Don't read this entry if it messed you up to find out Santa Claus wasn't real.
Some people have been asking me why BME is doing an interview with “Steve-O from Jackass” (with the implication that it somehow degrades BME to do so)… Well, I'm not. I did an interview with Steve-O the performance artist, and asked him basically no questions about Jackass. As far as Jackass/CKY/etc., while I do find it absolutely hilarious, isn't really relevant to BME since it's largely fake (note: I'm saying that from observation, not from any insider knowledge). Now, in Steve-O's show, there's an element of misdirection as in all sideshow acts but the core events (the tattoos, branding, fireplay, and so on) are of course real.
Since a pile of people are going to now ask me “but how do you know Jackass is fake?”, I'll just show this one example. Once you've seen it you can easily see tons more yourself. Most regular watchers of the show have seen “the hole” stunt where Bam digs a big whole in his back yard and Phil drives the lawnmover into it… Again, really funny to watch, but entirely fake (CKY4K contains the extended version where the deception is most clear).
Lots of loose leaves blowing around on the lawn.
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They dig a big hole. |
And cover it up with sticks. |
And then a carpet and leaves. |
Phil starts to mow. Let's pretend he doesn't notice the truck marks leading straight to the barely disguised hole. |
Hmmm…. For some reason the grass is the same on both sides of the mower, and leaves don't move as he drives over them (because he's not mowing). |
Boom! Phil falls into the hole, somehow not noticing the carpet-covered trap. |
None of the loose leaves have been disturbed by the mower (I assume they decided it would be too dangerous with the blade spinning). |
Given that I watch those shows for amusement only, I really don't care that it's fake, although I do worry that kids could emulate what they see at face value and become seriously injured… But anyway, back to the point, my interest is in reality — real acts and real rituals (or stunts, if that's what you prefer to call them) — and I believe that of that crew, Steve-O's act most does that.
Oh, and the interview will be posted whenever he has time to finish it, it's being answered via laptop while on tour I'm told. Anyway, off to do an image update… I've got to get the backlog chewed through.
It was totally dark when I got up this morning; the snow had made sort of a layer of fog and it was hard to judge the real time… But by now it's pretty much cleared up again… But it's quite pretty, and my picture doesn't really do it justice. There's also a lot of wind, so giant gusts of snow are all over the place.
It was hard to do the BME news feed update this morning — the news is totally swamped with tattoo stories (well, one story repeated over and over) about the Anna Kournikova non-tattoo. But I think I found a few interesting ones at least, even just the anecdotal ones like this one about a casino robber on the run who got tattoos and piercings as a disguise, or this one about a vegetarian artist who wants to tattoo piglets.
Something scary that I realized; the anti-war movement is very strong right now; perhaps stronger than it ever has been historically. Even smalltown America is on the whole opposed. Given that even though the American public and the international community is opposed to war, one has to wonder why America can't stop warmongering…
…and one has to really wonder what scam the government will cook up to rally the people behind the flag — the war flag that is — again (whether they DID IT or not, everyone has to admit that Bush et al has used 9/11 in absolutely disgusting ways to guarantee that far more corpses litter this planet). But here's the kicker: do you know when President Bush decided to invade Iraq? On paper, the decision was Sept 17 2001. It's totally loony and absolutely contrary to any notion of international law…
So Saira's engagement party was totally fun. The main ritual was hilarious because it was in sanscrit, and even Saira who of course speaks Urdu and Hindi looked totally confused (Saira's mother seemed relatively with-it). Michael and his family I think just tried to go along with it — but they appeared to totally enjoy it.
Then there was some dancing; cousins of Saira's that had just gotten jobs as dancers in an Indian movie and put on a show, followed by Saira's brother hamming it up. Then there was a feast!
PS. That middle/bottom picture of me is really weird… It doesn't look like me at all…
Saturday, January 11, 2003
We spent some time trying to get Rachel's car on the road (surprise major snow came before we put it in storage for the winter), but since the ground is 100% ice, no luck at all. I'm pretty sure I've shortened the life of those tires, but, like most of my ill-conceived notions, at least it was fun.
A few years ago I got The Thomas Crown Affair on DVD, purely for one reason: the gorgeous catamaran that he capsizes just for the fun of it — not only do I love sailing (although I've only sailed little 16' Lazers and things like that) and big cats, I really like people having fun at the expense of high end toys… I think one of the real shames is that when people get rich they forget that they are buying toys and treat them as some sort of messed up status symbol.
Either way, thanks to Rob's generosity I will still be making it to the engagement party.
PS. And yes, I know that old Ferdinand is rolling over like mad in his German grave right now.
Saturday, January 11, 2003
In a few hours I'll be off to Toronto to Saira and Michael's engagement party. It's a traditional Indian ceremony, so I'm quite looking forward both to that and to the food. I even did my best to “clean up” for the event. (Well, I shaved anyway.)
BEFORE |
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AFTER |
Of course, I'm still pretty sure that Rachel,
Ryan, Danielle, and I are going to feel kind of silly since we'll be some of the few underdressed folks there… I'm told (warned?) that at an Indian wedding the dichotomy between whitey and the host families is rather funny.
PS. Adding a better scaling routine for thumbnail images is on my list… Should have done it some time ago.
