…Exploring the role of the prankster as artist, activist and social observer and the significance of the prank in society.
JOEY SKAGGS SATIRE AND ART ACTIVISM,
1960s TO THE PRESENT AND BEYOND
A new series of short oral history films,
produced and directed by Judy Drosd and Joey Skaggs
ART OF THE PRANK, THE MOVIE:
Andrea Marini’s award winning feature documentary about
New York artist and activist Joey Skaggs
This “sticky” post will be here for a while. Scroll down for other posts.
Thank you Baltimore Next Media (BNM) Web Fest and The NewsFest International Film & Writers Festival for honoring films #6, #7, & #8 of the “Joey Skaggs Satire and Art Activism, 1960s to the Present and Beyond” Oral History Series:
Joey Skaggs: Metamorphosis, Cockroach Miracle Cure:
WINNER Best Documentary
WINNER Best Documentary Writer (Joey)
WINNER Best Host/Narrator (Joey)
and, cheeky as it is,
Joey Skaggs: Celebrity Sperm Bank:
HONORABLE MENTION: Best Guest Stars Richard Sher, Oprah Winfrey from “People Are Talking”, 1981
Joey Skaggs: WALK RIGHT!:
1st PLACE WINNER Best Human Interest
and
Joey Skaggs: Celebrity Sperm Bank:
GRAND WINNER Best Short Doc <15 Min.
In 1971, Joey Skaggs saved a derelict opera house that was about to be torn down in Earlville New York. Today, 50+ years later, it is a thriving cultural centerpiece for Central New York. WBNG Channel 12 News covers its remarkable journey.
Earlville Opera House brings arts and culture to Chenango County for past 50 years, by Autriya Maneshni, WBNG Channel 12 News, November 20, 2023
The Earlville Opera House brings about 15 performers to Chenango County every year
EARLVILLE, NY (WBNG) — The tale of the Earlville Opera House is one of perseverance. It’s about how a group of volunteers came together to save an abandoned building from the wrecking ball.
In 1887, the opera house was housed in an old Baptist church. That structure burned down. After a second structure was built, half of that building also burned down a couple of years after it was built. The third reconstructed opera house was beloved in the community and this one felt indestructible. However, the building closed its doors in the 1950s due to the evolution of technology.
In 1971, the opera house was threatened to be demolished. With this threat looming on the horizon, it felt as though the opera house would disappear from Earlville for good. A young artist and social activist named Joey Skaggs decided this wasn’t going to happen. “If I hadn’t come along and decided to save it, it wouldn’t be there. It would be a parking lot,” said Skaggs. Read the rest of the article and watch the video here.
In 1976, Joey Skaggs’ Celebrity Sperm Bank auction went awry due to a pre-mature withdrawal!
Catch this film, which is oral history film #9 in the ongoing series “Joey Skaggs Satire and Art Activism, 1960s to the Present and Beyond at
one of two theatrical film festival screenings: August 8 in New York at the ChainNYC Film Festival or September 24 in California at the Burbank International Film Festival.
Schedule and ticket information is here.
When you’re a desperate despot, fantasy is apparently much more persuasive than reality.
When Nazis tried to trace Aryan race myth in Tibet, by Vaibhav Purandare, BBC, September 15, 2021
In 1938, Heinrich Himmler, a leading member of Germany’s Nazi party and a key architect of the Holocaust, sent a five-member team to Tibet to search for the origins of the supposed Aryan race. Author Vaibhav Purandare recounts the fascinating story of this expedition, which passed through India.
A little over a year before World War Two began, a group of Germans landed surreptitiously along India’s eastern borders.
They were on a mission to discover the “source of origin of the Aryan race”.
Adolf Hitler believed that “Aryan” Nordic people had entered India from the north some 1,500 years earlier, and that the Aryans had committed the “crime” of mixing with the local “un-Aryan” people, losing the attributes that had made them racially superior to all other people on earth.
Hitler regularly expressed deep antipathy for the Indian people and their struggle for freedom, articulating his sentiments in his speeches, writings and debates.
Yet, according to Himmler, one of Hitler’s top lieutenants and the head of the SS, the Indian subcontinent was still worth a close look.
This is where Tibet came into the picture. Continue reading “Hitler Searched for Aryan Origins in Tibet Because of a Divine Thunderbolt. What?”