Happy Halloween from William S. Burroughs (Remix Video)
Once upon a time, there were witches … in this classic remix, the silent film Haxan is wed in an unholy matrimony to the laconic snarl of William S. Burroughs narrative aplomb.
For those of you with a big appetite, we’ve got a special sweet hidden away. Check out this great little recitation of Poe’s “The Red Death” — also read by William S. Burroughs — at Joe Nolan’s Insomnia.
Good Grief, Charlie Brown! Peanutweeter Brings Peanuts Together with Twitter
From Angela Watercutte on WIRED’s Underwire:
Everyone has at least one funny person they follow on Twitter just for the lulz, but sometimes the things they say would be even more laughable if they weren’t constantly spewing from the same avatar.
Peanutweeter changes that. The @Peanutweeter Tumblr blog and Twitter feed fulfill a very simple idea: Matching somewhat random Twitter posts with less-random Peanuts comics. The results are hilarious.
“The site arose from the concept that the amusing and sometimes outrageous tweets out there would be even funnier or sometimes darker if they came from someone that everyone could identify with,” site creator T. Jason Agnello told Wired.com by e-mail.
Brave New Films Invites You To Edit Sarah Palin’s Movie
The last thing anyone wants to do is give Sarah Palin more media press. More attention isn’t going to make her go away, however. Brave New Films is inviting you to help edit her new film by adding comments she forgot mention.
There’s nothing funny about Palin or her influence on our democracy, but together we can use satire to make an impact and undermine her aura of authenticity and altruism. Satire is an effective tool to take the conservative opposition’s perceived strengths and use it against them, which is what we’re doing here with Palin’s movie.
Submit what you think Palin has left out at palinundefeated.com and you could win her bobblehead.
‘Star Wars’ Existential Style (Video)
I know this has been floating ’round the interwebs, but still makes me laugh. Thank you George Lucas for not suing:
White House Wants To Make Illegal Video Streaming A Felony
Just when you thought maybe the United States was ready to take a leadership role in modernizing copyright laws for the digital age of mashup and remix culture, the White House takes a massive step backwards, with harsh proposals including felony status for illegal streaming of audio and video. Declan McCullagh reports for CNET:
The White House today proposed sweeping revisions to U.S. copyright law, including making “illegal streaming” of audio or video a federal felony and allowing FBI agents to wiretap suspected infringers.
In a 20-page white paper (PDF), the Obama administration called on the U.S. Congress to fix “deficiencies that could hinder enforcement” of intellectual property laws.
The report was prepared by Victoria Espinel, the first Intellectual Property Enforcement Coordinator who received Senate confirmation in December 2009, and represents a broad tightening of many forms of intellectual property law including ones that deal with counterfeit pharmaceuticals and overseas royalties for copyright…
Why Don’t Terminator ‘Killing Machines’ Have Better Manners? (Video)
From the geniuses (check out more of their videos) at OneMinuteGalactica:
Spotted via io9.com, thanks to Cyriaque Lamar for the post.
Charlie Sheen Quotes Presented By Superheroes
Well, we discovered this week Charlie Sheen does have a superpower: getting a million Twitter followers in 25 hours. If you’d like to take a break from the serious news of the week, very funny post from Laura Hudson on Comics Alliance:
Earlier this week, we decided that the only way to deal with the exploding celebrity Death Star that is Charlie Sheen was to take his spectacularly hubristic comments and put them in the mouths of superheroes, with the help of Chris Haley and Curt Franklin of the webcomic Let’s Be Friends Again.
You, the readers, told us that the six measly pieces of original art where your favorite Marvel and DC characters reiterate the philosophical jewels of the only celebrity whose veins pump pure tiger blood was simply not enough, and we have heard your demands.
Update: Actually Sheen may be trying to use his new-found superpower for good, the Hollywood Reporter is claiming he’s going to Haiti with Sean Penn.
Fan-Created Trailer for ‘E.T. Sequel’ Shows Why We Should Never Trust Aliens (Video)
Great remixing and animation job by the filmmaker here, no wonder why the little guy always wanted to “phone home” … cool find from Cyriaque Lamar on io9.com:
Robert Blankenheim and Derek Johnson Productions have created a trailer for ET-X: Extinction, an unnecessarily gritty and violent sequel to Steven Spielberg’s family-friendly blockbuster.
In this preview, grown-up footage of Henry Thomas and Drew Barrymore is spliced with generic disaster flick scenes (starring an authoritative Morgan Freeman, natch) and new animation of the red-eyed, cobra-necked extraterrestrials:
Gregg Gillis A/K/A Girl Talk: Making Mashup Mainstream
Gregg Gillis a/k/a Girl Talk. Photo: Tom Purves (CC)
Profiled in 2009’s disinformation documentary Rip: A Remix Manifesto, Gregg Gillis, better known as Girl Talk, is getting the “next big thing” treatment in the New York Times Magazine (incidentally, his new album is slamming and *free* at Illegal-art.net):
Imagine old, bald Pete Townshend shuffling gingerly onstage as a synth burbles up behind him — “Let My Love Open the Door.” Now imagine the rapper Pimp C already on that stage, in a white fur suit and hat, holding up four fingers to show off his bling. A kick line of girls in black minishorts walks it out for DJ Unk, who’s rapping about a kick line of girls, then Levon Helm appears on a drum riser to chirp out “The Weight.” Also onstage: Jay-Z, Black Sabbath, Rick Springfield, Kesha, Bruce Springsteen, Miley Cyrus, the Ramones and Tupac and Biggie Smalls (both back from the…
Public Domain Works In 2011: What Could Have Been?
In the spirit of the Disinfo film RIP! A Remix Manifesto, the Center for the Study of the Public Domain goes dreaming and takes a look at classic works which would be entering the public domain in 2011, but for the passing of 1976’s restrictive Copyright Act. Among the cultural items to become freely available for quoting, remixing, and all other use would be books such as Waiting for Godot and Lord of the Flies, movies including On the Waterfront and Rear View Window, and the songs ‘Mr. Sandman’ and ‘Mambo Italiano.’
Current US law extends copyright protections for 70 years from the date of the author’s death. But prior to the 1976 Copyright Act (which became effective in 1978), the maximum copyright term was 56 years (an initial term of 28 years, renewable for another 28 years).
‘A Klingon Christmas Carol’ Attacks A Holiday Classic (Video)
First a Klingon opera, now this. Klingon (the language) sure has a lot of traction for one invented for a Star Trek movie in the ’80s. And this is also a non-Christianized version of the Dickens classic, because as I learned from the story, the Klingons killed their gods. Douglas Belkin reports in the Wall Street Journal:
The arc of “A Klingon Christmas Carol” follows the familiar Dickens script: An old miser is visited on a hallowed night by three ghosts who shepherd him through a voyage of self-discovery. The narrative has been rejiggered to match the Klingon world view.
For starters, since there is neither a messiah nor a celebration of his birth on the Klingon planet of Kronos, the action is pegged to the Klingon Feast of the Long Night. Carols and trees are replaced with drinking, fighting and mating rituals. And because Klingons are more concerned with bravery than kindness, the main character’s quest is for courage.
This Must Be What Hell Sounds Like: All of Billy Joel’s Hits Played at the Same Time
Via Wonder-Tonic:
The Best 40 Free Movies You Can Download Legally Online
An Australian technology blog has collected a list of 40 of the best free movies that have fallen into the public domain and are available online.
There’s two Christmas classics — a 1935 version of A Christmas Carol and Frank Capra’s Meet John Doe — plus Orson Welles’ “The Stranger,” and four Alfred Hitchcock movies. And you can also watch William Shatner’s legendary anti-racism film for Roger Corman, several Vincent Price classics and the original “Night of the Living Dead.”
These aren’t video clips, but entire movies, including one about a bank robbery that stars Johnny Cash. And if you want something even more offbeat, try the 1970s TV movie “Rescue from Gilligan’s Island” or — for Christmas — “Santa Conquers the Martians.”
Download Girl Talk’s New Album and ‘Rip: A Remix Manifesto’
All Day, the fourth album by mashup maestro Girl Talk, is his first album in two-plus years, and it’s available as a free download from his label’s official link. Fans should also check out Brett Gaylor’s mashup documentary Rip: A Remix Manifesto, which you can pay what you want to download.
South Park Sued For ‘What What (In The Butt)’ Parody
You have to love the way that Trey Parker and Matt Stone keep getting themselves into legal trouble for the scripts of South Park. Keep up the good work gentlemen! From the Hollywood Reporter:
Less than a month after South Park creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker were forced to apologize for lifting material for a spoof of Inception from the website CollegeHumor, the show is again facing accusations of content theft. The producers of the animated hit, including Viacom and Comedy Central, are being sued for allegedly ripping off a copyrighted music video for the viral phenomenon What What (In the Butt).
The video was produced by Brownmark Films based on a song by Samwell. Released in 2007, it became a massive hit and was featured on PerezHilton.com and VH1’s Best Week Ever, and has been downloaded over 33 million times on YouTube. According to the site, it’s one of the…
Famous TV Cartoon Characters As Skeletons
Artist Michael Paulus has skeletal versions he created of 22 cartoon icons on his website:
Writes Michael Paulus:
Animation was the format of choice for children’s television in the 1960s, a decade in which children’s programming became almost entirely animated. Growing up in that period, I tended to take for granted the distortions and strange bodies of these entities.These Icons are usually grotesquely distorted from the human form from which they derive.
I decided to take a select few of these popular characters and render their skeletal systems as I imagine they might resemble if one truly had eye sockets half the size of its head, or fingerless-hands, or feet comprising 60% of its body mass.
These characters have become conventions that are set, defined, and well-known personas in our culture. Being that they are so commonplace and accepted as existing I thought I would dissect them like science does to all living objects —…
