Cautionary Tales

This might very well be the best American Idol season so far. One of the reasons is the ease with which the judges and the host make that show truly their own. There's some doubt though, if that still makes it a show suitable for the target group of tweens and teens. Maybe the foursome's next project should be a sitcom for adults called "Cautionary Tales of the Hazelden Gang", which would be a cross between "Friends", "The Surreal Life" and Sandra Bullock's "28 Days".

And here's a possible cast of characters:

- Randy: If you get used to weed at an early age, your mind and vernacular might get stuck in an ancient pop culture and you could end up sounding like Arsenio Hall for the rest of your life.

- Paula: If that package insert tells you not to mix the meds with alcohol, you really shouldn't.

- Simon: Those blunt, unfiltered steroid aggressions are rather entertaining, but don't forget the longterm physical toll.

- Ryan: If your pharyngeal area suffers from chronic numbness, you can still be a competent host, but if your rapid moodswings start to make your facial expressions skid just a little, it's time to slow down.

Religious Sensitivities

Here's a worthy repost, due to breaking news - Isaac Hayes, who had gained new fame as the voice of Chef in "South Park", left the show, because they "continually ridiculed religion". Hayes didn't mention a particular episode. Acutally South Park creator Matt Stone said: "In 10 years and over 150 episodes of South Park, Isaac never had a problem with the show making fun of Christians, Muslims, Mormons or Jews." But being a member of the Church of Scientology, Hayes obviosuly objected to the episode 'Trapped in the closet" that revealed the secret doctrine of Scientology, which only long-time members are supposed to know after years of visiting so called 'clearing' sessions:



The real butt of that joke was of course Scientology's most outspoken advocate Tom Cruise. There's a whole website called Scientomogy that shows nothing but outrageous clips of the star proseletyizing and/or flipping out on TV.

The episode's plot: when South Park’s Stan gets tested on the Church’s E-meter, he registers as an instant "Operational Tetan 9", which is the highest stage of enlightenment you can reach in their belief system. Stan is considered the reincarnation of L. Ron Hubbard. Subsequently Cruise comes to South Park to talk to the ‚prophet’ and asks Stan what he thinks of his work. The boy replies "You're O.K. I mean you're not Leonardo DiCaprio or Napoleon Dynamite or anything." Cruise is devastated, whines: "I'm a failure in the eyes of the Prophet!" and subsequently locks himself into Stan's bedroom closet. Everybody comes together in Stan’s bedroom and begs: „Come out of the Closet, Tom.“ Later John Travolta, Nicole Kidman and R. Kelly try to help, with Travolta and Kelly getting locked up in the closet as well.

Last week a scheduled rerun of the episode was canceled, supposedly after Cruise threatened to not promote "Mission: Impossible 3," a surefire summer blockbuster, if the offending episode ran (Comedy Central is owned by Viacom, as is Paramount, which is putting out the film). Cruise's spokespeople adamently deny this though.

That hasn't kept Matt Stone and Trey Parker from declaring war: "So, Scientology, you may have won THIS battle, but the million-year war for earth has just begun!" they said in a statement. "Temporarily anozinizing our episode will NOT stop us from keeping Thetans forever trapped in your pitiful man-bodies... You have obstructed us for now, but your feeble bid to save humanity will fail!"

Tomorrow "South Park" starts it's new season with an episode called "The Return of Chef", which will no doubt pick up the thread.

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Watch the whole "Trapped in the closet" episode.

Affordable Art

That's an idea many wish they had first - modern art for the cellphone. Downloadable wallpapers for cellphone screens, downloadable for two bucks a piece. Start Mobile out in San Francisco started this gallery of the most affordable art around, so you too can become a collector. And if you really like that image on your cell, you can follow the links to the artists' websites and buy the original on canvas.

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Go buy art at Start Mobile.

Vive l'Afrique

Every major group show wants to be seminal, few ever are. ICP's 'Snap Judgements: New Positions in Contemporary African Photography' could be one of those expections. it truly marks a change of guard from the old-school African photographers like Malick Sidibé, Seydou Keita or Cornélius Yao Augustt Azaglo, who were basically trade workers with studios in market towns, whose main business were passport and family photos and who by mere accident or strike of genius developed styles that suited the tastes and esthetics of Western curators, galerists and collectors.

The new generation of photographers brings a new sensibility of urban Africa to their work that seperates them from their elders and Nothern peers. Boubacar Touré Mandémory's images of Dakar, mostly shot from overhaed or groundlevel perspectives for example change our view of African cities from the social documentarian's outsider view to the insider view of the city's inhabitants.

There's plenty of photographers to discover. Mohamed Canara from Bamako for example, whose first forays into photography with a borrowed digital camera garnered him a solo exhibition at the Tate Modern. The Depth of Field Collective from Lagos, James Marinki's hazy images from nocturnal Nairobi and Jo Ratcliffe's panoramic dreamscapes might be found in Art Fairs from Basel to New York very soon. One of the highlights are the works of Nigerian photographer and filmmaker Andrew Dosunmu though, who brings the hipster style sensibility of Malick Sidibé and the vibe of urban Africa to the West. His videos make Harlem or Brooklyn look like the fun parts of Lagos and Kinshasa. He is also the New York editor of Clam Mag.

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Go to the exhibition's website.

See Andrew Dosunmu's video for Youssou N'Dour.

See Andrew Dosunmu's video portfolio including his great spot for Gitanes and a trailer for his brillant documentary about the Detroit Hair Wars 'Hot Irons' (in the directors/music video section) of The Artists Company.

The History of Hip

New York Times cultural critic John Leland has written the by far best analysis of hip yet. He divides the history of hip in six basic chapters: Africans in early America, 19th century intellectuals and bohemians, the Lost Generation, the Beats, Rock, Punk and Hip Hop.

When asked what's next, he said: "I kind of hope it’s coming from outside of the usual suspects, that it’s not going to come from the musicians or the record companies, or filmmakers. But it’s going to come from someplace wholly new. The things that I’ve been impressed with culturally in the last year or two are sort of the two-minute or one-minute or three-minute films that I get as spam e-mail, that might be political in nature. But those to me seem to be the closest thing to the graffiti of 20, 25 years ago."

Case in point:

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Watch plus Cruz's video for W+K Tokyo Lab

Read John Leland's "Hip: The History"

Honky Drag

Hamburg based band Texas Lightning was just chosen by popular vote to represent Germany at the international Eurovision Easy Listening competition this year. There's quite a number of German C&W bands. Texas Lightning being one of the better ones became famous for C&W covers of well-known Pop classics like 'Kiss', 'Dancing Queen' or 'Like A Virgin'. On video they're a bit like a drag show with Krauts impersonating Honkies. Also the male singers' German accents will probably doom them to an existence as a mere novelty band, although they're actually quite good muscially . Their female lead at least shows no signs of teutonic mangling of consonants and even a bit of authentic twang.

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Listen to and watch "Texas Lightning" homepage.

Watch the the video for their version of "Like A Virgin" on a German "C & W fansite.

Get their album from German amazon

Check out the official Eurovision Contest website and try to get the videos in the multimedia lounge going.

Quote of the Week

After reporting on the case of suspected Taliban commander Habibullah and a cab driver called Dilawar being tortured to death at the U.S. military prison in Bagram (Afghanistan) under the command of Captain Christopher Beiring, "60 Minutes" correspondent Scott Pelley asked Beiring: "In retrospect, do you have any sympathies for those two men?"

Says Beiring: "Sure, I have some sympathy. I wish they were born Americans."

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Watch the full report on "60 Minutes".

Digital Blasphemy

After all the rioting and embassy burning - still no respect for the Prophet. Transterrestial Musings just compiled tan array of blasphemous emoticons:


Muhammad
(((:~{>

Muhammad as a pirate
(((P~{>

Muhammad on a bad turban day
))):~{>

Muhammad with sand in his eye
(((;~{>

Muhammad wearing sunglasses
(((B~{>

Muhammad after going quail hunting with Dick Cheney
(:(:(:((8~{>:::::::::::::

Muhammad is not pleased with Muhammad emoticons
((((;~{[>

According to South African Mufti Ebrahim Desai emoticons are as haraam as any other depiction of humans, the Prophet or Allah the Almighty:
The use of emotional signs, for example, smile, sad, etc. in a cellphone falls in the category of animate pictures. It is prohibited to make use of such emotional signs in a cellphone. and Allah Ta'ala Knows Best
Mufti Ebrahim De

Islamweb's online Fatwah Center further elaborates on the use of any kinf of imagery, as does Islamonline's Fatwah Bank about photography.