You know you’ve always wondered.
Category Archives: Funny Shit
Billy Wilder on Collective Consciousness
“Everyone in the audience is an idiot, but taken together they’re a genius.”
– From Billy Wilder Speaks (Kino, 2006), directed by Volker Schlöndorff and Gisela Grischow
(The Kino DVD release of Billy Wilder Speaks, which I recommend, is a 71-minute version of Billy Wilder, wie haben Sie’s gemacht? [Billy Wilder, How Did You Do It?], a 1992 three hour multi-part special produced for German television. The Kino edition does include an additional 70 minutes of interview and related footage as extras.)
Just Some Stuff
Ye olde WFMU Blog has recently posted two Concertos for Jew’s Harp (then known as the guimbarde) composed by Johann Georg Albrechstberger (who once taught some guy named Beethoven) apparently to please his patron, Austrian king Joseph II, who was evidently a fan of the instrument. It’s nice stuff, once one gets past the inevitable giggles from hearing “boing boing twaanggg” amidst the more familiar orchestral arrangements. And why the heck is that thing called a “Jew’s harp” anyway?
There’s also a recent pointer to a jaw-dropping Quicktime VR tour of “Steve’s Weird House,” a Victorian mansion somewhere in Seattle jammed stem to stern with, well, just about everything in the universe (especially if it’s odd). Methinks the man could make a fortune if he charged admission. Must be seen to be believed.
Time Migraine, er, Magazine is currently accepting online voting for their Person of the Year. Candidates include Hugo Chavez, Gee Duh-bya, Kim Jong Il and “the YouTube guys.” Hm.
The reprobate running Seattle’s own Wall of Sound record shoppe recently tipped me to a very fine live 1970 TV performance of “11 Mustachioed Daughters” by biG GRunt (via YouTube), a post-Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band whatsis fronted by Vivian Stanshall (whose very British piece of very surreal comedy, Sir Henry at Rawlinson End (1980), recently appeared on the shelves at Scarecrow Video). Anything featuring a leg-theremin solo and homebrew robot sidemen is worth some peeper time. Btw, the YouTube clip does look better if you use the handy shrinker-izer button. You can learn more about biG GRunt at the Ginger Geezer site (which does not constitute a rabbit). And speaking of Dog Doo-Dahs and biG GRunts, Neil Innes’ web site offers a very fat bowl of MP3 and streaming Real audio floaters, including 8 songs recorded live in Chicago in 2004 and mastered by none other than Pink Bob.
Meanwhile, Pixar has posted all of their short films online for your streaming pleasure.
Also, one Dan Lamoureux is entering post-production on his nerdcore documentary. Like a DQ Blizzard, baby.
But for some real learning, visit the Intergalactic Research – Space is the Place site/blog (or its earlier incarnation at Blogspot), in particular their collection of extremely rare Sun Ra interview and conversation audio. Much of the downloads are only via the thoroughly aggravating and grossly misnamed Rapidshare site, but there is a pointer to a 2 hour interview (in 3 parts, MP4) easily downloadable from the Slought Foundation site. While you’re getting schooled, you should poke around the lengthy discographies at Space is the Place, where you will find many links to choice MP3s…albeit at that dag blasted Rapidshare.
Okay, done now.
Special Report
Courtesy of YouTube, one Bryan Boyce has created an excellent and funny video mash-up entitled Special Report. It uses Clutch Cargo-esque mouth overlays to combine dialog and declamations from classic ’50s sci fi B-movies with actual footage of newscast anchors from all the networks. Comes complete with Robot Monster reference. If only the real newscasts were this accurate.
(Thanks to Micki S. for the refer.)
Oo-Oo-Oo, Schnitt-Schnitt-Schnitt
Just in time to help ameliorate my throbbing stress-levels at work, the ever-wonderful WFMU Blog today posted MP3s of the 1969 Permanent Damage LP by The GTO’s, a classically odd Zappa side-project featuring groupies in his orbit at the time telling stories, performing several fine Zappa-penned songs (backed by a sort of freak super-group including the likes of Ian Underwood and Ry Cooder), and engaging in typically Zapped audio strangeness. (The post also includes a number of other choice groupie-related MP3s and videos.)
A must-have, and I don’t mean scabies.
Ivor Cutler
Thanks to the rapidly impending doom of Tower Records, I recently obtained three albums by the one-of-a-kind Scottish avant songwriter and humorist philosopher, Ivor Cutler (born January 15 1923; died March 3 2006). I’d seen the name on Fred Frith’s discography (as he contributed some viola to Velvet Donkey), but I first checked him out thanks to a video clip of him performing “Shop Lifters” with harmonium on The Old Grey Whistle Test posted on the WFMU Blog.
Here’s some links about him.
Official site
www.ivorcutler.org
Video
www.youtube.com/results?search_query=ivor+cutler&search=Search
A Discography
www.issue.demon.co.uk/poetry/cutler/record/
Obituary
www.guardian.co.uk/obituaries/story/0,,1725211,00.html
Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ivor_Cutler
“I’m Going in a Field” from the album Ludo (1967):
I’m going in a field,
I’m going in a field,
I’m going in a field,
To lie down.
I’ll lie beside the grass,
I’ll lie beside the grass,
I’ll lie beside the green grass,
I’m going in a field,
I’m going in a field,
I’m going in a field,
To lie down.
Yellow flower,
In the grass,
Yellow flower,
In the grass.
I’m going in a field,
I’m going in a field,
I’m going in a field,
To lie down.
My lovers eyes are blue,
I’m going in a field,
To lie down.
Green grass,
Yellow flower,
My lovers eyes are blue
I’m going in a field.
Riders of the Stooge, Including Pandas, a Bob Hope Impersonator, and Some Decent Red Wine Dammit
Required reading. The impossibly entertaining concert rider for Iggy and The Stooges has been making the rounds since The Smoking Gun posted it last week.
It was apparently written by Jos Grain, who is The Stooges’ drum roadie. My pal Hell’s Donut House informs me that Mike Watt (who’s playing bass with them, ya know) posted to the Chugchanga list about it, saying “I don’t have a bass tech or assistant hair tech or anything – I’m just watt trying to help these guys out and not there to make demands I think jos was just trying to spook some promoter people into getting good amps, I guess.”
“I’m really lucky to be doing this w/the stooges (big time) and am not at all picky,” Mike continued. “the only thing I kind of wish for rider shit is a little really hot chili salsa, like stuff w/habaneros to go w/tortilla chips but it ain’t all that critical.”
Thoughtfully, Mike also provided a link to an HTML copy of the rider at Jos’ site.
More Fun With Un-Food
You Are What You Eat…You Poor Bastard
For anyone who grew up in the Midwest, James Lileks’ Gallery of Regrettable Food will bring back memories of being forced to sit at the table until you eat all of your over-boiled canned vegetables and scary meat.
While cruising down Midwestern mastication memory lane, you’ll want to pull off and make a stop at the White Castle Recipes site. Sup like a fallen king on dubious delights like White Castle Souffle, Stubby’s 3-Cheese Spinach (and White Castle) Quiche, Castle Balls (hmmm), and (shudder) Castle Cobbler.
And assuming you’re still clinging to life after such a malicious meal, you’ll definitely need to partake of Recipes of the Damned. Fruit Cocktail-SPAM Buffet Party Loaf — need I say more?
And to think sushi once scared me…
Update: As a public service, because obesity is such a problem these days, I am obliged to refer you, dear gustinaut, to these Weight Watchers recipe cards from 1974. These are definitely your tickets to immediate weight loss. Mostly by aversion therapy. The last time I saw a Frankenfurter Spectacular, I threw toast at the screen.
Fuck, Law, and You
Fuck
By Christopher M. Fairman
Ohio State University – Michael E. Moritz College of Law March 2006
Ohio State Public Law Working Paper No. 59
Center for Interdisciplinary Law and Policy Studies Working Paper Series No. 39
Abstract:Â
This Article is as simple and provocative as its title suggests: it explores the legal implications of the word fuck. The intersection of the word fuck and the law is examined in four major areas: First Amendment, broadcast regulation, sexual harassment, and education. The legal implications from the use of fuck vary greatly with the context. To fully understand the legal power of fuck, the nonlegal sources of its power are tapped. Drawing upon the research of etymologists, linguists, lexicographers, psychoanalysts, and other social scientists, the visceral reaction to fuck can be explained by cultural taboo. Fuck is a taboo word. The taboo is so strong that it compels many to engage in self-censorship. This process of silence then enables small segments of the population to manipulate our rights under the guise of reflecting a greater community. Taboo is then institutionalized through law, yet at the same time is in tension with other identifiable legal rights. Understanding this relationship between law and taboo ultimately yields fuck jurisprudence.