9/02/10

Yeah, that's today's date. I'm celebrating by exuding the kind of "rebellious" attitude that the Walshes despise.

Miscellaneous Web Videos

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.

AT THE SAME TIME...

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.]

Beat It - The Communist Version

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.

The Many Names of John Anderson

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":

Maybe We Ain't That Young Anymore

Cemetery Junction (2010)

The first film from writers/directors Stephen Merchant and Ricky Gervais, "Cemetery Junction" has been eagerly anticipated by me for a few years.

Set in England in the 1970's it's a slightly different type of "coming of age" film in which the characters are in their early to mid 20's and not teenagers. Drinking, getting into fights and still living in their home town, they suddenly realize that they're not young anymore and it's time to do something with their lives.

For Merchant/Gervais it's a slight departure in that it's not a straight forward comedy but focuses rather on drama, romance and relationships. It's also, as was already mentioned, not a typical coming of age film as it borrows from "Rebel Without a Cause", "The Apartment" or possibly "Swingers" more so than, say, "The Breakfast Club" but also with some "Saturday Night Fever" thrown in (or so I'm told). It's also a departure as neither Ricky or Steve plays one of the main characters though Ricky has a bit part, Steve has a small cameo and there is even a (brief) appearance by Karl Pilkington.

It's quite a good movie and although it took a while to get into, by the end I was quite into the characters and story. The soundtrack is a big factor - the climax of the movie feature's Led Zeppelin's "The Rain Song" played over the film in its entirety. Ralph Fiennes is quite good as usual and Emma Watson ("Punch-Drunk Love", "Equilibrium", "Synecdoche, New York") gives another understated but excellent performance.

Although it's better than 99% of everything that comes out of Hollywood I can sort of see why it wasn't released in the US and I've had to wait for this long for it to come out on DVD. The thick British accents get to be quite hard to understand at times and I, yes even I, was reduced to turning on the closed captioning. Still, it's a non-issue if you're used to reading subtitles on the occasional foreign film.

It's a little bit unfair to how good the movie is and how much work and effort it took to make but the movie itself is a little overshadowed by the Director's Commentary which is one of the funniest DVD commentaries I've ever heard. As a Gervais/Merchant fan it's probably to be expected but they are hilarious in their ridiculous banter. The only funnier commentary that comes to mind is the "This Is Spinal Tap" commentary where the band all discuss the movie in-character but that's a high standard to reach.

All in all, a 9 out of 5.