A Million Monkeys Typing

Chicken Sexing

2012-01-30T23:14:00.000-08:00

The strange thing for me about this video is that I was introduced to the idea of chicken sexing at a very young age, by virtue of a brain-teaser in a trivia magazine (probably based on a real-life customs case) about whether chicks that were shipped over the border for sexing and then shipped back were suddenly more or less valuable by virtue of gender, despite being the exact same creature who passed over the border several hours before.I wish I could tell you how this was resolved, but I have decided to go to sleep instead.

Anyone for Drinks?

2012-01-16T22:05:00.000-08:00

A few Danger 5 highlights to tide us over until the next instalment. I suddenly feel thirsty.

Mudskippers plotting global takeover?

2012-01-11T21:27:00.000-08:00

Paul F. Tompkins said this was disgusting but I’m sure he was joking, because I’m kind of in awe of these brave, crazy little fish who dare to breathe air and live on land, sort of. This is pretty much how we all started out, right?

“This Is a Low”

2012-01-08T22:31:00.000-08:00

I had almost forgotten that Blur did this song, which is one of my all time favorites, especially in the feeling-sorry-for-yourself genre, which is rich ground for pop music.

Then I saw an amazing documentary film of their reunion concert at London’s Hyde Park in July 2009. There were a lot of people there.This is from that concert, but not from that particular documentary, which you can find with a minimum of know-how.

Vancouver Changes Rehearsal

2012-01-06T23:10:00.000-08:00

This 1976 concert rehearsal, presumably from Vancouver’s Pacific Coliseum, starts out a little rough, but soon becomes something quite marvelous.
(via bobmackin.)

Shopping with Snoop

2012-01-02T17:48:00.000-08:00

Man, that is one sweet ’62 Continental.
(via Dangerous Minds.)

Mas que nada

2011-12-31T23:31:00.000-08:00

(via Lynda Barry.)

Mike Love is a jerk

2011-12-27T20:53:00.001-08:00

Hard to believe now that the Beach Boys were once considered on a par with the Beatles as one of the best, most innovative pop groups of their time.

Scroll to 14:30 for “In My Room,” which is still sublimely beautiful after almost 50 years.

VIdeo of the year

2011-12-21T21:28:00.001-08:00

The Awl has a nice round-up of some of the best Internet videos of the year. I had forgotten about this one, which becomes even more amazing with every viewing, especially if you watch it full-screen.

Main Barber Shop

2011-12-20T22:02:00.001-08:00

This picture is amazing.
(via Past Tense Vancouver.)

The Art of the Nap

2011-12-20T20:30:00.000-08:00

In the past few years I’ve become a big fan of the afternoon nap. Oh my god, it is awesome.

Craig Anderson explains.
(via Dave Shumka.)

“Queen of Hearts”

2011-12-19T22:20:00.000-08:00

Seriously, I have had so many problems uploading this video that I no longer remember what I wanted to say about it.What I do remember is that Fucked Up (the band) is pretty amazing, if also hard to find in the Google-verse because searching for “fucked up” begets crazy results and putting it in the title on YouTube is just asking to be consigned to censor hell.

Delete Gainsbourg

2011-12-17T21:32:00.000-08:00

Magnificent Ruin is one of several excellent art/image/whoknows/culture/maybe/WTF Tumblrs that I follow. If you also do, you may already know know about the Delete Gainsbourg Project, one man’s attempt to rid the internet of way too much Serge Gainsbourg imagery. And I’m kind of cheering him on on, though I’m not sure why.

Good luck with that.

Bio-luminiscence

2011-12-11T22:34:00.001-08:00

Who decided to make this ad for the Vancouver Aquarium echo the local planetarium’s Pink Floyd laser light show?Superb execution.

Theodolite

2011-12-11T22:10:00.001-08:00

I honestly didn’t know what a theodolite was until I showed this vaguely Neuromancer-ish display app that I love on my iPhone to my brother, who is a contractor and knows about this stuff. I think it’s safe to say he had a mild moment of squee when I showed it to him.As for me, I just like taking pictures of azimuth, not that I know what that is.

Ice Cube on Eames

2011-12-07T22:02:00.001-08:00

Thanks, Mr. Cube!
(via Waxin’ & Milkin’)

Bamboo Terrace

2011-12-04T22:09:00.001-08:00

What an awesome picture of a mid-century restaurant in Vancouver’s Chinatown.(via Past Tense Vancouver, which has a great high-res version.)

You Ain’t Alone

2011-11-30T23:14:00.001-08:00

Holy crap. I know literally nothing about Alabama Shakes but this is awesome. I think you will see what I mean within about 30 seconds.
(Courtesy Lynda Barry.)

Play Ideas from Marlys!

2011-11-25T22:23:00.001-08:00

I recently added Lynda Barry’s Tumblr to my RSS feed and my life is quantifiably better for having done so. Seriously, you can just check me right here on this body part.

I’ve been a fan of Lynda Barry and Marlys since early days. Marlys is among the greatest American cartoon characters ever created, and it’s time people got around to acknowledging that shit.That fourth panel above is a mini masterpiece.

Everything I had hoped for

2011-11-22T22:01:00.001-08:00

Danger 5 is a spot-on parody of the crazy-ass spy-team TV thrillers I soaked up as a kid. Part one came out yesterday.

Alpine Coaster

2011-11-22T21:29:00.001-08:00

I seem to have developed vertigo as I’ve aged, so I’m not sure if I would ever do this, but it’s still pretty thrilling to watch on YouTube.(via Cynical-C.)

1955 Grey Cup Parade

2011-11-21T23:24:00.001-08:00

Some amazing home movies. I went to Grey Cup Parades in subsequent years, and this really captures the wonderful, corny vibe.(via Past Tense Vancouver.)

That’s no wig

2011-11-20T22:53:00.001-08:00

(via The Near-Sighted Monkey.)

1964 Daytona 500

2011-11-17T20:49:00.001-08:00

Richard Petty debuts the Plymouth Hemi engine and blows away the competition.Back when “stock” cars still had things like headlights and bumpers. I’m not staying they were completely stock, with bench seats and such, but they were certainly more factory-based than the stock cars of today. This is a nifty little film. (via The Selvedge Yard.)

YMO Soul Train/5 Eyewitness News

2011-11-16T22:59:00.001-08:00

My favorite for the last week or so of November ’11.Black folks and Japanese connect; caucasians have no clue.

Feels so good

2011-11-16T21:44:00.001-08:00

I can’t do any better than the wonderful comment Rod Filbrandt made about this storefront he saw in Los Angeles:

Off Melrose - One can only hope that this display is some sort of weird time-capsuled holdover from the 70's, but maybe it's operating on levels of manufactured irony that only an Andy Warhol drag queen can hear. Then again, I'm not sure that L.A. really does irony without the irony being a learned behaviour thing not unlike the facade erected by a functioning sociopath.

Stranded driver kills himself

2011-11-12T22:25:00.001-08:00

Jeniffer Shear via this isn't happiness™

You are going to die

2011-11-10T23:40:00.001-08:00

After reading the enormous, hilarious, totally depressing John Hodgman interview on The AV Club today, I happened to chance on this ancient “Life in Hell,” which I posted here three years ago.It’s as true today as it ever was.

DOA: TCB

2011-11-10T22:44:00.001-08:00

“Puck rock” was an extremely short-lived, hyper-local outgrowth of punk rock, and a phenomenon which also included The Hanson Brothers:

Mr. Mike

2011-11-08T23:18:00.001-08:00

Oh, the genius that was Michael O’Donoghue.
(via Dangerous Minds.)

This is charming

2011-11-07T19:23:00.001-08:00

Hodgman and Coulton harmonize.

Judy Garland goes grocery shopping

2011-11-05T21:13:00.001-07:00

God, I love these videos.

Snoop discusses his years as a correspondent

2011-11-04T21:56:00.001-07:00

Double G News Network!There’s a little something for everybody in this one.
(via Good Girls Finish Last)

Boys Brigade: The Passion of Love

2011-11-03T22:50:00.000-07:00

Back when the new wave still retained some of the punch of punk, Toronto’s Boys Brigade produced this irresistible pop masterpiece.

The title is insipid, mind you. As are the lyrics, probably.

I’m surprised to find that the video was so surreal. I remembered it as a bunch of guys rolling around in a bed together and it is quite obviously not that.

CBC logo: 1958-1966

2011-11-02T23:16:00.000-07:00

It’s incredible how an image that I have not seen for over 40 years suddenly pops up and trips a whole bunch of neurons that haven’t gone off in a while.

The CBC may be the best thing that ever happened to Canada, and also to some other parts of the world. It is currently under siege from the sitting government, which seems hell-bent on distilling Canadian politics down to the same us-vs.-them dynamic as in the United States.

Because it’s been so successful down there.

Hammer vs. Feather on the Moon

2011-11-01T22:35:00.000-07:00

“Looks like Mr. Galileo was correct in his findings.”

Beware the Hamburglar

2011-11-01T21:47:00.000-07:00

This sign in the family changing stalls of our awesome new community center pool complex never fails to amuse and perplex me. Has there really been an issue with people eating in the changing area? That seems like a pretty moist and unpleasant place to eat a hamburger.

Beck/Young: Pocahontas

2011-10-29T23:09:00.000-07:00

This is without a doubt an audio-visual Venn diagram of things that I love.

Have I mentioned lately that I am in love with Wild Flag?

2011-10-28T22:54:00.000-07:00

Because I am.

British spy thriller overload

2011-10-28T22:35:00.000-07:00

It’s got dinosaurs! It’s got Hitler! It’s a new web series, debuting Nov. 21, and I FOR ONE INTEND TO WATCH IT.

Rock ’n roll songbirds

2011-10-27T22:45:00.000-07:00

I think I’ve posted about these guys before, but not this particular video.

Step inside the fire

2011-10-27T21:54:00.000-07:00

BURN is a Kickstarter-like project to fund a film about a year in the life of a Detroit fire station, putting out about a zillion fires.Like many of you, I am pretty tired of the whole Detroit-as-failed-city trope, but this film is so gorgeous that I’m willing to set that aside. The video above is some raw footage with an improbably lush soundtrack; here is the real trailer, which is also amazing. This director has a good eye.

Worker & Parasite

2011-10-27T18:45:00.000-07:00

(via Eye on Springfield.)

Genki Sudo, WORLD ORDER: Mexico City edition

2011-10-26T21:58:00.000-07:00

To my mind, this isn’t quite as good as the first Genki Sudo that I ever saw, but quite possibly that is because the first one was so utterly new and charming. Plus, I think that song was more compelling than what we have here.But this is still better than most stuff on YouTube and there is a bit involving hands near the end that is quite magical. And then they are in some sort of garden in front of Leon Trotsky’s grave?

All I know of Akron is what I heard on Stiff Records

2011-10-21T22:58:00.000-07:00

I am engrossed by this absolutely perfect BBC4 documentary about Stiff Records. If you want to dip a toe, Part 3 is a superb appreciation of Ian Dury’s genius, and my own cultish favorite, anarchist freak Larry Wallis.And if you ever had more than a passing interest in Stiff Records, this documentary is mandatory viewing. MANDATORY, I say.

That’s very Ridley Scott of you

2011-10-19T22:26:00.001-07:00

Full points for cramming it all into a 00:30 segment.

The speed of light is the ultimate speed

2011-10-18T22:22:00.000-07:00

As thrilling as it sounds for sci-fi fans, including me, the recent announcement of particles that surpass the speed of light seems highly dubious.

In the meantime, we will have to love the optical effects of special relativity.
(via APOD.)

Do not despair

2011-10-18T20:47:00.000-07:00

“Things are not okay.”

Some days I feel like crying.
(it’s not for you via lonely sandwich.)

2011-10-16T22:33:00.001-07:00

My life has improved about 1.75% since I discovered the blog of genius Arnold Roth.

Coney Island Zeppelin Raid!

2011-10-15T23:06:00.000-07:00

It could happen!(Popular Science via Coudal.)

Four Color Process!

2011-10-15T22:05:00.000-07:00

Here’s a wonderful new #posterous which finds sublime moments in the details of the sometimes-rough landscape of the four color dot-printed cartoon.And it’s not just classic Thor (but seriously, how great is that image?). Check out this amazing pencil sharpener:

Monkeys on bicycles

2011-10-07T22:14:00.000-07:00

How could I not post this?
(via Ow! My Sweet Eyes!)

This is how the world ends:

2011-10-02T00:25:00.000-07:00

Users of Blogger are now on Easy Street: plug in a keyword and your blog almost writes itself.

I’m just a jeepster for your love

2011-10-02T00:02:00.000-07:00

Sorry, I’ve really been slacking off here lately.
(via Mick Farren.)

El accidente afortunado

2011-09-22T22:29:00.000-07:00

Holy shit! This movie has it all!

Pollo Locura

2011-09-22T22:20:00.000-07:00

NIce to see Cyriak getting some work.

Dig this Maclean’s cover

2011-09-21T22:54:00.000-07:00

(via the Canadian Design Resource.)

Development Abomination No. 666

2011-09-21T22:05:00.000-07:00

Looks like some of our Downtown Eastside art students didn’t take kindly to the closure of their favorite dive bar. I like it.

(via Price Tags.)

Sorry, Christmas Island, no Internet for you

2011-09-20T21:36:00.000-07:00

(via SubmarineCableMap, which is pretty cool.)

Increments of 2

2011-09-15T22:58:00.000-07:00

I know the answer! This may or may not be my youngest son.

NumberWang

2011-09-12T21:52:00.000-07:00

Not exactly a rare find, but still so good. The Brisbane Times features the “top 10 comedy sketches,” because please be less specific.

Whatever; most of his picks are pretty funny, so I’ll link to it.

Who doesn’t love a good gamma ray burst?

2011-09-11T22:01:00.000-07:00

A gamma ray burst is a blast of energy that is emitted when two neutron stars collapse into each other and create a black hole. Seems like a pretty significant cosmic event.

And it is, but astronomers detect one every two days in our Milky Way galaxy alone, so the universe is so vast that massive stellar events like these are literally occurring all the time somewhere.(via APOD.)

Jimmy Webb is Glen Campbell’s bitch

2011-09-08T23:00:00.000-07:00

Imagine having to play backup on your own song as it is being made HUGE by some other dude. Talk about mixed emotions.

This is about as basic as it gets

2011-09-08T22:45:00.000-07:00

Waiting for Godot, the video game. via Coudal.

I’ve got the rotary telephone blues

2011-09-08T22:22:00.000-07:00

In about a year and half, it will be the 30th anniversary of the beginning of the end of the rotary phone.I picked this video at random from the Museum of Obsolete Objects, an incredibly good-looking, well-researched YouTube site that I found via Coudal.

Hollywood home movies

2011-09-08T22:08:00.000-07:00

Wow, Hope Lange was hot back in the day.From World of Wonder, an amazing set of home movies by Roddy McDowall, shot at his Malibu beach house in the summer of 1965. Not that I’ve been there, but I bet this is about 50 years removed from the current state of Malibu.(via Coudal.)

Black Eyed Tweedy

2011-09-08T21:04:00.000-07:00

A joke tweet is brought to life. See here for details. via @coudal.

I am in love with Wild Flag

2011-09-07T22:56:00.000-07:00

Carrie Brownstein(via The Awl.)

The non-video for Midget Submarines

2011-09-06T23:05:00.000-07:00

This is actually pretty well done, given the scarcity of footage from the mid-1970s.One of my all-time favorite songs, period.

Dixie Chicken

2011-09-06T21:44:00.000-07:00

From back when musical groups still performed utterly live on network TV.The video is a bit of a blur, but the audio is pretty good.

For kids like me, growing up outside the cultural hotspots, shows like Midnight Special or Don Kirshner’s Rock Concert were a glimpse into what was happening outside of our angst-filled teenage existences.

And Lowell George was an angel who flew too close to the sun.

Just call me homer

2011-08-31T21:35:00.000-07:00

The comments at The Awl are a little harsh about how this is a rip-off of that short French movie (which was itself faked up, oh-ho, that’s right!), but I love this brief motorcycle tour of downtown Vancouver: so many of the buildings, corners, trees and people that I have known all my life, and now I can share a bit of it with my not-from-Vancouver friends.

Oh yeah, it’s also a pretty great Destroyer song. I keep forgetting to listen to that.

“Goddamn Army”

2011-08-30T22:10:00.001-07:00

Those are the immortal words of Bobby Troup, playing a grouchy Marine sergeant who has to drive around a pair of individuals dressed like clowns in M*A*S*H*.

What a great publicity shot from one of my all-time favorite movies. Think of the fun these guys must have had on set.
(ImpossibleFunky Productions, by way of this isn’t happiness™)

Singing Bird Pistols

2011-08-29T22:09:00.000-07:00

Okay, this is on Boing Boing, so it will be all over everywhere by tomorrow. But I don’t care. Singing Bird Pistols: pretty incredible miniature work.

I could watch this all day

2011-08-29T21:31:00.000-07:00

This is so cool, “High Wheel” by Maider Lopez, in which the artist removes the structure from a Ferris wheel so that it looks like the pods are floating in space.

There is a bit toward the end where it seems like people are being lifted up to heaven and the pods are coming down empty. And it’s kind of glorious. Then suddenly a down-coming pod has a person in it, and you think, “That one’s going to Hell!”

This is one of those Internet videos that is sure to be everywhere tomorrow, but if I can’t use this blog to pass on things that I absolutely love, then why bother.
(via Laughing Squid.)

Joe Cool

2011-08-21T22:01:00.000-07:00

(via this isn't happiness™)

The Tyranny of Wiggly Red Lights

2011-08-20T23:33:00.000-07:00

In the comments for an excellent NYTimes opinion piece about people dying in national parks, a denunciation of the nanny-state-ism of escalating brake-light wars.

Someone has too much time on their hands!

You could say the same thing about someone who blogs about it!

We are so tiny and insignificant

2011-08-16T21:11:00.000-07:00

Beautiful fly-through of galaxies in the southern hemisphere. When you consider that each of these dots of light is a galaxy containing as much as a billion stars, you have to be pretty self-centered to think that we are the only intelligent life in the universe.

And as I noted on Twitter, based on the sheer number of solar systems out there, the odds are strong that somewhere there exists a Lego® Planet.
(via Coudal.)

808 pics for email

2011-08-15T22:22:00.000-07:00

Caught my eye while I was cleaning up my desktop.

Parliamentary reform

2011-08-15T21:56:00.000-07:00

Check out this AMAZING 1969 funk from the studios of WGBH-Boston. It’s The Parliaments, if you can believe it, looking markedly different from their early days as a doo-wop quintet. (President Clinton is on the right.)

via Dangerous Minds.

German pencils are made with US cedar

2011-08-14T21:54:00.000-07:00

Surprisingly interesting and beautiful film about pencils.
(Core77 via Coudal.)

Rock hopping

2011-08-08T22:09:00.000-07:00

We’re fortunate enough that we’re able to rent a place on the water once a year. This year, we went to Qualicum Beach, on the east coast of Vancouver Island. There was sand at low tide and swimming as well, but by far the most popular activity was jumping around on this minor berm of largish rocks, especially when the tide was rising and the rocks were a foot or two deep in the ocean.

And since they are brothers and therefore love/hate each other, they dare each other to jump ever-farther out onto ever-smaller rocks, or else complete some sort of rock relay race in a certain time.

Since the rocks are slick and wet on one side, plus slick, wet and covered in barnacles on the other, this made for some fairly fraught times. We changed a lot of wet clothes, and treated many, many cuts and scrapes.

But even the one who tearfully announced that he would “never go out on those rocks again” was back at it 30 minutes later. That’s him on the left above.

Slickest political ad in a while

2011-07-28T22:12:00.000-07:00

Via Grantland, which also features a sweet 1995 report about a thing called “the Internet.”

We are determined to have a summer

2011-07-26T22:22:00.000-07:00

I know that most of my fellow North Americans are sweltering in ungodly heat, but we are not feeling it here in Vancouver. It’s more like this is the land that summer forgot.

I am officially on vacation, and even though the weather is terrible, we are going to do every goddamn summer vacation thing we swore to ourselves we would do back in the dark days of winter. Yesterday, we did the water park, which was basically a $150 exercise in feeling cold and wet. (Not the park’s fault. Totally weather!)

Today, the amusement park and midway, where my nine-year-old improbably landed a ring-toss in the middle of a crying jag after his youngest brother threw a ring directly into his face. Which meant that I had to carry around a five-foot stuffed monkey for four hours.

But we had fun. Because I am not a TOTAL MONSTER.

Stephen Hawking impression

2011-07-21T22:39:00.000-07:00

I am loving The Trip so much right now.

Roger Ebert believes it may be the distillation of a running conversation that occurred during the making of a (failed) documentary about another subject.

Given the actors involved, and their past history with the director, it looks to me more like some sort of meta-prank on the viewing public. The banter may be 90% improvised, but I think everyone has discussed beforehand how things are going to play out in general terms.

The cinematography is superb. At 109 minutes, the movie currently in theaters is not much shorter than the 168 minutes clocked by the six half-hour episodes that ran on BBC, and boy, are they good. Don’t deny yourself that extra hour, if possible. I’m sure there are ways to view all six on the Internet, nudge nudge, wink wink.

NASA logo on a wall

2011-07-19T22:50:00.000-07:00

AIGA.

Richard Ayoade is having water pressure problems

2011-07-17T21:38:00.000-07:00

I’m kind of in love with everything about Richard Ayoade these days. I see by his IMDb profile that I still have a lot to discover.

I own a spit

2011-07-16T13:47:00.000-07:00

So this is what happens when you occasionally mention to your spouse that such-and-such might make a good family outing: she eventually calls you on it and then you have to follow through.

Such was the case three or four weekends ago, on what turned out to be one of the few hot days so far this summer, when we dragged our kids out to Iona Spit, on Sea Island in Richmond.

Iona Spit is not some architectural folly; it is actually the massive sewage outflow pipe for the city of Vancouver. It punches out 4 km into the Strait of Georgia. That’s 2.5 miles, for oldsters like me.

Here’s a Google Maps image that shows just how far out it juts out into the ocean. For comparison purposes, that’s Vancouver International AIrport in the bottom right.

Despite being a native Vancouverite, I’ve never been to the spit before now.

LITTLE DID THEY KNOW

There’s a great viewing platform at the very start of the spit, where you can grab a picture of your family before they turn hot, thirsty, and cranky. It’s surrounded by signs warning that the nearby bushes may be Giant Hogweed, a sort of extreme poison ivy that, if it doesn’t kill you, will almost certainly make you wish you were dead.

Thanks, signs. Thigns! (That’s a “Look Around You“ reference!)

IT BEGINS

A little bit breezy, but kind of nice. Keep an eye on that tiny gray structure with white pipes in the distance

THE LONG RUNNER

My nine-year-old gave out after about 3 kms; the seven-year-old lasted to about 6 kms; the five-year-old ran the entire 8 kms. See the building at the end of the spit get a little bigger.

GREAT BLUE

I’ve got herons outside my place of work, so I’m a little blasé about seeing one or two, but there are a couple of dozen out Iona way and it’s pretty cool to see a whole bunch of them together. It’s fascinating to watch them hunt for fish: the perfect stillness, then the lightning strike.

VICTORY AT THE PUMP STATION

Remember that building I asked you to keep an eye on? It’s actually pretty huge. I can only assume that this is a final pumping station that shoots Greater Vancouver’s waste as far out into the ocean as possible.

Here’s a shot looking back from the ultimate viewing platform:

The airport is far, far away.

NOW WE HAVE TO GO BACK

And here’s the obligatory shot from the tip of the spit, where one child has completely lost his shit after being forced to stand near big spiders and also realizing that he has to walk all the way back; another is unhappy but not yet mutinous, and the third is happily oblivious to everybody and everything.

Walking the spit is a strange combination of natural beauty and intense monotony. When you’re at the end, you feel like you’re out in the middle of the gulf, which is incredible, but you’ve also just walked four kilometers in a straight line to get there. And now you have to make the exact same trek back. At least by then the tide will have changed somewhat.

Still, I highly recommend it if you haven’t done it before. Of particular interest to Samuel Beckett fans. (The intense monotony.)

TO THE PUB!

As a reward for the epic hike, we took the guys to the Flying Beaver Bar & Grill for some well-earned lemonades and beers. The Flying Beaver is pretty cool, situated on a pier jutting out into the south arm of the Fraser River, surrounded by all the local seaplane companies:

It’s a superb place to sit and enjoy a beverage while watching the various DeHavilland Beavers land and take off. By a curious quirk of political geography, it is also the only place in Metro Vancouver where you can still smoke on the deck, if that’s your bag.

Samuel Beckett probably would have loved it.

Come on down to Titusville

2011-07-13T21:17:00.000-07:00

This is my kind of tourism video.
(via BoingBoing.)

Creed Bratton on lead guitar

2011-07-12T22:29:00.000-07:00

You heard me, Creed Bratton. The man is real.

Tubthumping, redeemed

2011-07-05T22:05:00.000-07:00

They Might Be Giants covers Chumbawamba

I’ve always thought that “Tubthumping,” the sort-of-ubiquitous party song from a few years back, didn’t get the respect that it probably deserved. Chumbawamba was actually an anarchist collective of sorts, and I’m sure they were horrified by the drunken-frat-boy reputation this song acquired. Even as it made them all sorts of money.

The Johns of TMBG like the song as well, and here is their take, along with some @TheAVClub staff.
(The Starbucks commercial at the beginning is short and bearable.)

Golden Gate

2011-07-03T18:22:00.000-07:00

I watched this movie on iTunes last night. Not exactly the most joyous Saturday night I’ve ever spent.

Man, there are some seriously and sadly messed-up people out there.

Jason Schwartzman and Michael Cera dodge animated schoolbus!

2011-06-23T23:28:00.000-07:00

Three times!
(thanks, @NYMag!)

Di Bus Can Swim

2011-06-23T22:32:00.000-07:00

I actually thought he said “The bus can’t swim,” but I defer to to the YouTube page, which I’m sure is the usual bedrock of facts and reason.

But I digress! This is wonderful and funny and catchy; it’s kind of like Auto-Tune the News, Jamaica style!
(via Dangerous Minds.)

Goodnight, sweet prince

2011-06-22T22:14:00.000-07:00

This is my pal Ralph, who breathed his last about 6 minutes ago.

I’m going to have a little cry now.

Historische Entwicklung von Rückleuchten

2011-06-18T23:27:00.000-07:00

(via Uncle Sid.)

I’ve been duped

2011-06-17T23:40:00.000-07:00

(From the usual site.)

The best boss ever

2011-06-17T22:55:00.000-07:00

Look at all of these photos of office culture at MAD Magazine back in the days of Bill Gaines. I sure do wish I could have worked there.

This photo gallery is my cool Internet discovery of the month, because about half the captions that accompany the pictures are incredible or hilarious stories all by themselves.
(thanks, @coudal!)

The MultiPlane Camera

2011-06-14T23:23:00.000-07:00

Whether he thought it up, or stole it from someone else, Walt Disney was a freakin’ genius either way.
(via @Coudal.)

Third Reich ’n’ Roll

2011-06-07T22:30:00.000-07:00

Damn, it occurs to me that I have one of the original 1,000(?) pressings of this album somewhere in my basement. The Residents transcend time and space, as this video from 1978 surely demonstrates.

Image deep, icon high

2011-06-05T23:14:00.000-07:00

I’m sorry if I have been on an Adam Curtis kick lately, but it’s only because he’s so goddamn awesome.

This brief clip, great as it is, does not even begin to explain why It Felt Like A Kiss is so wonderful. It’s a tone-poem that frets over the failures of the last 50 years.

I tend to fret. I understand.