On a Lonely Highway

An excellent deconstruction (if such a term can be used for a film that defies deconstruction) of David Lynch's highly underrated and much maligned Lost Highway over at Slate. The DVD is finally available.

And a bit more of Mr. Lynch. Friend George sent along this delightful little take on iPhones some time ago.

Unplanned Obsolescence

Via Kos we learn that someone with too much time on their hands has created a Wiki of Obsolete skills.

Along with adjusting rabbit ear antennas, loading 35mm film, peeling back a lid from an sardine can with a key and using a manual choke in cold weather, it seems that common sense and spelling all make the list.

Double Feature (N-100%-SFW)

I have a love/hate thing with Sarah Silverman. She can be hilarously funny (as she is here) or cringe-worthy beyond all get out. This has gone around the YouTubes for a while now, but seeing as there is now a sequel, I thought it worth posting them together.

Well, whatever your opinion of Ms. Silverman, I hope you enjoy this little music vid from the Jimmy Kimmel Show.



And here is Jimmy's response, with a cast of thousands.

21st Century Bipolar Man

The onion av club's roundup of pretentious prog-rock album covers. Probably a redundancy or two in there somewhere.

How many of these were in your collection? I admit to a few.

Faced

A recent company event feature a performance by San Jose's own Smash Mouth. Here are a few pix I took during the concert.

Happy Frickin' Holidays

You're a mean one Mr. Grinch

Futurballa begins a 2 week vacation on Friday. Enjoy the holidays, however you may celebrate.

Rick

The Spy Who Came in from the Old

James Wolcott reminds us that the iconic TV shows of our childhood don't often hold up so well when you buy the box set dvd collection. Case in point, The Man From Uncle.

Wolcott compares and contrasts TMFU with the original Mission Impossible series, that while also somewhat low budget and cheesy, and dealing with similar Cold War espionage in similarly exotic locales, never descended into camp. The show of the era that he fails to mention that actually filmed on location, was smart, and rarely camp, was I Spy.

The always hip, Robert Culp as undercover agent / tennis bum Kelly Robinson, and his inter-racial heterosexual life partner Alexander Scott, played with great charm by a young Bill Cosby before he became the paterfamilias of the Huxtable clan and started pimping Jello, jet-setted about the globe chasing woman and foiling foreign agents. Truly one of the best spy genre shows on TV and though I haven't seen it in many years, I doubt that it would come off as dated and cheesy as TMFU.

Chabad Boys

Getting into the Chanukah spirit, friend George posted a video of Peter Himmelman, Harry Dean Stanton and Bob Dylan on harmonica performing Hava Nagila at the Chabad telethon back in 1989.

Just to join in the spirit, I found a version of the same traditional folksong performed by a Beatles tribute band.



And of course, the all time classic Chanukah song.

Official (Scary) Holiday Season Kick-Off

Since Thanksgiving has been and gone, it is now acceptable to post our traditional Christmas season posting of the Carol of the Old Ones. The very scary version of the very scary Carol of the Bells.




Cthulhu themed ringtones and MP3s can be found here.

And don't miss the Misadventures of Hello Cthulhu!

Photoshop: Before and After

Via escapegrace comes this very interesting retrospective on photo doctoring from Lincoln to Today. Photoshop has only made it more accessible, but Stalin new how to do it quite well.

J. Paul Ferlinghetti

I have returned from my vacation to LA. Weston at the Getty, Dali at LACMA, fine dining in Pasadena and West Hollywood and escaped before the fires got too bad. A great trip had by all.

Here are some images from the J. Paul Getty museum grounds.

Coming into Los Angeles

The town is like an advertisement for itself; none of its charms are left to the visitor's imagination...
~Christopher Isherwood

Heading south for a Museum weekend. I wonder if I'll run into this guy?


The May Company Department Store - Ansel Adams

HOWL

" I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by
madness, starving hysterical naked..."

So begins the iconic poem of the Beat Generation, Howl by Allen Ginsberg. Fifty years ago today, a San Francisco Municipal Court judge ruled that Allen Ginsberg's Beat-era poem "Howl" was not obscene. And on that 50 year anniversary, a New York public radio station has buckled to fear of the FCC and decided not to air a reading of Ginsberg's poem. You can read about the whole silly mess here.

In honor of the anniversary, Pacifica.org will post audio of a reading. Or you can read it for yourself here.

It is a sad time when fear of censorship does the censor's job for him.

I speak of the pompatus of love

What is a pompatus anyways? Well there is a Wikipedia entry to explain.

Look that up in your Funk and Wagnalls!

Miatapalooza 2007

Couple of firsts. I took the "none more black" MX-5 to my first car show this weekend, Miatapalooza at Monster Park in San Francico (formerly Candlestick) and posted my first self made video to YouTube.

Jewish Sports Legends

Salon has a ranking of the best 18 Jewish baseball players of all time. The top 3 are pretty predictable, but it's a fun read.

And the author also provides a link to one of the funniest moments in baseball commentary ever. Where are you now, Mel Gibson?

There is no joy in Mudville

DVD Journal is shutting their doors.

This has been the go to site for what's new on the street, upcoming releases and reviews of the latest films on DVD. Sadly the proprietors have decided to cease publication. Hopefully someone else will take up the mantel.

Life Imitates Caddyshack

Bill Murray stopped in Stockholm, Sweden for driving a golf cart under the influence.

Pancho & Lefty

The greatest lefty of all time...

Death Knocks

What a day yesterday, we lost Ingmar Bergman, Tom Snyder and Bill Walsh. I was hoping to find a youtube posting of Dan Akroyd's great Tom Snyder skits, but nothing came up on my search. I did however find this wonderful Bergman parody featuring the film debut of Madeline Kahn. De Duva.

The faux Swedish might be the inspiration for the opening credits of Holy Grail.

Update: I guess it is open season on arthouse directors. I just read that Michelangelo Antonioni passed away as well.