But seriously watch it

Wait how did I not know about this?

What am Was Watching II

Trying to get more into a bloggin schedule of a couple times a week (as opposed to my current schedule of "never"). Here's some videos, in no real order:


This was written by one of the guys who made LOOOOOOOOOOOOST (deep cut). It is funny and you should watch it because it is funny. Also there's famous-ish people and a cool use of time travel.



The next thing I was going to post went down the memory hole, so here a video of Kurt Vonnegut being awesome instead:



The next thing is also the thing that is the last thing, because I thought I had more things but did not. Anyway I am recomendiding Clone High because it is a fun show that is funny and also fun and you can watch the whole thing in like three hours so theres that. Also I really like the theme song, so at least watch that part. The first episode is kind of weak, and the show never does that much with its premise, but it gets stronger as it goes along (surprising for both an animated show and an anything-goes parody, it's actually pretty serialized). All the episodes are streamable (note to self: is streamable a word?), although you might have to hunt for some of them.

The next post is number 250, and I'm trying to think of something cool for it, which is not-very-subtle code for I'm probably going to start posting music again.

Other features every DVR should have*: A "second airing" option in addition to "First Run" and "Repeats," for shows that air multiple times a night (i.e. every cable show). So I can record South Park one of the 400 times a week it airs without interfering with something else or recording a million reruns.

*In a previous post, I mentioned an "undo" button or recycle bin for when you accidentally delete episodes (which every single person with a DVR has done at least once), a feature that I estimated would take about ten minutes to develop and implement.

"Doctor Who"

I forget when I had this idea, but it must have been fairly recent, I think either near the end of Series Five or right after it ended. It's a simple idea but I like it because The Doctor's basically a cowboy anyway.

My playing on the lead part sounded fine on the GarageBand file but here seems.. not that great. This is a fairly common problem--a lot of songs lost volume and/or quality when being converted. I might retape it or just try and fix the mix pretty soon.

Special thanks to the youtube commenter who pointed out The Doctor HAS been to the wild west (and of course, as I just found out a couple days ago, it looks like he's going back there). maybe they can get someone talented to redo this for that episode.

"We Used to Be Friends"

Trivia: did you know "We Used to Be Friends" is a total ripoff of this song?

If you don't know why this song is short you fail at everything. (The correct answer, by the way, is that it's because I'm more a TV geek than a music geek. Also I think the theme song version works better because of how it builds to a single, perfect climax, where the original comes off as a little more draggy and repetitive. I was going to write a blog post about it but couldn't think of enough other examples).

For this song I wanted something more "live" sounding. I was sort of inspired by the AV Club's Undercover series. That's why this song features only voice, uke, and handclaps, even though I originally wrote it with more backing tracks (of course, it also helped me record it faster).I used the uke instead of guitar because I want a cleaner and brighter sound. I did try to add backing guitar and vocals, but I didn't think it added much. Maybe I was just doing it wrong.

I'll admit I wasn't entirely sucessful; it's surprisingly hard to make something look easy without it just seeming half-assed ("Effect & Cause" has the same problem). I probably also ran into singing problems after changing the key.

"Ray of Light"

I wanted to cover Madonna since I saw the episode of that show about her. You know, the show with the singing teens? I think it's called The Sopranos*. Mainly I wanted to do it for the contrast of it, similar to why I did some of my other covers, but I also think Madonna deserve more respect than she actually gets. Even when complimenting her, most people talk about her image or her celebrity status, and ignore the fact that she's actually responsible for some pretty good music. It's especially odd when someone does basically the same thing (hint: rhymes with "maybe lava"), and gets lauded as the Greatest Artist of our Generation TM.

As with Hallelujah, this song was easy to write (it took about an hour to work out the chord placements), but hard to play. Madonna's original "Ray of Light" is already hard to sing; this version is even harder, because of its unusual chord progression (which is either I-V-vii or vii-IV-vi, I couldn't figure out how the key worked) and lots of variations. Most of my early takes came out as vague grunts or psuedo-drunken slurs or Billy Corgan impressions. I actually changed parts of the structure of the song after taping this, but couldn't get a decent recording of the new version, so I had to stick with this earlier take instead.

Random Bull---- (he said, pronouncing the dashes effortlessly):
-At one point I was going to change the lyrics more, but I think what I was trying to say with the song works without all the changes. I sort of saw this version as being about losing someone (where Madonna's is more about going towards something), so lines like "faster than the speeding light she's flying," end up meaning very different things in the two versions.
-Recording this was a lot like recording "Hallelujah," but with a few differences. I spent a lot more time here trying to nail down the singing style, and playing in every conceivable key, in an effort to avoid the headaches the last song gave me. I failed, though this one did take less time, perhaps due to lower standards.
-This song was completely finished (by which I mean written) in May, but was shelved until recently because my attempts at recording it back then were about as successful as my attempts to record it now. Except for I gave up sooner, and I was less desperate.
-I decided not to listen to the original at all until I finished recording, so that the two versions would sound more different.
-Because I'm proud of them (and because they're nothing like the original), here are the chords in standard tuning (I played it three steps down):

Intro:
(D A C G B F Em D)

D              A     C       G
Zephyr in the sky at night I wonder
G              Em       A                C
Do my tears of mourning sink beneath the sun
D                   A             C
She's got herself a universe gone quickly
C               Em      G               A
For the call of thunder threatens everyone


A     D     A             C
And I feel like I just got home
D           A             C
And I feel like I just got home
Em    G    A  D
And I feel
D              A      C          G    Em
Quicker than a ray of light then gone
D              A      C          Em    G
Quicker than a ray of light then gone


D               A        C           G
Faster than the speed of light she's flying
G             Em     F        Am    C
And I don't remember how it all began
D        A     C      Em       G
I had myself a little piece of heaven
F               Em        Am                D   A
Waiting for the time when Earth could be as one

(verse)

G A B C D Em F G A

A     C     A      C
And I feel/ And I feel

D              A      C          G    Em
Quicker than a ray of light then gone for
Am                  Em
Someone else should be there
Am            Dm    Am A
Through the endless years

A     D     A             C
And I feel like I just got home
D           A             C
And I feel like I just got home
Em    G   C  A
And I feel

A                   D
She's got herself a universe
A                   C
She's got herself a universe
A                   D
She's got herself a universe
A                   C       Em G A
She's got herself a universe

A     D     A      D
And I feel/ And I feel

A C G B G F G Em G A Em

D              A      C     Em    G
Quicker than a ray of light she's flying
D              A      C     G     Em
Quicker than a ray of light she's flying
D              A      C     Em    G
Quicker than a ray of light she's flying
D              A      C           G  Em
Quicker than a ray of light she's flying

A D A C G Em

*In all seriousness, I've wanted to write about Glee since it started--it's not always a good show but there's always something to talk about--but I didn't want to start TV blogging again (too much work, plus I wasn't that great at it), and it seemed weird to only write about one show.

Too-lazy-for-a-real-review Review

I really like the pilot for The Good Guys, but I feel like they missed a real opportunity by not calling it "The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly." If you watch you'll understand why:

What Am Watching

Like every post, I meant to write this a long time ago. I suspect that now might actually be a good time though, since I'm guessing a lot of you, like me, suddenly find yourself without a whole lot to do. So here are some things that you can watch, most of which are on the internet somewhere or other. Introductions are hard.

First of all, if you didn't see last week's Community, all you need to know is 1) it was maybe the best thing to air on television in the last year, and 2) you are dumb for missing it. The good part comes after three minutes (an aside--what's up with New-Hulu? They seem to have change it--and Wikipedia--in the last hour or so, when I wasn't looking). Since it's not letting me embed, here.

A while back I somehow got pointed toward the works of Charlie Brooker, of which the biggest and best is Screenwipe. Basically a combination of a TV review show and a deconstruction of television itself, it's one of the few TV shows that might actually make you smarter. But not boring like I made it sound--the style is a lot like (and actually inspired) Zero Punctuation, so if you like that, you'll like this. There are six seasons, but those are British Seasons so it's really like two real seasons. Also worth checking out are his other shows, Newswipe, Gameswipe, and You Have Been Watching, all of which are good in their own way (especially Newswipe), but don't have as many episodes (you can get through all three over a long day).

Why We Fight is basically the same as Food Inc, in that it could be really preachy and one-sided, and just take potshots at George Bush (in other words, it could be Fahrenheit 911), but instead it really transcends politics and gets to the bottom of the issue itself. As a result, it's still worth watching no matter who the president is. The whole thing is on Youtube but for some reason the only playlist is backward. Here's part one.

Party Down is another good show that I know you're not watching. Shame on you all. It's a black comedy about caterers in Hollywood, which is a premise that sounds really lame but is actually genius, for reasons I'm not very good at articulating. If you have Netflix the whole thing is on Instant Watch (with new episodes up Friday Mornings); if you don't there are a few episodes up here.

Lastways (that's a word, right?), Doctor Who. I started watching the new episodes and then went back and watched the whole (new) series, which is also Flixable. I sort of assumed this was one of those things nerds liked because nerds like anything with spaceships, but it's actually, gripping, funny and heartfelt, and all around good television. On the other hand, I'm trying to get through Torchwood, but all I can think is "I liked this show better when it was called Angel" (which, incidentally, is also Flixable, but I didn't mention because I already saw it).

Allright, that should hold you guys until the next one of these.

Things that are green (A Playlist)

Green screen:


Green Day:


Green Onions:


Green River (do what I did and play both at the same time):



Also a Green River:



Greenland (green in name only):

Green, Bein':


Green Hill Zone:


Green, Village:


Owls (not green, just funny):


UPDATE: Retroactively it's a pun on "Al Green" (say it out loud).

GREEN MAN!:

More video things

My favorite is the Wes Anderson one; he's been ripped off so much I can almost see that one really happening.

It Came From the Infernets, Part i...

Seriously you guys you gotsta be watchin Lost. Otherwise you won't be able to laugh at things like this:

Liveblogging The Simpsons Season 12

Because I'm bored and my writer's block is keeping me from doing Song of the Week. OK let's go.

-First thing's first, the box is still pretty stupid. Hard to open, hard to figure out where our DVDs are, big Comic-Book Guy head making it hard to go on the shelf. At least they give us a cutaway to help get the discs out.

-Matt Groening gives his usual intro, which isn't really noteworthy but still kind of cool, with the listing of guest stars and specfeats and all. How come nobody else does those?

"Treehouse of Horror 11"

-Surprised it took this long for a "Munsters" gag
-"Snakes: Nature's Quitters"
-Broccoli is one of the deadliest plants on Earth
-One cool thing about the "Treehouses" is that they can do stuff like kill Homer and have him be all ghostified. The show's normal, albiet tenuous, connection to reality kind of keeps it from exploring as many stories as they can. Oh well, I'm sure they'll never run out.
-Did this one air before or after Halloween? I just heard this year's would be before for the first time in a while.
-"Hansel & Gretel" is kind of a stretch for a horror episode, ain't it? I mean, I know the original stories were violent and gross, but still.
-Oh, it's the dolphin one! Swizz-eet!
-"They made me do tricks--like a common seal!"
-I know the later seasons get a lot of flack, but I can't think of anything funnier than dolphins marching on their fins.
-Snorky's voice sounds a lot like Principal Skinner's.
-OK, one more thing about the dolphin one. That had some of the best animatin' I've seen on this show, especially the crowd shots woth 90 billion people and the getting dolphins to walk on land. OK, next ep.

"A Tale of Two Springfields"

-"I will not plant subliminAL messaGOREs"
-Carl's explanation of whether 636 or 939 was better--awesome.
-The Simpsons' number: 939-555-0113
-"Your fears are groundless and your complaints moronic"-- a very useful quote in this day and age.
-"We Joe Twelve-Packs"
-Wackiness: Homer attempts to suicide-bomb town hall.
-"That's my novelty flying disc"
-"They were looking at me...with their eyes"
-"There's nothig like revenge for getting back at people"/"I don't know, vengeance is pretty good"
-"Because of you, we're taking golden showers...what"
-Part of the Springfield wall is the angel skeleton
-"Who huddle"
-Keith Moon is still The Who's drummer in the Simpsonverse.
-Season 20 had an episode with a wall in Springfield too...except this was the Berlin Wall and that was the border fence...or something.
-Wouldn't Pink Floyd have been more thematically appropriate (puns!)

"Insane Clown Poppy"

-Couch Gag is a bullet-time joke. I'm pretty sure they do the same thing later in the season.
-"It's gonna take a lot of fireworks to clean this place up."
-"Maya Angelou is black?"
-Hey, it's John Updike!
-Springfield has a beach in this episode.
-Finally, someone who's a worse parent than Homer.
-Why are Homer and Moe playing cards with Krusty and Fat Tony?
-"It's not worth much cash, but its sentimental value is through the roof"
-Apparently, a ukulele is "the thinking man's violin" and "four aces is no gamble"
-"If I know Fat Tony, which I don't..."
-"Our website name will be crime.org" (it's for sale, maybe I should buy it)
-OK so this episode kind of sucked, but lots of great one-liners. And they didn't let the guests overwhelm the plot. Maybe could have used more Homer.

"Lisa the Tree-Hugger"

-Wait, hasn't Lisa always been a tree-hugger?
-Teletubbies joke...that aged well.
-Is "Gamestation" the go-to fake video game console name? (To The Max!)
-You Thai Now
-Bart's ninja costume is back! And another bullet-time joke.
-"Take that, Lisa's beliefs!"
-"In New Orleans they hose us with Tabasco"
-"I get enough flaming toilet paper thrown on me at home"
-"I'm a level-5 vegan, I won't eat anything that casts a shadow"
-"We might have an opening at the 'poser' level"
-Apparently, Homer has a "stash"
-From Lisa's tree, you can see Shelbyville, St. Louis, Hollywood, Paris, New York... in that order
-"Dad is building a ladder, but it is of poor quality"
-"This family has had nothing but bad luck when it comes to farce"
-"Oh right, I don't have superpowers...yet"
-They even used the Matrix song.

"Homer vs. Dignity"

-This is the one everyone hates, right? With the panda? Let's see if they're right.
-Bart's story of how he gets an A gives me an idea for solving the education crisis.
-This is the "Retirony" episode? Can't be that bad.
-"There's a New Mexico?" (wouldn't be funny except Burns is saying it)
-Lenny's a war hero?
-"...calmly eating candy like Spaniard"
-"[Smithers] doesn't know the meaning of the word gay". Cut to his musical about dolls.
-Bart gets his shot in his right arm, because he's left handed. Callbacks!
-The shots of Homer getting zapped in the panda suit were actually pretty cool-looking.
-Yeah, that panda part did suck. At least Homer was mad about it.
-Wait, this is a Christmas episode?!
-Homer throws a present to Ralph, which just bounces off his head.
-Homer is throwing out Lil' Lisa's Slurry. Callbacks!
-OK, so it wasn't great, but, I don't know, I didn't hate it. There were worse episodes, at least this one had a plot and actual jokes.

"Homer vs. Dignity" w/Commentary

-Let's see what the they have to sat about all this.
-So this episode is based on a book?
-They're surprisingly quiet on this commentary, breaking in namely to point out/ laugh at the jokes.
-Apparently even the cast and crew weren't sure what to think of the panda-rape stuff.
-And the first draft was even worse (in terms of like dark, not quality).
-Part of the problem: people didn't get the references to the book, probably because who reads books?
-Groening assumed the panda stuff would be taken out, so he didn't even bother fighting it.
-"In hindsight [old, discarded idea] doesn't sound too bad"
-Like I said, this was a pretty quiet commentary. I expected them too have more to say about such a controversial episode, especially with eight (eight!) people in the room. Oh well, if I wasn't blogging it I probably wouldn't have cared.

Anyway, that was disc one. I may or may not go back for discs two and three. It sort of depends on junk and stuff.

Life Imitates Mr. Show

First real-life Mayostard (TM), now this crap?

TV host accused of ordering killings.

Compare:



Is someone trying to tell us something?

"Look out, he's got a gun!"

Now that I've got your attention, here's something completely different.

Do you ever see something on TV and think, holy flerking snart*, how did they get that on TV? Apparently this was on TV (but only once, but still, but keep in mind the network):

hey yall i dont know if you guys heard but futurama the best show ever is on sale the whole thing for 42.99 usually its like eighty bucks so you know maybe you gets it today cause its awesome and the dvds is great they have commentary and shit on everything so go do it man go do it

Hark, 'tis a glorious day!

Forsooth, the benevolent lord that is Hulu has seen fit to bless us with the gift of Spaced! Verily, 'tis a fine and righteous show, one I have viewed with considerable enjoyment on Digital Video Disc not long ere today. Once I had deigned it fitting to write a review, but it seemed that the moment had long past, given this second chance, I shall try again:

Spaced is good comedy because it's unique. It has a viewpoint and tone that, while not without influence, is more or less unpecedented, and would never truly be seen again, though Wright and Pegg's movies come pretty close. On top of that it's funny and you can watch the whole thing in a day. End.

Accentuate the Positive

The bestest thing ever just happened! Hooray for everything! Insert quote here!

Merry X Mas, Scrubs is Over

Anyway, partly as a tribute, partly to figure out how to use Embedr, and partly so I could link to the Turk Dance, I made a playlist of the best Scrubs moments I could find on such short notice. I wanted this up a little earlier, but my computer was running slow. Maybe you can watch it during commercials? Or after... but Lost is after. Oh well, it's up to you.

I tried to keep it to musical stuff, but one Space Invaders-shaped video snuck in. I couldn't not use it.

Build your own custom video playlist at embedr.com

PS. I thought I lost this and had to start over, only to find out it had not only worked, but it made it onto the front page. This is the closest to good luck I've had in a while. Now I'm gonna go watch TV.

Things I don't Like

Usually I like to write about stuff I like. Not today.

Justified Text: So it's bad enough I have to read these boring-ass textbooks. Why do they use the worst possible format? Justified text a) Wastes paper and b) is hard to read, for three reasons: b1) the identical-length lines are indistinguishable from each other, making it easy to confuse them, meaning it's easy to lose your place; b2) the words are different spaces apart, which is visually distracting and can cause headaches and eye strain (probably. I have no proof of either); b3) so-called "rivers" of white space, which are also distracting. So you get distracted, and then it's harder to find your place when you go back to reading. And you have a headache. This is serious issue. Hours of my life, and probably other people's as well, have been lost because of justified text. And...why?


ABC.com: not enough episodes, loud, annoying (and automatic) video ads, proprietary install, confusing interface, and low video quality. And you have to restart it after commercials. Imagine if you had to get up and press a button on your TV after every commercial so you could keep watching your show. No would watch TV, we'd all still listen to the radio. ABC, just give up and jump on the Hulu boat with everyone else. Or at least fix that commercial thing.


And on a related note, Firefox on Macs. Make me lose my twenty some-odd open tabs because I didn't notice a popup ad? Or because some website (cough*ABC.com*cough) needed to install some update?


Oh, and I just found this out, ABC.com doesn't let you pause if you're watching fullscreened. It's like they want this to fail. And it auto re-sizes your browser window, wich is a cardinal sin of internet-anything.


Canker Sores. I have two. Not fun.


Those TLC shows about the families with too many kids. At what point does television stop being entertainment? If you have ever enjoyed any of these shows (I think there are two of them, and they just added a third one), congratulations, you are officially old.


OK, one of the ABC commercials was for the show I was watching. Listen, ABC: The whole point of putting shows on the Internet is promotional: the show itself is the commercial. If all you can get to advertise during your shows is yourself, your business model is flawed f'd up the a'.

The Phillips-head Screw(driver): better screw(driver)s exist. It's an old idea we just can't get rid of, like the QWERTY keyboard or the system that's not the metric system. Or justified text.

Negative Internet Articles and Blog Posts. Find something nicer to say, douchebag.

And one thing I like: Lists. Excellent way to organize information. I was just going to write about justified text and then I thought, no, no one will read that. So I made a list and now its like I don't have to remember to hate those things anymore. It's very therapeutic, those of you with blogs should try it.

In Space!

I just finished watching this episode (because of circumstances too complicated to explain), and I thought, might as well embed it.



(Click here for a bigger version)