Simpsons Movie and Spiderpig

You may remember the Simpsons movie from such posts as this one and this one. Well, turns out I liked it enough to actually purchase the DVD! The main menu is sweet, if you watch for a bit spider-pig swings across the screen. There are a few Easter Eggs as well (lingo for Moms: Easter Egg = hidden extra on a DVD):

1. Colin:
Main>>Special Features>>Deleted Scenes>>highlight "Deleted Scenes" (press UP arrow then ENTER)
2. Russ Cargill:
Main>>Special Features>>Special Stuff>>highlight "Special Stuff" (press UP arrow then ENTER)
3. Mutant Squirrel:
Main>>Special Features>>A Lot of Trailers>>highlight "A Lot of Trailers"( press UP arrow then ENTER)
4.Turn it up!
Main>>Language Selection>>highlight "Audio" (press UP and LEFT then ENTER)

p.s. Spiderpig a rip-off of Spider-Ham? You decide...










p.p.s. other super pigs include:

Redd Blood Cells

In 2002, Steven McDonald laid down bass music to the White Stripes' "White Blood Cells" album, called it "Redd Blood Cells", and released it for free download. Steven is a founding member of the group Redd Kross, which explains the CD name and why he released it through their website (here is the myspace for the group). You can still download "Dead Leaves and Dirty Ground" from there but, unfortunately, the archived mp3's are no longer available on the site so you have to get it through file sharing (or from me when I get it). Of course there were copyright issues but it so happened that Steven ran into Jack White, asked him for permission and got the go ahead to keep it up. So there ya go. I learned this in a presentation about copyright laws yesterday. Fun times, we also saw this video, which explained the Redd Blood Cells project and "Creative Commons" licensing. I also learned this about GoogleEarth which is good because I have some images from it in my thesis.
p.s. You may remember the White Stripes from previous concert posts or from Updog&Indy.
p.p.s. Let's all learn about red blood cells from the neat website HowStuffWorks...learning is fun!

"Iraq War Ends" - New York Times

Sweet prank carried out by The Yes Men (The Yes Men website here). A fake edition of the New York Times announcing, among other things, the end of the Iraq War. Called a "special edition", they made up a whole 14-page paper and they even created an imitation New York Times webpage for it (note the real NYT website is here. Amazing resemblance!). They handed out 1000's of copies on Wednesday (although they postdated it July 4, 2009) in honour of the new President elect and burgeoning hope.

p.s. In other fake news: Stephen Colbert wins U.S. federal election...Only to have it snatched away...

For little cp who is sicky

and cute too (comic from Strange Brew).

Also, here is the walk off scene from Zoolander in Spanish just for you:

Chickens! Concert Series #26: Kingdon of Sorrow and GWAR

Yes, I finally broke down and went to see GWAR out of curiosity. Their current tour is known as "electile dysfunction" 2008 (which explains the majority of the stage show), and had openers Toxic Holocaust (their music was blah but their hair was pretty big) and Kingdom of Sorrow.

Kingdom of Sorrow includes the lead singer from Hatebreed (Jamie Jasta) and Kirk Windstein from Crowbar. The band was formed in 2005 and completed their first album, Kingdom of Sorrow which was released this year. Jasta is always high energy (you may remember him from this post), and I think K of S was definitely the highlight of the show.

Now, I am glad I went because I think you should try anything once and I was curious to see what GWAR was all about. The music was kind of incidental, I wasn't really paying attention to it and most of the songs sound pretty much the same anyway (at least they do when you aren't familiar with them). The stage show was interesting, kind of like a bloody, sadistic version of Power Rangers (think about!).

Apparently, the band says that "Gwar" doesn't actually stand for anything and is actually an abbreviated version of "GWAARGGGH!!!", which was their former name. So there ya go. The GWAR mythos is basically that they are immortal space warriors that were exiled to earth by a ceator called the Master. The gave rise to the human race, mayhem ensued, when the Master found out they ended up being frozen in Antarctica. They were subsequently awoken by a combination of pollution related ozone holes and their manager Sleazy P. Martini's shiny suit (he had been on the run from drug dealing charges at the time).

Everyone in the band performs under costumed aliases, which makes it a lot easier for them to switch characters/members without anyone really noticing, in fact the lead singer "Oderus Urungus" aka Dave Brockie has been the only constant since the band started in 1985. The current drummer character "Jizmak Da Gusha" who started in 1989 is the only other main GWAR musician character to be played by only one person (Brad Roberts). The previous drummer character was called Nippleus Erectus (he had been played by two different drummers), but he bathed in a pool of hydrochloric acid and dissolved. The other main characters include "Balsac the Jaws of Death" (guitar, currently played by Mike Derks), "Flattus Maximus" (guitar, currently played by Cory Smoot), and "Beefcake the Mighty" (bass, currently played by Casey Orr). Extra points if you can figure out who is who in the picture. Other than Oderus the other band members don't participate in the on stage action very much. The non-musical stage show was mostly played out by the auxiliary characters: Bone Snapper, Bozo Destructo (also Sleazy P. Martini aka Don Drakulich) and Sawborg Destructo (also Mattron/MX2 the Slave aka Matt Maguire), and a second slave that I don't know about.

The show started with a count down to death on a projector screen and then a video of Sleazy P. Martini's (top of the poster to the left) bid for president. During the show the death toll was 10 (plus a disembodied head that they beat McCain with and a dead dog thing that they sprayed the crowd with). They started by killing an annoying talk show personality (Steve Wilkos) and after that Oderus ate a baby and they shot the crowd with a big blood gun. Then the premise of the stage show began, which was an Intergalactic Wrestling Federation match. The first bout was "Bone Crusher" (green guy on the poster) vs. John McCain, the second was Oderus and Bone Crusher vs. Hilary Clinton and Barack Obama. Then Oderus and Bone Crusher had to fight some other monsters (Bozo and Sawborg, the middle 2 on the poster) who had stolen the wrestling belts they had won in the first two fights. Then Martini came out and sang Slaughterama where they killed a hippy, an artsy guy, and a Nazi skinhead.

And that's what happened. They played music throughout and between the sections of the stage show, they didn't move around very much (in their defence they are wearing a lot of costume) and, like I say, the music is incidental. Also, as D pointed out, the political schtick that they did would have been a lot more appropriate a few weeks/months ago, a pop culture reference or something would have been better. I don't know, I'm left with the feeling that it should have been more disturbing than it was. There did seem to be a lot of people who were pretty happy to have water and red food colouring sprayed on them. Probably because the violence and characters are so cartoonish and silly, and since it's so obvious that no one is actually being hurt, it's like Punch and Judy or comedic satirical theatre (like Italian commedia dell'arte), but really, really loud. It's funny because it's cheesy satire, but not everyone likes stuff like Grindhouse either.

Chickens! Concert Series #25: Trans Siberian Orchestra

What a spectacular concert and amazing stage show! The concert started a little late due to some technical difficulties, it apparently takes something crazy like 15hours to set up the stage. Also, they had to fog up the area so the lasers would show up. The stage was set up with large screens on either side that showed light displays and a large mobile rigging above with spot lights and lasers, and behind the performers area of the stage were the fireworks and fire shooters. And it was only $20! What's not to like?

For those of you who aren't familiar, the Trans-Siberian Orchestra is a New York based operation that was formed in 1996 by Paul O'Neill and his long time friends Robert Kinkel and Jon Oliva who are the groups core composers. They named it after the Trans-Siberian Railroad, because they say it draws people and countries together, which is what they wanted to do with their music. The band draws heavily from classical music and incorporates elements of progressive rock, symphonic and heavy metal. The orchestral format allows them the freedom to create music without the restrictions of having few band members with specific ranges. Here's their official webpage, here's their myspace, and here's their wiki.

As is TSO tradition (apparently) the show was broken into two halves. The first half was basically their concept album "Christmas eve and other stories" (which my Mom has on CD). Lovely Christmas-y fare. Among this they played one of their two most famous songs "Christmas Eve/Sarajevo 12/24", which is an instrumental medley of Carol of the Bells and God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen. During the first song people were lowered down on platforms on either side of the stage and then they ran around playing their guitars/violins. And when the played "First Snow" the released snow from the ceiling, which sparkled nicely under the lasers. I also really like the metal inspired version of Nutcracker (Mad Russian's Christmas).

These are the songs for the first half, interspersed with rambling narration:
NED/March of the Kings
An Angel Came Down
Oh Come Holy Night
Prince of Peace
First Snow
A Mad Russian's Christmas
Christmas Eve (Sarajevo 12/24)
Good King Joy
Ornament
Old City Bar
Promises to keep
This Christmas Day
An Angel Returned

Then there were introductions and the second half of the show, which included a grab bag of goodies and favorites like O Fortuna from Carl Orff's "Carmina Burana" and Rimsky-Korsakov's "Flight of the Bumblebee". Then the keyboardists were highlighted in a piano duel that included some jazzy improv stuff, Bach's "Toccata and Fugue in D minor" and Vince Guaraldi's "Christmas Time Is Here" and "Linus and Lucy" and then everyone played Franz Liszt's "Hungarian Rhapsody". They also played "Queen of the Winter Night", a take on Mozart's opera The Magic Flute (specifically, the "Der Hölle Rache kocht in meinem Herzen" aria). The vocalist sang it mostly while standing out in the centre of the area floor where they had a second little mini-stage. The little stage was also used when a violinist and guitarist went out there and were elevated up to the ceiling while sprays of vapour shot down underneath. That area also shot fire sometimes. In the second half they also played what is probably their most famous song "Wizards in Winter". You may remember it from that viral video of the house with the Christmas lights display set to it (or the Miller Light commercial).

Here's the set list for the second half after introductions:
Wizards in Winter
Queen of the Winter Night
Prelude to Madness
Believe
Last Illusion/9th
Siberian Sleigh Ride
Tracers>Mozart
Christmas Canon
Orff's Carmina Burana (O fortuna)
Keyboard Dual-Wish Liszt
Requiem/12-24 Encore

The Trans-Siberian Orchestra has split up to run two concurrent tours allowing them to hit 90 cities in 2 months (and like 140 shows!). Though they introduced everyone I don't remember who everyone was and it's not easy to figure who was who so we'll just have to go with the ones I remember and have been able to gather were there. Al Pitrelli played guitar, he had recently mangled himself and had to sit down throughut the concert. Tommy Farese did vocals and introduced everyone (who's old buddies with Al). D totally called him being Italian. Tommy's wife Jane Mangini and Derek Wieland (I think?) and played keyboards. Jane Mangini and Al Pitrelli also have a band called O'2L (a mix of various eclectic styles, kind of jazzy stuff). Andrew Ross sings the Angel songs at the beginning and end of the Christmas half (they made fun of him for looking like Fabio, he and one of the vocalists did a pose, I laughed). They had some local strings playing with them too, which was nice. Bart Shatto came out dressed as a transient and sang "Old City Bar". That's all I know about that, I'm going to have to start writing things down when I go to stuff like this.

p.s. Cameras were restricted at the show so I haven't been able to find footage of our show but there some for the Winnipeg (the opening song and some other clips) and PA shows and a clip from O fortuna. Well you get the idea. Here's the advertisement for ours:

p.p.s. Here's a review of the sister show happening on the same day in Pennsylvannia (where I got the set list from). The set list and structure of our show was the same but with different people, which will have an effect on the show of course, but the gist is the same. There's also some more reviews on there now.

p.p.p.s. Oh! And to cap it off we found out that Obama won after the concert! Good times!

Indecision 2008

The Indecision 2008 website features "articles" and the Indecision TV special with Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert. The videos are available here in Canada at ComedyCentral's Indecision2008 website (its got similar stuff but is less shiny).

For interest and amusement's sake here is a Indecision clip from the past:

p.s.Because it's hilarious and the above clip reminded me of it:

US election results

The world watches with baited breath. Sad that many Canadians would have sacrificed their vote in our election for a chance to vote in the US election. Maybe if our voting system was more representative instead of first past the post...but I digress (Support electoral reform! Check out Fair Vote Canada!). At least no one in our election was really worried about it being rigged or that their vote would be randomly rejected. The fact that this is a serious concern (serious enough to be spoofed on Simpsons!) in a place like the US and that they haven't managed to think up a way to deal with it is horrible!

Politics is better with the Simpsons:


p.s.MSNBC has widgets like this one that you can automatically get imported to your blog in a post. Neat.

Post-election Update: WooHoo!

Treehouse of Horror Facts

The first Halloween Simpsons special was in the second season (1990) and was called "Treehouse of Horror" and featured Bart and Lisa (and Maggie) telling stories in Bart's treehouse.
The first story parodies the Amityville Horror, the second parodies the famous Twilight zone episode "To Serve Man" and features the very first appearance of Kang and Kodos, and lastly is the ever popular James Earl Jones reading "The Raven" (omitting stanzas 5 and 8 through 16). Good times.

So this yearly custom became an annual tradition and every Halloween special since has been named after the first Treehouse of Horror. The first 5 featured warnings in the opening segment as well as a fly through cemetery with amusing tombstones (TofH V had a tombstone that said "amusing tombstones"), which was subsequently ditched for other forms of opening clips.

The Halloween episodes usually have special "scary names" credits (inspired by EC Comics, which would do this sometimes). These were dropped in XII and XIII because they were too hard, but everyone complained so they brought them back. Also, TofH II through X had Halloween-y couch gags, in season 11 they broke that run by doing a Munsters opening parody.

All the Halloween episodes have 3 separate stories. The first four also had overarching settings: treehouse stories, candy induced nightmares, Halloween party stories, and scary paintings (a spoof of Night Gallery, which aired in the early 70s, by the same guy who did Twilight Zone). But these were dropped because they ate up too much time. Most of the stories are parodies (of scary movies, TV shows, books, etc.) and, besides movies in general (everything from The Shining to Harry Potter), the single most commonly parodied source is "Twilight Zone" with at least 8 parody segments to date ("To Serve Man", "A Small Talent for War","Living Doll", "Nightmare at 20,000 Feet","Little Girl Lost", and "The Little People", "It's a Good Life", and "A Kind of a Stopwatch"). FYI: They parody Twilight Zone in regular episodes too ("Bart's Comet" is a parody of "The Shelter", "Strong Arms of the Ma" spoofs "Time Enough at Last", etc.) .


p.s. The new Halloween episode, Treehouse of Horror XIX, airs tomorrow (continuing FOX's schedule of airing Halloween episodes in November because of their contract with the World Series). A segment of the episode (with Spanish subtitles) has been leaked, which features Homer running afoul of a rigged voting machine. Mayhem ensues.

Thriller

I remember being freaked out by this video back in the day! Before this video I didn't even know about werekitties!
Fun Facts: Thriller was released in 1982 by Epic records (it was Michael's 6th album) and the video for the song Thriller was released in December 1983. The video was directed by John Landis (who had done "American Werewolf in London" 2 years before). Michael was a Jehovah's Witness at the time, which is why the little disclaimer appears at the beginning of the video.
Also, the disclaimer after the credits is the same one Landis put up at the end of "American Werewolf". Thriller won the 1985 Grammy for best long form video and won a pile of MTV awards.
Here is the Bollywood version:

Dirty Jobs visits SkullsUnlimited

For those of you who have never processed specimens for an osteological comparative collection. Bear in mind that Skulls Unlimited does this on a much grander scale than a University or smaller operation would. Also, not everyone will use dermestid beetles or follow the exact same procedure.

Part 1


Part 2


Zooarchaeology nerd tips: SkullsUnlimited has a pretty sweet website that has many good comparative images and info on each of the specimens they sell.

Pipe Wrench Fight!

From the Best of YouTube podcast, a literal interpretation of "Take On Me" video by a-ha. I loved the "Take On Me" video when I was little (I thought Morton Harket was dreamy). This is back in the day when MuchMusic showed music videos. Ah nostalgia.
Simpsons nerd notes: all the guys in "Non-Threatening Boys Magazine" are named Corey.

p.s. The video was made by this guy (he also literalized the "Head Over Heels" video by Tears for Fears). There's a couple other copycat ones (someone did Radiohead's "No Surprises" and another guy did U2's "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For"), but none of them are as good as the a-ha one.

If movies had cell phones

I especially like the Romeo&Juliet one! This is why all of my suggestions for what people should do during movies would make crappy movies.

p.s. This video is from the college humour people. They're pretty funny (I like the metaphor free radio video).

Chickens! Concert Series #24: Neil Young

So I randomly got to go see Neil Young in Regina on Saturday (to the frustration of several NY fans that I know, mostly because I called him Neil Diamond a couple of times). It was pretty sweet! Neil just gave'r for sure (he was wearing a paint splattered blazer, I have field shirts that are Neil Young chic now apparently). I recognized all the old songs, which was fun and pretty much a common sentiment through the crowd judging by the degree of lipsynching. It was good times, Neil was really high energy and his band had such a great chemistry (his wife does vocals). One thing though, attached to the front of the drum kit was a telephone which they never used or anything. What's up with that?

Here's the breakdown of the show:

Opening bands: Everest and Death Cab For Cutie (you may remember Death Cab from this post; they actually sung that song too).

Neil Young (and His Electric Band) set list:
1. Love And Only Love
2. Hey Hey, My My
3. Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere
4. Powderfinger
5. Spirit Road
6. Cinnamon Girl
7. Oh, Lonesome Me
8. Mother Earth
9. The Needle And The Damage Done
10. Unknown Legend
11. Heart Of Gold
12. Old Man
13. Get Back To The Country
14. Just Singing A Song
15. Sea Change
16. When Worlds Collide
17. Cowgirl In The Sand
18. Rockin' In The Free World
19. Encore: A Day In The Life

This video is cool because whoever was taking it must have been standing right near where I was (a little bit to the left and probably 4 or 5 people closer to the stage).


p.s. I'm not going to do a band history or anything because I'm ignorant and I don't want to enrage any of the aformentioned frustrated people.

But, just look how many times he's been on the cover of the Rolling Stone!

C'est Magnifique!

Jon Stewart comments on the Canadian election


Also, for curiosity's sake check out what Jon had to say about the 2006 election:

This week in history

FYI The song she sings, "Anything Goes" from the Broadway musical of the same name, debuted on Broadway in 1934. So it checks out.
p.s. Thanks to D for being a nerd and posting this which led me to the promo poster.

Wiggum/Norris 2012 !

While Chuck Norris was denied as a Presidential candidate (check out a pro-Chuck campaign website here), in an almost unfathomable gesture of generosity Chuck has decided to forgo roundhouse kicking everyone and has put his hat in for vice prez. I'm still optimistic that Republicans might come to their senses and realize that Palin is a political insult to women, Americans, and basically all rational human beings everywhere (hmmm...a little harsh? Oh well). Also, I heard that Chuck Norris sneezes electricity! Try viewing the following propaganda material:

There is another candidate that I have extremely high hopes for! Check out his campaign website here. If ever a third party candidate had a chance to win I think he is the one. Wiggum/Norris 2012!

Green Commercials

The Green Party has just released their first ever national commercial campaign. The series of commercials features May on the train speaking about various issues. The commercials can be viewed at the Green's YouTUBE channel. I think this definitely reflects their growing popularity and importance as a party. As it stands, besides the "The Parties 2008" spots on CBC that are free for all parties (even fringe), the only parties with National ad campaigns are PC, NDP, Liberal, and now Green. I like the commercials, they're simple and constructive, not attacking.

The ABC Plan

Check out this website (thanks to Saskboy for the link) if you're curious about specific examples of the Conservatives flouting of law, order, ethics, the welfare of Canadians and other frivolities such as "the truth", "equality", and "human decency". My favorite is #1 because it is the most recent and is fresh in my mind but they're all good. However, I also like this one and this one (especially in the light of Harper's tough stance on crime for the election). And this one is pretty stupid and this one is quite interesting. Oh well I could go on and on. You know what I don't like? When a party that wants to be re-elected into power makes new campaign promises. It just makes me think, "Oh yeah? If you think these things are important why didn't you do them when you were in power?". If they were doing a good job, the best thing they would be able to say would be, "look at what we've done, we'll be doing more of that".

If you don't know, "ABC" stands for anything but conservatives. Since we are not a two party system, this plan leads us down the path of strategic voting, voting for a less desirable candidate to reduce the chances of an even less desirable candidate taking the seat. While I'm all for sending the conservatives packing, the trend of strategic voting should be taken with a grain of salt. Check out this list if you are considering voting strategically. There are relatively few ridings in which voting strategically would actually make a significant difference to the outcome. Also, remember that every vote for your party means more federal funding (if it secures more than 2% of the vote that is) even if it doesn't win seats. FYI, according to the list there are only 39 ridings in which Green supporters should even consider voting strategically if they favor the ABC plan.

Talking to Politicians: The NDP

So it looks like the NDP wins for fastest response. All the more impressive in light of it being bounced around a little. While providing little actual info I have to give them props for their record (they created the SHF which directly funded my own work so it's hard to find fault).

Here's what Heath Smith had to say:

Sent: Thu, 02 Oct 2008 17:22:13
From: "Heath Smith" hsmith@ndpcaucus.sk.ca
Subject: Re: FW: RE: policies regarding archaeology in Saskatchewan?

Dear Ms. CP,

Thank you for your email!

The Saskatchewan New Democratic Party does not have policies specific to cultural resource management, but more generally to the preservation and expansion of Saskatchewan arts and culture. New Democrats have traditionally been the political proponents of arts and culture in Canada. The Saskatchewan NDP, for example, was responsible for establishing the Saskatchewan Arts Board and ensuring that it received funding adequate to contribute to our communities. The Saskatchewan Party, by contrast, has recently diverted funding away from the Saskatchewan Arts Board.

On the topic of cultural resource management specifically, while still the government of Saskatchewan, the NDP established the Saskatchewan Heritage Foundation. The SHF's mandate was "to provide financial support to heritage projects at the provincial and community level that seek to conserve, research, interpret, develop and promote Saskatchewan's diverse heritage resources."

For more information on the Saskatchewan Heritage Foundation, please follow the link here:
http://www.saskculture.sk.ca/funding/SHF.htm

If you have any further questions or concerns, please feel free to contact me.

Thank you, once again, for your email. I hope that I've been some help.

Heath Smith
Communications Coordinator
NDP Caucus Office
(306) 787-6546

For the sake of curiosity here is the history of the message (most recent first):

Sent: Monday, September 29, 2008 1:31 PM
To: caucus@ndpcaucus.sk.ca
Subject: re: RE: policies regarding archaeology in Saskatchewan?

Hello Jane,
I am curious as to why you need my mailing address to answer my questions? I assume you wish to mail some materials regarding the NDP's policies? If that is the reason I would much prefer the more environmentally friendly alternative of an individual email response or perhaps you could direct me to specific online versions of the resources you are planning to send? Thank you for your very prompt response.
-CP

NDP Caucus Office wrote:

Sent: Fri, 26 Sep 2008 15:55:00 -0400 (EDT)
From: caucus@ndpcaucus.sk.ca
Subject: RE: policies regarding archaeology in Saskatchewan?

Dear CP:

Could you please provide a mailing address so that we may respond to your email?

Thank you,
Jane Baniulis
NDP Caucus Office

-----Original Message-----
Sent: Wednesday, September 24, 2008 4:52 PM
To: caucus@ndpcaucus.sk.ca
Subject: policies regarding archaeology in Saskatchewan?

Hello,
I am an archaeologist in Saskatchewan. I'm currently attending the University of Saskatchewan Masters in Archaeology program but I have been living and working as an archaeologist doing cultural resource management in Saskatchewan for 4 years now. I was curious as to your stance on cultural resource management in Saskatchewan. Are there any plans for more resources or positive reform of the heritage branch in future? Perhaps more incentive for companies to follow protocol, harsher punishments for companies who willingly violate regulations or a better inclusion of historic sites within the legislation to protect our heritage? I know this is less of a hot button issue than environmental protection but I see the archaeology in the province being destroyed day by day and while this is somewhat inevitable in light of industry, there are ways to protect these resources through awareness, avoidance and archaeological recovery before they are lost forever. Does the NDP have an interest in these concerns and a plan to address them? Thank you very much for your time and any information you may have! Your reply will be very helpful in determining my vote.
-CP

p.s. Don't forget to check out the English language debates tonight (although the vice-prez candidate debates do have their own car crash-esque appeal). If you miss it the video of the debate will be posted on the CBC website tomorrow.