Winkers

so this is amazing. Pants called Winkers.



via DCeiver

The Last Shadow Puppets - The Age of Understatement

so I stumbled upon this the other day -- it's a British band called The Last Shadow Puppets, made up of a guy from Arctic Monkeys, a guy from Simian Mobile Disco and a guy from a band called the Rascals (not the ones from the 1960s).

Anyway, the album is pretty good, and you can listen to it on Pitchfork, though their review is, as usual, pretty inscrutable. It's a 1960s-sounding "baroque pop" record, i.e. lush instrumentation and such, and it reminds me of the Coral, who have a similar sound. Take a listen! The song features Owen Pallett from Final Fantasy and Arcade Fire.

I am going to watch every (fictional) movie about skiing

so I have a goal: to try to watch every (fiction) movie about skiing. The movies are all about the same: some wild and crazy party guys have to save the mountain/win a contest against some jerks/rich guys who want to make the mountain lame/not party. There are rarely any famous actors in them, a lot of hijinx ensue, some girls take their tops off, and the good guys win. And probably like many guys my age, I have fond memories of ski movies as they usually have boobs and used to be on Showtime and Skinemax all the time, which is a plus when you're a 13-year old boy. Looking back, a lot of the clothes are pretty hilarious too, like skin-tight multi-colored neon from head to toe.

Plus, to me, skiing is inherently corny. I enjoy skiing and have been many times, but it's hard to show skiing highlights in a movie without it looking cheesy. It's rarely thrilling or exciting, although they always shoot it so you're supposed to think it's TOTALLY EXTREME! when generally it's just goofy. It's kind of an unusual sport too, as you basically have to go to a town that exists solely for skiing, and there's a certain culture with that: everybody works in some job related to skiing, people wear generally the same clothes, there's lots of rich people, and so on. There's no towns devoted only to say baseball or basketball, not even college towns. There was a South Park episode about ski movies, but I can't remember if I've seen it -- it might have inspired this quest.

I thought it quest would be pretty easy -- how many skiing movies could there be? I thought I had them all on my queue: Ski Patrol, Ski School, Aspen Extreme, Hot Dog. However, after searching Blockbuster.com, which is what I use to rent movies, I discovered there are actually a ton, maybe 20-30 (including Better Off Dead, which people actually like non-ironically). So it's going to be tough. I've already seen about 5, but there's a lot to go. I'm saving Better Off Dead until last (or near the last, since I may find more).

I also decided to include snowboarding movies, since they're basically the same thing. There are also some action movies about skiing, like the one whose name I forget where the guys have to do all these extreme sports (skiing, snowboarding, mountain climbing, etc) to stop the bad guys. I'll probably include those ones. And movies that have skiing in them but aren't about skiing, like Dumb and Dumber, don't count. No documentaries either. Here's my list so far:

Ski Patrol, Ski School, Ski School 2, Aspen Extreme, Hot Dog... The Movie, Ski Trippin', Ski Wolf (seriously, it's about a werewolf at a ski resort), Ski Troop Attack, Christmas in the Clouds, Copper Mountain (starring Jim Carrey), Gran Slalom, Icy Spiders, The Ski Trip, Snowball Express, Snowbeast, both Snowballin' and Snowballing, etc etc.

Needless to say, I'm going to watch some shitty movies. And I will write reviews here.

Rant Time: Twittering

so it's rant time. A Bollywood star was held for hours at Newark airport, apparently because of his name. That's bad, obviously, and it shouldn't happen. He had to call the Indian Consulate to get them to vouch for him. He had just done some filming in the US on a movie called "My Name is Khan" about racial profiling against Muslims.

However, what made me mad was the response mentioned in the news article from another Bollywood actress, Priyanka Chopra: "Shocking,disturbing n downright disgraceful.Its such behavior that fuels hatred n racism.SRK's a world figure for Gods sake.GET REAL!!" Yes, it's shocking and unfortunate, but this guy is not a world figure. I've never heard of him. Get real? That Americans don't know a Bollywood star famous for mainly Hindi movies in India?

Obviously this sort of racial profiling is bad, but who knows the whole story? I don't and Priyanka Chopra doesn't. I guess Twitter is sort of a way to respond instantly, but sometimes you need to wait. Maybe he had the same name as somebody on the terror watch list, or maybe he was doing something to arouse suspicion. Then again, maybe it was just a dumb guard who saw the name "Khan," which is what Khan said. Nobody knows, for God's sake. The end.

Houston

so I went to Houston last year for my buddy's wedding, and I took a bunch of videos. I finally put them together:

Asher Roth is a genius

so I heard about this song "I Love College" by Asher Roth, and I listened to it. The guy is a genius.

Not because the song is good, but because of what it is: a collection of all the supposed best things about college - partying, drinking, girls, and funny stuff. It's like if you put Animal House, PCU, Old School, Road Trip, Van Wilder, and all the other college movies together in a blender, and that resulting smoothie was a song. Everything is so basic and obvious-- you've seen all before, yet I just know college kids will be screaming it at bars, frats, and parties for years. It's a pretty big demographic with a lot of money, and he pretty much hits everything they do or hope to do. It's kind of an aspirational song - college kids hope their lives are like this.

Congrats, man, you are probably rich.



Here's his Myspace.

Thunderheist - "Jerk It"

so I got this in a press release, but it's pretty awesome. The song sounds a bit like Missy Elliott/Timbaland, but more of a hipster dance club version, which is a pretty good combo if you ask me. The group is a from Canada, with a singer named Isis and a beat maker named Graham Zilla. Anyway, the song is pretty awesome, and the video is cool too -- weird, plus a hot girl. That's a recipe for a good video to me.

thunderheist - jerk it from thatgo on Vimeo.

Plus it's kind of a amusingly obvious reference - the song is called "Jerk It" and she's holding a rooster.

Their other stuff is pretty good too.

Myspace
Website

Or, the Whale - "Datura"

so I got this mp3 in my email the other day, it's from a country-influenced San Francisco band called Or, the Whale. It's a nice, up-tempo ditty, and while the singer's voice takes a little getting used to, once the steel guitar comes in, I'm sold. Plus the song is about datura, aka Jimson weed, a hallucinogenic plant, which is pretty funny. Here's their Myspace. I also like "Call and Response" on there.

Here's their electronic press kit:

Or, The Whale EPK from pete gill on Vimeo.