MGMT is awesome. "Electric Feel" is probably my favorite song from the CD Oracular Spectacular (followed by "Kids"). Additionally, I was addicted to Justice for a short time after SXSW. You can ask my roommates. So you can imagine how excited I was when I found out that Justice had remixed "Electric Feel". It's duo on duo action and the result sounds very much like a Justice song. They made the pitch of the vocals a little higher and added a variety of electronica sounds that are prevalent in "cross". Both of these groups are blowing up right now... so download the MGMT - Electric Feel (Justice Remix) and be snobby about it.
Justice side-by-side with MGMT... just like at Playboy's SXSW party
I do find it hilarious that both groups have ambiguous names. Is it em-gee-em-tee? Is it "management"? We work with their PR team for Rock the Rabbit. I've asked them which is correct ... and they don't even know. Then for Justice... "just-iss" or "joo-stees"? They ARE French. In any case, Rolling Stone says "management" and Wikipedia says "joo-stees". Fuck that though -- I'm going with "em-gee-em-tee" and "just-iss".
Last week, the roommates and I ended up watching Surviving The Game. I can't remember if we DVR'd it or if we watched it as it came on -- but we watched it wire-to-wire.
My first thought when watching it was: "How did they trick all of these guys into being in this movie?" The cast includes Rutger Hauer, John C. McGinley, Gary Busey, and Ice-T (pre-badass-actor-stage). Rutger Hauer plays one of the cheesiest characters of all time. The basic story is that Ice T plays a homeless guy they recruit to be the target of human hunt. Rutger Hauer is the brains of the operation and once they get Mr. T to the cabin in the woods, he's MERCILESS with the overt-foreshadowing. It's almost laughable as during the dinner scene when Hauer tells him to "savor the meal" and when Gary Busey lets him know that you "can steal the pig's soul by looking into its eyes".
No matter what experience you hope to draw from Surviving the Game, you will be entertained. There are many moments of high tension -- like when Ice T tries to shoot his assailants with a shotgun from 200 yards away. But the best moment, BY FAR, has to be the story of Prince Henry Stout.
While we were watching this part, we couldn't really decide how much of this Busey ad-libbed. This short clip (thanks for sending, Brad) definitely challenges The Wicker Man in terms of pure insanity. It barely beats out the scene where Busey tackles Ice-T and tries to kill him.
Clearly, this was during Gary Busey's hey-day. Surviving The Game was in the middle of his Under Siege-Surviving The Game-Black Sheep-Drop Zone streak. It's unfortunate that his niche, crazy cocaine-fueled diatribes, also sparked his downfall. Hey, at least his career didn't tank as badly as his son's after Tomcats.
UPDATE: Alex found a transcript of an interview with Busey where he talks about the "Prince Henry Stout" story. Unsurprisingly, most of the speech was ad-libbed. Busey is god. He was on the I Love Money Casting Special and one guy said to him "I want to be on the A-List like you used to be!" Gary Busy was on the A-List?
Gary: That is not in the film. What's the other character you said? Surviving the Game! That was fantastic and when it came time to do the story about how I got into this game of surviving the game, the line was about three inches long. I told the director, Ernest Dickerson, I said, "Ernest, this is not enough tell the people why I'm here. Can I enlarge this?" And he said, "Yes you can." And I said, "You have just watered my garden! Thank you." So out came the story about me fighting Prince Henry Stout, the bulldog—life and death. And all that was improv. It's used in film studies now at colleges and universities to talk about the power of improvisation and spontaneity. And here is the key to spontaneity. This is a quote. Spontaneity comes from an invisible idea that is there before the creation begins—end quote. We all have it. We all have it in us, this a natural gift.
According to US Weekly, ARod has been making visits to Madonna's Central Park West apartment. That means he's probably "getting down" with the Material Girl. Mr. Rodriguez has shown two traits that also support the veracity of the claim. He's cheated on his wife already ... with a stripper in Toronto. The other piece of evidence is his penchant for women with manly builds. I think if you check out the two pictures below, you can see what I'm talking about. If you were the best player in baseball, who would you choose? Pictures are below...
Joslyn Morse and Madonna... practically work partners
When I saw the headline "Tossed Salads Becoming More Popular As A New York Food," I wasn't surprised. A co-worker (thanks Lindsay!) sent me this link to a New York Post article from June 18th about chop't in Midtown. Loyal readers may remember that I made a similar post about chop't on May 21st.
The best chop't line picture
Even though I know they didn't copy me, I can't help but feel ripped off. It's true: I didn't get deep into the story about the "fierce loyalties" in chop't patrons. I also did not investigate to find out that the bite-sized pieces were the selling point. But I did convey the simple message that this place is stupid busy at lunchtime. Would you stand on the street to get a salad? In any case, I think that you should continue to get your news from OCD. I'm just wondering when the first series of Mario Lopez articles will pop up in the New York papers...
I hope that you all had the chance to catch some of the Euro the past couple weeks. It really was an amazing tournament with Spain taking it all. I didn't see everything, but I was lucky enough to catch Turkey's comeback against Czech Republic. I was also watching when David Villa scored 2 minutes into stoppage time off of a clear. But nobody cares about soccer... so I'll get to the point.
Euro soccer has been the source of numerous regrettable trends in recent years. Fashionable mullets and anything related to David Beckham (double ponytail, cornrows, etc.) come to mind immediately. The fashionable mullet (usually faux-hawked-out to some degree) is not to be confused with the standard "fabio" that's a favorite of many Italian and Argentinian players. Soccer players don't wear helmets or hats... so they have a lot of hair options.
I spotted two emerging trends at this year's Euro -- two daring players with two vastly different statements. Luca Toni, who my brother and I believe to be one of the laziest players in the world, has gone with a totally 80's look. He's got the throwback 'stache and the locks to match. Boswinga takes another approach with his disregard for grooming his massive brow. The bold eyebrows give him an imposing gaze for all to respect. Both players have blazed the way for other players to jump on board with these trends. I expect that they will both be quite popular at the Olympics and World Cup 2010.
Luca Toni's 'stache would lose to Boswinga's unibrow in a fight
"I gotta tell you. Jason Giambi hasn't really been in my good graces for quite some time. But now that he's clearly back on the juice and sporting a mustache, he's becoming one of my favorite players in all of baseball."- Anonymous Yankees Fan
This one comes from my friend John. He's a huge Yankees fan. I'm pretty sure that he thinks this is really funny because he agrees with it 100%. I also like Jason Giambi, so I support his return to the needle. Juice may bring back his home run power, confidence, and intimidating stare. But it won't bring back his endorsements... yet. God, I wish his deodorant commercial was still on TV. (Picture: Giambi as a minor leaguer on the Alaska Goldpanners)
Want to be famous by seeing your name on my blog? Email a tip or potential quote of the day to officialchrisduncan@gmail.com.
Being an excellent writer, it isn't surprising that my work influences others. However, it's unfortunate when you work is just "re-mixed" into some bastardized version of what you originally wrote. Below are two examples of articles from the Washington Post and New York Times that are very similar to blog posts I wrote before they were published. We've almost got some Jayson Blair shit on our hands here.
Three years ago, I wrote an article for my internship that didn't get a ton of views -- but I see a similar article once a month from a major publication. The piece was about the pitfalls of online identity and the lack of privacy/permanency/availability of this web presence. My internship was about networking and recruiting, so there's an obvious career/professional slant to my piece.
From my article (7/31/2005): "Nearly everybody has a professional presence online–even college students who don’t realize that their personal virtual presence is also often their professional personal presence. It is increasingly important to protect these representations of ourselves.
Without realizing it, these footprints that we create (or are created for us) are indexed, linked, cited, and sometimes even copied. It is available, searchable, and most scary, perpetual. An incriminating quote or picture can be saved and reproduced on a site that is out of your control."
From the Washington Post (5/2/2008): "Social networks, which let members share photos, videos and intimate details about themselves and their friends, have pushed the boundaries of how people view their personal space. Now, the younger generations that used to embrace the voyeuristic qualities of the Web are considering the advantages of borders between their public and private lives.
In person, people tend to adapt their behavior to the situation -- talking to a co-worker requires different language and attitude than what's comfortable with a college friend. On social networks, everyone's in on the same conversation."
More recently, the New York Times fashion/design blog The Moment wrote a very similar Axe Detailer piece yesterday morning. I wrote about the AXE detailer last week after I saw an ad for the product in the July Playboy.
"You can see it has a grip, strap, and a different texture on top. But we all know this is a basic loofah. The ad in the magazine has two blurbs pointing to spots on the detailer that say "Scrubs candle wax off your chest hair" and "Washes lipstick off your neck". This way, AXE consumers know that this product is for people with penises who like vaginas. I guess candle wax and lipstick could still apply to a tranny."
"The Axe Detailer Shower Tool, I quickly discovered, is basically a souped-up loofah for men: red and black with futuristic plastic molding. “Body puffs are sooo feminine,” one wide-eyed PR woman told me. “I mean, you don’t have one, do you?” I do. It’s white and only as feminine (or masculine) as, say, a MacBook, trees, pencils or the subway."
