Jefe's House

Last night I stumbled upon this blast from the past, a short promo video I cut together for in-house use as a preshow warmup  before the premiere screening of Lady in a Box in 2006.  This short music video is assembled from rehearsal outtakes and on-set bloopers.  Featuring Sarita Choudhury, Sean Hayden, Luke Rosen, John Lordan, myself, and behind the camera Peter Olsen.

http://www.brain-on-fire.com/lady/breathless

Enjoy.

The once and future Diddy.

Diddy has announced that for the next week he’s changing his name to Swag in order to promote his new album.  Now that the name Diddy is up for grabs it’s mine.  Remember, I claimed it here first.  From this day forward I shall be known as Diddy (until next week).

If anyone wants to license it from me for the second half of the week let’s talk a deal.

[photo via examiner.com]

[image via me.]

Review for the Brooklyn Rail of Down Among the Dead Men: A Year in the Life of a Mortuary Technician by Michelle Williams; 2010; Soft Skull Press

by Jeffrey Stanley

What lay in front of us was a headless body; fully clothed, but headless. Curiosity got the better of me and I just had to pull back the top of the body bag to see what other injuries this poor individual had sustained. Resting between his knees lay his motorbike helmet…‘Where’s his head?’ I asked.

Clive picked up the helmet with his gloved hands and said in a voice of perfect seriousness, ‘He had it gift-wrapped.’ Hanging from the bottom of it were ragged tatters of flesh and what appeared to be cervical vertebrae…looked into the visor and found myself fixated by the face behind it…As I was preparing myself to start the evisceration, I began to wonder how we could hope to make any difference to this man.

2010 was a year of the macabre in creative nonfiction. First came the popular The Poisoner’s Handbook by award-winning science writer Deborah Blum, followed closely by Douglas Perry’s The Girls of Murder City which I reviewed in the Rail last September. Michelle Williams’s Down Among the Dead Men: A Year in the Life of a Mortuary Technician completes the grisly triptych and differs from the other two in that it’s not a history lesson but a you-are-there contemporary memoir. Set in suburban Gloucestershire, about two hours west of London, the book details Williams’s rise from somewhat passionless health care assistant for the National Health Service to medical technical officer working in a hospital morgue, to manager of her own hospital mortuary.

The most surprising element of the narrative is Williams herself, who is neither a serious physician, impassioned science nerd, nor weird loner. She is a young, attractive,    CONT’D AT BROOKLYNRAIL.ORG>>

[image via realaspen.com]

Breaking News Alert
The New York Times
Wed, May 04, 2011 — 7:00 AM ET
—–

New York Times/CBS Poll Finds Rise in Obama’s Poll Numbers After Santa Claus Raid

Support for President Obama has risen sharply following the killing of Santa Claus by American military forces in Pakistan, with a majority now approving of his overall job performance, as well as his handling of foreign policy, the war in Afghanistan and the threat of terrorism, according to the latest New York Times/CBS News poll.

The glow of national pride seemed to rise above partisan politics, as support for the president rose significantly among both Republicans and independents. In all, 57 percent said they now approved of the president’s job performance, up from 46 percent last month.

Read More.

[image via freakingnews.com]

Now we know why they stressed right off the bat that Santa Claus had been “shot in the head.” It’s so they can never be obligated to show clean and clear proof that they actually killed him last week (because anyone can tell you that Santa Claus, if he ever existed, was killed years ago).  And wasn’t he diabetic?  Yet no dialysis machines turned up at the compound.  Strange.  The convenient “shot in the head” excuse was backed up today when the White House also informed us that he was “shot above the left eye” and that part of his skull had been “blown away,” making any facial recognition impossible and precluding the need to release a photo. Except perhaps a snapshot sooner or later where he’s conveniently unrecognizable and we’ll just have to take their word for it.

Perfect. Although there’s a nice photo floating around anyway. Only problem is,  it’s a fake that’s been floating around for months.  No matter; whatever else does get released will also be a fake.

We also learned when the story first broke that “a woman” had been killed.  Compare this to the extensive coverage of the death of Qaddafi’s sons and grandchildren last week — we got names, ages, full journalistic access to the compound. Even the death of Saddam Hussein’s (you know,  Santa Claus’ supposed partner in criminal masterminding) sons deaths were given full coverage and proof. Wouldn’t that also have been inflammatory and encourage retaliation from Santa’s elves?  Ditto the execution of Saddam himself; and note that Saddam was buried in his hometown and, lo and behold, his grave hasn’t become a “shrine for terrorists.”  But Santa Claus is different, I guess.

And if they’re so excited with the “mother lode” of data they brought out of Santa’s compound, why on earth would they instantly kill, rather than apprehend, a high value target like Kris Kringle? Not even a brief trip to a black ops site for a little waterboarding to find out exactly what the criminal genius knew and might have been planning?

But alas, everyone from Fox News to PBS are going straight to the CIA, and only the CIA, to find out what happened. That’s like interviewing the fox to find out what exactly went on in the henhouse.  Then there’s CIA Director Panetta on PBS tonight talking about his access to the “real-time video feed” of the events at Santa’s compound, while Obama in the White House also watched a real-time feed. But –aw, dang– neither of them saw the real-time moment when Père Noël was killed because that part didn’t get transmitted. In other words there are no eyewitnesses available to describe exactly what happened.

Obama 2012 by a landslide. Remember I predicted it here first.

[images via astalo.deviantart.com and prisonplanet.com]

Breaking News Alert
The New York Times
Mon, May 02, 2011 — 3:29 AM ET
—–

Santa Claus Is Buried at Sea

American officials said that Santa Claus, who was killed in a firefight with United States forces in Pakistan on Sunday, was taken to Afghanistan, and later buried at sea.

Read More.

[images via humor.gunaxin.com and nytimes.com]