Dirty Work

I was watching tv a few days ago and the movie “Dirty Work” came on.  This comedy from 1998 is a gem and also one of Chris Farley’s last movies.  I honestly don’t know why I like the film so much.  The plot is dumb and predictable but for some reason there are certain seasons in it that I still find hilarious such as the fight in the bar where the wrong song is selected, the dead hookers in the back of a vehicle, etc…  I have probably watched this movie ten or so times and I still laugh my ass off whenever I see it.  Norm Macdonald and Artie Lange are hilarious in it.

Here’s a clip from the movie:

 

George Carlin

George Carlin is not only one of my favorite comedians but also one of my favorite critics of American culture.  Even at seventy years old his recent HBO special “It’s Bad For Ya” shows that he isn’t slowing down at all.  He seems more pissed off than ever and attacks everything that he finds hypocritical in society.

Here is an interview of him on the radio show “Opie and Anthony”: George Carlin On O&A [Rapidshare Link, 20 Megs].  It is interesting to here him speak freely without performing a routine.  For me I find it more insightful as he is talking off the cuff and his true thoughts come out. 

Happy Easter

Happy Easter to everyone.  This might offend some people but at Easter Time I am always reminded of this bit by the late comedian Bill Hicks about the Easter Bunny and Gideons.

 Here’s the video.  Language and content may bother some people. 

Patton Oswalt and Brian Posehn

In Wednesday’s class Paul played a video that had Zach Galifianakis advertising Absolut Vodka.  I just wanted to suggest to anyone who enjoyed it to check out Patton Oswalt and/or Brian Posehn.  They have a similiar type of delivery in their stand up to Zach Galifianakis.

Here’s Brian Posehn:

and Patton Oswalt:

Yacht Rock!

Yesterday I was given a link to an online comedy series called Yacht Rock.  It is a comedy show that involves the music scene from the 70s and 80s with an emphasis on soft rockers.  These soft rockers are referred to as belong to “Yacht Rock” and include such artists as Doobie Brothers, Christopher Cross, Steely Dan and Toto.  Unfortunately only eleven episodes of this show were made though. 

If you know a decent amount of music history from this era the show is awesome.  Here is the website where you can find ten of the episodes.  The eleventh episode is on YouTube.  Be warned that there is vulgar language on this show which may offend some people.

Doug Stanhope

Doug Stanhope is a comedian that some may recognize for his stint on The Man Show with Joe Rogan for a year.  Also some may recognize him for doing a few Girls Gone Wild videos.  It is somewhat ironic that this is how he has got most of his exposure and he refers to these two projects as being absolute shit.

He is a comedian that many critics have referred to as being similiar to the late Bill Hicks.  I find that while Hicks was almost philosophical at certain points, Stanhope has stated in interviews that he is just a comic and that no one should take him to seriously.   However Stanhope was planning on running as a presidential candidate for the USA election in 2008 as a Libertarian Candidate but had to pull out because of legal reasons (such as candidates are not allowed to paid while campaigning and his standup comedy shows could be considered as a method of campaigning). 

In case you are interested, here’s a set of his taped for XM radio in 2006.  Be aware that this is NSFW and some people may find it offensive: Doug Stanhope – Live at Wise Acres (2006) (Rapidshare link)

YouTube and 15 Minutes of Fame

YouTube has became a place where people try to achieve fame.  Much like Andy Warhol’s quote that “in the future, everyone will be world-famous for 15 minutes” YouTube helps give people an outlet to try and achieve this.  Some of the times, the videos are so absurd that you don’t know if the person was trying to be serious.

 Here’s an example:

Her other videos are here: http://uk.youtube.com/user/keiko37

For some reason I find her videos cringe worthy.  I am home alone right now and I am embarrassed to even be watching this.  It’s not disgusting in a 2girls1cup way but in the fact that some people are trying so hard to get attention just for a few minutes that they will go to lengths like this.

Turntables and Pitches

Like I mentioned before, when it comes to turntables I am clueless.   However this doesn’t mean I’m not interested in them or don’t respect them.  If any turntablists are reading this, I have a question.  I was curious why not many dj’s use a record with a certain frequency (let’s say 440 hZ (A) for ease of argument) and scratch it to change the pitch and play it like an instrument.  For example, if they were to push the record against the needle the frequency would be sped up and play a higher pitch.  If it was dragged against the needle the pitch would be lower.

Kid Koala kind of does what I am describing in “Drunk Trumpet” but with a musical sample.  I am interested in someone doing this with a frequency though.

While this would take an amazing ear to hit a specific pitch, many musicians play fretless instruments where they must do this.  Excuse my ignorance, but wouldn’t this be possible to do with turntables? 

I remember watching “Scratch” and I believe it was the Dust Brothers who had records made that have a single pitch to them.  Like “A”, “A#”, “B”, etc… so all 12 tones were covered.  They used these records when touring with Beck but I haven’t been able to find examples of this.  I am curious if they did what I previously described.  Can anyone help me out if they know of any songs they did this with?

The idea of slowing down records reminds me of a hilarious bit by Patton Oswalt involving Alvin and the Chipmunks.  Here it is:

Norman Wilkerson

Norman Wilkerson is a standup comedian from Texas who I’m surprised hasn’t had more success.  He is also listed on The Unbookables  website, a site ran by comedian Doug Stanhope.  This site has a list of comedians who are considered edgy and have balls.  So you obviously won’t find Dane Cook on the site.

Rather then describing an art form which is near impossible to do, here’s a clip of his.  The language and content of this may offend some people.

If you enjoy this and are interested in hearing one some more of his standup, here’s a link to download a full set of his:

 Norman Wilkerson – Lower Your Standards (rapidshare link, 55 megs)

Data and Technology

Does it ever occur to you that that while you are sitting at a computer and say, surfing the web, that millions and millions of calculations are taking place with just zeros and ones?   Broken down into its lowest form of a bit, “a bit of storage is like a light switch; it can be either on (1) or off (0). A single bit is a one or a zero, a true or a false, a “flag” which is “on” or “off”. 

For most people it would be a daunting task to take a program they use everyday, say an e-mail client such as Outlook, and even write the pseudocode for it.  From here, imagine writing actual workable source code from scratch that would allow this program to function.   Although even after completion of the previous task, the program code is still not broken down into zeroes and ones, but it gives you an idea of how powerful the process is. 

Joe Rogan has a track on his new cd “Shiny Happy Jihad” in which he gives the premise that there is a disaster and only a room full of average people survive.  He comments that they would do fine  “until shit started breaking” and asks how long it would take someone if they were set in a forest with a hatchet to send an e-mail.  Although it is an extreme example it makes me wonder how many times in a day that I use something and ACTUALLY understand how it was made and how it works.