A lot of people out there think that’s it’s not a good idea for these ranting and raving pundit types to have their own TV shows. Well now we’ve got our very own incensed host on TV, Henry Rollins with the aptly named The Henry Rollins Show. For those who may not know of Henry, both of you, Rollins... more

A lot of people out there think that’s it’s not a good idea for these ranting and raving pundit types to have their own TV shows. Well now we’ve got our very own incensed host on TV, Henry Rollins with the aptly named The Henry Rollins Show. For those who may not know of Henry, both of you, Rollins cuts an imposing figure in the hardest of rock concerts as a seminal member of Black Flag and founder ofRollins Band. A man covered in as many famous tattoos might seem an unlikely candidate for a talk show until you hear Rollins speak. Whatever comes out of his mouth is the truth. Rollins is an astonishingly well read man who is at just as much at home acting alongside Al Pacino as he is vomiting in a Siberian train bathroom.

Check out the official site for The Henry Rollins Show

Daniel Robert Epstein: Was the format change from Henry’s Film Corner to The Henry Rollins Show IFC’s idea?

Henry Rollins: Yes. As you know last year the show was somewhat film specific. We reviewed films and talked about upcoming DVDs which was fine. But most of the time there is a lot more going on in the world than film. Films do interest me, but everything else interests me too. But it was a job and I took it. I thought it was fun and I got to see movies. I don't say no to work all that often. So we did the season and I thought that we did a good show. We got a lot nice mail. So my manager started gently pressuring IFC for a second season. I didn't think that we would get another season. I just figured, “Eh, no one wants it that bad.”

So my manager is basically going to IFC and asking about that and he told me that they were going to wait and see how things were going financially for the place. But you can't hold me too long because after a while I just get mad. I’m going to put my whole life on hold to see if these people want me or not. I'm like, “No, I'm going to book a tour. I'm going to go on the road and do my thing.” He was like “Well, no. You have to wait. Just wait on this.” I told him that I love him madly, but I'm not going to sit and wait for three months for IFC to make up their minds and lose my tour down the road because I didn't book it when I needed to. Then they said, “Hey! Whoa! We want another season? We want to make it weekly, not monthly. We want to call it The Henry Rollins Show and open up the scope of the thing and let you do whatever you want. We would like to have you put music on the show if that's cool.” I said, “Yeah. I'm with all of that.” It wasn't one of those ultimatum things though. I wasn't like, “You guys better hire me again or I'm going on tour.”

DRE: They’re not used to dealing with someone who doesn’t care whether he has a show or not.

HR: Well it's interesting to have options. Every once in a while I blow up at the producers. We work hard and they're good guys, but creatively you're very often at odds because what we’re doing can be intense.

DRE: No matter what you do, every episode isn’t going to be perfect.

HR: Right, also I would say I want a certain band and they would tell me no because they think that band will alienate people. I went, “Whoa. It says The Henry Rollins Show. Two of those four words happen to be my name. You don't tell me that will alienate people. You just tell me when you will get them on the show. You're the producer. You work for me. You don't tell me what's good. I tell you what's good.” We get into that every once in a while. It's not like they're bad people. It's just that we're all headstrong and we're all thinking that we have the right idea and that they are all very good. But one time one of them said, “Henry, you need this show and this paycheck.” [producer] Heidi [May] went up to them and said, “Boys, he doesn't really need the show or the paycheck. He can walk away from this right now. Be careful because he will. Piss him off and watch him leave. Make the show less than great and watch him leave.” I'd never burn IFC, but if all of a sudden they said, “We're going to turn the show around and you're going to interview everyone.” I'd be like, “Get your mom to do it. I can't. I'm out.”

DRE: What kind of bands are you getting?

HR: I wanted Wolf Eyes. They're pretty great. Either you get them or you run from the room.

DRE: I bet Wolf Eyes was the band that IFC said would alienate people [laughs].

HR: Yeah. I was like, “You know what? You guys are in the wrong business. Your job is to tell me that you’re going to call Sub Pop today.” I'm not a tyrant or the big dangerous baby, but every once in a while these guys want to be a little safe, and I'm like, “Why? This is the time that you finally get to do what you want to do.” On my radio show I just play what I want. With my band I just do what I want. On the talk show I just want to talk about what I want. Isn't that what the whole idea is, live and uncut. So it's interesting because it is a collaborative thing. These producers have some good and bad ideas. I write most of the show and they write some of the show. I read something that they write every week. So I have to trust them and work with them and that's a new experience for me. I'm learning and I'm growing and little by little I’m letting other people steer the thing. They're really good guys and they're funny too. Some of their writing is better than anything that I could ever do. So it's been a learning experience all around.

DRE: Do you interview the band after they play?

HR: No, it's like the Letterman thing. They just come out and play and I interview another guest. I throw to Heidi and she will be pre-recorded and say something like this “Hey Henry, you idiot. I'm down here with Wolf Eyes.”

There is a cool indie band called Deadboy and the Elephant Men. Heidi heard it and was like, “Henry, take this home tonight and play it. It's like my new favorite album.” I put it on and it has become my favorite album of the moment. We had to get them on the show. The producers were like, “We don't know about these guys.” I was like, “Won't it be cool when we're the first people to put them on TV because trust me, a year from now they're going to be really big and they're going to have a great moment and we will have done it first.” Hopefully we get to air stuff like that before MTV goes, “New band alert!” or whatever they do.

DRE: If you did everything that the producers wanted you to do, what kind of show would it be?

HR: It would be another kind of show but I think that everyone understands that when you put my name on something there's going to be some outspokenness, some confrontations, some fans will see stuff on the show that they might not like or there will be some attitudes or points of view you might not agree. But that's what happens when you ask me to do a show. Don't come to me and ask me to do someone else's show. There are a lot of people who would be happy to read whatever is on the teleprompter. They just want a gig and they will interview anyone. I don't want to do that. There are people who really want to be on TV and interview Drew Barrymore and Jennifer Love Hewitt, who I have no problem with, but I don't want them on my show because they don't interest me. If you're Letterman it's like, “Tonight your guest is Jennifer Love Hewitt. Make it rock.” He goes like, “Okay” and he does it. Whereas I go, “Not on my show.”

It's a different career path and I'm not putting it down because it's as valid as anything that I'm doing. You ask Ozzy [Osbourne], “You do Paranoid every single night,” You ask Mick Jagger, “You guys tour every year, but you do that same 15 songs with some new ones around that. Miles Davis, Duke Ellington and John Coltrane would've never done that. Those guys said, “We're putting a show and we're doing something that people want to see.” With Rollins Band we go out and we only do the new album. People scream for old songs, but it's like, “That's why they make records, kids. They're dinosaur bones. Go play in them and remember back when.”

DRE: Will you be interviewing directors, politicians, musicians?

HR: I want them all. A question I've been getting all day is “All of the guests seem pretty much aligned to my way of thinking. What's the challenge in that?” That’s a good point. I don't mind having someone on who would disagree with me, like a guy who loves George W. Bush and thinks that the war in Iraq is the war on terror and we're winning and all of that. But could I really make that rock in the seven minute interview segment? If I had someone on with an opposing point of view on, to be fair this guy or girl would need five minutes to setup and establish their point of view. We don't have that amount of time. It's just quicker to book a person on the show who's movie you like, who's book you like.

If the show was on everyday and we could do a 20 minute interview with everyone, I would like to get on one of those young, strident like Republican youth because I admire all of that youthful energy. I just wonder how much of the real world has to get thrown in their face, as old people like us have had. It's no longer living at mom's. It's taxes. It's rent and mortgage. The practicality of all of that strips you of your idealism because your idealism doesn't really work for you when you're taking out someone else's garbage.

DRE: I watched your spoken word show on IFC a few weeks back. Last time I saw your show on TV was the Comedy Central one. The new one was much more technically proficient.

HR: Yeah, well we had a different production company. That was a BBC4 thing shot at a club in London. They wanted to tape me doing two small club shows so I flew to Morocco for a few days. I dug that place and then I flew into London and did some shows and then somewhere else. It is what it is. It was a small club with bad lights and a couple of cameras thrown up and I think that I had a chunk of food in the corner of my mouth. This was one was evolved and was easier to light with the higher ceilings. There was more money in the budget. You get what you pay for.

DRE: Did you sit in on the editing for the new one?

HR: No, sir. I did that show when I was on tour. The next night I was in Philadelphia and then the next night I was back in LA and the next night I went to Europe. I just got back yesterday afternoon from Dublin and went right to New York. I didn't even remember what day the thing aired. All I know is that my manager wrote me and said, “I've seen the edit and I approved it.” He has a real good knack for editing and he's edited all of my other talking DVDs. A TV special is a very low priority for me. It's already in the can and there's nothing that I can do about or for it.

DRE: One of my favorite parts of the show was when you described the Trans-Siberian train. That certainly sounded like a time, not a good time but a time.

HR: Yeah. For me I go for those times that aren't necessarily good because I learn from them. I went on the Trans-Siberian train trip looking for an experience to write about, something to endure, something to strengthen my character. I knew what I was getting into. I knew that it was going to be seven days alone in a freezing train car during the coldest time of the year in Siberia and I said, “Book it.”

DRE: What’s the next trip?

HR: I'm doing the next two train rides. They have the Trans-Mongolian and the Trans-Manchurian. I'm doing the Trans-Mongolian in December.

DRE: Is that very similar?

HR: Yeah. It starts at the same station. There are two days of the Trans-Siberian and then it splits off across Mongolia and dumps you in Beijing. I was going to spend a couple of days in Beijing and then go from there to Shanghai and check that place out. I've never been to China. It's not a part of the world that interests me that much beyond a geo-strategic interest, as far as them being a rising economy. But I do want to go to China and I do want to take all of those different train rides. I want to do all three in three years and so by the end of '06 I have to get the Trans-Mongolian in and then I'll do the Trans-Manchurian in '07. Then I will have done the three longest train rides in the world.

DRE: You can’t perform in China though, right?

HR: No. Just going for a chapter of the book. I want to make an interesting life until I shuffle off. I want a Harrison Ford movie for a life. It takes a little bit of money and a passport and I have both. I'm not married. I don't have any kids. I love kids but I don't want any. I love women but I don’t want one attached to me. I want to grab my passport and go.

DRE: You must have a great passport.

HR: Yeah. I have to have with me all the time to get into these buildings, but rarely do you see the ones with these additions glued in.

DRE: What do they say when they see at all these airports?

HR: When I travel and go to a place like Russia, they keep flipping the pages and looking at me. This means more to me than a relationship. I've had a girlfriend before and that was cool, but I got bored eventually and it didn't last. I've never had a relationship that lasted longer than a few months. When I was younger I went with a girl on and off for like a year and we're still friends. She has a little boy who I really love. He's three years old and he's great. Every once in a while I'll go over to their house and play with the kid, but past that I like my schedule and I want to travel and see the world and do stuff. The world interests me more than someone welcoming me. I live alone.

DRE: As for movies, did you see Crash and Brokeback Mountain?

HR: I saw Crash and I didn’t like it. I haven’t seen Brokeback Mountain yet. This might be politically incorrect, but it will very likely be a very long time before I do see it. Gay cowboys on the range? I'm really not interested.

DRE: It was actually very good.

HR: Cool. You know what, I guarantee you that I will eventually see it after I see a whole bunch of other DVDs that I have on my self. I have a lot of Ingmar Bergman to get through. I just feel compelled to watch that whole box set. I just want to see The Seventh Seal, Through a Glass Darkly. I have some [François] Truffaut films lined up. Like a lot of people, it's easier to buy a DVD than finding time to watch the damn thing. This year I'm going to try and watch about 20 to 50 films. I'm mainly director specific. I'd rather study a director than an actor. I'd rather check out [Akira] Kurosawa rather than everything that Toshirô Mifune did. I'd rather see everything that Hitchcock did rather than whatever Kim Novak did. There is a lot of Werner Herzog stuff that I've never seen like some of his documentaries. There's a lot of [Rainer Werner] Fassbinder that I've never seen.

DRE: Do you ever watch DVDs when you’re traveling?

HR: Sometimes. I've never taken DVDs with me on tour. I'm going to start because some of those nights in hotels I'm like, “Man, even on a small screen I could've watched a movie instead of watching Larry King.

DRE: From your show I know you visit the VA hospitals a lot, does George W. Bush ever do that?

HR: He does, a lot. I asked around. They said, “Yeah. He comes a lot. He just keeps it under the wire. But he's there all the time.” That’s great. I'm so happy about that because he should.

DRE: Why do you think his mindset wouldn’t change after that?

HR: Because I truly believe that he really thinks he's fighting the war on terror and good against evil and all of that happy shit. He's been coached into it and he's probably not the worst guy. My anger for him has dissipated somewhat, I've shifted it over to Cheney. I think he's such a smart guy. Condoleeza Rice, smart woman. Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, Karl Rove, these are some of the most insanely brightest people of their generation. With Bush you can't say that. I think that Bush gets coached like, “Look, you're doing a good thing here. This is our follow up to 9/11.” He kind of goes, “Okay. Okay.” I think that he might think that he's doing the right thing which is why when people hit him with these questions he almost acts like, “Why would you ask me that” It’s Cheney, Rove, and Rice who really run this country. I think that they give Bush stuff and he trots out there and puts the face on it.

by Daniel Robert Epstein

SG Username: AndersWolleck

Few women have done sexually charged works that made an impression on both men and women’s psyches. Tura Satana’s look and work, especially in Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill!, is right up there with Bettie Page, Dixie Evans and Brigitte Bardot. Satana is a woman that took all the shit she’s gone through... more

Few women have done sexually charged works that made an impression on both men and women’s psyches. Tura Satana’s look and work, especially in Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill!, is right up there with Bettie Page, Dixie Evans and Brigitte Bardot. Satana is a woman that took all the shit she’s gone through in life and dumped that anger right into Faster, Pussycat. Since that time she hasn’t acted very much but she is easily recognizable, hence why she has a comic book and a line of memorabilia plastered with her face.

Check out the official website for Tura Satana

Daniel Robert Epstein: Back when you did Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill!, did you see the film as representing any kind of female empowerment?

Tura Satana: Not really, I saw that it was a part that gave me the opportunity to get rid of a lot of anger [laughs].

DRE: [laughs] But obviously that’s something that’s been taken from the film over the years, have you come to understand that aspect of it?

TS: I knew that aspect back then but we were trying to show that women could be feminine and still be strong and powerful and take care of themselves. That they didn’t need a man around to do everything for them. Female empowerment wasn’t even thought of back then, just a little equality. That was the only reason I agreed to do it. It was something that helped me show the world that women were not weak little pansies that needed to be protected all the time. That we’re capable of doing our own thing.

DRE: How did the part come to you in the first place?

TS: My agent asked me if I wanted to do an interview for Russ Meyers and I said, “Well, you told him that I don’t do porn.” He said, “Yes. It’s not that kind of a part. There’s no nudity in the movie.” Which that was not really true, there was a little nudity in there [laughs].

DRE: You have such a unique look, what kind of parts were you going for?

TS: For somebody who was built like I was there weren’t that many parts around. If I went for a casting call nine times out of ten they were either looking at my chest or looking at my face but never the two together [laughs].

DRE: [laughs] Did Russ do that too?

TS: No, actually he just looked at my chest and said, “Oh you’ll do great.” [laughs]

DRE: [laughs] Since then have you met a lot of women who have used the film for feminist ideals?

TS: Oh yes. A lot of women fans have written me and told me how much the part that I did in Faster, Pussycat helped them get better lives for themselves. They were proud to be able to be female, feminine and kick a little ass too.

DRE: [laughs] I’m from a generation that wasn’t around when Faster, Pussycat came out, was this kind of role and movie very unusual?

TS: Yes it was. There were no parts before with a female who was strong enough to carry out what they wanted to have done or what Russ wanted to have done. When I first went in for the job, he had me read some parts and I asked him, “Do you want it played soft or do you want it played with power?” He said, “Well, give me a rendition of each.” So I gave him a rendition of each and he said, “The power definitely does it.”

DRE: [laughs] You mentioned that you had some anger.

TS: It was basically stuff from when I was a kid and when I was growing up. Mostly that was a lot of the anger I had inside of me and Russ said, “Just bring your own personality to it.” Afterwards he didn’t think anybody else could have ever played Varla the way I did.

DRE: [laughs] I hope not.

Was the role cathartic for you?

TS: I felt like there was still some unfinished business there but one thing about that part was that it did limit what I could do afterwards. There were not too many people who were willing to give me other parts because they didn’t think I could be soft enough. I wound up losing a lot of parts because of that film.

DRE: Such as?

TS: Like Modesty Blaise. They thought I was not feminine enough. Then there were some parts for the Matt Helm series. They thought I was too strong to play opposite Dean [Martin] even though I had played opposite Dean in a couple other films. Even though I wound up losing parts I’m still happy about doing the film because I feel that it accomplished a lot for women.

DRE: I know you had some very rough times when you were younger but would it be difficult for you to say that you regret them because they were a big part of what made you what you are?

TS: Yes, there were a lot of the things that helped mold me to the way that I am. I was raped when I was almost ten years old by five guys. The helplessness and anger that comes along with that is something that takes a lot out of you. But I think it also helped make me who I am because after that I could have become a devout man-hater or I could have become a sex maniac. I think I fell in between the two.

DRE: How was the rape handled legally back then?

TS: First of all you got to realize that I am oriental and this was just a few years after the war was over. It felt like there was no crime committed against me. The oldest boy’s father paid the judge a thousand dollars and I went to reform school.

DRE: It’s so hard for someone like me to comprehend that but it seems that you’re doing so amazingly well now.

TS: Luckily my father and my brother helped me through it. It helped me put things in categories so I was a lot better off than most people who went through something like that.

DRE: Were there a lot of strong women like yourself either in Hollywood or in general?

TS: No. Back then most gals were taught that we were supposed to marry, get pregnant, have babies, take care of the man and take care of the house. There was nothing that told you that you could be strong and independent. Back then there were love children all over the place and everything had to do with loving the world and loving everything else. So being strong was not a positive asset.

DRE: Your look and your character from back then has also become a strong gay icon. When did you first start to notice that?

TS: I didn’t notice that many lesbians until recently. Mostly it was the gay guys.

DRE: Why do you think that happened?

TS: I think they loved it because of the fact that I was feminine but I was not in competition with them for their partners. They were able to take their partners to go see a film and enjoy it without being worried about their partners saying, “Oh God, I’d really like to stick it to that one” [laughs].

DRE: [laughs] What is your comic book about?

TS: It’s basically a continuation from the end of Faster Pussycat. I turn out to be a good guy afterwards and I get rid of all the bad guys. I start kicking ass that way.

DRE: Quentin Tarantino said that he’d give up five years of his life to work with you. Have you guys gotten in contact with one another?

TS: No we haven’t but I’m not that hard to find. He can find me any time he wants. I would love to work with him. I would love to work with John Waters. These are people that I admire and enjoy, but I think I’m a little past their era now.

DRE: Do you still want to act?

TS: I’ve got two pictures that I’m going to do very shortly. One is supposedly a semi-documentary on my life plus the times that I had with Russ out in the desert. Russ and I stayed friends until the day he died. I never did another film with him but he always kept saying that he wanted us to but that he felt he didn’t have anything that he thought would be good enough for me [laughs]. I said, “Yeah, you probably don’t.” because he got a little heavier into porn afterwards.

DRE: I read that you are also writing an autobiography.

TS: Yeah I worked on it for about eight years. I could probably go into a lot more details than I did but there were a couple times where I just didn’t feel like writing anything [laughs]. It’s hard to put a finish to a book when you’re still alive. [laughs]

DRE: What made you want to write it?

TS: Thousands of my fans have said, “God, we have to hear your story.” So I figured I’d finally sit down and write my whole story just so they’d know what’s going on.

DRE: You said before you weren’t interested in doing nudity for Russ. Was that because you were very into being an actress or were you against things like that?

TS: The only nudity I ever did was for Harold Lloyd. That was the only time I ever posed in the nude. I didn’t like posing in the nude. There’s a mystery about a woman if she had just a drape over her. On my website you can see some pictures that are very close to being nude, but I’m still not [laughs]. I have pictures of when I was an exotic dancer on there and pictures when I was about 14 years old. I probably could put all the pictures from Harold Lloyd’s collection of me on there but I haven’t gotten around to that.

by Daniel Robert Epstein

SG Username: AndersWolleck

You've seen Frank Kozik's work before, even if you don’t realize it. His work is so iconic and voluminous that it's probably already somewhere in the recesses of your mind. He's done album covers and images for bands like Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, Nine Inch Nails, Neil Young, Sonic... more

You've seen Frank Kozik's work before, even if you don’t realize it. His work is so iconic and voluminous that it's probably already somewhere in the recesses of your mind. He's done album covers and images for bands like Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, Nine Inch Nails, Neil Young, Sonic Youth, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Jane's Addiction, Ice T, George Clinton, Green Day, Beck, The Offspring, The Melvins and lord knows how many other awesome bands.

From 1994 to 2003, Kozik ran his own independent record label, Man's Ruin Records. On that label, Kozik not only released albums, but also he designed the covers for them, working with bands like Turbonegro, Queens of The Stone Age and Sex Pistols. After leaving the music industry, Kozik could have easily retired and settled into one particular niche… he could have, but he didn't.

Instead, he utilized his love of bizarre and weird shit and started making vinyl toys. He completely took over the toy scene and, to this day, people eat his shit up like candy. He's created such awesomely absurd images as a delightfully sinister smoking bunny, Mao Zedong wearing Mickey Mouse ears, and countless others for the demented child in all of us. Sitting down with Frank Kozik, I was pleasantly surprised by how insightful he was. In this interview we spoke about Europe, politics, Andy Warhol, his horrible motorcycle accident, and sex toys. We went there.


Garrett Faber: When you were 14, you came to live in America. What was that like for you?

Frank Kozik: It was completely amazing. You could understand; I lived in a kind of archaic place. I lived in Spain under Franco, and it was a place that was sort of suspended in time, outside of tourist towns. My Mom married into some high level fascist family, it was very uptight, almost like a Victorian setting, we had to dress for dinner, there were many rules. I was destined to marry some other dudes daughter and I was going to work for my step-dad's factory, or my uncle's print shop. It was a system where your destined was predetermined by your social status and family connections. I didn't like it at all.

I had been out quite a few times, spending time with my dad, here in the States or other places in the world. I turned 14, 15 and started to become a person, and as a 15-year-old person, it's not too enticing to have your future laid out for you. At one point my dad was like, "Why don't you just come over here and you can do whatever the fuck you want?" That sounded pretty good. I came to America in '76 living in Sacramento. I fuckin' loved it, I was smokin' pot, I dropped out of school, I worked at the burger place, I bought a shitty car, I became a total scumbag. I loved every second of it because it was different than that super controlled system I had grown up in, I love America, I love it here. You can do what you want to here. Everyone gets a big hard-on for Europe, like, "Oh, I wanna live in Europe! It's so cool!" Europe is cool if you come from the right family and you get to go to a university and be a professor or whatever the fuck, and have status. If you're just a regular person, it sucks. I lived there. I love America.

GF: How do you feel about the upcoming election?

FK: It all depends, I actually switched party affiliations, I cannot vote for McCain. I've been a republican for 25 years, mostly do to my stance on business. I don't really give a fuck, ideology. McCain is so out of the loop, we don't need another fuckin' Reagan fossil idiot running the show. I cannot vote for Hilary because she's evil and fucked, I don't want that bitch telling me what to do. I hated the Clintons ever since they appeared on the horizon, so hopefully Barack will get it, and I'll vote for Barack. If he doesn't then I'll just write myself in.

GF: I'll write you in too, if he doesn't win.

FK: Barack would be useful for foreign policy; he's non-white, young, virile male, non-western name. He might be taken more seriously by patriarchal freaks in other countries instead of some fat, shrill white woman that professes to be a Christian. If anything he'll no pull in Washington, maybe a little bit, I think he might be pretty good for symbolic reasons in the third world.

GF: Would you be a good president?

FK: No one would want me to be the president because I would actually hold people responsible to society. It would pretty brutal, it wouldn't be a lot of fun for a lot of people. Kids would have to wear school uniforms and learn to read. If people didn't want to work, they would be forced to work. I would disembowel graffiti artists, it would be bad.

GF: [Laughs] Well... that's... pretty cool man. How do you feel about Shepard Fairey?

FK: I like Shepard; I've known him since he was in school. I haven't talked to him a lot lately because he lives in Los Angeles. I run into him once in a while. I've known Shepard for probably over 20 years. I think that it's interesting that there's a backlash now, it's been pretty obvious since day one what the guy does. He's really good at what he does. He's a really active individual, I know what Shepard has done, and how he's gone about doing it. I have a lot of respect for him. He's a proactive motherfucker. Content-wise, it is what it is. I disagree with him politically, but seeing what he does with his work I don't think he's taking the revolutionary side of things that seriously anyways, if so, he'd be the first one they would shoot. I think it's silly to make anybody a hero, but I think it's even sillier to go freak out and say "Oh my hero sucks, now I'm gonna destroy him!" I know Shepard, and there is a mechanism around Shepard now, okay? Shepard still believes in his trip so he'll still go out every night and wheatpaste and run around and act a fool and skate and does all this bullshit, like he's always done. That's cool with me.

GF: How did you feel about Andy Warhol?

FK: He's probably my role model. That guy is the greatest genius of the 21st century as far as art and design goes. He was a wizard. All current design steals from him; everybody.

GF: What about Basquiat?

FK: Basquiat, whatever man, he was in the right place at the right time. His artwork doesn't appeal to me. Plus he was apparently a grotesque junkie, which I don't like either. It would of been cool if he'd of been a successful human being and took advantage, he was in the right place at the right time, he made the right connections, he had a good thing going and he fucked it up. That's stupid, I don't think his art's important. A lot of people have done, and do, that kind of shit. I think that if he had been a white guy, nobody would care. I think the ethnicity factor made him cool.

GF: What about David Bowie?

FK: Bowie's a genius. He's made some amazing recordings and always had really exquisite fashion sense. Never got fat. Still pleasing to look at and he's like what, 65 or something? Awesome, I didn't really like his weird late '80s MTV phase; that was a little goofy. But I've enjoyed many a Bowie scene.

GF: Would you ever make a feature length film? What would that be like?

FK: I've made some videos like a million years ago. Within the weird little industry they were really well received. Afterwards I got a lot of offers and I was talking to some famous dude who produces movies, I can't remember his name. He was like, "Let's do a production deal, what movies do you want to do?" I was like, "Do you want me to write something, or adapt something?" So it was going to be an adaptation of a book. I gave him a list of books that I could make awesome movies out of, but unfortunately, they had all already been optioned, so it went nowhere.

GF: What books?

FK: The Stars My Destination by Alfred Bester, Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy, and Moby Dick -- those were the three books. Apparently no one wants to make Moby Dick, and the other two had been optioned forever. That was a long time ago though, if I got the offer again now there’s some new writers with books I'd like to adapt.

GF: Like what?

FK: I really like this guy Iain M Banks, he's a science fiction writer, some of his stuff would make pretty cool action flicks. I definitely wouldn't want to make a movie about people sitting around talking about their baby and stuff, I'd definitely want to make a really crazy period piece or a science fiction movie.

GF: What periods fascinate you the most?

FK: Pretty much any period because it gives you the ability to nerd out and get historically accurate, have fun building stuff and getting costume designs, ya know, shit like that.

GF: Did you ever think about making a line of crazy sex toys?

FK: I did a lot of sexual art in the mid-80s, I was really into bondage chicks and Bettie Page, right before it got real popular. There was a period when there was a big sexual element in what I did. It started with some really dirty, grungy black and white old bondage porn lookin’ stuff. Then I kind of got into the pin-up girls a little bit. Then what happened was a bunch of dudes came along and they were way better at it than me, so why even try to compete? Right? Then everybody was doing it and it got boring and not really interesting anymore. So then I went the other way and started to do stuff that had nothing to do with sex, which continues to this day actually.

GF: Cool, cool. What are some of your favorite horror films?

FK: I'm not a super big horror film fan, I like the old Hammer flicks from England, because I was into them as a kid and they were lush and crazy and weird. They always had cool posters and credits, especially when the Hammer films did weird Poe adaptations. I don't like modern horror where it's like slasher or CGI'd evil things in a psychiatric institute, I like those old Italian and English horror films from the '60s. I can actually still sit around and watch those now, I'm not gonna go watch Friday The 13th or anything like that, not into that at all.

GF: What did you think of the McFarlane toys?

FK: Not really into ‘em man, the thing is, I collect all kinds of stuff. The problem with the McFarlane stuff is that if you get one, it looks cool right? Then if you get another one, you've got to display the things, and they're so intricate and they're such dust-catchers that the minute you get a few they become invisible. They turn into a big blur, so I never got into collecting them. Also, the automatically became things that normal people collected, then I lost all interest. Then he started making sports guys and weird stuff. I'm not a nerd, I don't read Marvel comics, McFarlane makes great toys, he really upped the quality for things like that, but they're too busy and too normal. They sell ‘em at Toys 'R' Us, and fat kids drinkin’ big gulps go and buy ‘em.

GF: What do you collect now?

FK: Lately, motor vehicles. I just collect motorcycles and cars now that I've got the money. I've always had bikes though, motorcycles. I used to collect old paper goods, I don't do that anymore; I got rid of most of it. I used to be obsessed with old paper goods that had a visual impact, it could have been anything, a shoe ad, weird pulp novels or calendars, old porn, propaganda posters, old comic books. That got stale because after a while it just piles up, flat files, you can't go look at it, or afford to frame it or even have a place to hang it. Then I got into this really intense period where I was into Hello Kitty stuff, this was in the '90s. I got into collecting really cute Japanese shit. That turned into collecting the new really weird toys, which I now make for a living. But now since I make 'em, I don't collect 'em anymore. Lately I've been obsessively collecting snap on tools and car parts and stuff, I've got a couple of car projects going. Also, really nice furniture for the house.

GF: Would you ever make a line of furniture?

FK: I'm kind of vaguely poking around with that, I did some rabbit stools. They weren't really furniture though, I going to make these giant grenade end tables really soon. I've got a gig right now, I'm designing a nightclub's interior, that involves designing all the furniture but it's not really furniture either, it's like bizarre plastic and fiberglass stuff, pop art kind of stuff. I personally collect arts and crafts stuff, stuff that doesn't have much to do with what I do for a living. I'm designing furniture but it's more like weird pop art crap that's supposed to be furniture, rather than actually being furniture.

GF: Awesome! Tell me about the cars and the bikes.

FK: I've always had motorcycles since I was a little kid. I went through phases: back in the '80s I was into the first generation of Japanese race bikes, I had lots of big Yamahas, cafe bikes and stuff. Then I got obsessed with antique motorcycles so I had all these old BMWs from like the '30s and '60s and I spent all this money fixing them up and they all sucked. Then I got into building custom Harley's, I built a couple nice ones but then I got sick of that and I sold them. Then it was sort of like, "I want to be young again," so I got back into the cafe bikes, except this time it was Ducati. So currently I have a 996 and a tracked out 749 Ducati, I actually bought back one of my old Harley's so I actually have a chopper again… A good way to waste time when I should be working.

GF: Have you ever crashed your bike?

FK: Not for a long time, knock on wood. My last big wreck was about 24 years ago. It was a doozy, I was in the hospital for a long time, since then I'm either a better rider than I think I am, or I've been super lucky. No big wrecks since the mid-80s and I ride almost everyday.

GF: What were your injuries?

FK: I'd pretty much fucked up my whole right side, I didn't break my back or anything I had a big concussion, dislocated my jaw, dislocated my shoulder, broke my arm in a bunch of places, broke my clavicle, broke all my ribs, broke my thighbone, crushed the two lower leg bones in my ankle. I had a limp for years. I was lucky though, I didn't get a brain shear or damage my spine or break my hip, I just broke everything else. [Laughs] I was wearing full leathers and a full-face helmet and everything if I hadn't have been wearing that shit, I'd probably be dead. That stuff apparently soaked up some of the impact. All I remember thinking was, "Oh, I'm gonna lose it." Then a blur, then I was in the hospital. Fuckin' sucked.

GF: Do you believe in ghosts?

FK: No, if all that EVP shit was real, here's an easy way to prove it; go to some place like Auschwitz and set up a bunch of a recorders. If there is any sort of sound, it'll be 500,000 ghosts screaming in Polish and Yiddish, if you want to get EVPs and prove ghosts are real, go to the killing places instead of dicking around some dudes house in Illinois.

GF: You once said art is your interesting hobby, what other interesting hobbies do you have?

FK: I have hobbies, I don't know if they're interesting or not. I like to make stuff. I've always been into gardening, fixing up houses, working on vehicles. I like to read a lot of semiotics and systems, theory stuff, socio-economic stuff. I read obsessively and consistently on certain subjects. It does me no good at all, but it's interesting.

GF: What tattoos do you have? Do they all have stories or do they just look cool?

FK: Some of them have a dumb reasoning. The tattoos aren't about having a story but more like an accessibility to a tattoo person who was cool and not a dick. All my tattoos have been done by three people and I have about 40 tattoos. I'm interested in them for personal reasons, I like looking at them and I don't really display my tattoos to other people, they're kind of just for me. I've never gotten loaded and gotten a tattoo, every one of them has a really long thought process, which is probably too complicated to explain in this format. All the tattoos are for really personal reasons that don't have too much to do with display.

GF: Have you ever been offered your own TV show?

FK: I'm actually developing one right now, an animated TV show.

GF: What’s it about?

FK: I can't tell you, I have a non-disclosure agreement.

GF: What’s your presence on the show going to be like? Voice? Designing characters?

FK: I'm executive producer, it's all my characters with the basic premise being a wacky animated sitcom. Maybe for Cartoon Network, I don't know yet. All the stuff starts in a couple of months. It won't be anything that cool, which is fine, I just want to do it to make some money.

For more on Frank Kozik go to his official site here

Reagan and I got our hands on a couple of new iPhone 4's yesterday and decided to go test out the new camera with Sash and Rambo yesterday on Hollywood Blvd. There are a lot of new functionality when you open the camera. (image) The lightening bolt in the upper left hand corner allows you to adjust... more

Reagan and I got our hands on a couple of new iPhone 4's yesterday and decided to go test out the new camera with Sash and Rambo yesterday on Hollywood Blvd.

There are a lot of new functionality when you open the camera.



The lightening bolt in the upper left hand corner allows you to adjust the flash - Off, Auto or On

The camera twist icon allows you to switch between lenses, either the one facing you or the traditional outward facing lens.

The camera - video slider allows you to toggle between the two like in the 3Gs.

You can selectively focus as well and once you are focused on something you can zoom in or out with a +/- slider that appears with a double tap.



* One unexpected feature is that when you point it at Rambo her boob pops out.

Here is a full NSFW gallery of our rigorous testing on Hollywood Blvd.



Overall the flash while bright is only really effective if used close-in.

The images when zoomed are not the best quality.



The files are HUGE when they come out of the camera. 1935 x 2592 pixels.



Click to see the full resolution

We took some video of our adventures as well.




Sash lost a bet and had to walk back to the office without her pants on, Donald Duck style (shirt and no pants)




The coolest feature of the new iPhone 4 though has to be FaceTime



You can live video chat with other people who have the iPhone 4. It is like living in The Jetsons. Although you can only use FaceTime when you are on wifi, which is probably for the best considering AT&T's coverage issues.

The screen resolution is also pretty great 4 times the pixels.

All in all the camera and screen resolution are a vast improvement over the 3Gs. Network coverage is still dicey at best and the steel surround antennae to boost the signal has not proven very effective for me at least.

The iOS 4 software update has a host of other features like app folders, background image, camera zoom, etc.

Available today from Apple

xoxo
-missy

Comedian Zach Galifianakis likes his one-liners. They become the quoted dialogue from his movies, he zings ‘em at stand-up audiences and even in interviews he relishes in punchy brevity. That makes an interview with Zach Galifianakis short but offers a strong case for quality over quantity. For some... more

Comedian Zach Galifianakis likes his one-liners. They become the quoted dialogue from his movies, he zings ‘em at stand-up audiences and even in interviews he relishes in punchy brevity. That makes an interview with Zach Galifianakis short but offers a strong case for quality over quantity.

For some 15 years, Galifianakis has performed stand-up with a devout following, a cult which grew larger when YouTube made it easy to share covert videos from small stand-up gigs. This summer, movies cast Galifianakis into a major spotlight. The Hangover put Galifianakis’ obscure one-liners about post-9/11 airplane masturbation into one of the most seen comedies of all time. The success of G-Force, in which he creates a team of secret agent guinea pigs, paled in comparison.

After a smash summer hit like The Hangover, you’d think networks would be scrambling to build a TV vehicle around Galifianakis. HBO’s already got him signed to their upcoming series Bored to Death, which began filming before Galifianakis’ box office twofer. He plays the supporting role of Ray, the best friend of lead character Jonathan (Jason Schwartzman). Jonathan is a bored writer who decides to pose as a private detective, and actually takes on cases while Ray tries to talk some sense into him.

“If I were 26 and this was happening, it would be all great, and I would probably buy like 17 Dodge Vipers,” Galifianakis told a press conference in July. “But right now it's just a major inconvenience.”

After the Bored to Death cast press conference, a group of reporters followed Galifianakis into the hallway. The show doesn’t come on until September 20 so we need a little more comedy wisdom to tide us over until then. He stuck to the notion that attention was a burden but that only fed into his deadpan curmudgeon persona, with his trademark flannel and bushy beard. He did laugh at some of the zanier questions, as indicated.

Question: With this summer’s success, what does it feel like to be Zach Galifianakis right now?

Zach Galifianakis: It still feels fat. It feels the same, to me. I just forget that I’m in stuff, so I just live my life inside my own mind, and I forget that I’m in movies now.

Q: Is this funny to you, this whole experience of people wanting to talk to you?
ZG: No, it’s not. It’s a major inconvenience. People are coming and putting things through my mailbox.

Q: Like what?
ZG: Just notes from neighbors, like death threats. No, none of that. But, all that’s kind of new. I’m trying to figure that all out. Hopefully, it won’t be too big of a deal.

Q: Are you going to do Hangover 2?
ZG: If there’s a good script and we would all like to work together, maybe.

Q: So, you would be willing to do another one?
ZG: If there’s a good script, I would, yes. Right now, there’s no script.

Q: Now that you’re huge, who’s the most famous person on your speed dial?
ZG: [Laughs] Three of the members from the band DeBarge. Nobody remembers them. Nobody. I don’t hang out with famous people. I think they’re jerks.

Q: You are good friends with Bradley Cooper, aren’t you?
ZG: Is he famous now? Bradley is a friend of mine. He likes to come over to my house and take naps, which I find weird. Not with me, but he just will nap.

Q: Does he give you any advice about dealing with fame?
ZG: I don’t talk to Bradley about that stuff. It’s his fault that he’s a pretty boy. I don’t have to deal with that stuff. That’s his fault.

Q: On Bored to Death, what sort of comic relief do you get to be? What’s the tone of your best friend character?
ZG: He’s just this angry, surly curmudgeon guy that is frustrated with his existence. It’s really easy and fun to play. It’s a very fun, nice character to play. He’s not a nice guy, in particular, and he’s not socially gracious, but that’s really fun and easy to play.

Q: Were you a fan of Jason Schwartzman, prior to this?
ZG: Yes. Jason Schwartzman was a big reason that I wanted to do the show. I think he’s very good, clever and subtle and a very nice man.

Q: How long have you known him?
ZG: I only knew him right before working. He gave me a phone call and said that he was very happy that we were going to work together. Gentlemen are hard to find these days, especially in show business, and he and [series costar] Ted Danson are just gentlemen. I’m not necessarily a gentleman, but those guys really are. How nice they are on set actually makes me kind of upset because then I’m like, “Oh God, I’ve got to be a nice guy now?” They really are just gentlemen. They’re really nice people.

Q: Seriously, how has your life changed after all of the success with The Hangover?
ZG: I can get a really good table at Arby’s now. My life really hasn’t changed that much for me, honestly. It’s hard when you’re doing comedy, and then you get in this kind of world now. It’s a dangerous thing, with comedy, to be going to Hollywood parties and all that stuff. If you forget what brought you here in the first place, it can be a very dangerous thing. And I’m old enough now to be aware of it. I’m trying to not think about it too much. It hasn’t changed. I can pay my parents to leave me alone. No, it’s nice to spend money on your folks and people that are close to you.

Q: Have you splurged on anything at all?
ZG: No. I don’t spend money. I still have my 1998 Subaru that I will probably drive until it runs out. Hopefully, I’ll drive it for 10 more years. My goal is to keep my same Subaru. I also like the car.

Q: Are your stand-up shows more packed now than they used to be?
ZG: I don’t do shows that I announce. I just show up at hole-in-the-walls.

Q: Do you anticipate that there will be any stand-out jokes or lines in Bored to Death, like the bin Laden line you had in The Hangover?
ZG: There are some really good jokes in this TV show that I will not spoil, but yeah.

Q: Will your character stay out of trouble?
ZG: The character is a guy who has a girlfriend that has two kids, so he’s a little bit grounded. His whole goal, as the show progresses, is paternal. He wants kids. He smokes pot and drinks too much, but so do a lot of people and they still have other, more grounded goals.

Q: G-Force was such a big hit. Have you gotten a call for G-Force 2 yet?
ZG: No, not yet. I have not gotten a call yet.

Q: That could be a franchise for you. Is that something you’d be interested in?
ZG: When I was doing the first G-Force, the Disney people took pictures of me, in case they wanted to make a toy. I was like, “Oh my God, if this ever became a ride at Disney and you would just see my cut-out before you get in line and it says, ‘If you’re this short, you can’t ride this ride,’ that’s my nightmare.” But, having said that, I don’t know the answer to that question. Up to this point, I’ve just gotten work and it just falls into place. I’ve never really been drawn to anything. I just go and audition. I got lucky this summer, to be quite honest. Everybody is always like, “What drew you to this?” and I’m like, “Well, I needed a job.” There’s nothing that draws me. Now, hopefully, I can have those choices. But, if there’s a G-Force 2 and I get to talk to more guinea pigs, I don’t think there’s a problem with that.

Q: What is your favorite movie that no one else has ever heard of?
ZG: [Laughs] Maybe people have heard of it. I hope they have. It’s called Withnail & I, which is a British comedy.

Q: That’s your sensibility?
ZG: Yes.

Q: Do you have any personal, dream projects that you hope you’ll get to do at some point?
ZG: Yeah, there’s a lot of them. They’re all in my mind. Hopefully, maybe I’ll put them on the page, one day. There’s one called Fat Jesus that I’d love to do.

Q: Is that indeed about a fat Jesus?
ZG: It’s self-explanatory.

Bored to Death premieres Sept. 20 on HBO.

Election Day 2008 was bittersweet for any Californian with a heart. It was exciting to see America elect its first African-American president, and all the hope for reasonable politics Barack Obama promised. A few hours later though, we found out that Proposition 8 had passed. Prop 8 called for legislation... more

Election Day 2008 was bittersweet for any Californian with a heart. It was exciting to see America elect its first African-American president, and all the hope for reasonable politics Barack Obama promised. A few hours later though, we found out that Proposition 8 had passed. Prop 8 called for legislation defining marriage as between a man and a woman exclusively. This rendered invalid previous legislation permitting gay marriage. How could something as progressive as President Obama and as backward as denying civil rights happen on the same day?

The pro-Prop 8 movement got a huge boost from an aggressive campaign of misinformation. Television ads ran threatening that Prop 8 meant that gay marriage would be taught in schools (it had nothing to do with that.) Even some open-minded individuals were fooled into believing this had something to do with their children's education. The funding for these campaigns came from the Mormon Church in Utah.

What would a religion in another state have to gain by influencing a California ballot measure? A new documentary answers that question. 8: The Mormon Proposition chronicles how the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints bullied its congregation into financing this, and what they had to gain. The church believes that families live on in the afterlife. Gay couples who don't reproduce threaten their view of the afterlife.

Director Reed Cowan is still demonstrably emotional discussing this issue. Even on a telephone interview, one could hear his voice quivering slightly as he recalled some of the more appalling, indecent treatment of human beings that his film uncovered. He interviewed homeless gay teenagers, families of suicide victims and vicious anti-gay Utah Senator D. Chris Buttars. Ultimately, Cowan took the opportunity to offer some explanations for the events documented in the film, and possible solutions should people wish to get involved further.

Fred Topel: So the Mormons have this plan for a super powered spirit afterlife. Are they basically James Bond villains?

Reed Cowan: [Laughs] I needed a laugh today.

FT: That’s what it sounds like.

RC: I think to the outsider it does seem strange and I’ve had people say it seems a little Star Trek. To the person on the inside of the Mormon church, they believe in families hardcore. And they believe in the eternal chain of families. It’s something that brings a great deal of comfort to, like, families who lose children. That families are forever and that they are connected in one eternal chain through marriage and multiple marriages and multiple wives and planets and all of that. So an outsider looking in, they can see it in one way. I try to just project, I’m no longer a Mormon but I was schooled in Mormon seminary seven to 12th grade. I went to the missionary training center. I served the mission so I know what I’m talking about. The Mormon on the inside, it’s all about family and eternal family. Unfortunately, gay people don’t fit into that.

FT: To get serious, I just cant believe they’d spend millions and millions for a belief in the afterlife. Does the church have something else to gain by ensuring everyone else follow their religious beliefs?

RC: It’s hard to believe that unless you’ve been in the church and the secret recordings that we obtained say indeed we are compelled by doctrine to speak out. To an outsider, it’s easy to say, it can’t be just that, they’ve got to have another dog in the fight. Really I think history will prove that Mormons really do believe that gay people interrupt the Mormon plan for heaven and that the future of civilization itself, as Senator Buttars articulated, truly depends on the stable foundation of families in the world. They really believe it and they will declare holy war over it, and they did.

FT: On the broader scope, is it all based on religious fear? Why else are homophobes so threatened by what someone else does? The people on that side of the debate even beyond Mormons are so fearful that allowing gay marriage would end all marriage.

RC: I can only speak from my background and my background again is Mormon. I was taught that second only to the sin of murder is homosexuality. They have a definite way of defining family. You’re taught from a very young age that there are two things you protect with everything you have. Number one, your family and your family’s eternal chain. Number two, the Constitution of the United States. Mormon theologians project a day when they say the constitution will hang by a thread in the United States and in fact that Mormons will be the ones to salvage it and save it and preserve it. So those are two things that are ingrained in your brain as a child: family and the Constitution, family and the Constitution. Literally, I believe as somebody who was raised in it and schooled in it and dedicated my life and my youth to it, they are telling the truth when they say, “We are indeed compelled by doctrine to speak.” Otherwise, why would they risk their tax exempt status? Why would they risk what they value so highly, which is public favor?

FT: Yeah, wouldn’t they have a reason to want separation of church and state?

RC: You’d think. You’d think but we’ve seen in the history of the world times when money changers need to be expelled from the temple, so to speak, and when religions forget that line and when they miss the mark. There's a Mormon scripture even that says, “At times, people miss the mark.” I think they missed the mark here. I think they were willing to risk everything for this fight and I think they still are.

FT: Was putting Buttars interview out there in the media a victory?

RC: Until my children are raised in a partnership where their fathers are married and receive the benefits of full marriage equality, there is no victory. Until families like ours have full marriage equality federally, there is no victory. Was it a step in the process of maybe shining a light on the type of human being Mormon bigotry can produce? Yes. Was that a victory? Yeah, maybe. We begged and pleaded, at least we felt like we begged and pleaded Mormon leaders to come out and talk about all of these things. We went through their public relationship division only to be told that they care about doing stories that help them to look good and boost their public image but they don't care about big J Journalism. So we had no other choice but to go for their more active, more vocal members, more prominent members to tell the Mormon story relative to this subject. I think it was a moment of pause for people who heard him, because we are all products of our upbringing and he is a product of his Mormon upbringing. I think it’s sad because my Mormon ancestors, who I am proud of many things about their survival through many hard times, it was like Senator Butters just spat on their legacy and the legacy of his ancestors by acting in such a horrible way.

FT: I hope most people see how hateful they are and think, “That is how not to be. Let’s not do what they say.“ Do you think most people react that way?

RC: I truly think that went we know better we do better. We've proven that as a culture and as a society throughout history, relative to human rights especially. I think the more he speaks and the more people like him open their mouths, the closer we inch towards a culture that finds viewpoints like that hurtful and distasteful and that people will choose better.

FT: Judging by history, isn't it inevitable that we give gays the right to marry? We ended slavery, gave African-Americans the vote, women's suffrage... Hasn't it all happened before?

RC: Yeah, and in many of those issues, the Mormon Church was the last holdout. They were the last to come onboard. We know from history that it took them until the late 1970s to allow African-Americans full participation and worship and in temple worship and in membership. They were very much against women's rights and rallied their troops against the ERA. We definitely see that Mormons are the last to come to the table and come to the party so to speak and smell the coffee, as my grandma, God rest her soul would put it. But eventually they do smell it and the good ones, like all good people, history bends towards justice.

FT: So why don't they just look at history and say it’s pointless to resist?

RC: Well, why don’t any of us, really? That is the great question I think that could come out of this film. I certainly hope it does. WHEN are we going to learn from our history. And I don't know.

FT: Who did they cast in their TV campaign? Was it all Mormons or just some SAG members who needed work?

RC: I don't know that. I do know that for the one commercial, “A Storm is Gathering,” auditions were held. So I cant imagine that they would only hold auditions just for Mormons. In fact, I think that’s how some of that raw footage got least, some of the audition footage got leaked to the gay organizations. I don't know. I do know that it was very telling in all of the ads, you didn’t see anybody older than maybe 25, 26.

FT: That’s why I thought they were actors. They were too pretty.

RC: Well, they’re Mormons. [Laughs] Look, they want to look good. They want to appeal to the youth. In their call to action, “You Twitter, you blog, you write on your Walls.” Well, what 60-year-old do you know who often Twitters, blogs and writes on their Walls? They are going for the youth of the church. Certainly we know that people older than the young people got involved of course, but it’s very clear from those ads that they wanted the young people to carry this mission on their back. And they did.

FT: Obviously we would all like to have loving families. If that’s just not possible, is there strength in gay couples holding firm against their unsupportive elders and families?

RC: Yes. Not only strength but an imperative. My children deserve to grow up in a relationship where they look at their fathers and they see two men who are not willing to accept less and who are not willing to kowtow to a less than definition of our family. My children deserve that example. They will get that example always.

FT: How does this film and its message reach beyond the already pro-gay supporters?

RC: You know, I’ve had some people say this film preaches to the choir. I just want to say, “Oh, come on. That is so short sighted.” Honestly, this is not a gay film. This is a film for voters and anybody who values the integrity of their vote and the process of trying to solicit someone’s vote and keeping the process transparent and full of truth should see this film. This film belongs to the voters who value a democracy and who are afraid of a theocracy. I hope that more people than just gay people will see the film and we know from the comments that we’re getting that many of our allies are seeing the film and that many curious Mormons are seeing it. We come out on demand I believe on the 18th. It’s my hope that within the privacy of their homes, Mormons will see this film and people of all faith traditions will see this film. Whether or not they agree with everything, at least have a conversation about what the people in the film have to say and maybe choose better where they see inequity.

FT: Hopefully interviews like this can present it to a different readership too.

RC: You know what? These inequities are happening on the watch of President Obama. My call is to the president because we need full federal equality and we need him to take the lead and not wait for a second term because my children can’t wait. They won’t wait. These inequities are happening on his watch. Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell is still around under his watch. It’s still okay in our country to deny somebody service at a restaurant because they’re gay, under his watch. It’s still okay to deny somebody housing in our country because they’re gay. That’s happening on his watch. I would hope that the President himself would get involved and be a champion of people who I think he should and could identify with.

FT: How do we get that initiative to his desk?

RC: I think he’s got to hear from the citizenry. We’ve got to let him know. That’s the beauty of our country. You dream a world. You dream a world, you articulate what you want, you elect leaders who will carry out your wishes and you live in that world. My hope is that they will dream a world that is better than this.

FT: It’s obvious that that re-orientation programs don’t work. Your film only dramatizes how barbaric the practice is. Has anyone done an official study to say, “You can’t change someone’s sexual orientation?”

RC: That certainly wasn’t within the scope of our film so I didn’t dig into those studies. All I know is I’ve talked to many people, myself included, who went through reparation therapy and came out greatly damaged. You can look at studies and you can look at statistics, but what rings true and resonates mostly are the stories of people who come out of the other end of those things alive but damaged.

FT: To me, it’s obvious. It’s not something you “fix” but some people may need to see the numbers to be convinced. So I hope they exist.

RC: I would hope they do too and honestly, I would hope those studies be granted the attention that they’re due. I don't know that they are because still the imperative in our culture to “fix” people who are gay. I know a lot of well meaning parents, liberal thinking parents. You look at Cher. Her daughter came out. Her immediate reaction was to fix her daughter. She discloses that. When we live in a culture where a parent’s immediate reaction is “Oh my God, something’s wrong, we’ve got to fix it,” those programs look pretty attractive, don’t they? And you’re willing to give it a try. So what we have to do is train our parents to see beauty in the first glimpses of homosexuality that you see in children and celebrate it. Let them be who they are. I just think by inches, even by centimeters in some parts of the country, we are making progress. We’re making progress.

FT: Obviously it will remain a fight and I wish it weren’t. As we discussed though, it seems inevitable historically. What do you imagine the next civil rights issue we face will be?

RC: Wow, that’s a great question. I don't know but I am hoping that gay people will be just as actively involved in being champion for other people’s civil rights as we are for our own. When you have been the brunt of being robbed of your civil rights, you damn well better become an advocate for everybody else’s civil rights. As we learn, you go to The Holocaust Museum, it says, “They came first for the Communists, and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Communist Then they came for the Jews and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Jew. Then they came for me and by that time no one was left to speak up.” [Martin Niemoller] If you’re in the business of being a champion for human rights, it doesn’t only apply to your community. Number one, I don't know what the next civil rights front will be, but my hope is that we’ll all be anxiously engaged in that good cause.

FT: Wouldn’t it be great if this is the last one?

RC: It would be great but we also know that we need to peak over our mountains and across our waters and realize that in developing countries, female babies are left to die. There are great inequalities against women, against gay people. Maybe once we’ve achieved a certain level here in our country, to realize that we’re all connected, even if we’re separated by mountains or water, and get to work in developing countries.

FT: On a personal level, when you see the homeless kids you’re interviewing, after you cut film, do you want to just help them, give them money or something?

RC: Yeah, I do. The sad thing about Utah, and this is a whole other article that could be done, is that Utah law prohibits you harboring a minor. Even the Homeless Youth Resource Center in Utah after a certain hour has to turn them out in the cold and all they can do is hand them a blanket and a tent. So yeah, I want to help them but Utah legislators have made it impossible to help these kids. So you turn back to their families and you try to make change in their family so they’re not quite so motivated to kick out a child after coming out.

8: The Mormon Proposition opens in theaters and On Demand June 18, and DVD July 13.

Election Day 2008 was bittersweet for any Californian with a heart. It was exciting to see America elect its first African-American president, and all the hope for reasonable politics Barack Obama promised. A few hours later though, we found out that Proposition 8 had passed. Prop 8 called for legislation... more

Election Day 2008 was bittersweet for any Californian with a heart. It was exciting to see America elect its first African-American president, and all the hope for reasonable politics Barack Obama promised. A few hours later though, we found out that Proposition 8 had passed. Prop 8 called for legislation defining marriage as between a man and a woman exclusively. This rendered invalid previous legislation permitting gay marriage. How could something as progressive as President Obama and as backward as denying civil rights happen on the same day?

The pro-Prop 8 movement got a huge boost from an aggressive campaign of misinformation. Television ads ran threatening that Prop 8 meant that gay marriage would be taught in schools (it had nothing to do with that.) Even some open-minded individuals were fooled into believing this had something to do with their children's education. The funding for these campaigns came from the Mormon Church in Utah.

What would a religion in another state have to gain by influencing a California ballot measure? A new documentary answers that question. 8: The Mormon Proposition chronicles how the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints bullied its congregation into financing this, and what they had to gain. The church believes that families live on in the afterlife. Gay couples who don't reproduce threaten their view of the afterlife.

Director Reed Cowan is still demonstrably emotional discussing this issue. Even on a telephone interview, one could hear his voice quivering slightly as he recalled some of the more apalling, indecent treatment of human beings that his film uncovered. He interviewed homeless gay teenagers, families of suicide victims and vicious anti-gay Utah Senator D. Chris Buttars. Ultimately, Cowan took the opportunity to offer soem explanations for the events documented in the film, and possible solutions should people wish to get involved further.

SuicideGirls: So the Mormans have this plan for a super powered spirit afterlife. Are they basically James Bond villains?

Reed Cowan: [Laughs] I needed a laugh today.

SG: Thatís what it sounds like.

RC: I think to the outsider it does seem strange and Iíve had people say it seems a little Star Trek. To the person on the inside of the Mormon church, they believe in families hardcore. And they believe in the eternal chain of families. Itís something that brings a great deal of comfort to, like, families who lose children. That families are forever and that they are connected in one eternal chain through marriage and multiple marriages and multiple wives and planets and all of that. So an outsider looking in, they can see it in one way. I try to just project, Iím no longer a Mormon but I was schooled in Mormon seminary seven to 12th grade. I went to the missionary training center. I served the mission so I know what Iím talking about. The Mormon on the inside, itís all about family and eternal family. Unfortunately, gay people donít fit into that.

SG: To get serious, I just canít believe theyíd spend millions and millions for a belief in the afterlife. Does the church have something else to gain by ensuring everyone else follow their religious beliefs?

RC: Itís hard to believe that unless youíve been in the church and the secret recordings that we obtained say indeed we are compelled by doctrine to speak out. To an outsider, itís easy to say, ìIt canít be just that, theyíve got to have another dog in the fight.î Really I think history will prove that Mormons really do believe that gay people interrupt the Mormon plan for heaven and that the future of civilization itself, as Senator Buttars articulated, truly depends on the stable foundation of families in the world. They really believe it and they will declare holy war over it, and they did.

SG: On the broader scope, is it all based on religious fear? Why else are homophobes so threatened by what someone else does? The people on that side of the debate even beyond Mormons are so fearful that allowing gay marriage would end all marriage.

RC: I can only speak from my background and my background again is Mormon. I was taught that second only to the sin of murder is homosexuality. They have a definite way of defining family. Youíre taught from a very young age that there are two things you protect with everything you have. Number one, your family and your familyís eternal chain. Number two, the Constitution of the United States. Mormon theologians project a day when they say the constitution will hang by a thread in the United States and in fact that Mormons will be the ones to salvage it and save it and preserve it. So those are two things that are ingrained in your brain as a child: family and the Constitution, family and the Costitution. Literally, I believe as somebody who was raised in it and schooled in it and dedicated my life and my youth to it, they are telling the truth when they say, ìWe are indeed compelled by doctrine to speak.î Otherwise, why would they risk their tax exempt status? Why would they risk what they value so highly, which is public favor?

SG: Yeah, wouldnít they have a reason to want separation of church and state?

RC: Youíd think. Youíd think but weíve seen in the history of the world times when money changers need to be expelled from the temple, so to speak, and when religions forget that line and when they miss the mark. Thereís a Mormon scripture even that says, ìAt times, people miss the mark.î I think they missed the mark here. I think they were willing to risk everything for this fight and I think they still are.

SG: Was putting Buttarsí interview out there in the media a victory?

RC: Until my children are raised in a partnership where their fathers are married and receive the benefits of full marriage equality, there is no victory. Until families like ours have full marriage equality federally, there is no victory. Was it a step in the process of maybe shining a light on the type of human being Mormon bigotry can produce? Yes. Was that a victory? Yeah, maybe. We begged and pleaded, at least we felt like we begged and pleaded Mormon leaders to come out and talk about all of these things. We went through their public relationship division only to be told that they care about doing stories that help them to look good and boost their public image but they donít care about big J Journalism. So we had no other choice but to go for their more active, more vocal members, more prominent members to tell the Mormon story relative to this subject. I think it was a moment of pause for people who heard him, because we are all products of our upbringing and he is a product of his Mormon upbringing. I think itís sad because my Mormon ancestors, who I am proud of many things about their survival through many hard times, it was like Senator Butters just spat on their legacy and the legacy of his ancestors by acting in such a horrible way.

SG: I hope most people see how hateful they are and think, ìThat is how not to be. Letís not do what they say.î Do you think most people react that way?

RC: I truly think that went we know better we do better. Weíve proven that as a culture and as a society throughout history, relative to human rights especially. I think the more he speaks and the more people like him open their mouths, the closer we inch towards a culture that finds viewpoints like that hurtful and distasteful and that people will choose better.

SG: Judging by history, isn't it inevitable that we give gays the right to marry? We ended slavery, gave African-Americans the vote, women's suffrage... Hasnít it all happened before?

RC: Yeah, and in many of those issues, the Mormon Church was the last holdout. They were the last to come onboard. We know from history that it took them until the late 1970s to allow African-Americans full participation and worship and in temple worship and in membership. They were very much against womenís rights and rallied their troops against the ERA. We definitely see that Mormons are the last to come to the table and come to the party so to speak and smell the coffee, as my grandma, God rest her soul would put it. But eventually they do smell it and the good ones, like all good people, history bends towards justice.

SG: So why donít they just look at history and say itís pointless to resist?

RC: Well, why donít any of us, really? Thatís the great question I think that could come out of this film. I certainly hope it does. WHEN are we going to learn from our history. And I don't know.

SG: Who did they cast in their TV campaign? Was it all Mormons or just some SAG members who needed work?

RC: I don't know that. I do know that for the one commercial, ìA Storm is Gathering,î auditions were held. So I canít imagine that they would only hold auditions just for Mormons. In fact, I think thatís how some of that raw footage got least, some of the audition footage got leaked to the gay organizations. I don't know. I do know that it was very telling in all of the ads, you didnít see anybody older than maybe 25, 26.

SG: Thatís why I thought they were actors. They were too pretty.

RC: Well, theyíre Mormons. [Laughs] Look, they want to look good. They want to appeal to the youth. In their call to action, ìYou Twitter, you blog, you write on your Walls.î Well, what 60-year-old do you know who often Twitters, blogs and writes on their Walls? They are going for the youth of the church. Certainly we know that people older than the young people got involved of course, but itís very clear from those ads that they wanted the young people to carry this mission on their back. And they did.

SG: Obviously we would all like to have loving families. If thatís just not possible, is there strength in gay couples holding firm against their unsupportive elders and families?

RC: Yes. Not only strength but an imperative. My children deserve to grow up in a relationship where they look at their fathers and they see two men who are not willing to accept less and who are not willing to cowtow to a less than definition of our family. My children deserve that example. They will get that example always.

SG: How does this film and its message reach beyond the already pro-gay supporters?

RC: You know, Iíve had some people say this film preaches to the choir. I just want to say, ìOh, come on. That is so short sighted.î Honestly, this is not a gay film. This is a film for voters and anybody who values the integrity of their vote and the process of trying to solicit someoneís vote and keeping the process transparent and full of truth should see this film. This film belongs to the voters who value a democracy and who are afraid of a theocracy. I hope that more people than just gay people will see the film and we know from the comments that weíre getting that many of our allies are seeing the film and that many curious Mormons are seeing it. We come out on demand I believe on the 18th. Itís my hope that within the privacy of their homes, Mormons will see this film and people of all faith traditions will see this film. Whether or not they agree with everything, at least have a conversation about what the people in the film have to say and maybe choose better where they see inequity.

SG: Hopefully interviews like this can present it to a different readership too.

RC: You know what? These inequities are happening on the watch of [http://www.whitehouse.gov/"]President Obama. My call is to the president because we need full federal equality and we need him to take the lead and not wait for a second term because my children canít wait. They wonít wait. These inequities are happening on his watch. Donít Ask, Donít Tell is still around under his watch. Itís still okay in our country to deny somebody service at a restaurant because theyíre gay, under his watch. Itís still okay to deny somebody housing in our country because theyíre gay. Thatís happening on his watch. I would hope that the President himself would get involved and be a champion of people who I think he should and could identify with.

SG: How do we get that initiative to his desk?

RC: I think heís got to hear from the citizenry. Weíve got to let him know. Thatís the beauty of our country. You dream a world. You dream a world, you articulate what you want, you elect leaders who will carry out your wishes and you live in that world. My hope is that they will dream a world that is better than this.

SG: Itís obvious that that "re-orientationî programs donít work. Your film only dramatizes how barbaric the practice is. Has anyone done an official study to say, ìYou canít change someoneís sexual orientation?î

RC: That certainly wasnít within the scope of our film so I didnít dig into those studies. All I know is Iíve talked to many people, myself included, who went through reparation therapy and came out greatly damaged. You can look at studies and you can look at statistics, but what rings true and resonates mostly are the stories of people who come out of the other end of those things alive but damaged.

SG: To me, itís obvious. Itís not something you ìfixî but some people may need to see the numbers to be convinced. So I hope they exist.

RC: I would hope they do too and honestly, I would hope those studies be granted the attention that theyíre due. I don't know that they are because still the imperative in our culture to ìfixî people who are gay. I know a lot of well meaning parents, liberal thinking parents. You look at Cher. Her daughter came out. Her immediate reaction was to fix her daughter. She discloses that. When we live in a culture where a parentís immediate reaction is ìOh my God, somethingís wrong, weíve got to fix it,î those programs look pretty attractive, donít they? And youíre willing to give it a try. So what we have to do is train our parents to see beauty in the first glimpses of homosexuality that you see in children and celebrate it. Let them be who they are. I just think by inches, even by centimeters in some parts of the country, we are making progress. Weíre making progress.

SG: Obviously it will remain a fight and I wish it werenít. As we discussed though, it seems inevitable historically. What do you imagine the next civil rights issue we face will be?

RC: Wow, thatís a great question. I don't know but I am hoping that gay people will be just as actively involved in being champion for other peopleís civil rights as we are for our own. When you have been the brunt of being robbed of your civil rights, you damn well better become an advocate for everybody elseís civil rights. As we learn, you go to The Holocaust Museum, it says, ìThey came first for the Communists, and I didnít speak up because I wasnít a CommunistÖ Then they came for the Jews and I didnít speak up because I wasnít a Jew. Then they came for me and by that time no one was left to speak up.î [Martin Niemoller] If youíre in the business of being a champion for human rights, it doesnít only apply to your community. Number one, I don't know what the next civil rights front will be, but my hope is that weíll all be anxiously engaged in that good cause.

SG: Wouldnít it be great if this is the last one?

RC: It would be great but we also know that we need to peak over our mountains and across our waters and realize that in developing countries, female babies are left to die. There are great inequalities against women, against gay people. Maybe once weíve achieved a certain level here in our country, to realize that weíre all connected, even if weíre separated by mountains or water, and get to work in developing countries.

SG: On a personal level, when you see the homeless kids youíre interviewing, after you cut film, do you want to just help them, give them money or something?

RC: Yeah, I do. The sad thing about Utah, and this is a whole other article that could be done, is that Utah law prohibits you harboring a minor. Even the Homeless Youth Resource Center in Utah after a certain hour has to turn them out in the cold and all they can do is hand them a blanket and a tent. So yeah, I want to help them but Utah legislators have made it impossible to help these kids. So you turn back to their families and you try to make change in their family so theyíre not quite so motivated to kick out a child after coming out.

8: The Mormon Proposition opens in theaters and On Demand June 18, and DVD July 13.

Italian folklore once told that the only cure for a tarantula spider bite was to dance the most frenzied, inspired dance of your life or you would surely die a result of its hallucinogenic venom. Those bitten danced as if possessed, losing themselves in the feverish mandolin music played by villagers,... more

Italian folklore once told that the only cure for a tarantula spider bite was to dance the most frenzied, inspired dance of your life or you would surely die a result of its hallucinogenic venom. Those bitten danced as if possessed, losing themselves in the feverish mandolin music played by villagers, and so the ritualistic Tarantella dance came to be. Another story suggests the dance began as therapy for disaffected female sexuality. Women who were perpetually numb from the complacencies of day-to-day life would fall into a bizarre trance, for which sexualized, hysterical dancing was the only remedy. Once she found the right moves, she was saved.

These stories are, for most, just stories. But for Gogol Bordello, there’s more to be found in the psychology of dance mania than just another tall tale. The band’s current release SUPER TARANTA! (SideOneDummy Records) bolsters its status as one of the most vibrant and fearless acts on the scene. Known for whirlwind live performances, Gogol Bordello is all consuming with its rabble-rousing, gypsy punk aesthetic and sound. “With SUPER TARANTA! Gogol Bordello is going to conquer the world,” says frontman Eugene Hutz, “Everything on the album is taken to the next level. It’s more direct, more abstract, more focused, with more dark humor. The dub parts are deeper; the fast parts are faster, it’s pure orgasmo hysteria.”

SuicideGirls caught up with the Romani raconteur before a recent San Francisco sound check to chat about chaos, red wine and the super theories about super everything…

Erin Broadley: I bet there’s no such thing as a relaxed sound check for Gogol. Is it hard to get everybody organized with nine people in the band?

Eugene Hutz: Actually, you would be surprised with how professional the band is.

EB: You know, one thing that struck me about seeing your band live is that Gogol Bordello is truly the embodiment of chaos theory. Like, there’s a harmony and order to the erraticism.

EH: It has to be. Plus, we had quite a bit of experience before we became like that. I mean, we’ve been through whole stages of complete chaos where nobody would ever turn up. There were just too many people to get on the same page. We would be very successful to get them in the same book. Now, we still can’t believe it but we actually go through these professional operations quite impressively for everyone around. [Laughs]

EB: Right, it’s like a self-sustaining life force, there’s no stopping it once you hit the stage.

EH: Yeah, it definitely comes from being such a big group.

EB: In an interview you did shortly after Everything is Illuminated, you said about the film, “Humor is an engine of survival.” I agree and would assume that humor plays a big role in your music performance and songwriting.

EH: Yeah, I actually quoted Charlie Chaplin on that.

EB: Oh, really?

EH: Yeah, he was my big guru.

EB: That’s awesome.

EH: Yeah, he was the only American artist that was constantly shown on Soviet television. He was a Commie sympathizer so they couldn’t stop playing him. I mean, of course he’s fantastic, so.

EB: He was amazing in his simplicity, wasn’t he? So many actors today are just big productions, but Charlie Chaplin was so powerful considering how simple his method was.

EH: Yeah, but the less production the wilder the actual creativity there is. It makes up for all the rest. Similarly, the more fucking gear and the more production the band has, the more they suck, usually.

EB: When it comes to humor, can you discuss further the role that humor has played in your life? Like, especially when you were younger moving from refugee camp to refugee camp after the Chernobyl disaster?

EH: It’s not only [me]; our whole culture is built on that.

EB: On humor?

EH: Yeah, because Eastern Europe is so rowdy and fun loving and celebrative but if you go there you will not see any of that right away. I mean, it’s the people’s psychology that learned to come over the top of that gruesomeness -- the only way to elevate, to rise above it, is through humor. I have friends who survive alone on their linguistic skills and all the sparkling energy of inverting information in numerous humorous ways.

EB: I read that you and your friends used to pass the time by making jokes with words and phrases.

EH: Yeah, because there is simply not a whole lot else to do in Eastern Europe.

EB: Well, there’s making music.

EH: Yes, that but as far as embodying any broad dreams and stuff like that, you’re pretty much fucked. Chernobyl actually brought it out in people to a great amount in the middle of the panic and the major scare of everything, because you know, being told that you’re in the extreme danger zone without being able to smell it or taste it…

EB: I imagine it’s complete hysteria.

EH: It’s quite frightening. But every Ukrainian citizen already knew that red wine is actually a product that helps to escort Strontium out of the body. Which is one of the more dangerous radioactive elements. Before you knew it everybody was talking about, “Yeah, we’re going to be chasing a lot of Strontium out of the body. Everybody let’s chase some Strontium out!”

EB: [Laughs] We’re doing it for our health!

EH: The whole fucking key was chasing the Strontium out, you know, with double enthusiasm. It was like all this dangerous information was quickly inverted into anecdotes.

EB: That’s a pretty intense situation to grow up in.

EH: I know. We were like, “What the fuck is this? I mean, is this for real?” You know what I mean? When September 11th [happened], I watched the buildings fall down from my roof. And for people there, the way they were feeling it was exactly how we felt when Chernobyl happened. They were just completely stupefied and shocked by something like that. How can this possibly happen? That was exactly the same as how we felt.

EB: Right. I was watching the trailer for The Pied Piper of Hutzovina documentary that you did. I was really struck by the point that you bring up about the talent that goes to waste of with these people that will never have the access to instruments or funds to pursue playing music.

EH: Yeah, it’s going to kill you to see that.

EB: It’s just really heartbreaking.

EH: It’s going to kill you if you see them in the real setting. I go there all the time and I bring more and more of my own field recordings and video recordings and when I show it to people here very often they get tears in their eyes because they can’t believe how far from being heard all that talent is.

EB: Is there any progress at all when it comes to opening up avenues for art and music over there?

EH: There are numerous projects that are happening for that to come together, you know, and there always were. But we’re still pretty far from having a solid Romani name established as a positive force. People are still living in the fucking cave-age as far as knowledge of what Romani culture is. In the meantime, the government makes sure that newspapers breed hate toward gypsies because their advantage is to have a scapegoat to blame in the country. That is why when we went and played Live Earth with Madonna, it was just, like, for two weeks with all the gypsies from Russian Ukraine, Canada, the States, France, just freaking out that it came through so positively. It was such a positive setting. Plus they were just like, “Man, I can’t believe you got Madonna to sing in Romani. What the fuck? Only you could do it.”

EB: Well, if anybody can do it, it’s you. Come on, that’s no small feat. I’m sure she’s fascinating. She’s quite a character herself.

EH: Oh, it’s been truly fun to work with her. I was ready to work with her straight off the bat. Her personal style of working with people is just actually so spontaneous. She’s great.

EB: Well, in regards to popular culture, your music is kind of deviant. I mean, if culture dictates what is and what isn’t okay and decides who is and who isn’t a great artist, then your music and everything it represents strikes me as a slap in the face to that very mode of thought.

EH: Exactly. In Russian there is an expression, a common expression, “It doesn’t fit into any one gate.” It’s like any fucking gate it goes in, it warps the mother-fucking gate.

EB: [Laughs]

EH: You know, it’s too fucking gypsy for everybody else.

EB: It’s either too gypsy or not gypsy enough.

EH: It’s not gypsy enough for the purists. Fuck all of that. I’m making music I like. If you don’t like it, switch the mother-fucking channel. What’s the problem? I’m pretty happy with all I’ve accomplished, especially that all the real Romani activists got on our side before we even got any recognition. The whole idea of gypsy punk actually came not from me. It was actually two gypsy girls who came to see our show who were like, “Well, what the fuck, since this sounds like this, you might as well call it like that because if you really think about it we don’t really have anything that calls our name in a worldwide kind of level, except for Gypsy Kings.” I was like, “I think you’re right.”

EB: In a clip from Pied Piper one guy is a purist and takes your CD out from the CD player.

EH: Yeah, actually at this point that guy is a friend of mine. But that’s one of the reactions that I experienced before. Nothing was ever smooth for me, for sure. He was like, “What do you mean you call it gypsy punk?” I was like, “Well, what the fuck you want me to call it? That’s what gypsies call it.”

EB: [Laughs]

EH: You know what I mean?

EB: Yeah. It named itself.

EH: Exactly. I mean, what are you going to call it?

EB: This album is your re-imagining of the Tarantella ritual music from Italy, in a way. You’ve talked before about a painting you saw of a woman whose demons were being exorcised by a violinist…particularly that the sexual nature of hysteria and the near obscenity of the painting reminded you of qualities in your band.

EH: [Laughs] Yeah, absolutely.

EB: No, I love it. I wanted to talk about the provocative and sexual nature of hysteria, which is something that in a live environment with the crowd happens at every show. Where do you think that comes from?

EH: Repression, perhaps. Sometimes also painful shyness, I believe.

EB: [Laughs]

EH: I suffered from painful shyness in the past, as hard as it is to believe. I literally would never want to be young again in those years. Fuck no, no fucking way. I think to bring it out of our people and liberate them from that limiter…anthropologically speaking, it exists in almost every culture in different shapes. That’s what shamans do. That’s the reason Christianity spread so quickly through Russia because people were starving for some kind of a spiritual ceremony that could give them an experience of beauty, some kind of harmonious beauty. So they sent everyone around to find that new [thing] and people from the Byzantine Empire returned and said, “We saw it, it’s like this. Everybody goes into this mother fucking joint, gets in there, lights up five thousand candles among most beautiful paintings, get down on their knees and start fucking rocking.” People said, “Wow, that sounds fucking great. How come we don’t do that? Let’s do that.” That was basically one of the most driving forces behind that spreading back then. Same thing with rock and roll -- most of it is basically based on the church ceremony. I mean, it’s no secret.

EB: A concert is like a weird mass.

EH: Yeah, it’s no secret that Little Richard and all the [guys] who really made rock and roll what it is, like James Brown, looked at all the tricks in the church from the preacher. It’s almost funny; all the churches were so against rock and roll because they were jealous that such a major competition had arrived beating them at their own game. So is tarantella.

EB: Even more so, there’s also a sexual force behind confrontation and revolution and I think that’s something that definitely informs your music as well.

EH: Absolutely, I just wouldn’t even know what else to do.

EB: [Laughs] In another interview you talked about how the role of an artist in modern society is slowly dying out. How do you stay optimistic and motivated when faced with that idea of artistic disillusionment?

EH: Well, I think the optimistic part I simply get from my family. The whole gypsy bloodline is very much cultivated with survival skills for hundreds of years, already. So, in a lot of ways, being influenced by that culture is what set me off to think in unusual, philosophical ways about modern times. It’s very interesting but, for example, in gypsy language in Ukraine the word for “today,” “yesterday” and “tomorrow” are the same word. The immediacy is what guides and is the guiding force. That’s not to say it’s a mindless, “live now” [type of thing].

EB: Yeah, that’s not to say don’t think about the results of your actions.

EH: Yeah, exactly it’s a lot more about actually just being with the times.

EB: And being fully present right at the moment.

EH: Absolutely, this moment is more precious than you think. This idea is recurrent in many philosophies -- the key is not to be ahead of time or to be retro. The key is to be with the mother-fucking times. That’s where the shit is, that’s where it’s happening. I never wanted to be in a band that, 20 years later, is going to be recognized. Fuck that. I want to be with the fucking times. I wanted to bring a radical change for this time. I don’t want to influence change 60 years from now when I’m already gone. I want to get my kicks and everything I deserve for it now.

EB: You want to see the effects, feel the effects. Like you were saying, that immediacy that’s part of what keeps refueling the music.

EH: Exactly, and that’s what Gogol Bordello basically has mastered -- this very immediacy driven thing. The music is so immediate. That’s why what you see on stage is life itself happening. There is a tremendous strive for perfection in the band. Everyone is a fucking perfectionist but there is also a special kind of hate for perfection at the same time. It’s like on the record we strive for perfection and then live we just want to fuck it up.

EB: What’s with this “New Rebel Intelligence” concept of yours?

EH: Well, you know, it’s completely underdeveloped.

EB: [Laughs]

EH: It’s pretty interesting how a lot of things collide at this point for me. It’s just me and my Dad -- we always have this ongoing thing about quantum physics and astrophysics. It’s been our big family hobby forever.

EB: Well, good, then you know exactly what I was talking about when I compared what Gogol does to chaos theory.

EH: Of course. That’s what I do when I go visit my family -- get trashed and talk about the various theories of everything, the super theory of super everything. You know, straight from the table.

EB: That’s amazing. My father is a chemist, so growing up I had father-bonding experiences similar to yours.

EH: Yeah, so you know! I’m always talking with all of that. One day I was visiting with my father and he said, “I found this theory it’s called integrated theory of intelligence. It seems basically like what you were talking about,” because I was trying to kind of outline my own understanding of things. And I read it and I was like, “Well, fucking hell, pretty much.” It’s an idea that just as there is time and space and energy and matter and intelligence and consciousness is just as much a solid ingredient in the universe and it’s running solidly throughout everything just like all the rest. It’s running through the rocks and your brains and your bones and the water and everything. There is a consciousness and intelligence in everything. So it seems like all the most widespread religions are all like in the primordial schools of thought about all these things. Yeah, but it’s about time we put some mind to it. Evolution is not over, here comes a new chapter, let’s fucking get this thing, let’s understand it. What the fucking fuck?

Gogol Bordello is on tour now and plays the Mayan Theatre in Los Angeles October 25. For more information go to www.gogolbordello.com and www.myspace.com/gogolbordello