Pablo Picasso, Pierrot et Harlequin, Juan-les-Pins, 1920
Posted: February 24, 2016 Filed under: Art & Culture | Tags: Amsterdam, Émile Bernard, Edgar Degas, Edvard Munch, Fifty Shades of Grey, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Musée d’Orsay, Pablo Picasso, Paris, Van Gogh Museum Leave a commentPablo Picasso
Pierrot and Harlequin, Juan-les-Pins, 1920
pen and black ink with gouache on cream paper
sheet (folded in half): 27.3 x 21.3 cm (10 3/4 x 8 3/8 in.)
National Gallery of Art, Washington, Gift of Mrs. Gilbert W. Chapman, 1981
TV Is Not the New Film, But It’s OK That Festivals Are Blurring the Lines
Posted: August 26, 2015 Filed under: Entertainment, Global, Mediasphere | Tags: Aaron Sorkin, Cate Blanchett, Cinemax, Clive Owen, Dr. Dre, Emmy Award, Eve Hewson, Fifty Shades of Grey, Guy Ritchie, Ice Cube, Quentin Tarantino, Steven Soderbergh, Television, The Man from U.N.C.L.E. Leave a commentWith Toronto the latest sprocket opera to add episodic programming to its lineup, our critics revisit the old film-vs.-TV debate.
PETER DEBRUGE: Looks like Toronto is the latest film festival to add a television section to its lineup. These days, everywhere from Sundance to SXSW to the Canadian “festival of festivals,” smallscreen content is getting a big push, which is intriguing — and even ironic — for all sorts of reasons (ironic because the state of distribution being what it is, many of the films in Toronto will end up trickling down to VOD, rather than ever getting a commercial theatrical run). On one hand, the trend isn’t exactly new: Classy longform features like “Carlos” (which premiered at Cannes in 2010), “Top of the Lake” (Sundance 2013) and “Olive Kitteridge” (Venice 2014) made their bows at top-tier film fests before going on to air as miniseries on Canal Plus, BBC Two and HBO, respectively.
“There are many, after all, who have argued that the traditional line separating TV and cinema has ceased to exist for some time now, and that the ongoing creative renaissance in television largely puts all but the very best new movies to shame.”
But Toronto’s Primetime program — like SXSW’s Episodics, which launched last year — represents something different: Rather than expanding the definition of “film” to include projects that were “made for TV” (such as Steven Soderbergh’s Liberace biopic, “Behind the Candelabra”), festivals are carving out dedicated sidebars to celebrate this competing medium. Since its invention, television has been luring eyes away from the cinema. And now, at Toronto, audiences can go watch an episodic series pilot on the bigscreen, after which they’ll have to patiently wait until the series arrives on TV to see what happens next.
[Read the full story here, at Variety]
JUSTIN CHANG: As someone who makes too little time for television even outside the film-festival circuit, I confess that the addition of Toronto’s Primetime slate (which, full disclosure, was curated by our mutual friend Michael Lerman) will have little bearing on my schedule this September — or yours, Peter, given that our assignment in Toronto will be to see and review as much in the way of new cinema as we possibly can. Read the rest of this entry »
Cook County Cops Find More Than a Ton of Marijuana in Frozen Avocado Packages
Posted: March 11, 2015 Filed under: Crime & Corruption, Food & Drink, U.S. News | Tags: Avocado, Cannabis (drug), Cook County, Cook County Sheriff's Office, Dormitory, Fifty Shades of Grey, Guacamole, Illinois, Marijuana, Shipping, State's attorney Leave a commentAbout $10 million of marijuana was found
Police in Illinois seized more than a ton of marijuana that was hidden in packages of frozen avocado pulp, the Cook County Sheriff’s Office said Wednesday.

Glockamole!
About 2,100 pounds of marijuana, worth an estimated $10 million, was discovered on March 4 in bricks dispersed throughout more than 1,500 boxes of packaged avocado at a cold storage facility in Cook County. Read the rest of this entry »
‘The Gentleman’s Guide’ from Kingsman
Posted: February 21, 2015 Filed under: Art & Culture, Diplomacy, Entertainment | Tags: Colin Firth, Comic book, Fifty Shades of Grey, Film, Kick-Ass, Kingsman, Matthew Vaughn, The Gentleman's Guide, The Secret Service 1 CommentAccording to “The Gentleman’s Guide” on the film’s official website, “The Rules” of a Kingsman Gentleman are as follows:
- A gentleman never tells about conquests, private matters, or dealings. His business is nobody else’s.
- A gentleman doesn’t clash in public with enemies or exes, or worse, with out-of-fashion contrasts, colors or styles.
- A gentleman is always happy to serve, whether it’s opening the door, picking up the bill, or merely calling a cab the next morning. Ask him for help and he cannot refuse.
- A gentleman never reacts to rudeness. He pretends he doesn’t recognize it and moves on like it never happened, because it never should have.
- A gentleman is always on target with witty remarks, interesting facts, and conversation starters that bring the best out of everyone.
- A gentleman asks non-invasive questions to keep a conversation going and attention focused on others. He makes them feel like the most interesting person he’s ever met, whether that’s true or not.
via Kingsman: The Secret Service (2014) – Trivia – IMDb
OH YES THEY DID: ‘50 Shades of Grey‘s’ Most Cringeworthy Quotes Brought To Life
Posted: February 15, 2015 Filed under: Art & Culture, Entertainment, Mediasphere | Tags: Agent Provocateur (lingerie), Dakota Johnson, E. L. James, Fifty Shades of Grey, Focus Features, Jamie Dornan, Steve Buscemi, Universal Studios, Valentines Day, YouTube 2 CommentsAs an agency specializing in content marketing, the Beutler Ink team is always on the lookout for opportunities to create our own engaging content. With the much anticipated release of 50 Shades of Grey coinciding with Valentine’s Day, we saw our chance to make something fun and cheeky. After a quick brainstorm, we all agreed that despite the book series’ seemingly universal popularity, the writing is undeniably bad. To show just how bad, we gathered some of the most embarrassing excerpts and illustrated them—literally—however inane they were. The result is part pop culture homage and part defense of literary standards.
‘It’s a pop take on S&M. She’s starting to become more of a contemporary artist’
Posted: February 10, 2015 Filed under: Art & Culture, Entertainment | Tags: BDSM, Brooklyn, Bushwick, Fifty Shades of Grey, Film Festival, Grammy Award, Hannah Montana: The Movie, Justify My Love, Madonna (entertainer), Miley Cyrus, New York Post Leave a commentUPDATE: Miley Cyrus’ porn film pulled from NYC festival
Tim Donnelly writes: For a while now, Miley Cyrus has been inching closer to pornography with her increasingly revealing outfits and scandalous dance moves. Now she’s going to appear in an actual pornography festival.
Miley ain’t so wild after all. After the Post and other outlets reported Monday the singer had submitted a film for the first-ever NYC Porn Film Festival, her representatives have had the film removed from the Bushwick event and its website…(read more)
Cyrus’s short film, “Tongue Tied” — which depicts the almost-nude “Wrecking Ball” singer in bondage gear and sexually suggestive poses — will appear in the NYC Porn Film Festival, which begins in Bushwick on Feb. 27.
“It’s not pure pornography — the video has no sex, and though she writhes around in her underwear, she keeps her nipples covered. But it’s full of bondage imagery: Cyrus dons a blindfold, has her legs constrained by straps and is tied to a chair with only black tape covering her nipples.”
“It’s a pop take on S&M,” festival founder Simon Leahy says. “She’s starting to become more of a contemporary artist.”
Warning: Video NSFW
The video was released online in May, and Cyrus used it during her shows on her Bangerz Tour last year.
“It’s a touch ‘Fifty Shades’ with a pinch of Madonna’s ‘Justify My Love’ video.”
Leahy says they contacted Cadence, the production company that made the film with director Quentin Jones. Read the rest of this entry »