by Daniel Robert Epstein

Matthew McConaughey is very much like the characters he’’s played in a few of his movies. He’’s easy going, laid back, charming and very easy to talk to. He plays another one of those guys in the romantic comedy Failure to Launch. His character Trip is a wealthy boat broker who still lives with his parents at age 35! So his parents hire Sarah Jessica Parker to fall in love with him so he will have the confidence to move out.

Read our exclusive interview with Matthew McConaughey on SuicideGirls.com.

by Brad Warner

Crazy Wisdom Trailer from Kate Trumbull on Vimeo.

Chogyam Trungpa Rimpoche was a lot of things. When he was just 18 months old he was recognized as the reincarnation of a high Tibetan lama. He escaped Tibet’s Chinese rulers when he was 20 years old, fleeing through the icy mountains on foot with a group of 300, only 13 of whom made it across the border to India. He went to England and started the first Tibetan Buddhist center in the Western world. A short while later he came to America where he set up the Shambhala foundation. Then he proceeded to fuck dozens of his students before drinking himself to death at age 48.

Now someone’s made a movie about Trungpa, called Crazy Wisdom. It’s pretty good.

I never met Trungpa myself. But my first Zen teacher worked for him for a while as an instructor at Naropa Institute, the Buddhist university Trungpa founded in Boulder, Colorado. It was the first Buddhist university in the West. He used to tell me wild stories about Trungpa’s excesses. One time Trungpa threatened my teacher saying that demons would fly through his window at night and tear him to bits. One guy I talked to watched Trungpa down two 40 ouncers of beer during a public dharma talk. Then there’s the story I’ve heard from about half a dozen people about the time Trungpa forced a couple to participate in an orgy by ordering his uniformed guards to strip them naked against their will.

And yet for all his scandalous activities, Chogyam Trungpa is still revered 24 years after his death as one of the great Buddhist masters. Johanna Demetrakas’ new film Crazy Wisdom seeks to understand this contradictory figure. Was he merely a madman who conned thousands into thinking he was a guru? Or was his crazy wisdom really more wise than crazy after all?

I’ve never been quite sure just what to make of Trungpa. His book Cutting Through Spiritual Materialism is still one of my favorites on the subject of pursuing the dharma authentically. And yet he was a drunk and a sex fiend. Even his closest students admit that. He never hid any of this, though. And that’s what made him different. While poor old Richard Baker Roshi, head of the San Francsico Zen Center was getting flayed alive for having a brief affair with one student, Trungpa was out there screwing his followers like there was no tomorrow. And nobody seemed too fussed about it.

It turns out that perhaps sex isn’t the real problem. The real problem may be spiritual teachers who present themselves as one thing and then act completely contrary to that image. This is something Chogyam Trungpa never did.

Crazy Wisdom is a wonderfully entertaining film about this amazing contradictory man. Although the filmmakers are followers of Trungpa and naturally seek to present him in a positive light, they don’t gloss over his faults either. Trungpa never attempted to define himself according to the categories others created. Neither do the filmmakers attempt to do so. It’s left to the viewer to decide if Trungpa was insane or saintly.

Documentaries about spiritual masters aren’t usually my thing. They tend to be dry, boring and exceedingly reverent. But Crazy Wisdom isn’t your run of the mill fluff piece put together by people who want to show you why their guru is better than yours. It’s a serious film, but it has some truly laugh out loud moments. The cast is a who’s who of luminaries associated with Eastern spirituality in the West including Allan Ginsberg, Ram Dass, Stephen Batchelor, and Trungpa’s student Pema Chodron.

My only complaint is that the filmmakers chose to ignore the darker side of Trungpa’s legacy, his followers who understood their teacher’s crazy wisdom as a license to do anything at all regardless of the potential consequences. In particular I’m thinking of the story of Osel Tendzin. Tendzin was Trungpa’s successor who liked to suck and fuck just as much as his teacher. The problem was that when Tendzin was diagnosed with HIV he continued having unprotected sex without informing his partners of his condition. Stephen Butterfield, a former student, said (though this is not in the film), “In response to close questioning by students, he first swore us to secrecy and then said that Trungpa had requested him to be tested for HIV in the early 1980s and told him to keep quiet about the positive result. Tendzin had asked Trungpa what he should do if students wanted to have sex with him, and Trungpa’s reply was that as long as he did his Vajrayana purification practices, it did not matter, because they would not get the disease. Tendzin’s answer, in short, was that he had obeyed the guru.” Trungpa was wrong.

I’ll grant you that even addressing this subject at all may have pulled the film in a whole different direction. It’s a movie about Trungpa, not Tendzin. Still, to completely ignore this very significant effect of Trungpa’s teaching style seems a little like keeping something hidden. And Trungpa never hid anything.

In spite of this shortcoming I still highly recommend the film. It isn’t the kind of snore fest these sorts of documentaries usually are. In fact it’s highly engaging and entertaining as well as informative. It presents a (mostly) honest portrait of a Buddhist master who doesn’t fit the stereotypical mold.

Brad is on tour right now and may be in your area. To see where Brad will be speaking next take a look here.

Brad Warner is the author of Sex, Sin and Zen: A Buddhist Exploration of Sex from Celibacy to Polyamory and Everything in Between as well as Hardcore Zen, Sit Down and Shut Up! and Zen Wrapped in Karma Dipped in Chocolate. He maintains a blog about Buddhist stuff that you can click here to see.

You can also buy T-shirts and hoodies based on his books, and the new CD by his band Zero Defex now!

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by Damon Martin

2011 was 12-months of non-stop action in the comic book industry. More and more movies are being adapted from comics, while genre TV shows are seeing their ratings go through the roof. For example a whopping 6.6 million viewers tuned in for the mid-season finale of the AMC adapted series The Walking Dead.

DC launched the New 52, which essentially scrapped every single comic they had going and restarted all the titles back at issue one with new storylines and new origins. Marvel killed a Spider-Man (although it was in their alternate ‘Ultimate’ universe) and re-launched popular characters like Daredevil, while still trying to build back The Avengers.

Though it was a long and crazy year for comic books, these are the titles, artists, and writers that I felt stood head and shoulders above the crowd.

Best New Series: The DC 52

I know, I know, it seems like a cop out to choose 52 comics as the best new comic of 2011, but what DC did by rebooting their entire catalog of comics was a brave and dangerous move. They risked alienating long time readers with their attempt to lure new fans. But judging by the millions of issues sold in just the first few months, the brain trust at DC are currently look like geniuses.

Headed up by the marquee series Justice League, written by DC wunderkind Geoff Johns and art legend Jim Lee, the DC 52 series has content that appeals to the everyday fan, as well as edgier, darker material for those looking for a little bit more blood between the pages.

The stand-outs for the new 52 include Gail Simone’s take on Batgirl, which has been a fantastic read thus far, as well as Jeff Lemire’s Animal Man, which has become one of the best ongoing series in the DC universe. In addition to the successful re-booting of the Green Lantern, with the evil Sinestro wearing the green ring of will once again and Hal Jordan trying to earn his way back into the corp, Geoff Johns has managed to make Aquaman a character people can follow again.

Overall the DC 52 has been a great success for the comic giant, and they deserve this award for having the guts to risk it all. Fortunately, the gamble paid off, and they came up big winners.

Honorable Mentions: Green Wake, Ultimate Spider-Man

Best Writer: Joe Hill

A few years ago Joe Hill may have been best known as the son of legendary horror author Stephen King. Fast forward to 2011, and though he may have got off to a faster start by standing on the shoulders of a giant, with his work on Locke & Key, Hill’s now setting the standard for writing in comics entirely on his own merit.

A labyrinth of characters are interwoven into this book about a family that moves into a house with an elaborate set of doors and keys that open into different worlds, while an evil spirit continues to haunt them.

The biggest crime perpetrated against Hill may be that Fox bought the rights to Locke & Key as a new ongoing series. After a pilot was made, Fox decided to scrap the project in favor of other shows. I had the pleasure of watching the pilot at San Diego Comic Con 2011, and I can say with certainty that Fox made a huge mistake not picking this up. Hill has continued to make Locke & Key one of the most enjoyable series on the market today – his storytelling is nothing short of brilliant.

Honorable Mentions: Nick Spencer, Robert Kirkman, Jason Aaron, Mark Waid

Best Artist: J.H. Williams III

For the second year in a row no less! J.H. Williams III really has set the bar for comic book art in recent times. His stunning art is beautiful on page after page of DC’s reboot of Batwoman, and his work continues to excel in every issue. He pushes the envelope in everything he does – so much so that comic book artists all over the world are paying attention to what he is doing. Williams captures the spirit of his characters with every picture and frame within a book, and truly knows how to showcase emotion so no explanatory words are necessary. It might be hard to move on from Williams in 2012 if his work continues along this same stellar path.

Honorable Mentions: Francis Manapul, Gabriel Rodriguez, Jim Lee, Joe Eisma

Best Ongoing Series: Morning Glories

The knockout winner for the 2012 Book Of The Year goes to Nick Spencer and Joe Eisma’s creation Morning Glories, which was an honorable mention for best new series in 2011. It’s been hailed as the Lost of comic books – there’s a whirlwind in every issue leaving you absolutely begging for more. It’s a series that has an ending in sight as Spencer has said the run will go around 100 issues, putting it in line with another classic book, Y the Last Man.

Most believe Morning Glories will be headed to television within the next couple of years, and there’s no doubt why. Spencer’s story about a group of special teenagers sent to a prestigious high school where the teachers are actually abusive overlords, hiding a deep secret within the walls, is captivating, mind-boggling, and awe inspiring.

From one issue to the next, Spencer leaves your eyes widened and your jaw dropped, and when accompanied by Joe Eisma’s perfectly placed art, Morning Glories is a tour de force that quickly draws you in and never slows down.

When my comic pull is given to me at my local store, nothing hits my eyes faster when I get home than Morning Glories. It’s the first ongoing series that has captivated me this way since Robert Kirkman began writing The Walking Dead several years ago. If you pick up no other book in 2011, Morning Glories is the one to try out.

Honorable Mentions: The Walking Dead, Locke & Key, Uncanny X-Force.

So there you have it loyal readers, the best of the best in comic books for 2011. I expect 2012 to be even bigger because The Dark Knight Rises will hit movie theaters and I’m sure it will be a huge hit. A new Daredevil comic will hit stores in 2012 as well, with an all-star cast on board for the writing and art, including longtime scribe Brian Michael Bendis and artist David Mack. And with the digital age upon us, the comic book industry is entering a whole new world in 2012, and bigger things are sure to be on the horizon.

by Daniel Robert Epstein

As the star of such ’80’s classics as Action Jackson and Police Academy 4: Citizens on Patrol, Sharon Stone was the object of many film geek’s fantasies. She increased that demographic when she became an international star with the lead in Basic Instinct and later her Oscar nomination for Casino. Now Stone is reprising her role as the bisexual murderess Catherine Tramell in the sequel Basic Instinct 2.

Read our exclusive interview with Sharon Stone on SuicideGirls.com.

by A.J. Focht

Possible SPOILERS from the Dark Knight Rises have hit the web. The spoilers revolve around the films prologue. If they are correct, there may be some major changes to Bane’s background story. The leak is unconfirmed and, therefore, it’s best to file this one under rumors.

Adding on to the series of disastrous events to befall The Wolverine, the film is being delayed again, and this time there is no speculation to when it may release. Maybe this should be a sign to scrap the project and let the series rest for a while.

Some big news for Ender’s Game fans, Asa Butterfield, star of the new box office hit Hugo, confirmed via Twitter that he will be playing the role of Ender. There had been reports he was offered the role, and he is very excited to take it. The movie is being directed by Wolverine Origins director Gavin Hood, and is scheduled to release in March of 2013.

Men in Black III is officially a go. The first teaser posters for the film have been released. Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones have returned as Agents ‘J’ and ‘K’. The posters don’t tell us much more than the fact the project has hit the marketing stage.

Star Trek 2 has received a new release date for May 2013. But that’s not all. Oscar winning composer, Michael Giacchino, is back on for the second film. And finally, it is confirmed the film will be shooting in 3D.

One last note about the movies, if you didn’t already think Twilight is hazardous to your health, it’s now been confirmed. Cases have been reported of viewers going into epileptic seizures during the birthing scene. Anyone susceptible to seizures should therefore avoid seeing Breaking Dawn.

Some great news for Bluntman & Chronic, Neil Gaiman has confirmed he’s agreed to voice Alfred in the cartoon via Twitter. The news of a cartoon is exciting enough, but to know that Neil Gaiman is on the project is just fantastic.

MTV Geek has released their Top 10 Comic Book Writers of 2011. It’s no surprise that many of the DC New 52 writers have made the list as well as a handful of independent comics. Deservingly, Animal Man writer Jeff Lemire has taken the top spot.

Before you go, enjoy David Tennant reading a bedtime story with penguins on CBeebies, courtesy of Geek Mom.

by Daniel Robert Epstein

A lot of people out there think that’ it’’s not a good idea for these ranting and raving pundit types to have their own TV shows. Well now we’’ve got our very own incensed host on TV, Henry Rollins with the aptly named Henry Rollins Show. For those who may not know of Henry, both of you, Rollins cuts an imposing figure in the hardest of rock concerts as a seminal member of Black Flag and founder of Rollins Band. A man covered in as many famous tattoos might seem an unlikely candidate for a talk show until you hear Rollins speak. Whatever comes out of his mouth is the truth. Rollins is an astonishingly well read man who is at just as much at home acting alongside Al Pacino as he is vomiting in a Siberian train bathroom.

Read our exclusive interview with Henry Rollins on SuicideGirls.com.

by Daniel Robert Epstein

Stephen Gaghan won an Oscar for his screenplay for Traffic. After crafting the screenplay for that dense multiple storyline filled story implicating everyone, even the US government, in the world’’s hard drug trade, Gaghan decided to do the same for Big Oil with Syriana.

Syriana follows George Clooney as a career CIA operative as he begins to uncover the disturbing truth about the work he has devoted his life to as an up-and-coming oil broker. [Matt Damon] faces an unimaginable family tragedy and finds redemption in his partnership with an idealistic Gulf prince [Alexander Siddig]. A corporate lawyer [Jeffrey Wright] faces a moral dilemma as he finesses the questionable merger of two powerful U.S. oil companies.

Read our exclusive interview with Stephen Gaghan on SuicideGirls.com.