‘20 Minutes To Go’: Possibly the most amazing, disturbing, and captivating video I’ve ever seen, about nuclear war, the end of the world, the Rapture, and life in Heaven. It’s a long video, but every second is worth watching!
The creative vision on offer here is bust-a-gust funny and distressing—yet joyful—at the same time. Notions of the afterlife are always pretty silly, if you ask me, but this one rivals Xanadu for schmaltz and poor costuming choices…
Rutland Weekend Television was the post-Monty Python series written by Eric Idle, with music by Neil Innes (of The Bonzo Dog Band fame). While many Python-related shows have been released on DVD (Do Not Adjust Your Set, Not the 1948 Show, Ripping Yarns, and of course, Fawlty Towers) it seems incredible that Rutland Weekend Televison—it’s where The Rutles came from, for god’s sake—has never seen the light of day. (At least on a retail level, because it’s quite easy to download on the Internet and there are entire episodes out there for streaming, too.)
Legend has it that John Cleese came up with the title (meant to evoke a tiny, tiny television network) and Eric Idle bought it from him for one pound. The show’s pretense to being made on a tight budget was no pretense, as Idle and Innes had been granted the smallest of budgets by the BBC. Much of the show was shot in the same threadbare studio and jokes often revolved around how low budget the entire affair was.
Idle told the Radio Times in 1975:
“It was made on a shoestring budget, and someone else was wearing the shoe. The studio is the same size as the weather forecast studio and nearly as good. We had to bring the sets up four floors for each scene, then take them down again. While the next set was coming up, we’d change our make-up. Every minute mattered. It’s not always funny to be funny from ten in the morning until ten at night. As for ad-libbing, what ad-libbing? You don’t ad-lib when you’re working with three cameras and anyway the material goes out months after you’ve made it.”
After the second series of Rutland Weekend Television, Eric Idle, of course, went on to mostly make a bunch of really shitty movies and “Spamalot.” Neil Innes went on to the marvelous Innes Book of Records TV series (also not on DVD but easy to download), children’s television and continues to make great, funny music.
It might be heresy to say this, but I actually find Rutland Weekend Television, generally speaking, to be a bit funnier than Monty Python’s Flying Circus. Maybe that’s just because I am over-familiar with the Monty Python material and Rutland Weekend Television is fresher-seeming to me. Maybe it’s because of what Neil Innes brought to the table (I’m a huge. huge Bonzos fanatic). In any case, I’m sure it will get battled out in the comments.
Below, Eric Idle barters his soul with a uncooperative Satan.
These look like they were designed by a crazed interior decorator. Well, I guess you’re going to be in there forever, right?
Funeral directors in Germany are bidding for the pink pound - by launching coffins specially designed for gay customers.
The caskets feature homoerotic artwork on the outside and come with a series of tastefully luxurious plush designer interiors, say makers Mike Konigsfeld and Tom Brandl in Cologne, Germany.
I’m no tie expert here, but these ties from Etsy seller Cyberoptix TieLab are pretty incredible. Their prices are super reasonable for screenprinted silk and microfiber neckties.
See more ties from Cyberoptix TieLab after the jump…
This, apparently, is the actual cover of the upcoming book by Glenn Beck and Dr, Keith Ablow. The message is confusing at best, don’t you think? What might these seven wonders be? I’ll admit that my morbid curiosity has been piqued, gentlemen! Who signed off on this turkey?
WHAT IS GOING ON HERE? Is Keith Ablow about to murder Glenn Beck and that small child? Do Keith Ablow and Glenn Beck share custody of the boy, and Keith Ablow just handed him over for a weekend visit with Daddy #2? Did Keith Ablow share seven secrets with Glenn Beck a few seconds ago that enabled him to get over his fear of frolicking with children? And why can’t Keith Ablow have his own small boy to play with?
Well, the jury’s out until next year on the film, but here’s the trailer for Jon (Iron Man) Favreau’s latest Cowboys and Aliens, based on the graphic novel by Scott Mitchell Rosenberg, Fred Van Lente and Andrew Foley. The film stars Daniel Craig, Harrison Ford, Olivia Wilde, Sam Rockwell, Adam Beach, Paul Dano, and Noah Ringer.
1873. Arizona Territory. A stranger with no memory of his past stumbles into the hard desert town of Absolution. The only hint to his history is a mysterious shackle that encircles one wrist. What he discovers is that the people of Absolution don’t welcome strangers, and nobody makes a move on its streets unless ordered to do so by the iron-fisted Colonel Dolarhyde. It’s a town that lives in fear.
But Absolution is about to experience fear it can scarcely comprehend as the desolate city is attacked by marauders from the sky. Screaming down with breathtaking velocity and blinding lights to abduct the helpless one by one, these monsters challenge everything the residents have ever known.
Now, the stranger they rejected is their only hope for salvation. As this gunslinger slowly starts to remember who he is and where he’s been, he realizes he holds a secret that could give the town a fighting chance against the alien force. With the help of the elusive traveler Ella, he pulls together a posse comprised of former opponents – townsfolk, Dolarhyde and his boys, outlaws and Apache warriors – all in danger of annihilation. United against a common enemy, they will prepare for an epic showdown for survival.
You have been warned…. You have. So don’t blame me. If you chose to hit ‘play’ you did so of your own free will. Okay?
Behold the quite reasonably named attention-seeking weirdo, Fat Man, AKA Fatman27183141 (not to be confused with THIS weird, attention-seeking Fat Man). As one YouTube commenter says:
‘Tis no man. ‘Tis a remorseless eatin’ machine.
In March, 2010, the formerly attention-seeking Fat Man “retired” and cancelled his YouTube channel in a rage:
Then he returned as “Prophet Christopher1,” wearing a shirt and predicting apocalyptic things would happen.
See Fatman’s recent Prophet Christopher videos and some really awful things that no one should see after the jump…
It’s my most sincere wish that a citizen’s backlash (for once) against these hideous new security theater assaults upon innocent travelers can actually affect some change. I’m not holding my breath…
It’s the day ordinary citizens stand up for their rights, stand up for liberty, and protest the federal government’s desire to virtually strip us naked or submit to an “enhanced pat down” that touches people’s breasts and genitals in an aggressive manner. You should never have to explain to your children, “Remember that no stranger can touch or see your private area, unless it’s a government employee, then it’s OK.”
The goal of National Opt Out Day is to send a message to our lawmakers that we demand change. We have a right to privacy and buying a plane ticket should not mean that we’re guilty until proven innocent. This day is needed because many people do not understand what they consent to when choosing to fly.
Here are the details:
Who?
You, your family and friends traveling by air on Wednesday, November 24, 2010. Remember too, as the TSA says, “Everyday is opt-out day.” That is, you can opt out any time you fly.
What?
National Opt-Out Day. You have the right to opt-out of the naked body scanner machines (AIT, or Advance Imaging Technology, as the government calls it). All you have to do is say “I opt out” when they tell you to go through one of the machines. You will then be given an “enhanced” pat down. This is a right given to you by the TSA.
Where?
At an airport near you!
When?
Wednesday, November 24, 2010. We want families to sit around the dinner table, eating turkey, talking about their experience - what constitutes an unreasonable search, how forceful of a pat down will we allow on certain areas of our body, and that of our children, and how much privacy are we will to give up for flying? We hope the experience then propels people to write their Member of Congress and the airlines to demand change.
Why?
The government should not have the ability to virtually strip search anyone it wants without cause. The problem has been compounded in that if you do not want to go through the body scanner, the TSA has made the alternative perhaps even worse by instituting “enhanced” pat downs. There are reports from travelers across the country about how the TSA now touches the genitals and private areas of men, women and children in a much more aggressive manner. We do not believe the government has a right to see you naked or aggressively touch you just because you bought an airline ticket.
How?
By saying “I opt out” when told to go through the bodying imaging machines and submitting to a pat down. Also, be sure to have your pat down by TSA in full public - do not go to the back room when asked. Every citizen must see for themselves how the TSA treats law-abiding citizens.
Be sure to write Congress to let them know how you feel!
On new years day 1984 25 million people (myself included) throughout the world tuned in to PBS to watch video art pioneer Nam June Paik’s pleasantly shambolic live experiment Good Morning, Mr. Orwell featuring the likes of John Cage, Allen Ginsberg, Phillip Glass, Salvador Dali, Laurie Anderson and other usual suspects. All hosted by a bemused and mildy annoying George Plimpton. The full version of this was once up on the mighty Ubuweb but has mysteriously disappeared, so I bring you as many fragments of said program as I could find. Watching this in retrospect it comes off as perhaps the last 60’s style large scale “happening” featuring some of that era’s major hitters and is of course very quaint seeming “We’re linking New York to Paris on live TV !”, still very enjoyable to watch.
