Mad World of Soundtrax

After my hard drive meltdown a few months ago I've managed to find most of the vital files due mainly to backing up on DVDRs. Unfortunately my existing DVD writer/reader wouldn't read a lot of the discs and I thought the information on those was lost.

Well I decided to buy another external DVD writer/reader, just a cheap looking Liteon for not much money and guess what it reads everything no trouble at all.

So now I'm trawling the archive and I discovered some interesting movie soundtrack compilations and this is one of them. Only one new copy on Amazon for over $100 so I'd say this is not readily available.

A nice blend of hip Mancini and Montenegro soundtracks and some fun sunshine pop vocals and even a Scott Walker choon. The last track is by the talented Harry Nillson and its a roll call of movie credits set to music, very clever.

The cover scan I had was very poor so I've created a new cover for the album.

Quite a lot of other gems were discovered as well so if you want some more like this let me know in the comments.

Link

How the Internet works

For litlgrey and others who aren't sure how the internet works this should explain everything. Hmm funny there's nothing about tubes though.

Benefit for Epileptic Dogs

"Send us some money, to stop the dogs from acting funny.."

From the final episode of series 2 of Flight of the Conchords (already?) here's their benefit concert in aid of that scourge of caninedom, dog epilepsy.

It all came about due to their competing for the affections of a girl who had lost her epilepsy suffering dog.

Of course things don't go according to plan when they include a remix of their ode to dog epilepsy and the strobe lights have an unfortunate effect on some of the canine sufferers.

Library Nirvana

Paul Durango's Library Hunt blog has posted one of the best collections of library music I've seen. I've got an extensive library collection but most of these I didn't have and they are superb sound quality.

Litlgrey, that ubiquitous web poster is involved and the link is listed in the sidebar.

19 albums and 1.4 gigs just make sure you've got plenty of hard drive space.

Gotta go now to keep listening : )

Best dummy spit of all time?

Chinese lady misses her Cathay Pacific flight and then goes completely beserk. A huge hit on Youtube. She just doesn't stop, rolling on the floor and screaming and oblivious to a couple of guys trying to console her. That must have been a very important flight.

They managed to get her on another flight a couple of hours later. Having a couple of hours added to a flight is not unusual in Australia so obviously they must have stricter timetables there.

Lets invade New Zealand

"100% there for the taking.."

Why not its there for the taking and closer than Iraq or Afghanistan. Seriously though a surprise hit for the ABC was a show called the Gruen Transfer which highlighted the advertising industry in a humorous fashion.

One of the segments pitted two agencies against each other to create a TV ad for some mythical campaign and the winner received the Gruen Trophy a prized piece of worthless plastic.

This one was for creating a make believe ad for the Aussie Government to support a proposed war with New Zealand.

Clever and funny and see if you can guess the winning entry before they tell you. I liked the second one myself. New Zealanders on Youtube aren't impressed with this at all and burble on about their rugby team. Incidentally one of the judges is a New Zealander and she takes it in good spirits.

Being a fair minded person here's the New Zealand revenge:

"Where the bloody hell are you.........buried"

Australia (the film)

"A film as vast as Nicole Kidman's forehead"

Wow what a disappointment this film is. I watched it in a packed cinema and my date was crying at the emotions of it all. I was crying also but in disappointment at this mismatch of hackneyed themes, embarrassing cliches and wooden acting. The audience clapped at the end whether in admiration or because the damn mess had finally ended after 3 or so hours I wasn't sure.

Apparently its number one in film file sharing downloads at the moment, I suppose because no-one wants to actually pay for it. Kidman once again shows what a fluke it was she won an Oscar and her forehead actually seemed more vast than the empty plains filled with cgi kangaroos and stampeding cattle.

Worst cgi movie of last year beating out Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Nursing Home or whatever it was called.

Hugh Jackman battled manfully with a part wisely rejected by Russell Crowe and came out of it with reputation more or less intact. The whole stolen generation theme was handled much better by The Rabbit Proof Fence a film well worth seeing and really seemed a pointless add on to this bloated quagmire.

The young aboriginal actor in more or less the feature role was impressive and I hope to see him again in something more worthy.

More an Aussie Duel in the Sun than Gone With the Wind. Here's the Guardian's Peter Bradshaw on the movie and he nails Kidman's performance in hilarious fashion.

Baz Luhrmann's ambitious attempt to make an antipodean Gone With the Wind is a shallow, overblown and embarrassing failure, says Peter Bradshaw.

Something strange happened to my face shortly after the beginning of Baz Luhrmann's excruciating new wartime romance epic, starring Nicole Kidman as the posh English Lady Sarah who travels out to Australia in 1940, and Hugh "Russell Crowe is not available" Jackman as the bit of local rough with whom she falls swooningly in love. A kind of clinical shock caused the upper part of my body to go into a state of paralysis. The skin on my face became as tense and inert as Kidman's forehead. My whole face was as taut as a snare drum, or the back of a saddleback pig. The roof of my mouth became locked as I tried to give a traumatised whinny of distress: "Nggg ... ngggg ..." Right back at me came Kidman's English accent: "Eauu maah-eye Gord, th-eauu-se cahh-tle are escayyy-ping acrawss thuh bil-ah-bongggg."

Link for the rest of the review.

More Enfield and chums

The early version of Basic Instinct with Margaret Rutherford in the main role. You'll want to tear your eyes out when she uncrosses her legs. And her drug of choice - pepto bismol.

Here's my collection of Enfield & Whitehouse's period parody films.

Sorry about all this but I found out about Enfield after he appeared on Top Gear and they showed a clip of his parody of Clarkson and I've been seeking his clips out ever since.

And here's the more recent Laurel and Hardy on Brokeback Mountain clip.

"Oh its the wives!"

Relative from hell

"It makes it all worthwhile."

From Big Train Season 2 this is hilarious. There's a plethora of reality shows now where lost relatives are found and then there's a teary reunion and the presenters make you sick with false emotions and tears.

Well this what might happen if that long lost parent is not quite what you expected but the presenters keep smiling those false smiles and mouthing platitudes.

How the Arsenal side of 1933 beat Liverpool of 1991

"He's playing as if the ball's glued to his foot."

Just had to show this one. Laughed till I cried. Enfield and chums made some faux 1930s public information films and this is one of the funniest.

The Arsenal 33 team is being soundly beaten until they wise up and beat Liverpool at their own game. I like the bit where the ref looks up a word in his dictionary to see what it means and then produces his mother to disprove it.

Women - a cautionary tale

"One of the women has attempted to join the conversation with a wild and dangerous opinion of her own!"

Ah the good old days when men were men and women knew their place. This a cautionary tale which explains the danger of women expressing dangerous thoughts. Should be required viewing in every school hurumph!

Valentine's Day - what it really means

Thanks to Laughing Squid

"Depression is like anger except you can't be bothered."

"Its not the stress in my life I'm worried about its that there's no life in my stress."

Arse End of the Earth and fishnet stockings

"He is simply a shiver looking for a spine to run up" - Paul Keating (see below for more gems)

Continuing in my even handed trashing this is a must view item from Keating the Musical. The predecessor to Howard, Paul Keating was his polar opposite charming and with a razor sharp wit. He once referred to Australia as the "Arse End of the Earth" which I totally agree with and I wouldn't have it any other way.

Anyway here's a song sung by Keating and also a hilarious song by Alexander Downer (former Foreign Minister) who made the mistake of appearing in fishnet stockings and high heels for a publicity shot and never lived it down. It didn't help he was a public school boy with a plummy accent. So of course the number is done by the actor in the aforesaid accessories.

Downer's sweaty interaction with the audience is worthy of Dame Edna but grosser.

Just as an aside the actor playing Downer also appears in Shane Warne the Musical as the titular character and Warnie of course is also an Aussie larrikan who managed to be the best spin bowler in the world while indulging in a lifestyle that included cigarettes, lager and Big Macs. He also liked texting a lot and threesomes with page three girls wearing nothing but panties and big smiles.

Keating himself is so filled with hubris that he's a regular at performances of Keating the Musical and the cast are almost sick of seeing him.

Great review of the show here. Will explain things to viewers not familiar with the era or there again maybe not.

More examples of the rapier wit of Keating:

“What we have here is an intellectual rust-bucket" - Paul Keating, on Andrew Peacock.

“This Parliament is not interested in the views of painted, perfumed gigolos.” - PK, on AP.

“His performance on Parliament is like being flogged with a warm lettuce.” - PK, on John Hewson.

“He’s determined to wear it [the Liberal Party leadership] like a crown of thorns, and I’ll do everything I can to crucify him.” PK, on John Howard.

“He’s all tip, and no iceberg.” PK, on Peter Costello.

“I’m not running a seminar for dullards on the other side.” PK, on the Liberal Party of Australia (then the Opposition in Parliament).

“What we have got is a dead carcass, swinging in the breeze, but nobody will cut it down to replace him.” PK, on John Howard.

Paul Keating (1944- ) was the Prime minister of Australia from 1991-1996, and his ability to crack his political opponents using invective was legendary.

Trashin' Howard the Duck

One commentator in the previous post (anonymouse of course) obviously had an infection in his redneck and was therefore in a rather irritable mood when he accused me of trashing the good ol yew ess of aye.

I thought the post was rather innocuous so he must have got out of the wrong side of the sleeping bag and tripped over his buffalo gun.

Anyhow just to even the ledger I'll demonstrate that Aussies are perfectly OK at trashing themselves thank you very much, with this very funny put down of former PM John Howard from the very funny musical Keating about another former PM. It takes off his mannerisms to a tee so see what we had to put up with for more years than I care to remember.

US voting system explained

At last Newstopia via Shaun (Milo Kerrigan) Micallef explains how the US voting system works.

And I thought it was complicated!

Phantom Corsair 1938

Possibly the coolest car ever made. This clip is from the 1938 film Young in Heart which featured the car as the Flying Wombat. Only one prototype was made so the showroom full of them was obviously just models.

Designed by Russ Heinz of the famous family he died before it could go into production. It was the Bugatti Veyron of its day as it would have cost about $400,000 each in today's money to produce.

See it on youtube as there's a very informative story about the car.

Mummy its humans!

Nice spoof posters here. Its probably more like the reality judging by our track record.

Weird Scenes in the Groovemine

Well its music time again here at Xtabays World and its about time I hear you say.

Here's more groovy selections from the current Xtabay playlist. As usual there's Cal Tjader, music influenced by Cal and two version of Soul Sauce and why not its a fantastic tune.

So you can be sure there'll be:

• latin grooves
• funky tunes
• some Cal tunes
  
• music influenced and a tribute to Cal
• rare funk and percussion gems
• lotsa bongos, congas and those funny scratchy latin thingies.
  

So what you waiting for?

• 
  

Look at This blog caption comp

Here's my entry to the weekly caption comp at Look at Me blog. I think its pretty good but I could be wrong.

More and probably better entries.

Click for bigger view.

Faye destroys the scenery and her career

This is the creepy moment when Faye sights the dreaded wire hanger. She puts the joker to shame with her white cold cream mask, crayon black eyebrows and smear of neon lipstick. More scary than any vampire.

It reminds me of a story where I think a wardrobe girl said that if she wanted to approach Dunaway she'd have to throw some raw meat in the room first to distract her.

Having known someone with bi-polar I can tell you that Faye's behaviour and trashing of poor Christina's bedroom is not over the top. I think its only too apparent that Joan Crawford must have suffered that disease.

Having said that mental illness and child abuse is not a good subject for a movie especially one as badly made as Mommie Dearest. Not even worth watching for camp value although the wire scene is pretty funny until she starts abusing Christina and I've only shown the bit where she says "no wire hangers!".

Say Hebbo!

Say Hebbo! from Torvakian on Vimeo.

This is it folks. If you only listen to one thing I say this is it. Its so easy. And besides its no sillier than any of the others and an octopus is way more fun than blowing shit up.

Desperate Man Blues

Link now dead unfortunately but its available in forums like surrealmovies or in bittorrent well worth seeking out.

In this terrific film Australian director Edward Gillen tells the story of renowned 78 collector Joe Bussard. His library of 25,000+ rare sides-- blues, gospel, folk, and more-- forms an essential archive of American music from the 1920s and 30s.

This film will put a smile on your face as cigar smoking Joe takes you on a guided tour of rare 78s and after nearly 50 years of collecting he's still on the road looking for treasures. The thing is these rare mostly mint pre 1930s records sound astonishingly good. Its nothing like the scratchy bass free 78s you're used to hearing. The fidelity on these records was good it was the players that were lo fi and then a few plays and they wore out.

Joe's so catholic in his taste he doesn't listen to Rock and Roll and in his view the Great Depression destroyed this music and caused the homogenised dreck we get today.

Milo Kerrigan on Bridge

OK I'm on a video kick at the moment but having discovered most of the Milo Kerrigan sketches on Youtube after not seeing them for a number of years I just have to share some of the funniest moments in comedy although the humour could be an acquired taste.

This is his second "interview" where he shares his secrets of bridge as he was champion for 1932 by forfeit. His success seems to be based on "kookamananee, maaate" if I understand it correctly. Watch for the classic line "is that a Picasso over there?"

The actor playing Kerrigan is well known Aussie comedian Shaun Micallef who doesn't usually do physical comedy but he's almost in the Jim Carrey league I reckon. He's a former lawyer who usually does more cerebral stuff like his news parody program Newstopia.

Oh and nobody demolishes a set like Kerrigan its something to behold.

Flight of the Concords meet West Side Story

The very funny New Zealand comedy set in New York, Flight of the Concords is well into its second season.

Here's an excerpt from the 3rd episode hot of the press and in a well done take off of West Side Story the thin one deals with some graffiti kids and Murray the inept manager has a face off with the Concords main nemesis, Australians.