One person stunned to hear of Mr. Kahn's double life as a tea-party troubadour is top Hollywood record producer and Grammy Award-winner Walter Afanasieff. The two have worked on projects for years and are now midway through writing and producing an album for a young singer.
"And I'm just finding out about this now? Oh my God, I'm getting chills hearing it," Mr. Afanasieff says, when informed of his friend's sideline. "I mean, he's a member of a huge, Democratic, liberal organization called the Los Angeles entertainment business. After digesting the news, he adds, "It's very wise he's going incognito."
The song is AMERICAN HEART...Below, an excerpt of the lyrics of Jon David's tea-party anthem. Click here to listen to the song. (Or HERE at geeeeZ, where I posted the song almost a year ago) Here's just a part of the beautiful patriotic lyrics:
They say
Our reputation
Needs a new coat of paint and a delicate melody
But I say
I like the bruises
And a melody don't mean a thing If we don't have the strength to sing
The linked article from the Wall St Journal ends with "Less clear is what his Hollywood career holds. After Mr. Afanasieff, the record producer, heard the news about his friend, he sent Mr. Kahn a text message: "Tea Party? Really?" Really, Mr. Afanasieff... It's real alright. A few celebs are finally feeling they have to 'come out'..........I'd have thought liberal Hollywood would be liberal enough to embrace all points of view!? (no, I'm just kidding; wishful thinking)
We bloggers all have to have the 'strength to sing'...Get the real news out, write, comment, care........and pray Jonathan Kahn's career isn't hurt too terribly much now that he's had the guts to come out, huh? Thanks.z
40 comments:
Off topic but --- free shots at Ducky today.
"Single Bullet" lost in Pa. and its just a joy to think of the door hitting him in the arse. Fire away.
"Jon came back from one rally with a picture of him with Palin and my wife flat out refused to look at it," he says. "She ran into the other room."
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Probably thought he was having an affair.
What? Did'ja even read the post?
The hypocrisy of the left is unbelievable. Stoking their own egos about being so tolerant and accepting all the while being intolerant, vengeful jerks to anyone who doesn't agree with their POV.
I hope Jon has a long and prosperous career. Courage should be rewarded.
The hypocrisy of the left.
Some guy writes a song that isn't even mediocre and his wife gets steamed that he's hanging out with Baggers. Sounds like family business.
Meanwhile Hollywood can go back to peddling Justin Bieber tunes or is he a Stalinist.
Stick a fork in this culture.
Ducky, sorry you didn't get it again, but I have such a hard time feeling you REALLY don't get it?? REALLY?
The HYPOCRISY is a guy who has to hide behind a hat and dark glasses for more than a year because he's a mainstream Hollywood writer who won't get hired again in the BIG "open minded" LIberal world you're a part of.
It doesn't bother you that 'art' like 'Piss Christ' is championed in your world and a guy singing about how he feels about America is a threat to your world and needs to be cut down somehow? WOW.
What bothers me , , is right wingers who have such a minimal sense of what is happening in art that they can only bring up Serrano. Right wingers who just want to whine and complain apparently.
I'm not sure why you take such a tunnel vision. Your not someone like Beamish who is scared by art. But there has to be a reason.
Meanwhile, some guy pulls a stunt and gets some publicity and you are sufficiently intellectually dishonest to say this somehow defines an entire segment of the opposition.
Like I say, put a fork in this culture. It can't even hold a dialog without getting sidetracked by self promoting idiots like this guy.
Maybe it will interest you, z, maybe not. There is a voice to have Cannes shut down this year in response to Jafar Panahi's imprisonment in Iran.
Now, this is what happens when an artist takes it to the wall in comparison to you publicity seeking whiner.
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Latest declaration of Jafar Panahi since the beginning of his hunger strike.
I hereby declare that I have been subject to ill treatment in Evin prison.
On Saturday May 15, 2010, prison guards suddenly entered our cell, n° 56. They took us away, my cell mates and I, made us strip and kept us in the cold for an hour and a half.
Sunday morning, they brought me to the interrogation room and accused me of having filmed the interior of my cell, which is completely untrue. Then they threatened to imprison my entire family at Evin and to mistreat my daughter in an unsafe prison in the city of Rejayi Shahr.
I have eaten and drunk nothing since Sunday morning, and I declare that if my wishes are not respected, I will continue to abstain from drinking and eating. I do not want to be a rat in a laboratory, victim of their sick games, threatened and psychologically tortured.
My wishes are :
- The possibility to contact and see my family, and the complete assurance that they are safe.
- The right to retain and communicate with an attorney, after 77 days of imprisonment.
- Unconditional liberty until the day of my judgment and the final verdict
- Finally, I swear upon what I believe in, the cinema : I will not cease my hunger strike until my wishes are satisfied.
My final wish is that my remains be returned to my family, so that they may bury me in the place they choose.
Source : Centre culturel Pouya, Tuesday, May 18, 2010, Cannes
Ducky, how is this about ART?
PLEASE READ MY POST. This is about hypocrisy...this is about a guy who still loves this country and sings about it and he has to worry about continuing to work in Hollywood.
I have a very close friend who knows Jon David and while I hesitate to say anything more on this, I'll just say this post is exactly the way it is and I'd have thought anybody, even liberals, would understand that there's something very wrong in a country whose people can't sing about love of country and expect to survive in their business.
YOu honestly HONESTLY don't understand that?
What "stunt" are you alluding to? Patriotism is a "stunt"? His jeopardizing his family's income for what he believes in is a "stunt"? Do you think he's getting rich off this song? :-) Some "self promoting guy", Ducky...
Ducky, you say "Maybe it will interest you, z, maybe not. There is a voice to have Cannes shut down this year in response to Jafar Panahi's imprisonment in Iran.
Now, this is what happens when an artist takes it to the wall in comparison to you publicity seeking whiner."
Why in the HELL would you compare Jon David to this guy? Jon David's just trying to sing about his country without losing WORK! Holy SMOKE...what's your connection?
So dramatic...OH, my gosh, a man is suffering "Let's not have Cannes this year"
You liberals crack me up. What about DARFUR, DUCKY? How's about the awful suffering in ZIMBABWE?
But, let some Iranian be stripped and cold for 1 1/2 hours and write his very dramatic last will and testament, and CANNES IS IN A FURY?
WOW
Ducky noone can know it all in the Art. You barely understand economics principles. Or at least you don't question the brainwashing you underwent. So you're as ignorant as anyone else. I am ignorant about the arts myself.
And you may know about the arts but your blog photo makes me believe you have terrible taste. Unless it's threatening, fascistic arts that you like. That would be in line with the democratic socialist aesthetics of Eastern Germany or even some communist cities in France (Villeurbanne city hall).
FrogBurger, actually, my post has NOTHING TO DO WITH ART, really, and, funny you should mention that, EVERYTHING to do with the old attitudes and actions of EAST GERMANY!
Because, z, John David is just a shameless self promoter while there are artists who are really risking it for self expression.
"This guy" is a superb director who has had the guts to put it on the line in comparison to your whining little self promoter.
John David is a media joke, nothing more. The idea that you think this little stunt is going to cost him work is risible. Panahi on the other hand ... this may cost him his family or even his life.
The Iranian government is also trying to pressure Cannes over Kiarostami's film which is in competition. This ain't Hollywood, these are brave men playing for real stakes, not some clown trying to use the Baggers for a little publicity.
Ducky, this is stunning...
Remind me again why Darfur and Zimbabwe don't count with your elitist film makers...
And why you'd insult an American for singing about his country expecting nothing but to keep his JOB?
Well, z, I'm not sure there is much that can be done about Darfur or Zimbabwe (although the situation in the latter is somewhat better these days) and at any rate they surely haven't suffered like John David.
I bring up Panahi because you present David as someone who may be suffering political persecution and I wanted to give an example of an artist who is suffering real political persecution.
Happens a lot. Muslim painters in India have been the target of Hindus recently. But they only got hospitalized. Nothing like the suffering of John David.
I'd like to think art and culture still have some power in this world but that idea is fading. So you can see there is a direct link between my post and your article. The only issue is that I don't agree with your interpretation so I am somehow "wrong" and didn't read the story of this noble martyr, John David, closely enough.
Ducky, I'd never even suggest this guy's a 'martyr', maybe that's the difference between you and me. DRAMA!
And I'd laugh if Cannes shuts down for one dissenter....and I'll bet they wouldn't if they got a gut-wrenching letter from a poor man suffering in Mugabe's jails.
But, let it come from IRAN and OH, are they INTERESTED.
Jon David would laugh with your comparison, Ducky......anybody should.
And, I'll never stop believing that Americans have the right to say what they want and not risk persecution for standing up for this country.
No, z, you referred to Jafar Panahi as "this guy".
Panahi has a little more on his resume than John David. Considerably more.
My elitist film makers? Ah, now we're getting to it.
You don't think films are being made about events in Africa?
They won't get screened at the megaplex but they are being made, z. The liberal (LMFAO) Hollywood establishment is taking over the progress voice in film.
Really, z, you are a little far removed from this and trying to filter it through the eyes of an American consumer isn't going to work.
Now what actual price has John David paid for going along with his press agent's stunt. Specifics please.
Ducky, I have never considered you a crazy-maker....i've considered you dishonest, elitist and sometimes not paying attention ,but you have a problem with my calling him THIS GUY? I don't KNOW HIM....what do you prefer, THIS SAINT?
Who cares about resume? I am not the one who compared Jon David and his plight to YOUR GUY (oops..sorry, THE SAINTED ONE), remember?
I wish YOUR SAINT well.....nobody should suffer.
I wish Jon David many healthy years of trying to sing about a country he believes in and loves and for his job never to be taken away for having done so. That's all! This is not about anything but that.
I can't tell you specifics because I know too much and can't discuss it...
I'd have thought what I've said is way enough for anybody to understand. Let me know when you come up with his press agent's name, okay?...because he HAS NONE. Sorry.
As for films? I don't CARE. There are some foreign films I like, there hundreds of American films I HATE....
GOOD FOR YOUR GUY, DUCKY...okay? I'm done.
That's a great song. I saw that he was supposed to be on Fox, but I missed it. Are the full lyrics anywhere on the web? I'll do a search. I may get hubby's [hobby] band to do this song.
Debbie
Right Truth
http://www.righttruth.typepad.com
p.s. I see the lyrics are at Big Hollywood, thanks.
Debbie
It took courage and I hope his career will even be better than before. I am sure he is not the only Hollywood type that is incognito.
They are just too afraid to be ostracized by their peers.
Yes, Ducky. Let's get back to the days when Iran was hanging children for accusing their rapists and Bill Clinton was praising their government for being moderate.
Because really good films were coming out of Iran then.
What a putz you are.
Besides, like Theo Van Gogh, your Iranian "art martyr" probably brought Iran's ire upon himself, right?
"This is about hypocrisy...this is about a guy who still loves this country and sings about it,,"
Yep...the left loves art and it's usefulness as "freedom of expression" but not the artist who expresses that freedom. Hypocrisy? You bet...so long as they express THEIR narrow views...the artist will survive. But cross that line that has the artist at odds with his lockstep, narrow minded, elitist bark humping, tofu chomping, clean farting, nuts...he / she is toast.
The time is getter better and better to show these privileged weenie assholes we have their futures in our crosshairs. Personally....I haven't paid $10 to see their pusses at a theater in more than a few years. Course....I wasn't in the country much....but...I was doing other things. Like most dedicated service men and women....making sure these twerps can still say what they want.
Major
Z, Ducky's just pulling the old bait and switch. It's his specialty. An artist who is imprisoned has nothing to do with your post.
Maybe the little fowl doesn't want the real issue to come forth. That issue is, that the Hollywood crowd who abhors McCarthyism, is now in full practice of that very dynamic that they have abhored for decades.
It's called blacklisting.
I guess they only abhor it when it applied to communists or far left ideology. They appealed for tolerance. They cried for their Hollywood comrades, yet, let someone they don't agree with announce his patriotism and he worries his career in the movie business is over.
This is the hypocrisy. This is an unusual example of absolute power corrupting absolutely, but that's what it is. It's also a form of censorship.
"The Passion" would not have found it's way to the screen if it were up to the Hollywood movers and shakers. It ended up making six hundred million dollars, because Gibson so believed in it and funded it himself.
Now, before Ducky brings up Gibson's personal failings, I'm mentioning that here and now. That is not the issue, and I will discuss it no further.
If he mentions it, remember you heard it here first.
The issue is that the left cannot stomach patriotism, true faith, conservatism, or the military.
They're infantile, just like that sister-in-law of Mr. Kahn's who ran out of the room rather than see a photo of Sarah Palin.
They destroy careers, and cheat their audiences of anything wholesome and good which has to do with American values. Instead they produce mostly junk films which aren't worth the screens they're shown on.
For want of a more current name, I'll just put forward that McCarthyism is alive and well in Hollywood. It's just practiced now by the folks who say they abhor it.
Hypocrites, intolerant infantiles, and destroyers of careers before they're barely begun. That's the mainstay of Hollywood today, and that's the issue!
Pris
Pris said "For want of a more current name, I'll just put forward that McCarthyism is alive and well in Hollywood. It's just practiced now by the folks who say they abhor it."
BRAVO, well said.
Major..."Like most dedicated service men and women....making sure these twerps can still say what they want."...even while patriots are being insulted. THAT is a patriot :-)
(thanks again for your service)
It has everything to do with z's post, Pris.
She posts up some puff piece about some guy at a Bagger event who has supposedly been hounded by the nasty liberals in Hollywood. She however can post no evidence whatsoever that he has suffered at all. Nor can she demonstrate that this was anything but a publicity stunt.
I thought it would be interesting just to post something about artists who do suffer serious repercussions for speaking out in favor of freedom (i.e. human rights, not exactly your idea of freedom, Pris, but it will have to do). It puts the right wing whining in perspective.
Beamish, you do realize that the film industry in Iran has been a force that is very much pro democracy and pretty much hated by the regime.
Of course, if low functionals like yourself watched a few you may get a better idea of the culture.
Your choice. Although I don't thin you ar capable of thinking of a film as anything but some Hollywood special effects fest.
"The Passion" would not have found it's way to the screen if it were up to the Hollywood movers and shakers. It ended up making six hundred million dollars, because Gibson so believed in it and funded it himself.
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Neither would "The Last Temptation of Christ" which the right tried to censor but if you prefer Gibson's homoerotic sadomasochism then you have to resolve that yourself.
Now compare Gibson's and Scorcese's film. Did Gibson have any trouble booking screens? Did Scorcese?
Did Blockbuster refuse to carry Gibson's film due to left wing pressure? Did Blockbuster refuse to carry Scorcese's film due to right wing pressure?
Did noted antisemite Gibson's dust up with the ADL and Abe Foxman hurt his box office?
If you want to do some extra credit you might discuss why the only nation to emphasize Christ's physical suffering was Germany? Believe me it's a fascinating subject.
As for your "true" faith, Pris. Remember, faith is not a guarantee.
Still the Gidson film, all that sadomasochism and Gibson's constant theme that physical suffering is the only road to redemption. Doesn't sound very biblical to me but I try to give these things some thought.
Pitch till you win.
z, Panahi has been a very vocal champion of women's rights in Iran. You often ask why Muslims don't speak out. They do but you aren't listening.
If you ever get a chance to see "The Circle" you should give it a look. I have no idea why you would call it elitist unless you consider criticizing the Iranian regime to be elitist.
Anyway, "this guy" has put it on the line and unlike the self promoting joke, John David, may not work for a long time.
Happened with the Chinese 5th wave too and now they just do martial arts films with little exception. But they were probably elitist for criticizing the Chinese government.
It's a big world, z, and when it comes to political statements, Hollywood has nothing to say. Hasn't been political for a long time. An if you think John David isn't going to get a boost from this and be right back t producing pablum then your just blind.
"They destroy careers, and cheat their audiences of anything wholesome and good which has to do with American values."
That's not all they cheat on these "role models" for People, Us, We and O...fornicating ( with anything that moves ), wife swapping, pedophiles, drunks, drug addicts, sexual deviants, whores, prostitutes ( Thanks Tiger ) frolicking loons that obey no laws...pay homage to no morals...who support nothing but hedonism, narcissism, self indulgence and exemplify pleasure and privilege at any cost to society. Then they cry they're so "troubled, conflicted " and psychologically vulnerable to....the pressure they have to live under....scrutiny they call it!
An old Roman orgy of self pity, pleasure, drugs and perversion. Yet...our silly kids want to be like JLo, Lohan or Paris?!!
Oh..and Prisc...not to be picky...but I'm sure you meant "FOUL"...rather than fowl...when addressing the pro bagger ( know that we know what that is ) duckfart?
Major
Ducky,
It's because I do not subscribe to the laughably absurd notion that leftists are capable of rational thought that I can point to people like Salman Rushdie, Theo Van Gogh, Kurt Westergaard, and the children hung to death by the regime in Iran for accusing their rapists and notice that perhaps the "pro-democracy Iranian film industry" is a low priority for hatred from the Iranian regime.
Meanwhile we've got you going "bagger bagger bagger" like a good little Hollywood robot hoping against hope no one notices that you're an imbecile.
thank you, Lucy (or marion!), for someone not knowing what to say, you said something very nice...:-) Welcome, please keep commenting.
Ducky wants attention. It doesn't matter whether it's favorable attention or not. Any kind of attention will do.
Whenever anyone responds to his prickly, sarcastic little remarks, the recognition thrills and satisfies him.
This is probably a life that has too much time on its hands, too little responsibility and no real sense of purpose.
So, if you don't like Ducky, it would be better not to respond to him.
Responding to such a personality only gives it what it craves. It doesn't matter whether you damn him or praise him. Either way he gets the attention that tells him he's still alive.
Respond and you instantly become a player in HIS game.
Think about how your responses define you to outsiders, and you might react differently.
Anne Autseider
Anne, thanks, but I'll continue responding to Ducky as long as I'd like to. He and I've been blogging together for approx 12 years...there's a history...
and, I don't want an ECHO CHAMBER blog of all people who believe like I do. We get some great conversations going and I'm sorry if any of my responses have troubled you! :-)
But, thank you for your advice.
By the way, "Anne", why so shy? Go back to posting with your screen name, it's okay :-)
I have known the Kahn family since the early 1970's.
They were at my sister's wedding.
It does not surprize me that Jonathan had to go undercover.
Hollywood just assumes you are "one of "them" and, if you dare show your true colors, you're out of a job and banned forever. That's it. No going back ever.
I know, I have lived it first hand.
It is brutal with that crowd and
Jonathan is going to have a very rough ride now. His folks will try to protect him, and help him when no more work comes his way, but even they can only do so much.
His best chance now is to be taken in by the Republican/tea party crowd, in a big way.
It did my heart good to read the true confession by a big time Hollywood type about the ways of the Hollywood "club".
It is the same way in all The Arts. No room for the republican or conservative----- period.
You are either with them or they hate you, and I do mean hate, even if they pretend, and say things like " He's a nice guy, just misguided."
In their hearts there is zero room for another point of view.
He will have to find a new "club"
to join.
Good luck Jonathan! Hang in there!
Matisse
Matisse, a friend of mine's a close friend of his mom's...so I've heard more than I can say here..
I wish YOU could tell your story here under the anonymity of my blog...what you've gone through as someone in the arts...the comments you've heard when people didn't know your politics. Think about it! I'd love to publish it, and it shouldn't be long, just tell us some of what you've gone through...anonymously.
it's like Nazi Germany, when you think of it...and the left STILL slams Joseph McCarthy? Hilarious.
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