This week’s edition of BTC goes out to Comrade Lev. She’s currently packing up and preparing to roll out to Burning Man 2010 with the Syzygryd crew. I have no doubt whatsoever she’ll hear this classic house anthem by Opus III (as well as its Orbital offspring) out on the playa at some point. Wish I was going with you, hon. Bust some of those signature swirly stompy hottie-in-black moves for me, won’t ya? Unitard optional.
Mark Little of the notorious Canadian comedy troupe Picnicface takes you “deep into the flaming bowels of friendship”:
SLUGWARS = FRIENDSHIP.
[photo via AP]
Jack Horkheimer, beloved TV personality and executive director of the Miami Space Transit Planetarium, has died, age 72. Countless legions of us grew up watching the gruff-voiced, wide-eyed astronomer hosting Star Gazer and Star Hustler on public television. Week after week, decade after decade, he’d walk in front of that green screen and excitedly tell us what we could expect to see in the evening sky. His enthusiasm was deeply infectious. He taught us all sorts of things about the universe, and he made us smile.
Farewell, farewell fellow star gazer. We’ll keep looking up.
Howard Phillips Lovecraft. Born on this baleful day back in 1890. Portrait by Bruce Timm
“There are not many persons who know what wonders are opened to them in the stories and visions of their youth; for when as children we listen and dream, we think but half-formed thoughts, and when as men we try to remember, we are dulled and prosaic with the poison of life. But some of us awake in the night with strange phantasms of enchanted hills and gardens, of fountains that sing in the sun, of golden cliffs overhanging murmuring seas, of plains that stretch down to sleeping cities of bronze and stone, and of shadowy companies of heroes that ride caparisoned white horses along the edges of thick forests; and then we know that we have looked back through the ivory gates into that world of wonder which was ours before we were wise and unhappy.”
–from H.P. Lovecraft’s “Celephais”
Previously on Coilhouse:
Between 1976 and 1981, the saucy female dance troupe Legs & Co. reigned supreme on the BBC television series Top of the Pops. Sometimes their skits were impressively, lavishly corny. Other times, um, not quite so lavish, but still epically cheeztacular:
Via Dogmeat. (The highway is his only girlfriend ’cause he goes by so quick.)
That was their 1977 take on the incredible Mr. Jonathan Richman’s “Roadrunner”. It’s probably the single most atrocious discopunk mashup I’ve ever seen, short of this. (And yet, Leg & Co’s interpretation really isn’t that much more addled than the Sex Pistols‘ cover, is it?)
Silver lining: that TOTP clip just sent me on an two hour-long Richman/Modern Lovers binge on YouTube. They’re compiled below for your own viewing pleasure.
…Slow it down 800% using time-stretching software, maybe slap some sort of reverb on it, and presto change-o, you’ve got an unexpectedly stunning piece of downtempo ambient that ranks right up there with M83, Sigur Ros or All Sides. Who knew?! Kudos to Shamantis for turning the slick, overproduced sow’s ear of “U Smile” into such an expansive sonic silk purse.
(Via Antony, ta.)
Chiranjeevi’s Tollywood is a marvelous, magical, moustachioed realm that we’ve explored briefly on Coilhouse before. This morning, let us reopen the Telugian floodgates! We’ll start off with a particularly choice Chiru clip (via Dogmeat, thanks) and continue on with several more rip-roaring performances spanning the Megastar‘s illustrious career, featuring Chiranjeevi in cahoots with various gorgeous female co-stars… and a horse.*
*Hee hee. Saved the best for last.
“It’s time for GLAMOR… What should we do to become GLAMOROUS?”
Via Colin Peters.
Glad you asked, Island Princess Barbie! How about letting the gloriously demented folks from Freeform Delusion circuit bend the ever-lovin’ frak outta you? They’re going to skin your pretty little head and soup it up with a switchable mono mini jack output, voice relay bypass, glowing/alternating LED eyeballs, and pitch manipulators. Would you like that, Barbie? Now you’re ready for the ball! You look like royalty. Let’s all sing.
Is it just me, or is an exceptionally pungent cloud of irony-infused nostalgia hanging o’er the interwub like a stale pegacorn fart today? First, three different people send me this. Also, this has resurfaced. Someone just made me watch “Falkor Gone Wild“. And now, this:
*sob*
I’m so glad Z published that Captain Eo post. A questionable antidote for the inappropriate diddling of one’s childhood, perhaps, but still. Every little bit helps.
Menacing and amusing in equal measure, here’s “a selection of book titles and covers so boring they’re interesting”, set to spooky minimal pseudo-Webern music, and seemingly narrated by Alan Rickman on a ‘luude binge:
Via Sport Murphy.
Reading the YouTube comments is, for once, highly recommended. MAXIMUM PO-MO LULZ.