The Emmy Award Winning I MET THE WALRUS
Jerry Levitan was 14 years old in 1969, the year that he snuck into John Lennon’s Toronto hotel room and scored a 40-minute interview. Years and years later, he’s created an Emmy Award Winning short film with audio from that interview at its core.
In their write-up on the news, Mashable asks, “Do you think I Met the Walrus succeeds, as Jerry Levitan hoped, ‘something that I thought John would love’?” I’m not sure whether he would loved it or not, as I’m not much of a Lennon scholar myself, but I certainly love it. The animation here is crazy and wacky and all kinds of out-there, but ends up being beautiful and inspiring at the same time.
What about you, Fivers? What do you think of I Met the Walrus?
Geek Force FiveCast 218: Marvel and Pixar
In which ECC geeks out about the possibilities now possible for Marvel and Pixar, thanks to Disney’s buyout of the comics giant.
Music Video for “Nikita Says Love” by The Pluto Tapes
If there is any band I’m obsessed with as much as Nine Inch Nails, it’s my friend Andy Hicks’s one-man-band The Pluto Tapes. Maybe a little of that is because I was in a band with the man back in the day and got to experience his skillz first-hand, but the better part of why I think The Pluto Tapes are a great act has to do with the sheer amount of fun I have listening to him/them.
That’s why I’m so excited to share with you the world premiere of the first ever—at least to my knowledge—music video from The Pluto Tapes. It’s for a song from his/their album Dead Planets Tell No Tales (available on iTunes and wherever fine digital music is sold), and it’s called “Nikita Says Love.” I’d describe it for you, but any description I give is going to pale in comparison to experiencing the real thing. So, watch the embed above and dance a little, and laugh a little, then report back here.
Kevin Smith Rewrites Script for Cancer Survivor
I’ve said recently that Kevin Smith is no longer my favorite filmmaker. He remains among my top 10, but he’s no longer #1. That said, he remains one of my favorite human beings. This story, from Echo Press by way of News Askew, is a perfect example of why.
Cody Saurdiff, a cancer survivor and a kid who “pretty much grew up around doctors,” is a big Kevin Smith fan. Thanks to the folks at the Make-A-Wish Foundation, he was granted access to Smith and to the director’s latest film project, tentatively titled A Couple of Dicks. But Kevin Smith did more than just meet and greet the kid.
The Saurdiffs were amazed to learn that Smith had rewritten part of the script to accommodate a part for Cody.
In the scene, Cody plays a teenage student driver who hits [Bruce] Willis with a car. Although it would be a 20-second scene, the Saurdiffs spent eight hours on the set.
After he was done filming, Cody got out of the car and the film crew gave him a standing ovation.
“They took a shining to Cody,” said his proud dad. “They loved this kid. He was holding cameras and everything. They couldn’t do enough.”
“Everyone there was super nice,” Cody agreed.
When the filming wrapped up, a satisfied, overwhelmed Cody expected to shake hands and say goodbye.
Then it got even better.
I’m not sure if A Couple of Dicks will be any good, or not. Nobody’s even sure whether it’ll be called A Couple of Dicks by the time it hits theaters. But what I am sure of is that I’ll be looking out for the film debut of Cody Saurdiff when I see it, and that I’ll be thinking about how awesome this bit of backstory is.
100 Years of Special Effects in 5 Minutes
CollegeHumor has compiled 100 years of movie special effects into a 5 minute video and set that montage to the sounds of Blue Man Group. It’s a pretty good retrospective, all in all, but I expected that it’d be a bit funnier, given where it originated from. Does CollegeHumor do more than just humor? I feel silly even asking that, but maybe it’s not so silly a question after all.
Anyway, thanks to the fine folks at Geekologie for linking this up.
Disney Buys Marvel for $4 Billion
The Walt Disney Company has bought Marvel Entertainment for $4 billion dollars, according to The New York Times. Now, say that with me again, in the voice of Dr. Evil:
Four billllllliiiiiiiiooon dollars!
I’m not really sure what I think about this yet—as evidenced by my initial tweet on the subject—but I think that Ron Richards at iFanboy has made some great points. The key question here is how much corporate oversight will Disney have over the day-to-day operations at Marvel. Will the House of Mouse be domineering or not? What do you think, Fivers?
Geek Force FiveCast 217: Bruschi
In which ECC wishes his brother a happy 30th birthday and geeks out about the apparently retiring Tedy Bruschi.
Papa John Reunited With His Camaro
In 1983, John Schnatter, the man who would found Papa John’s Pizza, sold his 1971 Camaro for $2,800 in order to help keep his father’s tavern afloat. Twenty-six years ago, the dude has been reunited with the car he loved. He paid $250,000 to get it back after using a blog to help track the vehicle down.
Any of you out there have something you lost long ago that you would pay anything to have back? A car? A comic book? A toy? Let us know.
August Apple Awesomeness
This Friday, August 28, Mac OS X 10.6, aka Snow Leopard, will be released to the world. It’ll cost just $29 for people who are upgrading from the previous version of Mac OS X, and it’s apparently going to be a pretty bad-ass update. Mac Rumors has overview of some of the new features, and TUAW has both a guide to upgrading and a poll asking users which feature they are most looking forward to.
But Snow Leopard is not the only thing going on in Apple Land. There is also news that Steve Jobs is devoting nearly all of his time to the fabled Apple Tablet, that Apple is planning to keep its cheaper white plastic MacBooks around, and that EA Games is bringing popular old board games such as Clue and Life to the iPhone.
Add to all of that the release of two new Get a Mac ads (one featuring The Tick himself, Patrick Warburton) and you have one happy Apple fanatic named Chris.
LOST - More Season Six Whispers
Okay, so, is it January yet? I mean, seriously: the wait for Lost is starting to get excruciating. Yes, I realize that I’m going to be plenty busy with work and other projects between now and the season premiere, but I just want the wait to be over. Don’t you?
I mean, let’s look at all of the stuff that’s been popping up recently. Jorge Garcia has come out and said that he’s read the script for the sixth season premiere, which will apparently be called “LA X,” and says, “it’s pretty freaking exciting.”
Meanwhile, there are casting calls out for a polished, sympathetic, and very efficient public relations rep for high-profile company and a dude who is “[o]verworked, harried from a long day and many hours, faced with a highly adrenalized situation that forces him to remain calm and tests his ability to keep his wits about him—a test he fails as panic wins out.”
Then, of course, there’s the news that Hiroyuki Shimosawa, a Japanese actor who’s appeared here in the States in The Last Samurai and Rush Hour 3, will be joining the cast, and the scoop from E! Online’s Kristen on what’s in store for Sawyer next season.
Man! They’ve only just started filming and things are already going nuts in Lostville. It’d be easier if we were still doing The Lost Rewatch here in the Clark household, but we had to stop because Kaylee never goes to bed early and we can’t watch the show with her awake. What are you guys doing to pass the time?
