captain random's roundup of miscellanea...

I got a lot of items on in the hopper and not much time or energy, so I'm starting a new, semi-regular feature on this blog. Every so often I'll toss up a post with a whole mess of links on it.

Good news for me, I clear my Inbox of possible blog posts. Good news for you, I inundate you with quality reading.

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Monster By Mail

The artist who runs this site creates one-of-a-kind caricature type drawings of monsters based upon a seasonal theme. This summer's theme is zombies, and you know how I love zombies! I just ordered one... Once I get it I'll post a picture here and let you know what I think. It is also pretty cool that you can get a video of him creating your monster for an additional fee.

a zombie ophthalmologist: the eye is the quickest way to the brain

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Generation Chickenhawk

Max Blumenthal is a lefty writer and quasi-documentarian whose work has appeared in The Nation and the Huffington Post. You can check out his blog here.

This short movie was filmed when Blumenthal attended a College Republicans convention at a hotel (Moonie-0wned!) across the street from Arlington National Cemetery. All the folks he talks to are gung ho for the war in Iraq. But when he asks why they aren't over there fighting for their country the self-contradictions and hypocrisy kicks into high gear.

In conversations with at least twenty College Republicans about the war in Iraq, I listened as they lip-synched discredited cant about “fighting them over there so we don’t have to fight them over here.” Many of the young GOP cadres I met described the so-called “war on terror” as nothing less than the cause of their time.

Yet when I asked these College Republicans why they were not participating in this historical cause, they immediately went into contortions.

Check the disconcerting political hilarity:

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Johnny Depp to play Hunter S. Thompson Once Again

Say what you will about Terry Gilliam's 1998 release of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Johnny Depp did a hell of a job portraying one of the most important (in my opinion) figures in twentieth century journalism. Hunter S. Thompson's death was the first death of a celebrity that affected me as much as did the passing of Jerry Garcia.

From reading after-the-fact stories about the filming of Fear and Loathing I learnt that Depp lived in Thompson's basement for months in preparation for this role in order to be able to imitate to unmistakable Gonzo master. That's dedication...

the Gonzo One's Trademark

Depp will play a younger, slightly more sober Thompson in the Rum Diary (IMDB page here), due in theaters in 2009. For those of you who have never read it, a brief synopsis:

Depp will play Paul Kemp, a freelance journo writing for a rundown newspaper in 1950s Puerto Rico and surrounded by a bunch of lost souls bent on self-destruction. The journo was 22 when he wrote the autobiographical novel and had yet to develop his trademark gonzo style. It was written in 1959 but not published until 1998.

This is not my favorite H.S.T. book, but I'm excited to see Depp reprise the role.

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Symphonic Video Game Music

I'm a child of the video game generation. I'm also moved into a somewhat cultured phase of my life. So what better then world-renowned symphonies playing the tunes from videogames--Super Mario Brothers, the Legend of Zelda and others--that served as the soundtrack of my childhood?

National Public radio did a nice little story about the Video Games Live tour's recent stop in Washington D.C. I'd love to see this show and I hope it comes down to South Florida...

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That's all for now, I hope you enjoy! Posting will be sporadic to non-existent the next few days as I will be in NYC for a little mini-vacation. I'm going to see the Beastie Boys in Central Park on Wednesday, which is only a warm up for the concert event of the summer... DAFT PUNK in Brooklyn on Thursday. I got a good crew of folks coming up from Florida and a bunch of people meting us in the city. On Friday, we are going to take my good friend BKNY's Slice of Brooklyn Pizza Tour and feed out faces before heading home on Friday night.

Hopefully, I'll have it together enough to review my trip this weekend.

Sunshine tonight

So tonight I am going to a screening of Sunshine, the new Danny Boyle/Alex Garland colaboration. I remember seeing this trailer in the theater a while back and getting excited, so I hope this is a good one...

Here is the trailer for the flick. Expect a full report tomorrow.

Best music video ever!

Remember when the Thriller video first came out? I do. I also remember that it was always the number one video of MTV's video countdowns. (Remember when MTV used to play videos? I do.)

This amatuer version blows the original away. Sure, it doesn't have special effects or makeup, but it makes up for those shortcomings by the sheer size of the production. Oh, did I mention that it was performed by the inmates of the Cebu Provincial Detention and Rehabilitation Center in the Phillipines.

I'm a big fan of the dude in drag playing the female role. These guys must have had some serious practice to do this so synchronized

Is this what really happens in thirdworld prisons? Song and dance numbers? Sure sounds better then what was portrayed in Brokedown Palace and Midnight Express.

Battles on VBS.tv

I've mentioned the band Battles here before, and my review of their show was a glowing one. They're playing a ton of dates this summer and don't look to be slowing down any time soon. It seems like all sorts of people (and media outlets) have the band on their brains these days.

One of these media outlets is VBS.tv. I recently got turned on to VBS.tv, the visual aspect of Vice Magazine's growing multimedia empire (Vice Records rounds out the audio portion). I started reading Vice Magazine back when it was printed on dirty newsprint and you could get it for free in its first home, the lovely city of Montreal. Now the only way I can get my dose of modern day gonzo journalism is by overpriced subscription (which I am happy to fork over my dough for).

The Vice crew profiled Battles on their short program Practice Space, and I found it to be a pretty interesting look at a very interesting band.

I hope you enjoy.

Take a look at some of the other stuff that VBS.tv has to offer; some of it is really funny (in an obnoxious and irreverent kinda way). Note that many of these clips are not safe for work.

Girl Talk gets crazy at the Montreal Jazz Fest

Girl Talk is the nom de laptop of Pittsburgh, PA's Girl Talk, one of the most bastardizing mash-up (or, depending on who you ask, rip-off) artists around. He takes two seemingly unconnectable songs from incredibly disparate genres and puts them together. Picture classic rock and hip hop carefully layered upon each other in a delectable mish-mash of of pop culture goodness.

When Girl Talk played Langerado, the promoter had the brilliant idea of having him play his next-to-the-last-set-of-the-fest set on a stage set up next to the soundboard while the next band set up on stage. Our crew had the heads up, so we were right there on the rail when he came out and started rippinig off his clothes and banging on his laptop.

Soon, he was dragging good looking girls onstage to dance with. Following the good looking girls were the slightly-to-extremely intoxicated jocks, who we promptly booed. By the end of the set security was seriously pissed and it took the promoter's intervention to keep Girl Talk from getting dragged off by the po-po. Apparently, festival staff had warned him specifically not to bring the bitches on stage to shake their groove things, and he had blatantly and intentionally ignored their direction.

That's the kind of guy that Girl Talk is. So it was no surprise to me when I saw the following video from his performance at the Montreal Jazz Festival a week or two ago. I used to live in Montreal, and the Jazz Fest is pretty much the best possible week on the face of the planet. There are free shows all day long on 5 stages, and then if you have the bucks, you can pay to see shows that rarely appear anywhere. I saw Tabla Beat Science in Montreal's Opera House and saw Medeski, Martin & Wood's annual throwdown with more special guests then you could shake a stick out. So I've seen a few crazy things there.

But no performance was as crazy as this video. To sum it up, here is an excerpt from a blog featured in the local (mainstream) newspaper:

[Girl Talk said] "You guys wanna party? Come this way!" And the huge crowd poured into the streets and over to the small vacant lot next door to Club Soda. Kids were hopping the fence, there was confetti in the air and glow sticks whirling about. And there, set up in the gravel was a generator, two giant speakers and a soundboard. It was mayhem! Girl Talk hijacked the jazz festival.

Sound good? Take a look!

Freakin' awesome, I tell you. It seems like one of those shows that you'll remember forever.

Wish I were there...

forget about smoking weed...

...you should be worrying about whatever it is that is making you hallucinate so bad.

Seriously though, that dog freaks me out.

Michael Jackson's Punch-Out!!

Yesterday's 8-bit video put me in a old skool mood, and then I see this in my Inbox this morning. It's a sign, people!

I used to love playing Mike Tyson's Punch-Out!!. I remember sitting in my buddy Matt Levy's bedroom when we were little kids and playing the bosses at the end of the game over and over and over and over again before we finally finished the game.

Funny, but I don't remember this level...

Was it just me or did the makers of the game intentionally make Mike Tyson way too difficult?

I wonder what they'd say about Iron Mike nowadays... I don't think they'd be making him the star of his own video game, that's for sure...

Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger

I know that it seems like I'm on a bit of an unnecessary Daft Punk kick over here. Which of course I am. The beginning of last week's tour pumped me out so much for the show I'm going to see later this summer that I've been listening to the French robots quite a bit lately.

Another unintended side effect of the tour's recent kick-off is the reemergence of a considerable amount of Daft Punk-related material on the web.

Take these videos. None of them (except the last one) is officially sanctioned. They're all a video of the same song but they couldn't be more different. I like how art of one kind influences art of another, but there is no expectation of how the influence is going to manifest itself.

This first pick is entitled Daft Hands, and the creator of the video has claimed that he created this masterpiece in one take. Dunno if that is the case or if he is being a little dishonest, but regardless it's pretty incredible. I do not have the coordination to do something like this at all.

For a little more musical talent (though not digital talent, the last d00d had that in spades), here is an a cappella version from the Carleton College Singing Knights. They have a pretty interesting set of songs that they perform on a regular basis; videos of most of them can be found at YouTube. If you've ever tried to sing anything in harmony, you know how difficult what this group of guys is doing truly is.

Click here (damn Flash-based pages) for an uber 8-bit version. If anyone know what game this is from (I'm looking at you, Perc) please let me know.

If those Nintendo throwback graphics brought you back to the future, then this one will bring you back. I spend at least ten hours a week with my feet planted firmly in front of my television, standing with a plastic guitar in my hands. I'm super-anxious to get my hands on a modified Play Station 2 so that maybe I can play things like this (though no where near as well).

And here, finally, is Daft Punk's version from their animated film Interstella 5555

pro shot Daft Punk video!

Until now, if you wanted to see the epic audiovisual experience that is Daft Punk live in concert, you either had to see them play live yourself (which I strongly--and repeatedly--urge you to do) or watch grainy, compressed audience video shot by amatuers.

That all changes now.

These two videos capture the robotic duo playing live this past weekend at London's O2 Wireless Festival. These videos (which not only are pro shot but also utilize multiple camera angles and some pretty spiffy editing) were broadcast on UK Channel 4 (note to American broadcasters: there is an audience for this stuff and you should maybe think about giving the consumers what they want).

"One More Time" / "Aerodynamic"

If the setlists bear any resemblance to last year, this tune was played near the middle of the set. I think that the twilight conditions verify that. Funny, I never in a thousand years would have thought that Daft Punk would begin their set while it was still light out.

"Rollin' & Scratchin' / "Da Funk" / "Superheroes"

Last year, this was the encore. I wish i would have brought a container to put my brain into after it ended, since my mnd slowly but surely dripped out my ears during the set.

How long until Brooklyn?

girl's feet cut off on amusement park ride

I love amusement parks. I especially love roller coasters: the faster and twistier the better, as far as I'm concerned.

That's why this story made my stomach turn. I've been on rides like this a million times, and though they're not my favoirte, it is a pretty cool sensation toleave your stomach up top as you free fall.

The most disturbing part of the story? A quote from an unidentified witness at the scene:

"The people on the ride just came and hit the ground," she said. "When I got up there, the lady she was just sitting there, and she didn't have no legs. ... And she was just there, calm, probably in shock from everything."

So you don't go away sour on amusement parks (especially roller coasters!!), here is a video of my favorite thril ride, the Volcano at King's Dominion in Williamsburg, Va.

Battles crush my skull... in a good way.

Last night I volunteered to be designated driver and hopped in the car with a moderately-sized crew. We were heading down to Studio A in Miami, home to overpriced drinks, beautiful hipster-chicks and dudes in over-ironic t-shirts aching to be noticed (some crew members included).

Why would we head into the god-forsaken 305 on a Monday night? It had to be a good reason to get me off of my couch on a Monday; so it had to be a great reason to get me to drive down to Miami in the rain on a Monday, the night before my weekly longest day ever (I have HUGE meetings on almost every Tuesday).

This was a good reason, New York avant rock (or if you want to be genre-specific, math rock) group Battles' first show in South Florida, and I was gonna see it. I first heard of the group a few months back when they announced that their first full-length LP, Mirrored, was going to be released on Warp Records. I found some of their tunes online and was immediately floored. The intricate layering of manipulated sound left me wondering "how did they do that?" and the driving oh-so-hard drum beats rattled my brain and made my neck cramp in anticipation of some serious head-banging.

I did a little bit of research and discovered that Battles were a super group, of sorts. I could go into the detailed back story of the group and its' members, but I think that this video will do much better justice as an introduction:

Suffice it to say that all four members are virtuosos in their own right, both technically in how they play their instruments, but also creatively, in the type of music they write. I've listened to a lot of music, and I've never heard anything like Battles before.

Anyway, back to the review.

After taking some half-baked advice on getting to the venue and getting lost in the ghetto twice and spit back onto the highway once, we made it to the venue as the final opening band was setting up their gear on stage. They're called (according to the same person who gave me the above mentioned directions) John Hancock and the Founding Fathers, and 'id give you a link to their site but I can't find out anything about them. They were actually pretty good, with a sound ranging from ! ! ! -esque dance punk to a more 80s new wave/pop sound. Their outfits had an unexplained jungle theme to them, and they all wore face paint for no good reason. But they had a song with the refrain "My girl is part Italian and I am part Mongolian," and I was glad that I saw them.

After the set ended, they cleared the stage completely and the guys from Battles started setting up their gear on in the empty space. It was actually rather cool to watch as the took the black space and completely constructed their setup. The stage was bookended by two similar setups. On each side a table held a laptop computer (gloat, Madpercolator, it was a Mac) and more effects pedals then I could count. A guitar leaned against each table. In the middle of the stage was drummer John Stanier's unmistakable yellow drumkit, complete with the high hat symbol on a stand that was about six feet tall. Behind the kit their sat various stringed instruments that would be played by Dave Konopka when the show finally began.

They came out around midnight, and we were ready. I stood about three rows back looking directly at the afroed Tyondai Braxton. When the double bass drum kicked, I did what I did at most concerts: I started dancing and dancing hard. I looked around to survey the crowd and discovered that out of the relatively meager size showing for the venue (but relatively good for a rainy Monday night) there were exactly seven people exhibiting any kind of body motion at all, and that they had either ridden in my car to get there or we met there.

Why is it that people don't dance at hipster shows? I really want to know...

The band kicked ass during their hour-and-fifteen minute set. It was pretty impressive how they would take something as simple as a guitar riff and then loop and manipulate it until it was indistinguishable from its' original form. Add to that the ability to layer on top of layer on top of layer until it sounded as if their were sound coming from a dozen different players instead of the four onstage and the brutally punishing intensity of the drums and you can imagine how intense this show was.

Battles play loud, aggressive rock and roll that is obtuse and angular in its melodies and rhythms, but at the same time danceable (to those of us who do that kind of thing, anyway). It is definitely the kind of music that not everyone can get into, but if you're into it you understand how good this band is at playing it.

My buddy Billy-B took some photos last night that I'll post up when he has a chance to send them my way.

And here they are:

Battles in motion

drummer John Stanier reaches up to hit his high hat

"Crazy" for the theremin...

I have a slight obsession with the theremin. I just think that they're cool instruments, and sometimes I think I might actually be able out figure out how to use one.

I also have an obsession with cover songs. Personally, I think that one of the most overlooked skills of a great live band is the ability to pick a good cover song and place it well in a set.

Last summer, you could not go 5 minutes without hearing Gnarls' Barkley's "Crazy". The song was literally everywhere. You could not turn on the radio or go out someplace where music was being played--from roller rinks to night clubs to bar mitzvahs and weddings and retirement parties--without hearing the tune.

I'll admit, it's a good tune, and it sure won Song of the Summer as far as I'm concerned. Seems to me that I'm not the only one, as a big trend last summer was the live cover of "Crazy" placed in setlists all over.

I bet none of those versions are quite like this:

Cool cover song + theremin jamming = happiness

The song of the summer (and the accompanying merchandising tie-in)...

Ever since this video for Justice's D.A.N.C.E. dropped I've watched it at least once a day. Not only is the song freakin' awesome, the video itself is visually stimulating enough to keep your eyes on it.

I've made it my goal to play this song an obscene amount of times this summer, so it's fitting that my first real post is about it.

Justice - D.A.N.C.E.

When I first saw this video, I slowly picked my jaw up off of my desk and asked myself "Where can I get one of those awesome t-shirts?" I was thinking of the ones that actually changed their designs and were psychedelically cartoonish, but these limited edition tees by Colette (warning: weird French flash page) will fit the bill. And as far as overpriced, uber-trendy t-shirts go, $66.12 for two ain't that bad. Unfortunately, not even I can fit into an extra-small tee...

I like these two a bit better (and they have medium!)

Any of you that read this blog on the regular or even the semi-regular are gonna find real fast that I have a semi-serious addiction to t-shirts. There are worse things to be strung out on, I guess.