clarkblog

CONTAINS SCENES OF KICK-ASS ACTION

This is gymnast Damien Walters and he will rock your damned world. No wires, no CGI, just an athlete who's blending parkour with traditional gymnastics and a cocky "hell, yeah, I can do that" attitude. This guy needs a movie where it's just non-stop chase.

I had to shrink this video down to column-width. Please take four minutes and watch it in full-screen mode.

THE MAGIC OF MAKING

Wilco frontman Jeff Tweedy on why he writes songs:

It doesn’t hurt anybody. It’s something I love to do, and it doesn’t hurt anybody. And the world probably doesn’t need any more songs, but I need more songs. It’s satisfying and lovely to do. I feel better, and as a band—I think I can speak for everyone—we feel better making something that wasn’t there ten minutes ago. Whatever spirit there is in the universe, I think that puts you closer to it. The act of creation, you know, it’s a very powerful thing, and very gratifying. I wish it on everyone. I wish everyone could enjoy making something that wasn’t there before.

VOTE VOTE VOTE

No matter who you vote for -- JUST VOTE!!!!

LET THE GAMES BEGIN

CLARKBLOG IS THREE

Clarkblog is three years old. That's more than 700 posts, 500+ comments, and over 100,000 hits, most of them intentional. With these stats in hand, Clarkblog has officially outlived 99.9999999 percent of all blogs on the planet. Or, um, something like that.

To celebrate, I'm unhooking the blog from its Internet pipes and taking it to New York City. We'll be back in June.

ONE-HIT WONDERS

WASHINGTON, DC – The One Hitters, a softball team sponsored by Students for Sensible Drug Policy and the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, took over the #1 ranking in the Congressional Softball League last night. The team’s 13-3 record has vaulted them to the top of the league, which is made up of Congressional offices, lobbying and consulting firms, non-profit organizations, and local businesses.

Team leaders are especially proud of the ranking, which contradicts negative stereotypes of drug policy reformers as unmotivated “stoners.” “The drug policy reform community is made up of dedicated, hardworking people who take the issues of drug abuse and drug prohibition very seriously,” said One Hitters captain and SSDP Executive Director Kris Krane. “We take pride in fielding a fun but competitive team that dispels myths and stereotypes about people who care about ending the so called ‘War on Drugs.’”

The One Hitters have competed in the league for five years. Two years ago they made national headlines when the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy refused to play a game due to ideological reasons. “Everyone knows that ONDCP backed out because they were scared of losing to us on the field, much the same way they are afraid to debate us because their policies fail in the court of public opinion,” said center fielder David Guard, who is associate director of the Drug Reform Coordination Network. “We have an open challenge to the Drug Czar to play or debate anytime, anywhere.”

THE DUDE ABIDES

For me, the Dude has a certain type of wisdom. I like to call it the "Wisdom of Fingernails": the wisdom that gives you the ability to make your hair and fingernails grow, your heart beat, your bowels move. These are things that we know how to do, but we don't necessarily know how we know how to do them, yet still we do them very well. And that to me is very Dude.

-- Jeff Bridges, from his intro to I'm a Lebowski, You're a Lebowski, reprinted in this week's UK Guardian

THERESA DUNCAN & JEREMY BLAKE, R.I.P.

Updated (see below)

I'm shocked and sad to learn that writer & filmmaker Theresa Duncan killed herself on July 10. The tragedy was compounded one week later when her boyfriend, artist Jeremy Blake, followed her into the darkness.

Theresa's blog, The Wit on the Staircase, was something I discovered just before moving to LA in 2005. Clarkblog linked to it from Day One. It was well-written, challenging, and sometimes dizzying in its stew of subject matter. It was her writing that reassured me the City of Angels was not a vapid cultural wasteland, but a rich and vibrant landscape full of sexy secrets, mighty magic, and multitudes of interesting, creative people. Theresa wrote eloquently and often movingly about perfume, poetry and politics. And because Theresa obviously found her to personify something funny and freaky and feminine, Kate Moss was a recurring figure.

Earlier this year, Theresa left LA to helm a feature film in NYC.

I knew her only through her words.

And they were beautiful.

UPDATE: Here's an LA Times story on Duncan and Blake. Ron Rosenbaum is investigating from NYC and a more in-depth story by writer and friend Kate Coe will appear soon in the LA Weekly.

BEEN THERE, DONE ... WHAT?

Israel has recalled its ambassador to El Salvador after he was found drunk, naked, and bound with bondage gear.

He was only able to identify himself to police after a rubber ball had been removed from his mouth.

XMAS DICK