Just Eat the Damn Peach

Sir Ian McKellen in 'Extras': Acting Secrets of One of the World's Greatest!

This is one of the best scenes, bar none, from Extras.  It's Ricky Gervais (as Andy Millman) and Sir Ian McKellern as himself!

Learn the secrets of the great Sir Ian McKellen's greatness!  Hear him speak Gandalf's greatest line!

Watch him school Ricky Gervais's character on the most subtle tricks of the trade.  Watch Gervais (as Andy Millman) struggle to prevent his trademark inscrutability from giving way to slack-jawed incredulity.  Watch him fail to conceal his alarm and consternation (always signalled by the trademark blinking and mouth-breathing)!

Do you not own the DVD set yet?  If you don't, this is a taste of what you're missing. Gervais really is one of the most talented people on earth, which is why it's such a treat to see him with another one.

The Mean Kitty Song: "Hey, Little Sparta"

This is a work of sheer genius:

Best Music Video Ever: I Feeeeeel 'Lucas with the Lid Off" (Directed by Michel Gondry)

I probably haven't mentioned several thousand times, but I am not a fan of music videos---I mean the contrived sort you see on video stations-- in general.  In general, as I've said, they tend more often than not to ruin the song for me.  They're never quite what I imagined.  Sometimes the director's sense of whimsy ruins the song forever.  At You Tube, Cap'n Fix comments:

An excellent music video that aired briefly on MTV in 1994 and soon became largely forgotten. This one was filmed in B&W to produce an old-timey ambience that works very well with the ragtime sound. Pay close attention to the continuity. The whole video was filmed with a steadycam, in one continuous shot...an unbelievably difficult task that only someone like Michel Gondry could pull off. This catchy vid is no longer in production and a rare treat to find, wherever it happens to bubble up ;-)

Savin All My Love for You: Fats Waller

Fats Waller, one of my husband's heroes, just before he died (1943) at the age of 39.  He died of pneumonia on a train.  Fats Waller plus a lovely singer named Myra Johnson in a mock catfight; what could be better?   I couldn't find out much about Myra Johnson, beyond the fact (I got this from a book of my jazz-loving husband's) that she recorded with Boyd Senter and his band in 1938.  She recorded two sides.  That's all I could learn.. 

Anyway, here's one of the great jazz classics:

A Tribute to the Memphis Jug Band. You Heard Me: 'Jug Band'

Man, I love the Memphis Jug Band.  And thanks to the wondrous Yazoo Records I was able to buy a recording of their music.

One of my friends who claims to be able to do "past lives" readings says I was African-American back in the days of the early Twentieth Century.  Maybe it's so because nothing gives me the faux (or are they?) flashbacks known as deja vu like the real, raw musical stylings of the gutbucket/barrelhouse period.  I'm talking about early blues, not jazz.  It's exactly the combination of diffidence and detachment, of moan and resignation that hits me where I live, as they used to say. 

Love Yazoo.  Love it. 

And I really enjoy this---a contemporary tribute by  a band called Snakehead Run to the original Memphis players' "KC Moan", though without jugs and washboards, alas:

CROSS-POSTED IN THE FLATLAND CHRONICLES

The Death of Superman: "Hollywoodland" (Not Super, But Still Pretty Good)

Posted by Nicholas  We never got the 1950s Superman TV series in England, so I never saw it, but I do remember a childhood friend (American) talking about it and telling me that the actor who played the Man of Steel had become convinced he really  did have super powers and had died when he fell from a high window, trying to fly.  That story stayed tucked away in some mental filing cabinet all these years, dispelled only a few days ago. Apparently, it was once of the urban myths about George Reeves, who was the first TV Superman, who was the subject of the surprisingly entertaining film “Hollywoodland” (2006), with Ben Affleck in the lead role. 

The movie is a glimpse of Hollywood at the end of its Golden Age, when the film industry was terrified of television. Some actors were even forbidden by the terms of their movie contracts, to appear on TV, on pain of dismissal.  George Reeves as portrayed by Affleck, turns out to be a capable actor with some solid credits behind him – he was one of the Tarleton brothers in “Gone With The Wind” – who auditions for the part of Superman for a projected television series.  He gets it, and makes a success of it.

'The HMS Yakko'

The Animaniacs perform some of Gilbert & Sullivan's Greatest Hits; a new generation learns an updated version of "I am the Very Model of a Modern Major General" (which Aaron Sorkin subsequenty attempted with considerably less success)...I am as certain as I can be after a gap of many years that the wee, belligerent pirate is directly based on one of the illustration's to one of Gilbert's poems.  "Though I be a pirate swine, still I have to draw the line/And I will not push you overboard!"  Can I hear you say, "Arrr!!"?

James Nesbitt in Murphy's Law

The Jekyll thing was exciting in that sick adrenaline-fueled way that leaves you feeling exhausted and a bit in need of a good brain bleaching afterward, but my real James Nesbitt love is reserved for him as Murphy .  Yet another reason you need---or should have had---BBC America.   That said, he should have had the Golden Globe for Jekyll.  I didn't care for it, but he was amazing.  I'd watch it again if I could stomach the violence.  Much as I love Jim Broadbent and liked Longford, that must have been a relatively easy task compared to what Nesbitt had to do, surely (?) 

"Oh Lady" (Why You Need to Buy The Animaniacs Boxed Set Even Though You're a Grown-Up)

CROSS-POSTED FROM THE FLATLAND CHRONICLES. I have said before how I love The Animaniacs (here and here, in fact).   Spielberg, is of course, a genius.  And speaking of geniuses, here is one of my all-time favorite clips, from the episode called "The Genius."  This is one of at least two episodes in which Spielberg goes after Jerry Lewis.  Here's Jerry Lewis (the Genius)  trying to teach the Warner kids how to do comedy.  But the Warner kids already know comedy.

Here's a little summary of the show that explains its appeal to adults:

English Comedy You Can Rent from Netflix! Plus a Word About the Late, Great Douglas Adams

(CROSS-POSTED TO ANGLO-SAXON ATTITUDES)  In England, Harry Enfield----tragically, you may know him only as the voice of the Travelocity Gnome--- had a hit comedy show (described in more detail here) in the 1990's which he---supported by the great Kathy Burke and the equally great Paul Whitehouse---starred as a variety of characters who very quickly evolved into English comedy classics, which is how I came to know and love him.   You can rent Harry Enfield and Chums from Netflix, and you really, reallly should.

Here's one sample recommended by my internet friend Chris H.   And it is indeed one of my favorites:  the sex education video to end all sex education videos, newsreel style (circa 1940).  In this educational video, Harry Enfield is Mr. Grayson.  Learn all you need to know about the "horrid beastliness" marriage requires: