Dana Cerná, Jablonec nad
Ghizal Hasan,
Leah Bassoni,
Paolo Sorrentino,
A wealthy, bored and jaded former rock star (Sean Penn) embarks on a quest to find his father's persecutor, an ex-Nazi war criminal now hiding out in the U.S. Learning his father is close to death, he travels to
Man, the synopses of yet-to-be-produced movies can really make them sound like they suck sometimes. It’s up to Today’s Winner to somehow redeem this rickety premise. Not even co-star
Carl Steadman,
David Dukas,
Dominic Nardini,
Eric Kaye,
Ferrell Barron,
Jason Vail,
Jeffrey Sebelia, birthplace unspecified, American musician/“Project Runway” winner
Jodi Lawaich,
John Tague,
Ron Kennell,
Sam Rogers,
Savin Yeatman-Eiffel,
Thomas Pietrucci,
I guess this post is as good a place as any to pause to acknowledge the massive popularity that competitive reality TV shows of the serial elimination pageant variety have achieved in the culture at large. When Today’s Winner had his first, abortive encounter with fame, as bassist for the LA bubblegrunge band Lifter, the pathway to fame he would later blaze as a “Project Runway” designer had yet to be invented. However well your own system may tolerate these kinds of programs, they have proven themselves more than a passing fad. They have ignited the ambitions of literally millions of yet-to-be-discovered adolescent designers, cooks, decorators, and so on.
Though I’m skeptical about the soon-to-debut “Work Of Art”. It will be interesting (or, not) to see how they negotiate the whole matter of radical subjectivity. That, and the fact that the act of artmaking, like writing, seems inherently counterphotogenic. I’m sure they’ll get some cute contestants, though, which I suppose is the point. A more accurate name for that program will likely be something like “Statuesque Sculptresses and Picturesque Painters”.
Chris Blauvelt,
Dana Modan, birthplace unspecified, Israeli actress
Devin Foutz (died 1 February 2007),
Dirk Leupolz,
Donny Williams,
Erik Rosenbluh,
Iratxe Labejo,
Jasna Palic,
Jean-Michel Portal,
Jens Kloppenborg,
Joey Ray,
Kim Durso, birthplace unspecified, American child actress
Nicole Deborde,
Peter Gasparino,
Quentin de Fouchécour, birthplace unspecified, Italian post-production supervisor
Radoslaw Górka,
Steve Fleming,
An honorable mention to Mr. Fleming, whose IMDb page seems to be little more than an advertisement for a bar he owns in the town where I was born. Have to check it out the next time I’m in the old diocesan seat.
But the winner, for an equally capricious personal reason, is the man from
Alex LeMonde, birthplace unspecified, Canadian gay porn star
Glenn Quinn (died 3 December 2002),
Gry Blekastad Almås,
Heidi Ferrer, state of
Ian Cashmore,
Jerry Schuller,
Jimi Goodwin, birthplace unspecified, English Dove
Koe Rodriguez,
Mark Richardson, birthplace unspecified, American baritone
Michael Barrett,
Morgan Fox,
Roger Newcomb,
Sami Sirviö,
Stephanie Zari,
Timothy A. Bennett,
Looking up his name, I didn’t find much regarding Today’s Winner. But I did find this page out of a 1980 Ebony magazine.
The sight of that leads me to a brief disquisition on the few things I saw that were interesting at this year’s Whitney Biennial, which closes this weekend.
In alphabetical order by artist:
David Adamo’s whittling-attenuated walking canes.
Nina Berman’s harrowing series of just-folks shots of a hideously disfigured
Hannah Greely’s pretend bar booths with fake pay phone attached.
Jeffrey Inaba’s enormous ceiling lanterns, like hoop skirts for mod angels.
Babette Mangolte: pretentious and way overblown, but too many pretty black and white photos from the seventies not to mention kindlily.
Aurel Schmidt’s “Master Of The Universe: FlexMaster 3000”. A mintaur made of beer cans, cigarettes and fluttering Disneyfied fauna. Nine kinds of awesome.
Stephanie Sinclair’s photographs of Afghani self-inflicted burn victims. Horrifying but too well-composed not to actually look at and see; that’s the essence of hardcore photojournalism.
Last but not least, Pae White’s enormous smoke tapestry, which was the only item that transported the wife and I completely. Stunning up close and more so from afar: the only complaint is that the way they hung it, you couldn’t get far enough away to take the true measure of its magnificence.
And that’s really it. It was a very understuffed show, with a lot of dreck and dross. Way, way, way too much dippy video noodling. Ulitmately, though, it was worth it. Clementine had a good time looking at stuff; it was very empty; and the special Biennial sandwich stand they set up in the basement had a ham sandwich with beet relish that blew my taste buds’ minds.
Andrea Saraceni,
Bel Kutner,
Cherry Pie Picache,
Daniel Aznar,
Deidee Deionne,
Evan Sabba,
Glenn Rockowitz,
Jason Furlani,
Jeffrey Cools,
Jodi Harris,
Joe Ansley, Vandenberg Air Force Base,
Joseph Fiennes,
Just Ardalan-Raikes,
Klára Varga, birthplace unspecified, Hungarian actress
M.J. Loheed,
Mara Brock Akil,
Mark Collier,
Sandrine Gélin,
Today’s Winner is not a porn star, and yes, that is her real name.
Eric Anderson,
Ivan Venini,
John Hamburg, New York,
Julien Boisselier,
Kylie Ireland,
Lisa Lovett-Mann (died 17 August 2002),
Nobuhiro Watsuki,
Olivier Bugge Coutté,
Robert Pierosh,
Yoshi Jenkins,
“Lisa Lovett-Mann” and “Ivan Venini” are both awesome names.
But Today’s Winner takes the prize for having made a couple of comedies just funny enough to be considered actually funny.
Aaron Muszalski,
Afonso Vilela,
Anna Bielanka,
Brett Ford (died Christmas Day 2001),
Coll Anderson,
Jamie Kennedy,
Jayson “Rolaboi” Sutcliffe,
Lindsay and Sidney Greenbush,
Joey Eischen,
John Nicholson,
Karl Tebbe,
Maibritt Saerens,
Michael Benyaer, birthplace unspecified, American actor
Monica Lierhaus,
Neil Marshall,
Satsuki Yukino,
T.J. Stone,
Thomas Brooks, New York,
Trevor Morris,
Today’s Winner, I’m sorry, is Keith Hernandez, for dropping a McCabe and Mrs. Miller reference into tonight’s Mets broadcast. I really do love and admire Gary, Keith, and Ron, in spite of their frequent pomposity.
David Benning,
Eucir de Souza,
Grzegorz Jasniak,
Guillaume Tunzini,
Jeff S. Dodge,
Jeff Zgonina,
Paul Marcarelli,
Renton Kirk (died 28 September 2004),
Todd 1,
Tommy Page, Glen Ridge, New Jersey, gaffer/musician
Today’s Winner finds himself in the same position as Henry Pollard, the Adam Scott character on “Party Down”. The only difference being that presumably, Today’s Winner is spending his fortieth birthday on a model-strewn yacht snorting powdered money out of straws made of cocaine.
Cami Stratton,
Carlos Evelyn,
Daniele Pecci,
Gonzalo Escobar,
Gustavo Corrado,
Jason Wardle,
John Robeck, birthplace unspecified, American associate of the Kinsey Sicks
Julie M. Anderson,
Julie O’Neill,
Kevin E. Curry,
Kristina Abernathy,
Nanette Burstein,
Sandra Schaller,
Shane Valentine,
I really like that style Today’s Winner and her co-director employed to animate 2-D photographs in The Kid Stays In The Picture. I think it could be put to good use in other documentaries. Pretty much anything where there’s an oral history, or lots of colorful stories, but not a lot of moving pictures. Say, a history of thirties western swing bands. Or the founding of the C.I.A.
Brody Stephens, county of
Denver Beattie,
Dustin Ellis,
Eldridge E. Brown,
Gregory Segal,
Jessica Roulston,
Joanne Leblanc,
Joe Patane,
John Ward, Andrews Air Force Base,
Mark Bingham (died 11 September 2001),
Max Malatesta,
Monika Wierzbicka,
Naomi Campbell,
Robin DeKleine-Stimpson,
Rodrigo Lopez,
Shane Morton,
Steve Hanneman,
Steve Mazan,
Whitney Wonders,
Naomi Campbell’s fine if you need someone to take out the trash, but Today’s Winner actually may well have helped prevent a plane from crashing into the Capitol building. So, you know, credit where it’s due.
Albert J. Wong,
Carlo Vogel,
Dorsey Levens,
Elisabetta Rocchetti,
Greg MacDonald,
Jeffrey Vance, birthplace unspecified, American film archivist
Roman Turek,
Big props to Today’s Winner, who leveraged a job in the MGM vault into an impressive string of producing credits on blue-chip golden-age silent comedy re-releases.
Andrew Secunda,
Chris Booker,
Emad El Bahat, birthplace unspecified, Egyptian writer/director
Flaviano Giorgini,
Gabriel Leite,
Holly Black, birthplace unspecified, Hungarian porn star
Louis Theroux,
Monica Mitchell, state of
Ryuichi Kawamura, birthplace unspecified, Japanese actor
Stefan Valdobrev,
Terrell Brandon,
I’m going to have to name Today’s Winner provisionally, on the basis of my familiarity with his work; however, I need to get better acquainted with the output of Louis Theroux and Andrew Secunda. Perhaps once I have I’ll amend my opinion.
Alison Elliott,
Alwien Tulner,
Christer Carlsson,
Daniel Boa Ventura,
Erom Cordeiro,
James Shannon Nelligan,
Jason Gray-Stanford,
Kathryn Masak,
Keith Ewell, birthplace unspecified, American actor
Mario Dumont,
Sally Wheeler,
Spike aka Rex Ruben,
Naïveté and sincerity were the wellsprings of comedy for Today’s Winner. Lieutenant Randy Disher was a throwback kind of character, just as “Monk” was a throwback kind of show.
Chris Craig,
Dana Cheney, state of
David C. Scott,
Elizabeth Stamatina Fey,
Fernando Mieles,
Javier Cárdenas,
Joseph Baldwin, New York,
Robert Hardy,
Rodolfo Riva-Palacio Alatriste,
Sompet Laungsouphom,
Tim Woodruff, state of
Todd Desrosiers,
Vicky Sunohara,
Of all the things I like about Today’s Winner, the thing I like the most is this: she has a well-developed Sense of History.
Adam Jordan,
Andrea Valentini,
Anzhelika Agurbash,
Eric Andersen,
Heather Ward,
Hubert Davis,
Joe Castro,
Jolanta Mrotek,
Jordan Knight,
Maki Sekai,
Martine Sandifort,
Matt Lindland,
Mildred Ruiz,
Nebojsa Dugalic,
Norman Hayes,
René Vilbre, Rakvere,
Vijak Bayani,
Yamilet
Gee whiz, the name “Hubert Davis” really takes me back. Guy was never anything more than a three-chucker, but when the Knicks actually had an interior game – when basketball actually made sense, in other words – he gave you a good feeling that he could do that one thing acceptably well. I was shocked to discover he was in the league as recently as 2003-04, and that he was only forty. Happy birthday, Hubert. Wish you and your team had written your names a little more indelibly on the history books.
The winner today is Joe Castro, in honor of his namesake, the late
Alex Bell,
Chuti Tiu,
Gabriella Sabatini,
Hermine Selleslagh,
James W. Bates,
Jan Sælid, birthplace unspecified, Norwegian actor
Martin Gruber,
Nick Termini,
Octavio Scopelliti,
Peter Konczal,
Sylvia Hess, Losheim am
Truus Druyts,
This is an interesting group with no obvious winner. Lots of pairs: pair of Italian-sounding Argentines, pair of Garden Staters, pair of south Germans, pair of Belgians.
I’m going to give the ñöđ to Jan Sælid, as a representative of all the typographical anomalies that I’ve encountered thus far. Twenty-six unadorned letters is too few to encompass the florid overabundance of people and places that need names.
