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You may have heard of We Were Once a Fairy Tale, a short film Spike Jonze made starring Kanye West as a self-obsessed obnoxious pop star who drinks too much. An alien-like creature has inhabited his body and Kanye must expel it so he can die peacefully -- or something like that. It's certainly open to interpretation. Adding to the confusion -- or fun -- is a video posted on Jonze's inspiring blog We Love You So where the director takes Kanye to task for being... Kanye. Fed up with the texting Kanye, Jonze gets a chance to act out his fantasy.

President Barack Obama's directive telling the Feds to back off of medical marijuana users is one of his most progressive moves since being elected. The announcement reversing a Bush era policy of pursuing cases against pot smokers was met with general approval in the press. I was particularly happy to see that Bloomberg.com ran a story with this sympathetic opening:

Oct. 20 (Bloomberg) -- Madeline Martinez is in constant pain from a disease that is destroying her joints and the discs in her back. Marijuana relieves her discomfort, she said, and the Obama administration has ended her worries that she may someday be jailed for using the drug.

Martinez, 58, of Portland, Oregon, had previously been given Abbott Laboratories’ Vicodin and codeine for her pain. Use of those drugs led to stomach problems, and now she takes marijuana prescribed for her by a doctor. Medicinal marijuana is legal in Oregon, one of 14 states to allow so-called compassionate-care use.

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As many of you may know, Shepard Fairey has been involved in a law suit with the Associated Press over the photo he used as the basis for his now iconic "Obama Hope" poster. In a recent interview, we spoke briefly about his ongoing court battles which I assumed would be resolved in due course. Now in a bombshell press release Fairey states:

On October 9, 2009, my lawyers sent a letter to the AP and to the photographer Mannie Garcia, through their lawyers, notifying them that I intend to amend my court pleadings. Throughout the case, there has been a question as to which Mannie Garciaphoto I used as a reference to design the HOPE image. The AP claimed it was one photo, and I claimed it was another.

The new filings state for the record that the AP is correct about which photo I used as a reference and that I was mistaken. While I initially believed that the photo I referenced was a different one, I discovered early on in the case that I was wrong.

In an attempt to conceal my mistake I submitted false images and deleted other images. I sincerely apologize for my lapse in judgment and I take full responsibility for my actions which were mine alone. I am taking every step to correct the information and I regret I did not come forward sooner.

I have to say I did not see this coming. Right wing pundits are going to have a ball with this.

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Not sure how TMZ came up with this -- could our friends at World of Wonder Productions have had something to do with it? -- but it is mind boggling. Not that they would do something so brazenly disconnected, but that they would even think that Brandon Flowers and Michael Alig have anything in common in the first place. Yes, one is in the band The Killers and the other is a convicted killer. On second thought, maybe there is a resemblance... Nah!

Somebody doesn't like the fact that Mike Bloomberg had the rules changed so he could run for a third term as Mayor of New York City. These posters -- designed à la Shepard Fairey's Obama poster -- have been popping up around town. Snapped this one on 14th Street near Union Square.

Chelsea on the Rocks is Abel Ferrara's latest film, an excursion into the mad, mad world of New York's Chelsea Hotel as it was before the inevitable tide of gentrification took it over and drove all the poet maudits out into the streets. To say this is a sloppy effort at story-telling would belie the creative force that is Abel Ferrara who appears in the movie goading the residents into tales of -- surprise! -- sex, rock n' roll and yes... DRUGS! A wild assemblage of old footage -- some amazing like the clip with Rick Danko, Janis Joplin and Jerry Garcia jamming away in a haze of drink and smoke and god knows what else -- interviews and reenactments of notorious Chelsea moments like the Sid Vicious and Nancy Spungen murder mystery which comes and goes in no apparent sequence. The movie is full of good stories that you'll want to repeat to your friends. And if you're a supporter of indie filmmaking, take your hat off to Abel for getting this done at all. The true star of the film, however, is Stanley Bard, the one-time owner/manager who loved creative people, flaws and all, and let them slide on their rent whenever they couldn't afford to pay. Far from a conventional documentary -- more like four movies in one -- Chelsea on the Rocks will rock your world. How you'll feel afterward is another matter.

P.S. Ferrara claims to know who killed Nancy. I wish he'd let us know. It's one of the unanswered mysteries of pop culture.

P.P.S. Beloved iconic downtowners Arthur Weinstein and Rockets Redglare make memorable appearances.

Patrick McMullan, the dean of nightlife photography, pauses on the steps of the New York Public Library to ponder the meaning of PAPER Magazine's 25th Anniversary Party.

When it comes to stylish melodrama, no one does it better or more intelligently than Pedro Almodovar. Broken Embraces, his latest passion play, stars Penelope Cruz as the mistress of a mogul who she manipulates into backing a movie so she can fulfill her dream to become an actress. As the film winds its way to its inevitable yet spellbinding conclusion, we watch her trying on an assortment of wigs, including a platinum blonde one very reminiscent of the one she wore on a recent cover of Paper magazine. A little bird told me that Pedro based the look on the cover which was conceived by genius hairstylist Oribe and shot by the singularly talented Cass Bird.

Pictured above: Penelope on the cover of Paper in 2007; Penelope in Broken Embraces.

I never found much good to say about suburbia so I welcome any effort to improve upon its hellishness. So when the estimable Dwell Magazine and Inhabitat.com teamed up to host Reburbia, a design competition dedicated to re-envisioning the suburbs I perked up.

Citing the economy, the housing crisis, the sub-prime mortgage meltdown, and rising energy costs, the organizers seemed to be thinking of me when they wrote: "Urbanites who loathe the freeways, big box stores and bland aesthetics stereotypical of suburbia may secretly root for the end of sprawl, but demographic trends indicate that exurban growth is still on the rise."

With their eco-design mandates as their barometer, they asked: "How can we redirect these existing spaces to promote sustainability, walkability, and community? It’s a problem that demands a visionary design solution and we want you to create the vision!

Well, the answer is to hold a contest and see what future-forward architects, urban designers, renegade planners and imaginative engineers can come up with.

Now the top 20 finalists have been announced and you can vote for your favorite until Aug. 18.

PURE: Transforming Swimming Pools into Water Treatment Plants
Designed By: Craig England

It took the combined investigative ability of Galley Cat and the WSJ to determine that the voice narrating the promotional clip above for the new Thomas Pynchon novel Inherent Vice is indeed the reclusive author himself. At first the publisher at Penguin books refused to confirm it, but when the WSJ contacted a voice identification expert to match the sound with audio known to be Pynchon, the publisher fessed up and confirmed the story. Having just finished reading the delirious stoner noir detective thriller set in 1970 Los Angeles, I can't tell you the chills I felt hearing the raspy voice of Doc, the private investigator protagonist, narrating a bit of travelogue across the terrain covered in the novel. Though the book has been critiqued as being slight compared to his more serious classics like Gravity's Rainbow, I found it laugh-out-loud funny in spots and a perfect antidote for the times we live in. Too well-written to be a mindless beach read, Inherent Vice is the book you take outside along with a cool drink and as suggested in the above clip: "Take a hit or two off your favorite brand of cigarette."

Long before Big Brother or any of the plethora of reality shows that have flooded the airwaves, there was Josh Harris. Harris came upon the scene with the first dotcom boom of the 90s, setting up his company Pseudo in the heart of downtown on the corner of Broadway and Houston. Rolling in money that he wasn't hesitant to spend, Harris was a founding partner of Jupiter Communications which he sold for some $80 million that he then blew building a studio for online broadcast (before broadband) and advancing his status as the new Warhol with wild parties.

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It's no secret that we are huge fans of John Waters. He was the first celebrity to ever be on the cover of PAPER magazine and we believe the feeling is mutual. Especially since his favorite movie critic and one of his best friends Dennis Dermody has been a long time editor and contributor. In addition to directing movies, Waters is also an artist and writer currently working on a book called Role Models to be published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux in 2010. It's described as "a self-portrait told through intimate literary profiles of his favorite personalities; some famous, some unknown, some criminal, some alarmingly middle of the road." One of them is his long-time friend Leslie Van Houten, better known as one of the Manson girls who Waters befriended after she was convicted and imprisoned along with other members of the Manson Family in 1971. Waters has been an advocate of her parole for many years. An excerpt of the book published in five parts has been running on the Huffington Post. Little did I expect to find Paper pop up in the story.

Leslie never asked me for money or material goods over the years. I've sent her books I loved and together we've discussed James Purdy, Mary McGarry Morris, Michael Cunningham, and Anne Tyler novels. After maybe one too many of my intense choices, Leslie started requesting her own titles, many of which had to do with the history and plight of the Native American Indian and I was happy to oblige. The only reading material I sent her that was rejected by the mailroom was, oddly enough, an issue of Paper Magazine that contained a fashion shoot that must have contained a little too much nudity.

SNL veteran Chris Kattan is lovingly remembered by fans for Mango, the character of a male exotic dancer with unexplainable yet irresistible sex appeal who performed in a strip club. Needless to say, it was all played for laughs with the mystery of Mango's sexiness a never ending punchline. Starring in IFC's three-part Bollywood Hero, Kattan is mining the same territory but with a twist. This time he's...well, Chris Kattan a semi-successful funnyman (by LA standards), doomed to a career of costumed insignificance who wants to be a leading man. Alas, he runs into an Indian director in Hollywood looking to cast an American in a Bollywood movie in the hopes of scoring in the international market beyond the borders of India. Fast forward and we're in Mumbai and Kattan comes to grips with reality. He can't sing, act or dance and the cultural misunderstanding land him in some significant hot water. IFC's Bollywood Hero site is chock full of additional goodies, including outtakes and other funny stuff featuring Keanu Reeves and Maya Rudolf. IFC, Aug 6, 7, 8 at 10 pm.

Maximilla Lukacs is one of my favorite young video directors. Already a bi-coastal cultural catalyst with deep ties into the LA indie community, she has a finely honed sensibility that lends itself to the ethereal sounds of A Camp and its frontwoman Nina Persson. When asked by Stereogum what happens "When Love Has Left the Room," the song in the video, Persson relies nonchalantly: "It goes to the sky bar at the Mondrian in LA and fucks with someone else."

What do you do after directing An Inconvenient Truth, the Academy Award-winning documentary which featured Al Gore talking about the destruction of our environment? Well, if you're Davis Guggenheim the answer is you make a documentary with three of the world's most iconic guitar heroes Jack White (White Stripes etc.), The Edge (U2) and Jimmy Page (Yardbirds and Led Zeppelin). It Might Get Loud is structured around a first-time meeting of the legends in a studio where they sit around, exchange licks and pound out spine-tingling sounds. The big discovery for me here is the reclusive, Page talking about what he does in the most poetic terms -- the mad man from Led Zep turning out to be a gentleman aesthete. Guggenheim's round about way of getting his stars to talk by asking them about geeky, technical stuff works like a charm. You'll want to hear this loud at the theater or at home when you turn up the volume on your DVD player. Rock on!

One of the big treats of my recent visit to Paris (and Brittany) was a concert at the home of Pierre Henry, the 82 year-old French composer considered a pioneer of the musique concrète genre of electronic music. Each year Henry opens his home to about 50 people per night who are spread out among the small rooms stacked up over five floors. This year's performance of Victor Hugo's poem "Dieu" was accompanied by an actor declaiming the poem while moving from room to room. What made this très eccentric was the unexpected discovery that Henry is also an artist who has covered every inch of the walls throughout the house with assemblages made of materials salvaged from musical instruments and the electronic innards that make them work. While photos were not permitted in the house, I was able to snap a few in the courtyard on the way into his home.

Here's some more background on Henry: In addition to being a student of Olivier Messiaen (who also taught Pierre Boulez, Karlheinz Stockhausen and Iannis Xenakis), Henry's has created several collaborations with choreographer Maurice Béjart featuring the popular track "Psyché Rock." In 1970 Henry collaborated with British rock band Spooky Tooth on the album Ceremony. One of Henry's best-known influences on contemporary popular culture is to the theme song of the TV series Futurama. The tune is inspired by Henry's 1967 composition "Psyché Rock."

My kid was looking through my iPhone photos, came upon this picture and asked me who were all those people in sunglasses. I'd taken the photo at the on again-off again auction of Michael Jackson's stuff that had been assembled in L.A. I remember thinking at the time how my impression of Michael Jackson had been totally changed by seeing his amazing collection of toy cars, vintage video games, Disney memorabilia and custom made furniture. He was no longer just the King of Pop and a pedophile. He was a man of substance who had devoted his life to amassing an amazing assortment of objets d'art that defied categorization. This collection should never be broken up, I thought. It was so singular. And so wonderful as to demand serious exegesis. I tried to explain to my kid about this amazing, talented man, but he was really wondering more about the sunglasses and what they were all doing in this photo.