Far out and gone — 'Howard Hampton reigns supreme'

I caught Dennis Hopper's delirious The Last Movie last year at Anthology; Dizzies Team Member Matt was in attendance as well, and over at Termite Art he lists as his "most surreal moment" at the recent installment of the Sundance Festival

Briefly speaking to Dennis Hopper about The Last Movie before our interview. When I told him I'd just seen the film a few months ago at Anthology and that I absolutely loved it his response was more perfect than I could have ever imagined: "Really?" he said. "Far out."

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Over at Time Out, David Fear gives Howard Hampton's Born in Flames a wonderful rave:

Beyond the consensual pop-culture landscape, there is a parallel universe where Marilyn Monroe, Elvis and John Ford have been replaced by Hong Kong superstarlet Brigitte Lin, Cleveland protopunk David Thomas and genre saboteur Seijun Suzuki. Here, outsider pundit Howard Hampton reigns supreme. [...]This much-needed book reads like a collection of notes from the author’s own private underground. Like many surveyors who prefer Pop Art’s pomo outer limits, the writer has a gift for connecting the sociocultural dots between seemingly unrelated material: Natural Born Killers as the evil-twin Id to Forrest Gump’s ego; the kinship of Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit” and Buffy the Vampire Slayer; the commodification of ’60s youth culture via Viva Las Vegas.[...]

[...] Reading Born Into Flames’ alternate history of the late 20th century’s zeitgeist isn’t just exhilarating but illuminating. Describing an anthology of fellow netherworld traveler Lester Bang’s articles, Hampton praises a “book that could make a person want to become a critic, or remind one why he became a critic in the first place.” I know what you mean, sir. I’m holding just such a volume in my hands.