I’m not great at covering people’s deaths, mainly because when I do, I can’t resist posting my favorite thing that that person was ever tenuously connected to rather than focusing on the person himself. Such is the case with Ben Gazzara, the actor who played Jackie Treehorn in The Big Lebowski. He died of pancreatic cancer last week at age 81, and this banner image is my favorite close-up in all of cinema.

Mr. Gazzara studied with Lee Strasberg at the Actors Studio in Manhattan, where the careers of stars like Marlon Brando and Rod Steiger were shaped, and like them he had a visceral presence. It earned him regular work across half a century, not only onstage — his last Broadway appearance was in the revival of “Awake and Sing!” in 2006 — but in dozens of movies and all sorts of television shows, including the starring role in the 1960s series “Run for Your Life.” If Mr. Gazzara never achieved Brando’s stature, that was partly because of a certain laissez-faire approach to his career: an early suspicion of film, a reluctance to go after desirable roles. “When I became hot, so to speak, in the theater, I got a lot of offers,” he said in a 1998 interview on “Charlie Rose.” “I won’t tell you the pictures I turned down because you would say, ‘You are a fool.’ And I was a fool.”treated objects like women, man.

He treated objects like women, man. The eulogy writes itself.

[Read the NYTimes' much more appropriate piece here] Read the rest of this entry »

Here’s a propaganda-ish video showing the training to Kim Jong-Il’s corps of bodyguards. Hard to tell if they can fight, but they sure are good at having stuff smashed on them. As for my favorite, it’s a toss up between the guy who hucks a shovel at another guy’s bare chest from two feet away like a spear or the breaking cinder blocks against guys’ foreheads with a sledge hammer. [via CagePotato]

MORNING LINKS
Listen to this week’s Frotcast! We interview a guy who’s been to prison! It’s good! ! |Frotcast|

Holy crap, this made me laugh a whole lot. |gif via gifs from movies|

The 10 Funniest TV Episodes of 2011 |Warming Glow|

American Psycho Updated for 2011 |Film Drunk|

No, Robin Is Not In The Dark Knight Rises, But Here’s A Better Easter Egg |Gamma Squad|

Awesome Tumblr Alert: Kim Jong-Il Dropping The Bass |UPROXX|

MMA Video Tribute: The 25 Most Brutal Finishes of 2011. |CagePotato|

Common Confirms Drake Diss, Pusha T Adds Fuel To The Fire |Smoking Section|

The Best Fails Of 2011 |Buzzfeed|

15 of the greatest gifts in the history of presents. |MentalFloss|

Lindsay Lohan trying to look like she’s reading a script is sad. MAKE HER DO PORN! This is getting ridiculous. |TheSuperficial|

New party game: Passive aggressive movie title. |Videogum|

Random people vs. an icy staircase. I love this. |GorillaMask|

Trailer for HBO’s “Game Change.” |TheDailyWhat|

Where are they now? Christmas Story edition. |ScreenJunkies|

The craziest kung fu silliness you’ll see today. |HolyTaco|

How To Catch A White Person |NextRound|

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Hollywood tends to play fast and loose with the realities of real estate, where supposedly lower to lower-middle class fictional families constantly find themselves living in what would be million dollar homes in the real world. I guess because filming inside the gritty sh*tboxes where people actually live might get a little too real (true story aside: a few years ago, my old apartment in New York was used for a scene in Law and Order: Criminal Intent that was set inside a pedophile’s apartment. I swear on my life this is true). Never was that more clear than today, when the house from the Big Lebowski where the Dude lived, the unemployed former Metallica roadie, is selling for $2.295 million dollars in Venice Beach. It sounds expensive, but I hear it has a really nice rug.

Six historic one bedroom cottages on a 10,628 sq ft lot, all just blocks to the beach and Abbot Kinney. These historic, bigger-than-average bungalows feature spacious side-yards, garage parking and a lushly landscaped gated courtyard.
In 2005, property underwent major renovations, including new sewer line, roofing. This a perfect candidate for a residential subdivision. |Bulldog Realtors via Gawker|

Oh okay, so to be fair, it’s actually three mil for SIX of the kind of cottages where The Dude lived. That works out to $382,500 each, which is still steep on an unemployed former roadie’s salary, but probably affordable if you’re renting. So you can buy the whole lot and turn it into a subdivision, or just keep them to use as rental properties, but beware. You’ll probably just get some good-for-nothing bum of a tenant who’ll never pay his rent before the tenth. Or worse, a whole family of Chinamen just chattering and peeing on rugs.

"Zee cat, he believes een nuzzink."

If there’s one thing that could make me miss living in New York, believe it or not, it would not be my old Puerto Rican neighbors who kept a rooster for a pet.  It would be the Little Lebowski store on 215 Thompson Street near Washington Square Park.

Owner Roy Preston has been showing up every day or as close as he can get, dressed in a bathrobe and slippers, serving up all manner of Big Lebowski memorabilia from behind an In N Out Burger-themed counter, accompanied by his cat, Nihilist.  He’s got everything from your basic costumes and action figures, to items as obscure as a t-shirt with a copy of Larry’s homework written on it.  He says most of his customers are tourists, perhaps even strangers from the Alps.  But it’s not just a store, it’s a way of life.  In fact, some people say Roy Preston is so laidback that he won’t even return my emails.

But I suppose I can forgive the guy, because this cutout is my favorite cutout since this cutout. But that’s just, like, my opinion.

[Pictures via PayaVisit, MimosasInBed, Flavorwire, and Brian from Uproxx]

Not a day goes by that I don’t get sent a trailer mashup where someone puts music from one movie over another movie, or recuts a comedy as a drama, or adds Jar Jar Binks, or whatever, and usually they’re not that good.  They get boring after a while, anyway.  But damn, whoever cut together Morpheus explaining The Matrix to The Dude from Big Lebowski is a genius.  This is the best one I’ve seen since Bill &  Ted’s Excellent Inception.  Not only is the editing seamless, the lines from each movie come together in such amazing ways that it seems almost miraculous:

MORPHEUS: “Do you believe in fate, Neo?”
THE DUDE: “Mmm… that and a pair of testicles.”

MORPHEUS: “The Matrix is everywhere.”
THE DUDE: “What is that, yoga?”

MORPHEUS: “You take the blue pill, and I show you how deep the rabbit hole goes.”
THE DUDE: “What are you, a fukin park ranger now?”

The guy even squeezed in a joke about The Eagles AND the Big Lebowski hallucination sequence. If he’d managed a Montana Fishburne reference I might marry him.

“You can imagine what happens from there.”
“He puts farts in her monkey fufu?”
“Don’t be fatuous, Jeffrey.”

[TheeFinchLynch via HighDefinite]