Murakami's Short Film "Akihabara Majokko Princess" with Kirsten Dunst

This fabulous video of Kirsten Dunst performing a cover of "Turning Japanese" by the Vapors was part of the Tate Gallery’s “Pop Life” exhibit by Takashi Murakami, an artist and author who’s explored the otaku phenomenon. He also produced this video. Click on the image on the left for details from the exhibit's pamphlet. Note: This is video is a 95 mb size file. Please be patient.

A week ago I repeatedly attempted to post this this video on my Tumblog but every time I found a live link it got pulled. It looks like the version above is self-hosted by the site that's allowing it to be shared.  There's also a high quality copy that you can download here.  That said, if the video won't work, appears to be dead and/or broken then this offer is no longer valid. Thanks for stopping by!

Somehow I can't help but think we're being played by marketers who leaked this video and then proceeded to pull it in an effort to create buzz and make it go viral. But meh, whatev. It rocks so I'll play along.

If anybody has a copy of the HD version, I'd love to see it again in all it's glory to please contact me. Thanks to a reader, I've got an HD quality copy! W00t! Thanks!

This video is for mature audiences. While there's nothing really super explicitly pornographic I feel it's worth mentioning that there are some topless anime/manga cartoon characters in the opening sequence. They're hand drawn, not photos. That short bit is certainly NSFW nor appropriate for kids. But for those of you ready to risk enchantment, I think you will find this video epic! I sure did!

How Cool Is This?

I just recently received in the mail a Christmas ornament as part of my participation in the 2009 Bloggers Ornament Exchange.  My swap partner is the amazing designer Genevieve Gail from Athens, Georgia. Genevieve creates her own line of designs including jewelry, crafts,  and illustrations. And if that's not enough, last month she debuted a collection of fat quarter designs for Windham Fabrics!

What a treat to receive her ornament.  That button in the middle -- it's awesome.  It's something I'll cherish for years to come. Wanna check out more crafty ornaments? Go see the 2009 Blogger Exchange Flickr pool.

Bootleg Interview with Sharlto Copley

My favorite movie genre is science fiction so when I heard that Sharlto Copley, the sexy hot South African star of this summer's hit "District-9" was going to answer some Q&A this weekend at a special screening here in Los Angeles I was all over it. The opportunity for Copley to play the lead role of Wikus van de Merwe in D-9 literally fell into his lap but after hearing this recording you'll know that he wasn't exactly an overnight success. Copley is a true entertainment industry professional with over a 14 years of experience working mostly behind the camera producing and/or directing commercials, music videos and short films. Oh, and he also once owned a talent agency! I love this interview because he's not on a junket promoting his latest film (cough! A-Team!) but instead talking about the art of acting, the craft of filmmaking, and the business of entertaining.

As for the film itself, I absolutely loved it. LOVED it! Big puffy hearts! Big puffy hearts! I mean, it was so awesome. Really. It's a mashup of creature film and satirical mockumentary with a message not too unlike Borat with aliens. While it unfolds like any good summer action film should with ripped muscled men and lots of explosions and carnage (some of which I really couldn't watch) there's actually a really excellent bit of storytelling as the film touches on such themes as racism and xenophobia. So, I loved it. I say go see it!

Check out Regretsy!

There's a new blog on the block and while it ain't really the cutest one per se, I have to tell you it's pretty frikkin' awesome. It features items regrettably posted to Etsy and so therefore it goes by the name "Regretsy". It's hilariously written by the "Regretsy Team" with the acerbic wit of a snarky post-op tranny going through manopause. I absolutely love this site and apparently so does the LGBT community from looking at Regretsy's picks.

Now I'm not one for putting a kaibosh on anybody's creative expression -- especially that of outside artists or even cool hipsters. It's not fair to call any artist who's work is featured there as a competitor in the "Special Olympics of Art". Expressing one's self in an artistic way is a vulnerable act that should be applauded. The Regretsy team prefers to call it acknowledged.

Some may think that the spirit of the blog is pretty mean and down right cruel but keep in mind the old adage "all publicity is good publicity" because in this case it's really true. In the few weeks the blog has gone live many of the artist's featured in it have not only gained some notoriety but have also had great exposure to buyers and have actually sold their work! Art sales in a recession? C'est fantastique!

One word of caution though: the Regretsy team has a wicked habit of putting the most obscene posts of the day up last which means if you're at work and thinking "hey, let's see the latest on Regretsy" you're very likely to see some sort of bumping ugly redone in some sort of medium and called art. It can be rather shocking. While you can't really tell your boss it's porn you're looking at, I'm sure you'd rather not have to explain yourself to your co-workers either. And all you lovely mama's out there: this is the kind of site you want to look at when the kids are in bed because it's my humble opinion that Regretsy is NSFW/NSFK. At least, the times that I've checked in.

My two cents. YMMV.