Friday, August 01, 2008
You think a day on the prairie herding cattle is tough? Well, that ain't nothin', pardner... [Thanks, Daphne!]
Tuesday, July 08, 2008
Here's video from our first time at the legendary House on the Rock - a destination far stranger than I'd expected, like a day-long visit to the inner psyche of an extremely-creative-but-not-quite-sane individual. It's huge, dark, colorful, and packed to the gills (often three and four stories high) with STUFF. If this collection of collections ever had to be moved, the effort would be Herculean.
This minute of footage is the view as you enter the Carousel Room, the threshold between Tour 2 and Tour 3 at the The House on the Rock ... actually, we didn't get to Tour 3. Three-and-a-half-hours of endless ephemera was just too much for one visit, so we bailed and took the "this way to the egress" door towards sunshine, fresh air, and a semblance of sanity.
Have you ever seen the anime feature, Paprika? One of the recurring dream images virtual-reality psychotherapist Paprika faces is a juggernaut-like "Parade of Everything Under the Sun" - I have a feeling that director Satoshi Kon and writer Yasutaka Tsutsui may have been at least a little inspired by the House on the Rock for that particular part of the film.
One caveat if you plan visiting the House on the Rock...it's a bit close and pungent in many of the rooms. There's a cloying hazelnut-ty deodorizer pumped into the warren-like rooms, to ward off the stench of decay, no doubt - I'd almost rather smell mold than that saccharine crypt perfume. It's a bit offputting (note to HotR management: ventilate, ventilate, ventilate) but no need to tie an orange peel under your nose, a la the age of the Black Death. However, I would avoid any mind-altering substances while on the tour unless you want to pay a short stay at the nearest asyl..er...psychiatric facility.
Trust me on this one. One forty-something guy we kept running into apparently had a few beers at the pizza shop on Tour 2, and could have used a little straitjacket therapy.
More House on the Rock trip photos at my place on Flickr.
Monday, July 07, 2008
Imagine you've just come home from an all-you-can eat Chinese buffet with a rowdy bunch of friends. Okay; so you overindulged a bit on the General Tso's Chicken and the Dragon and Phoenix Plate. No biggie.
Then the real fun began: not only did you have a few too many Shaoxing-and-Tsingtao boilermakers, you decided to get adventurous. You had to sample the fried pork intestines, the shark's fin soup, and the jellyfish salad, didn't you? Even the octopus balls and sea cucumber started to look appetizing. Little did you know that your friend's buddy visiting from the West coast spiked those Mai Tais with something...a little extra.
You come home with raging heartburn and an aching head. The room spins, and you plunk down on the couch in front of an old Hammer Horror flick.
This is what you dream.
Actually, it's audio and video of the two-story (or is it three?) Mikado, one of the "music machines"* at the House on the Rock in Spring Green, Wisconsin. The structure is based on a Dutch Mortier dance organ mechanism, packed with gilded gargoyles, a full battery of robotic/animatronic instruments and leering mannequins lit up by a riot of red and gold lanterns. With a flash, it looks like this:
More House on the Rock photos at my place on Flickr.
[*Some call them "music machines." I call them "Calliopes from Hell."]
Labels: history, music, video, WI
Monday, June 23, 2008
I narrowly ducked into the foyer before hail the size of chickpeas (some larger) started battering down on the street Sunday afternoon. About halfway through the video, note the unfortunate, umbrella-less pedestrian running down the street.
Labels: chicago, news, science, video
Wednesday, June 11, 2008
Czech gothic rock band XIII. Století has returned to the stage after a four-year hiatus; YouTuber schma88 captured all seven-and-a-half minutes of their opus "Elizabeth" on video.
Friday, March 28, 2008
For us X-Philes, it's been a long dry spell of cable reruns and Hollywood red herrings about the release of the second X-Files feature film. Well, apparently, it's happening. For reals, man. Click above to watch Chris Carter, Frank Spotnitz, and Mitch Pileggi ("FBI Assistant Director Walter Skinner") spill some beans on the new movie at Paleyfest, set to release July 25th, 2008.
BONUS: Ain't It Cool News reveals the putative teaser poster for XF2. [Via BD Horror News]
Thursday, March 27, 2008
Forget Esther Williams and her synchronized swimmers. Forget the Weeki Wachee Mermaids. The British JCB Dancing Diggers are the shite: diesel poetry in motion!Yes, choreographed construction diggers. Something about that just tickles my fancy. [Via ha.ha.nu]
Labels: video
Friday, January 04, 2008
Happy New Year, everyone...yes, I know it's a few days late, but you know how things get in the Midwestern Dead of Winter. It takes a few hot javas to melt the synapses. Enjoy this live version of XIII. Stoleti's "Elizabeth" from the 2003 Castle Party in its full 7:35 glory. A little less grand than the original, but more spontaneous - and Petr Stepán cuts loose with a rare guitar solo jam at the end. [Thanks to Torquemado for uploading the "Elizabeth" video to YouTube, and x4nthi for "Fatherland"]
Wednesday, December 19, 2007
About as cute and strange as you would expect. [via Neatorama]
Labels: video
Friday, October 19, 2007
via videosift.com
After all, what's an eternity in hellfire compared to good healthy dose of fiber? A little Australian theological silliness.
Sharp-eyed 80's music fans will note a cameo by Australian Shadow Minister for the Environment Peter Garrett, who takes an apple from the snake at about 2:08. You may remember him as the gangly bald leader of Midnight Oil. [via Neatorama]
Labels: humor, religion, video
Thursday, September 06, 2007
Just received this in my inbox, bereft of explication:
It is important to note that the placement of the humps is determined by a multitude of factors including location of catch basins, and most important, the dimensions of the block to ensure a regular hump location pattern. In other words, it is almost impossible to guarantee that humps will not be placed in front of any specific building.Eh?
Ooops, wrong Alanis Morrissette video: I guess the e-mailer was referring to the new speed humps (otherwise known as "speed bumps" in the the rest of the civilized world) that will be installed in my 'hood soon.
Monday, July 02, 2007
When you've got to go, you've got to go. Some like to go faster than others, and the going doesn't get much faster than this.
[via Neatorama >> Gadget Road]
Friday, June 22, 2007
What happens when you crash a BMW into a Volvo head-on while both vehicles are traveling at 60mph?
As the announcer says: "...next time you're on a country road, counter-flow or about to overtake - remember this."
Labels: safety, science, transit, video
Tuesday, June 19, 2007
Via commenter Dr. Confused on Feministe, a link to this very funny French television advertisement for Hansaplast condoms. A very different perspective from American prophylactic ads, even the droll Trojan Man.
Tuesday, April 10, 2007
Just in case you wondered how well those "futuristic" television ads from years ago come across today. Though the "Wouldn't You Rather Be At Home?" campaign was poorly received compared to Apple's "1984" ad (recently revived when an erstwhile Obama fan remixed it into an anti-Hilary Clinton ad), I prefer it to the latter.
Speaking of mood, where did Packard-Bell go wrong? While both spots used a monochrome dystopia to depict the "problem," "1984" had an obvious hero in the hammer-tossing runner who frees the proles by smashing the "Big Brother" screen. In Packard Bell's ad, the weary masses are never seen transcending their subjection. When the candy-colored payoff scene finally appears, Packard Bell's computerized "smart home" is as uninhabited as the post-apocalyptic house in Ray Bradbury's "There Will Come Soft Rains."
By the way, a fascinating, unrelentingly bleak Russian animated short film, "Будет ласковый дождь" (9:15) inspired by the Bradbury short story, is available on Google Video. Caveat: it's considerably more violent and graphic than Bradbury's version. In October of 1996, a number of (pre Internet-boom) librarian listserv members expressed outrage at the ads, but a fellow user offered this forward-looking perspective:
Of ~50 camera shots in the ad depicting the urban hell, about 10 are set in the nightmare library. Other scenes contributing to the urban hell include a cobwebby bank, people migrating through urban wasteland, and lots of standing in line. It uses image ideas from the depression era photography (breadlines and sad tired faces) and film ideas (Bladerunner's urban hell, Wizard of Oz black and white blooming into color) and book ideas (1984, anyone?) and reminds me of the influential Apple Computer advertisementYes, libraries are still around 11 years later...but where is Packard Bell? Yes, I did post about this ad a couple of years ago, before YouTube.
that ran during the Olympics years ago.
Sunday, April 08, 2007
Yes, Ted Haggard is now "completely heterosexual," and this brilliant little ditty explains it all..."glory, how he blew ya!" [Thanks, Dajvid!]
Wednesday, March 21, 2007
Via Guardian UK:WASHINGTON (AP) - The mystery creator of the Orwellian YouTube ad against Hillary Rodham Clinton is a Democratic operative who worked for a digital consulting firm with ties to rival Sen. Barack Obama. Philip de Vellis, a strategist with Blue State Digital, acknowledged in an interview with The Associated Press that he was the creator of the video, which portrayed Clinton as a Big Brother figure and urged support for Obama's presidential campaign. De Vellis, 33, said he resigned from the firm on Wednesday after he learned that he was about to be unmasked by the HuffingtonPost.com., a liberal news and opinion Internet site.A watershed moment in political advertising? Perhaps, if only because it's a great example of what happens when Web 2.0 meets the Law of Unintended Consequences - an individual supporter of a candidate might do more harm than good by releasing a homebrewed "viral marketing" ad with the best of intentions.
Blue State designed Obama's Web site and one of the firm's founding members, Joe Rospars, took a leave from the company to work as Obama's director of new media. The connection to the campaign is likely to be a setback for Obama, who has cultivated an image as politician who wants to rise above bare-knuckle politics. "It's true ... yeah, it's me," de Vellis said Wednesday evening. He said he produced the ad outside of work and that neither Blue State nor the Obama campaign was aware of his role in the ad. "But it raises some eyebrows, so I thought it best that I resign and not put them in that position."
Thomas Gensemer, the managing director of Blue State Digital, said de Vellis was fired.
More at SFGate.com and the Huffington Post.
Friday, March 09, 2007
Tom Dickson, the Ron Popeil of specialized electric household blenders, has a series of retro-riffic promotional Blendtec videos on YouTube, complete with ingenuous homebrew diction and orchestral library music. His many inedible blendings include iPods, light bulbs, household scissors, and Cochicken - a fraternity-house-dare amalgam of cola and half a rotisserie chicken, bones and all. However, my favorite has to be the Glow Stick version; all it needs is a Shpongle soundtrack.(P.S.) Anyone else notice that Tom says, "...in the DESTRUCTIONS on the light stick..."?
Labels: video
Wednesday, February 21, 2007
Chicago Public Radio/NPR fave This American Life comes to Showtime Networks March 22nd - if this trailer is any indication, it's a must-see. Mysterious Brahmin bulls, gun-toting grannies, Crucifixion reenactors, and elderly painters of nudes are just a taste of the offbeat treats in store. Check it out in Windows Media or Quicktime at thisamericanlife.org. [via Gapers Block]
Labels: video
Monday, February 19, 2007
Say what you will about YouTube, but where else will you find ancient television commercials like this "Mamma Mia, dats-a spicy meatball!" Alka-Seltzer™ spot from 1970. It's one of my first TV memories (that, Richard Nixon, and the Beatles breaking up) - to this day I still remember that oven door falling off its hinges at the end. Classic!
"Herding 10,000 Half-Wild Short-Hairs"
