Harry Shearer & My Damn Channel present the last word on the Presidential race: no words at all.
Don't just sit there watching TV - get involved - EMAIL this link:
http://www.mydamnchannel.com/Harry_Shearer/Silent_Debates/TheFinalSilentDebate_972.aspx
and please - for the love of god - V O T E !
Posted in
Harry Shearer,
Judith Owen with tags
Harry Shearer,
Election,
My Damn Channel on 10/11/2008 7:33:27 AM by Rob Barnett
Tickets here.
Videos here from Harry Shearer & The High-Value Detainees on My Damn Channel.
Posted with tags
Pearl Jam,
Eddie Vedder on 6/25/2008 2:56:06 AM by Rob Barnett
Many reasons - none of them worthy - kept me from ever seeing this band live before last night.
Pearl Jam is sonic art without artiface. Live Rock without cliches.
They deliver experience true to rock's origins - honoring their influences - but incorporating an urgent command of the present tense.
The fans made as strong a first impression as the band. We stood on the floor for the entire show. Think they may have played 2:45!? But the entire crowd at Madison Square Garden stood - all night - every song - collaborating and contributing. The band played a song not yet released called "Unemployable," and at least a quarter of the room already knew the words.
If you were late teens or 20 when this band first arrived in 1990, then you're pushin' 40 now. Rock men made most of the crowd, but there were more hot girls than you'd guess if you haven't sipped this wine before.
Eddie oozes authenticity. Can't say enough about the respect he pays to the job of frontman. Sharing the mic, his wine, heart, ideas, and the power of the band.
Vedder spoke of vinyl, marijuana, George Carlin, The Who, The Ramones, New York, veterans, the election, and WAR.
He made a point early on that intense negotiation with the Garden lifted the normal curfew that ends shows at 11pm. They played at least 30 minutes past that. I realized 'negotation' meant the band made a decision to PAY to give more music. You RARELY if EVER see that.
He made a point later in the night that the band was not there with any record to promote - just there for the good time in the summer in New York. He told the crowd how much their commitment meant to him - at the lowest points in his life. Far more feeling than the standard 'thanks for comin' out tonight.'
Respect to Jeff Ament on bass, Stone Gossard on rhythm guitar, Mike McCready on lead guitar, Matt Cameron on drums. Boom Gaspar played hammond B3 and keyboards. 3 backup singers on key songs. C.J. Ramone (with the Ramones 89-96), guested on "I Believe in Miracles" during the 2d of 3 encores, giving Eddie Vedder a chance to right a rock wrong & put a Ramone onstage at Madison Square Garden.
Pearl Jam opened the first encore with The Who's "Love Reign O'er Me" from Quadrophenia - as a warmup for the upcoming VH1 Rock Honors show for The Who taping in LA on 7/12 & airing on VH1 on 7/17.
I've sipped the wine and found a trusted place to return to for inspiration. Mega thanks to this band for carrying the torch - and to CAROLYN - and to HOLLY - for the connect.
Pearl Jam 2008-06-24 Madison Square Garden
Set 1 - Hard to Imagine, Save You, Why Go, All Night, Corduroy, Faithful, Elderly Woman Behind the Counter in a Small Town, Down, Unemployable, Given to Fly, Who You Are, Whipping, 1/2 Full, Even Flow, Present Tense, Daughter, Do the Evolution
Encore 1 - Love Reign O'er Me, W.M.A., Leash, Spin the Black Circle, Wasted Reprise, Porch
Encore 2 - No More, Crazy Mary, Comatose, I Belive in Miracles, Alive
Encore 3 - All Along the Watchtower, Indifference
Posted in
Alex Gibney with tags
Alex Gibney,
Oscars,
Taxi to the Dark Side on 2/25/2008 7:45:00 AM by Rob Barnett
Alex Gibney is an Oscar winner! The man is a friend, an inspiration, and a soulful warrior. His films are completely dedicated to telling the truth.
TAXI TO THE DARK SIDE won the Academy Award for Documentary Feature.
Here's the LA Times:
'Taxi to the Dark Side': A look at torture
"Taxi to the Dark Side" provides the night's most overtly political commentary.
By Mark Olsen
February 25, 2008Winner for outstanding documentary feature, "Taxi to the Dark Side," a painfully clear-eyed look at the United States policy on torture in Afghanistan and Iraq and at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, provided the night's most overtly political commentary -- Jon Stewart's monologue notwithstanding.Directed by Alex Gibney and produced by Gibney and Eva Orner, the film features photographs and video footage from Abu Ghraib prison, as well as interviews with military personnel.In accepting the award, Gibney said, "Here's to all doc filmmakers," and then went on to dedicate the award to Dilawar, the Afghan cab driver whose death provides the film with its throughline and title, and to his own late father, a former Navy interrogator, noting "his fury about what was being done to the rule of law."
"Taxi to the Dark Side" was one of three nominees that touched on the war in Iraq, but Gibney's feature was the one that beat out the sizable cult of celebrity around filmmaker Michael Moore, a nominee for his look at the American healthcare system, "Sicko."Gibney was also an executive producer of the nominated feature-length documentary "No End in Sight."
"Taxi to the Dark Side" was originally scheduled to be broadcast on television by the Discovery Channel, but was recently picked up by HBO when Discovery made it clear they would not show the film this year. Gibney very much wanted the film on television prior to the November elections.
Gibney concluded his acceptance speech by saying, "Let's hope we can turn this country around, move away from the dark side and back to the light."
ALEX GIBNEY:
http://www.jigsawprods.com/
Anne DeBevoise & husband Alex at the big show:
| KATIE WARNS WEB WEENIE Post staff writer |
February 4, 2008 -- KATIE Couric is vowing revenge on the Internet joker who posted unflattering videos of her on YouTube. CBS News started a new YouTube chan nel over the weekend for its primary election coverage.But the CBS anchorwoman used the debut to get a little personal with those who make fun of her on the Internet video site."Hello YouTube viewers," she begins. "You know, it's nice to be on YouTube for a change when I know the cameras are rolling."Then, smiling and shaking her finger at the camera she adds: "Harry Shearer, I'm going to get you!"Shearer, a former "Saturday Night Live" cast member and voice on "The Simpsons," is one of the originators of "My Damn Channel," another Internet site that last year posted two videos of Couric talking when she thought the cameras were off. On one tape, she makes fun of her predecessor Dan Rather.
On the most recent one, posted last month, she is seen at the anchor desk on the night of the New Hampshire primary complaining about her clip-on microphone, cursing and joking with her crew about how Rudolph Giuliani's campaign was dead.
http://www.mydamnchannel.com/channel.aspx?episode=367
Both tapes were presumably intercepted from satellite transmissions between CBS and its affiliates and never intended to air on TV.
Couric's retort to Shearer appears to put him on notice that she is watching him - and may try a prank of her own in the future.
Posted in
Big Fat Brain with tags
2008 Election,
Butt Jokes,
Itty Bitty Liddy on 12/7/2007 2:39:00 PM by Rob Barnett
Hi. I’m Matt. My partner Troy and I produce the Big Fat Brain channel on My Damn Channel. Today Rob’s letting me guest-blog, or glog, today. Which is exciting for me, but shows very poor judgment on Rob’s part.
The latest episode of our series Itty Bitty Liddy premieres today, and I thought I’d take the opportunity to plug the series, because it’s something Troy and I are very proud of. Not because it’s a pioneering entry into the emerging Film-Noir-Political-Humor-Green-Screen-Action-Figure genre, as well as a scathing indictment of the sick underground chess match playing out this election year. But because there are some really funny butt jokes in every episode.
To us, the G-Man is a uniquely flawed anti-hero, caught in the dark vortex between the bumbling moral arrogance of the right and self-involved amoral arrogance of the left. Liddy is just a little pawn in the middle. But then... (pause for dramatic emphasis)... aren’t we all?
Anyway, we think you’ll really enjoy Itty Bitty Liddy. Unless you’re a candidate for the Presidency. In which case, you better watch your butt. ‘Cause Liddy’s coming. And there’s no end he won’t go to to keep this country safe.