Hurrrrr, neuTRON dance… geddit? (Via BarbieHead, reigning Coilhouse clan queen of Disney trivia/ephemera.)
It’s 1985. It’s Disneyland. It’s the Main Street Electrical Parade. It’s the Pointer Sisters performing their hit single “Neutron Dance”. It’s two dozen exuberant jazz dancers in Tron leotards. It’s a gargantuan glowing mushroom. It’s a spinning, leering, ten-foot-tall bumblebee thingummer about to annihilate the Pointer sister furthest to the right (look closely– you can see the terror in her eyes). It’s a blinking, zigzagging caterpillar conga line. It’s Pete’s friggin’ Dragon farting up the joint. It’s… it’s full of stars? No, wait, it’s just another Monday morning cultural acid flashback, and we all head off to work singin’ “I’m on fiiiiiighYAH!” (Woo hoo!)
Mike Flores, a photographer and filmmaker from North County, San Diego, sets his state-of-the-art HD camera on a dolly that scoots it along at a snail’s pace, shooting time lapse imagery. The resulting footage –particularly that of natural desert landscapes and skies– is stunningly beautiful.
Soundtrack supplied by Hans Zimmer’s bombastic (and highly effective) Inception score. Visit Flores’ Vimeo account for more videos. Be sure to watch them all full screen.
It’s a Coilhouse first: three BTCs in one friggin’ day. Can’t be helped. (You guys don’t mind, do ya?) OK Go just uploaded their latest one-take music video triumph to YouTube, AND IT HAS DOGS IN IT:
With apologies to any odontophobes reading, looks like you guys are getting two alveolarly stimulating BTCs in one day.
Our longtime friend and contributor David Forbes, who likes Ween, once said, “I’ve always found this song simultaneously cheerful, absurd and ominous. Perfect, in other words.” Yep. Very true, and very David. Hey there, fancy pants, happy birthday to you! Hope it’s faboo.
Some intense POV footage of an electrician free-climbing a 1768-foot-high broadcasting tower. (Warning: If you’re remotely phobic of heights, you do not want. DOOOOO NOT WANT. Skip it.)
In addition to pulling a heavy bag of tools up behind him on a cord, this valiant man is also undoubtedly laboring somewhat under the additional weight of his PENDULOUSLY ENORMOUS BALLS OF LIGHTNING-REPELLING STEEL.
Even if you’re not scared of heights, this has gotta be one of the most challenging commutes on earth. (Or, to be more accurate, away from the earth.) The narrator’s cheerfully stoic delivery adds an odd 50s educational film vibe to the clip. “It’s good to take a break, and take a look around while you rest.” Oh, is it? Personally, my butthole’s trying to climb into my ribcage just watching this, but I’ll take your word for it, sir.
Herzog’s rescue of the troublesome actor took place within days, maybe weeks of a freakish incident that occurred on Herzog’s balcony during the middle of an interview with film journalist Mark Kermode: “A sniper opened fire with an air rifle … Herzog, as if it was the most normal thing in the world, said, ‘Oh, someone is shooting at us. We must go.’ He had a bruise the size of a snooker ball, with a hole in. He just carried on with the interview while bleeding quietly in his boxer shorts.”
Responding to Kermode’s incredulity, Herzog stated, smiling, “It was not a significant bullet. I am not afraid.”
Sascha, if you’re reading, please consider making an animation of that.
Riverdance veterans Suzanne Cleary and Peter Harding are taking the internet by storm with their Irish hand dancing, thanks to this video shot and directed by Jonny Reed. Their collective name is Up and Over It! There’s something so charmingly Keatonesque about their placid faces and frantically leaping limbs, isn’t there?
That ultra catchy song they’re dancing to is “We No Speak Americano”, a collaborative track by Yolanda Be Cool and DCup that heavily samples the 1956 hit “Tu vuò fà l’americano” by the lively Italian singer/pianist Renato Carosone.
A wee bit o’ cheer, courtesy of Marlon Riggs and the Institute of Snap!thology…
… that’s spurring me to write up an overview of something far deeper and more complex. This “Snap Diva” sequence is one of the more lighthearted scenes from Tongues Untied, a powerful independent film by activist/educator/filmmaker/author Marlon Riggs. The clip was sent to me earlier today by an old friend as an offhandedly affectionate “haaaay”, but it ended up triggering intense memories of watching Riggs’ films on PBS over a decade ago. I was bowled over by them at the time; I’m overjoyed to be reminded of them again.
Riggs died of AIDS in 1994 while still struggling to complete his final film, Black Is…Black Ain’t. An intensely personal, well-researched examination of the diversity of African-American identities, Black Is…Black Ain’t was completed by Riggs’ colleagues after his death, and released posthumously in the mid 90s. “His camera traverses the country, bringing us face to face with Black folks young and old, rich and poor, rural and urban, gay and straight, grappling with the paradox of numerous, often contested definitions of Blackness.” [via]
Riggs was a giant of public television during the late 80s and early 90s, and a truly inspiring force for positive change. Via glbtq:
Riggs’ experience of racism began in his segregated childhood schools but continued even at Harvard, where he studied American history, graduating with honors in 1978. He then earned an M. A. in 1981 at the University of California, Berkeley’s Graduate School of Journalism, where he later taught documentary film courses.
Riggs first gained recognition for writing, producing, and directing the Emmy-winning, hour-long documentary Ethnic Notions(1987), which explored black stereotypes and stereotyping. The film helped establish Riggs’ career as a contemporary historical documentary producer.
But most of his later films and writings probe the dichotomy Riggs perceived between the strong, “Afrocentric” black man and the black “sissy” gay man. As a “sissy” himself, Riggs felt deeply his status as a pariah within the black community.
Tongues Untied(1989), Riggs’ most famous film, is an extensively reviewed and critically acclaimed documentary that met with controversy in conservative circles when it was aired on public television. Funded by a National Endowment for the Arts grant, it figured in the cultural wars over control of the NEA and the Public Broadcasting System.
