Archive for the 'Video' Category
(Chronologically Listed)
Video for the New Year
I ran across this some months back and just found a link to it again. Some how appropriate for New Year’s Day (though it might have been more appropriate for New Year’s Eve):
The time it took to put this together is a bit staggering. But impressive. ..bruce w..
The Star Wars Holiday Special! (1978)
Courtesy of Ace of Spades comes the most reviled, most wretched “holiday special” ever produced. First, here’s the Vanity Fair article to give you the entire ugly background:
In the summer of 1978, Bruce Vilanch had a bad feeling about the Star Wars television special he’d been hired to write. A veteran of the comedy wars who has since written material for 16 Oscar telecasts and starred as the extra-large Edna Turnblad in the Broadway musical adaptation of John Waters’s Hairspray, Vilanch had just finished working on Bette Midler’s 1977 TV special, Ol’ Red Hair Is Back, for producers Gary Smith and Dwight Hemion when they threw him what sounded like a plum assignment: a spot on the writing team that would help George Lucas adapt more of the Star Wars saga for television.
A year had passed since the theatrical release of Lucas’s gee-whiz space epic, and in that time Star Wars had become the highest-grossing movie in history as well as a cultural phenomenon with its very own lexicon and mythology. With a sequel still two years away from theaters, Lucas had been sold on the idea that a Star Wars holiday television special—to be broadcast on CBS the weekend before Thanksgiving, when Nielsen audiences were plentiful—would sustain interest in the franchise, move more toys off the shelves, and maybe even pick up some new fans who hadn’t seen the movie.
Though Lucas would not be involved in the actual shooting of the special—Smith and Hemion would oversee that—he knew the tales he wanted to tell and planned to work with the show’s team of seasoned TV writers to develop his ideas into a viable script. For those who had been summoned, the prospect of collaborating with the father of the Force initially sounded like a sure bet. “We were really excited, because, ‘My God, this is an annuity—Star Wars!’” says Lenny Ripps, another writer who worked on the special. “How could it lose?”
How indeed.
For those of you with the stamina, here a link to the complete Star Wars Holiday Special itself. I suspect most (if not all) of the actors involved wished that no record of this existed. Heh. ..bruce w..
Some seasonal cheer for you
Courtesy of The Daily Bayonet, who got it from Jammie Wearing Fool:
Heh.
UPDATE: And here, courtesy of Dave Barry, is striking scientific proof that white people — particularly Southern white people — are inherently rhythmically challenged:
..bruce w..
Truth set to music
One of the proudest accomplishments of my adult professional life is that I actually supported myself and my family for a few years solely by writing. That was back in the late 1980s, when it wasn’t quite as easy as it had been in the 30s, 40s, and 50s. However, it was much easier to do in the 80s than it is nowadays. Consider that when I left Oasis Systems/FTL Games in the fall of 1984, BYTE Magazine came along and put me on a monthly retainer to write one, maybe two articles each month. That retainer worked out to a 33% raise over my ending full-time salary at Oasis/FTL and nearly double my full-time salary at Monitor Labs prior to coming to Oasis/FTL. Nice work if you can get it.
But, by and large, you can’t anymore. While newspapers have started dying recently, magazines have been dying for decades. By my own count, I have written for fifteen or so different periodicals over the past 30 years, the large majority of which are no longer publishing. That’s what makes this musical tribute to all the magazines that are gone — done by Bill Dyszel at CinemaSolo – both funny and poignant:
And, yes, as the final line says, I have had a magazine “close up shop and owe [me] money.” Hat tip to Gerard Van der Leun at American Digest (one of the best blogs on the entire ‘net). ..bruce w..
Selecting The Best Bus For London
Having spent a bit of time in the UK, I can attest that in general the programming on television is just as mindless and annoying as the US has on average.
But like the US, there are some patches of real brilliance. For example the below clip from the car focused show “Top Gear” where the crew work hard to help the City of London determine which is the best bus… by racing them.
Raider nation
The Oakland Raiders came to San Diego this past Thursday to play the Chargers. Raider fans are, of course, noted for being a bit…ah…intense, and (according to my sister Deirdre), the local newspaper gave appropriate warning to San Diego fans and citizens. Then the local TV station broadcasting the game ran the following ad after the coaches’ interviews :
Heh. Hat tip to Deirdre. ..bruce w..
From the sublime…
…to the ridiculous. Orin Kerr, over at the Volokh Conspiracy, is attempting to find (and I quote) “the single cheesiest Lawrence Welk clip on YouTube.” Here’s his current nominee:
Let’s see: ridiculous outfits — check. Ridiculous dance moves — check. A bland orchestra rendition of a Captain & Tennille song that manages to remove whatever spark and syncopation existed in the original — check. Wisconsin would be proud. (Bonus video: the Captain & Tennille in an interview from 2007. She’s still a fine-looking woman, given that she’s pushing 70.)
UPDATE: the outfits and dance moves kept reminding me of something, and I finally realized what — one of my all-time favorite commercials (and I don’t even drink coffee):
Heh. Now try to get that song out of your head for the rest of the day. ..bruce w..
America Gets Rickrolled!
In case you don’t know, there is a trend on the internet known as Rickrolling:
Rickrolling is an Internet meme typically involving the music video for the 1987 Rick Astley song “Never Gonna Give You Up”. The meme is a bait and switch: a person provides a Web link they claim is relevant to the topic at hand, but the link actually takes the user to the Astley video.
When a person clicks on the link given and is led to the web page he/she is said to have been “Rickrolled” (also spelled Rickroll’d). By extension, it can also mean playing the song loudly in public in order to be disruptive
So there I was, watching the Macy’s parade. The dopey Cartoon Network float is rolling by, and in the midst of whatever song they were doing, the whole things stops and out pops Rick Astley. I have not laughed that hard in at least a year.
Yet another bailout request
Hell, this makes more sense than a lot of what Congress and the US Treasury are doing right now:
True fact: I own a Pets.com sock puppet. I keep it in my office to remind me of the idiocies of the late 90s Tech Bubble. Problem is, I’m not the one who needs reminding.
Hat tip to National Review Online. ..bruce w..
This is so on target
This guy pretty much nails it:
Flying still seems magical to me. Hat tip to Bad Astronomy. ..bruce w..