“Alice in Wonderland” has been recycled so many times in so many mediums that every living American probably has some childhood association with the story. Here’s mine: The 1985 music video for “Don’t Come Around Here No More” by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. Here’s Tom Petty at his coolest:
Here’s a little video of a company trip this week to Grand Prix New York, the indoor go kart track in Mount Kisco.
The snow’s not too bad here—just enough to make the city feel abnormal. Here’s a video I shot on my way to and from work today.
More fun with my new digital video camera. Three videos follow. Two of them are short and supposed to be funny, one is longer and just supposed to be nice.
I can’t decide who comes out looking worse in this devastating Onion video—Friendster or archeologists!
For my birthday, I got a pocket-size high-def camcorder, the Kodak Zi8. Here is my first experiment with it—a video of my Gramma and my cousin Sandy visiting New York. I haven’t figured out exactly how to get the best video yet with this thing, so some of the shots are dim, shaky and out of focus. I’m trying two different versions here to see what looks best on the blog.
The first version was uploaded to YouTube in 1080 resolution:
The second version has music and was uploaded in 720 resolution:
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Recently I had two three-hour layovers in the Miami International Airport. Here’s the entire experience summed up in 18 seconds:
Did Jim Henson ever do anything that wasn’t freakishly creative? Before his high-minded career in children’s television, Henson produced TV commercials. They’re hilarious. Since many of them are online now, and it’s fun to watch these oddball 1950s and 1960s ads that show Muppets in various states of evolution. Check out this one for McGarry’s Sausage, starring a puppet that resembles Kermit:
And here’s one for Munchos featuring a what looks like Cookie Monster:
I’m not sure what to make of the explosion of ukulele artists and homemade folk music acts on YouTube, but there’s definitely something real going on. Is it really so great that everyone can be a novelty music act? Are we going to be a nation of Weird Als? Doesn’t somebody actually have to create original stuff before the bored kids of the world can chew it over, mash it up, and record the parody kazoo version?
Eh. Whatever it is, let’s welcome it. If Glenn Beck gets his own show on national TV, then the guy with the kazookeylele deserves to be heard, too. Thank you, Internet, for giving homemade trash culture as loud a megaphone as mass-produced trash culture!