The Popcorn Trick

This is why frisbee sports will never get proper respect...

noreply@blogger.com (Goose) — Fri, 25 May 2012 11:58:00 +0000

Movie Trailer: Argo

noreply@blogger.com (Goose) — Wed, 09 May 2012 13:20:00 +0000

While I was slightly thrown off by the sudden change in voice in the trailer, I'm guessing this is going to be a good film. While I wasn't as high on The Town as a lot of other people were, I still think Affleck knows his way around a camera...

New HBO Aaron Sorkin Show: Newsroom

noreply@blogger.com (Goose) — Tue, 01 May 2012 14:50:00 +0000

I picture Aaron Sorkin running around his house naked with a giant erection high fiving scantily clad models every time he writes a scenery chewing scene for Jeff Daniels...

Of course, that doesn't mean I'm not going to watch this.

One of the Cooler Things You'll Ever See

noreply@blogger.com (Goose) — Tue, 01 May 2012 13:29:00 +0000

Honestly, it's one of the cooler things I've posted here - it should at least make up for all the Killing recaps I've written...

Done images from the Cassinni and Voyager satellites - this time lapse shows the majesty of space. In a way you've probably never seen.

If Kubrick's 2001 ended with this, I think I would have enjoyed it.

Thanks to Discover Magazine.

Cool Shit

noreply@blogger.com (Goose) — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 14:05:00 +0000

Sometimes I tell myself I really want to get to Australia at some point, and then I read articles like this one.

Great article on one of the principals of the book Born to Run. Well, actually not so much about him...more about how they had to find him. I don't want to give anything away, but you don't even have to be interested in running to enjoy the read.

Ok...time to get political! You may or may not know about the dangers of growth hormone additives in milk, and this video isn't really about that. It's about how corporations can control the information we see - and how there's not a lot we can do about it. Yes, it's about FOX News, but that's not really the point. I don't care who the companies are that are involved...

Not sure if I posted this before in a Cool Shit post, and I'm way too lazy to go back and check...the British show Luther is something you might want to check out...especially if you loved Stringer Bell from the Wire (specifically the actor, Idris Elba). Luther is about a British detective who can barely keep his personal life out of his professional life. Honestly, if you like police procedurals and British accents, you're going to love it. It's streaming on Netflix too...

And finally, I recently found out that David Simon has taken up blogging. Don't know who David Simon is? Shame on you. Regardless, I think you'll find his musings provocative and interesting, and, whether you agree with them or not, it's all still a good read.

Slip n Slide Craziness

noreply@blogger.com (Goose) — Tue, 24 Apr 2012 14:11:00 +0000

Next to trampoline mishaps, slip n slide videos are my favorite thing on Youtube (aside form this, of course). So I figured what better way to help people through their Tuesday with a small sampling of what's out there...

Best Neighborhood ever...

Don't think I haven't been scouting locales to put this in my neighborhood.

"Definitely have to pull that pool over."

Thanks.

Not sure the face plant is the worst problem for this guy...

Um, what is going on?

Ok, as best as I can make this out (because the person shooting the video can't be bothered to rotate their phone 90 degrees to attain a better aspect ratio I guess) the girl on the tarp is holding on to a rope being towed by an ATV 8 feet into a pool, witnessed by bikini laden chicks and surprisingly, something goes wrong. Oh and I assume the ATV driver is doing all of this in hopes of an orgy.

This dad is awesome...

Probably one of the reasons my wife won't allow me to put a slip n slide on our yard.

Give the kids an opportunity...

And this is probably one of the reasons why my parents never built a pool in our backyard.

Head first?

The video wasn't that great, but I dare you not to be singing this song throughout the day. Especially if, coincidentally, you happen to find yourself on a waterside or work at a watermark.

Slip n slide done right...

And finally, a classic...

Ron, you (and your friends) are heroes to many of us out here.

RIP Levon Helm...

noreply@blogger.com (Goose) — Fri, 20 Apr 2012 13:02:00 +0000

Covers: 7 Nation Army

noreply@blogger.com (Goose) — Fri, 13 Apr 2012 14:25:00 +0000

Covers is a new series of posts looking at a song and the covers it produces. The good, the bad, the weird...all will be looked at.

I'm not sure why I'm not a bigger fan of the White Stripes. I like blues. I like the modern take on blues. And I'm a sucker for a showman with talent. I mean, I do enjoy most of the stuff I hear, so I guess it's more of a "musical saturation," theory. While I enjoy finding new music, and will never not explore it, we all have bands that we miss or skip for whatever reason, and decide never to go back - even when we know we're missing out.

The brain is a funny thing.

Regardless of my feelings, I do appreciate their ability and talent. And I do like the song 7 Nation Army. Sufficiently strange enough to stick out on the banal, mass produced pop songs on the radio airwaves, 7NA always seemed to be that song that mixed things up...

It's immediately recognizable, driving riff, which sounds like a bass (but who would be playing it in a 2 person rock band?) is actually not a bass at all. Given tons of critical acclaim, the song is easily one of the most recognizable White Stripes song out there.

And yet, I don't think it's the best version of the song.

Now, I realize that is a dangerous thing to say. Cover songs should never be better than the original material because (at least in my thinking) original creation is more difficult. So for a cover song to be better, that has to be saying something.

(And I also realize that all of this, at the end of the day, has to deal with personal opinion. Best of lists, and awards are only based on the whim of people. There simply can never be something considered the Best of anything, because, as I'm sure you are aware, there will always be someone out there on the other side of the opinion. And that person is never wrong. Opinion can't be wrong. So at the end of the day, this is just my take. But of course, I'm right.)

But seriously, this cover of 7 Nation Army is by Nostalgia 77, featuring Alice Russell is awesome...

To me, both Nostalgia 77 and Alice Russell took this song and delivered something completely different than what The White Stripes did...something more soulful, meaningful and passionate.

But there of course are other versions of this song...to narrow them down I've created some categories (all from research on Youtube:

Weirdest

Fewest views

Artist you would never in a million years think they would do it

Countrified

Acoustic

So without further adieu...

Countrified: The Oakridge Boys

Artist you would never in a million years think they would do it :Kelly Clarkson

Fewest Views: Squirrel Tooth Alice

Weirdest: Afra and Incredible Beatbox Band

Acoustic

And then just a few more, because I couldn't classify them but I thought they sounded kinda cool...

Singer/Songwriter: Kate Nash

Soulful: Ben L'Oncle

And finally one more - and I dare you to listen to the whole thing, all the way through (I couldn't):

Oh Oh Oh!!

The Killing: Days 14 & 15

noreply@blogger.com (Goose) — Wed, 11 Apr 2012 15:56:00 +0000

Like all of you at the end of last year’s final episode of The Killing, I wanted to strangle a plant. Led down a path that suggested we would know who killed Rosie Larsen by season’s end, instead we were given nothing but a pile of red herrings – and I don’t even like fish. In a nutshell, (and from my shoddy memory) we had to deal with:

Richmond, an idealistic mayoral candidate revealing a startling dark side involving underage hookups

Richmond then being shot by Belko Royce, a friend of the Larsens who also has a criminal past and a wee bit of instability

Detective Holder’s redemptive arc throughout the season destroyed in the last 30 seconds to get a cheap thrill out of the audience, planting evidence to suggest the creep Richmond, while still a creep, might not be the murderer.

Linden getting yet another excuse not to go to California.

(I think the last one was the worst, simply because the California plotline dragged everything it touched down to the ground completely, with no rhyme or reason to exist. Seriously, why did this murder investigation need the back drop of Linden potentially moving to California? Also, it set it up so early in the season that we knew she was never going to go – she was the star of the series! It offered no dramatic tension whatsoever.

It was all of those reasons, and many more (the terrorism angle one episode had! The teacher who didn’t kill Rosie Larsen but was involved in immigrant smuggling, but then got beat up and wait where is he now? The Larsen’s grief that played out in real time on the show! Etc.) that made me so frustrated with the show. Gone was the eerie suspense the pilot episode created; in its place came a combination of an average Law and Order episode (pick anyone sans Jerry Orbach) a bad Choose Your Own Adventure Novel (not the Bigfoot one though).

But, in the end, I decided to come back to The Killing’s universe…some because I’ve invested enough of my time to want to see how they’re going to piece together a storyline that leads to Rosie Larsen’s killer, but mostly because my choice for the killer is suddenly back in play. Yes, that’s right I have been given a stay of execution to continue harping on Tom Drexler as being the killer! Obviously last year, when we all thought the season finale would give us closure on the murder investigation, it wasn’t looking good for Tom being the big bad guy, since he was on screen for a total of about 12 seconds. But now that we have another entire season to play around with and sculpt a trail right to his basketball court, I can’t see any reason not to list him as the prime suspect. At least until next week, when he’s shot.

…but I just couldn’t recap the 2 hour premiere (which was really just two episodes played back to back. Oh sure, I watched, and dutifully took notes, but in the end when I sat down to write, I realized I couldn’t get into it. It was taking too long to go into too much detail about stuff that was too boring and not important. Because what has happened is they have completely backed themselves into a corner, introducing the conspiracy angle. We now have 12 more episodes to trod through to get to the answer, and knowing that, we also can assume the first 6 episodes are designed to throw us off the track of finding out who the real murderer is. And knowing that doesn’t make me feel like writing too much about it. So instead of the all too in-depth recaps I normally throw out there, I’m going to layout some stray observations/feelings/throughts about the first two hours. After that, I’ll reassess my state of mind and see what I’m up for…

DAYS 14 & 15

Richmond.

He’s in the hospital, paralyzed. We have been led to believe both that he did it, and then didn’t do it. Of course, now that he’s been cleared of Rosie’s murder (because he was going to commit suicide to honor his wife or something) I now have to ask what his value is to the show? Why should I care about his character? I just want to know who killed Rosie, and now that he’s apparently off the list of suspects, I don’t care about his plight. Yes, I understand that peripherally, he’s still involved, now that we know his opponent, the current mayor had at least something to do in framing him (something that is so stupid, since to be framed, they had to know about his hooker history, and seriously, wouldn’t leaking that be enough to ruin him?) so I guess he’ll be along for the wheelchair ride to close up that plotline. But other than that, the guy is a creep (remember, he’s been visiting hookers and asking if they know what it’s like to drown) but not enough of a creep to murder a hooker.

Sigh.

The Conspiracy.

It’s good at least that we know one of the moving parts behind it (the current mayor). Of course, I’m sure that’s not the really big moving piece behind it. But I’m also willing to bet there will come a point during the show where we find out the mayor (and his cronies) simply took advantage of the situation of Rosie’s murder, and didn’t actually have her killed. I realize this doesn’t make too much sense right now (since Rosie’s body was found in a campaign car of Richmond) but if it simply comes out that this was a convoluted plot by the mayor to win the election, well…it’s stupid. The other stuff that is stupid: How deep this conspiracy goes…meaning it seems the entire Seattle police department is in on it, save like 3 people. And I have no idea what to make of the new lieutenant. Is he there to keep the conspiracy going? Is he there to clean up a corrupt police force? Is he good or bad? All of his actions are mired in a stew of ambiguity and ambivalence.

The Larsens.

Mitch isn’t there, so now we get to watch domestic life with Stan and Terry, Mitch’s sister. It’s not all that different, unfortunately. Oh and I almost forgot, remember when Stan was arrested and all that? Yeah, neither do the writers. Rosie’s backpack shows up and Stan is all “Yikes!” at least enough to get his old crew back in the picture (which I’m sure will go smoothly) and badmouth the cops…oh and get Belko killed. Yeah, that’s right. Belko commits suicide after talking to Stan. Presumably (and this is me presuming, but I could be way off base) because he was looking for Stan’s approval of shooting Richmond and taking the law into his own hands. Only Stan doesn’t give him the approval he’s looking for. So he shoots himself. Which pushes Stan down the road of taking the law into his own hands. The logic has the twists and turns of a pretzel. A gross, sewer laden pretzel. That was left out in the rain.

Linden.

I’m shocked she didn’t go to California!

I’m also shocked at some of the decisions she is currently making. Mostly to do with her son. I’m counting down the episodes to when she finally just ships Jack off to his father’s so we can be rid of this boring, do nothing plotline. It has to be coming soon, right? Please tell me.

Anyhoo, Linden sorta kinda bullies her way back on the case with the new lieutenant by the show’s end, which yeah, I didn’t get it either. But there’s a lot I don’t get with this show, and by this point I’m just following along trying to figure out if it will start making sense again soon. So Linden is back in Seattle, for good, trying to solve a case and also find a place for Jack to hang out, that’s not a hotel room. Along the way she peels away a couple layers of the conspiracy onion (great band name suggestion – thank me in the liner notes please) and figures out that Holder’s sponsor, Gil Sloane, has at least something to do with framing Richmond. Of course, in the process, we realize the onion has many many layers, as while she is surreptitiously following Gil Sloane meet up with the mayor’s advisor at the waterfront construction area, she is being surreptitiously followed and photographed. By who we have no idea.

Holder

Holder is the small fish who thinks he’s big. And his bowl is about to get a lot smaller. I’m glad to see he’s not really a big part of the conspiracy, only a pawn that is being moved around on the conspiracy chessboard. Because, while it would have been a ballsy move to make him be more involved, it also would have cheated the audience out of the satisfaction we got from his redemptive arc last season. Holder is currently the most interesting thing The Killing has going for it, and to destroy that for a cheap thrill would have been lousy.

Still, we have to wade through some pretty awful stuff to get where we are right now. While Holder knew the picture was doctored, he also thought it was just a nail that was needed to ensure the real killer was caught. Also, he wanted a promotion. But now there are pieces that aren’t adding up, and he’s starting to question his role in the whole thing. Unfortunately for him, that’s not how things are supposed to work. First, his lieutenant turns on him. Then, his sponsor turns on him. But the final straw comes when Linden turns on him. Holder’s always in a state of fragility, and this realization that he has screwed up isn’t going to help his psyche.

So there you have it. A mish mash of nothing that has pretty much caught us up on the murder investigation (or lack thereof) that has introduced a conspiracy that at the moment, seems like it’s being run by the current mayor to ensure a victory and get his waterfront property deal through. Of course, I suspect there will be one or two other reveals to suggest he is nothing more than a minor player in the whole thing and that Rosie’s killer is not who we think it is right now. Unless you think it’s Tom Drexler. Because that’s who I think it is. And it’s obvious that a bigger player has to be involved since the conspiracy runs deep.

Pac Man: The Movie

noreply@blogger.com (Goose) — Wed, 11 Apr 2012 13:08:00 +0000

I think I would pay to see this...

I'd of course rather it be Ms. Pac Man, a much superior game than Pac Man, but beggars can't be choosers.

These Kids are More Talented Than You...

noreply@blogger.com (Goose) — Tue, 03 Apr 2012 15:56:00 +0000

...and me of course. But that goes without saying.

Hopefully we're seeing the next Shane Blacks, and not the next Michael Bays. Time will tell...

[Via The Daily What]

Rear Window from the Window...

noreply@blogger.com (Goose) — Tue, 03 Apr 2012 13:41:00 +0000

Even if you're not a fan of Alfred Hitchcock's Rear Window, I think you'll be impressed with the following video.

And if you are a big fan...well you're in for a treat.

Check out Gizmodo's post, which goes into a little more detail about how this was done.

Foggy Chicago

noreply@blogger.com (Goose) — Fri, 30 Mar 2012 13:03:00 +0000

It's difficult to explain the fog in Chicago if you haven't experienced it firsthand. Rolling down some streets while others remain sunny, it's a crazy phenomena.

This video goes a long way to showing it off...

Juggling done right...

noreply@blogger.com (Goose) — Mon, 26 Mar 2012 14:34:00 +0000

Sure, you might think to yourself, I've seen juggling acts before, and they're nothing special. Or maybe you've never seen a juggling act because you've thought to yourself, yeah, I don't think I can sit through a juggling act and be entertained.

Well, give this one at least one minute, and I'll be surprised if you don't stick around for the whole thing.

Use Me Up...in Polish

noreply@blogger.com (Goose) — Mon, 26 Mar 2012 13:08:00 +0000

Guaranteed to be the best Polish funk version of Bill Withers' Use Me Up you hear today!

(At least I think it's a cover)

Also, this gives me a great opportunity to post one of my top 10 Youtube videos: Bill Withers doing the original, in what may be the greatest instance of cool ever assembled in one room...

I mean, obviously, the king of cool starts with the drummer right off the bat...but then we soft fade over to the keyboardist, who almost looks bored to be there...in a completely cool way...then we obviously get Mr. Withers, sweating out the intensity of an unbelievable song - there's no turning back from this performance right now...but wait what's that? Another soft fade over to lead guitar? What a hat, topping off this closed eye performance! And then as we pan around the room again, we get just a tease of the bassist, since you know, he's LOUNGING ABOUT, DROPPING ONE OF THE MOST RECOGNIZABLE BASS LINES IN MUSIC HISTORY (in my eyes) before we come back to the drummer, giving us a big shit eating grin.

Now, normally, a person with such a grin would be immediately disqualified as being the coolest person in the room, since the grin is pretty much admitting that he's just happy to be there, a most decidedly uncool emotion. But somehow, he pulls it off!

And I haven't even mentioned Mr. Withers pulling off a salmon covered turtleneck sweater. Name me one other person that can pull that off. ONE OTHER PERSON!

I'm not sure if you ever played the "what if" game with a time machine and a musical performance (what one concert/musical event would you attend in history if you had a time machine) but this is my destination.

Dressage...to the extreme!

noreply@blogger.com (Goose) — Mon, 26 Mar 2012 13:02:00 +0000

There's a reason the wonderful world of horse dressage hasn't been parodied in a movie yet. Nothing could top this...

And yes, the guy's name is Bent Jensen.

Oh, those crazy Russian kids...

noreply@blogger.com (Goose) — Wed, 14 Mar 2012 14:50:00 +0000

After the skyscraper bungee jumping and this latest stunt, I'm getting worried that Russia is going to surpass us in the "stupid things kids do when they're bored" ranking.

Tilt-Shift Kiev

noreply@blogger.com (Goose) — Wed, 14 Mar 2012 13:44:00 +0000

If I posted this before, I apologize; but not too much, since it's simply beautiful...

Dollarshaveclub.com

noreply@blogger.com (Goose) — Fri, 09 Mar 2012 19:50:00 +0000

I realize that by sharing this video with all of you, I am playing right into the hands of dollarshaveclub.com and its advertisers. But you know what? When the quality is this good, I'm ok with that.

Besides, I'm good at tennis!

Cool Shit

noreply@blogger.com (Goose) — Thu, 08 Mar 2012 14:15:00 +0000

It's rare to find someone that (mostly) agrees with me on the quality of the 1976 King Kong remake, but I've done it. I really can't explain why I think this one is superior to the original (let's not even start with the Peter Jackson one); maybe it was the timing (I was an easily influenced 10 year old when I probably first saw it) maybe it was Jeff Bridges' rugged awesomeness, maybe it was the implied beastiality (look, I have no idea what drives my psyche). Regardless, here's a great essay about all that and more.

Portishead is talking new album! That would be cool! In the meantime, enjoy this...

This is kind of weird...wondering what Topher Grace has been up to recently? Me neither, but I stumbled across this article about how he's taken the 3 Star Wars prequels, and edited them into one film, and apparently it's getting good reviews...? Not like he had a high watermark to clear - hey yo! Doesn't seem to be online, but if any of you have the jump on it, I'd love to see it.

I'm a sucker for "against all odds" movies. Which is probably why I'm excited for this movie...

And finally, Dave Hill returns to Fashion Week, and gives his own unique take.

"I LOVE COCAINE!"

Podcast 14.0oooohGirlThereAreALotOfPeopleOnThisPodcast (Pt. 1)

noreply@blogger.com (Cline) — Wed, 07 Mar 2012 03:30:00 +0000

Goose & I got together with some of our Nectar of the Gods buddies, had some beers, and turned on the mikes.

Then we said a bunch of shit.

And then we left Goose to edit it down to something coherent and consumable. Did he do that?

Listen and judge for yourself.

If you aren’t already subscribed, search iTunes for “Popcorn Trick” or click here. Let us know if you have any problems downloading the episode. There were some issues when we (I) first uploaded it, but it should be fixed now.

Here’s some audio-visual aids to supplement some the things we talked about.

You’ll laugh. You’ll learn.

James Woods: American Hero

James Woods: Enemy To The Stallone Family

Claudia Schiffer from her heyday. AKA 1992.

This guy knows time machines. And Nazis. And NASA conspiracies. And how to sneak ham into Walmart.

Never trust Katherine Heigl to take out Baby Hitler. That’s why I say you should cut off one of his adult hands.

More Tilt Shift Awesomness

noreply@blogger.com (Goose) — Tue, 28 Feb 2012 14:04:00 +0000

You know I can't pass up a good tilt shift video...

A List of People I Would Rather Host the Oscars Instead of Billy Crystal

noreply@blogger.com (Goose) — Fri, 24 Feb 2012 19:56:00 +0000

1. Rutger Hauer

2. Chris Elliot and/or Bob Elliot

3. That guy in the office that always seems to cross the line when there's a woman in the room

4. This guy

5. Courtney Love

6. Tony Clifton

7. Bob Zmuda

8. Chip Gardner

9. The collective voice of Twitter

10. A hobo

Want to see every punch to the face in Roadhouse?

noreply@blogger.com (Goose) — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 14:11:00 +0000

Of course you do...

Pizza Man!

noreply@blogger.com (Goose) — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 14:05:00 +0000

In our never ending quest to bring you stupidly awesome movie trailers, I give you Pizza Man!

I'm not sure I could come up with a better dream cast if I tried. I think my favorite part is when Corbin Bernsen momentarily forgets his line after saying, "You pull the plug on this project..."

But like a consummate professional, he recovers enough to make it only slightly awkward, and not awkward enough to demand another take.

(Completely unrelated: Not sure what it says about me that when tagging this article, "Michael Gross," "Corbin Bernsen," and "Rowdy Roddy Piper," weren't the first times used on this blog.)

[Via The Daily What]