there are communities of Russians whose pastime is interpreting written descriptions of improbable, slightly creepy scenes and then photographing the results. Some of the scenarios mentioned in the article:

“A Cheating Wife: You need to make a photo of a man, “a lover”, hanging outside the real window. The window should be not lower than a 3rd store of a multi-stored building. “A husband” should lean out from another window with a gun, aiming at “the lover”. From yet another window “the cheating wife” should look out in despair.”

“The Waiter: A man dressed like a water should crawl out of a refuse chute in some multi-stored building, right from the disposal opening. He should hold a tray with some servings and a towel in another hand”

“A Zombie: A man, rolled up in bandages should crawl on his stomach at a pedestrian crossing. He should have a knife sticking out of his back. Another guy should chase him with a working chainsaw”

“The Pickles: Make a photo of many jars of pickles. Some of them should have pickled cell-phones. Not less than five cell phones in each jar please”

“A Pyramid: You should have a three level pyramid on the photo. The first level is some random truck, the second is a passenger car and some two-wheeled thing on the top of “the pyramid” please.”

Today, the cops investigating the murder of 2 Indian ph.D students in Baton Rouge released sketches of the suspects. They’re a bit off. Like maybe the rest of the sketch artists moved to Houston after Katrina and the artist’s other gig is over at Mrs. Croxton’s 3rd-grade homeroom. I don’t even know why the artist bothered with a pencil. Was another kid already using the tan Crayon?

Wanted: Two black men, mid- to late-20s. May have appeared recently as cameo characters on King of the Hill or Beavis and Butthead. Considered armed and potentially hilarious.

Since reading this interview with Terence Koh, I’ve been a little irritated about it. Koh comes off as materialistic, narcissistic, and nihilistic. Which is part of the point, and part of the appeal—his art and personage embody a particular moment (Dec 2007, Dow: ~14,000), in a particular place (downtown New York). Whatever. I get it. But damn, give me something more than art that approximates a cocaine hangover—manic buzz that has long since dissipated into headache. Whether Koh stacks glass vitrines filled with his own gold-plated shit or hangs Janus-faced porcelain casts of his own head, there’s never any “there” there.

Which brings me to my point. Julian Schnabel was a terrible painter beginning with his emergence in the 1970s and clear through the 1980s. Nonetheless, at that time his self-proclaimed genius did much to convince Wall Street collectors that he was the real deal, worth spending piles of cash on. (Sound familiar?)

And now? The Diving Bell and the Butterfly! Some of the visuals—like the girl’s hair flowing back, or the calving glaciers. There’s real emotional gravity there. Though I wasn’t floored overall, I can’t deny that there’s a delicately controlled sensibility, and a precise command of narrative and emotion, that is the product of a masterful intelligence.

Will Koh somehow become Julian Schnabel by 2030? I doubt it. But give a guy some credit, where credit’s due: He knows his way around web design. Asianpunkboy.com is a pretty entrancing take on Dirt Web design—Koh’s clearly in control, with lots of HTML programming chops. I guess you can take the boy out of Asian America, but you can’t take the Asian American out of the boy?

Limited edition print by Louis Despont, based on patterns from an 1889 account ledger. At Element Editions. Via Art & Sex & Music.

Thoughts while walking to go see The Diving Bell and the Butterfly: I’m pretty sure that My Stepmother Is an Alien and Sleepless in Seattle are the same movie. Consider:

Two schlubby guys, widowers=Dan Akroyd (MSIAA) + Tom Hanks (SIS)
Two hotties, curious=Kim Basinger (MSIAA) + Meg Ryan (SIS)
Two kids, insufferably articulate and poised=Akroyd’s kid, female + Hanks’ boy, male, with extra points for cuteness
Two gay sidekicks=that one-eyed alien who lives in Basinger’s purse puts Dom DeLuise to shame + Rosie
Two directors who both use very different movies as cultural touchpoints=Basinger learns to kiss watching Casablanca and learns to fuck watching Debbie Does Dallas + Hanks pooh-poohs An Affair to Remember and fears a psychopath who learned to fuck watching Fatal Attraction.

Ok that’s all. The Diving Bell and the Butterfly is great, btdubs. Almost as funny as when Dan Akroyd nearly puts his head through the headboard.