I thought that perhaps it would be an interesting project to take an informal poll of Big Hollywood readers – conservatives, libertarians, and individuals who subscribe to other improper schools of thought – who work in the entertainment industry and feel out of sorts. We should keep it simple, so let’s start with something like this:

——

Industry: Publishing

Position: Author

Status: Just keep my mouth shut

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Industry: Music

Position: Mixer

Status: Out of the closet and out of work

——

Industry: Art

Position: Sculptor

Status: Lost some friends, but feeling empowered

——

Please post in the comments section. I am especially curious about the percentage of people who feel they have no choice but to hide their political beliefs for professional reasons. If you want to email me a brief explanation, please put “Big Hollywood Poll” in the subject line and keep it as short and simple as possible. I have no idea what’s behind the floodgates that I’m prying open, so be patient with me.

Let the confessions begin!

Yes, people still buy those shiny silver disks, especially since it’s hard to wrap up a digital file and stuff it in a stocking. With that in mind, here are some recent book and music releases which could be just the right gift this holiday season.

BOOKS

• “Arguably” by Christopher Hitchens – The great writer may be battling cancer, but his rapier wit remains unchanged. “Arguably” assembles some of his thoughtful essays for easy consumption.
• “Pauline Kael: A Life in the Dark” by Brian Kellow – Conservatives may know Kael best for her infamous quote regarding President Richard Nixon’s re-election vote tally, but for movie buffs Kael’s prose represents a thoughtful, albeit typically left-of-center, voice.

• “Bossypants” by Tina Fey - The woman behind the infamous Sarah Palin impersonation is a top-notch humorist, and her first foray into the book realm proves it.
• “On the Island” by Tracy L. Garvis Graves – The compelling tale of an English teacher whose invitation to work on a tropical island ends up in disaster is a first-rate survival yarn.
• “The Ledge” by Jim Davidson and Kevin Vaughn – The year 2010 ended with movie goers marveling at “127 Hours,” the true story of Aron Ralston’s inspiring escape from a mountain chasm. Readers can relish another true tale of adventure and survival with this detailed account of two men battling the elements.
• “Delirium” by Lauren Oliver - A young woman living in a government-controlled society finds love as well as purpose in this young adult novel.
• “Rescue” by Anita Shreve – Smart, sensitive tale of a man’s attempt to rehabilitate a troubled woman.
• “Swamplandia” by Karen Russell - Gator wrestling meets family dysfunction and loss -what’s not to love?
• “In 50 Years We’ll All Be Chicks … And Other Complaints from a Middle-Aged White Guy” by Adam Carolla – He’s the toast of the podcasting world, but Carolla’s shtick translates easily to the printed page. Politically incorrect, and proud of it.

MUSIC

• “21,” Adele – Possibly the biggest crowd pleaser of the year, with appeal to pop, rock, blues, and soul aficionados alike. Who doesn’t like “Rolling in the Deep?”
• “Bad as Me,” Tom Waits – The idiosyncratic  songwriter returns with his first full album proper since 2004’s “Real Gone,” revealing he’s still got a few fresh twists to take with his growly saloon-fixture aesthetic.
• “First World Manifesto,” Screeching Weasel – Screeching Weasel is one of the greatest pop punk bands ever, so it’s a delight to know that lead singer Ben Weasel is both conservative and Catholic, much to the chagrin of the punk community. Support this free thinker and get some great pop punk for yourself with his latest release.
• “Helplessness Blues,” Fleet Foxes – If you think vocals should be recorded in a single take with zero auto-tuning, this great American folk band is for you.
• “As Far as Yesterday Goes,” The Red Button – Near-perfect pop that feels like it was unearthed from a Flower Power time capsule. Seth Swirsky, a Big Hollywood contributor, and Mike Ruekberg re-team for another batch of great songs, from the blistering beauty of “I Can’t Forget” to the mournful “Picture,” you can’t go wrong with these 12 tracks.
• “Songs for Christmas,” Sufjan Stevens – Take a listen for yourself. A great mix of reverent but fresh takes on traditional Christmas music, plus plenty of magnificent originals. Also a great record of Sufjan’s progress as a songwriter over the years.
• “Best of Gloucester County,” – Danielson – Profiled on Big Hollywood at the time of its release, “Best of Gloucester County” is a rich, detailed celebration of family life and growing older and wiser, expressed through one-of-a-kind folk rock.
• “Bon Iver,” Bon Iver – Lush, expressive, melancholy folk music working from a wide sonic palette. A newly-released deluxe edition includes a music video for each and every song.
• “Drive” Soundtrack – Italo-Disco is back!
• “Era Extraña,” Neon Indian – Hazy, shoe-gaze-y but never lazy synth rock from the son of Mexican pop star Jorge Palomo.
• “Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming,” M83 - Huge ’80s/John Hughes nostalgia trip, massive synth sounds. This is a rare double album that doesn’t drag; plus, if you buy it, you’ll be sticking it to unions!
• “Portamento,” The Drums -Very minimalist rock. Fans of both Joy Division and the Beach Boys will feel right at home.

Big Hollywood writers Ezra Dulis, Meira Pentermann and Ron Capshaw contributed to this guide.

While I definitely respect all these points of view, I have to question why many of us are questioning Hollywood instead of questioning ourselves. And what we should be asking ourselves is why many of us complain so much about Hollywood’s output but at the same time fail to support the burgeoning artists, musicians, writers and filmmakers in our own community?

For full disclosure:  yes, I am a conservative, and yes, I am a filmmaker trying to get my art out to the greater world. For the life of me, I have never understood why we monetarily and spiritually support artists, studios and media companies while simultaneously berating them for what they offer us. If someone delivers crummy pizza that smells weird, tastes worse and gets me sick, would I still call the same pizza place every time? No. So, why do we do the same when making entertainment or artistic purchase choices?

In film, you don’t get to shoot on 35 mm with big-name actors, commissioned scripts, or the best D.P.s using someone else’s money unless you have a track record and have proven you can make money. To become a great artist, you need time to develop and hone your craft.  You need to be able to make a living in your particular medium to justify working in the arts and to gain that 24/7 time needed to create and edit better and better material.  Having a paying audience is the only way to make that happen.  Not all “conservative” films or shows will be great and not all will be good, but all should be supported by the people most predisposed to enjoy the material, fellow conservatives.  Still, it seems to me that the right’s expectations are too high when art comes from one of their own.

It’s like being the guy or gal who struggles to make it as a local artist.  The hometown crowd is much tougher on you, and their expectations of success are so high that the bar they set just to earn a “You know, it’s alright” is almost impossible to surmount. Are “conservative” audiences really saying that until you start winning Oscars, Emmys, Tonys, and Grammys, you haven’t achieved that much? It seems that way for both new artists as well as some of the more established ones.

I paid money to see An American Carol in a theater.  Atlas Shrugged, too.  They weren’t films that met the unbelievably high expectations of their audiences.  So what? They were not bad films.  Hello? They were trying to do a helluva lot with limited budgets and the expectations that came with being the first “conservative” films in their genres.  Almost no film could have met the expectations those two had to deal with. No new artistic movement occurs overnight, and these films were steps in the right direction that deserved our money.

How do you expect to see more artists, musicians, filmmakers, etc., who think like you do if you aren’t willing to support the ones you already have among you?  Can you really expect those who are successful and established to risk everything by deciding to “come out of the closet” politically?  God bless Gary Sinise, Patricia Heaton, Jon Voight, Angie Harmon and the other stars who have come out, gotten involved and led from the front.  They are an inspiration, but fortunately for them, they had established resumés to help them weather the natural blacklisting faced by entertainment-industry conservatives.

If you don’t support conservative artists’ material, especially when they are putting their livelihoods, careers and more on the line, then don’t pine for “better” content, and don’t condemn them for not outnumbering the artists you can’t stand.  At the end of the day, you, the audience, are a vital part of Hollywood too. Your time and money determines what future projects are financed, so keep in mind that we can only make what we want if you signify to our investors that those projects will be profitable.

I’ve known Christian for a number of years now and as one of about three film reviewers who doesn’t think socialism is a good thing, we became fast friends. It also helps that he’s a genuinely good guy, a terrific writer, and that when it comes to movies we frequently disagree (I love to argue). 

But outside of our friendship, Christian’s impressive resume also makes him a perfect match to join the BH family. He loves films, loves writing about films, has an impressive journalism background and an equally impressive Rolodex. What he’ll bring to the site is more of what he’s already brought over the last few years as one of our iron men contributors … and more!

Christian will also be working closely with our contributor family and helping us to expand the site into different arenas of popular culture. The results should speak for themselves, so I won’t go into any greater detail, but rest assure that in the coming weeks and months, everything you love about Big Hollywood will stay the same — we’re just going to get better.

So please welcome Christian aboard and look for his byline on a regular basis.

This is Vintage Now, released a few weeks ago, is a retro music compilation that isn’t designed to cash in on nostalgia– rather, it’s a harbinger of a growing movement to revive not only the style but the values of classic culture. Featuring 10 songs from artists of all ages and nations, This is Vintage Now embodies the sound of classic jazz, rock, and pop music but doesn’t come off as pure nostalgia. Producer David Gasten, who appears on the record with his band The City Kids, explains the reason the disc doesn’t sound like a cynical ploy preying on older generations’ memories:

The Vintage Movement is a new social movement of people who are essentially trying to escape back to the 1940’s, 1950’s, and early-to mid-1960’s. Many times attempts at bringing a period back have been short-lived (e.g. the Nineties Swing Revival) because they were not rooted in a inside-out, values-based way of doing things. People come to these older styles because they want to escape. They want to visit an alternate world where class and quality are the rule, not the exception. They want to be excited about life and culture instead of slimed by the same old garbage over and over again. And they want to get along with others, have good conversations, flirt, dance, enjoy great music and movies, etc. The ladies want to be treated like ladies, and the gentlemen want to be able to be gentlemen.

Spanning a wide range of styles, from Beverley Kenney’s whimsical ’40s-era piano ballad to Big Jay McNeely’s raucous boogie-woogie to The Necro Tonz’s edgy jazz to Caro Emerald’s catchy neo-swing tune “Just One Dance” (see the YouTube Video below), This is Vintage Now is a well-paced, engaging listen, and its intent is exactly the type of culture-changing  media we need to combat the values-destroying narcissism and nihilism of the world’s currently dominant “artists.” TIVN is available from iTunes, Amazon, eMusic, and other online retailers, or you can order it directly from the compilation’s home website to get extra tracks from a special Release Party edition.

Lady Gaga’s relief efforts in the wake of Japan’s giant earthquake and tsunami have come under scrutiny from a Michigan legal network. The entity known as 1-800-LAW-FIRM has slapped Big Hollywood’s favorite singer with a lawsuit claiming that she has pocketed some of the proceeds from the sale of $5 wristbands bearing the words “We Pray for Japan,” though she claims all proceeds have gone to tsunami victims. A Gaga spokesperson claims the lawsuit is “without merit,” so we’ll see how it goes. In the meantime, I think we can at least agree one must exercise caution buying charity products “designed” by celebrities. I mean, really– is Gaga really “designing” by choosing four words to stamp on a piece of rubber?

The Arcade Fire’s short film with Spike Jonze (poser indie director of the truly atrocious Where the Wild Things Are), “Scenes from the Suburbs,” has been released as a companion piece to the group’s Grammy-winning album.  The film follows the lazy summer days of a group of teenagers whose neighborhood– wait for it– is under martial law… because of Iraq… or something. The facepalm-inducing trailer gives us a good understanding of why the music community was so willing to give this middling record the Album of the Year award.

Weird Al Yankovic has finally released the music video for his Lady Gaga parody “Perform this Way” which almost didn’t see the light of day thanks to his deference to the egos of his parody target. Fortunately, after news of Gaga’s apparent snub went viral on Twitter, the alleged Lady changed her mind and allowed Al to sell the song on his upcoming LP Alpocalypse and produce said music video. It’s slightly NSFW, not so much for partial nudity as for how disturbing it is to watch Weird Al’s head digitally grafted onto the body of some lithe young woman.

Big Hollywood’s own Seth Swirsky has released a new album, As Far as Yesterday Goes, through his band The Red Button, a delightful pop collaboration with Mike Ruekberg. Though Ruekberg’s voice isn’t quite as distinctive or velvety as Seth’s, the pair share the mic quite liberally, and the same strong songwriting that defined Swirsky’s 2010 solo work is on full display here. It’s a brighter, bouncier, less melancholy record, and while it may not ultimately have the staying power of Watercolor Day, As Far as Yesterday Goes is definitely worthwhile summer entertainment. Pop it in your car and take a long, leisurely ride, and you’ll forget how much money you’re burning away with your gas.

[There is a video that cannot be displayed in this feed. Visit the blog entry to see the video.]

Album of the Month: Bon Iver, Bon Iver

Justin Vernon, a folk songwriter from Wisconsin, exploded into the indie music world with a self-produced album titled For Emma, Forever Ago in 2007. His music stood out for its stark, lonely atmosphere, stacking multiple tracks of acoustic guitar and soulful, falsetto vocals which Vernon would sometimes heavily auto-tune– overcoming the stereotypes of the digital tool by using it as an artistic statement rather than a crutch for lazy singing.

In 2008, he released an EP, Blood Bank, which caught the attention of pop superstar Kanye West, who collaborated with Vernon on his bestseller My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, pulling the singer-songwriter further into the national spotlight and increasing speculation about what direction his sophomore LP might take. Well, here it is: Bon Iver’s self-title new album, released June 21st, is not only the best album of June by far; it’s certainly jockeying for first place come 2011’s best-of lists.

The highest compliment I can think of is that Bon Iver sounds like Sufjan Stevens’ The Age of Adz semi-unplugged. That magnificent record (the best of 2010, if I may say so) fully blended aggressive synthesizers, rock instrumentation, and a full orchestra. On the much more muted Bon Iver, we hear more acoustic instruments ringing over a far emptier space. There’s a thread of hushed synth saws weaving in and out of the songs, electric guitars swooping from lonely, single-note noodling to even sadder, full-chord strumming, and a revolving cast of characters including low-register woodwinds, pianos, banjos, string quartets, and the most magnificent use of electric piano ever. Ever. Equipped with better recording equipment, we don’t hear his signature auto-tune as often; Vernon sings louder, more confidently, even dipping into his lower register a few times.

All these elements are arranged and recorded perfectly; whereas Age of Adz pulls its listener into an intimate, emotionally wrenching personal drama, Bon Iver sweeps one away to a waking dream, surveying the beauty of the world through wide-scoped views of its landscapes (all the song titles are or are related to the names of various North American towns). Though they differ in their particulars, both albums are significant in that their respective artists attain complete control of the orchestration and engineering of their music, fully utilizing the potential of the recording studio to create transcendent works which stand wholly apart from the comparatively banal conventions of their contemporaries. Lightning has struck once again, folks; this one is not to be missed.

In his latest film, “Terri,” Reilly steps into a micro-budget indie flick that has him playing the juicy role of Mr. Fizgerald, a vice principal and guidance counselor who takes a troubled, obese teenage boy named Terri under his wing and helps draw him out of his shell. The film itself is slow in a lot of places and drifts helplessly in its final half-hour, but Reilly makes his moments shine and takes the film to another level.

—–

Speaking by phone recently, Reilly discussed the appeal of the film for him, as well as the ways in which he manages to have a great career as well as a healthy personal life.

BH: You worked with your wife, producer Alison Dickey, on this film. How was that different than your other collaborations?

JCR: Alison and I worked together before, but not to this degree. It was pretty great working with her, I felt really taken care of, and it’s just simpler rather than having to get to know somebody as things need to be worked out.

I think about 70 percent of it was shot in Altadena, and some in Monrovia and Sierra Madre. I’ve shot a couple times up there, and I like that when you shoot up here, you’re left alone. I’ve shot a lot around Los Angeles and a lot of neighborhoods are burnt out on movies and see you as an annoyance, but people in Altadena are super friendly and curious about what you’re doing. I like the pace of life up here more than in LA in general because there’s less traffic and it’s so beautiful.

BH: This film has a very small budget, so how did it come to you and your wife’s attention?

JCR: It’s a great piece of writing, by a writer named Patrick DeWitt, who wrote it as a novel then asked his friend, our director Azazel Jacobs, for feedback on it. And Azazel told him right away it should be a movie. I liked his prior film “Mamma’s Man,” so that got me interested as well.

And it’s a great character. To get to be a guidance counselor was interesting and I’ve had people like that in my life and I’ve always identified with younger people for some reason. I like the way the character goes somewhere as it progresses – you start thinking of him as one thing and then realize he’s somewhat of a flawed mentor.

The older I get the more interesting those mentor kinds of parts are because I think I’m older and it’s time to give back. He’s a good human being but I don’t know how much success he has as a counselor. At this school he’s also vice principal in charge of discipline so you go to him if you need counseling or if you’re in trouble. I’m pretty direct, a no-nonsense get to the point sort of person, and that ‘no bull’ motto of his appealed to me.

BH: Having done 53 films, what would you say is your decision-making process?

JCR: To try to keep changing it up and surprising people. But I think that being able to be grounded in Hollywood and be able to play average men comes from how you’re raised, and I come from a humble past in Chicago, from working-class people. I suppose the slow growth of my career has helped me stay grounded as well. I think what’s tough is when you come from nowhere at age 18 and have everyone offering to do whatever you ask for. That can be tough to process. I didn’t do really well out of the gate, it wasn’t like I was being followed by photographers at 19 years old.

BH: How do you find your balance between blockbuster broad comedies and highly personal films like this?

JCR: I make the calls pretty much on what I do and what I’m interested in. I made two movies with Will Ferrell and 51 others. If there’s a project where people think I’ve done it before or know what to expect that’s less appealing. Some actors are good at playing the same character and for some reason I envy them because they can find roles for their pocket but this keeps it interesting.

BH: Do you have a favorite film or films that you’ve done?

JCR: All the movies I made with Paul Anderson are pretty great, I knew everyone so well on the films. It was some of the first times I was getting to do something more in terms of bigger roles and bigger part of the story . I was much more involved in the development of those projects. Picking a favorite is hard because they’re all like children to you, even with roles that weren’t so great you find personal things that appealed.

BH: So what’s next for you?

JCR: I have a film with Roman Polanski out this fall. I also have the film “We Need to Talk About Kevin” this summer, just got back from Cannes, we did really well with competition there. It’s based on a book of the same name, I play the father of the kid who has a really difficult relationship with his mother from the time he was born. It’s about a family struggling to connect, the kid does a horrible thing – kills a bunch of people – and the family disintegrates from there. It’s based on a book, not so much Columbine. This is about the relationship of the family.

BH: And you’re really not going to start getting a Hollywood head-trip, are you?

JCR: Not after all this time. We shot “Terri” at a high school on Allen Street, and we didn’t have trailers on the movie because it’s one of the lowest budgets I’ve ever had even though it doesn’t look like it. We would eat and change in the classrooms in high school. My room was the chemistry lab, and we didn’t have a couch – just hard desks and a huge chemistry table. I was tired and had some time off one day. I lay down on the chemistry table and fully fell asleep. That might be funny because the kids there now can think, ‘John C. Reilly slept here.’”

“Terri” opens in New York and LA on July 1, and expands nationwide over the next several weeks.

Our first Theater-Size (27x41) poster - "hot off the presses." (Actually - hot off Kinko's large-format printer.)

Well, in the spirit of “Colonel” Tom Parker and THE POLICE – ’78 Tour of America (in a cargo van), we have gone ahead and put together our own “Southern Tour – 2011″ for FEAR OF A BLACK REPUBLICAN.  After driving twelve hours or so, we will be having our World Premiere in Atlanta GA tomorrow at 7 PM at the Landmark Theatre – Midtown Arts Cinema.  Two days later and four hours up I-85, we’ll be screening in Charlotte NC on June 25th (Blumenthal Performing Arts Center) and then in Greensboro NC on June 26th(Carousel Cinemas at Battleground) .   These will be the first public screenings ever for our little film.  We did hope to add another city or two, but as this is our first foray into “Movie Touring”… we figured short and sweet would be smarter and safer.  

In order to make this tour happen, we are “four-walling” (renting out) two movie theaters and are renting and sharing space in a “black box” theater running a stage play.  Luckily, the space can project films and do stage plays in the same venue.  Pretty convenient, but if you ever want to do something like this, here are a few things to think about ahead of time:  Insurance and advertising.  In booking our theaters, we learned that you now have to have some type of “Event Insurance” to screen your film as an Independent filmmaker.  Ouch.  Enough said.

Regarding advertising, we learned that you cannot rely on the theaters to advertise your film as their distribution agreements with the studios essentially prohibit them from publicly advertising your film.  However, their own box office websites can include your film.  Now, I can tell you that all three venues we will be screening at have been great to us and I could not recommend them more. 

However, you as the filmmaker/producer will have to work really hard on sending press releases, calling media, creating & placing ads and creating posters and postcards (if you can afford them)… if you want people to know about your screening.  Also, you need to go old-school and send out movie postcards.  A lot of folks might say don’t do this, but I think a short hand-written note with a hand-written address still means something.  We sent over 200 postcards (and did e-mail) to all the colleges and university Political Science and History Departments in Atlanta, Charlotte and Greensboro.  Hit your niche market, right?

We’ve also been fortunate to have some allies in all this.  I would be remiss if I didn’t thank all the folks who know social media WAY better than we do and who are trying to help us promote our screening.  There are people we don’t even know trying to help us because they want to see us succeed.  That is very humbling and I hope we do succeed for our sake, for them and for other right-leaning filmmakers.  Because it would be nice if the next right-leaning filmmaker who makes a film has a lot easier time finding a distributor.  Self-distribution is controlling your own destiny, but a lot of “wheel-inventing” goes on in trying to prove that there is a market for films like ours. 

The past few months have been exciting, fun, challenging, inspiring and expensive at times – but empowering too.  In putting together “Southern Tour ’11,” I’ve come to realize that many of us (myself included) tend to forget that while there is always risk involved, but there is also the great possibility for reward too.  And that we can’t wait for “someone” to come find us and our work.  

We’d love to have some of the many Big Hollywood readers in our audiences, so if you are in driving distance of Atlanta, Charlotte or Greensboro – please join us in our first public screenings.  You can find tickets and/or check out our tour at www.fearofablackrepublican.com/screenings .

From Newser:

The writer interviewed dozens of leading industry figures, some of whom “admitted” to presenting a left-wing bias in programing, Shapiro writes, as they seek to “shape America in their own leftist image.” Not very successfully, apparently.

How not very successfully, exactly? We have abortion virtually on demand, same-sex marriage in an increasing number of states, ObamaCare, massive entitlements, the “hook-up” culture, obsessive environmentalism, Judeo-Christian values are under constant assault, etc. etc. etc. Hollywood has without a doubt pushed America further left, and Shapiro proves that theory to be fact in his new book.

With media filter’s like Newser running interference for Hollywood, it’s easy to understand why Hollywood has gotten away with so much for so long.

Shapiro’s new book has been well covered thus far… in the international press. Much of the American “MSM” hasn’t caught on yet. We sincerely hope they do, but we’ll be prepared to read with a watchful eye.

The singer-songwriter with both a bevy of chart toppers and a respected solo career to his credit, met Pang about six years ago following an email introduction. Swirsky asked Pang if they could take an impromptu tour of Lennon’s infamous “lost weekend” hot spots circa the early 1970s.

Camera in hand, Swirsky captured some of Pang’s memories on film as merely a video scrapbook, nothing more. He figured he might make a short film from the experience – “A Day with May in LA” sounded about right.

—–

But when he started quizzing other rock luminaries on their favorite Beatles anecdotes, like Justin Hayward of The Moody Blues and Denny Laine from Wings, he realized he had the makings of a documentary.

“I’m an artistic person,” Swirsky tells Big Hollywood. “I never know exactly what I’m doing at any moment. I allow that process to occur.”

“Beatles Stories,” the culmination of six years of guerilla interviews, recently had its world premiere April 3 at the European Independent Film Festival in Paris. The film, dubbed an “epic and timeless masterwork” by director Cameron Crowe, lets the famous and not so famous share their connections with the Fab Four.

Swirsky didn’t want to hear people talk about a Beatles song playing during their high school prom. He wanted more personal stories, tales that illuminated the band’s influence as well as the speakers’ hearts.

The film will play at 6 p.m. April 29 and at 3 p.m. May 2 at The Newport Beach Film Festival.

Swirsky’s only other film work came with a short dubbed ”The Last Giant,” which focused on 1930s era New York Giants standout Harry “The Horse” Danning. So when he got access to Hayward, he surrounded him with lamps – any source of light – he found in the hotel where the singer was staying and started shooting.

“I didn’t know anything about lighting,” he says. “It was complete indie filmmaking.”

Some great Beatles tales started to emerge, and when Swirsky used a tenuous connection to interview Brian Wilson the project finally took off. He ended up with so much material he had to leave a chat with Rascals singer Felix Cavaliere on the cutting room floor.

“There were many people I could have filmed, but I’d rather film someone without no fame but a great story,“ he says. One such story involves Mim Flynn, who worked the Chanel counter at a Saks store in New Orleans where she met the “cute” Beatle, Paul McCartney, when she was only 15.

Swirsky says some interviews took a while before he got the kind of colorful responses he sought. He interviewed Jack Oliver, who was president of Apple Records during the late 1960s, and wasn’t making good progress. Then, Swirsky asked Oliver about the day the rumor broke that McCartney had died.

Oliver said the phones to his office lit up with American girls bemoaning the Cute Beatle’s demise. So Oliver called up McCartney to make sure he was still among the living.

“[Expletive] off, I’m not dead. Why are you waking me up for,” McCartney barked into the phone, an anecdote which caused roars of laughter during the film’s Paris premiere.

Swirsky is now a bona fide filmmaker, but he isn’t ready to get his own director’s chair quite yet. It would take a “special inspiration” for him to start a new film project. He’d rather be making music.

“I have to write songs,” he says simply.

His upcoming record, “As Far As Yesterday Goes,“ is the second he recorded with fellow singer/songwriter Mike Ruekberg under the name The Red Button.

The band started unofficially during the sessions for Swirsky’s first solo album, “Instant Pleasure” in 2004. Ruekberg was one of many musicians on hand who contributed to the disk. Later, Swirsky rang him up with an offer.

“I was wondering if we should do an album of songs we’re not supposed to do, Beatle-like in a way,” he told Ruekberg. Swirsky added he had a few incomplete songs they could finish together.

“I was thinking he loved the Beatles very much, and so did I,” he says. But neither wanted to create a Rutles-like project. They were dead serious about making music that reflected the Beatles’ spirit.

The result was “She’s About to Cross My Mind,” 11 infectious songs marrying Swirsky’s melodies with Ruekberg’s gentle cynicism.

If “Mind” hearkens back to the early Beatles days, “As Far As Yesterday Goes” takes listeners to the late 1960s and early 1970s. Swirsky promises you’ll hear a bit of Paul Simon here, some Cat Stevens there, but that Beatles jangle is still front and center.

Swirsky is currently adding some string arrangements to the album as a final tweak, and he expects the disk to drop in the beginning of June. His next solo album won’t come out until 2012, but he wouldn’t mind pressing the Red Button a few more times.

“I’d love to keep this going,” he says.

This couldn’t have come at a better time. Tomorrow morning we’re publishing a terrific and insightful piece written by Yervand Kochar that looks at the juvenile quality of this kind of art in a way I don’t want to spoil but urge you to take a look at. But I’m not stealing anyone’s thunder by saying how silly this has all gotten. What was once brave is now proof of your conformist bona fides. What was once provocative is now expected. What once ginned up outrage is now hardly worth the rolling of one’s eyes. Where once talent was required smug will now do.

Case in point? Via Gateway Pundit, this was one of the paintings used to advertise the opening of a new art gallery right here in Los Angeles. I say “was” because  the opening was way back in January. How pathetic is it that a double shot of blasphemy and Palin-hate took over two months to bubble its way into these here Internets. Where was the outrage, America?

Hello?

Anyone?

Yawn.

My guess is that these gallery owners, who obviously put a lot of work into outraging those of us on the right with an entire exhibit based on blasphemy, we’re pretty disappointed — not unlike Kevin Smith and his “Red State” debacle  – that no one cared. But that’s because after decades of this kind of “art”  – much of it funded by taxpayers — the only way to shock us anymore is by creating something, you know, beautiful, ennobling and uplifting. But that requires actual talent and humanity, so there you go…

So what happened at the R&R gallery during those two weeks in February? Did the Beautiful People show up and get blown away by all the new awesome talent they discovered after gazing upon Marlboro Jesus? 

Nope.

You see, it’s not about art anymore, it’s about The Smug. To be an artist worthy of a gallery showing, years of schooling and struggle to perfect your craft is no longer necessary. All you need is the talent of a frustrated high school art teacher and a concept that will help the Beautiful People feel superior and sophisticated as they stroll through the gallery, sipping champagne and snickering at the bitter-clingers

Give ‘em a reason to hate, and they will come.