Michael's Musings

Here's Looking @ You, Minions
Michael Shinafelt

Heading into week number five of being laid up post surgery has been a challenge. Keeping my mind occupied has been my main priority. Thus writing this column right here right now is filling it...for this moment in time and space...

Wanna know what else has been filling it? Read on minions, read on!!!

Congratulations to Super Model Ashley Graham she has a "Baby On Board"

Chickens for McNuggets

Binge watched season one of The Good Fight, meaning I really liked it, because if you knew how hard it is for me to sit and binge watch anything...

Trash Bag Mermaid wants to sing you a song

Renaming the part of Fifth Avenue which includes Trump Tower after Barack Obama is twisted genius at it's finest 😈

My manifestations are at an all time high at present, yours?

Being a submissive for a supernatural force can make you kill, the more you know 

Man Crush Of The Week - This one is retro, young Marlon Brando

“In the future, everything the public believes will be a lie.”~Andy Warhol

None of these so called experts have the stones to engage with them

I know where Muffin lives 

Well your no Julia Roberts so how I am supposed to trust you?

Standing up for what you believe in isn't a virtue if what you believe in is awful

Give it a name

Get down to the Master Beat with me at -
https://www.instagram.com/michaelshinafelt/?hl=en
https://twitter.com/mshinafelt?lang=en  

Hump Day & Chill

Summer Oasis
Gerard Butler

"Vacation, all I ever wanted, Vacation, had to get away, Vacation, meant to be spent alone..." The Go-Go's 

With just a little over a month left of Summer (Fall begins September 23rd) my mind has turned to thoughts on the subject of Summer Vacation. Everybody does it, all the popular people do it, give in to the peer pressure.

Since I have spent my Summer having Bunion Surgery and recovering from it, I got a vacation sort of. It's one where I have been sitting around binge watching things without guilt. Oh and of course writing this blog and other such things.

It's times like this I wonder "What would Gerard Butler do?" or more to the point "What would I do to Gerard Butler" - here's Gerard in a swimsuit aboard a boat. Your Welcome.

Since I was not able to reach the beach this fine Summer, I brought some of the eye candy that it offers to me. "Yes" the WWW is a wonderful thing. 

Well Gerard I wished I could have been there and done that with you but alas, here I sit elevated in front of my computer writing about the Summer I didn't have. Yet somehow the one I did was it's own gift, this vacation was meant to be spent mostly alone and that is sometimes exactly what one needs.

Check out the link below and Hump Day & Chill to the "Butler Booty" appearing in his flick Law Abiding Citizen via the OMG Blog, it's so tight you could bounce various denominations of change off of it...😈

https://omg.blog/omg_his_butt_gerard_butler/#ayHD5srS5svK8XUk.97

Just Because...Brad Pitt

Once Upon A Time...
Brad Pitt

Just Because he's at the premiere in Mexico City. Just Because I loved Once Upon A Time In...Hollywood & Just Because It's Brad, bitch. Here he is the man of the moment Brad Pitt!

While Brad has never had that Schwing factor for me, there is no denying he is one good looking man. Not to mention one good actor as well...

In fact if I were a betting man, which I am not (seriously I'm not) I would venture to place my money on Mr. Pitt finally nabbing an Oscar for his role of stuntman and possible felon Cliff Booth in Once Upon A Time In...Hollywood. 

Brad is perfection in the film. It's showcases his acting chops and is a good old fashioned Movie Star type turn to boot.

If you have yet to catch Once Upon A Time In...Hollywood, what are you waiting for?! Seriously, what???

Brad on IMDb:
https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000093/  

The Hangover?

Bottoms Up!
Taylor Swift

Apparently Taylor Swift tied one on for a party she threw for herself and those who participated in the making of the You Need To Calm Down video. This of course was post yesterday's Teen Choice Awards where she was presented the Icon Award.

You Need To Calm Down
Taylor Swift

She drank enough to get #DrunkTaylor trending on Twitter. Ya wanna know something? From the looks of it "Drunk Taylor" looks like a lot of fun IMHO. Heck Taylor joined in the Tomfoolery and owned it by Tweeting out the trending news herself - "Threw a party to celebrate with the people who made the ME! & YNTCD videos with me- and we had so much fun that ‘Drunk Taylor’ is trending on Twitter. CHEERS."

Makes me wished I was at her soiree. So I'm gonna kick off your week with some images of "Drunk Taylor" that are sure to make you wished you were rolling in the deep with her.

I Whip My Hair Back & Fourth
Taylor Swift

Only one question remains, does she have a hangover today? Can someone spill on that for me?

Taylor Swift on Twitter -
https://twitter.com/taylorswift13  

"Cruising"

The controversial thriller hits Blu-ray August 20th...!

Academy Award-winner William Friedkin (The Exorcist, The French Connection) directs Al Pacino as an undercover cop pitched into New York's seedy underbelly in Cruising - available for the first time on Blu-ray in a brand new director-approved transfer. New York is caught in the grip of a sadistic serial killer who is preying on the patrons of the city's underground bars. Captain Edelson (Paul Sorvino) tasks young rookie Steve Burns (Pacino) with infiltrating the S&M subculture to try and lure the killer out of the shadows - but as he immerses himself deeper and deeper into the underworld, Steve risks losing his own identity in the process. Taking the premise and title from reporter Gerald Walker's novel, Cruising was the subject of great controversy at the time of its release and remains a challenging and remarkable movie to this day, with Pacino's haunted lead performance as its magnetic centerpiece.

Bonus Materials

• Brand new restoration from a 4K scan of the original camera negative, supervised and approved by writer-director William Friedkin
• High Definition Blu-ray (1080p) presentation
• Newly remastered 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio supervised by William Friedkin
• Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
• Archival audio commentary by William Friedkin
• The History of Cruising – archival featurette looking at the film’s origins and production
• Exorcizing Cruising – archival featurette looking at the controversy surrounding the film and its enduring legacy
• Original Theatrical Trailer

Order Here - https://mvdb2b.com/b2b/s/AV219

Saturday Sinema: Desolation Center

Desolation Center Hits Theaters Nationwide starting Friday, September 13^th

^{I remember when punk was young...}

Desolation Center, the indie music festival documentary which has played numerous film festivals worldwide, is set to begin a national theatrical rollout starting on September 13th in Los Angeles. The film is the untold story of a series of guerrilla music and art performance happenings in the 80s which inspired the birth of contemporary festival culture including Burning Man, Lollapalooza and Coachella. The film combines interviews of punk and post-punk luminaries with rare performance footage of Sonic Youth, Minutemen, Meat Puppets, Perry Farrell, Redd Kross, Einstürzende Neubauten, Survival Research Laboratories, Savage Republic and more, giving viewers unprecedented access to a time when pushing the boundaries of music, art, and performance was like an unspoken obligation. Directed by the creator and organizer of the original events, Stuart Swezey, Desolation Center tells the true story of how the risky, and at times even reckless, actions of a few outsiders were able to incite seismic cultural shifts.

The new theatrical cut of Desolation Center includes an interview with Perry Farrell of Jane's Addiction and co-founder of Lollapalooza who was a participant in all of the Desolation Center events. The film will be having its New York City premiere as part of the Rooftop Films series with an outdoor screening in the historic Green-Wood Cemetery on Thursday, August 15th followed by a 50+ city run across North America in the following weeks. 

White Punks On Dope?

The story of the guerrilla music and performance events of the Desolation Center is inextricably linked with the director's own story as a young adult in the punk and post-punk music scene in the early 1980s. Desolation Center is more than just the story of a series of wild and unorthodox happenings. The film is also true to the spirit of freedom and possibility that punk and its clarion call of creative deconstruction embodied. 

The timeless power of DIY-do-it-yourself culture is an ongoing theme in the film. Director Stuart Swezey told the New York Times, "D.I.Y. is now a shorthand for a lot of things," he said. "But the idea that you can have a wacky idea and get a bunch of people to go along with it, and make it happen even with very limited resources - that was life-affirming."

The film explores an almost lost subcultural story that will also be a catalyst to future generations to question assumptions and carve out new possibilities to express themselves. As Thurston Moore also described to the New York Times, the mood was "one of complete joy and wonder at being together in a place that might as well have been another planet." He said the most radical attribute of Desolation Center was that "it asked no permission," and he called the show "one of the great moments" in the history of Sonic Youth. 

Sonic Youth

Desolation Center has screened across the globe including the prestigious European CPH:DOX Film Festival in Denmark, Sheffield Doc/Fest in the UK and its US premiere at Slamdance Film Festival in Park City, Utah. More recently, it brought home Audience Awards at SF Indiefest and Chicago Underground Film Festival and was a selection of the Detroit Free Press Freep Festival screening at the Third Man Records store. 

Dreamland II

For The Winn
Billy Winn

Billy Winn Awakens Dreamland II, The Final EP of His Two-Part Series

Billy Winn’s Dreamland II releases everywhere on August 9 and it picks up where the first album left off.  Thematically, at least.  Both EPs tell stories from the perspective of a queer kid of color who has had his heart broken.  “It’s the only position that I can write from and it’s one that I can’t recall ever hearing in pop music,” Winn explains.  “My hope is that regardless of where you come from, who you are now, or who you are becoming; you’re able to find something in these songs that resonates and makes you want to play them over and over again.”

Billy Winn was listening to a lot of TLC and Janet Jackson while he was working on Dreamland II.  “Specifically, Crazy, Sexy, Cool, Fanmail, and Janet’s Velvet Rope album.  At the same time, I was listening to artists like Flume, Owl City, Robyn, and Tove Lo; trying to find a place musically where they could all co-exist or become something completely different altogether.”

He was also inspired by a series of circumstances in his life, including the death of his father.  “He and I weren’t close but at the end of his life, I was asked to return home to take care of him and my family.  It was an extremely emotional situation, and definitely something that I’m still healing from.”

It is one of the reasons Dreamland II is angrier than the first album.  While Dreamland I explored life as a perception of fantasy and guilty pleasures, Dreamland II reveals more pain beneath the surface.  There is an overriding theme throughout that it’s all fun and games until someone catches feelings.

Billy Winn is a Billboard-charting singer, songwriter, recording artist, and performer whose music ranges from high energy dance records to emotionally charged EDM.  Some of his most popular singles include “Seal It with a Kiss”, “Crash,” and “Future X Boyfriend.”

Dreamland I was a major turning point for the young artist and its success allowed Winn to tour and expand his fan base.  It has also taught him to not doubt or second guess himself.    “I’m trusting my instincts a lot more these days and I have to admit I’m pretty confident in the road ahead.” 

Billy Winn released “Another Broken Heart,” the debut single from Dreamland II, in June.  The next release from the album, “Tell Him,” is scheduled to release in early fall.

 

Billy Winn’s Dreamland II is being distributed by Ferocious Music and OneRPM and is available on iTunes, Spotify and all digital platforms.  For more information, visit BillyWinn.com or follow him on Facebook.