Possibly The Last Jack Nicholson Fan Photograph You'll Ever See

I was just listening to BBC World Service Outlook programme about a celebrity fanatics life of photographing himself with celebrities. I was about to change the 'channel' when  Richard Simpkins mentioned that Michael Hutchence was the most charismatic person he'd met over the decades. 

The official story of Hutchence' premature death has never sat comfortably with me and I thought it was an interesting comment Simpkin made so I hung in there. He then talked about the first time he met Jack Nicholson who declined his request for a fan photograph as he no longer does them and especially so as he'd mislaid his sunglasses on the golf course. Nine years later Richard Simpkin found himself at the rear of a Hollywood restaurant while Jack smoked a customary after-meal cigar . He reminded him about the first time they met in Sydney. Jack recalled losing his sunglasses and no doubt impressed by Richard's tenacity promised to do a photo with him at the front of the restaurant later. It's a quirky story and an anomaly in so much as I avoid celebrity topics. However the idea of Richard doing a 'Celebrity Fan Photographic Exhibition' is a brilliant example of 'But is it art?'.

In my view the world of art is so far up its backside it has neglected to address real issues in a way that is compelling, memorable and intelligent. The Independent recently asked us if contemporary art has 'Jumped The Shark' and the answer isn't hard to determine although I've always had a sneaky respect for Damien Hirst taking the piss out of the art world and charging as much as he could get away with.

Most of the art still housed in the National Gallery was commissioned by the 1% and so it's hard not to ask if the art world has changed that much? Hogarth was an exception but by and large I've never seen a more self obsessed bunch than contemporary artists who seem to have missed out on the point that great art taps into the times and articulates the unspeakable.

I tweeted as much earlier and there was a response to check out occuprint.org that I think is worth a mention. It's also worth mentioning that Richard Simpkin's body and style changes while snapping celebs from boyhood to man are oddly fascinating in their own way. You can see his photography exhibition in Liverpool. 

Maybe art is so up its own arse that anthropology is more interesting these days.

Snuff Movies We All Know & Love

In the mid 90's, Department of Defence Geologist Phil Schneider started doing presentations at UFO conferences about his role in the construction of underground bases that the military industrial complex has been building since the second world war to keep the Very Very VIPs nice and comfy in the event of extinction level events such as thermo-nuclear war. 

Phil's story was unusual and UFO related as he stumbled across that US military/non human intelligence working agreement/connection which is quite well documented and authenticated by the grand daughter of Eisenhower. Coincidentally the same person that came up with the term military industrial complex. 

Shortly after gaining notoriety in UFO circles at these talks and not before accusations of disinformation started to surface (his story is extraordinary to the max) Phil was suicided and is thus for me one of the more reliable witness testimonies on the internet. Suicided people are as good as it gets for authentication in my book and the nature of Phil's murder including torture is a little unusual.

I've only posted the clip with 2.6 million hits but there are full length presentation videos out there.

Clif High - Vatican Venality & Aztec Sunstones

Most people understandably still can't grasp that the Vatican is part of that Corporation of London, Washington D.C. triangle of lizardness that still runs the joint. The clip above from one of the recent full interview posts (or this one specifically if I got it right) should bring home a very pertinent question:

Why did the Vatican rush to Mesoamerica with Spanish armies to slaughter the locals and grab every piece of ancient mystery information they could hoard or destroy so that we wouldn't know?

Then there's that whole sending a Vatican painter to do the apotheosis of George Washington thing alongside the Aztec sunstone sculpture in the Capitol building rotunda.