Podcast Episode 27

Thor of Thunder: 

Episode 27:

The Motherfucking Medusa

We discuss: Bellflower, Fright NIght, The D.C. Universe Relaunch, Doctor Who, David Tennent, Colin Ferrel, Star Trek, Leonard Nemoy, and James Bond

Podcast Episode 25

Thor's Hour: 25th Episode Anniversary Spectacular!: Fear and Loathing In Casino Night Zone

Cowboys & Aliens was hyped to be the next Transformers/ Iron Man/ Elvis Haloha From Hawaii, instead it lost its opening weekend to "Smurfs". Bladr reviews the film, and we both discuss what what wrong with the marketing and what caused the film's bad buzz.
Sonic The Hedgehog, Sonic the Hedgehog 2, Las Vegas, Nevada, Casino Night Zone, Mandalay Bay, Grand Theft Auto San Andres, The Pirates in Men's Pants Casino, Beating someone with a big purple didlo, gambling, slot machines, table games, roulette, Chat roulette, ice giants, ice giant, frost giant, frost giants, Mjölnir, Thor's hammer, Dick jokes, Cowboys, Aliens, Daniel Craig, Olivia Wilde, Tron, Sam Rockwell, Harrison Ford. Indiana Jones and the last crusade, Indiana Jones, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Comix Zone, Sega, Genesis,Sean Connery. Guest commentary by P.J. arriving next week.

Also Sorry for the gag between episodes, Thor spent the last two weeks learning the art of banzai tree horticulture, and Baldr spent the last 3 weeks recording a punk/funk rock album with Conan O'Brian playing lead guitar, Baldr playing key-tar and bass saxophone and the Coked-Up Werewolf on lead vocals.

Why so serv-ious?

(sent via cellphone)

This seems like some kind of hallucination,

but appears to actually exist. Here is a short film of Slyvester Stallone meeting and talking to Rocky. As in Rocky, the character he himself plays, not the flying squirrel. Its rare that something would be less weird if it involved an 80's action movie star talking to an animated flying squirrel, but this is definitely one of those times.



Seriously, what the hell was that?

myspace

I never got into myspace, and its all but completely irrelevant now, but I was glad to discover that they have an excellent error message page:
http://www.myspace.com/modules/common/static/html/error.html

Guggenheimlich maneuver

Sorry for the blurriness. I took this photo on an old A train car which is from the 1960's so it swayed from side to side a lot (if this blog was called "strictly subway car history" I would point out that I think this old car type is still the best NYC subway car design and they should start building them again.)

Anyway, this ad shows Manhattan if only central park was the area with buildings. Which is a cool piece of art.

The ad is for a Guggenheim exhibit that is for some reason not going on at the Guggenheim. I'm not sure why they are choosing to not have this exhibit at their giant round museum. Maybe they ran out of space because they decided to have 90 percent of the Guggenheim be a huge empty atrium. Or maybe they had to close the Gugg for repairs again because Clive Owen shot the living shit out of it again:

Harold and Kumar 3D

Fuck yes!

 Harold and Kumar are the Bob Hope/Bing Crosby road films of the 21st century. Neil Patrick Harris is the goddamned man. And I'm glad to see the actor who played the geeky asian guy from Princeton in the first film is back for this one. He is a really funny comedian/comic actor and did a really great segment where he interviewed Kal Penn and John Cho on the DVD for "Go to White Castle"

I dont know what the hell is going on in this ad,

but I love every aspect of it.


I'm trying to picture the circumstances which resulted in this ad.

[interior, XL Energy Drink board room.]

[A white dude with a camera around his neck dressed like late period Jimmi Hendrix enters and begins talking at a rapid clip.]


Dude with camera: Red Bull already has the extreme sports fan market shorn up, so no point in shooting an ad that appeals to them. And Monster and Jolt already have the meth addict market down.

So what I'm gonna do is dress a man in clothing thrown out 20 years ago by the lead singer of They Might Be Giants, put a huge cerimonal british naval hat on his head, and have him carrying around an entire ship's wheel so you know he likes to party.

Then we are gonna super impose a fucking preposterously huge setting sun behind him so he looks like he is in a cartoon or on another planet or some shit...


XL energy drink executive: Who are you? how did you get into our board room? Also what possible target demographic is this supposed to be appealing to?

Dude with camera: You didn't let me finish. The guy with the ship's wheel will be looking down in front of him. And in front of him will be a pug dog riding a motherfucking skateboard. [The man makes an explosion sound effect,  sits down in a chair at board room table. Somehow produces an already lit hookah from his camera equipment bag, takes a long puff and releases a dragon like amount of smoke into the board room.]

XL energy drink CEO: This man is a visionary! Johnson, write him a check for our entire ad budget! I want these photos of Capt'n Hipster and his trusty sidekick "Ol' Tubby" on every phone kiosk in New York City!

[End Scene]

Except apparently they couldn't afford to put this ad on any phone kiosks except for this one near Columbia Presbyterian Hospital.  I'm tempted to look this company up to see who they are and why they chose this ad and why it is only on one random phone booth in the whole city, but I prefer my scenario.

Terry Gilliam makes me happy

I love well down "making of" documentries. I remember as a kid Jim Henson had some specials (I think it was part of "The Jim Henson Hour" where he showed how muppets were made, and even how the sets for the specials were made.

This video gives me a similar feeling of joy. Watching a movie maker who I love explaining to me how he does what he loves.

This isn't at all advertising related but I just wanted to share it with the world.



Oh and since youtube has everything, here is that Jim Henson Hour episode. The show was apparently from 1989, but wiki tells me I probably saw it on Nickelodeon in reruns in 1992.



(The comments section indicates parts of this episode had to be removed due to a copyright claim from lionsgate pictures, which just makes this the even more quinntessential youtube viewing experience.)





Terry via Filmdrunk

Podcast Episode 26

Thor's Hour of Thunder: Episode 26: Ehren Kruger's Third Coming

No wrestling or interviews this week. We are back to discussing general geek culture topics this week.

Including: Rise of the Planet of the Apes, Google plus, How online advertising works, the website Crackle, James Franco, Transformers 3, Shia LaBeouf, Shia The Beef, Scream 3, Captain America, Winnie the Pooh, The Winnie the Pooh movie, Criag Ferguson, Piglet, Owl, Christopher Robbin, TIgger, seinfeld, Pineapple Express, Rise of the Planet of the Apes, Draco Malfoy, Tom Felton, interactive ads during "The Daily Show", pillsbury, pillsbury Toaster Strudel, Race to Witch Mountain, The Rock, Dwayne Johnson, Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, Fast Five, Fast & Furious, The Fast and the Furious, 2 Fast 2 Furious, Six, F6, Fast, Vin diesel, mark vincent, Paul Walker, Josh Lucas, Stealth, Jamie Foxx, internet ad revenue, black hole, blackhole, black holes, NHL Hockey, NHL jerseys, Reebok edge, Vancouver Canucks, Ebay, Winnipeg Jets, New Winnipeg Jets, Washington Capitals, Sears, K-mart, K mart, K mart basic clothes, khaki pants.

Discover what company makes the official really cheap pants of The Hour of Thunder. Google plus, Google +, Plus one, Plus 1, + 1, circles, Google buzz, Gmail, Gchat, status, twitter, facebook, i liked facebook when it was minimalistic, Ken, Drinking in the woods, Malt liker, 40oz bottle, Philadelphia, Ken's house in the woods, Ehren Kruger, Michael Bay. Transformers: The dark of the moon, Transformers, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, Sentinel Prime, Shot in 3D, computer graphics, Jason Statham, C. Deegan, rosie huntington-whiteley, Sazz wagon, fit birds, filmdrunk, film drunk, filmdrunk.com

Discovery Channel, Science Channel, Curiosity, New show on Science channel, Did god create the universe, Stone Henge, how it's made, Druids

Hour of Thunder answers it will honor the year's actual best films as picked by the hosts in February before the Oscar's. I am writing that detail here in hopes that it causes me to actually remember to have us do that.

Sherlock Holmes 2 Trailer gives me impossibly high expectations.

I have stated before-and Stephen Colbert Satirically agreed with me, so I might be right-that as much as I love movies, a lot of big tent pole films will never be as good as the 2 minute explosio-thon trailer that can be made out of the 2 hour film.

As much as I enjoyed the film Fast Five, and it surprised me how well it was paced, I still didn't like it as much as the trailer for it.

I don't think this says something about the decline quality of big blockbuster films, which I think has been pretty damn good this year, at least of the films I saw, as much as it is praise for how trailers in the last 2 decades have gone from marketing to being an awesome short film.

The new Sherlock Holmes 2* trailer is a good example of this:



Fucking brilliant trailer. And no matter how much I like this film in full film form, I don't think I will love it as much as watching that tree explode in slow motion over and over again as I re-watch the trailer

 Though my favorite part is that little clip at the beginning where Downey Jr plugs itunes.

He does a good job giving gravitas to the lines, but whoever decided to have him start his segment by saying "I'm Robert Downey Jr." is an idiot. No shit its robert Downey jr. Thanks to Iron Man is has one of the most recognizable faces in the free world right now. Even Amish Children know what Robert Downey Jr. looks like.

Since he already has his beard cut into the Iron Man 3 goatee, what he should have started his intro with was, "Hello, I'm Tony Stark."

I have mentioned my opinion that many films are better in tailer form before. And pointed out then, as I will again now that it is probably a bad sign that I have a sincere opinion that was the set up for a satirical bit on the daily show where colbert pretended to be a movie fan who only liked films in trailer form:

The Daily Show - Trailer Hitch
Get More: Daily Show Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,The Daily Show on Facebook

Footnote(s):
*The film's official title is Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows, which I keep remembering at Sherlock Holmes: Game of Thrones. I haven't had a chance to see game of Thrones yet, as I don't have cable, but based on the trailers for it, I would be even more excited for this film if it involved Downey Jr. was fighting Sean Bean and Peter Dinklage.

via Filmdrunk

What the fuck Times Square.

I was pretty excited the other day when I walked into Times Square around sunset and saw a bunch of wannabe Druids playing drums and doing a sycronized dance in front of an profoundly cheap particle board cut out of a stone henge arch. It even had the word "Stonehedge nyc .com" spay painted on it in not quite evenly spaced letters.

I assumed this was some sort of New York Druid* revivalist religion, pro-hippies trying to encourage Times Square tourists to get back in touch with nature.

Unfortunately, apparently everything that has occurred in Times Square since V-E Day kiss has been done solely to advertise companies with more money than ideas.** It turns out this was not some sort of Neo-Pagen cult***, but rather a really terribly conceived promotion for an apartment broker. And one that deals only in high end apartments according to a pamphlet one of the cult members was handing out.

Because clearly if you want to generate interest in your Real Estate company the best thing to do is hire a bunch of failed actors to beat drums and dance around.

This company was brilliant to decide to advertise in this way, as this will definitely shore up the much coveted demographic of people who are looking for luxury apartments and who are also shit-eating crazy.

Footnote(s):

*Yes I know the latest research says the Druids had nothing to do with the construction of Stone Henge, but i think it is fair to say that everyone still associates it with them. Like how i still always (incorrectly) think the Criminologist from Rocky Horror was the bad guy in Last Crusade. (See Thor's Hour of Thunder Episode 22 for more on that.)

** Or in the case of the dude a few weeks ago who shut down Times Square for 3 hours when he refused to stop Rapping on top of a Times Square lamp post, want to Advertise their wrap career, but don't have a big publicity budget, and are also insane.

***Who I would have tried to talk into worshipping Thor. (Yes this is a very footnote heavy post, thank you for noticing.)

Friday the 12th

Next friday (as in the one in 9 days) is Friday the 12th. So I thought before I forget, I should post a great image from Snorg Tees

(source:  http://www.snorgtees.com/friday-the-12th )

Handle bar moustache.

My summer job before school starts up again is working at a museum doing what can best be described as "carnival barking"

This gave me an excuse to waxing my moustache into a handle bar. I have always wanted to do this on a regular basis, but have lived in fear of looking like a fat hipster since:

1. I live in NYC the breeding ground for hipster.

2. I a too fat to look like a regular hipster (see photo for podcast episode 21 for what I look like, i'm the guy in the skin tight shirt in the center.)

My awesome cousin John informed me, knowning that I am a fan of all things handle bar moustache related (and facial hair related in general) that 

Heineken Light has an ad which is all about the handle bar.

So do I like this ad?

It has an old timey boxing match, it has handle bar moustaches. You bet your sweet bippy* I fucking like it. I don't drink any light beer since I can have a full bottle of Guinness and only get 125 calories,  (which Guinness used to point out in excellent ads which stated simply "Guinness has only 125 calories. Not on purpose."), so I can't comment on wether Heineken light tastes good. But reviewing this from a purely advertising standpoint, this ad is badass, funny and makes me remember the product, which is rare this days.

So verily I say: Go show Heineken! Jolly good marketing! Pip Pip Cheerio!**

Footnote(s):

*Bibby is some retro slang. its from about 100 years after old timey handle bar moustached boxing took place on a regular basis, but give me at least partial credit for being retro in both aspects.  

**I know being old timey is not the same as being british either.

P.S.

Thanks again to my cousin John for the tip.

P.P.S.

writing this entry has reminded me of a great SNL sketch which I have never seen but which my friends Ken and Alan would often re-enact in parking lots about James "The Gentleman Masher" Corcoran. It doesn't appear to be on the internet in video form but you can read all the dialogue from it here:

http://snltranscripts.jt.org/00/00nsports.phtml

Corona

This may be the best paint job I have seen in any of the New York billboards which are still painted on the sides of buildings. At night it looks like a printed billboard.


(sent via cell phone)

Captain America

This is hokey, but I like it.
I always thought the pictogram for "America Runs on Dunkin'" was clever. Having it as the only element in the center of the orange one dozen Dunkin' Donut boxes was really striking product design.
These new logos promoting the Captain America movie are a genuinely clever way to do a movie tie in.
Some may argue using the Captain's shield to represent America is either hokey, or crass commercialism, and is definitely is both. But I think the same can be said for the original Marvel character.
His character was created during World War II to both instill patriotism into a nation a war, and to exploit the already existing patriotism of a nation a war.
A perfect example of this existing from the beginning was Captain's issue one, which featured him punching out Hilter on the cover, while we were still in the thick of the War for Human Survival.*


Footnote(s):
*FDR called World War II "The War for Human Survival" it old became called "World War II" after the war had ended. Similar to how "Art Deco" was never called "Art Deco" while the movement was still going on. Okay maybe not that similar, but i wanted to fill this footnote with as much trivia as possible.


(sent via cellphone)