What do they have in common? Not a whole lot other than that the most hated family in America would loathe Toulouse Lautrec's Montmartre. I say these two because I saw videos on both today. I was looking at The A.V. Club's Videocracy when I found a video that BBC did on America's most hated family. Basically they go to soldier's funerals and heckle people for "worshiping the dead" and supporting a country that permits homosexuality. According to them America is doomed because it permits sin and blah blah blah bullshit. Anyway the report involved an hour long in depth look at the family where a BBC reporter (Louis Theroux) goes and basically hangs out with them a lot. It's interesting but also very sad.
The Most Hated Family in America
I tried to insert the video straight in but youtube was being weird and I had no idea what the frack it was doing when I tried to upload the blogger account so whatever. Anyway I think that Theroux does a very good job considering how disastrous this could have been. He is calm and logical even in the face of hostility and contention. I think the saddest thing is watching the young children being indoctrinated and watching them say the most horrid words even if they don't really understand what they mean. Some of the most interesting interviews are the ones that Theroux does with the twenty-one year old daughter who, despite her words, still seems very mixed up inside. I think that the part that was most upsetting for me was when a young child (seven or eight) got a drink chucked at him from a passing car during one of their picketings on the side of the road. The mother gets very angry with the driver, who was obviously wrong to chuck a drink at a child. The thing that upsets me is that the mother completely negates her own wrong doing in putting the child in that position in the first place. She is even more wrong for giving her child that horribly hateful sign that says something that he doesn't even understand and to expect him to grow up well despite all the hostility he must face on a daily basis due to the hateful beliefs of his parents and church. However, Theroux's commentary and reactions add humor and this is a very interesting watch in my opinion. There are seven parts all of which should be on youtube.
Okay. So onto Toulouse Lautrec. My grandmother sent me a DVD of a documentary that was done on BBC not too long ago on the artist and it was really interesting. While watching these I actually felt a little upset that we don't get BBC here. It seems to be chock full of crazy personalities. I guess the guy who was narrating the Toulouse Lautrec is an art critic I guess and he was a total weirdo. He wore and earring in one ear and said that Toulouse Lautrec was lucky to have slept with Jane Avril and was shown nursing a drink more than once. It was incredibly amusing and nothing like a documentary you would see here on PBS or something unless you count the Bob Dylan documentary by Martin Scorsese where the Irishman's beer mug kept going up and down in his interviews. That was pretty cool. Anyway I've always loved Toulouse Lautrec so it was quite interesting to watch. Evidently he was a penis on legs and was so short and weird looking due to the fact that his parents were the children of first cousins and were first cousins themselves, something that I totally called and something the narrator got very mad about and blamed entirely on the father for some reason. Also his father liked to do fancy dress 24/7. Fancy dress. I've got to remember to say that from now on instead of costume. It always makes me think of Tintin and Captain Haddock ranting.
Anyhow, I'm exhausted for no apparent reason. I think I'm conking out.
Listening to: Jenny Lewis and the Watson Twins--Rabbit Fur Coat
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