Cooking MC's Like A Pound Of Bacon

"I'm sorry for the hair-dos, baggy pants, the scandals, the lies, the gangs and I'm sorry about the music. I was young, manipulated and I was a puppet."

Twenty years after the fact, Vanilla Ice is apologizing for Ice Ice Baby. Why? Is it because he feels like he was a fraud? A terrible singer? Nope, because now he's old and a paid puppet for Virgin Mobile's Right Music Wrongs viral campaign.

From their "manifesto": In a world awash with the insincerity of reality pop stars and pre-fabricated, formulaic, celebrity seeking, silicone enhanced lip sync-ers, something has gone desperately and dangerously wrong with music.

Awash with insincerity? That's just a little on the nose.

What Colour Is Your Nerd?

Inspired by the Nerdist's call for Nerd Collages, I threw together my own. In retrospect there are a few things I would have added, but I'm pretty pleased with the result.

Ok, here are the nerdy details, clockwise from bottom left:
Axis & Allies board game
Douglas Coupland: Generation X
Trivial Pursuit card
iTunes card
Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season One
The Cure: Three Imaginary Boys (first album, English import, vinyl)
Sudbury, Ont. snow globe
Disco Stu
Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (signed by Douglas Adams!)
Philip K. Dick: Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep
Calvin & Hobbes: Scientific Progress Goes 'Boink'
Watchmen
Simpsons cast poster
Comic Book Store Guy
Toronto International Film Festival guide (from 1997, my second year of 12 years of attendance)
Bloom County: Billy and the Boingers Bootleg
Asterix and the Goths
James Bond: Goldfinger
Sydney snow globe
The Tick
Kordos (or is it Kang?)

If you make your own, post a link in the comments. I'd love to see it.

We Are Outnumbered By Machines

If there really are concerns about Christian Bale's ability to recover from his fit of epic cursing, then the new trailer for Terminator: Salvation ought to alleviate them. It looks like a piece of mind-melting, summer popcorn fun and I was thoroughly in the "Why do we need another Terminator?" camp.

And hearing Bale's raspy, angry bellowing, I can just imagine what scene that unfortunate director of photography walked through. And I don't care.

Ghostbusters Catch Gozer... Um, Jesus

Winston Zeddemore: Hey Ray. Do you believe in God?
Dr. Ray Stantz: Never met him.
Winston: Yeah, well, I do. And I love Jesus's style, you know.
...
Winston: Hey Ray. Do you remember something in the bible about the last days when the dead would rise from the grave?
Ray: I remember Revelations 7:12...?And I looked, and he opened the sixth seal, and behold, there was a great earthquake. And the sun became as black as sack cloth, and the moon became as blood."
Winston: "And the seas boiled and the skies fell."
Ray: Judgement day.
Winston: Judgement day.
Ray: Every ancient religion has its own myth about the end of the world.
Winston: Myth? Ray, has it ever occurred to you that maybe the reason we've been so busy lately is 'cause the dead HAVE been rising from the grave?

Oh, you just know this is going to be trouble. Jesus Vs. Ghostbusters, from Jon Andrew Davis, who still has some t-shirts available.

(Link via Heavy Critters)

If You Watch Jaws Backwards...

From a thread on Reddit, that said: If you watch the movie Jaws backwards, it's a movie about a shark that keeps throwing up people until they have to open a beach.

Over 1000 comments followed. Here are just a few of my favourites:

If you watch Scarface backwards, it's about a man who gives up cocaine and crime to follow his dream of becoming a dishwasher to earn enough money so he can visit Cuba.

If you watch the Matrix backwards it's about Neo saying 'fuck it' and leaving the resistance to go work in an office.

If you watch Heroes backwards you realise that it's been getting progressively better over time.

If you watch Memento backwards, it's... Um. I forget.

If you watch Fight Club backwards, you see Ed Norton turn from a crazy streetperson into a successful productive member of society.

(Link via Nik at Nite)

100 Movies, 100 Quotes, 100 Numbers

A movie quote countdown that counts down the numbers. It's from a couple of years ago and still holds up nicely and is extremely well edited. You can make a stab at guessing all the films or just give up and read the full list of 100 films at Alonzo Mosley's site. But don't read it before you watch.

From the comments: "The whole process took about two months. I had earlier done a blog post with the 1-100 quotes listed, but when I went to do the video, I decided to change a bunch of them for various reasons. About a third of these I knew off the top of my head, and the rest I found through relentless Googling and IMDb-ing."

The depth of his movie knowledge leaves me in awe. This one goes to 11.

Hot Buttered Popcorn

Fire eater makes his own popcorn. If this guy tells you he's going to bring the popcorn, I'd suggest giving it a pass.

(Link via Information Nation)

Ginocchio And Winnie the Pope

Rarely Seen Disneyland Characters from illustrator Adam McCauley. Now this is a Disney I could get behind

Watcharama: Who watches the Futuramen?

This is the best trailer mashup I've seen in ever. Futurama, Watchmen, Jesus Zoidburg! Thanks to Topless Robot for alerting me to this piece of joy, and for the headline "The world will look up and shout "save us," and I'll whisper, "bite my shiny metal ass."

Here is the official trailer, should you need a refresh:


Ok, I just opened them in separate windows and played them side by side and they match perfectly, scene for scene. This is some geeky goodness.

Lost Cake Flashes Before Your Eyes

The cake for the 100th episode of Lost, as pictured by Jorge Garcia. Yep, Hurley has a blog. He has loads more photos of the details.

So the feed of tonight's Lost just cut out on me at the end. The local CTV affiliate filled the end of the show with ads and so I don't know what happened after Locke said "that symbol is from the Dharma Initiative." Arrgh.

Anyway, I'll be catching up at Lost author Nikki Stafford's blog, who has far more insight on the show than my posting of cake pictures. I encourage you all to go there - she should have something posted tonight and the group comments are great.

Ronald McDonald's Dark Side

Weird Fetish Prostitute Ronald Only Gets Two Customers a Year

Homeless Ronald Ruins Your Day

From Unreality's The 20 Most Terrifying Pictures of Ronald McDonald Ever. "So yeah, Heath Ledger + Childhood Fears + Google Images = this post."

I too have an obsession with McDonalds and even, while taking my break from a stint as Mayor McCheese at a small town parade, mashed that costume with the Hamburglar's and created McPimp. If I ever find that photo, I will burn it.

(Link via Listicles)

Twitter Me This? Andy Richter & Steven Page

A couple of hundred updates later and I think I might be getting a hang of this Twitter thing. With just a few minutes perusing my fellow Twits (that's the nomenclature, right?) I came across two bits of breaking(ish) news:

Andy Richter is returning as Conan O'Brien's sidekick! I haven't paid much attention to the end of O'Brien's run at Late Night or the ramp up to his taking the helm at the Tonight Show as I've given up on the late night chat shows and spend my nights with Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert. But back when I was a regular watcher, I loved the goofy, easy-going interaction between Richter and O'Brien. Apparently, so does he:

"Andy is one of the funniest people I know and we've maintained a close friendship since he left "Late Night," said O'Brien. "We have a proven chemistry that will be an incredible asset to "The Tonight Show." I'm looking forward to working with Andy on a daily basis again, particularly since he owes me $300."

I may have to start watching again. I'm glad to see Richter back as he has mostly been wasted in everything since the cancelled-too-soon Andy Richter Controls the Universe.

The other tidbit of news to filter through on Twitter was that Steven Page is leaving the Barenaked Ladies and going solo. The news was announced by Page himself on his new blog, via Twitter:

"Yes, it's official. I am no longer a Barenaked Lady. After twenty years (plus a few months), I'm heading out on my own."

And it was confirmed on the BNL site:

"By mutual agreement, Steven Page will be parting company with the remaining members of Barenaked Ladies. Jim Creeggan, Kevin Hearn, Ed Robertson, and Tyler Stewart will continue recording and touring together as Barenaked Ladies."

Wow, that's a pretty major move seeing as they have been together for 20 years. One can't but help think this has all been triggered by his cocaine arrest last July, but perhaps it was time for him to do something new. Sure, I took my shots at Page's arrest in a typical bit of schadenfreude, and there will be many who will scoff at this turn of events, but I've always had a soft spot for the boys of BNL. They always seemed to be genuinely enjoying what they do and I do hope it all works out for them. Time will tell, I suppose.

Strange Things I Learnt At Work Today...

While combing the news wires and photo sites on a daily basis, I read a lot more than I have have an opportunity to post. Occasionally I even learn something that I wonder how it had escaped my attention. Today was such a day:

They make Taser shotguns! That is insane.

...and there is a McDonald's at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, where even Ronald McDonald is behind bars! Bizarre.

Ok, back to the pop culture.

Rise And Fall Of The Nazi Dinosaurs

There are Nazis and dinosaurs, all in old-timey stop motion animation. What's not to love? U.S. paratroopers explore a desolate German research lab in Antarctica and discover, well, the title kind of sums it up.

Produced in five days by Alex Poutianinen for the grand total of $20. He's looking for work in the film industry but he should be looking for financial backers. If they are going to greenlight a Jane Austen zombie flick, why not a Nazi Jurassic Park?

Invaders! Possibly From Space!

I suppose everyone needs to learn somewhere. From Threadles: A Simple Plan by Neil Gregory.

Which gives me warm and fuzzy memories of the Raiders of the Lost Arcade segment from Futurama's Anthology if Interest II.

Lrrr: People of Earth, I am Lrrr of the planet Nintendu 64. Tremble in fear at our three different kinds of ships.
Fry: Alright, its Saturday night. I have no date, a two litre bottle of Shasta, and my all Rush mix tape! Let's rock!
Nd-Nd: We're losing ships, sir. What are your orders?
Lrrr: Increase speed, drop down and reverse direction!

Oddly enough I can't find that short clip (or at least not anywhere but Hulu) though I did find the whole segment. Weird.


Actually, now that I think about it, there was a Rush/video game connection on an episode of Chuck. In Chuck vs. Tom Sawyer (I don't know if that link will work), Chuck must play a game of Missile Command all the way to the kill screen to get to a set of satellite codes. He realizes the rhythm of the game matches Rush's Tom Sawyer and defeats the game.

So what is it about Rush and video games, or was this just a nod to Futurama?

Previously on Popped Culture...
Watcharama: Who watches the Futuramen?
Obsoletely Fabulous
Popaganda: The Pop Culture Revolution

Che's Big Adventure

National Post illustrator Steve Murray sums up the 4 hour and 15 minute run time of Che thusly:
Now I feel like going and reading a Babar book, for some reason. You can see more of Steve's work at Extremely Bad Advice and Posties and Stevetastic.

(Link via, indirectly, Boy Reporter)

Oscar Night Predictions: Every Slumdog Has His Day

I feel like a fraud. As of two nights ago the only Oscar-nominated films I'd seen were The Dark Knight, Tropic Thunder and Wall-E. My bragging rights came from having caught Waltz With Bashir at the Toronto Film Festival in September.

This might not seem like a big deal to some, but I used to run a commercial mainstream entertainment website for four years and even my current co-workers ask me, "I thought you some sort of culture vulture?" Some vulture. Some days I barely even get a whiff of the corpse, let alone get a good chew, especially when it comes to movies. I suppose that comes with the territory - an early-morning job and an active two-year-old. But still.

Last night I may have stumbled across the solution, though it feels like a Faustian bargain. A friend passed along a website (http://www.watch-movies-links.net/) where all the Oscar-nominated films are steaming, along with some 10,000 other films. We watched Slumdog Millionaire on the laptop with no problem. It was clearly a screen and had some occasional pixelization issues, but the stream never dropped, never buffered.

I do have some problems with this. I know I lost some of the visual wonder of having not seem this on a big screen or even in a DVD format on my TV. I also think content creators should get paid. I get that films cost money — I'm no privacy advocate.

That being said, I loved the experience. I popped on the site, typed in a name of what I wanted to see, clicked and it played. No fuss. I want to see these film, but I can't right now, so what can I do. This site embodies what we have been promised for years — being able to chose what you want to watch, when you want to. Truly personalized and on-demand.

This site could be the Napster of movies and the studios need to learn the lessons of the music industry and not try to quash it, but get behind it and find a way to monetize it. There will always be pirates, but make a site like this that is simple to use, delivers a good product and for a reasonable price and I will pay and so will others. It's why iTunes has succeeded.

The other point of this rant is I will likely be catching up with the other films soon, but don't actually believe that you need to see them to enter — and win — an Oscar pool. And with that, here are my predictions for what they are worth.

BEST PICTURE
Slumdog Millionaire

DIRECTING
Slumdog Millionaire

ACTOR, LEADING
Mickey Rourke in The Wrestler

ACTRESS, LEADING
Kate Winslet in The Reader

ACTOR, SUPPORTING
Heath Ledger in The Dark Knight

ACTRESS, SUPPORTING
Viola Davis in Doubt

SCREENPLAY, ORIGINAL
Milk

SCREENPLAY, ADAPTED
Slumdog Millionaire

FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM
Waltz with Bashir

ANIMATED FEATURE
WALL-E

CINEMATOGRAPHY
Slumdog Millionaire

VISUAL EFFECTS
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

ART DIRECTION
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

COSTUME DESIGN
The Duchess

FILM EDITING
Slumdog Millionaire

MAKEUP
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

DOCUMENTARY FEATURE
Trouble the Water

DOCUMENTARY SHORT
The Conscience of Nhem En

SHORT FILM, ANIMATED
Presto

SHORT FILM, LIVE ACTION
Spielzeugland (Toyland)

SOUND EDITING
The Dark Knight

SOUND MIXING
The Dark Knight

ORIGINAL SCORE
Slumdog Millionaire

ORIGINAL SONG
Down to Earth from WALL-E

And here are my sources:
EW's Oscar predictions
Film Experience
Awards Daily: Oscar Contender Tracker
New York Magazine: Oscar Predictions You Can Bet On!

And after a couple of years of live blogging this Hollywood love-in, I think I will leave that task to the millions of others who have taken to the sport. I may drop in at The Ampersand, just to see what they have to say, but other than that I might just watch the show.

Update:
I got 16/24 right, about my usual par. Last year was 15/24, so having watched fewer films made no real difference whatsoever. I bet against Slumdog twice (what was I thinking?) and lost on a few of the smaller tech categories. I also went for Rourke in the 50/50 contest and got the short stick. Ah well.

Other than that, a fairly tight show, though they could drop at least one of sound categories and maybe the original song, which is mostly played over closing credits and has nothing to do with the film (Slumdog notwithstanding.)

Meme-tastic

I couldn't resist getting sucked into the latest music-related meme currently taking Facebook by storm and I was so pleased with the results I figured I needed to show it here. I figure Electronic Literature Organization probably plays some fairly unlistenable, art-student prog-rock.

I've pulled together 20 of the albums I've seen just in the last day. I'm sure you all be tagged soon.

Here be the rules and it needn't be relegated to FB:

1 - Go to "wikipedia." Hit "random" or click http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Random
The first random wikipedia article you get is the name of your band.

2 - Go to "Random quotations" or click http://www.quotationspage.com/random.php3
The last four or five words of the very last quote of the page is the title of your first album.

3 - Go to flickr and click on "explore the last seven days" or click http://www.flickr.com/explore/interesting/7days
Third picture, no matter what it is, will be your album cover.

4 - Use photoshop, the gimp or similar to put it all together.

5 - Post it to FB with this text in the "caption" and TAG the friends you want to join in.

A Day in the Life of Abbey Road

The video for Blame Ringo's first single Garble Arch from their new album, Lucky Number 9, featuring a cast of tourists all attempting to recreate the iconic Beatles album Abbey Road, and trying not to get flattened in the process.

It's a surprisingly busy spot and clearing a fan magnet. I didn't have to watch the webcam long before I say a group taking photos, though most people cross obliviously. You can see many of the results on Flickr.

The Australian band, described as "wussy indie folk-rock," has received a creative boost from a legal dustup with Ringo Starr himself.

"Originally billed as "Goodnight Vienna," the band had to change its name in late 2007 after being threatened with legal action by Richard Starkey Jr. (aka Ringo Starr). Apparently "Goodnight Vienna" was the name of Ringo's fourth studio album and although he 'thoroughly enjoyed the music' he was 'obliged to dissuade any profiteering which resulted from the use of his intellectual property.'

"What a bastard.

"After a spiteful name change (and a lot muckracking) the new and improved Blame Ringo are set to have their revenge by seeking to expose the man who claims to inventing the peace sign.

And expose they do: "...he is a malevolent force, instrumental in many ugly world events, including, (but not limited to) the secret conspiracy to break up the Beatles."
Photos: A retouched picture show Lee Harvey Oswald's head on the photo of Ringo holding two Marxist newspapers — The Militant and The Worker — in one hand, a rifle in the other.

Ich bin ein Ringo - On February 6, 1932 Hitler met with Putzi Hanfstaengl at a German airfield. This photograph was take on that day. Closer inspection of the photo reveals a shadowy figure and a familiar grin. Could it be?

(Link via Boing Boing)

Death Star Disco Inferno

Stormtroopers got to get their groove on too. From redbubble via Topless Robot.

Don't believe me? Then watch below: