It took it a while to be put up on the website, but now you can listen to the 4 songs they performed, or the whole half-hour segment.
This is unbelievably awexome! KEXP is a big deal! It’s one of the most well-respected radio stations in the world, and even though it is based in the Northwest it has devoted listeners all the heck over the place.
By the way, the next JM+FFD show is this Saturday the 25th at The Crocodile in Seattle, where they are the opening act for the CD release of “Happy, Good Looking, and in Love” by Friends and Family. Also on the bill are the Hoot Hoots! So you should check that out (I won’t be going because of Fools Play).
There are lots and lots of independent movies floating about the world and the internets in various stages of production. Many of them have Kickstarter campaigns. One of them is called “Winning Dad.”
How is it that this movie came to garner my support when so many others have not? Well, for starters it’s being made locally: all Western Washington cast and crew and whatnot. For another thing, it’s got a pretty intriguing premise that fits very well into our enlightened, Pacific-Northwest mindset:
Colby’s dad knows his son is gay, but he doesn’t like talking about it. He respects it, but ignores everything about that aspect of his son’s life – he doesn’t even know about Colby’s long-term boyfriend, Rusty.
Increasingly committed to Rusty, Colby hatches a plan to trick his father into camping with Rusty under the pretense that Rusty is Colby’s straight friend and future business partner. Colby is convinced that, given the chance, his father and his boyfriend will get along great…
But what REALLY sealed the deal for me was the fact that my pals Julia Massey & The Five Finger Discount were hired to write the soundtrack for the movie. The ENTIRE soundtrack!
Here’s their Kickstarter vid so you can learn more:
As an added bonus, they’ve also hired Ellen McLain, who you probably know as the voice of GLaDOS from the Portal games (and in Guillermo del Toro’s upcoming Pacific Rim extravaganza) as one of the on-screen characters in the film. She’s also gotten involved in the Kickstarter campaign, and let’s just say that this time the cake is NOT a lie:
And what’s that song that was playing in the background during that video? Why it’s “Skatepark” by Julia Massey & The Five Finger Discount!
After almost a two-year hiatus, Fools Play is going to perform a brand-new installment of the Fools Play Rasslin’ League (FPRL) this Saturday night (May 18th 2013) at 8:00!
I know I said I wouldn’t post a tonne of baby stuff on this website, but I do need to post this to let you know where to go if you DO want baby updates.
Hello! Today is my birfday, ’tis true. But this announcement is not about MY birfday. It’s about another Birfday that is soon-to-be. For, you see…
That’s not a jelly bean…
Yes, it’s true! A small handful of you are already aware of this, but Carrie caught the preggers! Sometime around Halloween she will release our wee beb into the world. It’s terrifically exciting! HAPPY BIRFDAY TO ME!
So, some brief info: mum and baby both seem to be having a completely normal pregnancy. We won’t learn the gender for another 5-6 weeks. And we won’t reveal the baby’s name until AFTER it is borned.
But here is my pledge to you: none of my online places (this blog, Facebook, Twitter, Google+, etc.) are going to transform into thousands-of-baby-photos-and-non-stop-updates-about-baby places. ThisisChris.com will continue to be my pop-culture reserve (though updates might happen even LESS frequently), and I am probably going to almost completely abandon Facebook (I still get on there for Fools Play and my work, so I’ll still check messages and notifications and invites) because, frankly, I now have more important things to do with my time than dink around on Facebook.
If you ARE interested in baby updates, let me know. I might start up a second blog or something if demand is high enough.
If you have a wet washcloth here on el planeta Tierra and you want to get rid of a lot of the moisture in a very short amount of time, you can simply wring it and much of the water will drip away.
But have you ever wondered what would happen if you did that in a microgravity environment? WHO HASN’T!?
Well, a couple of Canadian high school students wondered. And so they asked the Canadian Space Agency, which asked Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield, who is currently aboard the International Space Station. And here’s what happened:
Chris Hadfield, by the way, is one of the coolest astronauts around right now. This isn’t the first question he’s answered via YouTube. He periodically uploads answers to various questions as part of SPACE.com’s YouTube Channel. Scroll through and you’ll see some here and there among the uploads. WATCH ALL OF THEM.
He also has an excellent twitter feed that he uses live from the ISS. Because SCIENCE IS THE BEST THING EVER. He periodically tweets photos of some amazing things. Like this:
Link of the Month: My Birthday Wish List!
My birthday is next month. Just sayin’. Y’know. *Cough*
Album of the Month: Nanobots by They Might Be Giants
Still as prolific as ever, They Might Be Giants have put out another “adult” album. This one has one of the strongest starts of any album; the series of the first nine songs is absolutely top-notch. That might seem like a lot of songs; many albums only have 10-12 songs total. This is They Might Be Giants, though, so there are actually about 25 songs on the album. The middle section flounders a bit, with a series of short songs that aren’t quite self-contained, but aren’t quite in the “Fingertips” style. The final stretch is much stronger, with songs like “Replicants” and “Icky.” It’s one of the better “adult” efforts by TMBG in the 21st Century.
Movie of the Month: Everything or Nothing: The Untold Story of James Bond
A fascinating documentary that chronicles the behind-the-scenes, making-of antics of the James Bond series, including Ian Fleming himself, Cubby Broccoli and Harry Saltzman, the undying specter of Kevin McClory, George Lazenby’s insane meltdown, the bizarre twist that kept Pierce Brosnan from becoming Bond for almost 10 years, and much more. This documentary has a trick of inserting footage from the Bond films when talking about real-world events. For example, when talking about the lawyers getting involved in the Broccoli/Saltzman turmoil it intercuts with Bond footage of various boardroom meetings and people passing papers around. It’s a very clever technique. I knew most of the information contained in this documentary already, but seeing it all in one place in chronological order is a treat. Plus, this has perhaps the greatest opening of any Bond movie ever: the six-gun sniper shot. So badass. You’ll see.