You Should See This

First, Keith now has an official website that acts as an online resume. If you feel like getting yourself a severe case of creativity envy check it out.

Second, I found the company that does all of the Turner Classic Movies spots. They're called Raygun. The site has a bunch of spots they've done for TCM as well as Discovery, CNN, and other television channels. Check it out.

Some New Videos (Kind Of)

I uploaded some videos to YouTube yesterday.

The first is from a zoo visit before Luke was born. Paula wanted to take some video of our trip to the zoo for something they were doing at work. It wasn't ever intended to be put together like this. I just used what footage she had. She has kind of an unsteady hand at times but, in my opinion, it adds to the charm.

At The Zoo.

The second is the Turner Classic Movie promo featuring Beck's Lonsesome Tears. To those of you who haven't seen me for some time, it may come as a shock to find out how little I have to do with movies now. I might make it to the theater twice a year, I might rent movies four times in a year, and I sincerely don't give a crap about the Oscars or anything else to do with 'em. But once a year I see something that makes me wish I was still trying to make it in that business. This promo is one of them. Shots of old movies put to a great song with new footage of drops of water intercut that makes for pure magic. Along with the Dow Human Element spot (you can find it in my YouTube Favorites on my profile) this spot musters a fleeting hint of regret in me.

TCM Promo.

Some New Blogs

There are a couple of new blogs linked in the right hand column.

The first is David's Blog about B Movies and Catholicism.

The Second is Jeremy's Blog which features pictures he takes at the music shows.

Be sure to check both of them out. And I'm sure they would love it (as much as I do) if you left a comment or two.

Drake Bell

What follows is a review of the Drake Bell album It's Only Time written by Jeremy Frye and reprinted here with his permission. I wanted to share it with you for two reasons. First, I really like the album and want you to like it too (I have Jeremy to thank for introducing me to it.) Second, I wanted to share the review for the sake of the review. Jeremy, in my opinion, writes very well and has a gift for making each review unique (I, on the other hand, tend to fall into a pattern when writing about music.)

I have included a sample of two of the tracks at the end of this post.

Drake Bell-It’s Only Time (Universal Motown)

Twenty year old tweener heartthrob Drake Bell, star of Nickelodeon’s Drake & Josh, couldn’t be less on my radar. In fact the previous sentence features more information than I knew about him five minutes ago (I looked up his age). He dabbles in music, apparently, and his second album, It’s Only Time, was released by Universal Motown in December 2006. While I have no real preconceived notions of the boy, my instincts tell me I’d have no interest in his musical output. I’m glad I chose to override my instincts this go round.

The Beatles, specifically Yellow Submarine-era, are an obvious influence, but whether accidentally or on purpose, it’s impossible upon hearing this CD not to think of Jellyfish. The slick, polished arrangements and Andy Sturmer-like voice recall beyond flattery the oft-cited, under-selling early 90’s power-pop band. If you’ve ever heard 1990’s Bellybutton or 1993’s more ornate, Queen-like Spilt Milk, you will immediately recognize this precise imitation. The first track, “Up Periscope,” is a Jellyfish song through and through. During the kind of silly nautical intro, the voice over the intercom even says, “Do what you can do to avoid those jellyfish.” The guitar strum of “Makes Me Happy” is a direct cop of “Baby’s Coming Back.” Given the fact that this disc is presumably geared to teen girls, and Jellyfish’s relatively unknown status and commercial failure, it is easy to assume this is all coincidence, but one never knows.

What teen girls like makes even less sense to me now than when I was a teen boy, but I can’t figure them swallowing this CD beyond thinking the cover shot is dreamy. Sure, the lyrics are all boy-meets-girl stuff, but the shimmery, sweeping arrangements, thick harmonies, and weird instrumentation, sound enticingly out of place here. This is not R&B-flavored, over-singing boy band material. A few of these tunes, “I Know,” and the title track especially, would fit right in on Radio Disney, and even those are good songs. For the most part, though, this is an odd little sugary confection, a left-field surprise for power-pop lovers out there. As with any teen star, it’s hard to know if this is his vision or one of his handlers,’ but a little insight may be offered in the chorus to “Fool The World,” which says, “Everyone would love me, if I could fool the world.” Seeing as it will be nearly impossible for Bell to be taken seriously by the out-of-high-school music buying public, that statement rings surprisingly true.

Listen. For me the most Jellyfish moment on this entire album comes at 4:50 during this sample (the last sung line.)

Also you can check out his website for streaming audio of two more songs in the upper right hand corner. Click on "Media" and watch the video for "I Know." (I really want to cut his hair.)

Just A Note

Dear Mr. Wallpaper Installer,
I noticed your van in a parking lot today and wanted to offer you a few suggestions.

1. The large sticker/sign on your van reads "Wallpaper Installer." In the future, you might want to make sure it is hung straight as you are in the business of hanging things.

2. The edges of your large sticker/sign "Wallpaper Installer" are curling up. This also tends to make me think you don't do such great work.

3. You also might want to include a phone number on your sign, unless you specialize in driving up to locations and cold calling people that might need some paper hung.

I wrote my blog address on your sticker/sign and I'm hoping that you found your way here. Anyway, just thought you'd want a little constructive criticism. Happy to help.

Bill

You Asked For It

Overweight? Stop looking at fat people. Want a new car? Visualize yourself sitting behind the wheel.

Last week Newsweek had an article on a book and DVD titled The Secret by Rhonda Byrne that Oprah and Ellen Degeneres have featured on their shows. Oprah actually devoted two shows to The Secret.

(Please read the article here before you continue. What follows I have written assuming that you have.)

Let me begin by saying that I haven't read the book and am only commenting on what I learned while reading the article in Newsweek. But something appeared obvious to me that the article either failed to mention or intentionally avoided. It is the biggest conceit within The Secret.

As mentioned in the article, The Secret can be boiled down to the three word mantra: Ask. Believe. Receive. But I believe that this "Secret" has been around for thousands of years. According to the article, Oprah claimed to have been living by this philosophy her entire life without realizing it. And look how successful she is! It must work!

I suggest that the majority of people on this earth live by this creed already. I think that it has been around for thousands of years because "Ask. Believe. Receive." is the basis of most, if not all, religions of the world. It's called prayer: Ask God. Believe God is listening. God will answer your prayers.

The difference between prayer and what The Secret promises is that while practicing the Law of Attraction you hold all the responsibility for your fate. If you don't get what you want it's your fault for thinking negatively. Bad things happen to you? It's because you worry too much. In contrast, prayer puts the granting of your wishes in God's hands. If your prayers aren't answered it's because it's not part of God's plan. The Secret puts everything in the lap of the person using it. This self-help philosphy seems to hold the potential for destroying the person practicing it.

Aside from the fact that this "new" way to live isn't new, the most disturbing part of the article for me is this passage:

"The law of attraction is that each one of us is determining the frequency that we're on by what we're thinking and feeling," Byrne said in a telephone interview, in response to a question about the massacre in Rwanda. "If we are in fear, if we're feeling in our lives that we're victims and feeling powerless, then we are on a frequency of attracting those things to us ... totally unconsciously, totally innocently, totally all of those words that are so important."

If an infant is murdered is Byrne suggesting that the infant was thinking negatively? Therefore the infant had it coming? Or is it a parent's fault that they weren't visualizing good things for their child?

I can't properly put into words how worked up this article has gotten me. It makes me wish that some horrible fate befall the author, Byrne. I find myself wanting her to physically suffer to the point that she truly regrets hawking this crap. I want her to suffer until she publicly abandons her own "convictions" and returns the money she has made as penance.

But apparently I'm in the minority. Nearly 1.5 million of her DVDs have been sold and 1.75 million of her books are in print. Here's hoping none of them read this and try their mojo on me. Here's hoping I'm not wrong.

The White Whale Turns 1000

That's right. We have hit 1000 visitors. Here are some stats:

--The average visitor has visited the site 200 times.

--As a visitor, there is a 1 in 5 chance you were the 1000th visitor.

Thanks for playing with me.

Prince's Kiss

My latest Pop-Up-Video Minus The Video is now available on YouTube. Below is the link to it as well as Prince's Kiss video that is discussed during it.

Prince's Kiss Video
My Pop-Up-Video Minus The Video of the song.

For some reason the video and audio are out of sync in the first couple of seconds but they correct themselves. I uploaded a few times to try and resolve it. Oh well. Suffer Pope.