The Rock-afire Explosion were an animatronic band comprised of anthropomorphic animals that played in Showbiz Pizza Place restaurants in the USA through the 1980s. After closing down many of these setups found their way to enthusiasts. Here’s one such setup, performing MGMT’s Electric Feel.
Perhaps even more obscurely, a documentary is currently being produced about car-salesman Chris Thrash, a guy who recently purchased the rights to Rock-afire Explosion with an aim to resurrect them and the Showbiz Pizza Place. (via Penny Arcade)
Ex-Test Icicle Lightspeed Champion performed their track Galaxy of Lost Souls in full Star Wars garb at this week’s NME Awards show. Unfortunately I couldn’t find a video of it online anywhere but did instead stumble across this gem. Lightspeed Chamption performing the Imperial March and Star Wars theme. Lovely.
“There aren’t enough Youtube video re-posts around here,” you say? Here’s another one.
Mike Long, a self-proclaimed “social rocktivist”, plans to perform once dance a day around the world and post each video up on YouTube for the next two years. I can’t think of a better idea. (via It’s Nice That)
Vid22.com digitallly processed the whisper between Bill Murray and Scarlet Johannsen at the end of the movie Lost in Translation in April. It’s only just being picked up by every blog and their dogs seven months later. I discovered it in the Guardian today. Spoilers lie within.
Newsflash: Hollywood execs know nothing: “We always hear about how entertainment execs earn their giant salaries by being incredibly shrewd selectors and marketers of motion pictures, but this chart shows that you could get the same result by throwing dice.” | Comments (0) »
As anyone that knows me can tell you, Blade Runner is one of my favourite movies — so any article with something to say about it is going to catch my attention. I had to share this one, however, over at Popular Mechanics, about the pre-digital special effects used in the film and how well they stand up to today’s CGI-fueled sci-fi.
IGN has an interesting bit (well, a ton) of speculation over the forthcoming fourth Indiana Jones movie now that it’s been rumoured that it will be set in the year 1957.
As for facts, the official Indiana Jones web site states that new film will be set some time in the 1950’s, and will star Shia LaBeouf, Cate Blanchett, John Hurt, Ray Winstone, Jim Broadbent… and, of course, Harrison Ford. Directed by Steven Spielberg, it’ll hit cinemas on May 22, 2008.
Update: A rough translation of the narration from Tokyomango:
Vending Machine RED—a robot that takes the form of a juice vending machine—appeared one day in the middle of town. He’s not a superhero trying to save the world, he just walks around town aimlessly. Go, Vending Machine RED!
It seems that I’ve found the original inspiration for this fantastic German comedy-horror short “Forklift Driver Klaus” (video above — Caution: Contains simulated gore) at Boing Boing.
I thought I’d drop Disney a line to find out what happened to the Walt Disney Legacy Collection DVD set and, more specifically, the Destino DVD. Sadly, I still don’t know much more:
“At this time, we do not have a DVD release date for DESTINO. We will forward your request for release to our Marketing Department for consideration. No additional LEGACY COLLECTION releases have been announced.”
Did I dream the Destino DVD box mock-up that was, until recently, displayed on the Legacy site? | Comments (0) »
Walt Disney Treasures to Continue: Talking of Disney… It looks like they’re not going to stop the Disney Treasures DVD series after all. The next wave, released in December, will include “Disneyland: Stories, Secrets, and Magic”, “Chronological Donald: Volume 3″, and “Oswald the Lucky Rabbit”. Interestingly, Oswald and Disneyland were originally scheduled to be released as part of the new Disney Legacy Collection, but have since been removed from the official site. There’s no sign of the elusive Disney/Dali “Destino” DVD now either — it too has been removed from the Legacy site. | Comments (0) »