Category Archives: Celebs and Media

Where Deadrobot brushes up against celebrities

Ha, I think.

Celebs and Media

A woman the same age as I, bee-lines to me while on my shift at the Apple store.

“I want to ask you a question!” She says urgently.

“Sure!”

“Gwen Stephani did a song… well lots of people did this song… But I want to know who did it originally. The song It’s My Life…?”

I was expecting a tech question. This made me smile. Without missing a beat I said “The original band was Talk Talk.”

“THANK YOU!!” She focuses her attention to her iPhone iTunes app.

About 20 minutes later she returns: “Me again. The song Send Me an Angel”

“That was the one hit wonders Real Life.”

“Thanks. You seem old enough to remember these songs.”

Ha! …I think.

Later, two men are standing by the iPads. One lazily waves me over.

“Hiiiiii.” He draws it out like a song. “What. Okay… In the last year.” Pause. He’s having difficulty forming the question. Or getting the sing song quality right. “In the last year, what was your favorite video?”

“I… Look, I’m 45 years old. I don’t watch videos.”

“Really? 45?”

“Oh no wait, I’d have to say that OK GO video where they’re in the park.”

“Hmreallytheirnameis OK Go?”

“Yep.”

Never a dull moment.

Teletoon Isn’t Kinetic Enough

Celebs and Media, You Stupid Dick

One of the last things I do at the end of the day is watch the more “adult” cartoons on Teletoon. Shows like Futurama, American Dad, Robot Chicken, etc. For my American readers, it’s a Canadian version of Adult Swim but a lot more polite.

Last night, Teletoon sunk to a new low of television programming. All during their evening line up, they kept flashing sidebar ads and squeeze-in ads (where the screen shrinks 1/3rd it’s size to reveal a static ad) for the new Kick Ass DVD and Will Ferrel’s new movie, The Other Guys.  I’ve become use to this kind of guerrilla marketing and let’s face it, they’re just cartoons. It makes the channel look like some cheap free periodical you find at the bottom of a muddy subway car, but it’s the nature of advertising. Faster, stronger, bolder messages to cut through the noise.

Teletoon upped the ante last night and started to insert ads mid-sentence of a character’s line. We’re talking full cut-away, 5-10 second blip ad made to look like a newsflash. I don’t have video but you can imagine it looked something like this:

American Dad’s Steve: But I don’t like-

CUT TO A CNN STYLE NEWS  CRAWL: ATTENTION A SUPERHERO HAS BEEN SPOTTED! BUY THE NEW KICK ASS DVD IN STORES TODAY! DO IT!

American Dad’s Steve: –Kelly Clarkson’s music!

When I saw this I actually thought it was a control booth error, until they did it once for every show that night. Somewhere, during a mild conversation moment in whatever episode, they’d cut away to this blip ad and shoot right back like nothing happened.

If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face— forever.

This kind of advertising is disturbing. Let alone rendering the viewer gun-shy, not knowing when they’re going to be assaulted with an ad.

I say fuck you, Teletoon. Fuck you in

ATTENTION A SUPERHERO HAS BEEN SPOTTED! BUY THE NEW KICK ASS DVD IN STORES TODAY! DO IT!

your ugly face.

Big Hairy Dancing

Celebs and Media

I’m not a party bear, or eBear as they’re known. I’d rather stay in and gorge myself on a video game or BluRay than spend $50 for a rave, $12 for water and ingest dubious chemicals to have fun.

I’m not one to go on about what’s playing on my iPhone. Posting your track listings is like admitting you find Alan Alda “kinda cute” from his days on MASH. Yeah. Dated.

However, I am loving this podcast I’ve discovered (…through StevieB? Madhouse on Twitter? I don’t recall): Electronic Music Bears. It does fill up my commute when I don’t have Disney travel podcasts to listen to. I suggest if you have time, you download it, put it on and shake your ass.

Admittedly the music selection/mixing is a personal thing and you can wind up with stuff you may not care for. Example: the last entry was pretty forgettable, except for whatsiszname’s face. This episode is exceptional (even if his picture is …uh… not): DiscoPup mixed some pretty fun songs. This particular podcast is worth a listen if you only choose to download one!

Now Dance, motherfooshers! Dance!

The Baron Harkonnen Calls For Me

Celebs and Media, Personal Bits

While in the shower this morning I noticed that I have three incredibly long eyebrow hairs growing erratically from my left brow. I immediately thought of two people:

My long dead grandfather on my mother’s side. The man had unruly eyebrows. Crows would fly from his forehead when he shouted. Howler monkeys screaming from his brow would interrupt dinner. The greatest lumberjacks would lose their way (still to this day) inside the forest of hair above his eyes.

And

Thufir Hawat, Mentat to Paul Atredies. If you haven’t read Dune, then you should know that Mentats are a sect of people who act as human computers, chemically enhanced so that their mental abilities are heightened. And, according to David Lynch, have big furry eyebrows, no doubt modeled after some scruffy film history professor from his past. While I don’t claim to be chemically enhanced smart (or even smart, naturally), I do like the idea of having bushy brows and being thought of as a person who may dwell in a musty library and spout crazy thoughtful things at youths.

I also have one chest hair that SharkBoy hates, who I call Brenda. Da renamed her Sophie a while back. I love her regardless of her name. She peeks up out of the top of my shirts and greets the morning sun with a hairy smile. This just makes me look like a cash-for-gold reseller.