I present my humble mashup to you without comment.
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Wool Vereen and Ben Vereen are obviously brothers.
Hello, friends! I have written a parody of the weekly Minnesota Public Radio segment Art Hounds. My pals Courtney, Pete, and Paul helped me out by providing voice talent and Shanna kicked ass in the production studio over at KFAI (yes, I realize I used facilities at one public radio station to make fun of another public radio station).
Please enjoy this week’s round up of local arts, which includes an art sale that’s not to be missed, some authentic and real theater, and some public art treasures.
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If you’re having trouble using the flash player, you can access the mp3 file here.
Indeed, it is true! I am writing a science fiction comedy book, and it is coming along well. I’m not going to talk alot about it, but I will share with you a paragraph that will not be appearing in the book. Think of this as a teaser that gives away nothing.
He is also a Star Wars fan–and aggressively so. He goes to Star Trek conventions to piss off the Trekkies. But not just to razz them with quips and zingers; he buys the $1500 platinum seats that get you the private dinner with William Shatner just so he can ask jackass questions and fart loudly. He is a motherfucker.
Please enjoy these ringtones, as narrated by local artist Jasper St. Fancy. And look for Mr. St. Fancy in an upcoming radio production.
On Tuesday night a man from Fergus Falls, MN was on Conan O’Brien’s Tonight Show as the comedy guest. I always love when comedians are featured instead of bands.
This dude, Chad Daniels, was funny in a very generic way. He told jokes about his family in a cadence reminiscent of Jimmy Carr (who was also on Conan this summer, apparently), which worked. And while I laughed, this man has done nothing especially notable. He told jokes about how his children annoy him, how he wants to abandon them, and how they are idiots. Honestly, I liked it way better when Louis C.K. did it, like, ten years ago.
But, even so, it’s definitely worth devoting five minutes to enjoying, if only for the fact that he is from Minnesota and he was on teevee:
I would like to take a moment to pose a complaint about Jimmy Fallon on his television program, and then totally refute myself.
Have you seen Late Night with Jimmy Fallon? He sucks at interviewing! He doesn’t even let his guests talk. He just jokes around.
YES BUT
Have you ever seen a guest on a late night talk show? They are all vapid actors (save for Brian Williams, Al Roker, Will Ferrel, and Harrison Ford). They suck! Who wants to hear about the cute thing their baby did? Nobody, that’s who.
So when Jimmy Fallon takes over the interview–even if he is only mostly funny–and gets the three mentions of the movie or TV show in, I say good work. That is moving things forward in the late night talk show realm.
Brad Neely’s videos are no longer available for uncensored viewing on the internet.
Let me say that again: Brad Neely’s videos are no longer available for uncensored viewing on the internet.
Censored. On the internet.
That means such classic Brad Neely lines as “No one can fuck my strange guests,” and “10s and 20s, what’s so funny, fuckin’ 20 10″ are rendered pointless and boring. And then there are made up words that have roots in swears that are fucking poetry (or, if not poetry, then otherwise genius) that get bleeped. For example, from Babycakes Diary #3: “Sometimes, if I’m fast enough, I catch a glimpse of the Brain Fuckler, just fucklin’ the shit out of everyone.”
Luckily, I was able to download (legally, for free) the audio to the best song of them all before all of this happened. You may care to take a listen to Be Aggressive by Brad Neely. (For now you may also be interested in watching an unauthorized distribution from you tube dot com. But shh! Keep it under your hat! )
All the Brad Neely videos adopted from Super Deluxe are edited–not just bleeped, but images are cut out, too. I thought the title “adult” swim suggested that we could handle this stuff, as well as the huge TV-MA plastered on each video. Really lame.
I can’t verify the claim that images have been cut out. I’ve watched The Role Play Tournament and Bible History, which have, respectively, the most violent and vulgar images of the Neely Collection. I’m not saying this didn’t happen, just that I can’t verify it. I will say that it would not surprise me in the least.
But, as with all things in the universe except household cleanliness, this is not happening in a vacuum. Brad Neely’s blog says this:
Neely can do nothing about it. SuperDeluxe is gone. We are lucky to have our pieces posted on Adult Swim.
The post after that (which is the most recent post, dated December 21, 2008), says these videos will be returning to the internet in their uncensored form “very soon.” I eagerly await that day.
Which brings me to my point: I am not saying this signals some great defeat of Western ideals. This is a mild affront to Internet Common Sense, but this is also very likely just some oblivious online programing executive who was given authority over a medium his 80-year-old ass is totally clueless about (TED STEVENS). I am merely lamenting the (momentary) stifling of a very specific artist whose work I genuinely admire. Alas.
Post script: I will admit this is not exactly breaking news. SuperDeluxe.com was taken over by Adult Swim on December 17, 2008 (via). Forgive me if I’m still not indifferent. But seriously. Censorship. On the internet. I just had to register my frustration indignation slack-jawed bewilderment.
My mind has been blown today.
In late 2004, I was at a party. Someone said, “Come over here, Art. I want to show you this internet video.” The video was called “Just 2 Guyz” and it went something like this (mildly NSFW):
I lost my shit watching it. We must have played it five times in a row at that party, and at subesquent parties and other social gatherings for months and years.
This video was produced by an internet comedy trio called The Lonely Island. I checked out some of their other stuff in 2005 and thought “Yes, this is pretty good. I hope they get picked up somewhere.”
Well, as I discovered from their YouTube page, you may have seen some of their other work:
That’s right! The Lonely Island was taken onto Saturday Night Live to create their Digital Shorts segments. And Andy Samberg (one of the three dudes, and “Steve” in the Just 2 Guyz video) was even brought onto the full SNL cast. This is yet another example of the blurring line between Main Stream Media and New Media. Score one for talent being justly rewarded.
Last night I got an unexpected email in my inbox:
Hi, artallen.thecosbyshow (thecosbyshow) is now following your updates on Twitter.
Check out thecosbyshow’s profile here:
This is really neat! What the Tiwtter feed gives you is little updates on what the actors are doing. For example:
thecosbyshow Phylicia Rashad (Clair) Nominated for Best Actress SAG Award for playing Lena Younger in “A Raisin in the Sun” – http://tinyurl.com/9tclts
This might seem kind of pointless and stupid, but I actually really like it. I actually wish some other shows would do this. Like, if Star Trek TNG or M*A*S*H had feeds like this I’d follow them.
Oh, and then there’s the question of how the Cosby Show knew to follow me on Twitter. A quick search.twitter.com excursion finds one two three tweets that contain the word “Cosby.”
Also, if you’ve spoken to me in the past month and a half you know that it’s all I can do to wait until Christmas Day to get some Christmas Monies so I can go to Best Buy and buy each of the eight seasons of the Cosby Show for $20 each. Heckuva deal! But getting this email connected for me (for some reason) that I could buy this show on Amazon, and it’d probably be even cheaper. And it is! The Cosby Show: 25th Anniversary Commemorative Edition (1984) $89.99
I cannot wait.