Monkey Steals the Peach

[collisionwork]

Kind of a rest day today. At least as planned. Busy enough for all that though - woke up early with Berit asking me for the vet's number, as Hooker the kitty was having one of his epileptic seizures, and B thought it seemed worse than usual. I looked on and he was fine - recovering from a fit, but fine, no vet needed (he was panting really hard for a long time - look at him above in the icon picture and imagine him holding that face while panting hard for 45 minutes - but that happens sometimes). So I gave him affection for an hour while he pretty much recovered.

Then B wanted to go out for breakfast before errands, so we drove to a nearby diner and figured out our weekend plans and I discussed how things had gone last night on Nosedive's The Master of Horror, which was rough, but pulled-off. Tough show, tech-wise. It'll get better, but I'm pretty well off it now. I'll stop in and check it out a couple more times during the run to see how it's going, and answer whatever questions come up by email (should write and check in with them now, though).

I finished cleaning up my director's draft of Daniel McKleinfeld's A Little Piece of the Sun for August, 2009 - I fixed formatting issues and made some slight alterations, then sent it to Daniel to approve before I send it to possible cast members. Looks good and I'm looking forward to working on it. Many good ideas are coming up for the design.

Berit's got the iPod today as she's out buying prop-building supplies for Lord Oxford . . . at Pearl Paint and elsewhere on Canal Street, so today's Random Ten is from the larger and less-filtered iTunes, with 59,689 tracks to choose from. So what does it go for now . . ?

1. "Little Girl" - Syndicate of Sound - Nuggets: Original Artyfacts From The First Psychedelic Era, Vol. 2
2. "Good Good Lovin'" - The Cinderellas - Girls Will Be Girls Vol.1
3. "One Way Love" - The Drifters - 1959-1965 - All Time Greatest Hits & More
4. "Mechanical Movement" - Eric Peters - Electronic Toys - A Retrospective of 70's Synthesizer Music
5. "Day By Day" - The Action - Wild Things volume 2 - Wyld Kiwi Garage 1966-1969
6. "Real By Reel (Go Home Productions remix dub)" - XTC - GHP Complete - CD11 Unofficial Remixes Vol2
7. "Time Will Never Change" - The Speeders - Prae-Kraut Pandemonium vol. 12
8. "The Man With the Dogs" - Dead Kennedys - Give Me Convenience or Give Me Death
9. "Mean Man" - Betty Harris - Saturday Night Fish Fry: New Orleans Funk And Soul
10. "My Last Letter" - Sterling Damon - It Just Ain't Right: USA Garage Greats 1965-1967

And otherwise, just some other things grabbed from around the tubes this week, like this example of why you shouldn't mess with a Ninja:

And when Sarah Palin quoted Ronald Reagan in the recent debate? She was quoting this little example of recorded media from 1961:

Which was a record created by the American Medical Association as part of "Operation Coffeecup," where doctors' wives would invite over their friends for some kinda little coffee klatch and play this record at them so they'd convince their hubbies and others to not be in favor of (the then merely theoretical) Medicare.

Which of course, means he was really just reading something that was completely worked out and written for him, and calling it "a quote from Reagan" is like saying Humphrey Bogart was responsible for anything he said in Casablanca, but what else is new?

(the photo of Reagan on the cover gets odder and creepier the more I look at it - the body pose, the look on his face - is he snarling? brrrrrrrrr . . .)

And some videos -- Yesterday, one of my favorite actors, BRIAN BLESSED!!! (whose name should always be yelled in imitation of the man's distinctive tone) turned 71, and keeps going strong. He is terrific and always seems a bit unhinged, so I love him, of course. Here's some video of the man on a BBC show where he makes a surprise appearance after a guest has declared her distaste of people with loud voices:

Here's a version of a-ha's classic song and video "Take On Me" with the song and video brought just a little closer together:

From the film War of the Garagantuas, here's the classic song "The Words Get Stuck in My Throat," (real title, "Feel in My Heart") as performed by Kipp Hamilton (though of her fans say she was redubbed, badly), which was later rewritten and covered by Devo at live shows:

And speaking of Devo, here's a recent song/video from them. They're still occasionally doing things, and will be playing a concert in their hometown of Akron later this month . . . wish I could see it:

Berit has a movie-oriented puzzle in one of her magazines to work on now, so I'm off to relax with that . . .

Comments

[queencallipygos.livejournal.com]

Interestingly, Ronald Reagan was one of the people they considered to play Rick in CASABLANCA before they cast Humphrey Bogart.

Watch them work it

[(Anonymous)]

When I heard that song in the Dell ad, I immediately recognized it was DEVO. And then I thought they hadn't lost a step at all. One of the good things about seeing them now, which I did in 2005 at Central Park, is that they haven't recorded new, weaker albums that dilute their entire catalog. (I'm looking at you, Steely Dan.) But "Watch Us Work It" is a great addition. I hadn't seen their video for the song, so thanks for the link.
TXC

Devo

[(Anonymous)]

That *is* an excellent song, and video. And I'm actually kind of impressed by the cynicism of "How do we sell a video for a song by a bunch of pasty, middle-aged guys? Why, let's hire models to play the band!" This is perhaps the most gloriously Devo-esque gesture of Devo's career.