Quality graffiti animation by Blu

It's rare (for me anyway) to watch a ten minute youtube video to the end but this is WELL worth it, particularly the amazing water tower soldier bit near the end:



http://blublu.org/sito/updates/updates.htm

Michael's Pets. In a good way. Kind of.

Word to your moms: there is some awesome shiznit in the window of the Irish Cancer Society shop on Camden Street - the window is full of old Fleetwood Mac and Talking Heads LPs and musicy things - going on sale Saturday July 3rd. But continuing my policy of being mesmerised by weird Michael Jackson merchandise I saw an old school Bubbles the Chimp(ly Sailor) toy with a story and song cassette, available inside the shop. (All in its original packaging!)

It's 60 of your earth dollars so I sure as hell can't afford it but if any of you clowns purchase it I'd like to come round and listen to the sing along cassette with you and Bubbles. But not in a weird way. (definitely in a weird way...)

This wiki article on Michael and Bubbles is highly amusing; apparently Bubbles tried to top himself in 2003 but rest easy: Since the closure of Dunn's facility in 2004, Bubbles has been kept at the Center for Great Apes in Wauchula, Florida, where he is said to enjoy painting and listening to flute music.

Check out more of Michael's Pets here. (That sounds pretty creepy but I assure you it's just pictures of nice toys and not like, that dance guy Wade Whatsisface or Macauley Culkin or anything - shudder)

Comb your face!

This one's for Chewy - it's his getting ready to go out song. (It's up there with Fly Like an Eagle for quality tunism not to mention dopplegangerosity):

Rainy day recreation: Douglas Adams talks about some cool stuff.

This is a brilliant talk by Douglas Adams about a lot of things such as lemurs and kimodo dragons and some of the things he got up to researching his book Last Chance To See (about endangered species.) He is highly entertaining and amusing and he talks a LOT of sense about the world and the environment without being a sap about it, which is key. (It's hard to write about Douglas Adams without being a sap about it. I think the word ledge-bag sums up some of my feelings.)



Check out some quality Adams' quotes here.

I get older...

Woody Wooderson = dreamboat central. If you haven't seen Dazed and Confused get thee to a moving picture rental emporium tout suite!(that's french for pronto)

Beardyman Swoonerama

Continuing my policy of being completely enamoured of Beardyman and his Mad Skillz check out a recent show: Beardyman & Friends' "Complete and Utter Shambles": it's pretty hilarious and full of the usual ridiculosity:



http://www.beardyman.co.uk/

This will be us at Chic on Friday

I Must Break You... Rocky IV Workout Mix

When I was younger I never bothered getting a CD walkman or a mini disc player - they just didn't make any sense to me. I had a vision of what a music player should be like and I knew somewhere in my heart of hearts that someone else in the world would have the determination to invent it if I could...just... hang on. Et voila - here I am, covered in touchscreen mp3 players.

I love that feeling when you realise FINALLY someone has invented what you were looking for. I got that feeling the other day when perusing deadly blog Genevan Heathen (a great mix of 80s movies, fun and hip hop) and saw one of their deejays Matt Foley has made a 20 minute work out mix inspired by RockyIV - replete with the classic tunes and inspiring quotes from the movies. It's a beautiful thing, just like the movie.


http://genevanheathen.blogspot.com/

Look at this hipster

Look at this fucking hipster.

Ladytron: Use Your Mind

Can't wait for Yo Gabba Gabba! to release a greatest hits compilation.
I was going to post Ladytron's video for 'Destroy Everything You Touch' aswell but seeing as Universal Music Group (who own pretty much everything) are systematically removing their whole catalogue from the internet I couldn't find it. BOOOO! But that's a rant for another time.

www.ladytron.com

J.D. Salinger = integrity

click on image to read full letter

J.D. Salinger died just over a week ago. Check out this amazing letter where he explains why he won't sell the rights to his 1951 novel The Catcher In The Rye, (which still sells 250,000 copies a year, 60 years on) about disillusioned teen Holden Caulfield.


"The weight of the book is in the narrator's voice, the non-stop peculiarities of it, his personal, extremely discriminating attitude to his reader-listener, his asides about gasoline rainbows in street puddles... he can't legitimately be separated from his own-first person technique. True, if the separation is forcibly made, there is enough material left over for something called an exciting (or maybe just interesting) evening in the theater. But I find that idea, if not odious, at least odious enough to stop me from selling the rights."

Makes me want to read the novel again. The letter is on sale for a mere $54,000 over at www.momentsintime.com

Jerome David Salinger
Jan 1, 1919 – Jan 27, 2010
R.I.P

Groundhog Day - the movie not the day

I don't actually care that it's Groundhog Day I just want to play clips from the movie as it is one of the best things ever.

This is the needle-nose Ned Ryerson scene:






Rita: You speak french?
Phil: ... Oui.

Zoltar versus Zandar

Alas, Zoltar versus Zandar is not an ultra hip new electro duo (although it should be) it's just me comparing a really cool wizard with a really awful one. Zoltar is the one from the movie Big and is pretty much where it's at in terms of wish granting wizardry. Creepy, dark, knows his stuff, gets the job done, works even when not plugged in, disappears right after. He's like a fortune telling carnival assassin. I couldn't find the clip from the movie but a guy called Roger Hess from Minneapolis has created an amazing replica from scratch - you can check it out here:



According to Hess, the one in Big was just a prop so he set about building a working replica in his basement - you can see the movie one briefly at the beginning of the trailer:



What a film. Now. As for Zandar - check out this joker:



An old Captain Birdseye lookalike masquerading as a glorified magic 8 ball in a snow globe getting young girls to run their hands over him to gain meager and extremely vague tidbits of information with which to stroke their fragile teen egos? Yuck. Also, he had to get cards printed with "The Wizard Could Be Wrong" on them. I've a question for you Zandar - How is Zoltar so much better than you?

Enter the world of Creative Grooming. (in a good way)

Sandy Hartness runs a dog grooming salon in California called Sandy Paws - her site consists mainly of photos of her and her poodle Cindy at creative grooming competitions, a lot of which they seem to win. God bless America, and the internet. If it were not for both of these holy things we could never witness the following:

Camel (it's actually pretty good, right?)

Pacman!

My favourite - Mutant Ninja Poodle

Check out Sandy Paws' website at http://www.pinkcoyote.net/ for more eh.. creative grooming. And yes, Groomer to Groomer is a real thing and they are real, amazing covers - check out the latest:

Wow! A lion king dog - in your face, Sandy Paws!

Cover album inspired artwork

“Dear Batman: We accept the fact that we had to sacrifice a whole Saturday in Bat-detention for whatever it is we did wrong, but we think you’re crazy for making us write an essay telling you who we think we are. You see us as you want to see us: in the simplest terms, in the most convenient definitions. But what we found out is that each one of us is an archer, and a speedster, and a swimmer, a princess, and an acrobat. Does that answer your question? Sincerely yours, The Teen Titans.”

Thank you, John Hughes. Rest in peace.

-Cliff Chiang

Full story here

Omar! Is that you?

Even I know The Wire is the best thing ever. And that Omar is also the best thing ever. The only video I could find with Omar that didn't have some kind of spoilers in it was this montage which is initially amusing but turns out to be quite mesmerising and does somewhat capture him:



So kudos to the actor Michael K. Williams for being so amazing. And DOUBLE kudos to him for ALSO starring as James the cop in R.Kelly's supreme hip-hopera opus Trapped in the Closet. Yes, remember that little gem?! James the cop is going out with a lady called Bridget who is having an affair with a midget (R.Kelly's got mad rhyming skillz) - and if you don't remember it or haven't seen it - behold it in all its dramatic majesty:



According to his wiki page, Michael K. Williams got his awesome facial scar in a fight on his 25th birthday, which would have been in 1991. I know it's kind of fuzzy but it doesn't look like he has the scar in the R.Kelly video which was produced in 2005. What gives, internet? I'm not even going to consider the possibility wikipedia isn't made of 100 per cent true science facts because my whole belief system would crumble. The mystery just makes me more enamoured.

You can watch more of Trapped in the Closet on youtube but really what you should be doing is going and buying all 5 series of The Wire here. I was going to end there with an Omar-esque "You feel me?" but clearly I could never pull that off.

ClimaXXX XXXmas Count-UP no.14: Scrooged

"I've never liked a girl enough to give her 12 sharp knives"
Scrooged is my favourite Christmas movie. Even more so than Silent Night Deadly Night. I obviously can't do it justice so check this top 10 moments video out:



SO - there you go. A Climaxxx Top 14 Christmas Count - UP. Have a cool yule and normal programming will resume soon!

ClimaXXX XXXmas Countdown no.12: Gremlins

So some guy made the following video for a girl he loves asking her to come back to him. It's a Gremlins montage set to Christmas music and it's even got the gremlins theme tune at the end so I'm presuming he did something pretty bad. But the video is great. Hope it worked out for him:



Uh, still 1 day to go!

ClimaXXX XXXmas Countdown no.10: Planes, Trains and Automibiles

Ok, ok, so technically Planes, Trains and Automobiles is about getting home for Thanksgiving but I only just realised this when watching it a while after John Hughes died. In my brain it may as well be about Christmas because it's all cold and snowy and about togetherness and (be warned) Steve Martin cursing his head off:



This is also pretty Christmassy:



And this:



only 2 days to go!

ClimaXXX XXXmas Countdown no.8: Elf

I'm so behind the times. Apparently yesterday (the 18th) was Answer The Phone Like Buddy The Elf Day. This is the kind of important thing you miss when you're not on Facebook. I also really miss the social intricacies involved in ignoring people that you met at that party and really clicked with but who you, let's face it, in the cold light of day, have no interest in ever talking to again even though they keep messaging you and posting photos of you off your bleedin' bracket on your manager's page. Bah Humbug! (Saying that makes your rant Christmassy and therefore acceptable.)

Anyway - Back to Buddy the Elf:







6 days to go!