niiice!: Reading Rainbow on the set of Star Trek: The Next Generation (1989)

This episode’s book was something called The Bionic Bunny Show, though the YouTuber here cut that part out in order to focus on the real meat of the day: ruining Andy’s childhood fantasies.

Ha ha, no, I’m just kidding, of course, I never thought Star Trek: The Next Generation was real, per say.  Really, I didn’t.   When I learned that the transporter was actually a camera trick mixed with a shot of glitter in a glass of water, I was fine.  I was.  Fine.

But, seriously, though: this was a pretty awesome thing to see as a kid.  It was the making of Star Trek: The Next Generation.  It was how they put together a TV show, with full behind the scenes access provided by our friend Levar Burton, who just happened to be on both shows.   Even non-Trekkies remember this one (at least the transporter glitter thing).  For slightly nerdier children, it was nerdvana.

Here’s part two, where we learn that the crappy containment device from that crappy episode “Home Soil” was actually about two feet tall and made of stuff Rob Legato had left over after building his model planes.  Also, the real Enterprise is like six feet long.  Sorry about that.

Stay tuned for exclusive bloopers near the end.  There is a TNG blooper reel, from the beginning of Season One, where you can actually hear Levar Burton saying the “S” word! You might like that as well, but you don’t have to take my word for it!

(da-dum-DUM!)

omg fanvids lolz ^_^: “Ghostbusters”/”Nine Inch Nails”

Perusing io9 this morning, I stumbled upon many interesting things about which I could have blogged.  There’s the ill-advised plan by the producers of the forthcoming G.I.Joe movie to write, direct, and produce a film based on – I kid you not – the ’80s video game Asteroids.   There’s an actual, real-live blob living beneath the city streets of Raleigh, NC, with video to prove it.   And then there’s this: a mash-up of the Nine Inch Nails song “The Hand That Feeds” with the theme from Ghostbusters.  

Is this the awesomest thing ever invented by humans?   Yes.  Yes it is.

Star Trek is the best movie ever made.

It’s so nice when something you’ve been waiting for with baited breath, shaking with anticipation, getting sucked in by hype and promises of the next big thing in cinema, actually turns out to be good. No, not good: superb. Superb is a word I have never used before in my entire life, and I’m using it now to describe Star Trek. This was popcorn entertainment of the highest caliber. It was the most enjoyable film I’ve seen in years.

Spoilers and nerdiness ahead.

cover #20 – Marilyn Manson, “The Nobodies”

Cover #20 is “The Nobodies” by Marilyn Manson, from the 2000 album Holy Wood: In The Shadow Of The Valley Of Death.  It was written by M.Manson.

This is the 20th cover of the month – I had intended to post it on April 20th, the 10 year anniversary of the Columbine Massacre.

Eric and Dylan did not listen to Marilyn Manson.  As Jello Biafra once pointed out, if they were such big fans of his (as several lazy journalists claimed), why didn’t they wait until after his show in Denver, CO later that month?  Manson’s more a grand guignol-style artist of grotesque imagery and doesn’t really seem to advocate the sort of violence we saw that day in Colorado, but he sure looked scary to middle America back in 1999.

Eric and Dylan did play Doom, but so did I and I never killed anyone.  They didn’t wear trenchcoats when they committed the murders.  They weren’t members of any “Trenchcoat Mafia”.  That expression was something a bunch of computer geeks and goths who went to the school jokingly called themselves.   I understood this mentality – some of my best friends wore black trenchcoats.

There’s been so much writing about Columbine already.  There’s a new book out that’s supposed to be pretty insightful.  Most of what’s written, however, falls into two camps: the “oh, the killers liked the goth music and that’s why they did it and CASSIE SED YES!” camp, and the “no they didn’t and NO SHE DIDN’T!” camp.  I’m not going to add to that.

All I’m gonna do is play a tune Marilyn Manson wrote about Columbine, and about a murder spree in the age of instant celebrities.  We’re the nobodies who want to be somebodies.  Some children died the other day.  You should have seen the ratings that day.  If you’ve seen Bowling For Columbine, you know he’s the most insightful person in it.

Download.  Stream.

Next up…: He’s fifty and he could kick your ass without smearing his eyeliner.

the reason this blog was invented, pretty much

a very special christmas special: A Wish For Wings That Work (1991) (or: Mommy, Why Is The Penguin So Mean To The Kitty?)

Bloom County.  Outland.  The Opusverse, we’ll call it, or the Bloom Count-inuum.  Whatever it is, that’s one of my natural mental homes.  I’ve already talked in these pages about how much Berke Breathed’s skewed heartland aesthetic and lovably neurotic characters affected me and how I think about the world, and now that he’s retiring, we’ll miss him.   Maybe one day there’ll be another Opus and Bill TV special.  Maybe.  But probably not.

There was one, though, in 1991.  It’s an adaptation of the picture book A Wish For Wings That Work.  I’ve posted the full movie below.  I haven’t seen it in years, and I’ve always… sort of liked it.  Some people swear by it.  Some people swear at it.  You’ll see what I mean after the jump.

songs you (probably) know: “Popcorn”, Gershon Kingsley

Don’t laugh.  This silly lookin’ fella invented electronic pop music, more or less.  That’s right: without this guy, there’s no Freezepop, no Epoxies, no La Bouche, no Right Said Fred, no “Funkytown”, no Kraftwerk, and the ’80s wouldn’t be remembered half as fondly.  So show him some respect.  It’s high time we got around to talking about “Popcorn.”

No, silly bean head, not that type of popcorn.  However, they used to show that exact same ad at the drive-in movie theater in Chelmsford until it closed in 1986.  I love how the fact that they throw whole sticks of butter into the vat is supposed to be a selling point.  Nowadays, my arteries just feel like they’re going to choke.

“Popcorn” is the very first techno/synthpop song ever, or at least the first one to be a hit.

songs you don’t know: “Pork and Beans”, Weezer

Well, look, you’ve probably heard this song if you’ve had your radio on lately, but the video is what’s important here.

Remember when Weezer put The Muppets in their video for “Keep Fishin’”?  Well, this is sort of like that.  Except here, instead of Kermit and Miss Piggy, the band joins forces with the entire internet.  Yes, that’s right, the video features Kelly, the Numa Numa kid, the Star Wars kid, Miss South Carolina, Chris Crocker, the Banana from Peanut Butter Jelly Time… the list goes on and on.

It makes sense.  “Pork and Beans” is Weezer in their “hey, man, I’m gonna do my own thing and you can’t stop me” head space (also see: “The Good Life”, “In The Garage”, etc.).  Your more popular viral videos tend to feature someone ”being themselves” for the camera, as awkward and silly as they really are.  The ones that aren’t sort of “cinema verite” for the digital age are generally just really clever, which is why it’s cool to see Liam Sullivan’s “Kelly” character here as well. 

Oh, and in lieu of pyrotechnics, Weezer is playing in front of a bunch of exploding soda-and-Mentos bottles. 

niiice!: “The Ballad of Bilbo Baggins”, Leonard Nimoy

No, really.  Mister Spock sings.

Behold the grooviest thing you ever did see.

oh brave new world that has such things in it…

According to io9, a reputable source of all things nerdish, they’ve invented a… how shall I put this… it’s a computer mouse you can control with your penis.

No, really.

Not safe for work, obviously, unless you happen to work at the “mouse you can control with your penis” factory.