Martians in New Jersey

Special Halloween bonus post:

I just saw somewhere that 70 years ago last night was the original broadcast of Orson Wells' famous "War of the Worlds" adaptation. Based on the famous book by H.G. Wells (no relation to Orson, I don't think), the radio version moved the story from 1890s England to present-day Grover's Mill, NJ and presented it in the format of a live news broadcast.

ABOVE: The dreaded Martian "Milking Stool", the most
ridiculous-looking Doomsday Weapon of all time.
To quote Mr. Hyde, "God created a lot of useless,
stupid-looking things on this world too, but he didn't see fit
to make any of them three-legged. Why was that, do you think?"

The story goes that Wells scared the crap out of countless people that night, who thought the fake "news reports" were the real thing. My grandfather, who would have been 20 at the time, told me that he knew what was going to be on the radio at that time and tuned in early enough to catch the beginning of the show where they clearly stated it was fiction. I think he always doubted the stories about people thinking it was real.

Anyway, if you've never heard it, it's available here, thanks to the always awesome Internet Archive.

"A grotesque and foolish dream." (Friday WTF)

For a special Halloween treat, here's a Friday WTF with a little extra WTF:



The video pretty much speaks for itself, and I don't want to take all the fun out of it. But if you must know, it's from this movie, and is (pretty loosely) based on this great but highly disturbing story.

Happy Halloween!!!

Devil with a Blue Dress

Frau and I went to a very interesting lecture last night:

EDITOR'S NOTE: the embedded video has been removed, because it kept playing by itself and driving me nuts.

All this talk about the notorious "real" exorcism, which was performed here in St. Louis, got me thinking about the classic horror film which it inspired. That film, of course, was Repossessed.



This, believe it or not, was one of my favorite movies when I was 12, but (big surprise) it doesn't seem to have aged very well. I'd forgotten about Governor Ventura and Mean Gene Okerlund, though. That part actually was pretty good. Honest.

Random reference just for the Marmoset's benefit: Ernie, where's Foo-Foo?

Dedicated to the Mustache Lifestyle...

Over the weekend, St. Louis was host to 'Stache Bash 08, an annual awards ceremony for mustaches. The event is hosted by the American Mustache Institute, "protecting the rights of, and fighting discrimination against, mustached Americans by promoting the growth, care, and culture of the mustache."



(NOTE: If your computer has speakers, don't forget to turn them on when you visit the AMI website.

BONUS MUSTACHE VIDEO:



Man, do I miss the Tick...

It's an illuuuuusion! (Friday WTF)

What the world really needs: a kazoo/ukelele/toy piano:


I never knew there were words to that song:

Standing in the shadows of love

Levi Stubbs, former lead singer of the Four Tops, died the other day.



This article from the Onion A.V. Club pretty much covers my opinion of him, and of "Bernadette" in particular.

I'm getting sick of writing tributes to old musicians that I love. They really need to stop dying.

There's a man who leads a life of danger (Friday WTF)

Special thanks to my friend Nick, who provided me with this week's Friday WTF video.



Don't laugh; he was the original Nick Fury, you know. (I can't imagine why they would replace him...)

Joe the Plumber

Meet Joe, the world's most famous plumber. (Well, not quite. But of the plumbers who don't fight man-eating turtles or hang out with talking mushrooms, he's definitely #1.)



I wonder if he's related to Zeke the Plumber?

Geezers need excitement

I just found the Frau's Christmas present: a new album by the greatest British rap group of all time:



The reviews are, um, less than stellar. Then again, it's the Streets.

Monkey see, monkey work

There is a magical place in South County (though probably not much longer, sadly) filled with pygmy goats, giant rodents, and free beer. But once upon a time, it was an even more magical place: they had an organ grinder with a pet monkey who took money from people and dropped it into a little tin cup.

Sadly, the little monkey isn't there anymore. But I'm happy to report that there are still good jobs out there for our favorite little evolutionally-challenged cousins. As you may have heard, there's a bar in Japan has two monkey waiters, and is currently training several more.

Jay Walker: Envy of all nerds everywhere

At long last, I know what I want to be when I grow up. I want to be this guy.

Reach out (Friday WTF)

"Personal Jesus" by Depeche Mode = good
Prairie dogs = awesome
Prairie dogs + Depeche Mode = your Friday WTF video

Depeche Mode Prairie Dog @ Yahoo! Video

BONUS VIDEO:

The cheaper the crook, the gaudier the patter

The following music video, "Gumdrops", by a band called The Smittens, was featued in an ALA newsletter today, and I thought it was good enough to share:



By the way, all the spoken parts at the start of the video (including the title of this post) really are quotes from "The Maltese Falcon." I like the song and the video, but they especially remind me how much I loved that book (and, of course, the movie isn't half bad either).

Dashiell Hammett, in case you didn't know, is the man.

Doing Tina Fey's job for her since August 2008. (Friday WTF)

This is officially the most WTF-friendly video to be created in the last week.




For more information:

odds and ends

Because I'm procrastinating, here are a few random links that caught my attention today.

• On a semi-Banned Books theme, the Memory Hole has published the complete FBI file on Martin Luther King, in all its 16,659-page glory.



• The great City of St. Louis is looking to hire a new police chief. This post, like so many of posts on Mayor Slay's blog, is infinitely more entertaining if you imagine The Wire theme song of your choice playing in the background. (NOTE: if you haven't seen The Wire, there are five theme songs. Also, you really, really should see the Wire.)
  



• As I've said many times before, Stephen Colbert is a great man.
  

"This does not mean The Market is not God. It just means
The Market is a dangerous and destructive god." Amen.

• In that same vein, Wondermark is always amazingly funny, but today's strip was extra good.

And now, back to work.