Soon after the 1997 acquisition of Big Brother skateboard magazine by Larry Flynt Publications, Inc., I was contacted by this freelance writer named Chris Nieratko from New Jersey. He was interested in contributing articles to the mag, primarily band/music interviews, and he seemed to get the tone and spirit of the magazine. This interview with Angus Young of AC/DC was one of his earliest submissions—it ran in Big Brother issue #32—and I remember Jeff Tremaine questioning the validity of it when it arrived in the mail. Nieratko had only sent in the transcripts of the interview, not the original audio tapes, so we never knew exactly how the interviews went down. But a few months later we met Chris at a trade show and we never questioned his ability to be a barefaced asshole ever again.

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So not long after I published yesterday’s photo of the day post with “Series 2″ of the unofficial jackass action figures, I received a message from Nate saying that he’s working on the last one*. And, appropriately enough, it was Rip Taylor, the legendary comedian who has closed out not just one but two jackass feature films. Thanks again to Nate for amusing all of us involved with jackass over the years that have since been turned into clay figurines. It’s much better than we deserve.

* Although Trip Taylor did say today that no collection would be complete without a voice-activated Michelle Klepper figure that screamed “GET IN THE VAN!!!” So if you’ve got some extra clay…

(photo by Ben Kaller; Orlando, FL; 2002)

There’s really no wondering where the wild things are now. For the past 17 odd days they’ve been rumpusing at theaters across the United States and various other parts of the broader global village (check here for international release dates). But if you’re still curious about Spike Jonze—and you should be, he’s a curious individual with a healthy dash of deviancy for good measure—check out this link to a 22-minute long video interview with the man himself (special thanks to Tzinaki for sniffing this link out).

On the night of the show’s debut episode in October 2000, I remember standing there in the bar we’d gathered in to collectively watch it down thinking, Well … from this point forward everything will be different. And it was. On several different levels. But one of the more fun things to do in the weeks to follow was skim through all the critical essays in the press that sought to deconstruct jackass and its relationship to society and the cultural direction it was plummeting. But for every four or five philosophical negatrons there was at least one critic that came out straight-shooting from the entertainment hip. Well, maybe not all were that straight, considering the best review of all came from the “Gay & Lesbian” section of Time Out New York: “And the award for most male nudity on TV goes to Jackass, MTV’s hysterical new program of daredevil acts. Uninhibited host Johnny Knoxville and gang will do absolutely anything for a laugh, which quite often means hitting the streets stark naked. Plus, there’s plenty of shower scenes—the guys are forever washing up after stunts such as diving into elephant poo. The show is gross and outrageous and, oddly enough, a turn-on.”

more jackass:

	read: jackass not on dvd blog archive
	more jackass on jackassworld

Well, it would appear that our merry molder in the community just can’t put his fingers to rest, so I’m proud to present the unofficial “Series 2″ of Nate Merritt’s clay creations inspired by the various faces of the jackass cast and crew. This collection includes a significant build out in the West Chester sect and fills in a few more crew holes—oh yeah, crew holes. Personally, I can’t wait until he devises a way to add some serious action features to these figures. A Lance Bangs that giggles and/or retches when you push a button? A Spike Jonze with spring-action ball-kick leg? A Trip Taylor that pirouettes and screams whenever a tiny lever moves a tarantula across his back? Okay, maybe that last one should be a part of the subsequent Wildboyz collection at a later production date, but you get the idea. Anyway, great job Nate. And nice touch with the Old Man’s balls. If only Santa was so lucky as to have you in his sweatshop of elves.

To see “Series 1″ of Nate’s figures, go here: Jackass Action Figure Collection, Series 1

Does anyone remember the jackassworld 24-hour takeover when we finally made it to within spitting distance of the finish line and could do nothing more than dance, dance, dance? That’s kinda how I feel after fandangling this week-long Halloween marathon. Tomorrow it will be back to business as usual beginning with the arduous but necessary process of taking down the seasonal marquee decor. So get your last Hallow’s Eve licks in before the Tasmanian devils polish off door number two, the bat returns to his belfry, the hearse to the mortuary, and the Wildboyz to their regularly scheduled speaking voice. Until then, I leave you with this Day of the Dead dance party. Yes, Virginia, the dead can dance. Not always well, mind you, but it’s the spirit that counts. And on that note…

If you think I’m a day off here, think again … although I do admit that whole “spring ahead/fall back” thing can be a real pisser on the cranial clock. I’m still confused as to what time it is. I have four different clocks in my room, all with varying times, and I don’t know which one to believe. What I do know, though, is that the official Dia de los Muertos takes place over the days of November 1st and 2nd, as it’s preceded by the All Hallow’s Eve shenanigans on October 31st. Typically this celebration is reserved for remembering the familial dead (or perhaps just nursing a monster hangover and wishing you were dead), but in this morbid racing instance I think we should instead take pause to reflect upon the NASCAR death of Dale Earnhardt during the Daytona 500 in 2001. [Insert reverential moment of silence here.] Okay, now onto the fun, because unlike the repetitive nature of auto-racing there simply is no time to sit and watch the stucco dry as Chris Pontius and Steve-O take it to the cobblestone streets of Mexico in this bone-jarring celebration of the go-karting dead!

(photo by Dimitry Elyashkevich; Mexico; 2005)

Uh, yeah. So we had a slight problem with Lauren Graham’s post earlier and it has since been removed and placed somewhere in the cornfield. Yes, that cornfield. Some of you are well familiar with it thanks to the past handiwork of Michelle and The Wolf Den, others possibly via Rod Serling, but that may only be a reference enjoyed by the likes of Laura Z, Wolfie, Joyx2, and myself. Anyway, what does remain is a frame grab from what I believe was professional skateboarder Mike Carroll’s entry in the Great Chris Casey Pumpkin-Carving Contest, which shall now in any future usages be referred to as the “GCCPCC” for brevity’s sake. The GCCPCC was held last weekend here in Chris Casey’s Hollywood backyard and was attended by the likes of Lauren, Dimitry, and other people of a marginally demented sort.

I have to admit that I, too, was impressed with Mike’s X-rated entry into the GCCPCC, but my personal favorite was the suicidal gourd. Kinda looks like it was inspired by the infamous last public act of former Pennsylvania Senator R. Budd Dwyer, doesn’t it? Man, that was some seriously other level shit from the pre-Interweb days, and on that ghoulish note I will bid you farewell for the evening. Have to go take care of some traditional corpse paint application. Whee! Or is it whoo? Boo? Some deja vu shit like that.

(video stills by Lauren Graham; Hollywood, CA; 2009)

And so it begins: All Hallow’s Eve. Did you know that the “American Werewolf (in London)” was actually filmed while the guys were over in England? It’s true. I would shit you not, nor shit on you for that matter. I may have a few strands of German heritage wound up in my DNA, but that doesn’t genetically mean that spielen mit scheisse is my cup of tea. Ah, tea time! Which must mean we’ve textually circled back to merry olde England after just a quick potty stop in Germany. Jolly good, guv’nor, just ignore me cockney and run along now. Incidentally, what I most appreciated about this silly footage of Chris Pontius* racing about barking mad in the streets of London as a rubber-headed werewolf is that someone on the crew—no matter how many pints of pils they may have been pissed on at the time—still had the presence of mind to carry out the mythic tale to its morning completion. Cheers! And Happy Halloween, ye wee masked bastards (except for Big Country, who has since proven he’s not wee in the least).

* I’ve taken rather a fancy to asterisks of late, but that’s just the aside kinda guy I am. Anyway, I was talking to Chris a week or two back and he reminded me of the pick-up shot he and I had filmed just outside the production offices here in LA. He donned the werewolf mask one more time to make a pit stop, so to speak, and shake his third leg in dog-like fashion. This peeing clip, I believe, was later nixed by MTV so it never made the final cut.

Now we’re talking. Scandinavian corpse paint in your face! Another fine last minute costume idea should you be drawing a blank at two minutes to midnight. Trust me, you wouldn’t be the first Hank von Helvete to do so on Halloween, but if you already have your costume picked out, then shit, stick around for a history lesson if you’d like. It’s not about some dusty old wigheads prancing about France at the turn of the 17th century, so it’s not completely boring. Useless, perhaps, but then so is calculus to about 96 percent of mankind. Good? Okay. Our first encounter with Turbonegro came in 1995, I think, when Marc McKee reviewed the band’s 8 x 10 black-and-white publicity photo. Normally it’s not a good thing to be reviewed in the pages of Big Brother, especially back then, but Turbonegro received high marks all around on their 8 x 10, which featured Hank lounging shirtless and solo on a couch, proving that the band must not suck (based on the tried and true “Suck at a Glance™” methodology of review). I should note that at no time did we ever listen to their music then (as was typical with most all Big Brother music reviews), and it wasn’t until 1999 that Dave Carnie and I realized the true listening greatness and glory of Turbonegro after receiving the Apocalypse Dudes promotional CD release. Little did we know it then, but in just over three years time “The Age of Pamparius” would be used for the opening lick to Wildboyz on MTV and Jeff Tremaine would be selected to direct a music video for a song off Turbonegro’s 2003 release Scandinavian Leather. Oh, and should that bear look familiar, that’s because it’s Bam-Bam, the very same grizzly that damn near busted Johnny Knoxville’s back in a wrasslin’ match on jackass and almost gobbled some wiener eaters on Wildboyz. He’s what you could call a “signature” Tremaine element.