Everything is Free...

You want to learn about the beginning of the internet, you should watch We Live In Public. 
You're right, I was not asking you, I was telling you, because this documentary explains everything.
Made in 2009 and directed by Ondi Timoner, We Live In Public follows internet pioneer Josh Harris, who in 1999 started a break-through social experiment in a New York City basement.

Before reality TV exploded, while online video streaming required extreme patience, and chat rooms were a thing, Harris created a prophesy of what the next 10 years of the growing internet would bring us. The film opens with a coldly casual video message from Harris to his dying mother (very similar to a scene on Tim and Eric Awesome Show Great Job). He says, "Speaking to you virtually is how I know how to do this best... This is what art is now."

Harris started Jupiter Communications in the early 1990s. It was a company that simply attempted to gather investors for the burgeoning internet, and find out what people would actually do with it. Stemming from this came Pseuedo, Harris's first online TV channel. It was completely interactive with live chat-rooms.  It was all about young hip kids sharing ideas, and they became millionaires because of it. And around 2000, most companies like these went bankrupt.

In 1999 Harris walked away from Pseudo, and began his art project / month-long party / utopian fascist commune / psychological experiment called Quite: We Live in Public. In an NYC basement at the turn of the century, with free food and drink, a communal shower, firing range, cameras in the bathrooms, bunk beds with cameras and TVs, and Stasi style interrogations, Quite was a physical embodiment of the internet and what Harris predicted it would become. Prophetically he said, "Everything is free except the video we take of you, that we own."

I was about 11 years old and in Rhode Island when most of this happened, so I was pretty clueless about social experiments in NYC basements (though there was an 11 year-old boy in there! Hope he turned out okay). I did watch MTV, and I did see an episode of Daria where her dad gets hired to a dotcom company that appropriately crashes and burns.  So when I saw this film I wasn't completely lost. It always excites me to discover subcultures and movements that happened while I was too young to be apart of them. It's like discovering something new about yourself.
The film ends with the befitting song, Virtual Insanity by Jamiroquai, which was probably my favorite song at the time this film was based.

Allow me to quote,

Futures made of virtual insanity now

Always seem to, be govern'd by this love we have

For useless, twisting, our new technology
Oh, now there is no sound - for we all live underground 

Style Wars

Just as a disclaimer, I know it can be annoying to watch full-length movies on YouTube. Rarely are they in one piece, and good luck if you can find all of parts 1 of 8 in a logical order. Don't fret, because for your viewing pleasure, I found the full length version of the 1984 documentary, Style Wars.  Directed by Tony Silver, Style Wars follows the graffiti culture of New York City during the early 1980s. The film has a gritty, 70's quality to it, some of it shot in black and white.  If you like Midnight Cowboy, Taxi Driver, and other movies about NYC before it got cleaned-up, this is for you. It is apparent that everyone is just trying to deal with this chaotic environment. The upright citizens bemoan the graffiti on the trains and lump the graffiti artists with other criminals, while the artists defend their craft, and paint whenever possible despite efforts against them. It is apparent that both sides are victims of their society. 

While some of the graffiti is impressive and obviously took a lot of skill to execute, I do think the young taggers for the most part were unwittingly sustaining the broken windows theory: basically if you leave a broken window, then crimes escalating in severity will be committed. The interviews with the young graffiti artists are eye-opening. These boys between the ages of 12 and 20 are well-spoken, and have strong beliefs in their art. It's amazing to hear them talk about why they tag, how they are building names for themselves.

Shots of the train yards at night are chilling. It's a place most people don't see, but the graffiti artists are very familiar with it. At one point an extremely panoramic shot of a fabulously painted subway train moves across the screen for about 2 minutes. As a photographer I am still a bit baffled at how they got the shot without any visible breaks in the image. Style Wars is beautifully filmed, a worth while exploration.

Burger King Whopper Bar NYC

This past weekend my boyfriend Matt Aromando and I went to the BK Whopper Bar in New York City. I had first heard about this magical place from the blog This Is Why You're Fat, where the New York Pizza Burger was featured. This is a burger that is made of 4 patties, a giant bun, pepperoni, mozzarella cheese, tomato sauce, and pesto sauce, cut into wedges and served like a pizza. Sounds like an insane idea right? An insanely awesome idea! Matt and I looked into it, and found the location in NYC. It became our mission to check it out, try the pizza burger, or another equally crazy concoction.

Karly Domb Sadof for The New York Times

When we arrived on a Saturday afternoon, we were disappointed to find that the pizza burger was no longer on the menu. This was not a problem, as there were plenty of heart-stopping options to choose from. Premium toppings such as guacamole, blue cheese crumbles, jalapeños, and a variety of cheeses and sauces, are available to top your burger.

Steakhouse XT a la Matt

Matt ordered the Steakhouse XT, which offers the thickest burger patty, and normally comes with lettuce, tomato, onion, and mayo. Matt added guacamole, jalapeños, and cheddar cheese. He thought it was yummy, and was easily satisfied for the rest of the day.
This is what I got:

Stuffed Steakhouse Burger

the Stuffed Steakhouse Burger, with jalapeños and cheddar cheese cooked into the burger patty, lettuce, tomato, and poblano cream sauce. Well it actually looked more like this, but it was amazing!

The real Stuffed Steakhouse Burger

Overall, the burgers looked like regular Whoppers, but the improved ingredients made it worth the trip. I seemed to have fresh jalapeños in the burger, and we both agreed that the tomatoes were top notch. The atmosphere was similar to other Burger Kings, but the decor was more modern. The Whopper Bar has been compared to McDonald's McCafé.

on the left McCafé , on right BK Whopper Bar

Matt and I went to a McCafé in Chicago. While it did offer gelato and leather chairs, I think the BK Whopper Bar is a much more unique experience for the mouth area. At this time the New York location does not serve alcohol, but it is planning to in the near future. Right now, their location in South Beach, FL is the only one that sells beer. I will be interested to see what kind of brews BK New York will decide to pair with their food. Will they go for Bud, or Chimay? Also, their menu items are exclusive. Like in the case of the New York Pizza Burger, don't expect to find every crazy meal you hear about on the menu consistently. Get it while it's hot! You will, however, find something worth talking about regardless. I can't wait to see what they come up with next.

Morbid Curiosity Double Feature: Cropsey and H.H. Holmes America's First Serial Killer

Horror movies are good fun entertainment, but what to say of films about real life horror? I find documentaries about murderers to be more intellectually gripping and less anxiety provoking - at least until the magnitude of it sinks in. There are two sides to the coin. The horror flick might suck you into the story, but in the end you can feel good knowing it's just a movie. The documentary about serial killers allows you to watch with objectivity but leaves you questioning humanity.
If you are in the mood to question humanity, please enjoy these two documentaries Cropsey and H.H. Holmes America's First Serial Killer.

Click to watch

Cropsey, a 2009 documentary by Barbara Brancaccio and Joshua Zeman, follows the story of Staten Island's underbelly of misplaced patients from the closed Willowbrook State School for the mentally ill and handicapped. Officially closed in 1987, the area surrounding the institution was a breeding ground for urban legend. The word "Cropsey" was coined by youths of Staten Island Boy Scout camps, defined as an insane man who lives in the woods near the asylum and murders children. For decades the stories were pass down, but it became very real in 1987 when a 12 year old girl with Downs Syndrome, Jennifer Schweiger, was abducted and murdered, her body found near Willowbrook. Chilling footage from Geraldo Revera's expose on Willowbrook, and aching testimonials of a community torn by disillusionment and terror make for a gripping film.
 

Click to watch

 H.H. Holmes America's First Serial Killer is... well it pretty much explains it in the title. Superb conman, H.H. Holmes with his "murder castle" in Chicago, managed to make countless people disappear for roughly 20 years before he was caught in 1894. It's the stuff every horror movie is made of, from Secret of the Blue Room to Hostel. John Borowski made a documentary about Holmes in 2004. The idea of him being the "first" serial killer is intriguing. It's like saying Holmes invented mass murder, along with the inception of the steam engine. But along with the steam engine also came slightly improved police investigations. Holmes was one of the first serial killers who was actually found out, and studied, defining the concept of a serial killer. Watch this documentary for the bizarre story. It is positively edifying [straightens monocle].
If you want to watch in chronological order (by topic and movie release date) watch H.H. Holmes first. If you want to get the bad news first and then the good news, watch Cropsey first. Even though Holmes seemingly set the standard for serial murder, H.H. Holmes will be refreshing in it's lack of grisly news footage. Enjoy!

The Rock-afire Explosion

1981 was a magical time. Everyone in this documentary seems to agree. Brett Whitcomb's 2008 The Rock-afire Explosion documents the rise and fall of the most famous animatronic bands from the Southern United States. You might be familiar with the Youtube videos of this band of rubber-faced anthropomorphized animals performing hilariously non sequitur songs like Bubba Sparkxxx's Miss New Booty.  Turns out, these are not dubbed-over videos, and it is not meant to be ironically funny.

  You will not hear She'll Be Coming 'Round the Mountain behind the rap music. A roller-rink dj named Chris Thrash bought an out of commission Rock-afire Explosion animatronic band, erected it on his property, and makes videos where he reprograms the band to play modern songs.  Rock-afire Explosion was the main attraction at Showbiz Pizza, a child-oriented pizza restaurant and arcade from the 1980s that would later be bought out by Chuck-E-Cheese.

As it turns out, there is a serious following of Rock-afire Explosion fans. They all remember the band being one other best things they ever saw when they were 7, and have not completely let go... at all. Everyone has their favorite band member, each with their own personality and back story. The kids who REALLY liked this stuff appear to have been immune to the "band's" terrifying appearance. It takes a special kind of child to truly love this show, and grow up to collect their memorabilia, listen to their music, and aspire to own a copy of the actual band. 
You also get a glimpse into the creator of Rock-afire and founder of Creative Engineering, Inc., Aaron Fetcher. It's tragically touching to see how emotionally invested the fans are, or how the Fetcher's business went from 300 employees to just himself as The Rock-afire Explosion ended.  There is a longing for this place in time when the show was a magical thing to see, (or a lucrative business for that matter), and no one was jaded by it.

Watching The Rock-afire Explosion being assembled in Fetcher's factory was a creepy thing to see, but an even creepier moment in the documentary is watching them be disassembled. A corporate video for Showbiz Pizza explains how employees of the resturant should remove parts in a certain order, warning, "destroy these items as they will never be used again." All that is left are the metalic skeletons waiting for Chuck-E-Cheese's skin.

It Came From Kuchar

If you're a John Waters fan, you will love the films of his major influence, the Kuchar brothers.  2009 documentary by Jennifer M. Kroot, It Came From Kuchar, explores the past and present of underground film makers George and Mike.

Starting in the 1960s with a super 8 camera and an extremely low budget, the Kuchars collaborated on bizarre films that can be described as zany home movies made by some kids who spend most of their time watching b-films. What the Kuchars made was truly unique for the time. Simultaneously, Warhol was making his underground films, but the Kuchars were funnier, and not as suave in their sexuality. Staying close to the genres of fantasy, horror, and exploitation, their work is a pure expression of the ideas and aesthetics gathered from popular movies from post-war America.

I had the privilege of seeing an original print of Hold Me While I'm Naked, a portrait of a down on his luck director who imagines his tardy actors having wild sex.  It Came From Kuchar discusses this film, and lead me to many other gems I would love to get a hold of. Hearing George and Mike speak is extremely entertaining, whether it's recalling childhood memories of their often absent father and immigrant mother, or explaining their thought process behind such films as Sins of the Fleshapoids (a film about an android revolt one million years in the future).
It Came From Kuchar is a documentary that will leave you giddy with the idea that these films exist in the world.

Banana Tootsie Roll Pop

Today, in an inconspicuous cardboard display of Tootsie Roll Pops, on the bottom shelf in a convenience store, an unfamiliar color caught my eye. It was yellow and brown, representing banana.

Banana

I'm not a fan of Tootsie Rolls on their own, but the pops are one of my favorite candies. Grape is the best, chocolate is the worst. 90% of all grape-flavored candy taste like cough medicine, but the grape Tootsie Roll Pop is like sweet sweet Welches grape juice. The chocolate Tootsie Roll Pop is chocolate flavored hard candy (that's not even opaque like real chocolate) covering chocolate flavored taffy. A big chocolate masquerade.
Banana maybe my new favorite. It doesn't taste like pure potassium like some other artificially flavored banana candies. Believe it or not, I would describe it as Indian. A banana chai. It was one of the more complex flavors of candy I have eaten. People on the train were definitely envious of the love affair I was having with this lollipop. Or they were curious about how a yellow and brown thing on a stick could be so tasty.
Apparently there are two other new flavors, pomegranate (will this superfruit stop being trendy?) and green apple (surprised it's not already in the original flavor line up). I suppose I wont jump the gun and say banana is the best, but I'm willing to bet it is.
If you have tried all three new flavors click here to vote for your favorite.