The Emmies were on last night. There was a lot of controversy this year over the nominees/winners, all of which you can read about here.
The really great thing about the night was the fact that Conan O’Brien of late-night fame was hosting. Watch the two hilarious opening videos found here and here.
Time for something different.
A new type of street performance has hit the streets of New York City. It’s called “Improv Everywhere”, and they really do mean everywhere. The site describes these goals of Improv Everywhere is to “causes scenes of chaos and joy in public places.”
It was created in August of 2001 by Charlie Todd, and Improv Everywhere has executed over 50 missions involving hundreds of undercover agents.
You’re probably still wondering what they do, right?
Well, the latest mission that the team pulled off was called, “Slo-Mo Home Depot”, and is currently being made famous by none other then YouTube (is there anyone that website doesn’t help?) For a full list of their so-called “Missions”, simply click here. If you live in New York City, and want to participate in one of their experimental events, visit their contatct page.
Now who wants to start up a Toronto branch?
There’s an article at the New York Times about another industry that’s being forced to offer choices to the baby boomer demographic. Funerals. In the picture above, Harry Ewell had an ice cream truck in the cemetary.
I watched a couple of shows at the Toronto Fringe Festival, and I really enjoyed the imrpov in Scratch. (See mini-reviews and showtimes in Eye and NOW.)
For the performance, the audience provides a loose structure and theme. Arlen Konopaki and Kevin Gillese generate an assortment of characters into a fractured Hollywood plot. They then mix in lots of physical comedy, a few puns and hilariously awkward situations. The duo keep the juices flowing by inserting flashes to previous moments, and they were often trying to outdo each other in their outlandish ideas. In the final scenes, when all of the plots get mashed up together, the entire audience was laughing after almost every line.
The Fringe Festival continues for another week, and shows are only $10.
What do John Stewart, Bill Clinton, Ken Burns, Mike Mussina, Bob Dole, and The Indigo Girls all have in common? No- they aren’t all people who hate George Bush. In fact, they are part of the 50,000,000 people who actually enjoy doing the crossword in the newspaper.
Seems hard to believe, I know. But, a new film is trying to show audiences just why these people find it so intriguing filling letters into boxes. According to the Director, the movie is an attempt to, “show this world to people who aren’t crossword people and try to explain to them why it’s so fun, and why it pulls you in every single day.”
This quirky film will focus on anything from specific celebrities (Mussina, anyone?) to the difference between pens and pencils. According to the official website, however, the film mainly focuses on the man most associated with crossword puzzles, Master Will Shortz.
Now, I’ve always been more of a Sudoku fan myself- but this film might just change my mind.
The Wall Street Journal has a funny collection of various depictions of the Internet in various famous movies over the past couple of decades. Commentary on WSJ online and Slashdot.
However, it can be funny when people pretend it is.
Prince of Persia
Tetris
Super Mario (Don’t try this one at home!)
Katamari Damacy
Paperboy
Some neat little Rube Goldberg machines made by some Japanese.
Thanks to Danipage.com for finding these videos.
