Doing what now to unicorns?

There's not a whole lot to be said about this video - let's just be thankful that the occult menace that is Latin words has finally be brought to light.

In fairness, it does look like there has been some judicious editing going on here - hard to say whether that was from the original producers of the video or the people at www.everythingisterrible.com - even then that could be to maximise the lols or make it fit into a viewer friendly 3:40.

Still, the fact that there is an audience for this makes me wonder about people sometimes

Alcoholic whipped cream in a can? Why yes, I believe I would, thankyou.

One of my fave sources for pop culture info is the AV Club via The Onion website.

Their latest review/taste-test of Whipped Lightning, alcoholic whipped cream in a can, only confirms that I'm right.

As with the range of other taste tests that these guys do on only-in-America type products, they put a funny and informative description of the product together for you and follow it up with a range of quotes from the willing bunnies that they round up in the office to try out the new taste-sensation of the day.

My fave quote from this one:

I imagine this is what alcoholics think clouds taste like.

Pixels - this is why I like Twitter and YouTube

Found this as a link on Craig (The Chaser) Reucassel's twitter feed - it's pixeltastic

From the pages of fail blog

Or, to put it another way - LOL WTF

Law abiding engineer - beautiful game/movie mashup

Stumbleupon, that amazing web timesink pointed me towards this video on YouTube that brilliantly integrates game footage from Team Fortress 2 and the trailer for the movie Law Abiding Citizen.



There is also a split screen version of this, with the original trailer that is well worth a look.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=js2ixPcRT7U

It's not really that hard out here for a pimp

Went to a costume wedding on the weekend and rather enjoyed my costume - I've always wanted to get a pair of red pants but until now have felt that they were a little too lairy. Maybe they are but so what.

Also quite enjoyed rockin' the cane - managed to get a bit of a strut happening by the end of the night.

There's nothing like - dumb ad campaigns and internet smart-arses

A day after Tourism Australia launched their ill-fated (yes, I'm calling it - it's the iSnack 2.0 of tourism campaigns) new marketing scheme for Australia - "There's nothing like Australia" - a group of proud pisstaking Aussies have responded with their own version.

I don't know which band of coke-fuelled marketing gurus came up with this replacement for the charmingly desperate and sad "Where the bloody hell are you?" campaign that gave us tabloid darling Lara Bingle but it hasn't done this country, Tourism Australia and marketing doofuses any credit at all.

If for no other reason than half decent writing - surely it should be "there's nowhere else like it" - this slogan just begs mockery. Why on Earth would you put a negative word in the same phrase as the product name and no other words that cast a positive light on it. Even "you can't beat the feeling" has "feeling" in it.
Dropping "else" in there immediately invites you to think about other places - which, whether we like it or not, actually do have most of the cool things that we have here - particularly if we are focusing on nature. (Of course we have very nice nature and great diversity but there are still beaches, mountains, rivers, forests etc elsewhere, despite what the slogan might have you believe)

Fortunately, we do have a proud tradition of pisstaking, which makes me proud to see the response version of the ad campaign up and firing so quickly. (In fairness, credit should go to Tourism Australia for not setting the lawyers on these guys for parodying their IP - that part at least is classy)

These are some of my personal faves so far.

The Phantom •

Hmmmmm, kind of having my doubts about this.
So now we have a reimagining of The Phantom, due for tv this year.

Looks a little generic - could be any modern chosen-one/superhero actiony thing.

Happy to be proven wrong though - but if the word badass comes out of this guy's mouth I'll know it's all over.

Castle: "Space Cowboy" (Firefly/Serenity)

Got to respect the Firefly love still being shown in Nathan Fillion's new show Castle.

Hey Dad...! - "Was it good for you?"

Clearly the whole Hey Dad alleged child-groping/etc is a terrible terrible story - either if it happened (and the weight of evidence seems pretty damning) or if it didn't (let's not completely forget presumption of innocence and due process). Clearly Robert Hughes is totally fucked either way.

All of which makes it extra unfortunate that there are so many track titles on this 1991 compilation of audio tracks from the popular Oz sitcom that seem to be darkly inappropriate.

From the obvious opening track "Was it good for you?" and "Electric touch" to the prescient "For whom the bells toll", you could almost believe that someone in the know was sending a message that they couldn't put out any other way - or perhaps more darkly having a quiet laugh to themselves.

Of course, its ridiculously easy to attach a double meaning that was never there in the first place to any innocent phrase or statement with hindsight, but there's still a whole lotta yick to all of this. (Including the fact that this story made me voluntarily watch both A Current Affair and Today Tonight)

For me, I never liked the show - I never knew exactly why, at the time I assumed I was being mr snobby highbrow-pants but it never seemed to ring true.

Sometimes though it's just better when you're not right about something.

The cd itself I picked up in a bargain bin for $3, figuring that I would one day get around to re-editing the wholesome/dorky dialogue tracks into something perverted/darker and clearly more hilarious. Never did though - and now I guess I never will. Some shit just isn't funny when it might be true.

What is it with the left and being hilarious?

Nice work here from some Melbourne comedians with a lefty slant - they have a show on at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival that looks well worth checking out.

Find out more on their blog - http://thefirst3.blogspot.com/

Treme Trailer #2

If you're a fan of The Wire, this show may not be news to you but it looks pretty cool nonetheless. Starting in April apparently.

Corporate much?

So when 11 out of 32 of the words on the page at the start of your iPhone app description have little trademark or registered symbols, do you think that maybe you're going too far?

The Internet Is Made Of Cats

It's not super brilliant but it's about cats and the Internet, so it gets a pass.

Lars Von Trier invites you to visit his Denmark

Big fan of Lars Von Trier - love his thoughtfulness, his imagination, willingness to push the limit and his darkness.

Can't say that I would've chosen him to direct a tourism campaign though - but what do I know about marketing.

(Bless those Onion folks for showing us how things might have been)


Denmark Introduces Harrowing New Tourism Ads Directed By Lars Von Trier

From Kirk to Spock via the worst Aussie accent ever?

Completely unintentional juxtaposition here of two of the leads of Star Trek TOS - sometimes you just get lucky I guess.

No idea what the film was, I'm guessing mid to late 60s, but I think I'd like to see it now.

Can't stop saying Denny Crane

I'm a late-comer to Boston Legal but now that I'm there, I'm kind of hooked. 

It's not that I think that it's the most amazing tv show ever made or anything - The Wire and pretty well anything that's ever screened on HBO is still well ahead there - but there are a couple of things about it that I seem to be fixated on at the moment. 

For one thing, while it's a fairly clever show and definitely well made, it's relatively light and fluffy in comparison to the excellent/worthy shows on my "to-watch" list. We're talking about The Corner, Generation Kill (both from The Wire creator, David Simon), Breaking Bad, Caprica and a few others. Truth be told, these are all fantastic shows - I do believe that we live in a golden age of tv - but over all, there is something of a seriousness, even a modern grimness to all of them.

Boston Legal creator, David E Kelley, has an admirable track record in sharp, funny production over the last few years - Ally McBeal and The Practice of particular note. Shows that take a very tv look at current events and issues by popping them into the middle of a busy, big-time law firm peopled with fascinating and ridiculously good looking and witty staff. Rather unlikely in reality but perfect for tv. 

Boston Legal's core is the great Denny Crane - played, of course, by William Shatner. A more than a little bit eccentric, larger than life character who has never lost at anything. His catch-phrase is simply his name, repeated frequently as though the words themselves are simply all that need to be said. And, like songs on commercial radio, after a little while, the repetition really does its job. 

The phrase "Denny Crane" becomes shorthand for "don't worry, it's me, what bad thing could possibly happen" or "of course we won, it's me". It's a call of absolute and utter confidence, mixed with that dash of justified egotism and there is something incredibly affirming about just saying the words. It says - everything is ok and yes, I am freakin awesome. 

Forget that Denny Crane is a full-blooded right winger, forget that he is gun-crazy and even shot Omar (yes, from the Wire) in the head with a paint-ball gun in one episode, all that matters is Denny Crane. 

(Personally, I'd like to be more like his best buddy, the brilliantly played James Spader character Alan Shore. Incredibly intelligent, wry, sound lefty, incredibly magnetic and with a nice measure of dark self destructiveness to keep things entertaining. One day. ) 

Denny Crane

Hep cats demand Miaow

It's clearly the cat lover in me but I'm rather tickled by the name of the new moral-panic of the week party drug Miaow.

Can't say I'd heard of it before reading this story on the ABC website (http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010/02/12/2818459.htm) but it seems to be similar to ecstasy and cocaine, with a come-down that's a "little bit more subtle. "

As you would expect, the police report also mentions links to psychotic episodes and possibly deaths and so on.

Still, I can't help wondering if it makes people purr. :)

Daybreakers - what do vampires do when the blood runs out?

Daybreakers is the new film from Oz genre-masters the Spierig Brothers. It is set in the near future (2019) and tells the tale of what happens when vampires rule the earth and the supplies of humans are seriously dwindling. It offers a refreshing new perspective on the genre as well as through in some spectacularly gratuitous (but fun) gore and effects.

I saw Daybreakers last night and Undead, their low-budget zombie effort, a few years ago. I'd call it a really solid film but not yet a great film or a classic. The style, effects and gore are unmatched for an Oz genre film and the story and pacing held together really well until the final act. The guys also have a real knack for putting action sequences together. (There's a nice reference back to one of the highlights of Undead, when a zombie vampire hangs by his feet from the ceiling in mid-battle)

It is an improvement over Undead but mainly because of the evolution of fx technology and (of course) the larger budget. The Sperig Bros have some interesting ideas and aren't afraid to look at a genre from a new perspective - the concepts alone in Daybreakers are worth the price of entry. (Maybe a tv series would have been a better direction?)

Having said that, let me say this - they do seem to have a bit of trouble finishing stories. Undead had an interesting but unsatisfying finish and this one was more solid but still seemed to end with everyone distractedly wandering off to look at something else. For such a strong build up, a much bigger finish was needed. (Unless they are eyeing off a sequel?)

For the cast that they had to work with, the performances all seemed a little flat. Could be the George Lucas effect - strong with the whizbang but less so with working with actors. (Either that or the direction was all about underplaying things but I couldn't say why)

If you are looking for a smarter than average actiony/sci-fi/vampire pic, it's hard to go past this one.

Tony Soprano is a Wild Thing

James Gandolfini's role in Where the Wild Things Are revoiced with his work in The Sopranos. What's not to love?