This is from the House Soundtrack and Laurie is singing with his Band From TV. Years earlier, with his long-time comedy and acting partner Stephen Frye, his Wooster sung and attempted (with some help from Jeeves) to deconstruct the song. Good stuff.
11.07.2009
Hugh Laurie Singing Minnie The Moocher
This is from the House Soundtrack and Laurie is singing with his Band From TV. Years earlier, with his long-time comedy and acting partner Stephen Frye, his Wooster sung and attempted (with some help from Jeeves) to deconstruct the song. Good stuff.
11.05.2009
Tac Bac - Tactical Canned Bacon From Think Geek
OK, you may think $16 is a bit much to pay for a can of bacon. Ask yourself that question again after civilization collapses and the Zombie Apocalypse or Hamthrax or whatever happened in The Road has decimated the populace, you'll be all like "Man I could really go for some bacon right now. I totally wish I'd bought that Tactically Canned Bacon with a 10+ year shelf life back in 2009.” Hmm Mmm. Link
11.04.2009
Did You Know 4.0 – The Mobile Revolution
“The computer in your cell phone today is a million times cheaper and a thousand times more powerful and about a hundred thousand times smaller [than the one computer at MIT in 1965]…”
The video was put together in advance of the third annual Media Convergence Conference in New York City, 20-21 October, 2009. Unlike its predecessors, the focus of this version is NOT specifically on education, but on the proliferation of technology, its future and I suppose, our own self-education.
11.01.2009
My Hulu Queue is Spilling Over
I enjoy Hulu, especially its TV streaming service. I don’t have cable television or a DVR and have moral qualms about bit.torrents so if Hulu does monetize it’s service, I guess I’ll have more time to read.Now, right after the Colts game and a walk, I’ll make some popcorn and dive back into it.
(click on the pic to embiggen)
10.29.2009
10.28.2009
10.26.2009
Four and a Half Minutes That Changed Film History
Orson Welles' Touch of Evil has an opening scene that changed the way films were shot. Welles used precise timing, mind-boggling coordination, and a crane, to film an amazing four and a half minute tracking shot to open his 1958 film.
The shot starts on a bomb being placed in the trunk of a car. The camera follows the car into the street. As the camera moves back we pickup Charlton Heston walking with his date. Though we’re concentrating on Heston, the bomb is still in our minds. The sheer length of the take heightens the tension for the payoff at the end. On its first release Universal placed the opening credits over the shot, which severely retracted from its power and suspense. In a re-release Welles original version of the scene was re-instated.
Literally changing an aspect of film making, the use of tracking shots have sometimes been used to try to one-up it, Psycho, for example. The opening shot of Robert Altman's The Player is a loving homage to the Welles shot. The opening of Joss Whedon's wonderful film Serenity begins with a five minute tracking shot that introduces us to the ship and the crew. Technically it's two tracking shots, spliced in the middle with some CGI, but I'll cut him some slack. (Whedon also did a great 6 minute tracking shot in an early episode of Angel, though I don't remember which one.)
My favorite tracking shot has to be in Children of Men*, but you can't beat Orson Welles for sheer genius and innovation. Mental Floss has a good list of others you can check out.
YouTube - Touch of Evil Part 01 of 11
You can watch the rest of the movie here.
*This clip is R rated and contains spoilers. If you haven't seen it, go rent it now! It's one of the best films this decade.
The shot starts on a bomb being placed in the trunk of a car. The camera follows the car into the street. As the camera moves back we pickup Charlton Heston walking with his date. Though we’re concentrating on Heston, the bomb is still in our minds. The sheer length of the take heightens the tension for the payoff at the end. On its first release Universal placed the opening credits over the shot, which severely retracted from its power and suspense. In a re-release Welles original version of the scene was re-instated.
Literally changing an aspect of film making, the use of tracking shots have sometimes been used to try to one-up it, Psycho, for example. The opening shot of Robert Altman's The Player is a loving homage to the Welles shot. The opening of Joss Whedon's wonderful film Serenity begins with a five minute tracking shot that introduces us to the ship and the crew. Technically it's two tracking shots, spliced in the middle with some CGI, but I'll cut him some slack. (Whedon also did a great 6 minute tracking shot in an early episode of Angel, though I don't remember which one.)
My favorite tracking shot has to be in Children of Men*, but you can't beat Orson Welles for sheer genius and innovation. Mental Floss has a good list of others you can check out.
YouTube - Touch of Evil Part 01 of 11
You can watch the rest of the movie here.
*This clip is R rated and contains spoilers. If you haven't seen it, go rent it now! It's one of the best films this decade.
10.24.2009
Held by the Taliban. A Harrowing and Amazing Five Part Series in the NYTs
This is a must read.
I can't recommend this series enough. Held by the Taliban - A Times Reporter's Account. This is a five-part series offering a first-person account by David Rohde of his seven months as a captive of the Taliban in Pakistan.
10.23.2009
Your good enough your smart enough and gosh darn it people like you!
Sen. Al Franken (D-MN) humbles Hudson Institute representative over health care bankruptcies.
Via- Boing Boing
10.22.2009
Really Amazing Color Photos From Pre-Bolshevik Revolution Russia
The Denver Post shared these photos on it's blog. The photographs of Russian chemist and photographer, Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii, show Russia on the eve of World War I and the coming of the revolution. From 1909-1912 and again in 1915, Prokudin-Gorskii traveled across the Russian Empire, documenting life, landscapes and the work of Russain people.
Man and camel loaded with packs; between 1905 and 1915 Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii Collection (Library of Congress).
Old church of Saint Nicholas the Wonder Worker, Nyrob; 1910 Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii Collection (Library of Congress).
Georgian woman standing on a carpet, outside, near a tree; between 1905 and 1915 Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii Collection (Library of Congress).
Dagestani types, Man and woman posed outdoors; between 1905 and 1915 Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii Collection (Library of Congress).
To learn more about the Prokudin-Gorskii, the process he used to create the color photographs, and see his collection, you can visit the Library of Congress, who purchased his glass negatives in 1948.
Man and camel loaded with packs; between 1905 and 1915 Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii Collection (Library of Congress).
Old church of Saint Nicholas the Wonder Worker, Nyrob; 1910 Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii Collection (Library of Congress).
Georgian woman standing on a carpet, outside, near a tree; between 1905 and 1915 Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii Collection (Library of Congress).
Dagestani types, Man and woman posed outdoors; between 1905 and 1915 Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii Collection (Library of Congress).
To learn more about the Prokudin-Gorskii, the process he used to create the color photographs, and see his collection, you can visit the Library of Congress, who purchased his glass negatives in 1948.
I think this cartoon about the importance of NPR (even during pledge drive) hits the nail on the head
10.02.2009
Anne Frank: The Only Existing Film Images
The Anne Frank House, in Amsterdam, has released this short 20-second video snippet from the life of Anne Frank. The video was shot in 1941, a year before Frank and her family went into hiding.
Video Link
The girl next door is getting married. From her window, Anne looks down as the wedding couple emerges. She looks back at someone in the room, and we see her smile. Maybe her mother asks her if the bride looks pretty. The mundane conversations of an ordinary life.
Looking, for just a moment, at that happy girl, my heart fills. And then, my heart jumps, I know what's coming for Anne.
But, on that bright day, with a couple beginning a new life, Anne must have thought that life was grand, the world outside was full of love and happiness and hope, and it was good to be alive.
9.30.2009
Teh stoopid, it burns
And is incredibly frightening. Right-Wing conference tells activists to get their guns ready for ‘Bloody Battle’ With Obama The Nazi.
Felicia Day Visits Jimmy Fallon
Felicia Day of The Guild and Dr. Horrible's Sing Along Blog visited Late Night last night and had a terrific interview with Jimmy.
Source link
9.25.2009
LeVar Burton Can Finally Tell the World About His Long Nightmare
From his heartfelt opinion piece*:
When the news came that Reading Rainbow would be canceled due to a lack of funding, I felt—well, to use a cliché like you'd find in one of the hundreds of books I pimped endlessly—like a huge weight had been lifted from my shoulders. Every day I went to work hoping that maybe the studio had burned down, that maybe the program had been cut, that maybe PBS would finally stop squeezing the life from me drop by drop. Now that it's over, I feel the relief a bruised and broken soldier must feel when he is rescued after rotting away for decades in some dank, forgotten POW camp.
May that godforsaken show burn in hell.
*This is from The Onion, it’s satire, it wasn’t written by LaVar, but I thought it was hilarious and literally Laughed Out Loud. But you don’t have to take my word for it - (via @levarburton)
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