My buddy Desho Bernard (Desho needs a hug), who produces comedic video clips for Guru Bangkok (i.e., The Bangkok Post), just made this lastest clip — about Facebook addiction.
And while I don't refer to myself in the third person (except during sex, of course), I am also one of the legion of Facebook addicts. Ahh, we laugh because it's funny, and we laugh because it's true — Desho can't go on!!
Damn, this shit is funny.
I'd like to be able to say that I contributed to at least a portion of the brainstorming that came up with this clip. But given that the concept — unlike myself — is REALLY funny … I think we all know that I had absolutely nothing to do with it. Dammit!
For obvious reasons (i.e., the entire election process is about as interesting — and just a likely to make me vomit — as naked pictures of Amy Winehouse), I haven't been paying much (read: any) attenton to the American Presidential race for the past 2 years.
From what I've seen tho, apparently there's finally a black guy running this time — which is pretty cool, I guess.
Anyhoo, thanks to Chez ove at Deus Ex Malcontent, I've become much more informed about the entire process. Thanks kid … I think.
I thought this YouTube clip (which Chez also wrote about on his site) was both hysterical AND informative. It's about an apparent (ahem) 'rift' between John McCain and his wife:
It's 4:00 a.m., I'm up all night in another random airport for the second time in 3 days, and I'm jacked up on a whole boatload of Nescafe instant coffee. This is the part of traveling abroad that they never tell you about on National Geographic Explorer.
Welcome to my fucked-up little corner of the world.
It's been a while since I've posted any music up here … and even longer since anyone other than my girl and the occasionalmalcontent has read and/or commented this blog.
But for my own well being and state of mind, as well as to remind some of us that I do indeed listen to Ozzie music more than it would appear, I'm posting this song from Australian 'Granola' Band, The John Butler Trio.
All this unadulterated access to electricity and television has made me all nostalgic and shit for the bittersweet couch-bound days of my youth.
In that vein, I thought it appropriate to share what I remember to be the top 10 time wasters from my youth. Is it any wonder why I was such a fan of the ladies from such an early age? (and by 'fan of the ladies,' I mean 'remained humiliatingly celibate').
10. The A-Team
With all the fucking bullets flying, and bombs falling, and cars exploding — how come nobody ever got killed in that goddamn show?
It's been quite a while since … well, actually since I've posted anything, really.
But I know it's been even more since I've posted anything of a musical nature. Sorry 'bout that, kids.
That being said, I want to give y'all a taste of the music that I and others were listening to down in Indo. Yes, I know listening to acclaimed Hawaiian surfer/musician Jack Johnson is kinda cliche on an Indo surf trip, but frankly … the music simply works in that type of setting.
I mean, all you're doing is surfing in the morning, then you eat, read a book while listening to your Ipod, take a nap, go out for an afternoon surf — then rinse and repeat … for a month. There's a good reason that Johnson plays this type of music, and there's an even better reason why it's popular with the surf-travel crowd.
Look at this picture I took from Banco Banco, Lombok - facing west towards the volcanic mountain Gunung Agung on Bali. Then close your eyes, listen to this song, see yourself there on the beach, and try to imagine why you should — or could — consider working behind a desk ever again.
Got it yet? No? Try looking at the picture and listen to the song again.
Despite all my bitching and moaning about how, after 10 years of practicing law, I've grown to despise the whole Western capitalist machine grinding people into bitter narcissistic drones, I still just love the work of Fred Wilson, a venture capitalist whose blog is over at A VC In NY.
To be honest, I've never heard of them before. But after listening to several of their songs - including the one in the below video - I'm with Fred, these guys are fucking awesome, with a promising (albeit probably "money-grubbingly" infused) future.
As I mentioned a few days ago, I haven't watched cable television for the last couple years.
As such, I'm a couple months behind on this thing, but this Starburst ad I saw this morning is quite possibly the funniest disturbing commercial I've ever seen.
Much like The Exorcist, I've watched it about 100 times now, and it keeps getting funnier every time I see it.
I find it fairly ironic, given my personal situation (abandoning the relatively quiet confines of my life as an attorney in Miami in favor of a vision quest to the South Pacific), that one of my favorite movies has been playing virtually nonstop on HBO ever since I got here to Phoenix — Joe Versus The Volcano.
If you're not familiar with it, the movie is an existential comedy classic starring Tom Hanks, probably one of the best comedies ever after Groundhog Day.
As per Wikipedia:
Joe Banks (Tom Hanks) is a downtrodden everyman who finds no joy in his existence. Upon learning that he is chronically ill with a "brain cloud", Joe is visited by an industrialist who offers him the opportunity to "live like a king, die like a man." He will pay for whatever Joe wants, as long as he throws himself into a volcano afterwards. With nothing to lose, Joe agrees.
According to people close to the writer/director, John Patrick Shanley, the story is based on a near death experience Shanley had and is his attempt to describe and explain the altered outlook on life he adopted as a result.
Although I've not gone through a near death experience (well, not in the past few months, at least), I have obviously had something of an epiphany with respect to the time we all spend on Earth — it is definitely, definitely, definitely not meant to be spent behind a fucking desk shuffling paper.
Admittedly, I personally didn't like the movie when I saw it in my early 20's.
Indeed, I didn't quite get it at the time, despite the fact that I already had questions about the validity of being a lifelong desk-jocky (which probably explains why I spent a year working on fishing and crabbing boats in Alaska between college and law school — yeah, I know, I'll write about that later).
This is a compilation of some of the scenes of Joe at sea, on his way to the island of Waponi Wu to jump into the volcano. Strangely enough, they sorta resemble some scenes from his later film, Cast Away (another Hanks great).
Good shit, my friends. Good shit.
P.S. TK, even though I'm dead to you, I hope you feel better, bud.
P.P.S. If I find an island in Indo named Waponi Wu, or if I see anyone resembling Abe Vigoda, I'm on the next flight back to the States.
As I may have mentioned before, although I owned a 55″ HDTV, I got rid of my cable about 2 years ago in lieu of renting movies, reading books, and playing on the interwebs.
As a result, during that time, I generally have not been privy to the outstanding network news produced in the U.S. (and in particular, the fantastic coverage of Anna Nicole Smith's death), nor have I had the luxury of watching the 2-3 actually good cable channels out there.
But now I'm hanging out at my friend's house. And he's got cable. A lot of cable.
Fuel TV is obviously one of the few channels I've been watching religiously since I got here (duh).
G4 TV is another (although I don't play video games).
Although G4 is generally dedicated to maintaining the everlasting virginity of the "video-gamer" croud, they often have some interesting internet links and video clips.
This extremely gay video madness that I just saw on G4's "Attack of The Show" is one of them. It's abvsolutely brilliant! (Tom Cruise as a gay unicorn? … Priceless!) It's also fucking hysterical.
Not that I advocate such stuff, but I would also assume that smoking, drinking, ingesting, or otherwise subjecting yourself to some type of mind-altering substance would greatly enhance your viewing pleasure (not that I've ever engaged in such activities personally).
So, after getting entirely too intoxicated last night, logically what did I do first thing this morning after getting only several hours of sleep?
I went mountain biking, of course. Err … yah. Two words — Mis. Take.
Although things went relatively well (no broken bones), upon my return home I resigned myself to napping on my couch for the remainder of the afternoon (which has unfortunately come to resemble the vast majority of my afternoons of late), in a valiant effort to win the war against the alcohol in my system that had otherwise emerged victorious from our various battles earlier in the day.
Once back in the sweet, safe, and cool confines of my (for now) apartment, I popped in several movies that I've wanted to see (or at least sleep through), including one of the 25 movies made by Will Ferrell last year — Stranger Than Fiction.
It was a decent and cute movie in which, as usual, Will Ferrell gave a solid performance. But what i particularly enjoyed was the movie's use of retro-punk and mod songs from the late 1970's and early 1980's to set the tone. These are some of the most stylish (pun intended), yet still musically adept, songs of the era. I definitely recommend you check out this soundtrack for Stranger Than Fiction, even if you never see the movie (which you should at least try to do).
Among the great songs on the soundtrack is this song, one of my favorites ever from the band, The Jam (the precursor band to The Style Council). Both the song (with its great guitar and bass lines), as well as the accompanying video are surprisingly contemporary considering they were produced almost 30 years ago.
The Jam - That's Entertainment
Also included in the soundtrack are several great songs from the Austin, Texas indie-rock band Spoon. You may also want to check out this particular song by Spoon (which is not on the Stranger Than Fiction soundtrack, but still a great example of their work). I also recommend you check out the songs they produced specifically for the soundtrack.
UPDATE: I just saw this post over at the great music blog, Cable & Tweed, about this topic from back in November. They also have a few MP3's from the movie, available free for download - including songs from Spoon, Wreckless Eric, and The Jam. Check it out.
2d UPDATE: Rich over at Cable & Tweed advises that, "before I disappoint any readers… those tracks on C&T from the STF soundtrack aren’t up anymore." Oh well, it's still a good music blog worth visiting.
Continuing with my current fascination of mindlessly posting pre-produced videos — most of which I just realized are unsettlingly relating to Star Wars — I give you another video from the same twisted geeks at Robot Chicken who brought you this last piece of brilliant Star Wars dementia.
I'm lazy and I'm trying to postpone typing out the pages and pages and pages of long-handed notes I made about my surfing trip while I was down in Costa Rica. (Mental note: Bring laptop to Indonesia, and no more god-damn longhand)
(Thanks to Dan at Pajiba for bringing this one to my attention. Bravo sir, bravo).
I'm doing the rounds again after a long absence, and I found yet another Star Wars CGI parody. This one's actually kinda clever, though (and it doesn't appear that they're trying to make money off of it, unlike countless others):
As aptly noted by Adam over at Best Week Ever, the best part of this video is that the guy who gets choked looks a lot like Dane Cook.
The power to strangle Dane Cook from afar? Ahh, if only it were that easy.
I was going to totally rip on this guy, but then I found myself listening to the song over and over, and I don't totally hate it. It's quite catchy even.
After wasting 10 years of my life practicing law in the bowels of various soul-sucking law firms, I sold everything but my surfboards, a laptop, and a suitcase full of clothes. Now I'm traveling across Asia and Oceania in a desperate attempt to reclaim my soul.
