Interesting

Crazy YouTube Videos – Little Drummer Boy

Posted by Mark on July 29, 2016
Posted in: Humor, Interesting. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , . Leave a Comment
crazy youtube videos

This is what I enjoyed, legally and with the full blessings of the Creator

This is a crosspost from another blog on which I write. This version is better. 

Last evening, upon returning from Friday mass, I was moved to pray for the fine people of our great nation.

Not really. I got home super late last night, and it being Friday, I decided, “Fuck it. I’m going to get insanely high anyway.”  So I did, and it’s legal here, so I’m not only a hero, I’m a great citizen.

So, a candy, a crazy potent brownie… (I’m not kidding. 500 mg THC brownie the size of 2/3 of a credit card. I have been nibbling it like a little mouse all week), a couple bowls of Animal Cookies weed (see the leafly review), AND infinite hits of the vape pen later (no half measures for this man)… I was super high.

I was so high that I decided to watch some crazy YouTube videos. I ended up  watching/listening to old Fleetwood Mac songs. Old ones, from when they were a hard blues band, all the way to the fluff of the Rumours era. It was lovely. I dozed, I floated. I lucid dreamed Stevie Nicks vs the Green Manalishi… it was lovely. THEN the above video played (the blessing/curse of autoplay) and I was ripped from revery, and faced with this guy.

Crazy YouTube Videos = A Metaphor For 21st Century Life

Ok. Watch this video while you read this. This guy, Marvin Fleer, is so amazingly information rich…. it’s like Finnegan’s Wake on drums. Here’s why.

  • His drum setup is insane. Look at all the cymbals.
  • His drums seem wedged between a built in china cabinet and… another built in china cabinet?
  • I don’t know how, but I am sure that his mom is no more than 10 feet away
  • Little Lies? You’re going to live drum to an 80’s pop song from Fleetwood Mac? That’s your showpiece?
  • He’s not great
  • He’s not terrible
  • He has shared this with the world.
  • Half a million people have watched this
  • Despite half a million in the audience, our man is obviously very alone (mom doesn’t count)
  • We have only been able to share videos of ourselves doing shit like this for a few years. This is a new phenomenon.
  • Sociology. This is. Read Bowling Alone.

Marvin Fleer, you are the shining exemplar of this day and age. You are the zeitgeist. Go forth and drum forever. There can be great wisdom in crazy YouTube videos.

 

 

I Saw Carrie Brownstein Filming Portlandia

Posted by Mark on July 25, 2016
Posted in: Interesting. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , . Leave a Comment
carrie brownstein filming portlandia

Carrie Brownstein

Carrie Brownstein Is Super Cute

And Completely Hilarious

I was walking home from work the other day, and as I turned onto my street I saw a film crew, tents, trucks, and a million people standing around intensely inactive.
Living in Portland, I immediately thought “Portlandia?” because I knew they were filming, and it didn’t look like it was Grimm (the other show that films in Portland). I was intrigued.
I ran into Fred Armisen at a record store (how Portland is that?) a couple years ago, which was cool. I also know a couple people who either have been on, or are still on, the show. Yes, I’m cool but not because of that. Portland is a small city. Everyone knows someone who’s been on Portlandia or Grimm. Grimm sucks. Do not speak of Grimm.

portlandia shoot oregon street july 2016

The creative process.

So I stop across the street from the crew, and see the super funny and awesome Carrie Brownstein standing with Jonathan Krisel (co-creator, writer and director of Portlandia). I bore witness to a snippet of a sketch which involves a giant dog statue/device that sits on the front lawn of the house in the right of the photo. Why a giant dog?

For Pooping!

Over the several takes I stuck around to watch, a man (an extra) walks his little dog down the sidewalk, only to pause before the giant dog totem, which then squats and “poops” out about a half dozen softball sized balls of “poop”, which roll down a track. Think of a six foot wide contraption from the game Mousetrap. Like that. Once the poop rolled down, the extra walking the strokes his chin. And scene. Ah, art. I’m certain that everyone involved in that scene (except the extra) makes more money than me. That includes the guys in orange vest who would announce what manner of vehicle was approaching. “Bike! Got a bike coming through, guys.”

I did not take a pic of the dog device, as I tried not to be an intrusive fanboy. However, think of Clifford the Big Red Dog. Now make him brown. Kinda like that. See? You’re not missing much.

As mundane as it was, it was still neat to see a show I like filming, literally, a few hundred feet away from where I sleep and poop. It was cool. AND NOW YOU KNOW. When you watch season 7 and see this sketch, think of me. I’ll know if you did.