Pop Culture Will Eat Itself » Flashback

Today in Music History: RIP Stevie Ray Vaughan

Sean — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 03:03:57 +0000

On this day, 19 years ago, two things happened. First, I turned 14. Not a big deal, really. The second thing is more important. Just after midnight on August 27th, 1990, the helicopter carrying Stevie Ray Vaughan crashed into a hill, ending the legendary blues man’s reign as greatest living guitarist. Fortunately for us he left his music behind. So let’s take a few minutes and pay tribute to the king of Texas blues, and my favorite guitar player of all time.

“Rude Mood”, unplugged, on an effing 12-string

“Texas Flood” (technically a Lenny Davis cover, but it’s one of Stevie’s signature tunes)

“Little Wing” (Jimi Hendrix cover)

“Superstition” (Stevie Wonder cover)

Happy Birthday Dr. Seuss!

Sean — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 03:49:37 +0000

In a perfect world today would have been Theodor Geisel’s 105 birthday. Unfortunately this imperfect world has to find a way to muddle through without his shining presence, since he died in 1991. Fortunately he left behind enough works to keep us stocked up on magic and wonder for years to come. Let’s take this opportunity to take a look back at some of my favorite Seuss works.

“You’re a Mean One Mr. Grinch” – It’s become an integral part of Christmas. In addition to being a heartwarming anti-consumerist tale, it’s also a catchy as hell song:

“The Sneetches” – A commentary on racism, classism, and the inevitable unhappiness associated with chasing fads, wrapped in a kids story. The message in The Sneetches is just as relevant today as it was in 1961. It even serves as a warning against opportunistic hucksters waiting to pounce on people’s insecurities. That’s a lot of messages for a rhyming cartoon.

My personal favorite Suess story is Green Eggs and Ham. It’s a remarkable example of what you can make out of limited materials. If you don’t know the story, Seuss’ publisher bet him $50 he couldn’t write a whole story using only 50 unique words. So he did. There are exactly 50 different words in Green Eggs and Ham, and 49 of them are one syllable. The repetition this creates, along with the rhythm of the monosyllabic words gives the story a distinctive tone and sound. That distinctiveness lends itself to re-interpretation.

One example is some guy interpreting Bob Dylan interpreting Green Eggs and Ham

(from the now defunct DylanHearsAWho.com)

But the greatest example of an interpretation of Green Eggs and Ham is Jesse Jackson’s reading on Saturday Night Live, shortly after Seuss’ death:

Jesse Jackson reads Green Eggs and Ham

“Green Egg and Ham”

Apatow Crew Making New Muppets Movie

Sean — Fri, 21 Mar 2008 02:39:49 +0000

This guy is directing a
Muppet movie…

The motley crew that revolves around Judd Apatow is set to take on their next challenge: a new Muppet movie. Jason Segal, who played one of Seth Rogan’s friends in Apatow’s Knocked Up, and is the lead in the upcoming Forgetting Sarah Marshall, is set to direct a new episode in the Muppets canon.

Segal promises that the movie will be closer to The Muppet Movie and The Great Muppet Caper than Muppets in The Old West or Muppets from Space. He plans to bring back the Muppet tradition of lots of cameos, with Apatow regulars Seth Rogan, Jonah Hill, and Paul Rudd already on board. No estimate on a release date yet, as Segal has another project ahead of it on his schedule.

Via MTV

Will Arnett Replaced as KITT

Sean — Fri, 08 Feb 2008 03:42:49 +0000

File under “BOOOOOOOOO”….

Apparently the fact that Will Arnett does commercials for GM means he can’t be the voice of the new Mustang-powered KITT. Arnett bowed out of the role citing a conflict of interest. So who replaces him? Iceman himself, Val Kilmer. I’m sure Kilmer will do a very professional job as KITT, but I was really looking forward to what the former Gob Bluth could bring.

This bad news of course comes on the heels of the news that an Arrested Development movie is in the works.

RIP Evel Knievel

Sean — Sat, 01 Dec 2007 04:10:41 +0000

Evel Knievel, the only daredevil to transcend sideshow spectacle and penetrate the national consciousness, has died at age 69. Probably best know for his spectacular successes and failure on Wide World of Sports, Knievel never failed to entertain. Check out some of his best and worst performances:

Vin Diesel Teaches You To Break Dance

Sean — Wed, 07 Nov 2007 03:27:10 +0000

First it was Alfonso Ribeiro. Now it’s Vin Diesel. Apparently break dancing videos were HUGE back in the day, because both of them made videos to teach you how to be the hippest of hoppers. Looking back on this it’s hard to believe anyone actually thought this was cool…

Happy Birthday Bob Ross!

Sean — Tue, 30 Oct 2007 03:26:13 +0000

“We don’t make mistakes here, we just have happy accidents. We want happy, happy paintings. If you want sad things, watch the news. Everything is possible here. This is your little universe.”

These are the immortal words of Bob Ross, the ultra-mellow painter whose happy little trees and puffy little clouds actually made PBS fun to watch. Bob died in 1995, but if he was alive today would have been his 65th birthday. Many people retire at 65, but something tells me Bob would have kept on painting, and kept on encouraging others to do the same.

If you want to celebrate Bob’s birthday you can:

check out Bob’s biography
learn how paint like Bob (in Photoshop at least)
take a quiz about Bob on his official site
Listen to Patton Oswalt’s take on him (Patton and I are from Sterling, VA, where Bob’s offices were!)
Patton Oswalt - The Magic Of Oil Painting
read Bob’s obituary from the NY Times

Or check out a full episode of his show, The Joy of Painting:

Full-Sized Transformer

Sean — Wed, 17 Oct 2007 02:12:50 +0000

Three Chinese dudes who have too much time on their hands have paid homage to Michael Bay’s uber-craptacular film adaptation of Transformers by building a full-sized Citroen Transformer. It doesn’t actually transform or anything, and it cost $8,000 to build. So really it’s just a statue. Bo-ring! Call me when it transforms…

More photos and info at Weird Asian News

UPDATE: There’s another one in West Hollywood

Run DMC on Reading Rainbow

Sean — Wed, 03 Oct 2007 03:01:44 +0000

Remember Reading Rainbow? It was the show where LeVar Burton tried to convince you to read, WHILE YOU WERE WATCHING TV. Yeah, not a great concept. But this clip is great. It’s rap pioneers Run DMC on the show, rapping for reading:

Via BoingBoing

American Gladiators Coming To NBC

Sean — Fri, 24 Aug 2007 03:21:06 +0000

NBC is bringing the 90′s classic American Gladiators back to TV. The network has picked it up for at least six episodes, starting in the middle of the TV season. The show will be the same basic format as the original, but with updated events.

I for one think this kicks ass. I caught a couple of the original episodes on ESPN Classic a while back and I was amazed how much fun the show was, even though it’s been almost 20 years since it debuted. It really took me back to my childhood.

Variety has the full scoop