I’m Not Trying to Be Elvis

I noticed this was leaving the Criterion Channel, and figured I’d watch it. I never really knew much about Orion (Jimmy Ellis) or listened to him at all, dismissing him as an Elvis impersonator. I know y’all aren’t Elvis (RIP PBUH) devotees like I am, so I don’t know if you’d find it as fascinating, but I was transfixed. Also, there is a ZINGER about 3/4 in, that they focus on for about 5 seconds, that discusses who his real father is (you can guess), and why he may sound EXACTLY like Elvis when he sings. As someone who has listened to a lot more EP than you have, I mean Exactly.
Continue reading “I’m Not Trying to Be Elvis”

How To Spot A Deepfake

All you got to do is watch, with your ears.

At the encouragement of Fakerbot, I listened to several of the AI-songs out there before they all got yanked after a couple of days. But some of them are back up!

Hearing early Beach Boys”I Get Around” era Brian Wilson falsetto on “Be My Baby” – the song that drove his entire professional career – is sublime. Listen before they take it down again.

I also heard some pretty bad AI Nirvana.
The best of the lot is definitely Elvis singing Iggy Pop.
You can’t even tell it’s simulated!

Agent Elvis

So silly it could work? We’ll find out in March!

This ten episode, Netflix adult animation series from Sony Pictures Animation is an irreverent action comedy starring Matthew McConaughey as Elvis Presley and follows Elvis as he lives a double-life as a secret agent. The show was created by Priscilla Presley and John Eddie, and was developed by Co-Showrunners Mike Arnold and John Eddie, who also serve as Executive Producers along with Executive Producers Kevin Noel, Matthew McConaughey, Priscilla Presley, with Fletcher Moules serving as Co-Executive Producer and Seranie Manoogian as Producer. Jamie Salter, Corey Salter, and Marc Rosen with Authentic Brands Group also served as Executive Producers. Vancouver-based Titmouse served as the animation studio with Chris Prynoski, Shannon Prynoski, Antonio Canobbio, and Ben Kalina serving as Executive Producers and Gary Ye as Supervising Director, Chris Thompson as Art Director, and Josue Sanchez as Editor. Robert Valley created original character designs, and Agent Elvis’ wardrobe was designed by John Varvatos. Music and original score was composed by Tyler Bates and Timothy Williams.

Pistols Ephemera Up For Auction At Sotheby’s

Check out all this cool stuff! By the way, that’s an Animation City single-cel composite for The Great Rock ‘n’ Roll Swindle, c. 1978 (Estimate: 1,500 – 2,000 GBP).

From The Guardian

If Pistol, Danny Boyle’s recent TV series, was the story of a rock band, then this collection is the story of an idea: a collaborative multimedia art project in which Reid and McLaren, who met at Croydon art school, were at least as significant as Johnny Rotten and Sid Vicious. “They all brought their own unique visions and the Sex Pistols was the pot that everyone threw everything into,” Stolper says. Many of the images, ostensibly created to promote gigs and records, hold up as artworks in their own right. You could see them without having heard a note of the Sex Pistols’ music and know that they represented a radically significant moment in British youth culture. “This is all at the service of something else,” Wilson says, “and working out what that something else is is the intriguing part of it.”

Bidding opens October 10.

Viking Kittehs

In honor of Len Zefflin week, enjoy this gem from the early internets.

I think I liked the song better after finding this. I’m sure it’s what they pictured when they wrote it.

Still One Of The Funniest Things I’ve Ever Seen

As usual, I rely on Wikipedia to fill in the gaps …

Korgoth of Barbaria is a pilot episode for what was originally planned as an American adult animated television series created by Aaron Springer, a storyboard artist, writer and director for Dexter’s Laboratory, The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy, Samurai Jack, and SpongeBob SquarePants, who previously created another failed pilot at Cartoon Network Studios called Periwinkle Around the World. He would later go on to produce Billy Dilley’s Super-Duper Subterranean Summer for Disney XD. Genndy Tartakovsky, creator of Dexter’s Laboratory and Samurai Jack, directed the animation for the pilot. This was not the only time he worked on a pilot created by Springer, as Tartakovsky also produced and directed Periwinkle Around the World.

It was first aired in the United States on June 3, 2006, at 12:30 AM (EST) on Adult Swim. On June 18, Adult Swim ran a bumper announcing that Korgoth of Barbaria was officially picked up as a series, because of its critical and commercial success with garnering high ratings. Later events, including a formal petition to revive the show and an Adult Swim bumper announcement mentioning its cancellation, indicate that it was dropped before production began due to high production costs.