Kathryn Bigelow was a punk rocker

Filmmaker Kathryn Bigelow, who won Best Director and Best Picture Oscars for Hurt Locker this week, "was a member in good standing of the [NYC] punk scene of the late '70s and early' 80s," according to Paper Mag. (via Cate Park)

• [The Hamster King]

  Poseur.

• [Marshall]

  Having read the article, I don’t see anything punk in it at all. Wouldn’t a better descriptor be “art student in good standing”?

  • [Tdawwg]

    One time she was working on a script of a Bataille story and she must have rewritten it 150 times; she was so determined to get it right.

    Yikes: would that she’d done that with the Hurt Locker script.

    Would love to see that Busey film, though. “Utah, get me two!”

• [mindysan33]

  actually, it sounds like she was part of the art scene that flirted with the concurrent no-wave scene at the time — at least if you believe Bernard Gendron’s chapter on the Mudd Clubb in his book on the Avant-Garde and popular culture in the 20th century.

  That’s funny, Antinous! Can I use that as a chapter title for my thesis? Really, I think I’m serious about that!!! “Member in good slamming!!!” I so want to use that now…

• [Anonymous]

  Often overlooked is the propaganda aspect of The Hurt Locker: manufacturing consent for the Iraq war and permanent US presence.

  The movie is completely one sided and portrays Iraqi citizens as either malevolent “insurgents”* or jabbering buffons. Best director & best picture? This was a political statement by the US entertainment industry: “We are beyond discussing the justification of the war, and now we applaud consensus for permanent US presence.”

  I liked the movie better, when it was called Avatar: There, the resource greedy invaders were driven off! Long live freedom!

  *Definition of Insurgent: A native of any country that is invaded by imperialist powers

  • [Anonymous]

    We’re lucky the media aren’t willing to just call them all “terrorists” yet.

• [IWood]

  Well, yeah, but all you had to do was pay your membership dues on time and go to two meetings a year…

• [Terry]

  “a member in good standing of the [NYC] punk scene”

  Nice example of an oxymoron.

  • [Deidzoeb]

    Reminds me of a t-shirt slogan I saw a few years back. Picture of some guy with libery spikes, and the caption read: “I guess I was punk once.”

    I ordered the shirt online. The seller claimed that his roommate had thrown his printer or computer out the window, so he had lost records of all sales. I took it as a lesson and let it go. I guess I’m not that punk anymore.

    • [Anonymous]

      This one?

      http://store.unamerican.com/collections/shirts/products/iguessiwaspunkonceshirt

      I heard a much more complicated story about the computer and the window. It was not especially punk but it did involve a dead cat.

      • [Deidzoeb]

        Yes, that’s the shirt. Did anyone ever get their money back? Maybe I should contact him again. Re: the computer vs window story, the mileage of my memory may vary.

• [Antinous / Moderator]

  “Member in good slamming”?

• [igpajo]

  But was she a card carrying member?