Hustler of Culture

Aaron Rose on Gossip Girl

October 28, 2008 - 10:28 p.m. - Santa Monica, CA

So I'm beginning to wonder, who's the hipster consultant to the hit teen drama, Gossip Girl? 'Cause in the past couple of weeks, I've seen Serena van der Woodsen's mom hang art by Ryan McGinley in her house. BAPE got a shout out. And now this? Not that curator, film director, artist, and writer Aaron Rose is a nobody (he's well known for all things "Beautiful Loser"), but like, he's somebody very important to a very niche audience. And sure that audience is growing but for Aaron's name to appear in primetime, almost gave me whiplash. I did a double-take. Paused my DVR, rewound and rewatched. Aaron Rose as Serena's love interest-artist was unexpected. It was like that moment in watching "Lost In Translation" when I realized everyone in the flick was a friend of Sofia's (Hiromix, Nao from B's, Hiroshi Fujiwara, etc.). I knew who those people were. But the masses watching the movie would never know and this Gossip Girl incident is déjà vu. It's like graffiti -- the writing on the wall. Someone's saying something and I can actually decipher it. This time, I'm curious to know who or how someone not of the Manhattan downtown ilk could put it all together. So, am I crazy? Anyone else notice? Have they hired a hipster insider? Interested in seeing who gets a peep next.

Cat Power "Space Oddity" Cover

Dear Music Gods, thank you for Chan Marshall/Cat Power. Her rendition of David Bowie's "Space Oddity" for the Lincoln car commercial is a new classic, but will never be as good as the original. Not dissing or anything, but we all know, "Space Oddity" is the stuff legends are made of. Nor does the song reach the fabled cover status of the Cowboy Junkie's cover of Lou Reed/Velvet Underground's "Sweet Jane". That said, it's still a damn good version of an iconic song. If there is a full length recording of the Cat Power cover somewhere, please let me know. I'd like to buy it, stat.

Nathan W. McKee... big winner!

The elfishly charming clothing designer Leanne Marshall's musician boyfriend, Nathan W. McKee was the real winner from tonight's Project Runway finale! His song, "Cookie Breath" was so catchy I had to rewatch Leanne's fashion show just to listen to it again. The delightful song used during Leanne's Bryant Park debut is currently available for streaming on Nathan's MySpace page. "Cookie Breath" is a dreamy indie pop tune and was the perfect companion for Leanne's dreamy wave-inspired clothing collection. Having only been played 1324 times at the time of this post, I can only imagine there are others out there wondering who made that sweet music?!

Congrats to Leanne for winning Project Runway and congrats to the cool creative couple for your winning runway collaboration! Nathan, I've got 99 cents for your song, let me know where I can download it, thanks!

UPDATE: Thanks to reader, Sue, you can now purchase this song here.

John Fogerty at The Fulfillment Fund Annual Stars 2008 Benefit Gala

October 13, 2008 - 9:24 p.m. - Beverly Hills, CA

The White Stripes "Conquest"

Big ups to our good pal Wyatt Troll for winning best cinematography at the 2008 MTV Video Music Awards. I can honestly say, I've been waiting for his eye to win an award for some time now and the Moon Man is a great start! I hope he books a lot, a lot, a lot of new fancy gigs so we can win some of his money at our next poker game. Congrats, again Wyatt!

Tonight's Pre-Presidential Debate Prime Time Programming Options

Wag the dog right? I mean... look at tonight's TV line up. Pretty hilarious and foretelling of this evening's first presidential debate. Thanks to my TV industry gal-pal, Loretta for the heads up. Hilarious!

Friday 9/26/08

8:00 p.m. 20/20
9:00 p.m. ABC News: Presidential Debates - 1st Debate
10:30 p.m. Debate Analysis

8:00 p.m. The Mentalist (R)
9:00 p.m. CBS News: Presidential Debates - 1st Debate
10:30 p.m. Debate Analysis

8:00 p.m. America's Toughest Jobs
9:00 p.m. NBC News: Presidential Debates - 1st Debate
10:30 p.m. Debate Analysis

8:00 p.m. Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader?
9:00 p.m. NBC News: Presidential Debates - 1st Debate
10:30 p.m. Debate Analysis

8:00 p.m. CW Friday Night Smackdown!

"The Animation Show" Giveaway!

HaHa Hustlers,

Fall's just around the corner and we've got something great for you to cozy up to. Tired of the studio re-runs on television? How about a little independent animation?! Uber comic creator, Mike Judge has released a collection of animated shorts, 'The Animation Show' and we want to share it with you!

Leave a comment with something you found funny recently and we'll pick three winners. The grand prize winner will receive 'The Animation Show' Volumes 1-3 on DVD, and two runners up will receive 'The Animation Show' Volume 3. Enter to win by 5 pm PST, Thursday, September 18, 2008! Good luck everybody!

NEW VIDEOS:

Let's Talk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ApiLrFCHW1s

Psycotown
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yyl9HgY40c4

Feel Good Film Festival Emcee Rainn Wilson

August 22, 2008 - 8:04 p.m. - Hollywood, CA

Comic actor Rainn Wilson at the Feel Good Film Festival holding up a Fierce Hugs bag (my little sister's company).

My Family, My Creative Cabal

March 19, 2008 - 9:30 p.m. - Santa Monica, CA

Here sits artist Silvio, writer CS Appel, and producer Loretta Ramos. I've known Cindy for 22 years, Loretta for 12 years and Silvio for 12. They all contribute to the rich life I live. We like to watch TV together and talk about how we'd do things differently. Someday, we actually will.

'Perfectly Aligned' Commercial

Kashdan came over for dinner and some TV time on Friday night. After healthy heapings of comfort food, we settled in to watch 'Lost'. Since the program was Tivo'd, I promptly fast forwarded through the commercials. However, one commercial caught my eye. About five seconds in, I asked, "what's that?" and rewound the spot, to watch. The spot started to roll, the music kicked in, I made comments that it looked like a Motion Theory piece (their style is very specific), et voila, 30 seconds later I realized that the commercial that stopped me in my tracks was shot by none other than our good friend, Jesus de Francisco at Motion Theory. Look, I'm hella jaded. I don't stop for any commercials. Yet this one made me. It's one f'n pretty car advert. So there. Congrats Jesus on capturing my attention!

SXSW - Quarterlife: A Wild Journey From Internet to TV

March 11, 2008 - 5:31 p.m. - Austin, TX

There are a lot of panels to attend at SXSWi(nteractive). But there are none with Hollywood heavyweights manning the mic, except for this one: Quarterlife: A Wild Journey from Internet to TV. With so much to choose from, the mere presence of the uber writer, producer, and director, Marshall Herskovitz was enough to drag me through a few towers, elevators, half floors, and long hallways.

A long while ago, I had the pleasure of discussing Quarterlife with Mr. Herskovitz over lunch. Since then, I've watched the show unfold online and on television. I was interested to hear what he had to say about his experience on the web and how he managed this new business model. The panel was pretty anecdotal with Marshall confessing to having "a horror of writing rooms," and that he believed some day soon a web-based show (not Quarterlife) would pave the way for all to come. He believed in the content needing to be on all the sites, calling it "hyper syndication" and was open to learning about this new distribution channel.

The panel was populated by DIY filmmakers and technologists and when it was over, a long informal queue formed. Marshall patiently greeted and answered every eager question. If only other Hollywood makhers would follow suit and open up to emerging technologies and their legion so willingly...

Andrew Kuo on Charlie Rose

New York artist and long time downtown collaborator, Andrew Kuo shared some insight about his work on this recent interview for Charlie Rose. It was interesting to learn that he was raised by untraditional Asian parents who encouraged and supported his love for the arts early on in life. While discussing criticism, Andrew had to say, "I'm super sensitive and if someone doesn't like my work, I get legitimately sad so I try not to find out." Awww! Congrats Andrew, on peeps noticing all your hard work!

Philip Glass for Sesame Street

Philip Glass for Sesame Street? Hmm, not sure if it's legit, but this clip is a nice edit and visually agreeable!

Easy Street Brasserie Lunch

January 16, 2008 - 3:05 p.m. - Park City, UT

Dance Party USA

Like many of you, who like me, grew up to dance in a few music videos, I got my proper training watching a lot of Soul Train. I can't say I ever watched any Dance Party USA. And now I feel like I missed out on something. This clip got me grooving. In a very ill-defined way. I gotta hand it to the little boy with the mullet, glasses and yellow shirt... he can sure bust a move! And that's very inspirational. I've yet to see a kid look like him today who can groove with the same sensibility. I love the time warp, I haven't seen this many Heathers since 1989!

Friday Night Film

January 4, 2007 - 10:51 p.m. - Santa Monica, CA

Oh man! It was pouring monsoon-like outside, or so the Los Angeles news would like for you to believe. Truth is, it was raining like it always does on the east coast. Hard! So it was a perfect night for staying in and watching Blades of Glory and lots of television (about three hours of Japan-import Ninja Warrior). I couldn't think of a better way to spend time with our westside family -- laughing for hours!

Eye Spy 2007

A year in pictures! Almost a photo a day by Hustler of Culture and Silvio.

RELATED: Eye Spy 2006 here.

Rockin' NYE With Radiohead!

Hey you, the rabid Radiohead fan, this is for you! Are you willing to forgo a night of debauchery ringing in the new year with your buddies to stay in and attend an online Radiohead concert? 'Cause here's your chance to prove how dedicated you are to our plugged-in rock gods. According to Current TV:

Radiohead will join us to play an exclusive live US TV performance of their new album "In Rainbows" on Current TV, all commercial free. The pre-recorded performance will include all of the tracks from "In Rainbows" plus some "other bits" as Thom says. The Daily Fix tells you when to tune in.

Producer/Host: Douglas Caballero (douglas at current dot com)
Producer/Director: Alex Simmons (alex at current dot com)

Air time available here.

Good Night, Evel Knievel.

When I was a kid, I was fascinated by Evel Knievel. He was so macho. I was totally impressed by him and the stunts he pulled. Evel Knievel was a fine example of daring to be different, having big dreams, and living life fully. For that, I'll remember him. Good night, "America's Legendary Daredevil". Robert Craig "Evel" Knievel, your fans will remember your adventurous spirit.

Jean-Michel Basquiat on "TV Party"

Confusing vintage video footage of celebrated graffiti artist, Jean-Michel Basquiat on original too-cool-for-school New York City hipster, Glenn O'Brien's cult hit cable access show, "TV Party".