Coming to theaters in September, Danny Trejo is Machete and he has a special message for Arizona; “this time they’ve fucked with the wrong Mexican.”
filed under humor
This is just too precious - a hasidic wedding band performs Lady Gaga.
Taxes are due this week. Here is the form for the marginally employed.
This choreographed number with dancers costumed as the Predator is simply surreal.
Layer Tennis is a game in which two designers exchange in a creative volley of sorts, each responding to the other’s previous design. Recently, a match took place between two animators, Matt Smithson and Daniel Oeffinger. The hilarious result involves a giant rabbit god thing and robots of course.
Here is what happened when Winnie the Pooh met Alien.
The narrative construct of Andy Bruntel’s music video for The Liars track, Scissor plays like something of a train wreck. This one definitely appeals to my more cynical half. And speaking of cynicism and train wrecks, Lars Von Trier has been tapped to direct a new tourism advertising campaign for Denmark.
Homunculus is a very amusing short film made by some friends at Humble that deals with a number of rambunctious moldy spore characters with veracious appetites. The film combines time-lapse photography of a decaying feast with darling little 3D characters.
10 Minute Tales is a short film series created by the Sky1 network. Deep & Crisp & Even is a highly stylized, quirky, dialogueless love story from the series, directed by Brett Foraker. You can see his brilliant commercial work here.
Pentagram offers up some design psychotherapy by asking the question, “What type are you?” The password answer is “character.”
It’s pretty true; you can stereotype people by their favorite author.
This is McSweeney’s guide to adages used to promote the consumption of pork.
This is Procrastination.
This is Stuff White People Like.
This morning I was woken by the cacophonous buzz of traffic helicopters buzzing over my head. I asked myself, “why why why?” After a hot shower, I turned to Monty Python for a more philosophical answer to how the world works.
I love Will Ferrell and I love this PSA for protecting health insurance execs.
What do the first seven notes of Rich Astley’s Never Gonna GIve You Up have to do with students attending MIT?
I’ve always thought dog shows are wrong on so many levels and speak far more about the absurdity of the owners of these animals than the pets themselves. I suppose this is precisely what made Christopher Guest’s comedic faux-documentary, Best in Show so damn funny. So that said, I wonder what it says about the owners of these poodles that they’d rather groom them into something other than a dog. Frankly, this sort of thing really doesn’t bode well for the human species.
While I’m not a member and have no authority in the matter, I have a few suggestions for nominees into The Sons of Lee Marvin. Staying with the theme of entertainers, George Thorogood and Gary Busey both seem like good candidates. Nick Nolte and Ron Perlman also get my vote.
President Obama gave a direct order to General Odierno to shave Stephen Colbert’s head. Personality and a sense of humor sure do go a long way when in the role of Commander in Chief. In other Obama news, apparently the President has decided to scale back his agenda for the US after a visit to a Denny’s restaurant.
This very well might be one of my very favorite music videos in ages despite the fact that there is no music.
Here is the Vendor Client Relationship in a nutshell.
The decline of civilization expressed through a simple question.
Need to know the fucking weather?
These two animations have provided me with endless laughter. Dumbland is a series of senseless and aggressive cartoons made by David Lynch. Words fail to describe Rejected, an utterly absurd collection of wonderfully immature short animations by Don Hertzfeld of Bitter Films.
This clever low-budget promo for the release of the new Punch-Out game on Wii takes me back to childhood.
There are so many this-or-that ways to categorize human beings: tall or short, quiet or loud, upbeat or down trodden etc. There are the more judgmental categories as best illustrated in Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, a good egg or a bad egg. There are the folks who use the world as their private office to divulge personal issues on their cell phone. Some people will always be courteous and hold open doors for strangers and there are those who just don’t do that. On the subway yesterday, I noticed a woman who fell into one of my very favorite categories. There are those who will ride on the train during rush hour and plaster on their face with make-up and those who are horrified at the very thought of transforming a subway into one’s bathroom.
People and robots can be friends. The tweenbots experiment encourages the better side of humankind.
Feeling pissed off about the economy? Come on down to the 2009 NYC Pillow Fight tomorrow at 3PM.
French pole-vaulting champion, Romain Mesnil took to the streets in a naked fashion in an attempt to re-negotiate his sponsorship deal with Nike.
Today is Barack Obama’s sixtieth day in office as the President of the United States of America. He is doing the most impossible job at what may be the most impossible time. I was surprised to see how quickly he addressed many of my concerns ranging from Guantanamo Bay and the War in Iraq to issues of social change. Of course, the big topic is the economy. His proposed budget is an extremely progressive sign of landmark change. I suppose it’s fair to say that we all have mixed emotions about the economic crisis as we should, our President included. Putting all of this aside, Barack made history yesterday on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, as the first sitting US President to appear as a guest on a late night talk show. It feels really good to have a president that makes me laugh and smile. I simply can’t think of another Head of State known for his character and affability to Barack’s tune, and this is no small thing in leadership at times like these.
The end of the week feels like a great time for a little creativity via destruction. My friend Wyeth of Labour design made this great little short film piece for the Scion 10 filmmaker showcase.
The mind works in odd ways. When I got out of bed this morning, I was immediately inspired to find a quirky short film that I had seen several years ago. Here is Copy Shop by director Virgil Widrich. The film tells the bizarre story of a copy shop attendant who begins to duplicate himself over and over.
Julien Cottereau is Sick As A Dog.
At a young, I was exposed to a range of comedians beginning with Charlie Chaplin and eventually found myself watching Abbott & Costello, Laurel & Hardy, and of course The Three stooges. But one of the earliest truly potty-mouthed performers that I took notice of was of my grandparents generation, Don Rickles. Check out this documentary on “Mr. Warmth” the living legend of comedy.
Since it is Friday, I’m feeling a certain sense of silly relief. Here is the Jalopy Hour. This quirky little film was directed by Jeffery Plansker. I’ve posted about him and some of his other work before.
Plenty of people have claimed to have spotted Elvis. But really, I did see him. He wasn’t picking up his dry cleaning and I didn’t see him at the drive through car wash. Nor was this an apparition of him that had sizzled it’s way onto a slice of bread like Jesus toast. Elvis goes to my gym in Brooklyn. I had never seen him there before, so I guess we are just on different schedules. He looked great and thinner than many of us remember him. He still has a penchant for wearing oversized sunglasses indoors and sports the old zip up suite. I’d say he appeared to be in his late 60’s so the gym is doing him well since he was born in 1935. Honestly. I am not crazy. My girlfriend asked if I noticed him and pointed him out. My jaw dropped. Elvis goes to my gym, holy shit!
Whenever I walk past this tree, I am reminded that nature has a way of showing us who is boss. I think the caption for this photo should read, Sign Eating Tree.
The use of obvious analogies complimented with visual aids is how some members of the US Senate think we need to spend precious time on the Senate floor. I wonder what this guy’s big ideas for a better stimulus package would be like. I’m kind of sickened to know that my tax payer dollars give this man a salary.
NYC love expressed through LEGOs.
Someone took the time to string together an edit of every single use of a curse word on The Sopranos.
In the past, PETA has tried to purchase Super Bowl air time for a commercial and been denied. This year they tried again, only to be refused once more by the airing network. It is kind of hard to understand how previous Super Bowls have featured this, but this isn’t alright. I’m not sure that I understand where the ethical line is drawn.
Over the years, I’ve heard many stories about how awesome my friend Howie’s grandfather is but never had the pleasure of meeting the man. He is 85 years old and just had surgery last year for clogged arteries. Oddly enough he is a better disco dancer than anyone I know.
Should you be in need of a good chuckle, there are some pretty ridiculous postings on Craigslist’s Best of 2008. Here is my personal favorite.
I recently found myself back in touch with a very talented friend of mine from the art school years with whom I had lost touch. While he always had a rather amusing dry sense of humor, I always thought of him for his natural born musical talent. Flash-forward several years, Michael Sanchez is now bringing his observational humor to the stage as a stand up comedian. Check out this short live performance; the Joy Division joke made me laugh so hard my lungs hurt. Michael’s show has a way of spiraling into an uncomfortable place, as only the best comedy can.
The porno industry is in need of an economic “bailout”; just ask political satirist and porn mogul Larry Flynt.
The annual Darwin Awards are named posthumously to those who have managed to die in a feat of great stupidity, thereby removing themselves from the gene pool. The 2008 winner was awarded to Reverend Adelir Antonio di Carli who was attempting to fly in the air for 19 hours suspended by 1,000 helium balloons. The reverend was performing the stunt to raise money to build a “spiritual” trucker’s rest stop in Brazil. He went missing for three months when winds carried him in the wrong direction out to sea. Apparently, the idea of lifting people or even cars with helium balloons is not that uncommon.
Going to the gym really is a chore. What if it were more like a video game? Check out the short film Cecil by Terri Timely.
The Beauty Kit by Pleix sure would make for a unique gift from Santa.
The winter chill is in the air today. It’s that time of the year when the front yards of my neighborhood are transformed into a carnival of tacky holiday decor. No house is complete without an inflatable something or other. But to prove that I am no Grinch or Scrooge, I’ve decided to share a few short film clips to express my holiday cheer.
I believe both Santasm and Warm And Fuzzy Feeling were directed by Mike Kuntz. (NSFW)
This is what happened when a desperate John McCain asked some Hollywood directors to create attack ads for him.
One of my favorite people in the world is a too talented for words animator that I met upon my arrival at art school in New York. Cameron Baity eventually became my housemate and co-conspirator in a plan to rid the world of all that is bad and replace it with really creative smart stuff. Our home became a sanctuary for other idealists to drink like fish, play chess, and draw until their fingers swelled like sausages or til the sun rose (whichever came first). Our minds were filled with absurdity.
I worked deep into the night on a film about a man who comes to the realization that he is indeed the very fish that lives in his fishbowl. Cameron went to town on a stop-motion film in which his character had an existential discovery of his own; something about sound and growth. The character’s giant mouth was constructed from a metal wrist-watch band. I remember donating my toe nail clippings for the character’s oversized hands. I also can recall a project that was never fully realized. There was an animation that was concerned with an impish character possessing the largest set of testicles you’ve ever seen. He was a trapeze performer forced to perpetually swing or suffer the consequence of being eaten to death by demonic-muscle-men-things that waited below.
We were mostly quixotic in the kinds of work we wanted to make. So I was truly proud when I found out that Cameron recently directed an episode of Moral Orel for Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim. The series is concerned with a boy whose thirst for church and “soul insurance” is only matched by his father’s desire to spank his behind til it blistered red. Very well done Cam!