Internet Findings « At the Lighthouse

“Fuck, We’re All Dead!”- Public Service Announcements from G.I. Joe

November 13, 2009 at 4:09 pm | In Internet Findings, Pop Culture, Television | 2 Comments

While we’re on the subject of kitcsh-y 80s cartoons, and because I can’t think of anything substantial to write about just now, I thought I’d share this video with you:

I’ve never actually seen G.I. Joe, but apparently the cartoon always ended with a useful Public Service Announcement. The editor of the video has selected his favourites among these, muted the sound and altered the voices. The video simply cracks me up, which is probably proof that I am not in my right mind, but there it is.

Maybe you’ll enjoy it, too.

Top 5 Favourite Star Wars Youtube Videos

October 12, 2009 at 3:21 pm | In Internet Findings, Movies, Pop Culture, Top 5/Top 10, youtube | 2 Comments

Edited because I posted the same video twice… I suck.

I was very happy to learn in the past week that Herta Müller has been appointed this year’s winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature, and I was planning to post an entry today celebrating an essay of hers that I’m particularly fond of. But I’m simply too busy and stressed out about my thesis today to gather up the brain cells that writing an entry like that would require. So you’re going to have to make do with a brief entry about Star Wars instead.

Despite my obvious love for Harrison Ford, I have actually never seen Star Wars, and when I confessed this to a colleague of mine a while ago he announced that that was simply not acceptable, and that he was going to have to show me the first three movies personally to make up for this lack in my education. So I’m invited over to his place tonight to watch Episode IV, and I’m really looking forward to it.

As a means of preparing myself for the event, I’ve been watching a few Star Wars videos on youtube, and they are so funny that I’ve actually been able to enjoy them despite never having seen the movies. Here are my five favourites:

5. “You’re like… family to me.” – The Star Wars Holiday Special
The first one is actually just a clip from the Star Wars Holiday Special. Apparently, this was an infamous television special set in the Star Wars universe, and it was so incredibly bad that true Star Wars fans refuse to consider it part of the SW canon, George Lucas hated it, and the involved actors were deeply embarrassed by it. Well, judging from this short clip, I sort of understand why:

I do like the moment at 1:00 when that big furry thing (a wookie? Is that what you call them?) totally looks at Harrison Ford like it wants to do him. But I certainly hope that the standard of the rest of the original movies is significantly higher than in this holiday special. Otherwise, it’s going to be a long night.

4. “Forget the dental plan. Forget sick leave. I just want a railing!” - Deleted Scenes from Family Guy Episode “Blue Harvest”
Apparently, Seth McFarlane and the Family Guy crew have received a carde blance of sorts from George Lucas to do Star Wars jokes on the show, on the one condition that they make everything look just right. As a result, Family Guy is packed with Star Wars-themed jokes, culminating in the sixth season with the episode “Blue Harvest” - a one-hour-long Family Guy Star Wars spoof. It was a great episode, even to a Star Wars ignoramus like me, and I’d like to link to the entire episode. But of course I can’t, copyright issues and all that, so instead here is a video of deleted scenes from the episode:

3. “They blowed it up together” – Star Wars According to a Three-Year-Old
This one is just adorable. The youtube poster had their three-year-old daughter explain to the camera what happens in Star Wars. And now my ovaries are hurting.

2. “Com-Scan has detected an energ-” – Darth Vader Being a Smartass
This video is an example of how come you can come with a little editing. Brilliant! My favourite part is Darth Vader’s innocent “facial expression” (if you can call it that) at 00:35

1. “I’m going to, like, the Dark Side or whatever” - Star Wars Retold by Someone Who Hasn’t Seen it
I realize that most of the fun in this video must be going way over my head, since I haven’t actually seen the movie either and thus am unable to tell how much Amanda messes up the plot. But it’s still hilarious – both Amanda’s unceremonious account and the editor’s wonderful animation.

“Hans??”

Natalie Imbruglia – A Mime Interpretation

October 1, 2009 at 7:30 pm | In Internet Findings, Music, Pop Culture, youtube | Leave a Comment

I haven’t been updating the blog as much as I’ve wanted to these past few days - busy week, that’s all. But until I’m ready with a more substantial blog entry, I thought I’d go for the easy youtube solution and give you a little treat. The following is a video showing mime Johann Lippowitz a.k.a. David Armand doing an interpretation of Natalie Imbruglia’s hit song ”Torn”. My mime-enthusiasm may come as a surprise to some of you, since I have in the past expressed some suspicion when it comes to mimes, but trust me, this guy is a genius!

My favourite part has to be his display of growing frustration from chorus to chorus, as expressed in his interpretation of the line “You’re a little late”.

“Danish Mother Seeking…” and Fast Women in Folklore

September 17, 2009 at 7:02 pm | In Folklore, Gender, Internet Findings, youtube | Leave a Comment

I guess since I’m Danish and a woman, I ought to comment on the infamous “Danish Mother Seeking…” video that the Danish tourist organisation VisitDenmark issued this month, in which a pretty blond Danish woman named Karen allegedly seeks the father of her infant son August whom she reveals to be a tourist whom she met during his stay in Denmark. Karen’s identity and her story were, of course, fake. If you haven’t already seen the video, you can watch it here:

I am deeply offended and disgusted by this marketing stunt, as is every Danish woman I know. The campaign has since been withdrawn by VisitDenmark who have also issued an apology for the video, but I still cannot believe that they actually went as far as to make this stunt in the first place. It is extremely demeaning towards women, and I find it utterly tasteless that a serious tourist agency would market Denmark as a country where you can go to have unprotected sex with promiscuous women.

The video got me thinking, however, about folklore and how there’s a tradition within (modern?) societies to boast of their only too willing women. We’ve in fact been doing that for decades in Denmark before Karen and her baby boy August came along, in the shape of an urban legend about a particular Copenhagen sculpture namely The Lure Players:

Lurblaeserne

This monument showing too vikings playing the lure stands on a high pillar right overlooking the Copenhagen city hall square, and according to the legend, the lure players will start blowing their lures whenever a virgin (in the sense: virginal woman) crosses the square (in some versions it’s a virgin over the age of 18). The joke being of course that the lure players never do blow their lures (because they’re made of bronze…), thus indicating that Danish women are a promiscuous lot.

I always thought that this was a unique Danish legend, but I found out via Snopes.com, that I was mistaken. In the U.S.A. there are similar legends about a number of colleges, including one about the statue of a soldier who will shoot his rifle if a virgin walks by (and, accordingly, he is nicknamed ‘Silent Sam’), the statue of a university founder (Duke) who will tip his hat, and a pair of stone lions that will roar. The message is always the same: “Look! Ours is the most fun college – all our women are wild and willing!”

I’m not blind to the lure (heh) of such legends – I can see the joke, and legends about sculptures getting up and moving are always somewhat fascinating in a fairy-tale kind of way. But even so, I think it’s important that we at least consider the consequences of these attempts to equate a society’s appeal with how easy it is to get the women there to spread their legs. That we at least pause to consider what kind of gender roles legends this gives rise to. Especially when the tendency spreads beyond folklore and into the sphere of advertising and branding, as has so blatantly been the case with VisitDenmark and their viral marketing stunt video.

This Just In: Indiana Jones and the Prospect of a Fifth Indiana Jones Movie

September 15, 2009 at 7:12 pm | In Fandom, Indiana Jones, Internet Findings, Movies, Pop Culture | Leave a Comment

I know, I know, I pretty much promised that there would be no more entries about Indiana Jones for now, but come on! How can you expect me not to write about it when a thing like this pops up all of a sudden? My friend Natascha sent me a link to this article while I was at my office working on my thesis and it took all my restraint to keep from squealing and making a fool out of myself in front of everyone else in the room:

“The story for the new Indiana Jones is in the process of taking form,” Ford told France’s Le Figaro. “Steven Spielberg, George Lucas and myself are agreed on what the fifth adventure will concern, and George is actively at work. If the script is good, I’ll be very happy to put the costume on again.”

Full article here.

My immediate thoughts:

I have to say I’m happy to hear that Ford seems to have some reservations about the whole thing. I like to think that “If the script is good” really means ”If the script is better than the last one and doesn’t have any mention of aliens and/or interdimensional creatures because srsly WTF, Lucas??”.
I can’t wait to find out who’s writing the script. Wouldn’t it be awesome if it were J.J. Abrams and Matt Reeves? Think about it! They’re good with the emotional stuff and they’re good with the supernatural and they’re good with character arcs. They could do great things with Indy, I’m sure. Well, a girl can dream, can’t she?
I love how Karen Allen asks at a press conference if anyone else has heard about an official announcement about her own movie. Adorable! Hope she didn’t get into too much trouble with the bosses for that one. I’m glad that it seems she will be in Indy 5 as well. But anything else would be unacceptable.
The Summer of 2012, huh? Man, I’ll be in my 30th year by then.
… Dude, and Harrison Ford will be 70! Freaky!

Anyway, I’m excited to see where this will be going. I’d say I’m about 30% enthusiastic, and 70% nervous about the idea of a fifth Indy movie. It could turn out great. But it could also turn out completely awful. Again, the fourth movie had freakin’ aliens in it. But then I guess, in the words of Jeff Bayer from The Scorecard:

“There’s always the chance we could get that Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull taste out of our mouths. It was a bit of a fishy taste, similar to what Jar-Jar Binks tastes like, I’m sure.”

Kristin Lavransdatter – Fugged

July 3, 2009 at 12:34 pm | In Art, Internet Findings, Literature | 2 Comments

I recently blogged about the weblog Judge a Book by Its Cover, and as yet another celebration of that phenomenon I’d like to share with you a truly hideous cover I came across online the other day:

: Kristin Lavransdatter – fugged

Oh no they di’nt! Why would someone do this? Here we have Sigrid Undset’s Kristin Lavransdatter, one of the best novels ever, and a Nobel Prize winner to boot, and this is the cover they choose for it? It’s an outrage! I mean, judging by this extremely cheesy cover, a potential reader would be right to expect to find several mentions of “heaving bosoms” and “quivering loins” in the book. It also makes Undset’s very thoroughly researched period novel look like the kind of trashy wanna-be medieval romance in which the villain is anachronistically portrayed as a viking.

Which is so not the case with Kristin Lavransdatter. In fact, if you haven’t read it yet, you need to go do so immediately. A lengthy, yet riveting novel (consisting of three parts: “The Wreath”, “The Wife”, and “The Cross”), the book is perfect for a summer vacation, so the timing couldn’t be better.

And They Shouldn’t Fence at Night/or They’re Gonna Hurt the Gymnasts – Literal Video Version of “Total Eclipse of the Heart”

June 5, 2009 at 1:48 pm | In Internet Findings, Music, Pop Culture, youtube | Leave a Comment

The same friend who directed my attention to the Literal Video Version, which I loved, just sent me a link to another one of those brilliant things: This time a literal video version of Bonnie Tyler’s “Total Eclipse of the Heart”.

Delightful! The original video really was in desperate need of a literal video version, even more so than the A-Ha video, what with the random ninjas and weird glowing eyes. Drinking wine – douchebags, indeed.

Taking Coulrophobia to a New Level

January 19, 2009 at 8:17 am | In Internet Findings, youtube | 2 Comments

Oh, dear God, no.

This, my friends, is a clown offering abstinence-only sex education to American middle school children. A clown. Abstinence-only sex ed. Two of the most abominable phenomena I can think of.

I don’t really know what else to say. Except to add that the abstinent clown is apparently federally funded. Barack Obama is needed. Badly. Is it January 20 yet?

PS: Premarital sex is the same as having a man in a really bad outfit juggle machetes over my body? Who knew!

PPS: Feministing.com does make the excellent point that the abstinent clown may be effective in as much nothing would make one want to have sex less than a clown.

“Come on, it’s art, it’s… culture”: All the Great Operas in Ten Minutes

November 13, 2008 at 10:05 pm | In Internet Findings, Opera, youtube | Leave a Comment

Scarcely had I finished marvelling at the wonder that is Lego Opera, when I discovered yet another brilliant alternative opera video.

It’s the witty, Terry Gilliam-inspired mini-documentary All the Great Operas in Ten Minutes by Kim Thompson:

I love the dry narration! And I love the angels holding up their tags every time something juicy happens (“Murder”, “Incest” etc.).

Students from the Tulsa School of Arts and Science have produced a sequel:

It’s not quite as elegantly executed, there are some factual errors in the summaries, and The Merry Widow is not an opera, dammit!!11!! But it’s still really cute, and I love the part where they describe Faust as being “emo in the middle of some festival because he’s just not getting the happy vibe”.

/marie