The Green Screen
This might not be news to folks like Amanda Mae, but this is a great illustration of just how common Chroma key is. (thanks, Rich)
What a lovely way to burn
Miss Peggy Lee. “Fever.” 1958.
(Courtesy of Tom Sale, the Texas artist a/k/a Pinky Diablo.)
Cherchez La Femme — Dr. Buzzard’s Original Savannah Band [circa 1976]
on the “Tony Orlando & Dawn” show.
DISCLAIMER:
The intent of this post is anthropological and not to make profit. It is strictly to share with fans and the periodic visitors to this planet from other galaxies a part of the musical history of the aforementioned musical group.
Also:
During these times all the TV shows wanted us to mime the entire performance which we were reluctant to do. A compromise was reached with the shows we finally performed on.
Telephones — The Ur-Supercut
Christian Marclay’s Telephones (1995) showed famous actors answering ringing telephones in a string of surreal, disjointed conversations throughout Hollywood history. Edited together, the cadence and rhythm of nonstop clips feels very reminiscent of modern supercuts. Apple tried to license Marclay’s film for the launch of the iPhone in 2007, but he refused. Instead, they made their own, borrowing the idea wholesale. (Marclay decided not to sue.)
Andy Baio, in his new column for Wired’s Epicenter blog, discusses supercuts, those videos that mash-up dozens or hundres of short clips of a type. His article traces the evolution of the form from proto examples like Telephones to their use as tools of political critique. More examples at his supercuts site and more analysis at his Wired article.
Best of Fall TV
What’re you guys liking this season?
1. Up All Night
All people I love, hilarious and just as they’re about to annoy me it saves itself.
(also, I worked half-day on the pilot.)
2. Boardwalk Empire
Not the best show, but pretty much appointment television for me.
3. Allen Gregory
I started watching cause Lacey’s in it, and I really like it. Animated crazy-fest with Jonah Hill and Will Forte.
4. Walking Dead
Addicting. Not great, but addicting beyond belief.
5. Boss
THIS IS THE BEST SHOW I’VE SEEN IN A LONG TIME. MAKE IT HAPPEN.
What’ve you been watching?
Best TV Hair
One of our writers over at Film.com wrote an article about the characters with the best hair, and I don’t know why but it makes me laugh.
Laura Roslin is the president of the last remnants of humanity, but she is also the president of having the best hair ever in the history of the universe. Laura Roslin’s hair is the reason the phrase HBIC was coined. When I look at Laura Roslin’s hair, I am overcome with love, and also jealousy. It’s a complicated feeling.
spam name
Fabian Penn.
Wonderin’
If you could imagine a TV show you’d want to watch what would it be like?
The ascent of Alex Honnold
A 60 Minutes segment on free-soloist Alex Honnold. I climbed pretty extensively in my twenties and early thirties, and video like this is almost impossible to contextualize. He’s at least a thousand feet above the ground, without ropes or fixed gear.
Previously, on clusterflock.
Another season of Arrested Development!
Amanda broke the news on Twitter, but it looks like there will be another season of everyone’s favorite ended-before-its-time television show:
At an “Arrested Development” reunion Sunday at the New York Festival, the creators and cast announced plans for another season of the short-lived but critically acclaimed TV show, which went off the air in 2006 after just three seasons. They also discussed more concrete plans for a much-awaited movie.
Update: The New York Times Arts Beat has more, as well as a link to a Jason Bateman tweet.
So, Mr. Hurwitz said, “We’re trying to do a limited-run series into the movie.” After a wave of excited applause died down, he continued, “We’re basically hoping to do nine or 10 episodes, with almost one character per episode.”
Update: “Will Arnett lead the cast in his classic chicken dance to end their New Yorker Festival reunion panel.”
The legacy of Mr. Peppermint
In memory of Mr. Peppermint, friend of clusterflock, Teresa R., sends two Peppermint-related links.
One: How Mr. Peppermint’s son became the lead singer of the Butthole Surfers.
Being the son of Mr. Peppermint has always figured into Gibby Haynes’ myth, as has a past that includes being an “A” student and basketball star at Lake Highlands High School and an accounting/economics major at Trinity University in San Antonio. Almost from the get-go, Gibby has been asked about his old man in interviews–”He’s, like, the coolest guy in Dallas,” he says on this particular occasion–and, in turn, Jerry has become something of a cult figure among Butthole fans who still find the images of father and son so much at odds. Gibby was headed for the straight life till he and guitarist Paul Leary steered the van down the crooked path in 1981, formed a partnership that would eventually lead to the Butthole Surfers, and played a San Antonio art-gallery gig where surely they were embraced as the avant-garde: Nail Gibby to the wall and call it “art.” But how Gibby got from one place to another is a story seldom explored and rarely told.
Two: How Mr. Peppermint encouraged Erykah Badu to sing.
First time I met Erykah Badu was in February ’96, at the old Grinders on Lowest Greenville, where she’d poured coffee just a few months earlier. It was a full year before her debut Baduizm was released; those Grammys were still in the distant horizon. It was her first interview, her first chance to tell her life’s story — the transition from Booker T. to Brooklyn, from a would-be with a demo to a singer with a recording contract. And one of the first things she said that afternoon was: She became a singer in large part because of a man best known as Mr. Peppermint.
Which, finally, reminds me of the Erykah Baduh tweet I made yesterday.
from the comments
In the future the environment sucks, so a bunch of American Apparel models travel back in time to get eaten by dinosaurs.
dear clusterflock
Did anyone watch Terra Nova?
from the comments
Last night my long-time friend Allen shared his recollections of a Dallas children’s TV figure known as Uncle Tiny, whom he dubbed Uncle Tiny the Obscure, as none of the rest of our gang remembered the man. Allen recalled having seen Uncle Tiny in person at Kiest Park in Oak Cliff, where Uncle had “a small trick pitcher from which he poured a seemingly endless supply of 7-UP.” Allen was impressed. “Uncle Tiny was cool.”
“Mr Peppermint died!”
read the email message I just received.
Mr. Peppermint (Jerry Haynes) hosted a long-running North Texas children’s TV program. He was a kinder, gentler Icky Twerp. He was also the father of Gibby Haynes.
quote out of context
Colbert said in a statement: “I look forward to meeting the Radioheads and leveraging their anti-corporate indie cred to raise brand awareness for my sponsors.”
(thanks, Amy)
Nope. They’re not. They’re dead.
If you watch one local cable television taxidermy commercial today, let it be this one.
(via @jasonfried, via @coudal)
quote out of context
This starts to explain something about Full House like why Joey stuck around all those years. At some point you’d think he’d want to sleep in a regular bedroom or bring a girl home. Or own property. Helping out his widowed friend is one thing, but devoting his life to a family that wasn’t his is another. Or was it? After seeing blonde baby after blonde baby being born, he probably knew what was up. This is why he lived with them for so many years; it was so he could be close to these girls who he knew to be his illegitimate daughters.
Whitney Cummings on lady writers
I talked to Whitney Cummings last night at a Paley Center event for her new sitcom Whitney. I asked her about her views on lady writers having difficulty in the industry and she had this to say:
“I don’t know, I guess I’m confused when people say that, I guess I don’t see that. I know the numbers might say that. I don’t think its because they’re not qualified, I think it’s because they don’t want to do it because it’s a shitty gig. It’s the same reason women don’t play football, because we’re not stupid enough to play a sport that you have to put on a helmet to get in there, it’s a bad idea. I think a lot of women are qualified to higher level writing jobs but they’re kind of like “This is torture, I’m going to do something that’s easier and more fun.” I think it’s the same reason that there’s less female comedians, it’s just a really grueling life and they are not masochistic, they’re smarter.”
I don’t know what I think about that, exactly.
Mister Rogers
If this piece doesn’t absolutely fucking wreck you, then I don’t know what to say. (via kottke)
Franz Kafka – Rock Opera
From one of the greatest animated series of all time.
World of Class Warfare
Dear ‘The Situation’, the situation is…
Abercrombie says a connection to The Situation goes against the “aspirational nature” of its brand and may be “distressing” to customers. The Ohio-based retailer says it has offered a “substantial payment” to Sorrentino and producers of the MTV show so he’ll wear something else.
On the redemption of physical reality
“This is, of course, what (film theorist) Siegfried Kracauer meant when he spoke of the ‘redemption of physical reality.’ It’s also at the heart of Werner Herzog’s new documentary, The Cave of Forgotten Dreams (2011), in which he attempts to retrieve the ‘now’ of prehistoric cave painters flickering into life – the analogy often used to explain the psychological power of film.”
In the same way that cutting ourselves off from any older aspect of our culture diminishes us by dimming our awareness of who we were and how that made us who we are, there is something lost when we turn away from the gray ones.
It’s quite a long piece, but it is worth reading. Bill Mesce’s The “Gray Ones” Fade To Black, brought to attention by Ebert.
quote out of context
The reason for Caan’s departure from the show is unconfirmed but it may have something to do with his attempt to buy a Pakistani flood victim’s baby for £725 while making a charity film.
