Look, Ma! No gravity

Superlatives are the most overused parts of speech around.

Best Buy. The Greatest Story Ever Told. Droid Incredible. America's Most Wanted. The Supreme Court. The Biggest Loser. The World's Fastest Indian. The Genius Bar.

Really? A whole bar of geniuses? C'mon.

But... The League of Extraordinary Dancers... are extraordinary. Don't believe me? Check out this video from their performance on So You Think You Can Dance. No strings. No trampolines. No wires. Just... dancers. Extraordinary dancers.

(Note: video. And no fooling, you really, really want to click here - or even here - if you can't see it)

What is The LXD? It's Step Up meets The Justice League. It's Heroes — except in this war of good vs evil, the superheros dance instead of fly. As The New York Times puts it, it's "Jerome Robbins for the hip-hop age."

Start with a dash of Gene Kelly, a sprinkle of Mikhail Baryshnikov, a skosh of Eleanor Powell, a pinch of Ann Miller, a generous helping of Fred Astaire, and a whole lot of Michael Jackson. In a separate era, blend hip-hop, acrobatics, break dance, tumbling and krump. Mix well and cast absurdly good-looking, really, truly, ridiculously talented dancers. Drop 8-minute episodes on the web once a week.

(Seriously. Who can do that?)

35 million views - for a reason

One of my all time favorite commercials ever. Ever. Ever, ever, ever. Like forever and then some. (No, seriously, I really dig this ad.)


There is a video clip here and if you can't see it, you're really missing out if you don't click here to watch it.

Not a word is spoken and you never see his face. And yet...

One of the few car companies to make commercials worth watching. I guess the force is with them.

You've seen the commercial, now see the original

Gene and Donald...
They're sitting.
They're dancing.
They're sitting.
They're dancing.
They're sitting AND they're dancing.



(Yep, video here. Like dance? Can't see the video? Click here, it's worth it.)

And... if you haven't seen the commercial:

(Another video - only 30 sec. Check it.)

Miami is a crazy town

One of these two is a classically trained ballet soloist from the Miami City Ballet.



Here's a hint:


And hey — this post has two, count 'em two, videos, and not much else. If you can't see them, you're kinda missing the whole point. If you want in on the point, click here. If not, well, fine.

Total non sequitur: is it just me, or is that the first time ever you've heard it called "Miami City"?

Mercedes does blonde jokes. Really.

And I thought car companies didn't have senses of humor.



This is a video. A video I think is funny enough to post, so if you can't see it, click here. No? Fine. Be that way.

Sports is art is life is sports is...

Whatever else they do or don't do well, Nike does good TV. This time, they asked Alejandro González Iñárritu to film a micro-short (okay, I just made that up, but you watch it and tell me you'd call it a "commercial") about the World Cup.

I don't know exactly (or at all, frankly) what guidelines Nike offered to Iñárritu, but I imagine they were along the lines of: we would like to send a message that illustrates the universal language created from the shared experience of talent, skill, determination and triumph.

(There should be a video here. If you don't see it, it's worth watching, or I wouldn't have posted it, so click here.)

Message received.

Need a laugh?

For one thing, my sure-fire, need-a-laugh, go-to video clip is Robin Williams on the game of golf — I chuckle just thinking about that riff. For another, I'm not a big fan of stand-up comics. Really, I'm not. I almost never find them anywhere near as funny as everyone sitting around me, which makes them even unfunnier. When you're sitting there, thinking, "yeah? so?" and everyone else is gasping for breath and crying with laughter, you just feel awkward. Not amused. Just kind of irritated. So, no, stand-up comics are not my thing.
Imagine my surprise, then, when I watched a DVD of this stand up comic I'd never heard of and started laughing. Out loud. In front of the TV.

Jokes.com
Brian Regan - Animal Sounds
comedians.comedycentral.com

(Psst, this is a video post. If you can't see it, you're missing out, so click here already!)

This Brian Regan, he cracked me up. But that's just me.

Friends don't let friends drive texty

I considered posting the four minute British PSA about texting and driving, but it's bloody bloody. It's at well over a million views - if you haven't seen it, it's here.
I settled for this clip from Albuquerque's KOAT (yeah, yeah, it's a video. Can't see it? Click here):

According to this report, you're five (5) times more likely to have an accident if you text and drive.

Did I mention that all the PSA videos I watched on YouTube on the "dangers of texting and driving" were accompanied by cell phone ads from Wal-Mart. Is it just me, or is that like having Jack Daniels sponsor your local AA meeting?

Alien vs Predator? Ha!

This is a match up:

Yes. It's a video. V-I-D-E-O. Click here. Watch it. You know who you are.

Happy Valentine's Day

Move over red, green is not just for jealousy anymore—these days it's the new color of love. "Love thyself, love thy neighbor?" Puh-leez. "Love thyself, love thy planet." Now we're talking.

You think I'm kidding? I'm not. Check out the very sweet—and very green—video below:

and yeah, it's a video. Can't see it? Click here.

Name that frog... or septipus

Quick, who said "it's not easy being green"? I'm not talking Kermit, here. Have you met the Green Thing?

Here he is on Vimeo.

So he's not exactly Kermit—I bet Miss Piggy would still be smitten.

32 million is a big number

Evidently, this video (yes, it's a video-if you can't see it, click here) is the 28th most watched video on YouTube, with over 32 million views. That's a lot. On the other hand, that fact is a wikifact, so take it for what it's worth.

Still, the next time someone asks you, "what is that?" tell them "it's a magical liopleurodon." I dare you.

Sit back, relax...

...and let them do all the heavy lifting. I just love it when all I have to do is press play.

It's a video. Yep, one of those. Click here if, you know, you can't see it.

Can I add anything to that? Nah.

This can't be good

Anybody remember the last puppet/muppet movie? I'm thinking it was The Muppet Movie (1, 2, 3 - or, heaven forfend, did they make a 4 too?).

Granted, there is that puppet/muppet musical (Avenue Q) currently holding 28th place as the longest running musical on Broadway (according to Wikipedia). But still.

The Weinstein Company - which, by the way, is evidently in some weird, haven't paid big-time DGA residuals on 20-30 movies debacle according to DeadlineHollywood - has announced that it is making Fraggle Rock into a movie, to be produced by Ahmet Zappa, along with two of Jim Henson's kids (that gives us some hope, at least). I don't know why Ahmet Zappa, but there you go.

The movie is going to be written and directed by Cory Edwards, who directed the animated movie "Hoodwinked!" for TWC. See? That explains everything, right? "Hoodwinked!"? Edwards? Huh?

A little research reveals that Hoodwinked! scored a 48 on RT. And further research (I have to be good for something) reveals that other than that stellar debut effort, all Edwards has done is - wow! - work on the sequel to Hoodwinked! (filming now). Okay, my last bit of research (damn, there's just always more, isn't there?) shows that the budget on the original was under $20 million, and US box office was over $50 million. So I guess I can see why TWC is calling for a sequel - even with that lousy 48 score. But couldn't they have done better by Gobo, Wembley, Mokey, Boober and Red? By Jim Henson? That man had vision, imagination, talent, guts.


Watch the classic intro to Fraggle Rock. (It's a video. Do you see the video?)

I'm not alone, by the by, in thinking this Fraggle Rock film idea can't be good -- check out /Film's take on it. But you know - I'd love to be wrong.

Take two bones and call me in the morning

Higher education is so important, don't you think?

this post is all about the video - so if you can't see it - click here

And, for my next computer...

This may make my brother shudder. But my next computer? It's going to be a Mac. You know, that super-cool, super-thin one, the one David Pogue wrote a love letter to just the other day? He did. Seriously, if he could marry the thing... well...

I can't speak for Mr. P, but for me, I might say it's because of the commercials alone - have you seen the new yoga one with Judy Greer? The fantastic, under-rated, Judy Greer? (And MissGuided does not do her justice - though kudos to Ashton Kutcher for trying.) Well, anyway, the commercials rock. They're all of them on Apple's site. Remember Mac from Galaxy Quest (a 90, I'll have you know, on RT)? He was Brandon -- "You wanna take a left and then just straight on through the chompers."

Link to the supercalifragilistic video I posted - you know, in case for some reason you can't, you know, see it?

The commercials do indeed rock, but the truth is, I'm a pure sucker for packaging (ask my friends - it's sad but true). And for design. And well-packaged design? Or well-designed packaging? Fuhgeddaboutit. As they say.

In the meantime, at least I get to watch the commercials. And use my super-cool, super-small, super-designed, nano. Sigh.

Short and sweet

Have I told you guys about the Very Short List? My friend and erstwhile roommate told me about it ages ago...

a free, daily e-mail that points to excellent new (and sometimes vintage) entertainment and media that haven’t been hyped to within an inch of their lives.

I particularly like their "always clickable" Venn diagram - that's nifty. I've never posted one of their finds here before... that seems like cheating, dontcha think? But I can't resist posting this one.

To be fair, I posted the awesome Hema product page weeks before they sent it out. So there.

If you need some inspiration

My dad forwarded this to me this morning. And by the way, along with some really, and I do mean really, lame jokes (though, to be fair, some pretty funny ones too), my parents send me the greatest things... go Mom and Dad!

My dad said he had nothing to add to the video. I, on the other hand...

Sometimes things come across the transom at such the exact right time that you've got to wonder who's managing things in the karmic post office. This is one of those times.

Are you going to be a Tigger or an Eeyore? Seriously, is that not the fundamental question? You can boil every day, every choice, every action down to that... Tigger/Eeyore? Tigger/Eeyore? Yup - that's it. And it gets pretty gloomy over in Eeyoreville, lemme tell ya -- not a lot of dreams there. Like I said, this video was scary timely.

I also watched the original lecture this guy gave at Carnegie Mellon. Different and the same. Love that.

Oh, my dad did have this to say in his email: "wow." I think that sums it up nicely.

We figured it out... but for the rest of you...

Have a wedding to go to? Just feeling particularly natty this morning? It's Ralph to the rescue (doesn't he always come to the rescue?)



Good ol' Ralph... What would we do without him?

Is anyone funnier?

This really needed a post of its own.



"18 fockin' times!"

Kills me every time.