Liftingfaces

What a difference 22 years can make. For those of us old enough to remember Number 5, you’ll appreciate this post. I remember thinking that WALL•E reminded me of Short Circuit, but that was just me remembering in my head.

Then I pulled up an image of Number 5, and was pretty astonished. The head shape, tire tread shape, even the digits, all are spookily similar. It’s a little disappointing from a character design standpoint, but I still thought WALL•E (especially the first act) was a fantastic film.

I like Antony and the Johnsons. I like Tindersticks. I like Mark Eitzel. And yes, I do like Morrissey, too. So I guess I’m guilty by association, because I also like Wild Beasts, whose frontman Tom Fleming is a curious blend of all of those singers (to me anyways).

Check out one of their songs, “The Devil’s Crayon,” and if you dig it, go buy their album on their site.

Whether or not you watch this show (it is currently finishing up its auditions on NBC before the finalists move on and compete to win), I’m predicting that this man, Sean Cullen, from Petersborough, Ontario, and formerly of one of the original comedy performance bands Corky and the Juice Pigs (well before Flight of the Conchords or Tenacious D), will likely win the whole thing.

Either way, this show will get a good amount of exposure for him, which is only a good thing, as I think he’s one of the funniest comedians I’ve watched in a while.

Check out more of his work on his site, and if you want more, enjoy this two bits about foods people choose to be killed by.

“Food of Your Choice” #1
 

“Food of Your Choice” #2

I returned from week up in the Northwoods of Ontario, Canada, amidst a cage match between the two US presidential candidates, only to have a buddy of mine from Japan send me a link which is, well, astonishing to say the least.

eMobile, a Japanese mobile phone company, is running a campaign, with a monkey, playing the part of . . . . . Barack Obama. They even lifted his campaign slogan, declaring “Yes, We Change!”

Do the Japanese creatives even KNOW how racist this is? I can’t wait for CNN and MSNBC and FOXNEWS of America to get a hold of this one.

Check it out now, and judge for yourself.

(BLOOD WINS!)

I know that No Country for Old Men took the award for best picture at the Academy Awards, but I don’t see how the critics chose it over There Will Be Blood. For me, Blood was a stronger, more rewarding film. Daniel Day Lewis and P.T. Anderson gave me a glimpse into the foundation of the oil economy, and drew me deeper into a seemingly one-dimensional character than I thought I could have gotten.

No Country came off as a faithful retelling of a novel where the emptiness between action created the story’s tone. Which can work fine on paper, but on screen, with the Cohen Brothers at the helm, it felt desolate, a sketch of a film, a skeleton of an idea where the dots connected, vaguely, but didn’t really care if we the viewer did so. It was no Blood Simple, I can say that. All of this said, I still liked No Country.

I left No Country asking myself what I had just watched, and came up with a fragment of an idea. I left Blood with questions about the characters and their motivations, but the good kind, the kind that keep you talking for days on end.

“Skinny Love” by Bon Iver.

My post about veggie burgers led me to a spoof product from a couple years back, designed to have some fun with the absurdity of soy and tofu-based product names.

So if you’re “a cannibal who wants to quit,” then Hufu, The Healthy Human Flesh Alternative, is for you.