Dan and Vince are two practicing Surrealists parading their art (meaning, "themselves") around the country, from the art scene of NYC to the movie scene (well, not "scene" so much as "scenic painting"...it's on the Paramount lot and two hobos, both named Oliver, incidentially, live behind it with a rat they've trained to dance a soft-shoe and steal food from the commisary) of Los Angeles. And remember: If it doesn't say "Dan & Vince" somewhere on it, it just ain't that Surreal.
Cracked.com has a very cool list of "Images you won't believed aren't photoshopped." It includes the image above (a fake facade draped over a building that's under construction, as well as the sculpture seen below...
Also, you've got floating faucets and levitation... basically it's far more surreal than anything we're going to come up with today... so that's it then. My job's done. You can also check out Cracked's first list of the kind here.
What can you say about Roger Corman? Whatever it is, it's stuff we like. He makes his own rules (like us), works outside the mainstream (like us), and discovered Jack Nicholson (like us...wait...um, no. That wasn't us. That was Roger Corman.).
Not only did he give us movies with titles like NAKED PARADISE, THE BEAST WITH A MILLION EYES, and THE SAGA OF THE VIKING WOMEN AND THEIR VOYAGE TO THE WATERS OF THE GREAT SEA SERPENT, but he also gave us A BUCKET OF BLOOD, about a lonely guy who kills people and covers them in clay because he wants to be liked by a bunch of beatniks. Whenever Dan gets sick, I load him down with DayQuil and Orange Juice, then plop him on the couch to watch A BUCKET OF BLOOD. It always makes him feel better...right before he passes out.
Man we really dig the idea of performance art. The idea of performance art... unfortunately most performance art ends up somewhere between "well that happened..." "wait, what just happened?"
Like this:
The act itself (fellatio on a microphone) probably means something... I guess, I don't know. To be honest watching the video makes me a little uncomfortable. I do sort of dig listening to it though. I think if you added in Brian Chipendale on drums I could listen to this.
We've never been big fans of electronic music, but we do remember liking Mr. Oizo. He was in a few Levis commercials...
Oh yeah, he's a puppet. Which I guess makes this pretty surreal. Surrealer still, and the real reason I'm bringing this up is the cover of his (I assume... if I'm wrong, I apologize... ma'am...) new album Lamb's Anger features this very cool, Buñuel-inspired cover:
Along with a very cool commercial:
That cover is so cool, it earns him free promotion. The album came out- uh, "dropped" on November 17th, so go get it!
A reader named Anonymous (which I must admit is a pretty surreal user-name, he's making a self-aware statement about the anonymity of the internet and the- oh wait, it's just someone who commented anonymously. Nevermind.) responded to our last post about Joaquin Phoenix, Surrealist? with this interesting tidbit about Joaquin showing up at a club to debut his music career- his music of choice is rap, by the way.
Casey Affleck was once again on hand, videotaping the action for a documentary about Joaquin's music career.
We (Dan and Vince) are trying to make the world a more surreal place, we personally contribute through our own surrealing, but that's tiring and we can't expect the same level of commitment from everyone.
But here's what you can do. You can tell us when you see surrealism (intentional or otherwise) in your everyday life.
Let me give you an example.
While driving out of a parking lot, I saw a retirement age couple walking through the parking lot. They were walking close together and talking, dressed in that old-person-casual style that favors comfort and color over all else. The woman was holding a leash that was behind her. Due to my interest in seeing cute puppies I followed the leash with my eyes. I was disappointed. She wasn't walking a dog, she was walking a tire. A tire, on its side so it was being dragged and not rolled, with a dog leash clipped on it, being 'walked' by a nice couple through a parking lot.
I don't know why they were taking their tire for a walk. The only stores in the strip mall were a liquor store, a salon, and a deli. No tire stores. No auto part stores. Nothing that could make the couple's actions logical.
Whatever happened to coming up with some characters (new characters) and then having them do something (preferably something people hadn't really done before)?
Anyway- Dracula- Not surprisingly, they've already adapted the new book into a screenplay. In addition, two more sequels will follow (in book form, then most likely movies...).
So is this really necessary? I'll let you decide. Come, let's chart Dracula over the years.
1897 - Bram Stoker writes the novel Dracula. 1922 - F. W. Murnau makes his unauthorized film version, Nosferatu 1924 - Dracula is staged as a play starring Bela Lugosi 1927 - The play hits Broadway 1931 - The stage play is adapted into Tod Browning's film for Universal Studios 1931 - George Melford remakes Dracula, shooting at night on the same sets for the Spanish-language market 1936 - Universal Studios' Dracula 2 - Dracula's Daughter 1943 - Universal Studios' Dracula 3 - Son of Dracula 1944 - Return of the Vampire, starring Bela Lugosi, often considered an unofficial sequel to Universal Studios' original film Dracula 1944 - Universal Studios' Dracula 4 - House of Frankenstein 1945 - Universal Studios' Dracula 5 - House of Dracula 1948 - Universal Studios' Dracula 6 - Abbot and Costello Meet Frankenstein 1953 - Turkey adapts the book as Dracula Istanbul'da 1957 - The Blood of Dracula - visits the character during his teenage years 1958 - The Return of Dracula - an unofficial sequel to the novel 1958 - Hammer Films makes Dracula starring Christopher Lee (aka Horror of Dracula) 1960 - Hammer Dracula 2 - The Brides of Dracula 1966 - Hammer Dracula 3 - Dracula: Prince of Darkness 1966 - Billy the Kid vs. Dracula - an anachronistic take on the character 1968 - Hammer Dracula 4 - Dracula Has Risen from the Grave 1969 - Hammer Dracula 5 - Taste the Blood of Dracula 1969 - Al Adamson's Blood of Dracula's Castle has the character living to America 1970 - Hammer Dracula 6 - Scars of Dracula 1970 - Jesus Franco's Count Dracula - a Franco-ish take on the novel 1970 - Al Adamson's Dracula vs. Frankenstein 1972 - Hammer Dracula 7 - Dracula A.D. 1972 1972 - Dracula's Great Love, with Paul Naschy
1972 - American International Pictures' Blacula, starring Shakespearean actor William Marshall
1973 - Hammer Dracula 8 - The Satanic Rites of Dracula 1973 - TV movie starring Jack Palance adapts the novel
1973 - American International Pictures Blacula 2 - Scream Blacula Scream
1974 - Paul Morrisey and Andy Warhol present Blood for Dracula 1974 - Hammer releases The Legend of the Seven Golden Vampires
I'm going to stop right here. 1974. 24 years ago. And we've already created all the adaptations listed in this big block of text that you probably didn't bother to read...
So what's my point? My point is if the original has inspired this much derivation, think about what a sequel will do. Like when you make a copy of a copy... or does that metaphor no longer work on the MP3, bit-torrent generation?
We simply don't have enough time left on this planet to deal with any other forms of this story. We're sick of it. Any sane rational person would have realized we reached our limit somewhere long before 1974. So let's stop bull-shitting each other.
I know Twilight is coming out today and it will make millions, but that's not Dracula. It's a new story. Just like the similar / superior Let the Right One in (trailer way up at the top there). These are films that take the mythology developed in the Dracula novel and build upon it. That's cool. We've got no problem with that. By building on the established horror conventions of vampires, zombies, and werewolves we may actually see some truly unique horror films in our lifetime.
We (Dan. Vince.) are two practicing Surrealists, originally from Texas, but now parading our art (meaning, "us") around the country, from the rarefied art scene of NYC to the more proletariat movie scene (well, not "scene" so much as "scenic painting"...we've seen it, it's on the Paramount lot and two hobos, both named Oliver, incidentially, live behind it with a rat they've trained to dance a soft-shoe and steal food from the commisary) of Los Angeles. And remember: If it doesn't say "Dan & Vince" somewhere on it, it just ain't that Surreal.
