A documentary AND new episodes!
This Is Weird, For Many Reasons
… but mostly because Welles is an opinionated genius and world-class hater. It’s hard to imagine him being a talk show host who could get guests comfortable.
Throw in Andy Kaufman, and I’m not sure what I was expecting. I was pleasantly surprised. It’s clear that Welles had watched Taxi, and had thought about it in some depth.
“I want to know why it is that you go and wrestle with people, when you can act so well.”
I’m Crying
Come on guys, don’t let Spectrum drop Corncob TV.
The Coolest Thing You’ll See Today
I’ve posted a few of this guys videos before. Just … sickeningly talented.
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.
Parking Lot Movie
I really enjoyed this. Available for $0 on Amazon Prime. A great antidote to overhyped action hero fare, and probably the sort of thing someone who appreciates abandoned malls would like.
There’s probably nothing worse than poets working in parking lots.
Uelsmann
Do yourself a favor and spend some time today looking at Jerry Uelsmann photos. Unbelievably prolific. Ridiculously technical. As the MOCP said:
Made entirely in the darkroom, Jerry Uelsmann creates his surreal photographs in a series of steps, masking and exposing different areas of photosensitive paper as he changes negatives. He maintains some loyalty to the aesthetic of traditional landscape and still life photography, insofar as the seams and edges of each successive element are concealed, and the resulting composite suggests the unity of a singular view or scene. The metaphoric and symbolic force of Uelsmann’s photographs is derived from these juxtapositions, consistencies, and forms. Uelsmann’s photo-montages extend the tradition of surrealist photography pioneered by the avant-garde photographers and painters of the 1930s and 40s: positive and negative spaces are inverted and false reflections appear in earth and water, architectural elements like windows and doorways bound tapestries of sky and sand.
What they don’t say is that he’s also a funny motherfucker who loves music, and how impossible it is to imagine how much work he’s created in that complex style. Oh yeah. And JBJ’s a fan. See also
Secret Bar of the Stars
Last weekend I visited Muscle Shoals Sound Studios. Above is a hidden bar accessed via a panelling cut-out. The county was dry back in the day, so it had to be hidden. Twenty-mile drive to the Tennessee state line for restocking. That’s an old video player on the counter for, um, “films.” Original furnshings. The picture on the wall is of Jerry Wexler and Willie Nelson. Some huge talent relaxed in that little room, along with the Swampers, of course. I still find it very funny that musicians came from all over the planet to work with those “black musicians” who played on Staples Singers and Wilson Pickett (and 100 others) records, just to find four white guys who looked like they worked at the local Tractor Supply.
An interesing fact (of many) about that dumpy little building: it’s slightly twisted. No parallel surfaces, so no standing waves. You can place a mike pretty much anywhere without issues.
The tour guide was knowledgeable. Unlike a few years ago when I toured nearby Fame Studios (where the Swampers worked for Rick Hall before striking out on their own). The guide was a young ignoramus whom I tormented with corrections and questions. Sorry, but if I’m paying for a tour, the guide should know more about the place than I do.
These Were Great
Here’s all the Get a Mac ads that ran … 16 years ago?!
The original American advertisements star actor Justin Long as the Mac, and author and humorist John Hodgman as the PC, and were directed by Phil Morrison. The American advertisements also aired on Canadian, Australian, and New Zealand television, and at least 24 of them were dubbed into Spanish, French, German, and Italian. The British campaign stars comedic duo Robert Webb as Mac and David Mitchell as PC while the Japanese campaign features the comedic duo Rahmens. Several of the British and Japanese advertisements, although based on the originals, were slightly altered to better target the new audiences. Both the British and Japanese campaigns also feature several original ads not seen in the American campaign.
The Get a Mac campaign is the successor to the Switch ads that were first broadcast in 2002. Both campaigns were filmed against a plain white background. Apple’s former CEO, Steve Jobs, introduced the campaign during a shareholders meeting the week before the campaign started. The campaign also coincided with a change of signage and employee apparel at Apple retail stores detailing reasons to switch to Macs.
The Get a Mac campaign received the Grand Effie Award in 2007. The song in the commercial is called “Having Trouble Sneezing” by Mark Mothersbaugh.