Moving Pictures

When I lent the producing apprentice Skiffleboom my Hitchcock/Truffaut book, I shoulda known he’d return the favor. He e-mailed me the link to If Charlie Parker Was a Gunslinger, There’d Be a Whole Lot of Dead Copycats, who kindly put online the original audio recordings of the most essential of film interviews.

The above performance showcases Michael Jackson as a mere star, on the cusp of world super-stardom, a time before his lunatic antics superseded his manifold talents. There’s something otherworldy in Jackson’s combination of kung fu stylings and marionette gesticulations, as if his actions were not his own.

A fan of Jackson’s, one Abeja Mariposa Jr, has created a trio of shorts worth watching. In Smooth Criminal, he re-choreographs Fred Astaire at his zaniest to a Jackson hit. Jackson was obviously influenced by Astaire, often paying him homage. The respect was mutual. Astaire called up Jackson to congratulate him after he first performed the moonwalk.

Which brings us to the second of Mariposa’s triology, Origins of the Moonwalk. I have little interest in actually understanding the historical lineage of the lunar lindyhop, but the toe tapping and foot frenzy showcased in this short is exhilirating.

I first heard about the latter videos through boing boing, who also kindly supply links to Michael Jackson’s patented dancing shoes and a very creepy Drew Friedman portrait. The Billie Jean video was posted on aquarium drunkard.

So raps Spohkes, Boston-based rhyme slinger in a piece he penned (or should I say thumbed, as he composed it on his Blackberry?) specifically for our second episode of the LoveTheCool Show. Any apprehensions about covering gangsta rap in Randolph, MA with blogger babe Michelle McCormack were quickly allayed; Spohkes and the rest of his Flicker Gang are deeply committed, and gentlemen to boot. Don’t tell them I told you though.

And if you’ll briefly excuse this white Jewish suburban boy’s fantasies, I’d like to now irrevocably crush any respect from anybody I may have ever earned. So, here goes nothin:

The flicker gang/ are seeking bigger fame/rising like a crane/ avoidin the chain gang/ they’re quick with the wit/ no spitting or lip/except when they’re rapping/when they shoot from the hip/like the man with no name/killing without any shame/working quotiodian/ without any ritalin/ layin down beats/ like halloween candy/ ubiquitous treats/ with a mac they be handy.

Don’t forget. LoveTheCool. Every two weeks. Fashion, music, social media. You can subscribe to the LoveTheCool show’s Youtube page quite easily by going here and clicking “subscribe.” Now, wasn’t that easy? And you can now become fan of the show on Facebook. We have 103 fans. Wait a second. I don’t even have that many friends on Facebook!

While staying at the killer Goddard Mansion Bed & Breakfast in Claremont, New Hampshire, this last weekend, I met Boaz Frankel, world record holder, kazoo touter, and reality television star. As he was traversing the North America and a genial and articulate fellow, I made the mistake of offering him a ride, for which he had no choice but to decline. This, for his latest venture, The Un Road Trip, he has vowed to take any form of transportation he can except automobile. His blog is a fascinating video and text exploration of alternative travel, all the slightest bit ironic as this is all easier due to modern technology.

He told me the iphone has made his travels much easier than they would have been just years ago. His parents are able to keep track of him via his blog. People can recommend places to stay through Twitter (@boazf). Of course he’s able to pull up maps and even stream video or chat via Skype. And all of the instant feedback thanks to Web 2.0 is constant emotional reinforcement.

You can watch also watch him on The Today Show. Or go to the homepage of his blog. I think Boaz deserves all the high-fives he can get.

Are you fond of the extraordinary?
Are you partial to the sublime?
Do you love the cool?

Then drop everything you’re doing immediately (that means you!) and watch the first episode of our felicitously named LoveTheCool Show, featuring three of the hippest cats you may ever feast your eyes upon — Michelle Mccormack, Certified Coolologist and social media connoisseur — and Andria and Jessen, haberdashery experts and purveyors of the finest headwear this side of the Alamo.

Andria and Jessen opened up their eclectic emporium, the addictive Salmagundi in Jamaica Plain. Watch! as Michelle gets her groove on. Listen! as they all wax social media.

Watch or comment on it at Youtube.

This is the LoveTheCool video series. Fashion. Music. Social Media. And then some. Every two weeks. What are you doing (or not doing) in social media? Do you Love the Cool?

Blip.TV is hosting classic episodes of the fantastic Weird TV, a comedy series aired in 1995 on Canadian television (and in some of Los Angeles). It’s sort of a post-modern surrealist satire of the landscape of television, a grand skewering of modern culture. It’s absurdist comedy at its best, utterly inventive and joyful and its frenetic pacing insures that if you’re not into one piece, the next is sure to soon follow.

A decent synopsis from the Toronto Star circa 1995 (to be read with in the guise of Rod Serling):

Imagine it’s late night and you’re home alone. In a sudden fit of gluttony you order a pepperoni pizza and wolf it down while reading the National Enquirer. Then, overcome with lethargy, you nod off. Before long, you’re roaming through a splintered, hallucinatory universe where nightmares are studded with shards of reality. In this realm, freakish people eagerly describe the most cockeyed aspects of their fractured lives. Random sounds drone in your ears. Locales shift with abrupt and frenzied urgency. Your view is periodically assaulted by haphazard images plucked from newscasts, home movies and cartoons. Now the strangest thing of all: What you’re experiencing is not some dream but an actual weekly exercise in video surrealism – A Sort of 60 Minutes on Acid called Weird TV.

The drug metaphor is apt, but only small segments feel like 60 minutes. A more felicitous comparison might be to early MTV crossed with Comedy Central, but then there are segments with crude muppets or recreations of lo-budget sixties sci-fi. You just have to see it.

As with most great Internet finds, I stumbled upon Weird TV by clicking on a link embedded in another story, in this case Laughing Squid’s obituary of San Francisco “car activist teacher prankster” Tom Kennedy. Weird TV’s homepage provides a decent sampling of many of their decent segments, but be warned that not all of the links are active. And then there are the episodes at Blip.TV.

This snippet from Who’s On First remains one of my favorite examples of kinetic typography, the animated typographical interpretation of dialogue from films, television or music.

Alwayswatching has a great list of some of the other competitors. These designers are really thinking about font, space, and composition in creative and inspiring ways.

And he will blow your mind, guaranteed. The indefitagable, ineffable Ricky Jay is on tour with his new stage show, “Ricky Jay, A Rogue’s Gallery,” described as “An evening of Conversation & Performance.”

His website describes him as

a writer and speaker on subjects as varied as conjuring literature, con games, sense perception and unusual entertainments.

He is perhaps best known as an actor, in Deadwood and perhaps in all of the con films directed by David Mamet (who directs this show, and on whose films Jay is often credited as a “consultant.”) But he is world-renowned as a manipulator of cards. Mark Singer, in his excellent New Yorker article writes,

Studying videotapes of him and observing at first hand some of his serendipitous microbursts of legerdemain have taught me how inappropriate it is to say that “Ricky Jay does card tricks”-a characteri- zation as inadequate as “Sonny Rollins plays tenor saxophone” or “Darci Kistler dances.” None of my scrutinizing has yielded a shred of insight into how he does what he does. Every routine appears seamless, unparsable, sim- ply magical.

A former carnival barker, he has garnered as much envy for his skills with his hands as he has of his aural dexterity, evidenced by his performance and patter, somehow both anachronistic and fresh. To pick a couple more accomplishments out of the proverbial hat — in his case surely a 10-gallon — he once held the Guinness Book of World Records for card throwing, a subject upon which he based his first book. His last media release was a CD compendium celebrating “the history, the art and the music of poker,” for which he was nominated for a Grammy.

There’s plenty of good Youtube clips to choose from, from his talk show appearances in the eighties on Letterman and Arsinio, from his network special Learned Pigs and Fireproof Women (inspired by his second book), but below are a couple of film clips that bespeak many of his charms.

The Hands Of Ricky Jay

Ricky Jay’s website is here. From his homepage, you’ll find links to the stellar New Yorker profile (as good a profile as I’ve ever read, on anyone), and about a year’s worth of radio essays Jay recorded for KCRW.

I hereby give Sita Sings the Blues to you. Like all culture, it belongs to you already, but I am making it explicit with a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike License. Please distribute, copy, share, archive, and show Sita Sings the Blues. From the shared culture it came, and back into the shared culture it goes.

And with those words, master animator Nina Paley shares with us her gorgeously animated feature debut, a musical retelling of both a personal tramautic break-up and an Indian myth. It’s a film bursting with color and pathos and creativity. The animation style is so stunning and detailed, it’s staggering to reflect that the film was animated almost exclusively by one individual.

The irony of it all is that Paley used songs recorded in the 1920’s that are out of copyright; but because the compositions themselves are still restricted, she had to pay about $50,000 of her own mula to acquire the rights.

She now described herself as a “full-time free culture activist.” To wit, on her blog (which includes plenty more most excellent animations) she sings us a ditty she recalls from her childhood, “Copying Isn’t Theft.” Of course, she encourages covers and remixes, and now links to her favorites. Below is an adorable French cover.

You can watch Sita Sings the Blues at thirteen.org. Nina Paley’s excellent blog is here, while the Sita Sings the Blues homepage is here. I heard about the film through the excellent Spout Filmcouch podcast, which I’m disconcerted to learn (just now as I research this posting) has broadcasted its last show.

Finally, a new film from Spike Jonze, his adaptation of the beloved children’s book, Where The Wild Things Are . Is it really possible that this is only his second full-length directorial effort, his first since Being John Malkovitch (my personal favorite absurdist science fiction comedy?) Needless to say, his eminence is underscored by plenty of extraordinary music videos. I particularly like his Gap commercial. But then again, I like breaking things.

If that weren’t exciting enough for geeky fanboys like myself, the script is the film debut of none other than the ubiquitous Dave Eggers, of McSweeneys and 826 fame, and the soundtrack features those mighty purveyors of orchestral pop, the Arcade Fire.

It seems twitter is all atwitter over this story. To give credit where credit is due, I first heard about it through filmdrunk, who’s currently blogging about a Farrely brothers Three Stooges remake starring Sean Penn [sic], Benicio del Toro [sic] and Jim Carrey [of course].