Have you ever had one of those moments when you’re watching TV but only really half paying attention? Well tonight during American Idol during a commercial break I was chatting with my roommate when an ad for Target came on. Normally I ignore or fast forward through the ads but this one caught my ear. Playing in the back ground was a phenomenal cover of “Hello, Goodbye” by The Beatles. The original version of the song is great but this cover version blew my mind. It’s really, really good and the singer has a great voice, and well anytime you can find a way to get a vibraphone into the mix it’s all good. I searched on iTunes for the song but came up empty. However the artist’s name is Sophia Shorai. I’ve never heard of her, but based on the cover of that song, I’d like to hear more. Anyhow here’s the commerical courtesy of YouTube:
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I have seen the much talked about movie Pan’s Labyrinth and I must say that it was not what I was expecting. It in fact was much, much better. I was aware that the movie was in Spanish, and I had been told that it was spectacular. Hell, it has a 96% rating on Rottintomatoes.com. The highest praise I can give this movie is that it exceeded all expectations to the point where all the hype I’ve heard was nothing compared to actually seeing this film. It is, quite simply, stunning.
I’m familiar with some of Guillermo Del Toro’s other works, namely Blade II and Hellboy. In both it is plain to see that he shows some real talent behind the camera. Blade II was no masterpiece, but it was visually interesting, and overall entertaining. Hellboy was the step up from that, where one can see that movie and know that the director cared for the film and enjoyed making it. Pan’s Labyrinth will come to be THE film associated with Guillermo Del Toro. It is up for several Oscars, including Best Foreign Language Film of the Year, and is the only fantasy movie to have that honor. He has taken his visually appealing style and combined it with a masterful screenplay (also written by Del Toro) and crafted one of the best movies I’ve seen.
The basic plot of the movie is that Ofelia and her mother leave their home to join her mother’s new husbad, a captain in the facist army during World War II. While there she stumbles across a labyrinth, where she meets Pan (descriptive title isn’t it?). Pan tells her she is the long lost daughter of the King of the Underworld (not hell or anything like that). To prove that she is worthy, she must perform three tasks. That’s the basic plot, and it seems pretty simple. There’s much more going on that I don’t want to spoil.
The actors do an amazing job of creating their characters. Even the Captain has more going on in his eyes that shows you he isn’t just a murderer. The standout performance easily goes to young Ivana Baquero, who plays Ofelia. She’s only 12 years old and does a much better job at conveying emotion and creating a believable character than most actors in Hollywood. This is a good thing considering she more or less carries the movie.
While the rest of the movie is terrific, the real highlights of the film are the look and the tone. There is very little happiness in this movie, and the lack of bright colors and dreary setting match perfectly. This also helps to contrast the fantasy set pieces peppered throughout, where things have a bit more color, but not Lord of the Rings bright. However, at times this movie can be as brutal as it is beautiful. There are scenes of intense violence that, while not at Sin City level of being over-the-top, are just as vicious. I may be desensitized to violence, but seeing a man’s cheek sliced open even makes ME cringe. It isn’t excessive though, and is actually used sparingly.
The movie is rated R for “graphic violence and some language.” Graphic violence it has, no question. The language I’ll have to take their word for it seeing as how my Spanish is limited to Hola, Adios, counting, and El Burro. I will also say there is a bit of disturbing imagery along with the violence, particularly in the Pale Man character (played by Doug Jones, who also plays Pan). For those who haven’t seen it, picture an emaciated, pale man with skin hanging off the bone. He has no nose, but two holes in the middle of his head for nostrils, and he has no eyes, nor sockets to keep them. Instead, he puts eyeballs into the palms of his hands and uses those to see. Pretty freaky.
I’m going to steal a well-known rating system for judging this movie and give it four stars (****). I’ll even go one better and say it has the highest recommendation I can give a film. It ranks right up there with the greats, in my opinion. It’s not for everyone, but if you want to see something orignal, emotional, and beautiful, do yourself a favor and see this movie.
This guy’s crazy good at beatboxing and looping. Apparently his name is Reggie Watts, and he’s scary multi-talented. And yes, that does appear to be a Line6 DL4 Delay Modeler…
Apparently this is Mr. T Week at PCWEI. On Saturday we had him rapping to kids. Now we’ve got him pimping data virtualization controllers for Hitachi. Yep. You read that right. I know, I know. When you think Mr. T, you may think of The A-Team, or Rocky III, or his kick-ass cartoon. But Hitachi apparently sees him as The T in IT. This little video is very, very strange. But oddly funny.
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Well, a Jack Bauer figure at least. McFarlane Toys is releasing a line of 24 figures in August. Apparently Keifer was given a prototype of one of the figures, and he decided to take it out partying. The 24 Blog has the full story. Watch out Keifer, Jack’s not going to like this. YOU’RE GOING TO HAVE TO TRUST ME ON THIS.
Is there anything this guy can’t do?
And of course, “Foggy Mountain Breakdown”:
This video has been making the rounds for a while, but it’s interesting nonetheless. It explains how “The Amen Break” sample (from The Winston’s “Amen Brother”) has been a key piece of music from gansta rap (N.W.A.’s “Straight Outta Compton”) to virtually all jungle and drum & bass music.
It’s kind of long (18 minutes), but it’s very thorough, so true music geeks will get a kick out of it.
I’m not sure why celebrities think they can rap, but at least hilarity usually ensues. This is everyone’s favorite 80s badass Mr T letting kids know moms are cool.
A few observations:
- Yikes T, are those cutoff jean shorts tight enough? We can almost see Little T.
- Nice backup dancers. Are they the actual moms from the video?
- “When you put down one mother, you put down mothers all over the world.” Um…what? Not following the logic there T. If I say “your mamma’s so fat when I get off her my ears pop”, I’m talking about YOUR mamma, and your mamma only.
- Why do people tell kids to “be somebody”? Isn’t that really only half of it? Shouldn’t it be “be somebody good“? Because Charles Manson was somebody. And Josef Stalin was somebody. And Carrot Top is somebody. But that’s not who we want our kids to be, is it?
I pity the fool who takes T’s advice.
Here’s yet another trailer remix. This one turns the American version of The Office (the funniest show on television…) into a slasher flick. Nicely done!
I think everyone is pretty much familiar with the “Chuck Norris Facts” floating around the net (Chuck Norris sleeps with a nightlight. Not because Chuck Norris is afraid of the dark, but because the dark is afraid of Chuck Norris.). Well, Chuck is in trouble, because here comes Jack Bauer! Time for some Jack Bauer facts!
Top 5 personal favorites:
-Life doesn’t give Jack Bauer lemons. Life asks him which fruit he wants.
-The city of Los Angeles once named a street after Jack Bauer in gratitude for his saving the city several times. They had to rename it after people kept dying when they tried to cross the street. No one crosses Jack Bauer and lives.
-When asked what he got on his S.A.T’s, Jack Bauer promptly responded “Blood.”
-Some people see the glass as half full. Others see it as half empty. Jack Bauer see the glass as a deadly weapon.
and finally…
-It’s no use crying over spilt milk… Unless that was Jack Bauer’s milk. Oh you are so screwed.
Did you hear that? I think Chuck Norris just wet himself.
CityRag has taken Guitar World’s “100 Greatest Guitar Solos” and tracked down videos for the top 20. Nice job!
So this might be a couple years old, but what does age have to do with anything on the wonderful interweb? During an awards ceremony for George “I Like Jar Jar” Lucas, Captain James T. Kirk himself, William Shatner, “sings” like only Shatner can to Lucas. He’s even accompanied by a line of dancing Stormtroopers! Now, this is no Rocketman, but it’s pretty damn funny.
Rob Paravonian (the guy that did the rant about Pachelbel’s “Canon in D”) is back again. This time he points out how stupid the words to pop songs can be. Hysterical!
Check out this footage from a new Buick commercial where Tiger Woods tackles a guy trying to steal his clubs on the driving range. No stunt men. Tiger kicks ass!
Just a reminder that the deadline for submitting entries to the PCWEI Header Contest is January 31st. Time’s running out!
Details here.
Ah, GI Joe. One of the most enduring toys of my childhood. Other lines of toys came and went, but the Joes and Legos stayed interesting through them all. I had a metric shitload of Joes and Joe-related-paraphernalia, and I loved every bit of it. Looking back on it though, some of it was really, really lame. So let’s count it down:
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Warning: There are definitely spoilers here. If you’re not caught up, don’t read on.
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In this clip Andy Griffith explain to Opie the concepts of due process and the sanctity of privacy. Hmmm…a law enforcement officer telling someone that the law needs to get information without violating privacy…CRAZY! Andy Griffith, you’re my hero.
via BoingBoing
On January 22nd, 1984, during Super Bowl XVIII, Apple’s iconic 1984 commercial aired for it’s only time. (Ok, so that’s not strictly true. It showed one other time, on a station in Twin Falls, ID, but I’m pretty sure nobody was watching). The commercial uses themes from George Orwell’s classic dystopian novel 1984 to portray IBM as Big Brother, wanting to control information and how you use it. In stark contrast to that, Apple was trying to set information free, to let you use it however you want. Definitely a noble cause.
That’s a lot of jug handles: Link
If you’re a football fan you’ve probably seen UPS‘ latest ad campaign (the ones with the guy writing on the whiteboard). What you may not have noticed is the music in the ads. It’s called “Such Great Heights“, and it’s by a band called The Postal Service. That’s right, UPS is using music from a band called The Postal Service in their ads. You’re probably thinking “Who are the ad wizards who came up with this one?” Turns out it’s the Richmond, VA-based Martin Agency, who’s done work not only for UPS, but also Coca-Cola, GEICO, and NASCAR.
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So sometimes when you see a cartoon as an adult you see things you didn’t see as a kid. Example: This clip from GoBots (the broke-ass knock off of Transformers):
In the same vein as the live Super Mario Bros. performance, here’s a bunch of folks acting out Mike Tyson’s Punch Out:
I love the details here. Especially the training between fights (complete with the Statue of Liberty). And Mario as the referee. Well Done!
Through the magic of YouTube I bring you new-skool pop mavens The Decemberists performing a cover of old-skool pop mavens ELO’s “Mr Blue Sky” live at a concert:
“Mr Blue Sky” (or Señor Cielo Azul in Spanish) was originally released in 1977 as the closing track of the “Concerto For A Rainy Day” side of Out of the Blue (it served as the sun coming out at the end of the rainy day). Read the rest of this entry »
NBC has announced that it has picked up hit series Heroes for a second season. SciFi.com has the full story.
Though I was skeptical at the beginning, Heroes has turned out to be a pretty good show. The writers do an excellent job of weaving together the stories of the 15 or so major characters. With that many characters it would be easy to occasionally lost track of some of them (I’m talking to you Lost…), but so far Heroes has avoided it. If they can keep that up the show should have a bright future.
Better. Stronger. Faster. We have the technology.
On January 19th, 1974 ABC aired the premier of The Six Million Dollar Man. The show centers around a test pilot named Steve Austin who is involved in a horrific crash, but is pieced back together by scientists to be stronger and faster than he was before, and make really cool noises when he did anything. Somehow he moved in slow motion too. Kick Ass!
Here’s the intro from the show, which really gives you all the information you need.
Fun trivia about The Six Million Dollar Man:
- In today’s dollars he would have cost over $20 million.
- In Caddyshack, Chevy Chase’s character Ty Webb makes the bionic noise when he’s putting blindfolded
- Star Lee Majors went on to star in The Fall Guy, where he sang the theme song: Fall Guy Theme
Note: Also on this day in history, Washington, DC mayor Marion “Goddam bitch set me up” Barry was arrested for drug possession (ok, that makes it sound pretty tame. Let’s face it. He was smoking crack with a hooker). You may remember that he served 6 months in prison, then got out and was RE-ELECTED. Only in DC man. Trust me, if I could find the video of him getting busted this would have been the story. But sadly YouTube, Google Video, and the internets in general let me down.
NewTeeVee has scoured YouTube and found a few old NFL rap videos. I can’t even imagine the media firestorm if a team tried to do this today. But watching these really takes me back to my childhood.
I’m not a big fan of awards shows. But Sacha Baron Cohen’s speech is hysterical!
I love it anytime something like this gets on network tv. Though I’m sure some wacko will write a letter and get NBC fined.
In honor of tonight’s premier of American Idol here’s Paula Abdul straight up drunk in an interview. Anyone who’s seen the show recently won’t be surprised by this, but it’s hysterical nonetheless. Wow.
Follow up: Apparently Fox is claiming that her behavior was a result of technical difficulties. Technical difficulties? I think the only difficulty she has is putting down the bottle.
So 24’s back, and even though we’re only 4 hours in there are a lot of questions to be answered. Here are my top 10.
Warning: If you’re going to watch the first four hours through the magic of Tivo there may be spoilers ahead. If you’ve already seen them you’re safe
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I think Col. Kurtz said it best with “The horror. The horror”. Here’s Celine Dion (with help from ShakiraAnastacia), covering AC/DC’s “You Shook Me All Night Long”. I love how she tries to copy Angus‘ duck walk. She a badass! Now if you’ll excuse me I need to jab a pen in my ear…
I wish I had found this before Christmas, but funny enough to post now anyway. Someone mixed audio from Full Metal Jacket with video from Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. It’s a little scary how well this works.
On January 13th, 1968 Johnny Cash gave a legendary concert at Folsom Prison in Folsom, California. Today is the 39th anniversary that concert, which gave rise to arguably Cash’s greatest album, At Folsom Prison. Normally a 39th anniversary isn’t worth talking about, but I take any opportunity to talk about Johnny Cash in general, and At Folsom Prison specifically.
It’s no secret that I love the whole recut trailer genre. First there was The Shining as a father-son relationship story. They Scary Mary, Mary Poppins recut as a horror movie. Now Dumb & Dumber gets the same treatment:
Don’t you wish car commercials would just come out and say this?
Uber-pop mavens The Apples in Stereo have released the video for their little nugget of pop perfection “Energy”. The video’s directed by Elijah Wood (yes, Frodo himself), which kind of makes sense since The Apples’ new album New Magnetic Wonder will be released by Wood’s record company, Yep Roc, on Feb 6th.
Link to the video at MTV Overdrive (but beware: there is definitely a “More Cowbell” moment in here…)
This juicy parody of School House Rock points out some, um, issues, with the state of the media in the US. It originally aired on SNL, but NBC has censored it from subsequent broadcasts. Lolly lolly lolly get your satire here…
I laughed hysterically at this, but I’m really not sure why. It’s Yoda and JarJar doing the classic Abbott & Costello routine “Who’s On First?”. I guess it’s just so absurd you have to laugh. Gotta love YouTube!
I have a feeling this would make Rain Man’s head explode…To make him feel better, here’s the original:
Just a quick reminder about the PCWEI Header Contest. Submissions are due Jan 31st. Full details here.
So someone had a genius idea to distill Pulp Fiction down to just the pieces that have the word “fuck” in them (or variations such as “motherfucker”, “fucking”, and “fuckers”). This leaves 2 minutes and 7 seconds of fucky goodness. A veritable orgy of profanity. Fan-fucking-tastic!
via FilmStack
BONUS:
Here’s the same fucking concept, but applied to The Big Lebowski:
BootieUSA has posted their annual Best Of collection for 2006. It includes tracks by well known mashers such as A plus D, Party Ben, and The Kleptones. MashupTown also has some info on the monthly Bootie Parties that the Bootie folks hold.
Via BoingBoing
Can’t…Stop…Listening…To…This…Song…
From their upcoming album New Magnetic Wonder.
Thanks to You Ain’t No Picasso for opening my eyes.
There are three types of people in the world: people who have never heard Tom Waits, people who think he’s a genius, and people who don’t get him. I’m a recent convert from 3 to 2. And to celebrate my enlightenment, here he is on Letterman performing “Chocolate Jesus”:
No idea what the backstory is. I just know that if these guys were on The Wire they would have gotten the bats a long time ago.
Props to Crazy Joe for the tip
The venerable 80s TV show Growing Pains is coming to Nickelodeon’s Nick at Nite, starting January 21st. This is good because if there’s one thing Nickelodeon needs it’s more Boner…
Iwao Takamoto, creator of Scooby Doo and other characters for Hanna-Barbera, died of a heart attack Monday. He was 81.
Takamoto was responsible for bringing Scooby, Shaggy, Fred, Vilma, and Daphne to life (and presumably many old bankers who would have gotten away with it if it weren’t for those meddling kids…) while working for Hanna-Barbera in the late 60s. He also created characters for other Hanna-Barbera shows, including Mutley from Wacky Races and Astro from The Jetsons (hmm…I’m beginning to see a theme here…)
Perhaps his oddest creation was for Hanna-Barbera’s smash hit The Flintstones: The Great Gazoo. Gazoo was an alien who had been banished from his home planet for creating a weapon to destroy the universe. He was visible only to Fred, Barney and children, because they were the only ones that believed in him. He could fly and apparently teleport. Pretty plausible, right? Gazoo was part of Hanna-Barbera’s last ditch effort to keep The Flintstones on the air, and he failed.
Takamoto’s death comes exactly three weeks after the death of his old boss, Joseph Barbera.
NewTeeVee is reporting that the first four episodes of 24 season 6 are available as torrents!!! w00t! That means you can now get the 1337357 show on TV on teh intrawebs before it’s aired. Season 6 is set to premiere Sunday on Fox.
This is a deeply twisted but absolutely hysterical video. It’s a Tickle Me Elmo (or more specifically a TMX) on fire. What makes it twisted is Elmo’s thrashing around and his pleas to “Stop it, stop!” What makes it hysterical is that it’s Elmo, on fire.
via BoingBoing
Is it just me or were toys definitely cooler in the 80s? And I don’t think many people will argue that Optimus Prime wasn’t the coolest toy from the coolest line of toys of the 80s, The Transformers. Watch this commercial and I guarantee if you’re a male around the age of 30 you’ll be singing along with the song. Transformers! More than meets the eye.
Pastafarians, college students, and South Koreans are in mourning following the death of Momofuku Ando, inventor of instant ramen noodles, and founder of the Nissin Food Products Co.
The ubiquitous ramen noodles are more than a food. They are a touchstone of our culture, providing a link between people all over the world, sparking books, movies, and music.
For these reasons I think we should nominate Ando for a Nobel Prize in Cheap Food. Who’s with me? I mean, Norman Borlaug got the Nobel Peace Prize in 1970 just for growing rice and saving a billion people. Ando created ramen noodles which are much tastier than rice. Plus 44.3 billion packs were sold in China alone in 2005. There’s scientific proof that Ando is at least 44.3 times more deserving of a Nobel Prize.
The Good Shepherd is a rare breed of movie: a spy movie with no action. Unlike Matt Damon’s previous ventures into the world of intelligence and counter-intelligence, (the excellent Bourne Identity and Bourne Supremecy), this spy movie focuses on the man behind the spies. Where he came from. What motivates him. The struggles he goes through and sacrifices he makes to protect his country.
The failed Bay of Pigs invasion provides the centerpiece for a fractured narrative, jumping back and forth between flashbacks and current day. Damon plays Edward Wilson, a semi-fictional CIA agent responsible for the agency’s counter-intelligence. He comes from a notable New England family, attends Yale, makes the right connections, and works his way through the intelligence community’s ranks. He plans the Bay of Pigs operation and is responsible for finding out why it failed. Along the way he faces difficult personal and professional choices and stoically faces them all. Damon’s portrayal of Wilson is exquisitely subtle. He brings the character’s stoicism and devotion to his country to life largely through things he does not say, movements he does not make. His performance is a clinic in minimalist acting.
Director Robert DeNiro made this movie brilliantly compelling. He and cinematographer Robert Richardson do an excellent job capturing the contrast between the cloak and dagger world of the spy game and the suburban normality of Wilson’s home life. DeNiro masterfully doles out almost enough information to definitively conclude why events happen and what characters’ motivations are. He wastes no time jumping into the spy world, with it’s unique cryptic language and veiled agendas. He introduces characters without explicitly revealing who they are or how they fit the plot. He does not coddle the viewer or slow down to explain things. Rather he expects you to pay attention if you want to keep up. This makes the 160 minute movie move along at a quick pace, never seeming dull.
In the end, I feel like I missed some things, but that only makes me want to go back and revisit it. I highly recommend this movie, but only if you enjoy movies that challenge you. If you watch The Good Shepherd passively I would have to imagine it’s terribly boring. If you make the effort however, you will be greatly rewarded.
Rating: 
They just don’t make commercials like this one anymore. It’s a Toys R Us commercial from 1985-ish has all the things we love about 80s commercials: cheesy voice over, bad acting, and even worse special effects. But it does bring a little tear of nostalgia to my eye. Check it out:
If you’re anything like me it drives you crazy when you hear a song on a TV show and you can’t figure out what it is. Apparently we’re not alone. TuneFind is a site dedicated to helping folks like us. They have a list of popular shows and the songs that appeared in each episode. The site relies mainly on users to identify and contribute the songs, but that’s one of the great things about the internet. Somewhere out there is a Massive Attack fan that also watches House.