Boston Dynamics is preparing our robot overlords for a revolution, a dance one! The company posted this video of their crew dancing to The Contours' "Do You Love Me?" as a "Happy New Year" message.
Boston Dynamics is preparing our robot overlords for a revolution, a dance one! The company posted this video of their crew dancing to The Contours' "Do You Love Me?" as a "Happy New Year" message.
Since we're still within the 12 days of Christmas, I feel safe sharing Hookers and Blow Save Christmas, a new-this-year holiday picture book for children.
Tom Transport is stuck in a snowdrift with all the presents for the town Christmas party! It's up to Hookers the tow truck and Blow the snowblower to make their way through the snow to save the day….and the party!
A heartwarming story of friendship and helping out that is perfectly safe for the kids, but with a few snickers that adults with a slightly bent sense of humour can enjoy while reading along.
I see what you did there, Munty C. Pepin.
Naturally, not everyone is amused:
With Hanukkah right around the corner, Daveed Diggs and Disney have dropped a catchy new holiday song. "Puppy for Hanukkah" imagines a young Diggs rapping about what he really wants for one of his eight gifts.
[I'd be remiss if I didn't mention that animals don't make the best holiday gifts for a bunch of reasons. But, enjoy the song anyway!]
screengrab via DisneyMusicVEVO
Known for his distinctive ink-spatter style and contributions to "gonzo journalism," counterculture cartoonist Ralph Steadman's career is examined in a new 368-page hardcover book. Ralph Steadman: A Life in Ink ($60) is available now.
From his satirical political cartoons to his sweet and sincere children's books, Ralph Steadman has had a remarkable and unique career. Well-known for his collaborations with iconic writer Hunter S. Thompson, Ralph Steadman is part of the unlikely duo that created gonzo journalism in the 1970s with such now-classic books as Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas and Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail '72. Since then, Steadman's art has appeared on everything from movie posters to sneakers, and he has created dozens of illustrated books, including illustrated editions of Animal Farm, Fahrenheit 451, and Alice in Wonderland. His work has been exhibited around the world and has won numerous international art awards.
Now in his eighties, Ralph Steadman's popularity continues to grow. He was the subject of a recent documentary called For No Good Reason; he was featured in one of the last episodes of Anthony Bourdain's Parts Unknown and provided the cover art for Bourdain's last cookbook, Appetites; he designed the cover art for Travis Scott's album Huncho Jack, Jack Huncho; and recently collaborated with Vans to raise awareness of endangered animals. He continues to create art every day in his studio in Kent, England.
images via Chronicle Books
Remember when Stove Top offered Thanksgiving dinner fat pants? Well, this year they're going more "fancy pants" with a new "Stuffy" collection of stuffing-inspired products. This five-piece collection includes a red velvet dinner jacket with a stuffing-print liner (unisex, $30), a reversible stuffing-print shawl ($11.50), a pocket square/handkerchief ($4.79), a "stuffed" headband ($7), AND my personal favorite, stufflinks (stuffing cufflinks set, $9.50). Sales start Tuesday, November 17 at 9 a.m. PST.
With nowhere to go and nowhere to be the past eight months, comfy clothes have become the exclusive wardrobe for Americans in quarantine. Thanksgiving is right around the corner and whether you're celebrating virtually or in-person, it's the perfect excuse to dust off your fancy clothes and make turkey dinner a formal affair.
images via Stove Top/Steven Metzer
To the surprise of absolutely no one, pre-presidential Donald Trump bullied his way into that Home Alone 2: Lost in New York (1992) cameo role, according to the movie's director Chris Columbus.
"We wanted to shoot in the lobby," Columbus recalled. "We couldn't rebuild The Plaza on a soundstage."
Everyone involved with the movie thought they would simply pay Trump a fee, as is usually the norm when shooting at a specific location, and everything would be square. But Trump wanted more.
"We paid the fee, but he also said, 'The only way you can use the Plaza is if I'm in the movie,'" Columbus said. "So we agreed to put him in the movie."…
"People cheered when Trump showed up on-screen," Columbus said. "So I said to my editor, 'Leave him in the movie. It's a moment for the audience.' But he did bully his way into the movie."
screengrab via 20th Century Fox
(HuffPost)
What's filthier than having restrooms named after you? Not much! And it makes perfect sense that the honoree is filth elder John Waters. The "Pope of Trash" has bequeathed his 375 pieces from his personal art collection to the Baltimore Museum of Art (BMA) with the agreement that its "East Lobby" restrooms be named after him. BMA will also honor the eccentric filmmaker with "The John Waters Rotunda" in the European art galleries.
Waters sees the gesture as similar to the impulse that resulted in "Fountain," Marcel Duchamp's famous 1917 sculpture of a urinal.
"Renaming the bathrooms was my idea right from the beginning," he said. "They thought I was kidding and I said, 'No, I'm serious.' It's in the spirit of the artwork I collect, which has a sense of humor and is confrontational and minimalist and which makes people crazy."
…Waters had personal relationships with many of the artists he collected, and the meticulous files he assembled on the artworks will be part of the bequest. The gift agreement also stipulates that an inaugural exhibition of Waters' collection will be held by the end of 2025, and that five artworks, including one created by Waters, will be prominently displayed in the museum at all times.
Waters is already having fun imagining which pieces will be on view — and in which parts of the museum. The John Waters Restrooms, he thinks, might be a logical choice. The filmmaker began to mentally run through his collection and tick off the possibilities:
"I have a piece by Tony Tasset called 'I peed in my pants,'" Waters said. "There's 'Wedged Lump' by Mike Kelley that looks exactly like a giant turd. I also have George Stoll's chiffon toilet paper.
"I have a lot of art that would work in a bathroom."
The article also reports that, as a boy in the 1950s, Waters purchased a "$2 poster of a Joan Miró artwork from the museum gift shop and taped it to the bedroom wall of his Lutherville home."
Thanks, Whitney!
photo by Chuck Patch, taken in 2018 at BMA, CC BY-NC 2.0
GQ invited Dolly Parton to take part in their "Actually Me" segment. It's where famous folks answer fan questions but not from their own verified accounts. The legendary singer-songwriter responded to fan comments on Reddit, Twitter, Instagram and Wikipedia via a newly made account. It's good fun.
Dolly has a new album for the holidays. A Holly Dolly Christmas features collaborations with Miley Cyrus, Billy Ray Cyrus, Michael Buble, Jimmy Fallon, Willie Nelson and more. A TV special of the same name airs December 6 on CBS. There's no stopping this 74-year-old!
The Four Seasons (Total Landscaping, not the hotel) fun doesn't end. Remember that furry named Coopertom who made the Four Seasons Total Landscaping as a VRChat world? Well, now he's expanded the world to include the adult bookstore around the corner. He announced it on Thursday, writing, "It was a momentous occasion to showcase it to all of my friends!" Could the crematorium be next?
Buy this furry another cup of coffee.
screengrab via Coopertom
OREOiD is a new "online experience" that lets you make personalized Oreo cookies. You can add your logo/photo and personalized text. And you can switch up the creme color, add sprinkles, dip them, and then order some. I took the liberty of adding Jackhammer Jill to one (for illustrative purposes only).
images via OREOiD
Okay, I cleaned it up a bit. Try THIS vastly superior one: pic.twitter.com/o2Ly1esaEd
— 𝙹𝙼𝙻𝙰 (@JohnMattson) November 8, 2020
When the Trump administration hilariously (and accidentally, right??) booked Philly's Four Seasons Total Landscaping instead of the Four Seasons Hotel for their press conference, they must have known the snafu would become the butt of many jokes. This one is particularly good. It started when comedian Christine Nangle, playing a Four Seasons Total Landscaping employee, imagined taking the call to book the "venue." It didn't take long after posting it on Twitter for another comedian to pick up the torch and continue the joke. Wyatt Bunce played the harried Trump staffer making the call. It was just a matter of time before someone combined both phony conversations.
Don't feel too bad for the now-famous (women-owned, minority) landscaping company for being pushed into this political theater. On Monday, they promise to have tee-shirts for sale.
Just when you thought it couldn't get any better, on Monday, a VRChat furry named Coopertom debuted a virtual reality replica of the Four Seasons Total Landscaping parking lot. In the clip, he tells another furry that it took him five and a half hours to build the world. Time well spent, in my opinion. It's flipping fantastic. (Buy that furry a cup of coffee!)
screengrab via Coopertom
In this moving clip, Spanish Alzheimer's patient Marta C. González remembers her choreography to "Swan Lake" by listening to its music. González passed in 2019 but was once the prima ballerina for the New York City Ballet in the 1960s.
screengrab via Música para Despertar
Miley Cyrus and Stevie Nicks are two great tastes that taste great together in "Edge of Midnight (Midnight Sky Remix)." It's a mashup duet of Miley's August 2020 track "Midnight Sky" and Stevie's 1981 hit "Edge of Seventeen."
Plastic Hearts, Cyrus' seventh studio album drops November 27.
screengrab via Stevie Nicks
E Flat. That's what these two fighting cats are autotuned too, according to the video's creator. Brian of BetaSmash used Melodyne Autotune to make this masterpiece.
I'm trying to show that cats have a very distinctive language that uses tone, rhythm and tempo to define what they're trying to say. Putting their growls, meows and hisses in an autotuner is bringing their musical language to life, and Im proud of the work we've been doing!!
The video just popped up on my YouTube page, though it's from 2017 and has well over 4M views. It's because Brian just made this video which, in part, describes the process of autotuning cats:
screengrab via BetaSmash
UK animator Cyriak Harris suffered a heart attack earlier this week. He survived the ordeal, living to tell his nightmarish tale. We're glad to hear he's home and on the mend.
So, I had a heart attack the other day. It was horrible. Don't ever have a heart attack. If you want to know what one feels like, imagine an elephant standing on your chest until the pain spreads up through your jaws like you have toothache in all your teeth at the same time
— cyriak harris (@cyriakharris) November 4, 2020
Even when the ambulance guys arrived and found me writhing in pain I still felt bad for probably wasting their time. I even managed to lol in disbelief when they said "ok, you're having a heart attack."
— cyriak harris (@cyriakharris) November 4, 2020
Eventually they fixed the problem and like magic the pain didn't entirely go away until 2 days later, during which time I attempted to fall asleep while everything hurt in a room full of old people snoring and farting and machines constantly beeping at each other
— cyriak harris (@cyriakharris) November 4, 2020
After that I was ready to go home, with a carrier bag full of pills and no shoes on my feet, because I wasn't wearing any when it happened. I guess the moral of the story is, always wear shoes when you are having a heart attack. But also dont have one.
— cyriak harris (@cyriakharris) November 4, 2020
screengrab via Cyriak's 2018 "Indigestion"