Random Thoughts: The Internet Video Killed the non-Internet Radio Star Edition

Welcome, one and all, to an awe-inspiring, show-and-tell edition of Random Thoughts! Each thought, randomly selected, will include a video presentation to go along with it. So I hope you like Youtube, Vimeo, and links to both, because this post will be saturated in them!

—If you watch one video from this year's Grammys, make it this one. The passion and joy these guys showed made me excited about music. They were loving every second. So was I.

—Honestly, I don't know how I haven't shown this video on here before, but believe me when I tell you it's the best thing you'll watch all day, weekend, week, month, year, decade, quarter-century, half-century, century, millenia, and possibly even your life: Rock Your Baby!

—So I love Scott Pilgrim vs The World. I've been pretty clear about that. So when I saw Edgar Wright post this on his blog, well, I had to do the same:

—If you watch two videos from this year's Grammy's, make the second this one. I couldn't have been happier to see Arcade Fire win this. I wrote about their debut album, Funeral, but haven't shared too many thoughts about The Subarbs. It's killer. They can't make a song that's hard to listen to.

—Did you watch that Captain America commercial again and again, like I did, but think to yourself, "Gee, this is missing something?" Problem. Solved.

—You remember that video of my friends killing it in Wilmington to George McCrae's Rock Your Baby? Of course you do, there's no way you forget that. Also, you probably just watched it a few minutes ago. ANYWAYS, there's another video. Chase, as it turns out, has a mind for what will be amazing to watch and be a blast to film. I was fortunate enough to help on this next one (by help, I mean stand there, off-camera, while Stephen filmed, Chase directed, and Matt and Ben acted). Trust me when I say this is the second best thing you'll watch all day, weekend, week, month, year, decade, quarter-century, half-century, century, millenia, and possibly even your life: Maneaters from Outer Space!!!

—Between the song, the visuals, and the childhood adoration of the story, watching this trailer for Where the Wild Things Are still gives me goosebumps.



—A couple of years ago, I saw this video. It's a stop-motion short, set to Sigur Rós's Hoppípolla, which is an unfairly beautiful song. It tells a sweet little love story, so of course I like it (I'm a sap, through and true).


A SHORT LOVE STORY IN STOP MOTION from Carlos Lascano on Vimeo.

—This has nothing to do with videos, but the ladies that work on the other side of my cubicle have given me a nickname based off my phone voice: Mr. Smooth. They're convinced I could work at a sex line if this gig fails to stimulate.

As always, thanks for reading folks! I guess watching would be more appropriate this time. Tune in next time for what the French call a certain...I don't know what.

Expanded Thoughts III: The Blog is Back...In Time

I'm starting to think Random Thoughts/Expanded Thoughts might become my norm, with full-length posts being a special treat. My mind is all over the place as it is, and since I'm distracted by anything and everything, this caters directly to that. So take a seat at your desk, relax on your bed, or gather around the PS3 (yes some of this blog's traffic has come from PS3s) for another thrilling edition of Expanded Thoughts with your host, Joey Bear/MadChops/Joe Joe Binks/Jo Bo/Jo Co/Captain Really-Good-Looking of the S.S. Hot Stuff!

—BIRTHDAYS! Happy birthday Zac (Feb. 8, and congrats on the track coaching job, dude!), Chad & Jessie (Feb. 10), and Richard & Charles Darwin (Feb. 12)! Happy belated birthdays to me & Bobby (Jan. 5), Jake (Jan. 6), Ben (Jan. 8), and Matt (Jan. 15)! Hooray aging!

Author's Note: And happy birthday Abe Lincoln! I can't believe I forgot him.

—Egypt is in the midst of a revolution. The people are rising up and fighting against tyranny, hoping to finally have a real democracy. Millions have shown up to protest, and their numbers have consistently been in the thousands. I don't want to acknowledge our government's reactions to this, and especially not the media's, except to say that it is utterly deplorable for a nation that was founded on revolt against tyranny to call foul because the current tyrant is pro-USA. You see, my fellow 'Muricans, democracy is not spread by invading a nation, dismantling said nation, and sitting there expectantly while the people try to figure out what just happened. It starts with the people because it's for the people. While I doubt I have anyone from Egypt reading this, if there are, here's one more fan of true democracy cheering you on. Live long and prosper.

Author's Note: Mubarak has officially stepped down. Egyptians, I am humbled by your determination to make this a peaceful, non-violent revolution, and by your resolve. What you've done is incredible. Congrats on getting your country back. 

—Could it really be? Has Long Island really gone 2ish weeks without snowfall? It's about damn time, comrades! I thought snow was something to miss, thought it was fun, and pretty, and a tid bit exciting. I was wrong.

—So the Super Bowl happened. Congrats to the Green Bay Packers on the win. Shame on the Black Eyed Peas for that half-time show. I'm OK with Christina screwing up the national anthem—I feel like it'd be harder to get it right in front of that many people at that sort of setting.

—The commercials weren't so impressive. What caught my eye was the Captain America trailer. It's about time we got some footage, even if it was just for 30 seconds. The effects team did a great job making the biggest and buffest Chris Evans we've ever seen look like the smallest weakling on the schoolyard. The suit looks good in action, but I still worry about that blatant blue. And what about that little tease of Hugo Weaving's Red Skull? Oh, oh, oh! And we got a frame or two of the Howling Commandos. Can you tell I'm excited for this? Oh yeah, here it is:



—Now that I'm getting close to my target weight, I've been looking more at what kind of foods I want to eat again, but shouldn't. Taco Bell naturally found it's way onto that list and I'm genuinely surprised that it's better for me (and you) than McDonald's, Wendy's, or Burger King. Granted, no one ever gets just one burrito or chalupa, so when you combine everything it's almost certainly worse. But item to item, it's not too bad. Looks like there's a Quad Steak Burrito in my future!

—Despite the fact that the UNC Tar Heels have beaten the Duke Blue Devils more often than not (the record stands at 130-101) and that nearly every single meeting between the two teams is decided in the last 10 minutes of play, when Duke wins, it's because Coach K has the refs in his pocket. Tell you what, Carolina fans (and since this is coming from a Duke fan and NC State alum, I'm sure it'll be taken with a grain of salt), how about the bitching stops? That goes for Duke fans, too. But this time, I'm talking to you, Tar Heelians. The refs didn't blow a 14-point lead, the players did. Did the refs miss calls? Yes. But it happened on both sides, not just one. Duke outplayed Carolina in the last half by an extreme margin, just like Carolina outplayed Duke every moment, every play of the first half (seriously, if they can bring that intensity for another half, they've got another ACC title coming their way). Blaming the refs belittles the actual efforts of human beings who busted their asses for our entertainment and their own passions. Good grief.

—I will forever be perplexed by pro-life and/or Christians/religious folks who are so adamantly pro-death penalty. Abortion is a topic I won't jump into here (right now, anyways), but the execution of an individual I will discuss. Especially if I get to call out the hypocrisy of an entire group of people! Nothing like feeling superior, eh? Anyways...Yeah, the death penalty is barbaric and if Texas is any indication of the rest of the nation, we've been putting plenty of innocent people to death to satisfy our vengeance/bloodlust. Were it up to me, every death row case would be reopened and looked at with our current investigation techniques. It's not like life-in-prison is some sort of luxury we'd be affording these people, disgusting and wretched creatures though they may be.

—Going off that, our society's acceptance of violence, but not sex, makes no sense. Sexuality is the most natural of our human tendencies, yet children are bombarded with the evils of premarital sex, masturbation, oral sex, etc., etc. Where's that same condemnation for violent acts? Look no further than the way sex is treated on the big or small screen, compared with violence. You can get away with shooting up a neighborhood, but not teenagers being sexual (they are sexual, and will continue to be). I like to think if we were more open and forth-coming about sexuality, its implications and consequences, people would be smarter about their bodies. Maybe I'm just dreaming.

—With that venting out of the way, here's more comic book movie news! Fox just released the trailer for X-Men: First Class. Does it look good? Yup. Cool idea, great cast, creative minds behind it? Check. Am I skeptical? Absolutely. As my facebook pals will attest, I don't trust Fox. Not after X-Men: The Last Stand or X-Men Origins: Wolverine. Especially not after Fantastic Four, Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer, Daredevil, or Ghost Rider. My trust, and faith, has to be re-earned at this point. This trailer is definitely steps in the right direction, though:



—Dear adults/middle-aged-individuals using social networks,

Hi. It's Joey. You don't need to keep the caps lock button depressed whilst typing. Exclamation points are good for one per paragraph. Ellipses work like this "...", not ".....................................................". And please, please, please stop commenting completely out of context. When someone posts about a puppy, refrain from telling the poster all about your house on the beach and your recent engagement. That's what the wall or private messages are for.

Sincerely,

Joey

—If you live up here on Long Island, or you're ever visiting me because you can't stand to be away from me, you/we need to go see Tonight's Entertainment. These guys kill it every single time. Even on an off-night, which is rare, they bring an energy and rock it something fierce. If I lived in Ohio, replace Tonight's Entertainment with the Chardon Polka Band. Another band that's a blast to listen to.

—Glee, you have been a mountain of disappointment this season. Throughout my years of watching TV and movies, I've learned how to suspend my disbelief. Hell, I used to be a fan of pro wrestling (may still secretly be), and if I can watch that, I can suspend disbelief. But everything about that episode just screamed stupid. The biggest offense, though, was stating that Thriller was the Super Bowl of pop songs, and then mashing it up with another song. Now, I love the Yeah Yeah Yeahs. Heads Will Roll is a killer song. But Thriller doesn't need help, doesn't need back-up. And to make it worse, a character then asked who the Yeah Yeah Yeahs were. I chuckled because that was funny. But it was actually very bad: You were mashing up the Super Bowl of pop songs with a song from a band you're acknowledging not a lot of people know? Tuesday's episode was better, but it feels like characters are acting out-of-character simply so we have storylines. That's a mark of bad writing (yeah, I said it). I'm rooting for you, Glee, really, I am. So please step it up.

—More superhero movie news! We finally got a look at Andrew Garfield in the Spider-Man costume. I'm on the fence. It makes sense to want to differentiate the look from the recent Tobey Maguire/Sam Raimi costume. But their costume so closely matched the comic book counterpart. This one, less so, and there's been a lot of resistance to it. Nerds (and I include myself when I say that) are very protective of their/our superheroes. The only alternative Spidey costume that was ever totally embraced was the symbiote (include the Scarlet Spider costume for me, too (although that wasn't really Peter Parker...it's complicated)), all the rest were trashed after less than a year (Iron-Spidey, anyone?). Spidey's looked a certain way in the comics for decades. Suddenly a movie comes around and starts tweaking that? But it could be a lot worse, Spidey-fans! It's not a bad costume, just different. It's not like they're totally redesigning one of the most iconic hero costumes ever.

—If I have to choose, George Harrison is my favorite Beatle.