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Dennis Hopper, 1936-2010
Remembering an American dreamer
By F.x. Feeney Thursday, Jun 3 2010

…Dennis Hopper and I only briefly shared a table one morning at a film festival four years ago, but we hadn’t talked more than five minutes before he alluded to the death of James Dean. Hopper’s brief friendship with his co-star and mentor on the sets of Rebel Without a Cause and Giant marked him for life; they shared a passion, which Dean was the first person in Hopper’s world to fully articulate.

“I took Jim aside when we were on Rebel,” he told me, reiterating a story he told often. “I said, ‘You’re doing something I don’t understand.’?” As a teenage stage actor, Hopper had trained hard, honing classical chops, but he’d been moved out of his comfort zone by this new friend’s charismatic anarchy. Dean advised him, “Don’t do so much. Stop doing ‘line readings.’ Stop acting. Smoke the cigarette or drink the coffee or whatever, but take it moment by moment. If you’re not feeling anything, accept that. If the emotion comes, great — but don’t ‘presuppose’ it.”…

Read the piece in L.A. Weekly.

…the notion that international sporting competitions inevitably inspire warm fraternity – an idea advanced by Baron de Coubertin, founder of the modern Olympic games – is a romantic fiction. The violence of British football hooligans, for example, reflects a peculiar nostalgia for war. Life in peaceful times can be dull, and British glory seems a long way in the past. Football is an opportunity to experience the thrill of combat, without risking much more than a few broken bones.

Even when football doesn’t lead to actual bloodshed, it inspires strong emotions – primitive and tribal – evoking the days when warriors donned facial paint and jumped up and down in war dances, hollering like apes. The nature of the game encourages this: the speed, the collective aggression…

Ian Buruma on football nationalism, in Project Syndicate.

Argentinians demonstrate how they intend to win the World Cup.

Jessica S and Jessica Z. Photo by Angela Lauchengco.

I think Jessica Soho and I should hang out. She’s a journalist, and I’m a wannabe journalist (I heckle from the sidelines, which is not the same as hanging out of a helicopter or dodging live bullets). She wants to write, and I can’t stop. I could be her doppelganger, thus bringing on the apocalypse.

The tie is a good idea, no? I like the 1930s-1940s screwball comedy look. Did you see my shoes?

Ancient Doc Martens. I think I got them when I was with the band 10,000 years ago. They’re in perfect condition, and very comfortable. I miss walking around in Docs: they’re heavy, so you’re really anchored to the ground, and you have an air of “Get out of my way.”

Photo by Angela Lauchengco

Manila Warms to Al Gore
by Jessica Zafra
The Philippine Star, 9 June 2010

MANILA, Philippines – Although there is little doubt that the audience at Nobel Peace Prize-winning environmentalist Al Gore’s talk at SMX Convention Center cares deeply about climate change, there is another inconvenient truth playing in their minds.

Mr. Gore, why have you separated from your wife Tipper?

Can we help it? Yes, global warming is one of the biggest challenges humanity must face, but so is maintaining a relationship in a world where permanence is a concept nearing extinction. Al and Tipper Gore were supposed to be the perfect couple, happily married for 40 years. If they split up, what hope is there for the rest of us?

Read the story in the Philippine Star.

* * * * *

At the dinner for Al Gore following his talk at SMX Convention Center.

– Oh look, there’s Loren Legarda.
– She’s debuting her new short hairstyle.
– She’s sitting at Al Gore’s table.
– Hmmmm.
– Surely she wouldn’t.
– (Reading of mildly funny text jokes)

– I know how you can get your picture taken with Al Gore. You go to their table and say, “Hans! Hans Sy! Let’s take our picture. Oh. . .it’s you, Al. Wanna join us?”

– Did I really hear Joyce Kilmer’s Trees recited in the musical number before the talk? Fortunately it was drowned out by the voices in my head screaming “Kill! Kill! Kill!”
– And what about those dance steps? Did I have to relive the 80s again?

– You know why they split up? Because their marriage was perfect. Perfection is like a flat line. It’s boring.
– Meanwhile Bill and Hillary are still married.
– Exactly. They’ve seen the worst that can happen. Plus it annoys their enemies that they’re still together. On the other hand, perfection raises questions like, “Is this it?”

A 22-year-old Filipino architecture student “beat” Sim City, the difficult but very popular computer simulation game. Using the geometry of the Buddhist “Wheel of Life and Death”, Vicente Ocasla designed a totalitarian city-state populated by 6 million Sims that will last 50,000 in-game years. Watch the video he posted on YouTube and decide whether you want to live in Magnasanti.

Read The Totalitarian Buddhist Who Beat Sim City in Vice.

Thanks to Butch for the alert.

The artist Don Lucho has constructed an apartment entirely out of paper.

Fantastic! But not recommended for people prone to paper cuts.

If your toilet is made of paper will you still need paper?

See the pictures here.