"Lars von Trier Denies Bjork’s Sexual Harassment Allegations."

Variety reports.

“It was extremely clear to me when I walked into the actresses profession (sic) that my humiliation and role as a lesser sexually harassed being was the norm and set in stone with the director and a staff of dozens who enabled it and encouraged it,” she wrote in a Facebook post. “When I turned the director down repeatedly, he sulked and punished me and created for his team an impressive net of illusion where I was framed as the difficult one. Because of my strength, my great team, and because I had nothing to loose (sic) having no ambitions in the acting world, I walked away from it and recovered in a years time.... the director was fully aware of this game and I am sure of that (sic) the film he made after was based on his experiences with me. Because I was the first one that stood up to him and didn’t let him get away with it.”

The film von Trier made with Bjork was "Dancer in the Dark." The next one — which Bjork believes was based on Von Trier's experiences with her — was was "Dogville." I saw the harrowing "Dancer in the Dark," because I'd been led to believe it was a significant work of art. I avoided "Dogville" however. The description in Variety is enough to remind me why: "Nicole Kidman’s character was repeatedly raped after being accused of betraying the townspeople of a small American village."

"The shoot was spontaneous, decided in a late-night conversation between me and Björk while we had 360-degree gear with us in Iceland..."

"... the cyclical format was perfect for the circular fugue structure of ‘Stonemilker.' We spent the early morning moving our crew and equipment onto the island where she wrote the song, being mindful of the tide, which only left us a two hour window to shoot the film."

Björk explains television from the poetic perspective but warns you not to let poets lie to you.

All those dots that make up the picture are "millions and millions of little screens," and so "you are watching very many things when you are watching TV."

Your head is very busy all the time to calculate and put it all together into one picture. And then because you're so busy doing that, you don't watch very carefully what the program you are watching is really about. So you become hypnotized. So all that's on TV, it just goes directly into your brain and you stop judging it's right or not.  You just swallow and swallow. This is what an Icelandic poet told me....

Full text at the link, but it's better in video form (if you can handle all those tiny little dots):

The Onion Newsroom, 2008: "Sources Warn Miley Cyrus Will Be Depleted by 2013."

After last night's VMA performance, this old video is charting on Reddit (where the top comment is "When can we start using The Onion as a credible source?"):



We were talking about the VMA performance in a post earlier this morning, and you can see it here. I was going to watch it closely and opine on the race-and-gender politics and the symbolism of teddy bears, but then I didn't. Let's just watch the old Bjork video, directed by Michael Gondry, for "Human Behavior." That had some strange bears around a puzzling young woman:



If you ever get close to a human/And human behavior/You'd better be ready to get confused....

You don't have to be afraid of the TV. You shouldn't let poets lie to you.

Listen to Bjork. And look! It's like a little city in there.

Some Bjork views.

Bjork on Michel Gondry directing Kate Winslet in "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind":

"Michel did a great work there. He gave Kate ... who's obviously such a huge spirit, such a vivacious lady, so much space. Usually when you see females in movies, they feel like they have these metallic structures around them, they are caged in by male energy. But she could be at her full volume without restrictions."

The interviewer adds the inference: "A contrast, one senses with [Lars] von Trier, who loves brutalising his actresses."

Bjork on fashion:

She would never wear jeans and a T-shirt, she says, because they are "a symbol of white American imperialism, like drinking Coca-Cola."

Jeez, being political is a lot of work!

Bjork on why people responded so generously to the tsunami disaster:

"I think because it happened just a month after the Bush election, it made people think they really had a say in rebuilding things, that they could make a difference. For the first time since the Vietnam War there seems a universal feeling among common people that they don't agree with the people who are ruling the world."

Bjork on feminism:

"It's incredible how nature sets females up to take care of people, and yet it is tricky for them to take care of themselves." Slightly to her astonishment she is becoming interested in women's rights. Because of her mother's own militancy - "she wouldn't enter the kitchen, I mean come on" - she reacted the other way, adoring housework, knitting and sewing.