Pioneering

The critics are unanimous with their back-handed compliments for BLACKBALLED: THE BOBBY DUKES STORY!

"Moderately amusing."
- NY SUN

"The performances are surprisingly good."
- TV GUIDE

"Loose, scruffy charm"
- NY TIMES

"That the film appears to have been made for roughly the same price as a New York City dinner for two greatly enhances its off-beat charm."
- WASHINGTON SQUARE NEWS

Bush's brain got split in half today. One half arrived at the Pioneer, and the other half is stuck somewhere in New Jersey.

More precisely, the two cans of a 35mm print of the movie BUSH'S BRAIN were separated as they journeyed across the U.S. over the last few days. New tracking info showed up today, coinciding with delivery of the first half to the Pioneer. The other half, apparently, is somewhere in New Jersey.

What did you think I meant?

BUSH'S BRAIN, as you may know, is a movie about Karl Rove, the political operative widely credited with turning the derelict scion of a politically powerful oil family into a viable political candidate. This coming Monday, we're showing the movie as an "Un-President's Day" screening, reflecting our rather queasy feelings toward that holiday at the moment.

The Billionaires for Bush, an over-the-top yet earnest political theatre troupe, will co-present the screening, at which they will also screen their own film "Billionaires Love Karl Rove." The Billionaires are bringing some very special guests, including Bush's Brain "Karl Rove" himself (Tony Torn), as well as Bush's Heart "Dick Cheney" (Ron Kidd). We also look forward to welcoming a number of unannounced, undercover CIA, NSA, and FBI agents.


"Rove" will present a copy of THE SATANIC BIBLE, by Anton Lavey, to the best Karl Rove impression.

As "Dick Cheney" will attend the screening, bulletproof vests and facemasks are recommended.

Meanwhile, follow the confused journey of Bush's Brain's derelict half, by clicking here. We do expect both halves here well in time for the screening.

Buy tickets here.

"Super Twink," a half-hour featurette produced for Howard Stern on Demand TV, unfortunately held its world premiere at the Pioneer on January 4, 2006. In a riff on "Super Man," J.D. Harmeyer stars as "Super Twink," a gay superhero who defends the world from evil Dr. Hetero (High Pitch Eric), who is trying to turn all gay people straight. Sal "the Stockbroker" Governale and Richard Christy directed; they also co-star.

Stern show staff members, wack packers, and superfans turned out in force for the invitation only premiere. Doug Goodstein, from Howard Stern on Demand, produced the event, with a capable band of staffers and interns - among them Diandra, winner of this year's Howard Stern show intern beauty pageant.

Out in front of the theater, the Reverend Bob Levy accosted guests arriving on the pink carpet. And what a guest list! We saw J.D. Harmeyer, Sal the Stockbroker, Richard Christy, High Pitch Eric, Artie Lange, Elephant Boy, Joey Boots, Double A, Wood Yi, Angry Black, King of All Blacks, Mary Ann from Brooklyn, Kenneth Keith Kallenbach, Zolar, and also, I think, Craig Gass and Jim Florentine, among many others. Howard Stern on Demand television shot throughout the set up, the screening, and the aftermath. Also, a reporter from Howard 100 news covered the event, phoning in an interview with High-Pitch Eric before he had even left his seat in the back row. The back row, incidentally, was where many of the Wack Pack players sat. After they left, Pioneer staffers discovered a large pool of melted popcorn butter coating the floor for that row.

Reaction to the film was almost universally negative. A good time was had by all.

Super Twink Premiere Photo Album * Pioneer Theater Front Page * Pioneer Blog Front Page
See coverage in THE REELER

The 2005 Pioneer Pio-Year-in-Review
by Jeffrey the Projectionist

Let me start by saying that this is actually just a Half-Year-in-Review because I started working at the Pioneer Theater in June so I don’t know NOTHIN’ about any of the movies that played here before that so don’t even call me up on the phone, layin’ down nasty words about how I totally forgot that movie from March. I wasn’t working here so just deal with it. Also, this isn’t too comprehensive or anything. Check out the other wrap-ups if you want something serious.

And now, for a top ten (with a bonus honorable mention) countdown-style rundown of the films that I deem the Pioneer’s “Most Memorable” in 2K5…

HONORABLE MENTION: THE TINGLER – Vincent Price is such a weirdo. But whatever, so are you when you’re all alone in your home and no one is watching. Let the man just do his thing. He’s not knocking down your door when you smell your girlfriend’s underpants so why don’t you just be happy for him. That said, THE TINGLER is fun, but it’s kind of a stupid horror movie. It’s just not very scary. I mean, the damn Tingler moves slower than molasses. I would just step on that bitch.

10. “Gary Ray on Q2 (QVC)” – This was part of The Gary Ray Show, which was cool, but the best part of it was the four-minute section of clips from when Gary was a host on Q2 which is sort of like what MTV2 is to MTV but with home shopping. These clips feature Gary just hamming it up on live TV. It was great. He was all singing and dancing and doing that yuk-yuk haw-haw stupid home shopping shit. I loved it. What is up with home shopping networks these days anyway? Don’t they know about the Internet? I don’t need to watch TV to buy anything. DUH. LONG LIVE THE INTERNET.

9. UNDERCOVER MAN – This movie is good because have you ever thought to yourself, “Oh, wait, women are never portrayed as strong, independent people in cinema. Except like ERIN BROCKOVICH or G.I. JANE or whatever, but those are SO OLD.” Yeah, me too. Well, UNDERCOVER MAN is all about one strong woman who just beats people up and is smarmy and bitchy and everything, and she’ll just two-time and blackmail everyone. And what, might you be wondering, is her name? WHAT ELSE COULD IT BE BUT DIANA LACHARM.

8. COWARDS BEND THE KNEE – This silent film is funnier than ANYTHING from the silent era. You hear that, Murnau? Griffith, you racist bastard? You guys aren’t funny. Oh wait, I forgot about Chaplin and some other guys. Whatever. That’s a different kind of funny. That’s like flowerpot drops on a man’s head funny. COWARDS is different. Don’t hassle me. Oh yeah, and COWARDS BEND THE KNEE is visually stunning. Maddin is a creative visionary with a new approach to an old aesthetic. Dude, fuck the way movie critics write. YOU HEAR THAT, SIEGEL? EBERT, YOU RACIST BASTARD? JK y’all. TTYL.

7. EVIL OF DRACULA – This is a two-minute freakout movie that I really liked. It’s a real freakout, too. I think this needs to be a new genre. TWO-MINUTE FREAKOUT. More people need to make movies like this one by Martha Colburn. Martha, if you are reading this, I want you to know that I really liked your movie, and if you want to be friends, we can be friends. Okay.

6. VAMPYRES – This movie is sort of annoying because one of the lesbian vampires is hot, like REALLY hot, and the other one is sort of busted (bad face, extra pounds) but pretends she’s hot. But you know what? That’s real. That’s real life, okay, MAN? I’m sorry if it doesn’t fit in with your macho dick Penthouse fantasy, but I totally buy their lesbian relationship. This movie doesn’t make a big deal out of them being lesbos. They just are, okay? Whatever, you’re too close-minded to get it. They love each other. And they kill some guys who get d-d-drunk and are all, “Oh yes, I’m going to get some mega-action.” Yeah right, buddy. They don’t want your stick. They’re just faking. Also, have you heard the joke about the lesbian vampires? The punch line is something about once-a-month something. I don’t know. Go get a joke book.

5. CHAOS – Look, we’re pretty far behind Japan when it comes to weird gross-out rape/violence in our culture. Everyone’s freaking out because dude cuts off a girl’s nipple and feeds it to her and sodomizes another girl with a knife in this movie, but the Japanese people are sitting back and laughing like, “Yawn. Bo-ring. We’re not impressed. Maybe that would be okay if he was her dad and he vomits on her while he kills and rapes her.” I guess we’ll never be too progressive as long as that asshole Bush is in office. NOT MY PRESIDENT. WHOSE STREETS? OUR STREETS! Oh, and Sylvester Stallone’s public toilet of a son is in this movie as a chubby weasel drug guy. That’s sort of reason enough to see it.

4. RE-ANIMATOR – Get ready for the end of this movie when it gets really gross, but in a silly way like when a cute kid eats his food all messy, and you’re like “Aw shit that’s gross,” but then you realize you don’t have to clean it up so then you start laughing and telling the kid to keep it up. BONUS: We also played RE-PENETRATOR which is the porno version of this made by Burning Angel. It’s like hardcore porno, too. You see EVERYTHING.

3. PULSE – THERE ARE NOT ENOUGH GOOD MOVIES THAT ARE ABOUT COMPUTER VIRUSES AND THE INTERNET AND WHATEVER THE HELL THIS WEIRD MOVIE IS ABOUT.

2. DEEP THROAT – Man, I’ll tell you what. What if all you had left in life was this movie, some early Black Sabbath albums, some jeans or whatever, and infinity pizza. What else would you need? And I mean, be really honest with yourself. Like look deep within your soul. I’m just talking about basic needs here. You know?

1. A NIGHT TO DISMEMBER – Don’t even kid yourself into starting to think about thinking that this isn’t the best, most important film made in the last fifty years. You can sit around and talk all your bullshit like you know movies, but get the hell out of town if you haven’t seen A NIGHT TO DISMEMBER. I mean seriously, this movie has fucking spirals in it. And there’s this one guy’s face at the end of the movie that is the funniest thing in the whole world.

Okay, that’s it. I hope you found this helpful or informative. If you didn’t, sorry! It’s not my fault! It’s yours! Come see a movie, and come see it at the Pioneer.

You probably have a favorite movie theater. Perhaps it's the Pioneer. Perhaps it's not. But your appreciation of that theater probably comes from the movies you've seen there and the conditions in which you've seen them. Perhaps your appreciation comes from both; however, those two can be made into relatively discrete elements. The movies themselves could be extricated from that theater and shown elsewhere, perhaps in just as nice an environment, and the theater itself could show other movies in just as nice conditions. The two independent elements together create the experience you treasure.

Yet there does exist an alternate tradition in cinematic exhibition, what we can call the "site specific" tradition. In this tradition, the artwork of the movie merges with the presentation conditions to create something larger, something that is not inherently repeatable in the same way exactly the same again and again and elsewhere, as is usually the case with movies. The movie itself merges with its surroundings, so that combined they move toward becoming a Gesamtkunstwerk, a total artwork.

Today, Monday November 14, the Pioneer again indulges that tradition in our presentation of THE TINGLER, a movie we have presented several times since this summer. This will be the last performance of this film, at least for the foreseeable future, so if you have not come yet you must come now.


Vincent Price is Dr. Warren Chapin, a pathologist researching fear's physical manifestations. Chapin discovers that an actual creature grows within the human back when we are in fear, and only our screaming renders that creature - which he calls the tingler - impotent. When Chapin and his friend Ollie realize that someone they know is unable to scream, and thus unable to put down the tingler in their back, a plot is hatched to capture her tingler itself. Eventually, the tingler gets loose in a movie theater.

And here is where THE TINGLER passes beyond "the movies" and toward the total artwork. The theater itself is transformed into the theater in which the tingler is loose. The theater staff themselves become players in making that transformation, and you the audience do, too. The effect comes not just from the movie and its standard presentation within the theater, but is fused with the performance of the projectionist and the ushers who have become players in a performance of which the film is only a part, albeit, a major part.

How exactly does that happen at the Pioneer? Well, of course, it depends. And you will have to come and see.

Tickets for THE TINGLER are here.


Some more reading on site specific cinema:

Sergei Eisenstein, "Through Theater to Cinema." FILM FORM: ESSAYS IN FILM THEORY. Trans. Jay Leyda. Amazon page.

Jennifer Macmillan, "Becoming." Invisible Cinema: Living experimental film and video blog.

R.P., "Three Films from the Middle East."

R.P. and James Kreul, "A Cinema of Possibilities: Interview with Brian Frye."

R.P. and James Kreul, "The Strange Case of Noël Carroll: A Conversation with the Controversial Film Philosopher." Search down for "I don't want to cast aspersions" (last quarter of essay).

Rocky Horror Picture Show Audience Participation

The Rolling Road Show

Fernando Solanas and Octavio Getino, "Towards a Third Cinema: Notes and Experiences for the Development of a Cinema of Liberation in the Third World."

Richard Wagner, "The Artwork of the Future."

Ron Waite, "The William Castle Story."

post script December 7, 2005
Soon after writing this piece, I discovered the wonderful recent issue of Millennium Film Journal: #43-44, "Paracinema / Performance." This is a major volume with important articles by Paul Arthur and Bradley Eros, among others. Strongly endorsed.