BURMA avant-garde video journalism !

Dear Joey,

It's yourself. HI. Today you (meaning "I") went to have a burger and fries. You bought the paper and read it while waiting for your order. Where did you eat your wondering Joey? An Irish pub (always the best burgers, duh). You checked out the movie section, mostly all crap. BUT then you noticed an oddity. Some obscure documentary about video undercover journalist filmmakers shooting the atrocities of their government. Basically kinda like Yoanni Sanchez in Cuba with her secret internet blog casts (secretly going to cuban hotels disguised as a tourist to get internet access to write and digitally publish over the internet, her social commentary about the deplorable situation of communism. Castro still wont let her go to Spain to receive her award for journalism). Whatever, she is one of my greatest hero's, a true artist and writer who just will stop at nothing to do "her thang". The BURMA movie was decent, and just seeing hundreds of religious Monks protest the government, and then see them get beaten and killed by their own buddist military was unreal. One image will haunt me forever, a monk found floating in a river, burned and shot, and a video journalist going to get the "shot" secretly for this film. Brave. Terrible. How lucky we all are, despite our recession.

BURMA VJ, FILM REVIEW:

A Burmese Video Journalist records a General taking a salute and the VJ has this to say, "This is my country and it has been this way for 40 years...so I decided to become a video journalist."

It's Anders Østergaardʼs award-winning documentary and shows a rare inside look into the 2007 uprising in Myanmar through the cameras of the independent journalist group, Democratic Voice of Burma.

While 100,000 people (including 1,000s of Buddhist monks) took to the streets to protest the countryʼs repressive regime that has held them hostage for over 40 years, foreign news crews were banned to enter and the Internet was shut down.

The Democratic Voice of Burma, a collective of 30 anonymous and underground video journalists (VJs) recorded these historic and dramatic events on handycams and smuggled the footage out of the country, where it was broadcast worldwide via satellite.

Risking torture and life imprisonment, the VJs vividly document the brutal clashes with the military and undercover police – even after they themselves become targets of the authorities.

The film is well-timed as the media has been shut out from the trial of Aung San Suu Kyi - being tried after an intruder broke into her home that is also her prison.

PARTICIPANT INC

Lia Gangitano's gallery in the lower east side has a new address, a new "look" and just blew me away. Lia continues to represent the underdog and avant-garde extreme and I love her tremendously for her loyalty and true commitment to not-for-profit/DIY philosophy (and the fact that I am her favorite filmmaker never hurt anything either :)

In 2001, Lia Gangitano founded PARTICIPANT INC, a not-for-profit art space in New York City, presenting exhibitions by Virgil Marti, Charles Atlas, Kathe Burkhart, Lutz Bacher, and akajoey, among others. As former curator of Thread Waxing Space, NY, her exhibitions, screenings, and performances included Spectacular Optical (1998), Luther Price: Imitation of Life (1999), The Life Casts of Cynthia Plaster Caster: 1968-2000 (2000), B√∏rre S√¶thre: Module for Mood (2000) and Sigalit Landau (2001). She is editor of the forthcoming anthology, The Alternative to What? Thread Waxing Space and the ’90s. As an associate curator, she co-curated Dress Codes (1993) and Boston School (1995) for The Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston; and edited the publications New Histories (with Steven Nelson, ICA Boston, 1997) and Boston School (ICA Boston, 1995). She has contributed to publications including TRANS>arts.cultures.media, The Sharpest Point: Animation at the End of Cinema, Lovett/Codagnone, and Whitney Biennial 2006-Day for Night. She is currently a Curatorial Advisor for P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center.

Great Anne interview footage...

Such an interesting artist. Such an interesting manner of decorating her personal hells with personal creative icing. A very selfish persona, and not (in my opinion) the caliber and/or honesty of Sylvia. YET, her illness...her narcisism, is far the most honest around. I find her poetry to be quite sincere, and even "removed" from her own intellectual abilities. I find that her true gift was her mastery of manipulation. She used this in her dealings with intimate affairs, her family and her craft. A unique and important artist. Yet, I believe the wind stirs harder at Sylvia's grave. And the chill is colder at Ted's.

enjoy.

and click on this link...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UfvS_fgbuDI

p.s. watching this material has given me a stomach ache. No lie.
bye.

p.s.s. and she reminds me of my mother. which makes the stomach hurt even more. it doesn't help that they look so much alike either.

bye again.

Michael Haneke is Finally HONORED !

Click on link...

http://movies.yahoo.com/news/movies.reuters.com/austrian-michael-haneke-wins-palme-d39or-cannes-reuters

Even JANE GOODALL says BIGFOOT exists!!!!

As you well know, I went to search for Sasquatch a few years ago with a team up in Bluff Creek in Northern California. No luck, BUT we did encounter an odd poop pile that a writer said was NOT that of a bear or other forest animal, BUT of "the creature". I have a bigfoot plaster cast from that trip and joined in on the town Bigfoot parade.

Click on this link...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4NmCmfdFAhQ&feature=PlayList&p=ECB18EF1C0377A4D&playnext=1&playnext_from=PL&index=19

Inspiring by bathroom Oils .

After searching for an available parking spot in Chelsea, i got out of my car and noticed a gallery across the street (kinda hidden). I strolled in to see what was showing. The gallery was J. CACCIOLA GALLERY. The show was on painter ALEX KANEVSKY titled, PROSERPINE.
I was moved by the work. The use of color, divided boards, and the settings for the character studies (tiled bathroom) was so interesting. Very cinematic, raw, and elegant in a classical sense. It made me want to paint...or explore this type of imagery via silent film character portrait studies. The whole Chelsea thing, that "scene" is pretty HIT OR MISS, but this was something totally unplanned for me today and I went home glad that I had walked in. And got out of my own workspace (i.e. my apartment) to see a bit of something outside my residential view.

enjoy.
goodye for now.
me.xo

p.s. the work sold for about $48,000 a piece. Most were SOLD!!! I am thinking to myself, um, joye, YOU SHOULD BE RICH BY NOW. GET TO IT. NOW. GET TO IT!

BLAIRSTOWN photo trip 2009

This is a slideshow of still images taken on a photo trip adventure to see the small creepy town that the original Friday the 13th film was shot 20 years ago. Blairstown, NJ. Weird and quiet desolate town who's main street had a cliff with a gorgeous and decrepit cemetery overlooking everything. The cabin footage in the film was shot at the Boy Scout park NO BE BO SCO. It was a great experience to exercise my photography by simply visiting some place a scary movie was made at.
By the way, this is not a place to stay at overnight. Trust me.
enjoy the video and music.

love,
mexo

THE AFFORDABLE ART FAIR 2009

This past weekend I was at the AFFORDABLE ART FAIR 2009 in Manhattan. Interesting event. Of course, I spent more time hunting down celebrities than "fine art". AND no matter how "affordable" all of the galleries claimed that their stuff there was, I don't got the thousands to blow on hanging pictures at the moment. I am too busy becoming MY OWN little major celebrity. I decided that by the time I took the elevator down, I WAS the major event on the 11th floor. ANd this is why I took MY OWN paparazzi pictures to send to HEAT MAGAZINE. I know I am supposed to be this independent experimental avant-garde filmmaker BUT I feel that I have a Calling from God at the moment. Drew Barrymore, Naomi Watts, Chis Robinson, all within 3 weeks. Gimme a Break, I know the signs. I am NOT supposed to play the MEGAMILLION LOTTERY every week, I am SUPPOSED TO BE THE PAPARAZZI MEGAHUNTER every week. And, the interesting thing that I am noticing is that THE CELEBRITIES SEEM TO BE HUNTING ME DOWN ! O M G I LOVE IT !!!!!!!

Enjoy.
and BYE BYE FOR NOW.
THE END. xo

p.s. the picture of me standing by the little girl is my paparazzi treat to you. If you look closely famed photographer ROBIN SCHWARTZ is talking. I am casually standing in acting like I am part of their conversation. And the lil girl is Amelia (hugging her Daddy) , star of published book, AMELIA'S WORLD. My God, you ALL owe me so much for the non stop celebrity insight.

Paparazzi AINT NOT JOKE !

So there I am, staring at some recognizable face, and trying to remember inside of my head, hey joey what movie have you seen this guy in (oh yeah, i thought to myself, and then thought outloud, HE'S JUST NOT THAT INTO YOU). He is hanging on the corner of his seat, drunk, chatting away with a blonde beauty. I'm thinking, "ok, he is definetely going to use his 'new celebrity status" to try to take that girl home with him. Then the blonde turns and who do ya think it is, DREW BARRYMORE! I was like whoa. I just saw her on GREY GARDENS, how did she get so skinny tonight #1. Then #2- umm i forgot #2.

"HEY I LIVE HERE FOR OVER 30 YEARS!!!!!" screamed the tall mean man with the long ponytail pacing back and forth around our table with a bright blue activated recorder. O M G IT S THAT THING THEY KEEP TALKING ABOUT ON THE NEWS! ITS A PAPARAZI !!! (i thought to myself).
Drew immediately puts on a pair of goofy nerd fake glasses to disguise herself and runs off into the bar area of DOS CAMINOS (located on West Houston St. if any one of my BLOG readers wants to relive this BLOG story). yeah, yeah, SOHO. joey's "hotspot". Remember, I bumped into Naomi Watts 2 weeks ago.

The PAPARAZZI keeps yelling back at Justin and Drews pals. I jump in, ask justin if he wants me to distract the PAPARAZZI with some pillowtalk. He says they called the cops, thanks though.

I blabbed enough. Let your imagination fly now and finish the story. IT WAS AN AWESOME INCREDIBLE NIGHT. And yes, I'm upset it wasn't JENNIFER CONNELEY. I would have thrown her in the trunk of my car.

Here's a link. ummm, stay informed. It's your responsiblity...

http://www.people.com/people/article/0,,20162631,00.html

p.s. i didn't know these two were dating. bummer. i was so excited that i caught them smooching and was thinking i got the scoop before PEOPLE magazine. DAMNNIt! Whateva. they won't be together too long. she's way to eccentric for his taste. Trust me. And she's Courtney Love's kid's Godmother. A little too much to deal with (unless, of course, you are a social worker).

bye.
xo

Fashion Blog Moment.

Umm, no "deep" blog wit this one.
I just wanted to have a little fashion moment on my BLOG.

GOODBYE.
xo