Kenneth Anger

Happy Birthday, Kenneth Anger! -of interest to me primarily because of his films and his long-time association with Anton LaVey. I remember LaVey being quite the controversial figure back in the late '60s. Anger's official web site is here. FilmReference.com has information on Anger, beginning their article with this:

One of the key figures of the postwar American avant-garde, Kenneth Anger represents a fiercely original talent, relatively free of the independent circles and movements which his own work managed to anticipate in almost every case.

The Bright Lights film blog has a report of a film screening hosted by Anger in 2008. Senses of Cinema describes him as

a high level practitioner of occult magic who regards the projection of his films as ceremonies capable of invoking spiritual forces. Cinema, he claims, is an evil force. Its point is to exert control over people and events and his filmmaking is carried out with precisely that intention.

Inauguration of the Pleasure Dome (1954):


Lucifer Rising (1973):


He has a Facebook fan page and a page at MySpace.

And, yes, I realize it's also Norman Rockwell's birthday, but I don't find him nearly as interesting. And besides, he's dead. I don't celebrate the birthdays of the dead.