John Menick Blog | Archive for August, 2006

One of four.

Greencine has just published another primer, this time on Mockumentaries. Worth a look, although I wish it included William Greaves Symbiopsychotaxiplasm.

Blogger and architect Raed Jarrar was flying to California through JFK wearing an Artists Against the War t-shirt that said “We will not be silent” in both Arabic and English. JetBlue’ response?

One of the two men who approached me first, Inspector Harris, asked for my id card and boarding pass. I gave him my boarding pass and driver’s license. He said “people are feeling offended because of your t-shirt”. I looked at my t-shirt: I was wearing my shirt which states in both Arabic and English “we will not be silent”. You can take a look at it in this picture taken during our Jordan meetings with Iraqi MPs. I said “I am very sorry if I offended anyone, I didnt know that this t-shirt will be offensive”. He asked me if I had any other T-shirts to put on, and I told him that I had checked in all of my bags and I asked him “why do you want me to take off my t-shirt? Isn’t it my constitutional right to express myself in this way?” The second man in a greenish suit interfered and said “people here in the US don’t understand these things about constitutional rights”. So I answered him “I live in the US, and I understand it is my right to wear this t-shirt”.

More from Raed Jarrar and Democracy Now.

New York magazine notes the 83-year-young auteur’s move (back?) to Greenpoint, and onto your iPod:

For Apple’s video iPod, he’ll be filming 365 short videos and releasing one a day, beginning September 15. Plus, he’ll be curating a downloadable series of classic shorts by experimental filmmakers and videos by the likes of Martin Scorsese, John Waters, Jim Jarmusch, and Abel Ferrara. “Life is beautifully, beautifully busy.”

More at http://www.jonasmekas.com/.

It’s quite striking that when workers are interviewed… these people are given a brief 15 seconds when they haven’t opened their mouths all year. We give them 15 seconds or even three minutes to speak, “What do you think of this strike?” … Who can answer when he’s had his mouth sewn shut?