The zeroeth episode of the new series "An Idiot Abroad" starring Karl Pilkington has been posted online. The show chronicles Karl Pilkington ("a shaved monkey") as he travels the globe and experiences the Seven Wonders of the World.
Sorry for the screen width cut off, just double click to watch it on youtube. Warning: NSFW.
Apparently filming a propeller with a certain type of cell phone yields this kind of stroboscopic effect:
Conan announces the title of his new show (premiering Nov. 8th):
Jimmy Fallon does 10 second impressions (watching his show, it's struck me how many various impressions he does (not just comedians) yet you never think of him as an impressionist):
Note to self: never get Sharon Osbourne to count 10 seconds. She doesn't factor in pauses for audience applause. It's not an everyday problem though probably. On the plus side, his Steven Wright joke is such a perfect Steven Wright joke. Though he probably wrote it beforehand.
Probably my favorite moment in the classic "This is Spinal Tap" (or one of my favorite moments) is when we see a showcase of one of Nigel's guitar solos:
His playing of two guitars at the same time and then the playing of the guitar with the violin exemplifies everything that it could.
It's attacking the pompous AND the mindless, the "rock as art" AND the "rock as throwaway" all at once. It speaks to ambition and ego and, in short, it's an exact mockery of the entire ROCK AND ROLL mindset (note: that's "rock and roll" in caps).
And by the way my favorite moment in particular is when Nigel suddenly notices the violin isn't quite in tune to his liking and has to fix it.
[As an aside, I have to believe, though there is no proof, that the violin is picked as a reference to Jimmy Page who would sometimes play his guitar with a violin bow. If Jimmy Page can play a guitar with a bow, Nigel Tufnel can play a guitar with a violin.]
Having said that, and looking at how playing two instruments at the same time can be stupid, let's face it, playing two instruments at the same time is generally awesome. I'd love to play ONE instrument at all let alone be able to play multiple.
Which brings me to Johnny Greenwood (guitarist Radiohead) and a video I just rediscovered recently. Greenwood is an extraordinary musician. He's a man who can can play virtually any instrument (or any object that makes some sort of noise), he can compose and score music for orchestras and, of course, he can shread a mean guitar. In this particular live version of "Street Spirit [Fade Out]" he plays both the guitar and the keyboard. Beside the fact that this is impressive by definition, this isn't all that impressive: that is the song is quiet, ethereal and open, there isn't that "100 miles a second" playing on either instrument that turns it into "a feat". But towards the end of the song, the video shows something interesting: he's not just playing the keyboard AND the guitar, he's playing the keyboard WITH the guitar. Rock and Roll.
[Disclaimers: I regret the association between the two linked videos though I felt it unavoidable. I believe "This Is Spinal Tap" mocks everything bad about Rock 'n Roll while Radiohead represent all that is good. I also regret focusing so much on just the multi-instrumentalist portion of the video as it is a perfect rendition of a perfect song and I've probably distracted from it's pure beauty. I also wish to restate that the playing of guitar and piano in the displayed video doesn't represent any circus-trick level of musical prowess. I just think the idea is awesome in itself. In short, this whole post is a mistake and I can't find the delete buttonm. All rights reserved.]
If you think that communism is dead you better think again. Now they're trying to co-opt one of the free world's greatest weapons - the music of Michael Jackson - by claiming that they came up with "Beat It" 30 years earlier.
Watch the official government video made by the Chinese Communist Party and see for yourself.
More intensity. Oddly the Red China military uniform doesn't look that different from Michael's own arm-banded military look. It's also surprising how well the "tai chi" the main dude does go with the music. Actually there is no main dude, they are all equal.
In the MST3K episode "Space Mutiny", Mike and robot companions have a running gag throughout the movie where they give the musclehead protagonist various manly nicknames.
I thought it was so funny, I edited together all the names throughout the movie into a single montage so that I could share it with others. Others had the same idea and uploaded theirs to youtube before I could.
Hilarious. It still cracks me up. Receiving this link in an email today, I wanted to respond with the other time that the MST3K crew did this - the episode that fewer people know about... In the earlier episode "12 to the Moon", the exact same gag was utilized with the beefy male model protagonist of that picture. But, HOLD ON, somehow no video for THIS occurence existed on youtube.
Until now. I uploaded it myself. For the first time ever, I give you "The Many Names of John Anderson":
