Wednesday, March 23, 2011

Funkadelic vs. Infected Mushroom



Want to do some simple youtube DJing?

Came across these instructions when I listened to Funkadelic's Maggot Brain on youtube. You can do an interesting overlay by playing Infected Mushroom's Heavyweight at the same time. By all means listen to both tracks individually first if you've got some minutes to spend.

Here's what you do with the following two youtube vids:

1 - Put Heavyweight at 25% volume and leave Maggot Brain at 100% volume. Maggot Brain's the first vid.
2 - Start Heavyweight. When the first noise sounds (about 1 second into it), hit play on Maggot Brain.
3 - Trip out in some rave-like fashion.





If you're reading this on bookface, the vids won't show up. Here's the link to the original blog post.

Tuesday, March 22, 2011

Christopher Lee Makes a Metal Album



 Then you have elected the way....of metal!

Sir Christopher Lee, who seems to have traced his family tree back to Charlemagne, has decided to make a metal record based on the life of his ancient ancestor. It'll be a rock opera, and he'll be singing the part of Charlemagne. He's currently 88.

Lee's actually done a bit of metal work before, lending his resonant voice to the songs of power metal colossuses like Manowar and Rhapsody. In a vlog he posted, he describes his surprise over his burgeoning interest in metal of the symphonic variety, which is a breed of metal in which you 'can actually hear what's being said,' he puts it with a slight scowl. Symphonic metal, which is basically power metal drowned in orchestral bombasticism and melodrama, is about as cheesy as music can get.

Here's a sample:



Did you hear his fell voice on the wind? Gandalf my old friend, this should be an album to remember.



IT'S SARUUMAAAAAAANNNNN *avalanche*

If you're reading this on bookface, the vids won't show up. Here's the link to the original blog post.

Wednesday, March 9, 2011

Indian Superman and Spidergirl



Just in case you haven't already seen this particular bollywood wonder, here's a video with superman and spidergirl, in love and dancing through the sky.


Originally posted on my blog hereabouts.

Wednesday, February 23, 2011

Solar Deathray

Some clever young evil scientist built himself a solar deathray that ups the solar heat we receive on earth 5000 times onto a single spot. Yep. Check out the vid:





The best part is knowing that the ray device was lost in a building fire.


Originally posted on my blog hereabouts.

Tuesday, February 22, 2011

Ryan Watches A Motion Picture #92: Bram Stoker's To Die For (1988)



At last, vampires I can understand and relate to.

This movie has a fair bit of charm. Also, it's awful. But it seems to believe in itself, which leads me to enjoyment. I wish Rifftrax would cover it.

This is a film that's from the 80s and doesn't let you forget that at any point during its runtime. Pluses include a decent amount of rubbery monster gore and unexpectedly violent murders. Minuses mostly being lukewarm sex scenes you wish would go somewhere, and characters you don't care about. And there's quite a few more characters than there really needs to be. You can't shake the feeling that you're watching a TV pilot. I couldn't get Forever Knight out of my head.

Character rundown is as follows: Vlad Tepes with a British accent, a real estate agent named Kate, her asshole friend who thinks she's his girlfriend, another friend, that friend's aloof boyfriend, and then a monster vampire with a mullet. Oh and two cops that come and go just so someone can say something like 'Wow, who could have done this?'

Kate's friend who thinks he's her boyfriend is especially entertaining for being so utterly unlikable and getting rewarded for it. He's a total dickhead of a shallow and controlling jerk who, sadly, pretty much becomes the hero of the film by figuring out who VLAD TEPES is once he finds a book on VLAD TEPES' shelf called VLAD TEPES, and it's about the history of VLAD FUCKING TEPES. He promptly reads Bram Stoker's Dracula to learn how to kill vampires, of course. This is why To Die For is Bram Stoker's To Die For.

Mullet vampire is pretty awesome. His curly mulleted hair, his superbly 80s outfit, his lame shades, and his penchant for smoking makes him so. My favourite moment comes when mullet vampire dramatically tosses away a cigarette to pursue a murder victim, and by the time he enters the room she's walked into maybe 20 seconds later, he's apparently lit up another one because he's just so cool. I guess if you're immortal, addiction can get pretty bad.

Have a sultry trailer!



As the film went on I realised that I wasn't at all interested in the main characters. I wanted more of the cops. Every time they came on, I hoped beyond hope that they'd stay on the screen. I don't care about British Vlad Tepes. I wanted the adventures of Grizzled Veteran Black Cop and White Trash Rocker Cop! Kicking ass. Taking names. Getting shit done. Lt. Williams and Detective Bocco, writing your tombstone.

It's sad that I fixated on the barest, most non-character characters in the film because it was more interesting than vampires.

So: Certainly one of the most 80s films I've ever seen. After seeing it, I had the weird, atavistic urge to write a screenplay around the two cops, who, having seen the darkness lurking in the black of the shadows in the night time, have pledged themselves to the solving of paranormal crimes.

Also, here's a music video someone made with clips from the movie. This is someone's favourite film. She ignored the cops:




Original post can be found on my blog hereabouts.

Monday, February 21, 2011

Donald Duck Did It First

Inception? McScrooge? No, I do not believe this!

Thought I'd pass this Cracked.com link on. A friend posted it upon bookface and it was of the amusement. In it, it describes how farseeing Donald Duck is. You will not believe the wonders within.

Thursday, January 27, 2011

Ryan Watches A Motion Picture #91: Six-String Samurai (1998)


Post-apocalyptic wasteland U.S.A, taken over by the Russians! Vegas is one of the only cities left standing, and if you want to make it anywhere, it'll have to be there. But it's tough to get in. Tougher to survive the walk. Our stoic hero is a rockabilly guitar-picker who's decided to make for his fame and fortune.

Packing little beyond his guitar, a torn umbrella to shield himself from the hot desert sun, and a fucking samurai sword to defend himself against Russian raiders, he sets out across the arid land. Oh, and Death is literally after him. Death and a bunch of his evil henchmen. This is a winning concept, but the ultimate result is a little on the underwhelming side. I found myself bored more than once, which usually means that I need a gang to watch the movie with, and some sake.

If you can set up that kind of situation, also be prepared for wretched acting, camp dialogue, breakout gypsy-punk sequences, and sword duels that sometimes manage to be pretty stylish.

So: Could have been the best movie ever, but doesn't get too far along that track.