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Health and Wealth

/ Jared / Leave a comment

Take a minute or five to watch this guy use augmented reality animation and tons of statistical data to chart different countries’ progress over the past two hundred years.

So, I have two new life goals. The first is to meet this man, who I guess is named Hans Rosling, because he is quite clearly the greatest. The second is to win the lottery and then use all of that money to just fund him and his team so they can continue to make videos like this. Gold stars to both the internet and this guy!

[Thanks to my friend Alex F. for posting this on Facebook.  Good looking out!]

We forgot to make comedies this year!

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Guys, the Golden Globe nominations are out, and I’ve got bad news.  We forgot to make comedies this year!  Can you believe it?  Is Judd Apatow in rehab or something?

Picture 4

Cher in 2006.

Image via Wikipedia

My first reaction to this was WTF Hollywood Foreign Press?  My second reaction was also WTF Hollywood Foreign Press, because, seriously, Burlesque?  I mean, I realize it’s a musical, but that movie was made exclusively to serve as a punchline for bad jokes, right?

My third reaction was to realize that I guess I can’t totally blame them; there weren’t really any good comedies this year.  I didn’t see Dinner for Schmucks or The Other Guys, but I doubt they were award-worthy.  My favorite comedy was probably Get Him to the Greek, and that was a seriously flawed movie.  Why did no one make anything funny?

At least the Hollywood Foreign Press is finally recognizing the hilarious work of world-famous funnyman Johnny Depp.

Picture 3

American actor Johnny Depp.

Image via Wikipedia

Two nominations!  I think Johnny Depp’s funniest trait is how he doesn’t take himself way, way too seriously.  Also, did he get nominated for The Tourist because his beard and hair are really funny in that movie?  That would make sense, I guess.

I’m glad that the foreign press liked The Tourist, though, because it is very much a movie that was  made for Europeans.  No one I know has any interest in that hot ball of garbage.  The Venetian tourists with whom I’m familiar are less Angelina Jolie and Johnny Depp and more loud, annoying people that are carrying strollers up and down the steps of all the bridges because obviously bringing a baby to Venice is a really great idea.  When I was there I literally saw people with babies and diaper bags and broken legs and crutches and everything.  CANCEL THE TRIP.

Also, I just want to say, I’m pretty sure that the movies that Paul Giamatti and Kevin Spacey were nominated for don’t actually exist.  Barney’s Version and Casino Jack?  Nope.

“I’m really into lipdubs right now.” – Johanna

/ Jared / 2 Comments

And so am I!  As this video proves, a good lipdub can even (briefly) make me not be annoyed at Lady Gaga or artsy Boston youths.  God, I miss college.  Or at least the imaginary college experience in my head where I participated in things like this.

If I were in a lipdub video, I would be one of the kids who moves through the shot too quickly and is clearly self-conscious and awkward about his or her involvement.  I need to chill out.

[Via Urlesque]

Alternative Multiplication

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I’m not sure if this is actually how the Japanese multiply, as the video claims.  I am sure, however, that it is now the way that I multiply.  All this time I’ve been doing math when I could’ve just been counting!

As soon as I watched this video I whipped out a pen and a pad of paper and said to my wife, “Want to see something cool???”  She displayed a surprising lack of enthusiasm.

[Via Gizmodo]

Revisiting Jenny Slate

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Hey, remember Jenny Slate?  From Saturday Night Live?  Most famous for dropping an F-bomb in one of her first sketches?  Unfortunately, she didn’t get to do much else during her short tenure on the show.

It’s too bad that she didn’t get much of a shot.  She’s funny and charming, and I was excited to watch her on the show after seeing a bunch of the videos she made with Gabe Liedman before being added to the cast.

Well, she appears to be doing quite well post-SNL.  She co-wrote the adorably hilarious (hilariously adorable?) short film “Marcel the Shell with Shoes On” (and voiced Marcel), which got some ink in Entertainment Weekly.

And now she’s making more videos with Gabe Liedman!  Here’s the first of their “Bestie x Bestie” series, of which there are currently three, all well worth watching.

I’ve long been of a defender of Abby Elliott, but even I must admit that if SNL only had enough space for one of them, Ms. Slate deserved the paycheck.

[Bestie x Bestie videos via a ton of sites, notably Videogum and Best Week Ever]

I’ll ask again: What is going on with Sesame Street?

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Urlesque has a good post featuring a video of Ricky Gervais appearing on Sesame Street.  I’ll quote them on this one: “Do kids still watch this stuff? Was Sesame Street this awesome for adults when I was a kid? Is there some hilarious sketch from ’83 with Andy Kaufman and the Grouch?”

I’m not complaining.  I would never complain about having more Ricky Gervais in my life.  But I’m a bit confused.  Kids don’t even know who Ricky Gervais is, right?  Unless maybe they are really big Flanimals fans?

As I often wonder about Pixar movies (again, not complaining, I love Pixar), at what point are we worrying more about entertaining adult viewers of children’s entertainment than we are the actual children?  It seems weird to have Sesame Street parodying Mad Men and True Blood.  Oh well, I don’t have kids.

[Via Urlesque]

Daft Punk and The Cosby Show

/ Jared / 3 Comments

Perhaps in response to my previous post about Daft Punk doing the TRON: Legacy soundtrack, my friend Paul sent me a link to the following video.  It starts a bit slow but then, at the one minute mark, becomes one of the greatest things I’ve ever seen in my life.

If I were trying my best to combine two things I love to make something that I REALLY love, it would have taken me years to come up with a Cosby Show and Daft Punk mashup.  The person who made this is a visionary.  This is like someone getting his chocolate in someone else’s peanut butter or vice versa.

Seriously, though, why is that girl walking down the street eating a huge tub of peanut butter?

House candidate loses a supporter he never really had.

/ Jared / 2 Comments
Morgan Freeman.0878

Image via Wikipedia

Mediaite has picked up on a story that I think is slightly funny about a candidate for the House of Representatives named B.J. Lawson who claimed Morgan Freeman had narrated a campaign ad for him.  And then Morgan Freeman said it wasn’t really his voice.  And then a bunch of people called each other liars.  Or something.

My main interest in this story is that this is my House district!  I voted against this guy!  There was even a supporter of his at my polling place.  On the way out, he said “Thanks for voting, even if you don’t look like you voted for my candidate.”  Keen eye, sir.

[Via Mediaite]

10 Years of Page 2

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ESPN Latin America

Image via Wikipedia

Deadspin points out that tomorrow is the tenth anniversary of ESPN.com’s Page 2, which has me reminiscing about my time spent online over the past decade.  Page 2 was, at least for sports, the first source of online, well-written, free-wheeling opinion pieces that I read, I think, and I would suspect it contributed quite a bit to blogging culture as we now know it.  I was familiar with David Halberstam, but I’m pretty sure I hadn’t ever heard of Hunter S. Thompson before he started writing for ESPN, which is a really bizarre way to be introduced to him.

And, of course, Page 2 introduced us all to Bill Simmons, who would eventually become a sports media behemoth and perhaps the premier star over at ESPN.  I can’t believe I’ve been reading him for ten years.  That sort of explains why he seems so old and vaguely out of touch lately.

Anyway, I like to make fun of ESPN, and I’ve certainly had a few laughs at Page 2 over the years, but here is just one more example of the network being ahead of its time.  As if introducing the idea of 24-hour sports and fueling adoption of HDTV (and maybe 3D TV) weren’t enough.  Kudos, Worldwide Leader.

[Via Deadspin]

Broken Bells – “The Ghost Inside”

/ Jared / 1 Comment

It seems wrong to say this should be the official video, considering the original features Christina Hendricks, but this homemade mashup of the Hall and Oates video for “Private Eyes” and the Broken Bells song “The Ghost Inside” is great.  They should be playing it on MTV or Fuse or wherever they play videos nowadays.  Actually, I guess the only place anyone watches music videos anymore is YouTube, so mission accomplished!

It’s uncanny how well this works.  Surely we can get John and Daryl to sign over the rights; they’ve got nothing going on.

[Via Pitchfork]