It is not Rosa von Praunheim who is perverse, but the situations in which he films

This post is in conjunction with this week’s episode, which explores the films that will be part of next weekend’s “Films of Rosa von Praunheim” festival at Anthology Film Archives. The festival runs from June 4-7, contains 10 features and 2 shorts, and will boast a live performance by von Praunheim, entitled "I am not a Tomato." (I have no explanation). I offer up a little survey of von Praunheim clips that can be found on the obvious site, YouTube.

First, a few notes in case the name doesn’t ring a bell (and it’s quite a name!): Rosa von Praunheim is a now-legendary German filmmaker with a great sense of humor, a cool nom du cinema, and a keen ability to craft cinematic acts of provocation like It Is Not the Homosexual Who is Perverse, but the Situation in Which He Lives (1970). He made several sharp documentaries about the AIDS crisis in the Eighties, and has since produced a number of memorable docus about gay issues, strong women, and aspects of his own life.

The YT von Praunheim stash is mostly made up of Rosa’s comic creations, which is no surprise. Here is an unsubtitled (but pretty stylishly campy) scene from his very successful (and sadly unavailable over here) Die Bettwurst (1971). The song layered under the clip by the poster is, of course, by the le grand Gainsbarre:


Another bit of stylish camp here, unfortunately also unsubbed, from Rote Liebe (1982)


A musical interlude from the always imposing Diamanda Galas, from the 1990 AIDS docu Positive:


The opening minutes to the colorfully titled “Erotic Tale” that Praunheim made in 1999 for an anthology series. The short, “Can I Be Your Bratwurst, Please?” stars American gay porn star Jeff Stryker as a gent that both men and women want to consume — literally:


And the final film in the Anthology series is actually up in its entirety on YT. The film cannot be currently seen in the U.S. It’s a documentary about, well… the subject is in the title, Men, Heroes & Gay Nazis (2005):


And, finally, the opening minutes of a recent-vintage short shot here in NYC, starring nightclub chanteuse Phoebe Legere. Germans Taste Best (2007):

Tiny Tim sings an anthem for the new century: the psychedelic, deranged global warming premonition "The Other Side"

When he is remembered at all, Tiny Tim is labeled a one-hit wonder, a media oddity whose stint on Laugh-In made him hot for a minute (during which he had a massively viewed wedding on The Tonight Show), and then he was consigned to the scrapheap of pop culture. In truth, Tiny was indeed an unusual man on a personal level (and very especially a lovesick, often heartbroken one), but he was a gentleman who loved the hoary old tunes that he sang. Tiny was the kind of a versatile, unusual singer who could do justice to "There’ll Always Be an England” and The Beatles’ “Girl” (which he seems to relate to on a heavy level, and if you knew the stories of his fascinations with les femmes, you’d know he did).

Several top-notch Tiny Tim discoveries can be made on YouTube, including his appearance on “The Coca Crystal Show” with Izzy Fertel. The finest discovery, however, are clips from a TV special Tiny did in Australia in the late Sixties, which are all posted on this blog.

The most familiar tune is the wonderful "Living in the Sunlight” (I dare you to be downhearted while listening to Tiny warble this one). The song was recently revived on Spongebob Squarepants. But the most eye-opening, jaw-dropping performance is “The Other Side,” my personal fave from Tiny’s debut LP, God Bless Tiny Tim. On the record it’s a thoroughly psychedelic turn (that sounds amazing in headphones), but here, as sung to and with a group of cute little girls, it’s nothing less than a bizarrely prescient ditty about global warming — the icecaps are indeed melting. I have long maintained that my all-time favorite use of a children’s chorus is on The Cramps’ “People Ain’t No Good,” but I will now supplement that by saying that the best use of a cute-kid chorus on TV has to be Tiny’s of the tots here to chant the line “All the world is drowning…”

An inconvenient truth? Tiny predicted it YEARS ago!