A screen grab from CNN:
Will spend entire weekend in his room listening to New Found Glory and weepily texting his girlfriend.
It’s a shame the General isn’t in some sort of position to make changes to the way the military operates, it must really tear him up inside to feel so helpless.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=puYjGU27eo0]
Man, The Guess Who were a weird and fantastic band.
I don’t really enjoy the stadium style of BTO anymore – it certainly held a fascination for me when I was twelve – but Randy Bachman is one of the CBC’s greatest assets at the moment.
Er, while this began as a ridiculous Friday night music post, ten minutes of wikipedia has me thinking I may be returning to this topic. Is there a quality book on 1960s & ’70s Canadian rock music?
I’m not usually much for sports, but I do think that if the Colts beat the Saints tomorrow they’ll be boot stomped to death in the streets by the collective American Katrina-guilt.
This is basically an item for Daisy of Dead Air, but I happened to have the goods in question, (the lovely Jessica May, who may one day earn her own grammy, asked after it) – and who doesn’t love pictures of the new 1950s technology?
I caught Sarah Silverman on Letterman last night. I’m thinking this is about the greatest height her career can reach, and I’ll be glad when she slides away into obscurity.
The first time I saw the awkward-making she calls comedy I thought it was interesting – as a single bit. The truth is though, you can’t create a memorable multi-decade career with such one note material, ask Carrot Top or Gallagher or Yakoff Smirnoff.
I do think it’s worth mentioning though, because her character represents something of a demarcation point.
In the same way that Andrew Dice Clay’s (brief) fame was made on the backlash to the ’80s image of strong women in positions of corporate and political power, combined with the general ’90s societal movement towards Political Correctness, Silverman’s career is made on the dying gasps of the notion that women are either saints or sluts, with no shades of gray.
Certainly important ground to unhallow, but her point is lost when the humour is out of it – and currently it’s like she’s held on to a single Sacha Baron Cohen caricature a half decade past its due date.
Her comedy is almost a necessary venting function for societal noxious gas, but I’ll be glad when we’re done belching and can move on.
Dear Pop Music,
The 1980s sucked the first time around too.
Stop it,
My Ears
P.S. Aqua isn’t a proper colour for clothing.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y94584UUw1Q]
Pink Panther, probably because of the lack of dialogue, animation, or sensical jokes, always had a laugh track that stood out.
No one uses canned laugh tracks anymore of course, but until recently I’d forgotten how many cartoons used to have one.
A recent viewing of teletoon retro – with a micro-midget in the crook of my arm – brought up some odd memories: as a kid huffing Scooby Doo it wasn’t long before I realized that not only were the laughers repeating themselves, they were also apparently heading over to Josie and the Pussycats and laughing at those jokes in pretty much the same way.
It was only once I’d asked wikipedia that I realized how prevalent the problem was:
Critics took note of the inferior sounding laugh track permeating Hanna-Barbera’s Saturday morning fare. The same prerecorded laugh can be heard after nearly every punchline, which does not go unnoticed by the astute viewer. The fact that the treble was mixed far too high for the soundtrack it accompanies only drew attention to the falsity of the practice. Several shows that are victim of the abridged laugh track are The New Scooby-Doo Movies, Captain Caveman and the Teen Angels, The Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm Show, Dynomutt, Dog Wonder, Jabberjaw,Hong Kong Phooey, Josie and the Pussycats in Outer Space, The Flintstone Comedy Hour andHelp!… It’s the Hair Bear Bunch!. – Wikipedia
I think the modern/adult version of this is, unfortunately, the Letterman audience. I sometimes wonder if the crowd handlers are dressed like lion tamers with high voltage stun sticks.
I greatly enjoy the first half hour of The Late Show, but every quirky tick gets measured applause, every half-gag elicits a short homogeneous laugh – the quality of a joke can be judged by length, but not by intensity, there seems to be no exuberance or extremity permitted by the electro-rod carriers. It may not be the tinny guffawing of Scooby Doo, but the crowd response is so predictable I find it difficult to understand the difference.
I find “Year’s Funniest Commercials” shows pretty disturbing.
If broadcast TV wasn’t doomed we might have ended up accepting commercial creation as some sort of art form – I rather suspect we’ll still end up with some jerk at the MoMA presenting an exhibit of ancient commercials. (If it hasn’t already happened.)
I envision a huddled group of middle-aged future people, beer\wine in hand, maybe wearing a t-shirt with the Geico gecko on it, watching their 3rd generation low-res recordings of the “The King” B.K. commercials and reminiscing about their childhood.
My lovely wife Jessica has posted some new music to the interweb.
You should check it out.
I get a an odd traffic bump every time Turner Classics plays The Good Earth.
My stats prove that I dominate google for searches of “tcm movie about rice farmer wang”.