Opening credits: “Jackie Brown” (1995)
Oh, just the perfect opening shot of an impeccable movie, that’s all.
That tiled background appears to be the exit tunnel of Terminal 3 at LAX, (I took a photo of it here), which doesn’t actually have a people mover. So I think we’re looking at Pam Grier riding a dolly.
“Fletch Theme” from the movie “Fletch” (1985)
So what you’re telling me is that one man composed this rockin’, sassy theme, and the same man composed the iconic synth antem that defined a generation of cop comedies, “Axel F” from “Beverly Hills Cop” (1984), and that man’s name is Harold Faltermeyer and I never knew this before today? That’s just nuts.
Plus, he came back to make a track for this year’s flawed buddy cop movie “Cop Out” and composed something for the upcoming Adrien Brody stoner comedy “High School”? Fantastic.
“This isn’t a Wii, is it.”
I came across this endearingly sad packaging at the Goodwill yesterday. Didn’t even bother to check the price sticker on what could only have been a discarded month-late birthday present.
I was just so excited to capture the kid on the package’s face, which couldn’t possibly have better conveyed a confused, dispirited “Um, Interactive TV Game won’t make the other kids stop purple nurpling me, will it.”
“Dream System”
My home-theater-in-a-box has a mic you can plug in and put where your head goes in the room, and it’ll throw itself into AUTOCALIBRATE mode by playing these tones and adjusting its speakers accordingly.
And it plays them LOUD, and my dog gets scared and leaves the room, but to me, they are pure bliss. I think this what a brain sounds like when it’s eating cereal.
“Woody says: Ice a bro!”
A Smirnoff Mule party? See, they’ve been pulling this shit since the sixties. From the copy, ca. 1966:
“When it comes to entertaining, this is the drink that is. For a cool, refreshing Mule, made with Smirnoff and 7-up, is a delicious treat you can start with and stay with. Only crystal clear Smirnoff, filtered through 14,000 lbs. of activated charcoal, blends so perfectly with the subtle flavor of 7-Up. So never forget the rule for the Mule. Make it with Smirnoff!”
UPDATE: My pal Scott Jackson tracked down some precious audio of Woody telling the story of his ethical uncertainty doing this ad.
Mad Men, Season 4 Episode 1: Joey’s Haircut
Okay, first off, fantastic episode. I shake my fist at the gods that I can’t watch the whole season tonight, and all the rest of the seasons tomorrow night.
That said, three things stood out to me as anachronistic for 1964:
- The new character Joey, Peggy’s copy boy (played by Matt Long who you may not remember as Jack on “Jack and Bobby”) dons a haircut I don’t believe you’d see in ‘64. All I know of 1964 is from stuff I’ve seen on movies about the sixties, but I never saw a haircut like that in ‘64 is all I’m saying. So I call bullshit.
- When Roger Sterling tells Don “You turned all the sizzle from Glo-Coat into a wet fart!” I just don’t believe that people farted in 1964, and certainly not in downtown ad agencies, and if they did, you’d better believe they were dry or they’d have Don Draper to answer to.
- As Peggy justifies/apologizes to Don for the Sugarberry hamfight debacle, she says this: “It was going great, until it wasn’t.” What a very 20xx way of putting it. Very self-conscious, very Internet. I’m not buying it, Olson. Get back to work.
But then again, I’m just a butthead who puts far too much trust in the show’s creators to transport him psychically into a world where nothing is out of place. So never mind me. God, what a fucking great show.
Mad Men, Season 11
Remember when consumer electronics used to look like this?
Yesterday I was walking the dog and this slitscan monstrosity of broken dreamscape was sitting on the curb. You’ve seen this before, you probably had one ten years ago. You’d turn it on and the thing would light up like it was controlling air traffic at JFK. And then you’d turn it off and it would start bumping out silent patterns of light and magic like a disco time machine in a color palette that could only be described as post-Soviet exuberant.
Thing is, I need a tape player. (It’s for a bit. Okay, I have a tape of my high school garage band I’m dying to listen to and self-flagellate over.)
But of course, it was a no-go. The tape servos cease to be. But the lightscapade keeps on going, as bright as it will long after our culture is dead and buried and future civilizations unearth it and make certain assumptions about the mechanics of our reproductive organs.
This guy, Dr. Marc Abrams, the Silver Lake Walker passed away today.
He’s been an institution in my neighborhood since the 80s, the fittest middle-aged dude I know. He lent a unique spirit to this corner of LA, and it’ll be way less cool here without him.
UPDATE: Please go and watch this exquisite multimedia tribute to the Walker, by Mel Melcon at the LA Times.
Permit me this one bit of self-congratulation. Being that Creativity is the trade mag for the ad industry, Pick of the Day is a nice bit of recognition.
Okay, I’m done. Jesus, man, get a grip.
UPDATE: #1 of Creativity Top 5 for the week of July 26, 2010. Neat.
